Short Story Monday/Mrs Craggs and the Late Prince Albert by H.R.F. Keating

This is the second story in the collection by H.R.F Keating called In Kensington Gardens once... . It comes from a 1985 publication called Mrs Craggs: Crimes Cleaned Up, which I really must find. In this story we meet Mrs Craggs whose job is a cleaner. She works in both the Royal Albert Hall, and at private homes. On her way from one to the other, she passes through Kensington Gardens and:

lingered at the Albert Memorial, climbing its many shallow steps and wandering round looking at all its myriad statues.

She begins to see the same three people there, having some sort of meeting.

From the start their talk looked as though it was meant to be secret. But there was seldom anyone else nearby at that hour and somehow the three of them, having seen Mrs Craggs every day, soon discounted her presence and spoke quite loudly.

This 'discounting' leads to the downfall of a murderer. How it happens makes for an interesting and very enjoyable little mystery, all told in only six pages. Mrs Craggs is an observant sleuth, both of physical details and human nature, and this quality allows her to know who the killer is.

The Albert Memorial

A bit of bookkeeping on the sidebar

If you are like me, when you visit blogs you like to check the blogs which that person reads. This is a great way to 'meet' new people. For ages my bloglist, found on the sidebar under 'Oh, the Places You'll Go - Dr. Seuss (blogs I love to visit around the world)' has been in alphabetical order, and today I've reversed it. So, for example, if you stop by and are looking for 'Across Canada' which is usually at the top, please scroll down to the end of the list.

Addendum: I've also reduced my font. A while ago I increased it, thinking it might be easier to read, but I've heard from a fellow blogger who wonders if the increase has perhaps made the blog slower to load. This is not a consideration for all you lucky ones with a high-speed connection but for those of us with satellite, it may make a difference. I've also removed the Agatha Christie challenge logo and Short Story Monday logo from the sidebar. And I've put just the title of a blog entry and how long ago it was posted on the list of blogs. I'm hoping these changes will make my blog easier and faster to load. Please always let me know if you ever have any problems whatsoever. I want my blog to be as comfortable a place to visit as possible.

Library Loot/November 8

Hosted by Eva and Marg






I've brought home Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont a couple times, but haven't had a chance to read it. I have been told the film is wonderful, but I really want to read the book first. This will be my second book by Elizabeth Taylor. I wrote about the first one here.

I read about Marcia Williams' My Secret War Diary, by Flossie Albright at Darlene's blog, and was enchanted. I left a comment asking if she had read Raymond Briggs' Ethel & Ernest (a wonderful book which I highly recommend) and she wrote back suggesting When The Wind Blows.

Chocolate Chip Bars

Today is the birthday of our daughter Margaret's boyfriend. Along with a gift certificate to a local restaurant, I am giving him these chocolate chip bars with a note promising a dessert for the next year around the sixth of each month. He loves desserts.

Chocolate Chip Bars

1 cup flour
1 cup oats
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup soft butter
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
6 or 12 oz. package chocolate chips (I used 12)

Preheat oven to 350º.
Combine flour, oats, sugar, and butter. Save out 1/2 cup.
Put the rest in a greased 9 x 13 pan.
Pour milk over crust.
Stir together the 1/2 cup mixture with the chocolate chips and sprinkle on top.
Bake 25-30 minutes.
Cool.
Cut into bars.
Eat.

The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall

47. The Case of the Missing Servant - first in the Vish Puri series
by Tarquin Hall
mystery, 2009
finished, 10/17/09





For mystery lovers, it is so exciting to come upon a new series. Well, at least I hope this continues as a series, for I've not read anything like it before, and was completely enthralled by it. I have read some about India, but it is India in past days, not India today. Hall's Delhi, where the author lives (as well as in London) is absolutely a character in the book. It would not be the same story if it were set somewhere else.

In his childhood, Delhi had been slow moving and provincial. But in the past ten years, Puri had watched the city race off in all directions, spreading east and south, with more roads, cars, malls and apartment blocks springing up each day. The dizzying prosperity attracted millions [!!] ofuneducated and unskilled villagers into the capital from impoverished states across north India. With the population explosion - now 16 million and rising - came a dramatic increase in crime. ... For Puri, this meant more work. Most Private Investigators Ltd. had never been busier.

Through the eyes of Vish Puri private investigator, the reader sees all the problems which have come from such an increase in population. In the old days of arranged marriages, the families knew one another. In these days of internet connections, and meeting people in different ways, there is concern on the part of parents about just who their son or daughter is engaged to. Puri is frequently asked to do background checks on the parties involved.

The book describes the horrors of the Indian court system, the corruption of the police, the terrible driving, and the social system. There is a lot that is awful, but this character, Vish Puri, is a wonderful one. He is naturally optimistic, though his cheerfulness sometimes flags in the face of the troubles. All this makes for a most interesting, intriguing, fascinating book. I was riveted. I could feel the air and see the city. I so enjoyed getting to know Puri and his family. His mother is a real character with her own sleuthing abilities and connections in her circle of friends. And then there is the food. There is a lot of food mentioned, from aloo parantha, 'a flat Indian wheat bread stuffed with potato and spice mixture, pan-fried and served with yogurt and pickle,' to khichri, 'a cupful of rice cooked with yellow lentils and spiced with cumin, salt and coriander. Generally eaten when one is sick or in need of comfort food.' There is a tremendous glossary which defines all the Indian terms. By the end of the book, I found I had learned some without having to look them up at each mention.

Early on in the book, our private investigator is almost killed. He is way too busy trying to solve other cases, so his mother takes this one on, unbeknownst to him. Though his chief investigation is of the disappearance of a young girl from her employment in a rich family, we learn of other cases and stories as Vish Puri goes about his business. He is really quite a humorous character, very full of himself. He keeps all his detailed records and plans to leave them to the National Archive 'because he was certain future generations of detectives would want to study his methods and achievements.'

This is a very different entry into the mystery genre. The locale and the detective are completely new and unique; much as was Botswana and Mma Ramotswe were when Alexander McCall Smith introduced them to the world in the first book of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. May Tarquin Hall continue bringing us more news of Vish Puri and his work. This character is a true original in the fiction world, and I cannot wait to read more about him and his home country.

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

46. Faceless Killers - first in the Wallander series
by Henning Mankell
mystery, 1991
finished, 10/17/09





After watching Wallander on PBS, I just had to begin reading the series by Henning Mankell. I was a bit nervous, since oftentimes translations simply do not work, but this one, by Steven T. Murray was so marvelous that I never even thought about it being a translation. I am so glad I saw the television production first because I could picture Kenneth Branagh as Wallander. Just as John Thaw was a perfect Morse, so Branagh is a perfect Wallander. The programs are available on dvd from Netflix. I hope there are more coming.

This first book in the series was published in 1991. Kurt Wallander is a criminal detective in his early forties, the same age as Mankell was at that time, and incidently, as I was, since I was born in the same year as the author. Chapter one begins with the crime which has taken place, and in the next chapter we meet Mr. Wallander. His wife has recently left him; he is estranged from his nineteen year old daughter who comes and goes without much communication; he is living on junk food and gaining weight; and his father, with whom he has a difficult relationship, seems to be losing his mental faculties. His situation mirrors the landscape, the dull, dark time of year (the book begins on January 7, 1990), and the serious crime which has been committed. Out in the countryside an old farmer has been murdered and his wife left to die, which she does before long. The murders are particularly brutal which leads Wallander to puzzle over who would do such a thing. There are some odd clues. First, there is a noose around the woman's neck with an unusual knot. Second, the only word the woman utters before she dies is 'foreign.' Third, the horse in the barn did not whinny. This last clue is in fact what drew a neighbor to go over to the house and find the bodies.

In the course of solving the crime, we get a good look at Swedish society at that time. There is mention that robberies of the elderly in rural areas is not that uncommon. There is growing dismay about the immigration laws in the country. There are anti-refugee movements. Because of the woman's last word, Wallander cannot rule out that a 'foreigner' may have committed the murders, but he is loath to let these thoughts out to the press, and hence fuel anti-foreign sentiments.

This is a complex story, and utterly fascinating. We go right along with Wallander, following the twists and turns of the case. He is one of the most interesting characters I've yet met in detective fiction, and I am so thrilled that there are many more books ahead to read. I have four of them on my shelf, and will buy the rest if these four are anywhere near as good as this excellent first book.

Teaser Tuesdays/Olivia in India

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:


Grab your current read.
Open to a random page.
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!).
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!



Everybody in India is, more or less, somebody. It must be a very sad change to go home to England and be (comparatively) poor and shabby, and certainly obscure, to have people remark vaguely they suppose you are "something in India."

Olivia in India (1912) by O. Douglas

Short Story Monday/An Alcoholic Case by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The first Monday each month is the day I devote to a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This month's entry is called An Alcoholic Case, a late story of only seven pages.

I am constantly amazed at how quickly and how deeply I get into a short story. There is a concentration that is very different from reading a book. From the first words, I am completely focused on the story.

This could as easily have been called, 'A Sad Case,' for it truly is. The gist is that a nurse is taking care of an alcoholic. She really doesn't like to handle cases such as this, but:

She was going to take care of him because nobody else would, and because the best people of her profession had been interested in taking care of the cases that nobody else wanted.

The story makes me sad for all alcoholics, but especially for Fitzgerald. It was written just three years before he died. Compare this photo:

with the one I used for October's short story. He is an old man at forty-one years old. To think of him seeing himself with such clarity, such truth is just heartbreaking. Many people are able to delude themselves, but in this story we see the writer really knows what is going on.

He signaled to her, in one second, his Will to Die.

He was looking at the corner where he had thrown the bottle the night before. She stared at his handsome face, weak and defiant - afraid to turn even half-way because she knew that death was in that corner where he was looking. ... she knew this man saw it in the corner of the bathroom; that it was standing there looking at him while he spit from a feeble cough and rubbed the result into the braid of his trousers.

An Alcoholic Case is in my book, The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald published by Scriber, but I found it online, if you would like to read this sad, yet excellent story. Oh, how I love his writing.

You may visit The Book Mine Set to read other reviews of short stories this Monday.

Quote du jour/Lin Yutang

I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colours are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and its content.
Lin Yutang (1895 - 1976)

Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys

45. Henrietta's War
News from the Home Front
1939-1942
by Joyce Dennys
fiction, written in the 1940s;
compiled in book form, 1985
finished, 10/7/09





There's a kind of women's humor that seems to me to be particularly British. I first discovered it when I read Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield. Then I saw it again in two more modern authors: Helen Fielding in Bridget Jones's Diary; and in Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series. I can't believe I lived so many of my years not even knowing it existed. It makes you wonder about fate and life and how much is out there we might like that we have never even come across.

Now I add Joyce Dennys to that list. I just loved her 'voice' - that wry, quiet humor. This epistolary novel is a collection of letters written by Henrietta to Robert her 'Childhood's Friend.' She shares tales of home life during the Second World War, in mostly light and cheery tones. She says,

if I write of everyday things, it is only because I know that they are what you would rather hear about.

I'm sure many women on the home front wrote just such letters to friends, boyfriends, and husbands during this, and every, war. Surrounded by horror, who would not want to read a story like this:

Our biggest excitement this week, however, was provided by the Simpkinses. On Wednesday night Colonel Simpkins woke up and heard a commotion going on in his chicken-run. Convinced it was nothing less than a descending parachutist, he rushed out in his pyjamas and found an enormous badger which had got into the hen-house through the nesting-box and was busy trying to dig its way out through the wooden floor.

There have been a lot of hen casualties here lately, and Colonel Simpkins says he was almost as excited as he would have been if he had found Hitler in the hen-house.

On a tour of a neighboring garden:

Charles and I wandered round in a depressed way, wondering how we could ever have dared to call the jungle which surrounds our house a garden.

And another letter begins,

My Dear Robert,
I have got a croaking sort of cold and am having a day in bed.
This, as you know, is a tremendous treat.

Though she writes of domestic life, that life has changed much because of the war, and Henrietta doesn't falter when it comes to mentioning rationing, evacuees, sirens, and blackouts. Yet, even these circumstances are described with some humor, and that wonderful British coping attitude. She tells Robert about her doctor husband Charles:

But Charles is one of those people who like what is called good, simple English fare, which means two nice lamb cutlets, followed by kidneys on toast, and in case the news has not reached you on your far-flung battle-line, Robert, I may as well tell you that kidneys, though not actually rationed, are more precious than rubies these days. Though he is far too noble to grumble, he does look a little wistfully at the unlikely-looking dishes which are put before him.
'What's this, Henrietta?'
'Well, dear, it's a tiny teeny little bit of mutton mixed up with some spaghetti and tomatoes.'
'I see.'

I was lucky to be one of several winners of Henrietta's War in Elaine's drawing. These are her words:

Bloomsbury are considering reprinting the second book, Henrietta Sees it Through and this would be simply marvellous, but they are a publisher not a philanthropic society and much though they might wish to do this, it all depends on the reception/sales of Henrietta's War. Therefore, I now declare I am A Woman on a Mission to make sure that this gorgeous book reaches a wider audience and that sales increase. Anything this blogger can do she will....

She warned us that if our names were drawn:

There are conditions attached to this, however and they are as follows:

if you win you must read immediately and fall in love with on the spot [I did!]
if you have a blog you must write review and rave straight away [a little late, but here it is]
if you do not have a blog please email all your friends, family, neighbours et al and tell them how wonderful it is
if you are in the habit of reviewing for Amazon then please do so [I'm not in this habit]
If you are not, then start immediately with Henrietta's War [have to say no to this one]
Write to the Bloomsbury Group and tell them how wonderful this book is and please reprint the second[I fully intend to]
And if you don't want to do any of the above, then there is no hope for you at all..
Yes I know, I am going over the top but this is just a super duper book, witty, beguiling, funny and full of razor sharp wit and pathos and I want everyone to love it as much as me so you will just have to put up with my bullying.

And here is Elaine's review. Because she included some of the delightful illustrations, I'll let you go over there and see them, rather than post them here.

I love this book. It has quickly joined the list of my all-time favorite books. I shall read it again and again as time goes by. Oh, it is wonderful.