Readingomnivore Reviews

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MR. DARCY'S BAD DAY: OR, HOW TO POUT WITH A STIFF UPPER LIP is Christie Capps's novella variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2017,

~~~SPOILERS~~~

When Fitzwilliam Darcy seeks to escape Caroline Bingley at Netherfield by riding out early, he discovers his horse slightly lame, so he walks instead. Distracted by his thoughts of Elizabeth Bennet, he slips on wet grass and, in falling, twists his ankle severely and bangs himself on a large rock. He can't walk and, when Elizabeth Bennet discovers him, she efficiently arranges his rescue, taking him to Longbourn for care. There he meets and despises William Collins, who announces his intention of lowering his sights from marrying Jane to settling for Elizabeth. Collins is sure that his strong hand will curb her impulsive nature and teach her to be a submissive wife. When he goes after Collins and Elizabeth must support Darcy to keep him from falling, Mrs. Bennet claims Darcy has compromised and must marry her daughter. Mr. Bennet agrees, and the couple are married by special license the next day. They leave from the church for Darcy House in London, where Elizabeth impresses the servants. The next day Lady Catherine de Bourgh arrives to denounce the marriage and Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeth confronts her directly and handles her with dignity. Finis? No, because at this point, Darcy regains consciousness, still in the field, and realizes he has done nothing to compromise Elizabeth. They are not married, and he has done nothing to arouse in her any positive feelings. When she does come to rescue him, he talks frankly of his feelings and intentions; he asks and Elizabeth agrees to courtship.

Problems, in no particular order, make me feel cheated. Some are editing--the manuscript should have been proofread, not simply spell-checked. Words are omitted or not used in appropriate context. The animal in Darcy's dreamed rescue goes from pony to donkey and back to pony in what would be less than two numbered pages of text. Writing style and attitudes are modern, not Regency. I intensely dislike use of an unreliable narrator.

I resent the changes in Darcy and in Elizabeth. The subtitle of MR. DARCY'S BAD DAY is most appropriate because he spends most of the story pouting, blaming everything on Elizabeth Bennet, and feeling sorry for himself. He recognizes his need to changewhile he's unconscious, making it difficult to believe in his transformation. Elizabeth is a bluestocking, with Plutarch's Parallel Lives in Greek, Shakespeare's Sonnets, and Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women as her bedside reading. In his dream, Elizabeth is a feminist who, like his mother Lady Anne Darcy, demands equality in marriage; Elizabeth calls Collins a fool to his face in refusing to marry him. She tells the conscious Darcy she has no particular regard for him, but she quickly agrees to his courtship. Who is the authentic Elizabeth?

MR. DARCY'S BAD DAY makes me question if I read the same story as many of the other reviewers. (F)

 

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BONE IDLE is the fifth book in Susannah Stacey's Superintendent Bone mystery series. It was published in print edition in 1994.

Robert Bone has married Grizel and, while his daughter Charlotte is on a school trip to France, they are to enjoy a brief honeymoon at Roke Castle. Bone had planned to view Roke Castle as part of an architectural tour led by Nicholas Buchanan, but Jane Paisley, Lady Roke, is Grizel's longtime friend who insists they visit for several days. Benet Paisley, Lord Roke, is a prankster who delights in creating uproar for his family and entourage, which includes beautiful hanger-on Adrian Nash who may be Roke's lover, and Marcus Weatherby, librarian who curates records as well as a valuable collection of antique pornography. Several on the tour have past reasons to hate Roke, as do both his families. Two deaths occur in quick sequence. Joshua Lawson, who had photographed the interior of Roke's former home just before a robbery years before, dies dangling off the Roke Castle tower battlements, his foot caught in a rope. Roke himself, clad in full samurai court armour, is shot through the throat with an arrow shortly after the discovery of Lawson's body. Because Bone is one of the group present for the deaths, he is not officially part of t he investigation though, at Jane's request, he pokes about. Is Lawson's death accident or murder? Who hated Roke enough to kill him, and why under such bizarre circumstances?

BONE IDLE is a satisfying read with a reasonable number of well-motivated suspects. It is surprising that such an egotist as Roke had not already been murdered by one of his infuriated victims. An experienced reader may recognize the killer(s) well before Bone since only one besides Roke demonstrates the requisite personality. Because Bone is not in charge, BONE IDLE reads more as a cozy than a police procedural mystery.

Stacey adds few details too the characterization of Grizel and Robert Bone, but her other major characters are believably realistic. The OIC does not want or feel need for Bone's help: "Chief Inspector Prior arrived in a cheerful mood. If he had politics, they were socialist. For a single family to own and live in a place like Roke Castle was a privilege no one should be able to afford. Now that Lord Roke appeared to have paid for the privilege with his life, it would be a pleasure to deal with the consequences. He...commented on the waste of good land that could be used for development. There were enough people needing homes. The rich had for too long owned too much; hardly a surprise that someone had been inspired to kill Lord Roke. Lord--what did 'Lord' mean anyway except that he'd had grabbing, conniving ancestors. You got made a lord only by some kind of arse-licking." (70)

Sense of place is good. "Winterford was reached in the golden late afternoon, an October sun gilding the great beeches, now more rose yellow than green, at the top of the wide main street. Few people were about; the summer tourists had gone. Bone drove slowly up the street, past the market cross where two children sat kicking their heels on a bench and sucking lollies, past Georgian houses, some with shops on the ground floor and on up the steeper part with railed-off grass on either side, to a pair of lichened stone gateposts that bore haughty but weather-worn eagles. The wrought iron gates were open, showing a long graveled drive winding out of sight under trees." (10)

My biggest complaint involves Dundee, the reptile Roke is amused to keep in the swimming pool. It is alternately identified as an alligator and as a cayman. Which? Otherwise, BONE IDLE is a comfortable read. (B+)

 

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MY MR. DARCY & YOUR MR. BINGLEY is Linda Beutler's variation on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2017.

During February 1812 after his abrupt departure from Netherfield the previous autumn, Charles Bingley repeatedly thinks he sees Jane Bennet In public places in London and soon realizes that he will never be happy without her. He's confident that his return to Netherfield will quickly be followed by their betrothal. To his surprise, she wants nothing to do with him. When he realizes his sister's lies to Jane and Darcy's involvement in keeping Jane's presence in London, he breaks with Darcy, but he resolves to remain at Netherfield to win Jane. Elizabeth and Mr. Bennet, who both believe Bingley and Jane an ideal couple, do everything they can to promote a match. This throws Elizabeth into Darcy's path. Elizabeth still believes Wickham's slanders about Darcy and is convinced of his distaste for herself and her family; Darcy manages to worsen Elizabeth's impression of him at every opportunity. Their angst and misunderstandings do not abate until Jane, Mr. Bennet, Bingley, Mrs. Gardiner, Georgiana, and Colonel Fitzwilliam all become active in promoting their unconventional courtship.

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

Beutler's writing style is modern as are the attitudes expressed by her characters. Colonel Fitzwilliam moonlights with a band of mercenaries to provide security for Mr. Gardiner's shipments of luxury goods from the Mediterranean. It's implied that many of the goods so transported are smuggled. Mrs. Gardiner's older sister Diana Shaw is a working partner in the business, translating correspondence and contracts between several European languages. Beutler includes too many intimacies of the marriage bed, presenting Darcy and Elizabeth's wedding night from both perspectives with subsequent detailed discussions of technique. Way too much information!

I found Beutler's Elizabeth and Darcy unsatisfactory. Both seem willfully determined to misunderstand the other, when a frank, open discussion (which, since MY MR. DARCY & YOUR MR. BINGLEY is modern in tone, would not be incongruous) would end their mutual pain. I did appreciate Elizabeth's confrontation with Lady Catherine de Bourgh on the main street in Meryton with her routing Lady Catherine, whom Colonel Forster sends back to St. Albans under escort by mounted officers. Lydia with Mrs. Forster's aid steals a letter about Wickham from Darcy to Colonel Forter, and as usual, her punishment is ridiculously light--she is grounded from the engagement ball at Netherfield. Diana Shaw is the only major new character, minimally developed; her relationship with Colonel Fitzwilliam deserves its own full-length treatment.

A recent trend in Austen fan fiction is increased use of multiple letters, given in full, to convey both exposition and characterization. Effective when used judiciously, letters distance readers from the action and sometimes hamper the flow of the story. Colonel Forster's name is sometimes given as Forester. I will probably read more of Beutler's variants, but I am not greatly impressed with MY MR. DARCY & YOUR MR. BINGLEY. (C+)

 

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MURDER AT THE COURTHOUSE is A. H. Gabhart's mystery set in fictional Hidden Springs, Kentucky, in Keane County. There is no indication of whether the county is in the mountains, the Bluegrass, or Western Kentucky, and little sense of Southern locale or culture. So far, Hidden Springs is generic small town. MURDER AT THE COURTHOUSE was published in e-book format in 2015.

The protagonist appears to be Deputy Sheriff Michael Keane, former beat cop in Columbus who burned out and returned to serve in a more peaceful department. When Miss Willadean Dearmon discovers what she thinks is a drunk on the courthouse steps and reports it to Michael, who discovers that the man is dead, apparently shot in the back. Michael's Aunt Lindy, Malinda Keane, who's taught high school algebra for years, will be involved in solving the murder.

I'm giving up on MURDER AT THE COURTHOUSE at about fifteen per cent since the most important thing so far has been a jurisdictional quarrel between the city police, the Kentucky State Police, and the Sheriff's Department. The various lawmen are stereotypes, one of them a Barney Fife clone.The crime scene is compromised repeatedly, and no forensic work is done. The body carries no identification, and no one recognizes him. Gabhart seems to be naming and thumb-nail sketching every person in town.

The main reason I'm quitting is the overtly religious orientation that is the main characterization for Aunt Lindy. She is presented as the daughter of a preacher who's convinced that her nephew is called of the Lord to preach. She reminds him that his life was saved in the car crash that killed his parents because he was meant for a higher purpose. I find this religiosity offensive.

No grade because not finished.

 

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PLAY WITH FIRE is the fifth book in Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak mystery series. It was published in print editions in 1995 and reissued in e-book format in 2011.

A warm, wet spring following a massive forest fire in the autumn has produced a bumper crop of wild morel mushrooms in the burned-over area. Kate Shugak, Bobby Clark, and newcomer photojournalist Dinah Cookman are in the Interior near Chistona gathering mushrooms to sell when Kate discovers a man's body buried under the ash of the forest fire. The body is completely naked with no obvious cause of death. The ground beneath the body is unburnt, so the man died before the fire. Winter had preserved the body. Ten-year-old Matthew Seabolt hires Kate to find out what happened to his father Daniel, a teacher at the Chistona school, who vanished just before the fire without resigning his position or telling anyone his plans. The autopsy shows that the man died of anaphylactic shock, and Daniel Seabolt was severely allergic to the omnipresent Alaska mosquitoes. Dental records confirm the identification. But what was Daniel Seabolt doing naked in the forest miles from anywhere? Why had his disappearance not been reported to the authorities? His father Pastor Simon Seabolt of the Chistona Little Chapel, a charismatic fundamentalist preacher with a devoted congregation, attributes Daniel's disappearance to his depression over the death of his wife. Kate, however, discovers that Daniel Seabolt had been under attack for teaching a modern science curriculum that included evolution. Can this be involved in his death?

PLAY WITH FIRE is one of the strongest in the entire series. It offers new insight into Kate's character, so much formed by her experiences when she entered the University of Alaska in Fairbanks as an eighteen-year-old: " 'I was terrified. I'd never been out of the Park before in my life, never had to meet new people all on my own. I'd never talked on the phone, I'd never watched television, I'd never een a movie, I'd never driven down a paved road or in traffic... I'd never even seen traffic. There was a two-lane highway between the railroad tracks and the campus. There were three cars on it, one going west, the other two east. I was almost hit by all three of them... I checked in with the resident advisor and they took me up to the fourth floor and let me into a room. My room. Mine and some stranger's. She'd be in the next day, they explained, and then they left me alone. All evening, all night, I could hear voices outside my door, in the hall, going in and out of the bathroom, the showers; answering the phone. It rang all the time, nonstop. The voices were strangers' voices... People I'd never met, people I didn't know... I was so scared I couldn't even go across the hall to the bathroom.' She raised her head and it was all there, as if the intervening fifteen years had never happened, the paralyzing fear, the bitter shame. 'I peed in the wastebasket.' " (202-4)

Setting is the combination of time, place, and atmosphere that sets the problems and solutions available for the characters in a story. The cause of death in PLAY WITH FIRE uniquely depends on conditions in the Alaska Bush in autumn. Its theme--terrorism justified in the name of religious belief--is even more topical today than when written. Most highly recommended. (A)

 

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THE TROUBLE WITH HORSES is another of Elizabeth Ann West's novella variants on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format erin 2014.

While walking at Oakham Mount the afternoon of the Meryton assembly, Elizabeth Bennet observes and captures a riderless horse; she discovers its rider, a handsome well-dressed man, lying unconscious in a nest of adders, one of which bites him. She seeks help, and the unknown man is taken to nearby Longbourn for treatment. Mrs. Bennet, quick to see his potential as a wealthy marriage partner, insists that Elizabeth forego the assembly to tend him, which her daughter does; her intervention in treating his fever after the apothecary leaves Longbourn is crucial to his recovery. In the meantime, Mrs. Bennet at the assembly spreads the story of Elizabeth's care of the stranger. Elizabeth finds herself attracted to the man, identified by Charles Bingley to be his guest Fitzwilliam Darcy. Darcy, when he regains consciousness, denounces Elizabeth as a fortune hunter determined to compromise him into marriage even though he is deeply attracted. Darcy later publicly buys and presents Elizabeth a fashion magazine in Meryton. Mr. Bennet sends Elizabeth and Mary to Gracechurch Street to avoid the scandal while he ascertains Darcy's intentions. Mary, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Georgiana all take active roles in bringing Elizabeth and Darcy together.

Elizabeth Bennet is at once too modern and too missish to be close to Austen's original. I appreciate when Elizabeth tells Caroline Bingley that, if she lays hands on her again, Miss Bingley will be removing her ballroom feathers from her nose. Elizabeth, however, spends most of the story with hurt feelings from Darcy's boorish behavior. Knowing the gossip swirling about her, she pulls a TSTL when she accepts the gift from him. Darcy remains oblivious to the gossip until the ball at Netherfield.

West makes no attempt at Austen-esque writing style or dialogue. Attitude is a strange blend of Regency--the extremity of compromise as requiring immediate marriage--with the freedom Elizabeth feels to intervene in Darcy's treatment. So much of the situation grows from Mrs. Bennet's gossip and ambition, yet again she escapes any consequences. At least once, I would like to see her forced to acknowledge responsibility for the pain and problems she causes. Editing problems include incorrect usage of apostrophes in plurals and possessives of names, anachronism (heavy lifting, in the sense of doing the hard and difficult work of a task, dates to 1980), and having Wickham put in the brig for desertion. Unless he is in the Royal Navy, he is unlikely to be imprisoned on shipboard.

THE TROUBLE WITH HORSES is nothing special. (C)

 

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"Wreck Rights" is a short story, part of Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak mystery series set in Alaska. It was published in Kindle format, but I do not find a copyright date.

While Alaska State Trooper Sergeant Jim Chopin and Ahtna Chief of Police Kenny Hazen work one accident just outside the Park, they observe the wreck of a double-trailer rig on Hell Hill where a vicious switchback has produced many wrecks through the years. Groceries and dry goods spill down the side of the mountain. Park Rats swarm the scene, scavenging the groceries with the full blessings of the shipping company that will not have to pay for cleanup. Except the body of a man with hands and feet tied, shot in the back of the head with a small-caliber handgun, also fell out of the trailer. Chopin calls in Kate Shugak, who identifies the body as Paul Kameroff, who gave up a roustabout job with RPetCo at Prudhoe Bay to become a driver for Masterson Hauling and Storage, owners of the wrecked rig. But who executed him and put his body in a trailer, and why?

Even working in short story length, Stabenow includes the details of Alaska scenery and conditions that distinguish her writing. She introduces an interesting new character Kenny Hazen, and she reveals more of the developing relationship between Kate and Chopper Jim. Kate's omnivorous reading enables her to explain Paul Kameroff's murder, even though there is no evidence to bring anyone to justice. A satisfactory very quick read. (A)

 

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CAROLINE is Sue Barr's interpretation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, focusing on Caroline Bingley and her life following the wedding of her brother Charles to Jane Bennet and that of Fitzwilliam Darcy to Elizabeth Bennet. It was published in e-book format in 2017.

Caroline Bingley is only 21 years old when Darcy and Charles marry the Bennet sisters, but she has actively pursued Darcy for three full years. A ruthless social climber whose plans for Charles, Darcy, and Pemberley have been hinted at to her closest "friends," she must now appear to welcome Jane to avoid being the subject of Society gossip. Through an acquaintance, Caroline meets Maxwell Kerr, the Duke of Adborough, and his younger brother Lord Nathan Kerr. Caroline and Lord Nathan are attracted. She has no idea that he holds the living at Kympton, once promised to George Wickham, while he has reservations about her character based on his premarital counseling with Jane and Elizabeth Bennet. They have no further contact in Town, but Lord Nathan and Carline will meet again at Pemberley, where he will preside over the weddings.

I'm giving up approximately one-third into CAROLINE. While Barr does not attempt Austen'a writing style, she does use a formal one where anachronisms more slang than informal standard English are jarring. Use of letters distances the reader from the action of the story. She misuses fiance (male) and fiancee (female).

I have two main complaints about CAROLINE. One is Barr's attempt to explain the basis for Caroline's relentless social climbing. Admittedly, a Regency lady's only chance for a home of her own was to marry and to marry well, but this does not explain or justify Caroline's viciousness toward the Bennet sisters who are in the same situation. His mother's attempt to persuade Charles deliberately to compromise a higher-status woman and force their marriage leaves Caroline no room to criticize Mrs. Bennet. That Caroline had good instruction, love, and encouragement from her grandmother, the God-fearing wife of an honest tradesman, makes her nastiness and ambition more egregious, not less. To remain resident in Charles's home, she must reestablish friendship with Jane, and even to visit Pemberley with the Bingleys, she must at least feign regard for Elizabeth. Her improved behavior and mannerliness are purely external. Her heart has not changed, and I find it difficult to believe in a meaningful transformation.

The second problem is that the backstory on Lord Nathan Kerr does not make sense. He is the third son of the Duke of Adborough; his eldest brother Lord Maxwell Kerr, now Duke, was Darcy's contemporary at Cambridge, now 28 years old. Before Lord Nathan entered the Church, his career as an Army officer on the Continent was long and brutal enough to cause him to sell his commission and spend a considerable time on the Town, establishing a scandalous reputation for himself as a drinker, rake, and gambler (PTSD is implied). He findlly hits rock bottom and accepts Lord Maxwell's intervention. His soul searching leads him to seminary and Holy Orders. Darcy's gives him the living at Kympton, and he's been rector there for three years. So how has Lord Nathan done all this so young? While appropriate in the context of Lord Nathan as a vicar, constant references to the Lord and His works are off-putting. Lord Nathan presents now as a goody two-shoes.

I don't like either Caroline or Lord Nathan. No grade because not finished.

 

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MURDER IN THRALL is the first book in Anne Cleeland's New Scotland Yard mystery series. Its protagonists are Detective Chief Inspector Lord Michael Acton and Detective Constable Kathleen Doyle. It was published in e-book format in 2013.

I don't know the literary genre into which MURDER IN THRALL fits. On the most basic, it is a police procedural, in which Acton and his team investigate a series of murders tied to number running, money laundering, and possible arms dealing through a local race track. It follows Doyle, a first-year DC with extraordinary skills in interrogation, through the investigations; she has an intuitive gift for reading people, for sensing their emotions and if they are telling the truth. Acton, shining star investigator of the Yard, is nicknamed Holmes, and lower ranking officers compete to attract his attention and to work with him. Any similarity to Sherlock seems purely intentional. Cleeland mostly uses limited third person narration through Doyle's eyes but gives occasional glimpses into the obsessed mind of the man who stalks her. From this standpoint, MURDER IN THRALL is a psychological thriller including elements of questionable romance.

Without doing a spoiler, I can't go into much detail on either plot or character. Cleeland's narrative voice is unreliable, with several major events appearing not in chronological order but through flashbacks. This seems deliberate obstructionism, and it impedes the flow of the action. I like but don't understand Kathleen Doyle, but I find Acton distasteful. Most of their colleagues are unappealing. The murders are solved, the motive is known, but the larger questions of the criminal activities involved with the killings are left unresolved. Foreshadowing of possible Russian mob involvement, terrorism, police corruption, and a Sinn Fein splinter group shows that Cleeland plans a long series. Sense of place is not developed.

MURDER IN THRALL is too ambiguous in too many directions to appeal to my linear sensibilities. I doubt I will be following the series. (C-)

 

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BLOOD STRAND is Chris Ould's police procedural mystery set in the Faroe Islands. Its protagonists are Detective Hjalti Hentze from CID in Torshavn and Detective Inspector Jan Reyna, born Faroese but longtime resident in England. It was published in e-book format in 2016.

Hentze is the officer in charge when wealthy businessman Signar Ravnsfjall is found unconscious in his car at an isolated layby. He has a grazing bruise on his head and appears to have suffered a massive stroke. In his car are blood spatter, a shotgun with one barrel fired, and a briefcase containing over one million kronur. No one knows what he was doing there, and no gunshot victim has sought treatment. Since Ravnsfjall is not expected to live, the relatives who brought him up push Reyna to visit his father. Reluctantly he does so, meeting his younger half-brothers Magnus and Kristian for the first time. They are suspicious about his return, and Reyna, who uses his mother's maiden name and has tried to remove all elements of the islands from his life, is uncertain himself. He meets Hentze to ask about his father's case and is invited along to the scene where the body of Tummas Gramm washed ashore. It's close to where his father was found, and Gramm has shotgun wounds. Are the incidents connected?

I'm giving up on BLOOD STRAND at nineteen percent. Ould multiplies seemingly unconnected characters, and nothing accounts for Ravnsfjall's circumstances. Reyna is apparently given to periodic episodes of major depression ("the black dog"). He knows almost nothing about his Faroese background, since his mother took him to England when he was three years old. Part of the plot is his father hunt. Scandinavian angst doesn't appeal, and neither does the slow pace.

Sense of place is the strongest element in BLOOD STRAND to this point. "Beyond the road and the thin margin of land directly in front of the hotel, there was a light blue sky over the choppy waters of a sound. In the distance a cluster of houses in the hollow of a low island caught broken shreds of sunshine ahead of a more threatening sky. I had no idea what the island was called but I watched the light travel over the pretty-as-a-picture, make-believe little house and wondered if the occupants knew that in reality on a God-forsaken, rain-driven grey speck in the middle of the ocean that no one in the real world even knew existed, let alone gave a shit about." It's not enough.

No grade because not finished.

 

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DARCY, LIZZY, AND EMMA is a variation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that introduces Emma Woodhouse and George Knightley of Emma to the Bingley sojourn at Netherfield. It was written by Barbara Silverstone, edited by Deborah Fostin, and published in e-book format in 2017.

Emma Woodhouse is cousin to the Bingley siblings who've visited several times at Hartfield. Her friend and neighbor George Knightley has persuaded Mr. Woodhouse to permit Emma to visit them since she's never traveled outside Highbury; to gain his consent, Knightley escorts her for the two-week visit to Netherfield, the estate leased by Charles Bingley in Hertfordshire. Emma looks for new fields to conquer in her career as a matchmaker, an activity which Knightley deplores. At the assembly in Meryton, Jane and Elizabeth Bennet much impress Emma, and she promises to have Jane, Elizabeth, and Charlotte Lucus all engaged before she leaves. Despite her self-proclaimed "expert" and "professional" skill at matchmaking, much disappointment and angst mar the courtships before the happy ever afters.

I am ambivalent about this book. How much of the original work is a writer entitled to use and still be considered the author of the variation? Huge chunks of Pride and Prejudice, including most of the dialogue, are lifted bodily to DARCY, LIZZY, AND EMMA. Among other examples, Emma's opinion of marriage is that originally expressed by Charlotte; Knightley uses Colonel Fitzwilliam's words to reveal Darcy's interference between Bingley and Jane; Darcy's disastrous proposal and Elizabeth's scornful refusal are unchanged, as is his response to Elizabeth's charges. Silverstone's most important alteration involves George Wickham with both Caroline Bingley and Lydia Bennet.

Related to this excessive (IMO) reliance on pieces Austen's writing is the need to produce a smooth join between old and new portions. Despite the editor, significant problems still exist. Word choice errors elude spell check and proofreading: "rendering" and "rending" are very different, as are a "riff" and a "rift." Scarce as hair on a billiard ball" and "Miss Picky Knickers" do not fit Austen's tone. Singular possessives of nouns require -'s as a suffix, even if the name ends in -s already (for example, Collins's hair). Use of so much of Austen's original makes anachronistic words jarring: toff (mid-19th century), knickers (women's underpants, late 19th century), headhunting (1969), decolletage (1894), snigger (1823), feisty (1896), snit (1939), gullible (1818), chickadee (1838), waffle (to change positions rapidly, 1868), and barrage (1915).*

If a student turned in DARCY, LIZZY, AND EMMA as fulfillment of a writing assignment in my class, I would return the story as plagiarized, with a grade of zero. That being said, if the reader is willing to overlook the question of original writing versus cut and paste of the canon, DARCY, LIZZY, AND EMMA is a pleasant read. No grade.

*original usage dates from Merriam-Webster's on-line dictionary.

 

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RAVEN BLACK is the first book in Ann Cleeves's Shetlands series of police procedurals featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez of the Lerwick CID. It was published in 2006.

When sixteen-year-old Catherine Ross is found strangled at Ravenswick, suspicion falls on elderly reclusive neighbor Magnus Tait. Tait had been the chief suspect eight years before when young Catriona Bruce had gone missing, when islanders ostracized him; he is now the chief suspect in Catherine's death. Perez does not believe Tait guilty, but he is not the lead officer in the case. As investigation goes on, the police discover Catherine Ross had been an unusual teenager. An incomer from the South, her father's job as a teacher at the Anderson High School isolated her; she was brash and confident, a loner whose closest friend Sally Henry is also a teacher's child and bullied. As a class assignment, Catherine had been filming a critical social-commentary on the Shetlands, sometimes acting as a provocateur to elicit the action she wanted. Her film Fire and Ice is missing. Has she recorded something that got her killed?

Jimmy Perez is an appealing protagonist. He carries believable emotional baggage. Descended from Miguel Perez, a survivor of a Spanish Armada shipwreck who washed up on Fair Isle, Perez is the last male in the family line, and his parents want him to apply for a croft that's recently come open. Without the stimulus of a murder, Perez finds his job unrewarding, but would he be better satisfied following his family's traditional paths of farming and operating the ferry? He's self aware: "Emotionally incontinent. A phrase he'd picked up from somewhere... Horrible but probably appropriate. He leaked unsuitable affection. Already, in this investigation, he felt protective towards Fran Hunter and her child and an almost overwhelming pity for Magnus Tait, whether he was a murderer or not. And police officers were supposed to be detached." (103) Cleeves uses skillful shifts of focus among characters to individualize them.

Cleeves plays fair in adequately foreshadowing the identity and motive of the killer(s), but she is adept at hiding the murderer in plain sight.

Sense of place is well developed through geographic details with only occasional vignettes of atmosphere: "Outside it was completely silent. There was no sound of wind. In Shetland, when there was no wind it was shocking. People strained their ears and wondered what was missing. Earlier in the day there had been a dusting of snow; then with dusk this was covered by a sheen of frost, every crystal flashing and hard as diamond in the last of the light, and even when it got dark, in the beam from the lighthouse." (1) The community and its people seem authentic.

RAVEN BLACK is a strong entry to Cleeve's long-running series that has become the basis of a successful series on British television. Recommended. (A-)

 

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CHAOS AND COURTSHIP is Erin Butler's novella variation on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2017.

The morning after the Meryton assembly, shopkeeper Martin Petrie is found murdered in his shop. Mr. Bennet, who'd quarreled with him the day before, is accused of his murder, but he makes no attempt to defend himself. Knowing hoer family will be ruined socially forever unless the killer is found. She determines to solve the mystery. Gossip and questioning turn up more suspects and, with Darcy's help, she uncovers the truth.

Where to begin? There is virtually no development of any characters, Austen originals or introductions. Many have only one name. The plot is simplistic with no sense of immediate action. There is no official investigation of any kind, not even the local magistrate who should have conducted one. Sir William Lucas, asked to help, does nothing but demonstrate his belief in Mr. Bennet's innocence by inviting the family to a dinner two days after the murder. Mr. Darcy's visits to Mrs. Petrie following the reopening of the shop are never explained. There is little chaos and no real courtship in the story line.

Writing style and attitudes are modern. This is most clearly demonstrated by Butler's having Sir William and Lady Lucas entertain Mr. Case, Petrie's rival shopkeeper, and his family at the same dinner with the Bennets. Granted that "country manners" were less formal than in London, but it is highly unlikely that the peak of Meryton society would entertain "trade" at a formal dinner. There are also editing problems. Simms, Petrie's brother-in-law who accuses Mr. Bennet of the murder, is referred to as Petrie. Use of apostrophes in plurals and possessives of names is consistently incorrect.

I am not sure I read the same story as those who wrote glowing reviews for CHAOS AND COURTSHIP. (F)

 

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BLOOD WILL TELL is the sixth book in Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak mystery series. It was published in print edition in 1996 and reissued in e-book format in 2015. It opens in October following the summer events recounted in PLAY WITH FIRE. Reading the series in order enhances the sense of Kate and Jack and all the Park Rats as real people whose lives continue between books.

When her grandmother Emma, Ekaterina Moonin Shugak, asks for Kate to attend the annual meeting of the Alaska Federation of Natives in Anchorage, Kate reluctantly agrees. Emaa is troubled by upcoming decisions the Niniltna Native Association Board must make about Iqaluk; she is opposed to development and believes herself backed by three of the other four members. However, when supporter Sarah Kompkoff dies suddenly of botulism, her majority lessens. Kate discovers that Board members Billy Mike, Emaa's successor as tribal chief, plans to run for the state senate, and Enakenty Barnes, Kate's cousin, recently visited Hawaii with a girl friend. Where had the money come from? Then Barnes dies from a fall off the balcony of his expensive apartment. Only he'd been deathly afraid of heights. Is the death of two Board members opposing development a coincidence or something more sinister?

The plot is fairly laid out. Stabenow uses the readers' knowledge of the corruption to produce the killer's identity as a surprise. Without legal evidence to convict the lobbyists and developers, Kate takes matters into her own hands to force them out of Niniltnda and Iqaluk.

Stabenow interweaves the unique cultural and physical conditions of Alaska to generate her plots. "Iqaluk was fifty thousand acres of land that fronted the eastern shore of the Kanuyaq River and the Prince William Sound coast, with dozens of creeks draining into the Kanuyaq. It had some of the richest salmon spawning grounds in the Sound, hence the name, iqaluk, the Aleut word for salmon. It was part of the coastal rain forest extending from Cook Inlet to the Canadian border south of Ketchikan, and included commercial stands of western hemlock, Sitka spruce and Alaska cedar. Iqaluk was one of the last unexploited old-growth forests in the state, and the subject of hot debate between the Niniltna Native Association, Raven Corporation, the state of Alaska and the federal government in the guise of the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior. Ekaterina and the Niniltna Native Association wanted the land deeded to them as part of the tribal entity's compensation; the settlement and in particular certain land allocations were still under negotiation at state and federal levels, with all concerned fighting over who got the best parts." (14-5)

Stabenow creates believable characters, keeping them vital by offering fresh insights into personality and back stories. Jack Morgan, Kate's former boss and now sometime lover, continues embroiled in a vicious custody battle with his ex-wife Jane; Kate supports Johnny Morgan as he endures the tug of war. Kate, who has rigorously refused participation in Native politics, finds corruption that compels her longterm involvement in the Niniltna Association. Humor in the chapters dealing with Jack's supervising the shopping for Kate's formal party clothes and with the party itself adds individuality to both. It alone is worth the price of the book. (A-)

 

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MR. DARCY'S DISCOVERY is a novella variant by Katy Green on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2017.

Elizabeth Bennet, en route to visit Charlotte Lucas Collins, stops at Gracechurch Street to visit overnight, learns that her visit to Kent must be postponed. Mr. Collins has the measles. Instead, the Gardiners insist that she remain with them for a spring holiday with Jane. After a shopping expedition, Elizabeth is injured in a street accident near Darcy House; Colonel Fitzwilliam, just leaving the house, insists on carrying her inside for care. When Fitzwilliam Darcy sees the unconscious Elizabeth, he fears she's dead. His desolation reveals how meaningless all his objections to marrying Elizabeth had been, so when he realizes she is not dying, he resolves to win her. Physicians recommend against her being moved to Gracechurch Street for at least a week, giving Darcy his opportunity to overcome Elizabeth's prejudice and to court her.

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

This variation offers some problems. One is the sudden reversal of Colonel Fitzwilliam who tells Darcy plainly that, while Jane Bennet may be a perfectly acceptable wife for Charles Bingley, Elizabeth is certainly not an appropriate choice for a Darcy who must marry someone of equal rank and wealth. His change of heart is not explained, even as he agrees to stand with Darcy as his best man. Another is the old question of restrictions on unmarried women. Would Elizabeth be allowed to remain at Darcy House with no proper chaperone? Mrs. Gardiner and Jane visited daily, but no married woman or relative lives at Darcy House, home of the most eligible bachelor in London. Georgiana isn't in residence at the beginning of Elizabeth's stay, and she would not be considered an appropriate chaperone even if she had been.

What bothers me most is Elizabeth's attitude. Darcy demonstrates his feelings in his care for her and by bringing Bingley and Jane together, but he refuses to tell her the specifics of his relationship with George Wickham. Mrs. Gardiner repeatedly tries to convince Elizabeth that Wickham's stories may be unreliable, but she refuses to consider that he may have lied. Only Georgiana's reaction to a casual reference to Ramsgate and a remembered remark from Lydia about Wickhm's trying to win an heiress at Ramsgate force Elizabeth to see Wickham accurately. She had ignored the evidence of her own eyes and good advice to cling to her erroneous view of Darcy, yet expresses little remorse about her willful disbelief in the man she professes to love.

The only new thing in MR. DARCY'S DISCOVERY is the cause of Darcy's change of heart about marrying Elizabeth. There are no new characters or character development, no suspense or tension in the plot. Don't bother. (F)

 

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Cassandra B. Leigh's AFFECTIONATE HEARTS is an alternative interpretation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2017.

The essential change in premise is that Georgiana Darcy, believing herself in love with George Wickham and encouraged by her companion Mrs. Camilla Younge, elopes with him the day before her brother Fitzwilliam Darcy arrives in Ramsgate. He and Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, the cousin who shares his guardianship of Georgiana, go in immediate pursuit but do not catch up with the runaways until the third day. By the time the party nears the border to Scotland, Georgiana realizes she'd been drugged during much of the trip and overhears a conversation between Wickham and Mrs. Younge that proves them coconspirators and lovers. She escapes, to meet at the same inn Mr. and Mrs. Edward Gardiner and their niece Elizabeth Bennet, enjoying a tour of the Lake District; they rescue her. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam catch up with the Gardiner party at Carlisle. Gratitude for Elizabeth's support for Georgiana and his immediate attraction to her leads Darcy to invite the Gardiners to visit Pemberley as they return to London; he is in love with Elizabeth before they leave the estate. When Mrs. Younge and Wickham are neutralized as threats to Georgiana's reputation, Darcy goes to Hertfordshire, where his behavior at the Meryton assembly proclaims his good manners and his love for Elizabeth.

Leigh is one of the better Austen fan-fiction authors. She writes in a slightly more formal style than most, avoiding slang-sounding expressions and maintaining appropriate Regency attitudes and behavior. She is generally faithful to the original characters and economical in her introduction of major new characters. She follows the trend in many recent Pride and Prejudice adaptations of using letters between characters to convey exposition and characterization.

My major problem with AFFECTIONATE HEARTS is the portrayal of Camilla Younge (the Mrs. is purely honorary) as victim of George Wickham. At 29 years old, headmistress of Georgiana's school in London (her age makes this position improbable), she allows herself to be seduced sexually by Wickham and becomes a willing participant in full knowledge of his plan to enrich himself with Georgiana's £30,000 dowry and thereby revenge himself on Darcy. Her only excuse is "love" and Wickham's promise to marry her when Georgiana has been married, ruined, and returned to Pemberley. In keeping Georgiana sedated, she gives her a dangerous overdose. I refuse to feel sympathy for Camilla Younge. She and Wickham deserve much more rigorous punishment than either receives.

AFFECTIONATE HEARTS is the best adaptation I've read so far this year. (A)

 

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MISS SEETON'S FINEST HOUR is the twenty-third book in the Miss Seeton mystery series begun in 1968 by the late Heron Carvic. Hampton Charles continued the series with four books, succeeded by Hamilton Crane who's written the remaining novels. MISS SEETON'S FINEST HOUR is a prequel, set in the summer of 1940, detailing Miss Seeton's work with MI5 at the beginning of World War II.

As England expects imminent invasion by German troops following Dunkirk, Miss Emily Dorothea Seeton is reported to the authorities for suspicious behavior. She has been sketching the changing London scene, possibly for use by invaders, and several of the sketches imply foreknowledge of top secret wartime operations--Dunkirk, the transfer of Great Britain's gold and securities reserves to Canada for safekeeping, and the rescue from Holland of industrial diamonds essential to manufacture war materiel. When Major Haynes of MI5 interviews her, he recognizes that she intuits information that emerges from her subconscious in her sketches; he proposes to use her in a Spitfire factory that's suffering continual low-level sabotage. She goes undercover as a "civilian war artist" to observe, sketch, and (hopefully) identify the saboteur. After all, it won't hurt for her to try.

Carvic created Miss Seeton as a parody of the "little old lady" school of detectives most famously represented by Miss Marple. She is an art teacher, very careful not to identify herself as an artist because she says she's only competent, not gifted. Her work with children provides a deep understanding of human nature and skill in managing people. She's a gentlewoman of the finest school, dithery and not very clear in her explanations of her intuitions, somewhat childlike in often not consciously understanding what she sees, bound to do her duty to God and Country. "She would be late for work, but to work she would go, walking every yard of the way if she must. She would wait for no bus, ask nobody for a lift. She must be there as soon as possible if she was not to betray the memory of her soldier father. This was her war, and she had been given a job to do, and she would do it, no matter what people thought, or how they behaved toward her. Major Haynes would expect no less of Emily Dorothea Seeton." It's very easy to suspend disbelief and regard her as a real person.

Crane is faithful to Carvic's original character, showing most of the action through Miss Seeton's perceptions. Other characters are sketched lightly. Several have only one name, but most are distinct individuals, including Beryl and Ruby, sisters who were apprentice milliners in London who now sew canvas covers for Spitfire rudders and ailerons, and Muriel, who does a spot-on imitation of Lord Haw-Haw. Details of daily life and wartime events are accurate. (Crane lists sources for further reading for those interested.)

The identify of the saboteur / murderer is adequately foreshadowed, and his end appropriate. Miss Seeton might have experienced a wartime romance (her beloved brolly is its memento), had not Dover been bombed. MISS SEETON'S FINEST HOUR is good fun. I recommend both the prequel and the series. (A-)

 

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A COMPROMISE AT ROSINGS is Iabelle Mayfair's novella variation on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It is available in e-book format. I did not find a publication date.

When Fitzwilliam Darcy leaves the parsonage at Hunsford after his disastrous proposal to Elizabeth Bennet and her scathing refusal, he forgets his hat; Elizabeth know that she will face questioning about his presence if it is seen, so she hurries after him to return it. When she sees his suffering, she is moved; he embraces and kisses her. Unfortunately they are observed by Mr. Collins, who is delighted to disgrace his cousin by denouncing her to Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Collins had not seen the man's face. Before interrogating Elizabeth, Lady Catherine writes to the Bennets that Elizabeth is compromised and must instantly marry the man. Elizabeth refuses to name Darcy, but he assumes responsibility. Elizabeth knows she has no choice but to marry Darcy to preserve her family from scandal, but she is not happy. Listening to Charlotte, seeing Darcy in his true character, looking at Wickham more objectively, all work to reconcile Elizabeth to their marriage, but will Darcy still feel obliged to marry her when Lydia elopes from Longbourn with Wickham?


Mayfair uses a more naturalistic writing style than Austen, but it is formal enough that repeated use of 'alright' jars. "All right" written as one word is late nineteenth-century in origin and distinctly informal in usage. She includes several letters for exposition. I love the irony of Lady Catherine's absolute insistence on Elizabeth and her compromiser's marriage, when the man is Darcy:

" 'tis the sport / to have the enginer / Hoist with his own petard..."

What bothers me about A COMPROMISE AT ROSINGS is the change in the characters of Elizabeth and of Darcy, most importantly the speed with which they change their feelings. After his rejection, Darcy writes but does not deliver the letter explaining to Elizabeth his interference with Jane and Charles Bingley and his history with George Wickham. He's bitterly hurt, but by the time he reveals himself the next morning as the man embracing Elizabeth, he has acknowledged to himself the truth of her accusations and determined to reform himself; he asks Elizabeth only to keep an open mind and allow him to convince her of his true nature. When Darcy sees Wickham at Longbourn romping with Lydia Bennet and engaging her in deep conversation, he does not warn Elizabeth or Mr. Bennet about Wickham's behavior with women, not does he give the Rosings letter to Elizabeth until after the elopement, which prompt action on Darcy's part could have prevented.

Elizabeth's feelings change as precipitously as do Darcy's. By the time Darcy arrives in Hertfordshire, she's become reconciled to their marriage. She asks and he agrees to convince her family that the compromise occurred because they were already betrothed, still scandalous but less ruinous to Elizabeth's reputation and more comforting to her father. When Darcy asks her to keep an open mind as he works to change her feelings toward himself, she realizes that she quite likes Darcy already. When Lydia's elopement means that the Bennet reputation will already be ruined, she knows that she loves Darcy and wants to marry him. This turnabout occur within the space of perhaps a week. It seems too quick to be genuine.

A COMPROMISE AT ROSINGS is comfortable with minimal angst over the forced marriage theme. (B)

 

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BREAKUP is the seventh book in Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak mystery series. It was published in print edition in 1997 and in e-book format in 2011. Its action occurs in the early spring following the autumn events in BLOOD WILL TELL.

Stabenow, as successfully as any wrier I know, creates stories that are inextricably tied to Alaska's physical landscape and its people: "...breakup, that halcyon season including but not necessarily limited to March and April, when all of Alaska melts into a 586,412 -square-mile pile of slush. The temperature reaches the double digits and for a miracle stays there, daylight increases by five minutes and forty-four minutes every twenty-four hour, and after a winter's worth of five-hour days all you want to do is go outside and stay there for the rest of your natural life. But it's too late for the snow machine and too early for the truck, and melt off is swelling the rivers until flooding threatens banks, bars and all downstream communities--muskrat, beaver and man. The meat cache is almost empty and the salmon aren't up the creek yet. All you can do is sit and watch your yard reappear, along with a winter's worth of debris until now hidden by an artistic layer of snow; all of which used to be frozen so it didn't smell." (1)

The Park is never an uneventful locale but, during breakup, Park Rats seem collectively to lose their minds. In less than a week, Kate has three close encounters with hungry grizzlies. A jet engine falls off an Earlybird Air Freight 747 and takes out most of her homestead, and nearby the National Transportation Safety Board investigators find a man's body that had been buried through the winter. Friend and neighbor Mandy Baker convinces Kate to guide her very proper Boston Brahmin parents around the area; simple enough, only they have a close encounter with a grizzly and discover Mark Steward, whose wife has been mauled to death and partially eaten at the old Niniltna Mine. On their return to the village, the truck is further damaged when they are on the periphery of George Perry's crash landing of the mail plane. She and the Bakers are caught in a shoot-out between Cindy and Ben Bingley at Bernie's Roadhouse; Kate's later called on to mediate when Cindy holds Ben hostage. A second shoot-out at the Roadhouse involves homesteader neighbors feuding over an access road. Tribal elder and great-aunt Auntie Vi asks Kate to intervene in Niniltna Native Association Board politics to influence appropriation of tribal dividends to establish a medical clinic in the village. When Stewart's story doesn't match what Kate, Alaska State Trooper Chopper Jim Chopin, and Dan O'Brian observe at the scene, they know Mrs. Stewart had been murdered, as had her lover, the body from the woods. There's no way to prove it. Enough is enough. Kate takes matters into her own hands.

BREAKUP introduces more of the Park Rats, giving more back stories, moving them along in their lives. Dinah Cookman, who's lived withBobby Clark since PLAY WITH FIRE, is pregnant, and they're planning marriage; Mandy's parents begin to understand her choice to live in Alaska. In advocating for the health clinic, Kate moves along the path toward tribal leadership. "Kate, who had been waging a lifelong battle to stay as far removed from tribal politics as possible, was thrice cursed; first in that she was the granddaughter and only direct descendant of Ekaterina Moonin Shugak, second in that she was smart, capable and a natural leader, and third in that those qualities were recognized and needed by her people. Authority is as often a burden thrust upon the reluctant recipient as it is a prize sought by the ambitious." (95) Stabenow has created a community of weird and wonderful individuals I would like to know.

Stabenow is a skilled story-teller who infuses her tales with humor, making for quick, satisfying reading. BREAKUP supports the quality of the series well. (A-)

 

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HENRY TILNEY'S DIARY is Amanda Grange's variant on Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. Published in 2011, it recounts the story from the viewpoint of Henry Tilney through entries in his diary. It begins in 1790 when he is sixteen years old, providing some back story on his parents' marriage and insight into his father's personality.

Northanger Abbey is my least favorite of Jane Austen's novels, and Grange's interpretation of its major characters shows me why. Henry Tilney is at least 25 years old when he meets Catherine Morland in Bath. He's graduated university, inherited an independent fortune, been ordained in the Church of England, and established in a good family living at Woolston, who apparently takes his clerical duties seriously. He is also addicted to Gothic novels, talks a great deal of nonsense, and likes Catherine precisely because she is so young, inexperienced in society, eager to be instructed by him, and naive about people. She amuses him. He takes great pleasure in encouraging her to interpret real life in terms of her Gothic novels, especially as she imagines Northanger Abbey; when he finds her suspicious of his mother's death years before, Henry blasts her for her ignorance. Grange's Catherine is even more credulous than Austen's. She doesn't recognize when she's being teased, takes everything she's told as literal truth, and refuses to believe the evidence of her own eyes. Their married life seems destined to follow the example of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. General Tilney is a combination of Mrs. Bennet in her determination that all her daughters marry immediately and well, Sir Walter Elliot in his pursuit of aristocratic connections, and Lady Catherine de Bourgh in her autocratic manners and temper.

Several things about the writing bother me. One is the inclusion of large sections from the Gothic novel A Sicilian Romance that Henry and Eleanor Tilney are reading when their mother dies. Why would a teenaged boy copy chunks of text from a novel into his diary? Another is the use of letters for exposition. It becomes tedious and separates the reader even more from direct action. To make Thomas Morris acceptable to General Tilney as a suitor for Eleanor, Grange kills off Morris's uncle the Viscount and his three sons, to great rejoicing. I find this distasteful.

HENRY TILNEY'S DIARY is more faithful to the original than many Austen fan fiction pieces, but it is a slow read with no sense of immediacy or suspense. (C)