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Readingomnivore Reviews

Burt Solomon's THE MURDER OF WILLIE LINCOLN was published in print and e-book formats in 2017. It is a fictional version of the death of Abraham Lincoln's second surviving son in 1862, based on extensive research and using historical characters. Readers not well versed in Civil War history will benefit from reading Solomon's afterword about its historicity before beginning the story. There are some anachronisms ("gurney," for instance, dates from 1883) and slight date changes for some events, but the historic record supports his presentation of most major historic figures and conditions in Washington, DC.

After several weeks of illness, Willie Lincoln dies from what had been diagnosed as typhoid fever, but an anonymous message suggests he had been killed. Abraham Lincoln orders John Hay, his 23-year-old assistant personal secretary, to investigate. He's a young and inexperienced but well advised by older and wiser John George Nicolay, Lincoln's private secretary. As the investigation progresses, Hay discovers that Willie had been poisoned with mercury through massive doses of calomel, his murder part of a conspiracy reaching deep into the past and involving several individuals within the White House.

It's difficult to say much about the plot without doing a spoiler. Solomon skillfully hides the killer and the motive in plain sight. Sometimes Solomon's detailed research becomes obvious, as in his graphic description of the embalming of Willie Lincoln's body. Hay's boxing background and the details of his visit to a brothel add little. Attempts to convey Southern accents through spelling are inconsistent.

Exclusive use of limited third person narration reveals Hay in intimate detail. As an 1858 graduate of Brown University who then read law, he is a curious blend of self-styled sophisticate and Midwestern naif: "Hay resisted the notion that he was innocent of anything. Was he not skeptical to the point of cynicism? Was he not devoted to the low life as well as to the literary salon? Did he not crave experience of every description? Innocent--how dare she?" (210) Solomon reveals this duality primarily through contrasting word choices, often using regional or slang terms in the midst of more formal discourse.

Solomon, if anything, understates the chaos of the White House and of Washington, DC, during the Civil War. "Hay kept to the muddy sidewalk as he strode east along G street. The day was damp and disagreeable. Beyond Fourteenth street, he passed Foundry Methodist Church and then the Epiphany Church--rivals for God's favor, Hay imagined. Vacant lot separated the buildings like the gaps in an old man's teeth. On a moonless night the previous fall, near the livery stable at G and Thirteenth, Nicolay had been jumped and robbed; beneath his goatee, the nick of a knife left a scar. A soldier, gone from his post--Nicolay had noticed the uniform. Not only cutthroats and pickpockets threatened the public safety in Washington City. So did the men who were bound by honor and duty to protect it." (47)

THE MURDER OF WILLIE LINCOLN encourages me to look for more titles by Burt Solomon. (A-)
 
PRIDE AND TOLERANCE is Cassandra B. Leigh's novella variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The novella is the first of three published in e-book format in 2015 in Leigh's PRIDE IN MERYTON anthology.

^^^POSSIBLE SPOILERS^^^

When Elizabeth Bennet overhears Fitzwilliam Darcy's comment that she is "tolerable," she immediately tells her friend Charlotte Lucas in his hearing, her impression of his bad manners. Later, when Sir William Lucas as the assembly's master of ceremonies forces Elizabeth to dance with the contrite Darcy, he apologizes; each is favorably impressed with the other. A second dance at a Lucas social evening and Elizabeth's stay at Netherfield nursing Jane confirm their mutual attraction. When George Wickham arrives in Meryton and decides to use Elizabeth for revenge on Darcy, she credits his story only briefly. Darcy immediately warns Mr. Bennet and Colonel Forster of Wickham's way of life, telling Elizabeth the truth of Wickham's slanders at the Netherfield ball. Darcy and Bingley return to Meryton as soon as their business permits; on their day of return, each proposes to his lady and is accepted. And both couple live happily ever after.

The fundamental change in the plot of PRIDE AND TOLERANCE is the removal of Darcy's initial insult to allow instant attraction between Elizabeth and Darcy. By establishing their relationship differently, Leigh eliminates most of the conflict. Each meditates on how much the other meets personal requirements for happiness in marriage; both are confident in their feelings for the other despite differences in family, connections, and wealth that make marriage between them unlikely. Elizabeth is as much aware of her liabilities as she is of the Fitzwilliams' expectations for Darcy's marriage. With his uncle Lord Matlock's advice to Darcy to marry for his own happiness, Leigh negates the last opportunity for conflict and suspense. Shifts between characters' points of view distract more than enlighten.

PRIDE AND TOLERANCE is bland as unflavored gelatin. Why bother? (D)
 
MISS SEETON PAINTS THE TOWN is the tenth book in the Miss Seeton series begun by Heron Carvice and continued by Hampton Charles. It is the second written by Hamilton Crane, originally published in 1991 and reissued in e-book format in 2016. Its setting is Plummergen, Kent.

MISS SEETON PAINTS THE TOWN opens with Superintendent Brinton of the Ashford CID dealing with an epidemic of hooliganism thought being carried out by younger brothers of the Ashford Choppers, a motorcycle gang broken up several years before. He sets DC "Sleaze" Arbuthnott to infiltrate the gang, but he's twitchy because much of the damage is close to Plummergen and Miss Seeton. Miss Seeton has two major projects in hand: she is substitute teaching for the mixed juniors class until the end of term, and she is doing watercolors of buildings in Plummergen. Preparing for the Best Kept Village competition, Lady Colveden arranges for her husband Sir George to take "before" photographs of each building and Miss Seeton to paint "after" pictures showing the result if the owner follows the committee's recommendations for beautification. The Best Village competition rouses the village's eternal rivalry with nearby Murreystone. Plummergen is buzzing with speculation over the arrivals of Mr. Alexander, a Russian manservant who walks two Borzois twice a day but whose female employer has not been seen, and of Miss Ursula Hawke, who keeps herself to herself and wanders around at night. Miss Seeton becomes directly involved when her drawing of the Post Office predicts an outbreak of arson and when she, on a field trip to Ashford Forest with the mixed juniors, discovers Miss Hawke's murdered body. Then the chaos expands.

MISS SEETON PAINTS THE TOWN may be my last Miss Seeton read. I don't like the direction Crane has given her. Again, Miss Seeton is much less the focus of the plot with no direct confrontation with the villain(s). Instead, she is sound asleep in Sweetbriars when the arsonist sets fire to her wooden front garden fence, to be rescued from the cottage by the arrival of Mel Forby and DS Bob Ranger. Too much of information is conveyed by Plummergen's women gossiping in the Post Office / general store. Few except The Nuts (Mrs. Norah "Bunny" Blaine and Miss Erica "Eric" Nuttel) are much individualized. Several continuing characters relate to this plot only tangentially, and shifts in point of view chop the action.

One of Carvic's engaging features is use of the criminal's point of view to convey exposition, a device that Crane ignores. In MISS SEETON PAINTS THE TOWN, Miss Hawke's killers have no contact with Miss Seeton, nothing to do with the vandalisms and thefts, and a un-foreshadowed motive for Miss Hawke's murder. They are never named or particularized. The arsonist responsible for another death never meets Miss Seeton directly; Crane gives no hint of the man's background, and the motivation fpr his arsons is improbable.

MISS SEETON PAINTS THE TOWN is lukewarm bouillon when compared with the coq au vin of Carvic's original. (D)
 
HEDGEROWS is the third variant of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in Cassandra B. Leigh's anthology of three novellas PRIDE IN MERYTON, published in e-book format in 2015.

William Collins is excited when his father-in-law Sir William Lucas writes him that Mr. Bennet has been mortally injured. Acting on Lady Catherine de Bourgh's advice, Collins goes to Hertfordshire to assert his claim to Longbourn immediately after Mr. Bennet's death. The day of Mr. Bennet's funeral, the Gardiners return to London, taking Jane Bennet with them to complete her visit, and Collins gives the Bennet women twenty-four hours to pack their personal items, under supervision by the servants to be sure they take no entailed property, and vacate the premises. The women are surprised to learn that the Phillipses are also in London. With nowhere to go and no funds, they take shelter in a cove in the woods with homeless children Annabelle and Barnaby Winters. Fitzwilliam Darcy hears of Mr. Bennet's death through Lady Catherine and, knowing Elizabeth's deep love for her father, leaves for Meryton to console her. Barnaby reveals the Bennets' whereabouts, which leaves Darcy, Charlotte, and Lady Catherine all trying to provide appropriate accommodations. (After being condemned as heartless and cold-blooded by Lady Catherine, Collins generously takes them back to Longbourn, to stay in the stables.) Three determined people soon resolve the Bennets' housing problem.

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

Several elements in HEDGEROWS bother me. One is the fairy tale atmosphere for the Winters children living in a shelter (not even a building) in the woods. Annabelle is five years old and does laundry in the creek alongside their camp. Her brother is nine or ten and earns pennies for doing errands in Meryton (and occasional pick-pocketing) to support them. They generously share their meager resources with the five Bennet women. The children are precocious enough to locate their privy downstream from where they draw water and to boil the creek water before drinking it.

It seems unlikely that, while Mr. Bennet's death expected momentarily, the Gardiners and the Phillipses would fail to make detailed plans with Mrs. Bennet and the older daughters. No one expects Collins to evict them from Longbourn so quickly, but everyone knows they will have to move. Also improbable is that Mr. and Mrs. Phillips would leave for London the day after the funeral without telling the Bennets. And what became of Mrs. Bennet's £5,000 dowry, that should come to her at her husband's death, that she is left penniless?

Incensed Lady Catherine and the Phillipses circulate the story of Collins's behavior toward the Bennet women, leading Meryton shopkeepers to refuse his business, tenants to withhold rents, and neighbors to ostracize him. Rejected by the neighborhood, Collins sells Longbourn, to suffer the same treatment he'd accorded the women. Leigh includes no information to indicate how Collins could make a legal sale of an entailed estate. The whole point of entailment is to prevent the land being sold away from the designated bloodline.

Another problem is the change in major characters. Mrs. Bennet took to her bed through her husband's dying, leaving everything up to Jane and Elizabeth, but she instantly accepts their ejection from Longbourn and homelessness with calm and dignity. She comforts Annabelle when the little girl cries over having caused her mother's death in childbirth and graciously refuses to accept help from Darcy. Her manners toward Lady Catherine, Darcy, and Charles Bingley are impeccable. The change is too great, too sudden to be believable. The same is true of Leigh's Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Collins follows her advice, albeit more ruthlessly than expected, but she is infuriated at his treatment of the women. She rushes to Meryton to force him to make amends; she persuades Mrs. Bennet to accept rooms at the Meryton Inn at her expense; she provides new clothing for Annabelle, and even invites the Morgans, a tenant family who fosters the child, to Rosings for Easter.

Leigh weakens Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeth, having fail to plan, does not notify Mr. Gardiner of their summary eviction from Longbourn. Neither does she ask for neighbors' help. She is so incensed against Darcy that she refuses to accept his providing accommodations at the inn, yet when he sends a letter explaining his love for her, his role in Bingley's leaving Netherfield, and his history with Wickham, she changes her opinion instantly. Leigh's Elizabeth is passive, relying on others to rectify her family's situation, unlike Austen's dynamic, assertive original.

The second novella in PRIDE IN MERYTON involves Darcy repeating the Meryton assembly until he gets it right, as in Groundhog Day, which does not appeal. HEDGEROWS is unsatisfying. (D)
 
A DAUGHTER'S DEADLY DECEPTION: THE JENNIFER PAN STORY is Jeremy Grimaldi's account of one of the most famous murders and trials in recent Canadian history. It was published in e-book format in 2016.

On 8 November 2010 at 238 Helen Avenue, Markham, Ontario, Hann Pan and his wife Bich-Ha were shot in what appeared to be a home-invasion robbery gone bad. Bich-Ha died of head wounds in the basement of their home, but Haan, though shot in the head and left for dead, escaped and survived. Their 24-year-old daughter Jennifer was left unharmed, tied to an upstairs bannister with string. She described three black men as the invaders. Discrepancies between her first and second accounts, her observed behavior when alone in the interview room, and her crying that produced no tears soon convinced the York police that Jennifer Pan had been involved. But there was literally no forensic evidence. Cell phone calls and text messages eventually connected the conspirators. Jennifer Pan, her ex-boyfriend Daniel Wong, Eric Carty, Lenford Crawford, and David Mylvaganam were eventually charged and tried; Eric Carty shortcut the system by taking a plea bargain, but the other four were found guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder. The case and trial were a media circus because the motive for Jennifer's plot included her faking of high school graduation, admission and graduation from a two-year Ryerson University science program, admission and attendance in pharmacology at the University of Toronto, and a volunteer job at Toronto's prestigious Hospital for Sick Children, all of which she said she'd done to prevent her parents being shamed by her lack of achievement; she'd also concealed her seven-year relationship with Daniel Wong, of whom they disapproved.

Grimaldi divides A DAUGHTER'S DEADLY DECEPTION into four parts. Part One sketches Hann and Bich-Ha Pan's Vietnamese background and their life in Canada, covering the murders and the investigation. Part Two follows Crown attorneys Jennifer Halajian, Michelle Rumble, and Rob Scott through masses of cell-phone records that establish the conspiracy. Part Three contains two sections: chapters 20-27 that present the motive and events leading up to the murder from Jennifer Pan's point of view, and chapters 28-30 that follow the Crown's theory of the last five months before the crime. Part Four consists of "Lives Forever Changed"--impact statements from Hann Pan and Jennifer's younger brother Felix Pan; "Where Are They Now?" listing the locations and conditions of the incarcerated killers; and an Afterword by Betty Kershner, Ph.D.,who opines on the state of Jennifer Pan's mental health.

Grimaldi's writing style is elementary. His bend-over-backward effort to maintain objectivity collapses into monotony. Long text messages in baby talk between Jennifer and Daniel and gangsta code between the men meant to add verisimilitude are tedious. Bibliography is sketchy, with no notes to identify sources for specific details. Even worse, Jennifer Pan remains a cypher.

Three inclusions bother me. The first is Grimaldi's extensive discussion of Asian parents' child-rearing practices as set out in Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (2011), with its emphasis on academic and individual achievement, high status careers, accumulation of wealth, building family honor, and filial obedience. It reads almost as "her parents made Jennifer do it," even though immigrants from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds have followed similar practices without producing matricidal daughters.

The second is a long section discussing Connecticut clinical psychologist Barbara Greenberg's diagnosis of Jennifer with Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD) with narcissism--in other words, Jennifer is a sociopath whose lying and deception expanded over the years from just her parents about her grades to include anyone at all about any inconvenient reality. She sees Jennifer Pan as a planner, a manipulator who used cutting herself and alleged suicide attempts to deceive. Grimaldi gives neither information about how Greenberg reached her conclusions nor the context in which she uttered them.

The third is the Afterword by Dr. Betty Kershner, Ph.D. [sic], Registered Psychologist (no other identification or qualifications given). Kershner states that she has not met or evaluated Jennifer Pan but bases her "informed speculation" (315) on public record, court testimony, and interviews with some of the people who knew her, all second- or third-hand information. She discusses the Pans' Vietnamese background and their own determined work ethic that failed to foster Jennifer's self-identity separate from her parents. This lack of self-identity made her functionally dependent, even at age 24, on an extensive menagerie of stuffed animals, her parents, and ultimately Daniel Wong. Greenberg goes to far as to theorize "splitting" in Jennifer's mind as a defense mechanism. What prompted her to examine the etiology of Jennifer's mental state, Greenberg does not say.

A DAUGHTER'S DEADLY DECEPTION is too undocumented to be read for history and too dull to be read for pleasure. (F)
 
DECISIONS AND CONSEQUENCES is Zoe Burton's novella variant of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. She published it in e-book format in 2017 in her two-novella anthology FORCED TO WED. It uses the common motif of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet coming to love and happiness after a forced engagement or marriage.

Darcy is lonely and getting desperate in his search for a wife. He has a list of the characteristics he deisres in her, the most importance of which is honesty. He discovers a likely candidate in Elizabeth Bennet at the Meryton assembly, where she blasts his poor manners after his careless remark about her beauty. He's soon convinced that, though he is not in love with her and he knows that she dislikes him, she is his ideal wife. To secure her, he deliberately seeks out a secret that compels her father to support his suit. Thus when dealing with his daughter over Mr. Collins's proposal, Mr. Bennet gives Elizabeth her choice between suitors, Darcy or Collins. Elizabeth knows her father's being coerced but neither he nor Darcy will enlighten her. Darcy is the lesser evil. The rest of the story consists of their courtship. marriage, and developing love, interrupted by Lady Catherine de Bourgh's foray into Hertfordshire and a final settlement with George Wickham.

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

Burton updates some issues in DECISIONS AND CONSEQUENCES, giving Darcy and Elizabeth PTSD following their confrontation with Wickham, with Colonel Fitzwilliam as the soldier experienced in dealing with PTSD advising them on relaxation and visualization techniques to combat its nightmares. When Elizabeth approaches her Aunt Gardiner for advice about her growing physical passion for Darcy, she receives modern wisdom about sex practices between consenting adults. Their liberal views mark Lord and Lady Matlock as more twenty-first century than Regency when they accept the Gardiners as good friends despite the contamination of "Trade."

The situation that allows Darcy to coerce Mr. Bennet's suppsort is improbable. Burton advances it as fact but gives no explanation of its origin or why it went undetected at the time. Austen's Fitzwilliam Darcy is incapable of blackmailing a reluctant woman into marriage. Her Elizabeth would have chosen Darcy over the toad Collins, but she would not have announced to both that "Darcy could give her more." Neither would she react so placidly to Darcy's eventual confessed of compulsion.

It's easy to suspend common sense and just enjoy DECISIONS AND CONSEQUENCES. (B+)
 
MATCHES MADE AT NETHERFIELD is a novella variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was written by Zoe Burton and published in her e-book anthology FORCED TO WED.

What if, instead of Fitzwilliam Darcy interfering in Charles Bingley's romance with Jane Bennet, Bingley intervened in Darcy's relationship with Elizabeth Bennet? Overhearing his sisters plotting to compromise Darcy to force his marrying Caroline, he resolves to end her pursuit permanently. To that end, he arranges .two compromise situations during the Netherfield Ball. He locks Elizabeth in the men's retiring room with Darcy and shuts Cambridge friend Theodore Carlson in the darkened library with Caroline. Guests witness each couple's discovery, requiring engagements with weddings quickly to follow, to preserve the women's reputations and the men's honor. How do Elizabeth and Darcy deal with their forced relationship?

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

MATCHES MADE AT NETHERFIELD introduces an interesting problem, well written and satisfyingly ironic in dealing with Caroline Bingley. Given Caroline's unshakable delusion of marrying Darcy, Bingley's g.plan makes some sense as a practical solution. The opening flashback works well to arouse curiosity, but the second is awkward and unnecessary. Burton's change in the Wickham subplot unfolds believably with Wickham subject to his well deserved karma. I like that Burton introduces only one new important character and minimizes the roles of unpleasant Collins, Lydia Bennet, and Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

What bothers me is the vast difference between Austen and Burton's Charles Bingley. Austen's man, so dependent on Darcy's advice and social standing, would never possess the intestinal fortitude to formulate and implement his plan. Burton's Bingley, convinced Elizabeth is Darcy's perfect match, ignores Darcy's expected wrath and Elizabeth's hurt. He keeps Caroline locked in her bed chamber with a footman guarding the door until she, seeing the size of Carlson's settlement, acquiesces. He means well, and Burton gives al the couples (except Lydia, who doesn't deserve one) happy endings in the prolonged epilogue, but Bingley's playing God in his friends' lives reveals arrogance far greater than Darcy ever displayed. Despite serious unforeseen injury to Elizabeth, Bingley suffers no longterm consequences for his actions: Jane forgives him at once, and he grovels sufficiently that Mr. Bennet eventually consents to their marriage. I don't much like this Mr. Bingley.

Even with my reservations about Bingley, MATCHES MADE AT NETHERFIELD is one of the better Pride and Prejudice variations. (A-)
 
Bill Crider's EIGHT ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is a digital anthology of eight short stories, plus a bonus story. The review identifies the story not of his authorship. Two of the Crider short stories deal with Christmas topics and are saved for the holiday season.

"The Adventure of the Young British Soldier" (originally published in 2003) begins in Dr. Watson's past, when he had been wounded at the battle of Maiwand in Afghanistan. His young orderly Edward Murray managed to throw Watson onto a pack horse and save his life, but he was unable to remove the wounded man the doctor had been treating; Watson never saw Murray again. On the same December 1894 day Watson tells Holmes about the rescue, Mrs. Murray, whose husband has followed Watson through his stories, asks his help. Her husband is dying, other doctors unable to find a diagnosis, and the Murrays are convinced Watson can do so. Holmes insists on accompanying Watson to their home, where he discovers the agent producing Murray's illness. (A-)

"The Adventure of the St. Marylebone Ghoul" (originally published in 2006) has young biracial (father Indian, mother English) Benjamin Swaraj, night caretaker at the St. Marylebone Cemetery in London, approaching Holmes for his help, The family had been driven out of their Sheffield home by rumors of animal mutilations and vandalism blamed on their son. Benjamin fears that he has been followed by the ghoul who is now unearthing corpses, destroying them and their cerements; he's seen it. Holmes doesn't believe in non-human ghouls. He discovers the perpetrator and his motive. (B)

"The Adventure of the Venomous Lizard" (originally published in 1987) involves William Randolph's fear that he has murdered his sister, Sophia Randolph Bingham. After years in the American Southwest where he became fascinated by the fauna, especially the venomous Gila monster, he returns to London with a specimen of the lizard requested by his physician brother-in-law. Randolph discovers his sister, who tended the lizard, dead with puncture wounds on her arms, the lizard's case smashed and the lizard missing. But did the lizard's bite kill her? (B+)

"The Adventure of the White City" (originally published in 2009) opens with the irony of Holmes in Chicago, the White City, during the 1893 Columbian Exposition, unaware of the activities of serial killer H. H. Holmes. A fan of Colonel Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show, Holmes investigates when Cody reports a fragment of conversation overheard by Frank Butler about burning the Midway-exhibited cabin in which Sitting Bull was killed. Many Americans still hate Sitting Bull for the massacre of Custer and his men at the Little Big Horn and resent Indians traveling with Cody's show instead of on reservations, so revenge may be the motive. But by whom, and for what? (B+)

Two of Crider's stories deal with Bram Stoker. "The Case of the Vampire' Mark" (originally published in 2001) occurs in 1889, when Abraham Stoker, manager of the Lyceum Theatre and personal assistant to Sir Henry Irving, approaches Holmes for help. Young Robin Brasov, son of celebrated actress Lily Montgomery, suffers from a mysterious illness that leaves him listless, irritable, unable to bear the light of day, restless and fearful at night; an elderly servant of his Transylvanian father Nicholas Brasov has that every morning identified the mark of a vampire on his neck. Can Holmes prevent a tragedy? (A)

"The Case of the Vanished Vampire" (originally published in 2009) occurs in 1897. Bram Stoker and Dr. Abraham Van Helsing arrive at 221B Baker Street to beg Holmes's help. A vampire buried in St. Marylebone Cemetery, incompletely killed because of Stoker's reluctance to decapitate the staked body, has escaped its crypt. Unless disposed of appropriately, the vampire will infect countless victims. Holmes, who doesn't believe in vampires, soon uncovers the truth. (A-)

Crider uses a writing style and vocabulary similar to Conan Doyle's, and his protagonists are faithful to the originals. Dr. Watson narrates all the stories. Short story length precludes extensive character development or atmospheric description, but each story includes some of both. He even gives Watson self-deprecating humor in his eagerness to visit the Columbian Exposition's International Dress and Costume Exhibit ("40 Ladies from 40 Nations, a World's Congress of Beauties")--the famous belly dancer Little Egypt performed there.

The bonus story is "Death Did Not Become Him" by Patricia Lee Macomber and David Niall Wilson, published in 2008. Holmes's client is Dr. Watson, who one week prior had signed a death certificate for one Michael Adcott, stabbed in the back and dead for at least an hour when seen. Now Adcott's cousin Aaron Jepson, accompanied by Adcott's solicitor and a living man both identify as Michael Adcott, demands Watson's signature on documents to rescind the death certificate that ends Adcott's claim as one of two survivors of a tontine. Holmes must delve into ancient Jewish lore before he can explain what's going on. Macomber and Wilson's use of third person omniscient narration for Jepsn's background is intrusive without clarifying his motivation. The supernatural element is an awkward addition to a conventional murder for profit story. (C)
 
DARCY'S MIDSUMMER MADNESS is one of Cass Grix's variants on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, incorporating a few elements of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was published in digital format in 2017.

Caroline Bingley, disappointed over Fitzwilliam Darcy's failure to propose marriage and aware of his growing attraction to Elizabeth Bennet, takes desperate measures. She orders a dozen doses of love potion from local witch Mrs. Wyatt, even though the short time for preparation means the love will last only 24 hours and likely will not affect intelligent, strong-willed individuals. Caroline plans to dose Darcy's food the day of the Netherfield ball. Unbeknownst to her, footman James Puck, whom she's promised to dismiss the day following for impregnating a maid, intercepts the portion and Mrs. Wyatt's directions; for revenge, he doctors fig pastries prepared for the ball and refills the bottle before giving it to Caroline. Caroline adds the potion to Darcy's soup and to special teacakes, but he finds both taste awful and stops eating. Neither he nor Elizabeth Bennet partakes of the fig tarts at the ball, though the behavior of many guests undergoes extraordinary change after visiting the dessert table.

I should have listened to my instinct and avoided DARCY'S MIDSUMMER MADNESS, since it offends me on behalf of both Austen and Shakespeare.

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

Grix uses only the love potion, mixed-up lovers, and Puck's name from A Midsummoer Night's Dream unless one considers Caroline Bingley and Mr. Collins to be Titania and Bottom. I don't. Other combinations--Denny infatuated with Mrs. Bennet, Lydia with Darcy, Collins with Lydia, Charlotte with Collins, Bingley with Charlotte, Mary with Denny--are also farce, unbelievable even under the influence. The only direct reference to Shakespeare is to an unnamed twin in Comedy of Errors, which involves no potions or anything resembling the Lysander-Demetrius-Helena triad, though Caroline and Collins do quote Romeo and Juliet's "parting is such sweet sorrow" farewell following the ball.

Grix uses multiple first person narrators--Darcy, Caroline, Elizabeth, Collins, Mrs. Bennet, Puck, Bingley, Lydia, Mary, Charlotte, Mr. Bennet, several to each chapter--for characterization and exposition. The problems outweigh the advantages. The rapid shifts make for choppy action. Segments are mostly too brief to convey much information. Except for Lydia and Collins, narrative voices remain the same.

The most satisfying plot element involves Caroline Bingley. When she awakens the morning after the ball where she'd insisted that Bingley announce her engagement to Collins and realizes it was not a bad dream, she attempts to renounce her fiance. Bingley gives her the choice of marrying Collins or living permanently with Great Aunt Mary in Yorkshire, never to visit London again.

My recommendation--don't bother with DARCY'S MIDSUMMER MADNESS. (D- - saved from F only by the beautifully ironic ending)
 
Dana Stabenow's HUNTER'S MOON is the ninth book in her Kate Shugak mystery series set in Alaska. It was originally published in 1999, then reissued in digital format in 2011.

Kate Shugak, her lover Jack Morgan, and two others have signed on with George Perry at his Taiga Lodge to serve as hunting guides for a large party from the Deutsche Radio Gesellschaft, a rapidly expanding European software company. The company is under active examination by the FBI, the SEC, and the IRS for tax fraud, bribery, and industrial espionage, with both Dell and Microsoft suing for copyright infringement. An inside informant is believed to be fueling the investigations. Its CEO Dieter brings top DRG executives, despite their reluctance and lack of hunting skills, to the Alaska Bush to bag moose, bear, and caribou. On the first day's hunt, Klemens, head of finance, shoots and kills his assistant Fedor. That night Hendrik, Fedor's cabin mate and lover, confides to Kate that he thinks Fedor had been killed deliberately on Dieter's orders. After Perry flies out with Fedor's body, planning an immediate return with the authorities since Dieter would not agree to cancel the hunt, Jack and Kate discover Henrik dead, impaled on a branch of a fallen tree. Both consider the deaths suspect and begin to investigate while an early storm prevents George's return with reinforcements. What's happening, and who's behind what becomes mass murder?

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

Foreshadowing makes the identity of at least two villains readily apparent, but the extent and intent of the conspiracy remain largely hidden. Stabenow uses irony throughout the Kate Shugak series, but it is particularly strong in HUNTER'S MOON. Kate and Jack forward their longterm relationship, with Kate agreeing for Jack, who's decided to take early retirement, and his son Johnny coming to live in her cabin near Niniltna. Then a major character dies, irrevocably changing Kate's life. For fans of the series, the final scene is harrowing.

Stabenow restricts the number of characters in HUNTER'S MOON, using six from previous books while introducing only the nine men-one woman German party and hermit Crazy Emmett. The four younger men are not much individualized, and none of the Germans have surnames. As for Crazy Emmett, "...his study of history had led him to a deep-seated belief in the hidden secret agenda of the United Nations in collusion with the Trilateral Commission to take over all the world's governments, thereby jeopardizing his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. He believed that secret operatives working on behalf of the U.N. had put directions in invisible ink on the backs of all government highway signs, readable only by U.N. troops wearing special government-issue goggles. Crazy Emmett saw everyone as the point man for the invasion and if you didn't want to be used for target practice you kept your distance." (6)

Sense of place is outstanding: "There were stars overhead, emerging one by one in the twilight sky. The sun was setting in a blush of glory, the moon, rising over the opposite horizon, almost full and softy radiant. The tips of Foraker, Hunter and Denali rose like ghosts against the northern horizon, hinting at the force and fold of geologic age beyond, whose names murmured a litany of beauty and challenges, Pioneer Ridge, Silverthrone, Mount Deception, Ragged Peak. The air was calm and still warm from the day..." (82)

HUNTER'S MOON is powerful. (A-)
 
Sofia King's FROM ADMIRATION TO LOVE is a 2017 digital-format variation on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It makes few major changes to the original.

While nursing Jane at Netherfield, Elizabeth Bennet overhears Fitzwilliam Darcy and Caroline Bingley disparage the Bennet family's low connections and inappropriate behavior, adding to her distaste of Darcy based on his "only tolerable" remark. When George Wickham arrives in Meryton and confides in Elizabeth, she believes and becomes infatuated with him, staying in his company at the Netherfield ball after her dance with Darcy. When Elizabeth rejects Mr. Collins's proposal, Mrs. Bennet banishes her to the Gardiners in London to repent; Mr. Bennet, to avoid the chaos caused by refusing Lydia's visit to Brighton, in hope of her learning better behavior, sends her with Elizabeth. In London, Elizabeth literally runs into Darcy. Darcy is still attracted to Elizabeth. Developing friendship between Georgiana and Elizabeth allows time and opportunities to develop their own relationship, only temporarily interrupted by interference from Caroline Bingley, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and Lydia, and by revelation of his separating Charles Bingley from Jane.

~~~SPOILERS~~~

Plot changes in FROM ADMIRATION TO LOVE are minimal: Lady Catherine attempts to end Darcy's involvement with Elizabeth; Georgiana tells Elizabeth about Darcy's influence on Bingley; Lydia elopes but escapes marriage. Most action moves to London with slight changes in the time line. Poor behavior remains unaddressed. Lady Catherine insults Elizabeth to her face in Darcy's presence yet receives no rebuke. Wickham fights Darcy when Lydia is recovered but slips away without further punishment. Mr. Bennet literally welcomes Lydia back with open arms and no consequences.

King changes some characters. Charlotte Lucas interrogates Elizabeth about Collins, then acts to gain his attention at the Netherfield ball. Lydia corresponds and meets clandestinely with Wickham in London, to reveal a devious, not merely foolish, nature, one often deliberately hurtful. Even worse, an infatuated Elizabeth will welcome Wickham's expected proposal, suffering considerably when she learns he'd been engaged throughout his attentions. Despite her father's specific charge to supervise Lydia's behavior, Elizabeth largely ignores her for the Darcys and misses the obvious signs that Lydia is up to something. King's Elizabeth is lacking.

Editing needs attention."Persued" and "affect-effect" escaped SpellCheck and proofreading. The spelling "alright" is anachronistic. Mrs. Jenkinson's name becomes Mrs. Jenkins. Once Caroline Bingley is identified as Miss Bennet. At dinner at his home, King seats Darcy across from Elizabeth, moving him from the host's usual position at the end of the table, though a later reference shows him there. Most egregious of all, everyone passes off Lydia's elopement, since she says she'd not been intimate with Wickham, as if a "no harm, no foul" situation. The elopement itself, regardless of what did or did not happen, compromises her irrevocably unless they marry, should it become known. King does not address how the affair may be kept secret, since Lydia went missing for several days with Uncle Gardiner, Mr. Bennet, and Darcy actively seeking her throughout London, including calling upon the family of Wickham's friend Denny.

FROM ADMIRATION TO LOVE is pleasant enough, but it covers little new ground. (C)
 
Nicholas Blake's THE CORPSE IN THE SNOWMAN was originally published in 1941, then reissued in digital format in 2013. It features private investigator Nigel Strangeways, nephew of the Assistant Commissioner of New Scotland Yard.

Clarissa Cavendish, eccentric elderly cousin of Strangeways'i wife Georgia, summons them to the Dower House, Easterham, Essex, to investigate the strange behavior of Scribbles the cat in the reputed-haunted Bishop's room of her friends Hereward and Charlotte Restorick at Easterham Manor. After drinking a saucer of milk, Scribbles apparently tried to beat his brains out, dashing headfirst against a wall. Miss Cavendish senses something humanly wrong, probably involving her favorite Elizabeth Restorick, not the supernatural. Despite massive storms that make travel difficult and keep people snowed in, she arranges for Nigel and Georgia to be the Restoricks' dinner guests; Elizabeth, indisposed, remains in her room, where she is found hanging, nude and dead, the next morning. Strangeways convinces the police that her death is murder staged to appear suicide. Who wanted her dead, and why?

The cast of characters is fairly standard for many Golden Age mysteries: fast, scandalous young woman Elizabeth; neurotic female friend Eunice Ainsley; uptight ex-military older brother Hereward; his dominant American wife Charlotte; proudly working-class novelist Will Dykes; rolling stone brother Andrew; and Harley Street specialist in women's nervous disorders Dr. Dennis Bogan. None are believable, and the motive for the major villain is not explained beyond "reveling in evil." Strangeways never emerges as an individual but remains a clone of Lord Peter Wimsey, Gervase Fen, and the other dashing young detectives of the period.

Given that ingenious plots dominate the Golden Age mysteries, THE CORPSE IN THE SNOWMAN is more than usually complex. It opens with the Restorick twins discussing Aunt Betty's ghost appearing to John before her death some two months before, then it flashes back to Clarissa enlisting Strangways's aid. The investigation, even for 1940 during the so-called Phony War, takes an inordinately long time to uncover the most basic information on both victim and suspects. Blake's detailing of Strangeways's every thought and theory about Elizabeth Restorick's death minimizes the sense of action and diverts the reader from the truth. The ironic ending is not satisfying.

Setting is more than usually important in THE CORPSE IN THE SNOWMAN. The thaw, more than Strangeways, reveals the crime and the killer. Blake handles atmospheric description of houses, rooms, and weather well: "Everywhere the thaw was perceptible: in the snow flaking off the evergreens behind the tennis-court, in the dank, mild air that brushed his face so softly, and most of all in the tinkling water-music made by the running gutters, the stream tumbling over its miniature waterfall at the bottom of the rose garden, the whole melting landscape beyond. Only the snowman seemed to resist this universal dissolution..."

Standards in the mystery genre have changed since THE CORPSE IN THE SNOWMAN was published, so I have tried to read and evaluate it in terms of its own time. (B)
 
LOVE BLOOMS AT PEMBERLEY is Cassandra Knightley's novella variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in digital format in 2017.

The day following her rejection of Fitzwilliam Darcy's proposal at Hunsford, Elizabeth Bennet receives the news that her father has died suddenly. Darcy comforts her and sends her home in his carriage. She does not expect to see him again. When Collins takes over the estate, he has alternative housing for the Bennet women and generously gives them two weeks to vacate the premises. Lady Catherine has, in her gracious condescension, offered the Bennets a four-room cottage which they, having no other choice, must accept. Darcy's annual visit to Rosings brings him and Georgiana into Elizabeth's company, and the young women become friends. When he's called away on business, he asks that Elizabeth travel with Georgiana to Pemberley as companion and guest. His feelings remain unchanged, but Elizabeth changes her opinion of Darcy when she learns the truth of the Darcys' relationship with Wickham and when Darcy makes amends for separating Jane and Bingley.

LOVE BLOOMS AT PEMBERLEY is another variant that does not vary much from the original. The important changes are the death of Mr. Bennet, Lady Catd herine's uncharacteristic generosity, and Wickham's exposure coming from Mary King's uncle. Jane tells Elizabeth she's like their mother, stubborn and meddling. Overheard conversation that leads Elizabeth to believe Darcy and Caroline Bingley are declaring their love is not explained.

Editing is annoying. Meryton is not spelled correctly; Darcy's uncle is referred to as "Lord Fitzwilliam" when correct address is ___ Fitzwilliam or Lord ___. Proofreading as well as SpellCheck and GrammarCheck is needed: for instance, "Gordy" (a name) used instead presumably of "gaudy." Word choice is sometimes questionable. I doubt that Mrs. Reynolds would respond to Darcy's instructions with "Will do." Darcy plans to buy Longbourn from Collins so the Bennet women can return to their home after he and Elizabeth marry but, if the estate is entailed on the male line as Austen indicates, Collins could not sell it.

There's not enough new or different in LOVE BLOOMS AT PEMBERLEY to justify the time. (D)
 
PEMBERLEY CELEBRATIONS: THE FIRST YEAR is Kara Louise's anthology of short story sequels to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Originally published in 2002, the collection was reissued in digital format in 2011. The first five stories involve Christmas and New Year's, so they are saved for the holiday season.

All the stories are slice-of-w vignettes of holiday events for newly married Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Bennet Darcy. They contain no dramatic action, few new characters, and minimal angst, reading as monotone summaries rather than events directly observed by the reader. Many attitudes are more modern than Regency.

In "Valentine's Day" Elizabeth discovers a love letter and a portrait miniature hidden away in an empty jewelry box had that to Darcy's mother. Darcy's perturbed because they are not from his father, leading to his and Elizabeth's recounting the stories of their own first loves.

"Easter" has the Darcys summoned by Lady Catherine de Bourgh for a week's visit to Rosings. Greeting them in true Lady Catherine style, she ignore Elizabeth, then addresses her as "Miss Bennet." She's assigned Elizabeth and Darcy separate bed chambers, Elizabeth's with a single-size bed and Darcy's upstairs in one with a noisy, rickety bed. Her manners improve when Darcy threatens to leave, but the eventual explanation of her pre-marriage treatment of Elizabeth is not credible.

In "May Day" the Darcys host a lawn party for the entire neighborhood with food, games, and dancing around a May pole. Elizabeth realizes she's pregnant.

"A Midsummer's Day" brings Lady Catherine to Pemberley unannounced with plans to remain throughout Elizabeth's pregnancy and confinement and "assist" in her duties as mistress of Pemberley Mr. Bennet's unexpected arrival and instant rapport with the formidable lady defuse the tense situation. Louise implies what Dr. Phil would call an emotional affair. Neither of them is faithful to the original character.

"Michaelmas" (September 29) finds Georgiana trying to show her cousin and guardian Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam that she is now a young woman worthy of his romantic attention. Darcy assists the Colonel in letting her down gently. Georgina's infatuation is believable, but the speed with which she recovers from her "broken heart" is not.

"All Hallows' Eve" is primarily Darcy's story for the Gardiner children about meeting a ghost at the Meryton Assembly. His account is interestingly original and skillfully constructed, but the remainder of the story is nondescript.

"A Birthday Blessing" brings Reverend and Mrs. Collins to Pemberley as overnight guests as they travel to Manchester. Elizabeth goes into early labor, giving birth to their first child Thomas Fitzwilliam Darcy just after midnight on his father's birthday. Louise gives too much information about the Collins marriage.

The final story, "A First Anniversary" has Elizabeth and Darcy each planning a surprise celebration of their first anniversary. Elizabeth's is an intimate candlelit dinner with live music and a painting her husband has long desired. Darcy takes Elizabeth and young Thomas on a surprise visit to nearby Cresselet Manor where they meet the new owners Charles and Jane Bingley, and he alters Pemberley to create a private haven for Elizabeth's enjoyment. A letter from Lydia Wickham reveals that neither she nor her husband has improved. Louise's voice for Lydia is spot-on.

PEMBERLEY CELEBRATIONS: THE FIRST YEAR is pleasant but not memorable. (B-)
 
THE RAGS OF TIME is the sixth book in Peter Grainger's police procedural series featuring Detective Sergeant D. C. Smith of the West Norfolk Constabulary. A widower nearing retirement age, old-school in a high-tech world, he rose to Detective Chief Inspector before requesting a reduction in rank to Detective Sergeant. Haunted by his long-ago undercover service in Military Intelligence in Belfast, recuperating from knee surgery, and uncertain about any future with Jo Evison, Smith considers whether to continue in the police force.

An early-morning jogger found Mark Randall, a metal detectionist with a history of illegal treasure hunting, dead from a massive blow to the head. He lay in a field belonging to the Franciscan friary Abbeyfield House, near the River Lavenze with its trees and wildlife, including a centuries-old badger sett. He'd died where found, but search turned up no murder weapon, thought to be a spade. The case is eleven days old by the time Smith returns to duty, so Detective Inspector Alison Reeve assigns him to fill in background detail while his antagonist of old Detective Sergeant John Wilson pursues the chief suspects, Randall's detectionist cronies. As he potters about, he discovers small bits that do not fit Wilson's theory of the case, leading Smith in an entirely different direction.

The strongest element in this series is its believable cast of characters, individuals of varying temperaments, backgrounds, abilities, and degrees of professionalism, just like real life. Grainger gives enough details of life away from work to lend them verisimilitude. Smith's pondering retirement lends a valedictory tone to THE RAGS OF TIME.

Grainger keeps the focus away from the killer's motive and identity while still providing enough foreshadowing that an experienced reader may discern them ahead of Smith. Frequent allusions to Smith's recent return to Belfast and to his relationship with Jo Evison make familiarity with previous books desirable but not absolutely necessary.

Sense of place is outstanding: "The land was rising a little again as they climbed the next of the gently rolling hills that made up much of the west Norfolk countryside. The road had begun a wide bend to the right, and on that side was a field of rapeseed in full, chrome-yellow flower, so tall they could not see beyond it; on the other, successive acres of wheat, barley, feed beans and sugar beet dropped away in subtly different shades of green. Between the fields there were hedgerows and tall hedgerow trees--oak, ash and maple--that told anyone with an eye to see that this farm was run by people who saw more in the landscape than a profit margin. As they began the decline from the top of the hill, they entered an avenue of cherry trees, not the flowering sort from the Far East but the native Europeans, and some were heavily in fruit."

THE RAGS OF TIME is a well-written entry in a satisfying series. (A-)
 
MORE SPORT FOR OUR NEIGHBOURS: BEING FURTHER EXTRACTS FROM THE COMMONPLACE BOOK OF FRANCIS BENNET, ESQ. OF LONBOURN, IN HERTFORDSHIRE is Ronald McGowan's second continuation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Published in e-book format in 2016, the story features Mr. Bennet as the first person narrator.

When Mr. Bennet suffers a dizzy spell and swoons, his physician diagnoses nervous exhaustion and prescribes a season at the seaside. Because of reduced finances, the Bennets compromise on a visit to Pemberley during which Mr. Bennet will take the cure at the nearby spa of Buxton. Mr. Bennet's treatments last less than a week, his finding both the consumable waters and the Cold Bath not to his liking. A much misaddressed letter summons the family to Newcastle, where Lydia Wickham is expecting the firs grandchild. After a comedy of errors trip, they arrive to discover the Wickhams removed to Sunderland, producing another outrageous journey. By the time the Bennets catch up, young Francis Fitzwilliam Wickham is several weeks old, ready to become the center of the women's universe. Wickham's handling of a French spy in Hartlepool produces a further journey to Shincliffe, thence back to Pemberley.

I dislike several aspects of MORE SPORT FOR OUR NEIGHBOURS. It covers too much ground literally, with the Bennets chasing all around northern England suffering Mr. Bennet's inept travel arrangements. Mrs. Bennet, Mary, and Kitty serve only as objects for Mr. Bennet's constant kvetching about women and marriage. Many of the introductory minor characters are named for individuals from other Austen novels; there's even a stage driver named Joe Magwitch, who's from another canon altogether.

MORE SPORT FOR OUR NEIGHBOURS includes extensive information on coal mining, manufacturing, and the development of transportation in the North of England, but much of it is superfluous. It interrupts the flow and requires new characters that are tangential to the main storyline. There's little sense of direct action since everything is reported as journal entries, thus as observed by Mr. Bennet. There's no effective climax or conclusion; the storyline just fizzles out. Mary Bennet marries Mr. Casaubon in TO MAKE SPORT FOR OUR NEIGHBOURS, but she's unmarried in this sequel.

Editing problems annoy. The Gardiners' name is repeatedly given as "Gardner." Use of apostrophes in plurals and possessives is incorrect. McGowan gives Mr. Bennet a Regency writing style but uses undefined slang and anachronisms.

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

I dislike the massive changes made in characters. McGowan takes Darcy back to aloofness and behavior worse than that of his original visit to Meryton. Mr. Bennet calls him a dry stick and stingy and does not see how Elizabeth abides him. Unbelievably, Darcy accepts Mr. Bennet's condemnation of his intransigence against Wickham and welcomes the Wickhams to Pemberley for a prolonged visit. Elizabeth writes to her father in terms that make Lydia's silliness look dignified. Charles Bingley is so gormless that Mr. Bennet must explain to him the process by which babies are conceived. Even more unbelievably, Wickham is metamorphosed into a loving husband and father, an officer who's determined to build a successful Army career.

McGowan's Mr. Bennet does not improve upon acquaintance. He's more ineffectual in controlling his life, ungrateful for Darcy's generosity, inconsistent in his feeling about Wickham. He reinforces the Wickhams' belief that Darcy is responsible to provide when Wickham must leave the regiment at Newcastle. Mr. Bennet's condemnation of Darcy for owning spinning mills ("Trade" of a particularly obnoxious kind) is hypocritical since, after exposure to the collieries and transportation advances in the North, he resolves to invest in them himself. His carelessness burns a palimpsest of a previously unknown manuscript by the Venerable Bede; his regret is not its destruction of priceless manuscript but that he cannot now receive credit for its discovery. This Mr. Bennet is distasteful.

MORE SPORT FOR OUR NEIGHBOURS has much potential, but I did not find it appealing. (C-)
 
THUNDERSTRUCK is Erik Larson's account of the development by Guglielmo Marconi and others of wireless telegraphy and its role in the arrest of the North London Cellar Murderer Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen. It was published in 2006.

The focus of perhaps two-thirds of THUNDERSTRUCK is Marconi as the trial-and-error inventor of the machinery to transmit electromagnetic impulses over distances through the air. Though he is recognized as the pioneer of radio, Marconi's work was based on the research of other men including Oliver Lodge, William Preece, and John Ambrose Fleming, whose results and influence he used before alienating them. Not only did he want full credit for concept and equipment, but he sought a worldwide commercial monopoly on its use.

Most of the Marconi information deals with his work, detailing step by step the evolution of his ideas, ambition, construction of stations, and corporate development. Paranoid about secrecy and obsessed that competitors would make his discoveries obsolete, Marconi gave scant attention to the feelings of others, whether colleague, employee, or family. An indulged child from a wealthy background, largely unschooled though convinced of his own genius by his doting Irish mother, he demanded a luxurious standard of living, total control, and constant attention.

Hawley Harvey Crippen was his apparent opposite in personality. Born into the leading family of Coldwater, Michigan, Crippen was small, mild-tempered, well-educated (University of Michigan School of Homeopathy; London, including apprenticeship at Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem; Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital; internship Hahnemann Hospital in New York City). When his first wife Charlotte Jane Bell died in 1892, Crippen left his son Otto to be reared by her parents; he soon married Cora Turner, a dominating woman who cherished dreams of a career in grand opera. He had a financially profitable career as a manager and chemist with various patent medicine companies, eventually moving to London. By Larson's account, Cora made the couple's decisions, including the cut and fabric of Crippen's pajamas. Most information on his life comes from public records and newspaper accounts.

Crippen met seventeen-year-old typist and stenographer Ethel Clara Le Neve when both of them were working for the Drouet Institute for the Deaf, whose patent medicines guaranteed cure of deafness. He soon rented a room for their daytime convenience, their affair continuing discreetly for years, though after pregnancy and miscarriage (abortion?) Ethel became increasingly disillusioned with the relationship.

On 15 January 1910, Crippen ordered five grains of hyoscine hydrochromide, a dangerous poison he'd used in patent medicines; on 2 February 1910, he told Ethel that his wife, known as Belle Gilmore in her would-be Variety career, had left him to return to America. Ethel was soon wearing Mrs. Crippen's furs and jewelry and spending nights at the Crippen home. She moved in on 12 March 1910. Friends of Mrs. Crippen, unsatisfied with Crippen's stories of his wife's absence, which now included her death from double pneumonia somewhere unspecified in the mountains of California, went to Superintendent Frank C. Froest, head of Scotland Yard's Murder Squad, who assigned Detective Chief Inspector Walter Dew to look into the situation. At first unconvinced that any crime had been committed, Dew saw inconsistencies in Crippen's account and knew that he must locate the missing woman to clear the case.

On 9 July 1910 Crippen had a clerk buy boys''s clothing for Ethel and, on 11 July, Dew discovered that the lovers had fled. On 13 July, he and Detective Sergeant Arthur Mitchell began digging up the cellar at Number 39 Hilltop Crescent, Kentish Town. They discovered human flesh and viscera, with head, hands, feet, a kidney, and all bones missing. The manhunt began, second only to that for Jack the Ripper (Dew had been one of the detectives discovering the body of his last victim). Acting on information circulated by the police and his own keen power of observation, Captain Henry George Kendall of the SS Montrose concluded that Mr.John Robinson and son John, Jr., were in fact Dr. Crippen and Ethel, en route Antwerp to Quebec City, Canada. He reported them to Scotland Yard by wireless. The remainder of the Crippen case is well known.

Larson is careful with footnotes and bibliography, making verification or further reading easy. His writing style is accessible, and he minimizes confusion in dealing with numerous characters. A 1902 map of London inside the front cover and a map of North Atlantic areas important to Marconi orient the reader. I do have two minor complaints. Larson includes few photographs, with only one each of principals (Marconi, Crippen, Dew, Belle Gilmore) and none of Ethel. After painstaking detail, Larson rushes through Crippen's trial and execution, the decision not to charge Ethel, and Marconi's subsequent career. He mentions but does not discuss Marconi's friendship with Mussolini. Larson excels at popular history. (A)
 
AT PEMBERLEY is an anthology of three short stories by Georgina Pryke, all sequels to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in digital format in 2017.

Two stories are "day in the life" vignettes of the Darcys at Pemberley. The first, "An Evening at Pemberley," has Colonel Fitzwilliam teasing his cousins and Elzabeth Bennet Darcy about all three returning from outings in the grounds of the estate, embarrassed, soaking wet and muddy. Their stories involve an unruly horse, an escaped pig with a taste for wild flower posies and straw bonnets, and the lake made famous by Colin Firth. Silly, but good fun. (A)

The second, "Overheard at Pemberley," is told from the viewpoint of Daisy Tiller, lady's maid to Elizabeth Bennet Darcy. Young for her position and lonely, Daisy eavesdrops on both family and fellow servants but doe not gossip. Her observations produce an agreeable picture of Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage. (A-)

The intent of the third story, "A Stolen Day at Pemberley," remains unclear. IElizabeth Bennet wakes up at Pemberley married to Darcy, the mother of three-year-old twin sons, and pregnant again. The last thing she remembers is her furious refusal of Darcy's proposal at Hunsford. She manages the day without revealing her ignorance of intervening events, discovering and reading Darcy's letter of explanation which she'd preserved but not remembered. When she awakes the following morning, she discovers herself at Hunsford, still Elizabeth Bennet, but it is the second day since Darcy's proposal. She finds Darcy's letter but already knows its contents from having read it at Pemberley. Her feelings toward Darcy have changed, but he has departed Rosings and she does not know if they will meet again. Pryke gives no explanation for Elizabeth's experience, whether time travel, dream, hallucination, or parallel universe. (D)

Characters in the first two stories are faithful to the originals, and Daisy Tiller is pleasantly believable. Pryke's writing style is easy to read but contains anachronistic words and homophones not caught by SpellCheck. Two of the three stories are well worth the time, but the third weakens AT PEMBERLEY. (B)
 
IN THE WILDS OF DERBYSHIRE is Jann Rowland's latest variant based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in digital format in 2017.

Rowland opens IN THE WILDS OF DERBYSHIRE with intriguing changes. Mrs. Bennet succeeds in convincing William Collins that Mary is more suitable to marry than Elizabeth but, at the wedding breakfast, the vindictive Collins warns Elizabeth to marry whomever she can because she will never live at Longbourn after he inherits. Jane, returned to Netherfield after her and Charles Bingley's wedding trip and a month in London, displays disdain toward her whole family, especially Elizabeth, ignoring them and the neighbors whenever possible. Thus in the spring when Mr. Bennet's brother-in-law Mr. Drummond who owns a small estate near Lambton in Derbyshire, writes to request an extended visit from one of the Bennet daughters, Elizabeth goes. She is to remain for several months as friend and mentor to her seventeen-year-old cousin, to help Olivia prepare for her coming out in Derbyshire society. Despite her aunt's disparagement of her brother and his family, Elizabeth enjoys her relatives and her popularity in the area, especially after she meets and befriends the Drummonds' near neighbors Fitzwilliam and Georgiana Darcy of Pemberley. Darcy's manifest interest in the newcomer arouses jealousy and ill-will among local ladies with their own plans for his felicity in marriage; Elizabeth is confused by her aunt's implacable hostility, the estrangement from Jane, and uncertainty about Darcy's intentions.

IN THE WILDS OF DERBYSHIRE is well-written with only a few non-glaring anachronistic words and proofreading errors. Rowland refers to Arthur Teasdale, the Earl of Chesterfield, and neighbor to Darcy, as "Earl Chesterfield" several times. The story reads long, but the action flows smoothly with minimal angst. Lady Catherine and George Wickham play no on-stage parts. It's satisfying that Caroline Bingley finally gets what she deserves.

Characterization is a strong point, with Rowland remaining close to Austen's originals. Darcy, dealing with the aftermath of Ramsgate, misses Bingley's time at Netherfield, so he meets Elizabeth with no preconceptions on either's part. More comfortable on his home ground, he is affable; Elizabeth's spontaneity attracts him, soon overcoming any doubts based on her lack of wealth and connections. Elizabeth is realistic about social expectations for Darcy's marriage, so she guards herself. Important introduced characters--the Drummond family and Lady Emily Teasdale, daughter of the Earl of Chesterfield--are believably dynamic.

The only change of change of character that bothers me is in Jane Bennet Bingley. Austen's original Jane is undemonstrative emotionally, always expecting the best of everyone, but Rowland makes her almost simpleminded in unquestionably following Caroline Bingley's dictates. I don't think much of her.

IN THE WILDS OF DERBYSHIRE is one of the best adaptations of Pride and Prejudice that I have read. Highly recommended. (A)
 
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