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Readingomnivore Reviews

ARTIFACTS OF DEATH is the first novel in Rich Curtin's series featuring Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera of Moab, in Grand County, Utah. It was published in digital format in 2010.

Curtin's writing style needs work. It's very simple, with chunks of exposition and characterization that impede the flow of the narrative. His material is better suited to a storytelling authorial voice than to a formal one. Proofreading is excellent.

Positives far outnumber my reservations. Sense of place is excellent, with occasional lyrical passages that illuminate character: "Time passed. The longer he sat there in the vast stillness, the less he thought about potsherds. It was as if his mind had subconsciously decided to take a break from its struggles. He began to focus on the natural wonders that surrounded him. Here were ancient sedimentary deposits and volcanic intrusions that had been sculpted and eroded by wind and water and time into a landscape of almost frightening beauty, a huge sky that overwhelmed his sense of self, and clear fresh air that made breathing deeply an enjoyable sensory experience. But most of all, the high desert country had an exquisite silence that Rivera loved. It relaxed him, both physically and mentally. He allowed himself a few minutes to let the tranquility soak in."

Manny Rivera is an attractive protagonist, young, dedicated, professional, with enough details of back story and personality to humanize him. His compassion and recognition of ethical issues raised by following the strict letter of the law make him interestingly complex. Curtin begins a believable cast of Rivera's colleagues and friends on which to base the series. Curtin's bad guys are realistic combinations of good and bad traits, as are we all.

Plot is the strongest element. It is a thriller with (most) motives and criminals known to the reader from the outset, but it's also strongly police procedural as Rivera discovers and follows up the clues through which he solves the murders. The clues are believable, Rivera's thought process logical, action well paced, conclusion well set up, epilogue satisfying.

Curtin dedicates ARTIFACTS OF DEATH to the memory of Tony Hillerman, whose influence is obvious. Curtin is not in the same class as the master, but he shows definite promise. I look forward to the next in the series. (B)
 
A SEASON OF COURTSHIP is the first book in Sharon Lathan's Darcy Saga series of variants on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was issued in digital format in 2014.

Lathan changes little of the original story line, instead developing Elizabeth and Darcy's emotional lives. The action begins a week after Darcy left Netherfield following Bingley's engagement to Jane Bennet; uncertain of Elizabeth's feelings and fearing another rejection, Lady Catherine's rage at Elizabeth's intransigence encourages him to return to Longbourn. He and Elizabeth become engaged the same day. The remaining action is slice of life as the lovers deepen their knowledge of themselves and each other.

The problem with A SEASON OF COURTSHIP is that Elizabeth and Darcy emote over the same memories, doubts, reassurances, and issues until they become tedious. Almost every day between their engagement in October to the Bennet sisters' trip to London for their trousseaus is detailed, few days of which pass without a highly charged scene. A SEASON OF COURTSHIP is an installment in a serial publication since it lacks resolution--when it stops, the wedding is still almost a month in the future. Anachronisms and Americanisms jar in the mostly nineteenth-century literary writing style.

Except for Caroline Bingley's machinations and Lady Catherine's vocal opposition, there's almost no external conflict. The major uncertainty is whether Darcy and Elizabeth will anticipate their wedding vows. Scenes of mutual arousal abound, each more graphic and taking the couple closer to consummation. While there is no doubt in my mind that Jane Austen's couple enjoyed passionate sex, I do not want to be told every time Darcy gets an erection. I especially don't want to be privy to his meditations on whether it's appropriate to masturbate while fantasizing Elizabeth. Mrs. Bennet's "mother-daughter talk" to Jane and Elizabeth, apparently intended for humor, is unnecessary since Elizabeth found, read, and shared Sir William Lucas's cache of books "unsuitable for ladies."

I doubt that I will read further in the series. (D)
 
Margaret Gale's A SINGER IN THE WOODS is another variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in digital format in 2017.

Change from the original novel is minimal. While visiting Charlotte Collins at Hunsford, on an early morning walk in a grove near Rosings, Elizabeth Bennet hears a man singing. To her surprise, it's Fitzwilliam Darcy. The informality of their meeting allows communication that begins to break down their misconceptions. Darcy has taken to heart Elizabeth's rebukes from the Netherfield ball, while she, based on her observations of his subsequent behavior, questions her first impressions of his character. Friendship, then courtship, quickly ensue.

There's little angst and only momentary doubts in A SINGER IN THE WOODS. Lady Catherine, of course, goes ballistic when Darcy refused to marry Anne, and Caroline Bingley does her catty best to cause trouble, but both are dealt with summarily. There's more tension in securing Mr. Bennet's consent to the marriage and in Georgiana's perceiving Elizabeth as a fortune hunter than in either of them.

A SINGER IN THE WOODS corrects all the defects in Austen's original characters. After Darcy's refusal to marry her, Anne de Bourgh uses declares her independence of Lady Catherine and marries Colonel Fitzwilliam, the man she loves. Jane Bennet forgives Bingley but deals firmly with her father and Caroline. Charlotte uses her husband's blind obedience to Lady Catherine to teach him appropriate priorities and her own value. Caroline ends her Darcy delusion and moves on. Even Wickham, not an active character in this version, gets a second chance, when Darcy voluntarily offers him the wherewithal to sail off to Canada and a new life.

A SINGER IN THE WOODS is a cotton candy version of Austen's original. (C)
 
Alyssa Jefferson's WHAT TIME HAS DONE is a variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in free or inexpensive digital format in 2018.

While traveling in the Lake District on holiday, the Gardiners and Elizabeth Bennet are summoned to Longbourn forthwith. Lydia Bennet has brought scandal to her entire family by eloping from Brighton with George Wickham. Mr. Bennet, in London seeking her, dies suddenly of heart problems. He's left no savings, his wife and daughters have the interest on Mrs. Bennet's £5,000 dowry on which to live; even worse, with his wife five months into a difficult pregnancy, Collins demands immediate occupancy at Longbourn. Hysterically blaming Elizabeth for noting doing her duty to marry Collins, Mrs. Bennet disowns her second daughter. The Gardiners have room to accommodate only Jane, who becomes an unpaid governess to their children; Kitty, Mary, and Lydia remain with their mother in a tiny leased house in Meryton; Elizabeth, denied houseroom by both her mother and Aunt Phillips, has literally no place to go. With no other choice, she becomes governess to Charlotte Collins's unborn child at the munificent salary of £30 per annum, £25 of which she gives to her mother and sisters. This she continues for six years, subject to the slights and criticism of her cousin Collins. When he's recalled to parochial duties at Hunsford leading up to the wedding of Anne de Bourgh and her cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam, the Collins family returns to the parsonage, giving Elizabeth and Darcy their second chance.

WHAT TIME HAS DONE is strict limited third person point of view, depressingly centered on Elizabeth's meditations on her changed life and hopeless situation. While no doubt realistic about the life of a penniless gentlewoman reduced to working, the prolonged misery becomes tedious. Elizabeth's generosity in providing financial support for her mother and idle sisters is so saintly she's irritating.

The plot contains improbabilities that irk me. Is it likely that both Charles Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy, some six years after leaving Netherfield, are still single and in love with the older Bennet sisters? Is it realistic that Jane forgives Bingley, whose fiancee died shortly before their wedding, so quickly after he calls on her in Gracechurch Street? Is it reasonable that Lady Catherine, with her obsession about scandal and family honor, in the presence of the Collinses and Elizabeth, accuses Darcy of homosexuality ("living like a wild bachelor, unwilling to have the natural marital relations that a man ought to have")?

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILER~~~

The most objectionable item in WHAT TIME HAS DONE is the change in Colonel Fitzwilliam and Darcy. Austen's originals are honorable men. Jefferson's Colonel Fitzwiliam has paid much attention to Charlotte during the Collinses' annual winter holidays at Bath; when they are found alone in a secluded room at Rosings, both Collins and Lady Catherine assume they are involved in an affair. Collins, because youngest daughter Sophia favors neither himself nor Charlotte, assumes she is Fitzwilliam's biological child. Their secret is more distasteful. Several years before, Fitzwilliam entered a secret engagement with Maria Lucas, almost young enough to be his daughter, whom he saw when she accompanied the Collinses on winter holidays in Bath. Forbidden by his father the Earl to marry the virtually penniless girl whose family comes from trade, he enters a loveless marriage with seriously ill Anne de Bourgh, knowing she is unlikely to live long. When she dies, he will inherit Rosings and her fortune, enabling him to marry Maria Lucas, who's waiting for him. Jefferson attributes this plan to Darcy. Elizabeth ignores Darcy's involvement, but I find the men's scheme repugnant. (B-)
 
COLD POISON is one of Stuart Palmer's famous mystery series featuring Miss Hildegarde Withers, a former New York school teacher turned amateur sleuth, and Inspector Oscar Piper of the NYPD. It was originally published in 1954 and reissued in digital format in 2013.

Miss Withers, retired to Los Angeles, California, for her asthma, is recommended by Inspector Piper to investigate a series of threatening valentines sent to people involved in the production of the Peter Penguin cartoon series. One of her first actions is the discovery of the body of recipient Larry Reed, gifted cartoonist and inveterate practical joker, dead from ingesting a concentrated extract of poison ivy. Since this exotic poison had been used four years before in the unsolved New York murder of dancer Zelda Bard, Inspector Piper shows up to help, just as Jules Karas, studio music director, is also poisoned.

COLD POISON fits well with genre norms at its time of publication. It is plot driven with minimal characterization and the most basic setting. Neither Miss Withers nor Piper, though both have quirks, is realistic; the poodle Talleyrand is as much developed as his mistress. Foreshadowing is heavy handed. Unmasking the killer hinges on a convention in cartoon art not disclosed until the climax. The denouement is rushed with little explanation of the killer's motives. COLD POISON has not withstood the test of time. (C)
 
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND A SHAKESPEAREAN SCHOLAR is Regina Jeffers variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in digital format in 2017.

Thomas Bennet is a renowned authority on the works of William Shakespeare and Sir Francis Bacon, involved in academic controversy to disprove claims that the plays attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon came from the pen of Sir Francis Bacon. He's educated second daughter Elizabeth far beyond conventional levels for women, encouraging her intellectual independence and strength of character. Enter Fitzwilliam Darcy, walking to Netherfield when a carriage horse threw a shoe, who comes upon Elizabeth, barefoot and alone, reading on Oakham Mount; their behavior is Petruchio and Kate, encouraged by Mr. Bennet. When they are found in a compromising situation at the Meryton Assembly, he and Darcy insist on a quick wedding despite Elizabeth's objections. The remainder of the novel focuses on their tangled attempts to move beyond a marriage of convenience into a loving relationship.

Small items annoy me. Darcy's stallion is named Artemis (Greek virgin goddess of the hunt). "Damned" is spelled "demme," while "here, here" is used instead of "Hear, hear" ("listen." "pay attention," used to indicate agreement). A sword is referred to as coming from a kiln. Slang terms jar. many not included in the digital dictionaries. Lydia Bennet again escapes any realistic consequences for her elopement--she's still chaste (sure, I believe that with Wickham what he is), so she happily marries Captain Denny who's been in love with her all along.

How could I possibly NOT adore a story combining my two favorite writers in the whole world--Jane Austen and William Shakespeare? To begin, the Shakespeare element is completely anachronistic, based on modern ideas of the authorship question and Shakespeare's plays as officially sponsored propaganda to bring about social and political change. It bears little resemblance to Regency-period criticism of Shakespeare. Though other plays are quoted, Taming of the Shrew is the major influence. Trouble is, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND A SHAKESPEAREAN SCHOLAR depends more on Franco Zefferelli's 1967 Taming of the Shrew film starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor than on the Bard. Echoes include the fervor with which Mr. Bennet forces Elizabeth to marry a man she despises (Darcy repeatedly refers to him as Baptista Minola), the hayloft scene between Elizabeth and Darcy, and Elizabeth demonstrating her love for Darcy by refurbishing his house. After the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy, the Shakespeare component largely disappears.

~~~SPOILERS~~~

To justify the title, Elizabeth and Darcy need at least initially to reflect Petruchio and Kate. I get that. What I dislike is the extent to which Austen's characters are modified. Elizabeth provokes much of Darcy's outrageous behavior, including the compromising embrace and kiss that force their marriage, then she overreacts. She looks to find fault and blows things out of proportion. Darcy is worse. Despite his internal professions of love and admiration for her spirit, he fails to defend his wife against his aunt's insults, instead forcing Elizabeth to apologize when she defends her family against Lady Catherine's insults. More egregiously, he does not tell Elizabeth his history with George Wickham, then blames her for not knowing why she should avoid the man. He publicly shames Elizabeth with a legal separation that brands her as an adulterer, a situation which Mr. Bennet accepts, telling Elizabeth she's to blame for insufficiently loving and trusting her husband. Elizabeth's forgiveness of both men is too easy and quick to be believable.

I cannot be an objective critic for PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND A SHAKESPEAREAN SCHOLAR. After over twenty years as an English teacher, I am too familiar with both Shakespeare and Austen to like Jeffers's take on either author. No grade.
 
FEBRUARY'S FILES is the second book in Rich Curtin's series set in the Four Corners area around Moab, Utah. Its protagonist is Grand County Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera. It was published in free or inexpensive digital format in 2012.

When the bones of retired investigative journalist February Flanagan are discovered in Labyrinth Canyon, Sheriff Bradshaw hands the case to Manny Rivera along with an injunction to solve the case before negative publicity harms the backcountry tourism on which Moab's economy depends. With a .25-caliber slug recovered from Flanagan's skull the only evidence, Rivera goes back to Flanagan's disappearance some three years before, looking for leads. He discovers an abrupt change in Flanagan's behavior some months before he vanished, apparently connected to some local investigation; this seems confirmed when Rivera finds five hidden files. But how does information on establishing fake identities, types of insurance scams, the Utah Department of Health, a bus crash in 1968 which killed eleven orphans and two adults, and a clipping about a local 2003 wedding lead to Flanagan's death?

I do like this series. Curtin's plotting is good. He weaves seemingly disparate elements into believable unity. He plays fair in showing evidence and Rivera's thought processes as the case evolves, yet he produces a final surprise that makes sense. Curtin's characters include few stereotypes; most, including the villains, are realistically complex. FEBRUARY'S FILES offers new insight to Rivera's boss, Sheriff Leroy Bradshaw, and continues development of other continuing characters. Manny Rivera is appealingly down to earth, professional, empathetic. It's refreshing not to have an angst-ridden, lone wolf antihero.

Curtin's high desert setting determines the action of the plot--the story could not happen elsewhere. He also uses atmosphere effectively in characterization: "As darkness gathered and the night grew longer, Venus appeared as a brilliant solitary spot in the sky. Soon thereafter the stars began to appear, first as a few tiny pinpoints of light. As the minutes ticked by, more and more of them could be seen. The change was imperceptible, but slowly the darkness overhead blossomed into an immense skyscape of stars, constellations, and clusters, with an impossibly bright Milky Way bisecting the entire scene. Rivera scanned the sky and found the Big Dipper. His eyes drew a line upward from the two stars at the far end of the cup and located the North Star. This was something he frequently did, often without conscious thought. It gave him a sense of comfort and reassurance. The universe was intact and everything was still in its place. Things were the way they were supposed to be, regardless of all the man-made craziness of the world."

Readers who enjoy Steven F. Havill's Bill Gastner or Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire should appreciate Manny Rivera. (B+)
 
LOVER'S KNOT is Jenna James's recent variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in digital format in 2018.

While staying at Netherfield to nurse Jane, Elizabeth Bennet discovers the body of young new-hire footman Tom Partridge, stabbed to death. With no motive apparent and Netherfield accessible to intruders, Magistrate Reginald Allwood's investigation discovers that the man was not who he claimed. So who was he, and why had he come into service at Netherfield? A few weeks later, during his visit to Longbourn, William Collins makes himself the center of attention at a well-attended party at the Philipses' home in Meryton; he's found dead the next morning, poisoned during the party. Again, there's no evidence of the killer. Uncle Philips acts suspiciously, George Wickham skulks about, a mysterious Mrs. Clairmont moves to Meryton, and gossip flies. Desperate to protect Elizabeth, Darcy works with Allwood to solve the murders.

Editing issues include the title LOVER'S KNOT. It refers to an unusual knot tying up Partridge's empty leather purse, a knot Darcy associates with Mrs. Reynolds, housekeeper at Pemberley, a factoid of no importance. So why is it included? Word choice often ignores connotations of words; proofreading as well as spell-check is needed. Anachronistic words and practices jar.

Darcy is the first person narrator of LOVER'S KNOT, telling the story in present tense. These authorial choices make for stilted reading. Especially early on, Darcy is a supercilious pompous ass, shown in his frantic scrambled proposal to Elizabeth after Collins's body is discovered. Her reproof generates the letter of explanation and Darcy's unbending enough to participate in the investigation, but his attitude changes little. He continually congratulates himself on putting aside his natural superiority to rescue Elizabeth. I don't much like this Mr. Darcy.

There are holes in the mystery element of the story. There's almost no foreshadowing of the identity of the killer. The motive for the murders of Partridge and Collins is believable once it's revealed, but how the situation basic to the motive came about is never explained. It's unsatisfying to be told simply, "he just did it," when the initial decision doesn't make common sense. Wickham and Mrs. Younge as deus ex machina weakens the story. Too many introduced characters are not essential to the story. LOVER'S KNOT works well neither as a romance nor as a mystery. (C-)
 
WHISPER TO THE BLOOD is the sixteenth book in Dana Stabenow's long-running Kate Shugak mystery series. It was published in digital and print formats in 2009.

Global Harvest Resources, Incorporated, discovers a massive gold and rare minerals deposit at Iqaluk in the Park near Niniltna, where Kate Shugak has been co-opted to serve as leader of the Niniltna Native Association Board until the next general meeting. She's resisted taking tribal leadership for years, but the aunties, four elderly Native women who are the Park's power brokers since the passing of Kate's Emaa, Ekaterina Moonin Shugak, have pressured her into service. First, at the Iqaluk site, someone shoots Mac Devlin, Park Rat forced by his creditors to sell his Nabasna Mine to GHRI for far less than its value. But why was he prowling around the site? Then Alaskan celebrity biathlete Talia Macleod, hired by GHRI to promote the Suulutaq Mine with the Park rats, is also murdered. But why?

Stabenow's evocation of place is outstanding. She uses atmosphere and humor to create a believable, if quirky, community: "Bingley Mercantile was a solid, square building about twenty-five feet on a side, six hundred and twenty-five feet of retail space crammed with shelves, a wall of refers, and a small set of bins for produce. Their stock in trade was Lay's Potato Chips, Cherry Coke, and EPT tests, but they made a praiseworthy attempt to bring in small amounts of oddball--for the Park--items like jasmine rice and tamari almond, these last, after the freight was factored in, worth about the same amount per ounce as the gold Global Harvest would be taking out of Suulutaq. It was clean, well lit, and when the apples got spotty, they threw them out. Park rats really couldn't ask for more than that." Action in Stabenow's stories requires Alaska's unique ambience.

Another reason for success of the Kate Shugak series is the skill with which Stabenow keeps the continuing characters fresh with details of back stories, evolving relationships, and circumstances that generate change. WHISPER TO THE BLOOD furthers the relationship between Jim and Kate, but I most enjoyed its revelation of the Aunties: "A summons before the aunties as something no Park rat could ignore. As each individual case demanded, Auntie Joy would look sorrowful, Auntie Balasha would cry, Auntie Edna would glare, and Auntie Vi would fix the offender with a basilisk stare that, combined with the other three aunties' disapproval, generally reduced the Park rat with even the stiffest spine to a gibbering, knee-knocking wreck, sobbing their contrition and swearing on his or her negligible honor never, ever to do it again. Most of the time it was enough for the offender to slink off beneath the stern admonition to go and sin no more. The aunties were remarkably evenhanded in their dispensation of Park justice, dealing fairly and with very little favoritism with all who came--or were forcibly hauled--before them. Jim Chopin, while taking no official notice of this ad hoc court of civil justice, had been heard to say that the our aunties halved his caseload."

My problem with WHISPER TO THE BLOOD is in its plot. The current mysteries, the murders of Mac Devlin and Talia Macleod, take second place to Kate's settling into her NNA role and to her ongoing relationship with Chopin. Secondary story lines involve a figure from Johnny Morgan's past and a series of strong-arm robberies. Both Chopin and Kate are preoccupied with leftover business from the officially unsolved murder of Louis Deem (A DEEPER SLEEP). The disparate components don't quite jell; the motive for Talia Macleod's murder remains obscure, while the identity and motive of the killers of Devlin and Deem not foreshadowed.

WHISPER TO THE BLOOD is not among the best of the Kate Shugak novels, but its setting and characters make it worth the time. (B-)
 
A SHORT PERIOD OF EXQUISITE FELICITY is A D'Orazio's adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was released in digital format in 2018.

The essential premise of A SHORT PERIOD OF EXQUISITE FELICITY is that in August 1812 when the Gardiners and Elizabeth Bennet visited Derbyshire, Darcy proposed again, and Elizabeth accepted. For nine gloriously happy days, they were engaged. Then the Gardiner party left Lambton abruptly, Elizabeth sending Darcy a brief letter that, without explanation, breaks off their betrothal. The current action begins in October 1813 with Darcy visiting the Bingleys at Netherfield. Jane and Bingley have been married over a year and have young son Thomas, Mr. Bennet is dead, the Collinses occupy Longbourn (where Mrs. Bennet and Kitty also live), Mary is married to Lady Catherine's new vicar, and Lydia and George Wickham live in London with their daughter Emelia. Elizabeth returns to Meryton after more than a year spent living with Mrs. Gardiner's sister in Cheltenham while recovering from a major illness, now come to live permanently with the Bingleys. Thus she and Darcy are thrown together for the first time since their failed engagement. Can they overcome their history to find happiness?

Possibly the most angst-ridden Austen variant that I have read, the plot of A SHORT PERIOD OF EXQUISITE FELICITY may be summed up fairly in 1967's Cool Hand Luke's famous line: "What we've got here is failure to communicate." Darcy doesn't ask, and Elizabeth doesn't tell, her reasons for ending their crelationship; instead, they suffer and regret, agitated by various relatives, some well-intended, some not. After a while, their misery becomes tedious. Foreshadowing is heavy-handed, with coincidences and missed opportunities postponing disclosure of the secret. Flow of the narrative is impeded by extensive flashbacks and love letters quoted in full.

Darcy and Elizabeth in this version are over the top, but their personalities and behavior are rooted in their Austen-created personalities. So are most of the other canonical characters. However, I despise what's done to Colonel Fitzwilliam. I can say no more without doing a spoiler. (C)
 
DEAD ON ARRIVALis the sixth book in Dorothy Simpson's Inspector Thanet police procedural mystery series set in Sturrenden, Kent, England. Originally published in 1986, it was reprinted in 1995 in the Second Inspector Thanet Omnibus. It has apparently not been digitized, but the Omnibus is readily available as an inexpensive used paperback.

Detective Inspector Thanet begins to investigate the murder of mechanic Steve Long minus his longtime assistant Sergeant Mike Lineham, who's seconded to another case in Coddington Woods. Recently separated from his wife, identical twin Steve Long had a gift for alienating people, including his half-brothers Christopher and Frank May, his mother, and his mother-in-law. A year before he'd escaped conviction in a wreck that killed a woman and put her daughter into a coma; on the day Harry Carpenter's daughter was removed from life support, Long's killed. Still trying to win back wife Sharon, Long argues with her current boyfriend Ivor Howells, who threatened him. About the only person with whom he gets along is twin Geoffrey Hunt, who feels guilty because he was adopted by an aunt able to give him a much better life than Steve, who'd suffered violent abuse from his stepfather; Geoffrey makes allowances. But who wanted or needed Steve Long dead?


I enjoy the characters in this series. Simpson provides realistic daily events and problems that make them believable. Thanet and Lineham are pleasingly complex without carrying major emotional baggage; they form a highly successful professional team. Simpson's other major characters are multifaceted, not stereotypes. She's effective in using atmosphere to provide insight into character: "Hamilton Road was a wide, tree-lined street leading down to the river. The houses were huge Victorian redbrick monsters built by prosperous tradesmen in the days when servants were plentiful and labour cheap. They had long ago been converted into flats and their original owners would have been appalled to see the dirty windows, peeling paint, sagging gutters, and overgrown gardens. Tonight the facades were punctuated by uncurtained oblongs of yellow light against which were silhouetted the heads and shoulders of neighbours curious to know what was going on. At least the weather should prevent the usual crowd of ghouls, Thanet thought, with satisfaction." (12)

My problem with DEAD ON ARRIVAL is the improbability of the plot. I do not want to spoil the surprise, but the tight time scale for the murder, the admixture of murders and motives, and the circumstances of the deaths prevent realism. Foreshadowing of an essential element of the solution is heavy-handed. The conclusion seems both contrived and rushed. (B-/C+)
 
LOVE AND LAUGHTER is an anthology of short story variants on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, all written by Lela Eye and Jann Rowland. It was published in digital format in 2016.

Eye's contributions are "The Brother's Admiration," in which Georgiana Darcy at the Netherfield Ball explains to Elizabeth Bennet the reasons for her brother's behavior and his admiration for her; "The Gossip," where Colonel Fittzwilliam at Rosings coaches Darcy through a more acceptable proposal; "The Food of Love," in which Mr. Collins woos Elizabeth with a sonnet comparing her beauty to that of Lady Catherine de Bourgh (with a small assist from Shakespeare and Sonnet 130); "A Mawkish Proposal," when fifteen-year-old Collins is repulsed by ten-year-old Elizabeth with a turtle and a frog; and "A Prince's Ransom," with Darcy as His Royal Highness and Lady Elizabeth Bennett, unaccountably kidnapped by ruffians. All are pleasant but slight, adding little or nothing to the canonical characters. I am whimsy-impaired and frankly fail to get the point of "A Prince's Ransom." Its humor makes "A Mawkish Proposal" my favorite of Eye's stories. (average grade C)

Rowland's stories are significantly stronger. "A Miserable Venture" has young Collins, following his father's death, live at Longbourn, where Elizabeth ends his pilfering of Jane's personal items; "Be Careful What You Wish For" is a what-if dream sequence in which Mrs. Bennet experiences Elizabeth Bennet Collin's return as mistress of Longbourn. "Fate's Intervention" grows out of a scene in the 1995 miniseries in which Lydia slips when entering the coach for Brighton, injures herself, so must stay home. "The Power of Pemberley" shows Caroline Bingley's assuming control of Pemberley, only to be put in her place by the newly-married Darcys; "A Pleasant Assembly" is a reprise on the Meryton assembly where Darcy and Elizabeth meet appropriately and are much impressed. (average grade B)

"Be Careful What You Wish For" is by far my favorite story in the collection. It's good to see Mrs. Bennet for once face some consequences for her selfish and emotionally abusive behavior, even if it only occurs in her nightmare. Brava, Elizabeth Bennet Collins! (A)
 
THE SUNKEN SAILOR is the second book in Patricia Moyes's long-running mystery series featuring Chief Inspector Henry Tibbett of Scotland Yard. Originally published in 1961, it was reissued in digital format in 2018.

Henry and Emmy Tibbett plan a quiet fortnight's holiday with friends Alistair and Rosemary Benson on their boat Ariadne, out of Berrybridge Haven on the East Coast. Meeting up with the Bensons' sailing friends, collectively known as The Fleet, they discover underlying emotional currents as Anne Petrie, nominally engaged to barrister Colin Street, consciously engrosses the men; she even makes a move on Tibbett. Two past Berrybridge incidents interest Tibbett professionally: the unsolved Berry Hall robbery some two years before, when Priscilla Trigg-Willoughby's jewelry was stolen following a Hunt ball, and the death a year before of Pete Rawnsley. With his boat Blue Gull run aground on Steep Hill Sands below Berry Hall, a swinging boom apparently knocked him unconscious, off the boat onto the sands where he drowned in the rising tide, an unfortunate accident. Tibbett, however, sees discrepancies that convince him Rawnsley was murdered. But why? Two more deaths and danger to himself and Emmy ensue before Tibbett identifies the murderer.

I like the sheer normality of Henry and Emmy Tibbett. Middle-aged, happily married, childless, they enjoy each other's company in a quiet, satisfying life. "Although he had always maintained that he was the most unimaginative of men Henry undoubtedly possessed flair. Tiny inconsistencies of fact and more important, of character, mounted up as an investigation proceeded until, taken together, they roused this constantly strengthening certainty of the direction in which truth lay hidden, which Henry had dubbed his 'nose.' But...ever since the previous weekend Henry had known--not the whole truth, but the direction in which to look. No amount of closing his eyes to facts, no amount of drowning his instinct in the pure pleasure of sailing, had been able to quieten the nagging insistence of the truth... He knew now that...he could not let it drop." A forebear of Tom Barnaby in Caroline Graham's Midsomer Murders series, Tibbett is a refreshing contrast to modern-day troubled anti-hero protagonists.

Moyes is skilled with small vignettes of setting that illuminate character: "Ahead of Ariadne, the North Sea stretched dazzlingly to the horizon, the foreground dotted with the dark shapes of the buoys that marked the entrance to the River Berry. In the distance, a low-slung, black oil tanker ploughed solemnly down the coast towards the Thames Estuary, while to starboard the Harwich-Hook steamer made her way out of harbour. The salty breeze was fresh and invigorating. Emmy sat in the cockpit, poring over a chart, and deriving a ridiculous amount of pleasure from identifying the various buoys as they slipped astern in measured, silent procession."

THE SUNKEN SAILOR reads more as a cozy novel than a police procedural, at least in part because, at the time it was written, forensic science had not yet minimized the human element in crime-solving. Moyes plays fair with foreshadowing so that, while she misdirects the reader's attention, the killer's identity and motive are believable. Well done. (A-)
 
WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGES is Wendy Ann Gallant's retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in digital format in 2018.

In a carriage accident which kills Mr. Bennet, Jane suffers facial lacerations that leave her scarred for life, while Elizabeth's broken legs leave her with a permanent limp. With their family broken up and Mr. Collins occupying Longbourn, Jane and Elizabeth go to live with the Gardiners in Gracechurch Street while they struggle with the great changes to their lives and expectations.

Gallant makes some interesting changes in the canon, but WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGES bears little resemblance to Jane Austen. One problem is that disparate elements never coalesce. The Wickham story line is irrelevant to the main problem of the sisters' (and their suitors') adjustments following the accident. Charlotte's end to her engagement to Collins and her subsequent flight from the scandal he creates is extraneous. The scheme to bring Collins down, as well as the Bennets' restoration to Longbourn, is improbable. Darcy is dependent on Colonel Fitzwilliam's advice in courting Elizabeth and dealing with scandal in Meryton. Elizabeth's impaired mobility is not consistent, she requiring a cane to walk yet able to flee kidnapping on foot and later to dance with Darcy.

WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGES is solidly modern in the attitudes and behavior of the characters. Elizabeth finds work in a bookstore, as does Jane; Charlotte becomes an assistant in a bakery; the three young women live together in a room over the shop with no servant or chaperone. Mrs. Bennet is scandalized at their situation, but everyone else merely admires their independence! Elizabeth transforms the shop into a contemporary operation, including improved window displays and reading hours for children, complete with pillows on the floor. Regency, this isn't. (D)
 
Sue Hubbell's memoir of her life as a professional beekeeper in the Missouri Ozarks was originally published in 1999 and reissued in digital format in 2017. It is a Kindle bestseller, deservedly so.

In A COUNTRY YEAR, Hubbell observes herself and nature around her as she pursues an independent lifestyle in which her closest companions are hundreds of thousands of honeybees. She's enthralled by her farm's flora and fauna, observes them closely, and writes lyrical vignettes revealing herself through her love of the land and its denizens: "In truth, I don't mind the wood cockroaches that come in on my firewood. Their digestive system and mine differ enough so that we don't share the same ecological niche; they do me no harm, we are not competing so I can take a long view of them. There is no need to harry them out as a bee would, or to squash them as a housewife would. Instead, I stoop down beside them and take a closer look, examining them carefully. After all, having in my cabin a harmless visitor whose structure evolution has barely touched since Upper Carboniferous days strikes me, a representative of an upstart and tentative experiment in living form, as a highly instructive event. Two hundred and fifty million years, after all, is a very long view indeed."

I enjoy her sense of humor. "As I grew older...I learned that Success [to Grandma Annie] meant more than physical stature. Her grandchildren were to win foundation grants, a Nobel prize each, and the fourth-grade class presidency. I think she had in mind universal acclaim, esteem, admiration and a certificate suitable for framing."

Beautifully done. (solid A)
 
Jennifer Joy's THE INSEPARABLE MR. AND MRS. DARCY is the final volume in her Meryton Mystery series based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in digital format in 2017.

Life is good again in Meryton. Jane and Charles Bingley, along with Charlotte Lucas and Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, are safely wed in a double ceremony; Kitty is married to Captain Denny; Mary is cosseted, living with her Aunt and Uncle Philips and managing his solicitor's office; Lydia is enthralled with King Charles spaniel Chloe; and Elizabeth and Darcy will marry in a month when the Bingleys return from their wedding trip. At the wedding breakfast, Mr. Bennet becomes ill, the latest of several similar occurrences, followed over the next few days by a series of accidents that endanger his life. Darcy and Elizabeth suspect him of malingering to delay their wedding and postpone Elizabeth's departure to Pemberley. But strange things are going on. Can they discover and overcome the problems in time to be wedded as planned?

THE INSEPARABLE MR. AND MRS. DARCY operates reasonably well as both romance and mystery for about two-thirds of the story. Attitudes are more modern than Regenc, but not offensively so. The incidents against Mr. Bennet are minor, though any one of them could have been fatal. There is a logical suspect with a realistic motive. Tension between Elizabeth and Georgiana, jealous of her brother's attention to Elizabeth, is natural. Familial ties deepen between the Darcys and their half-brother in Meryton, Constable Tanner. So far, good, realistic.

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

About two thirds through, Doug Adams's Infinite Improbability Drive kicks in, and THE INSEPARABLE MR. AND MRS. DARCY goes off in all directions. Joy introduces a subplot involving Georgiana in a clandestine correspondence with an unknown man while Lydia plans to make the front page of the London newspapers. Hurst, after frequent unexplained visits to Mr. Bennet at Longbourn, disappears. An utterly unlikely principal sets up a smugglIng operation. Lady Catherine's Nemesis Lord Havisham enacts a cunning plan to protect his son and Anne de Bourgh from her interference. Constable Tanner and Mrs. Annesley may be making a match. All this reads as padding that displaces the mystery.

Only when Inspector Seymour enters the story does Joy begin to explain the main conflict. This involves several problems. For one, there is no organized police force in Regency England, so what is he Inspector of? He's been tracking a killer for a year, a murderer whose identity and whose victim come as a total surprise. Joy has not foreshadowed the conclusion to the mystery, so it feels very contrived. The resolutions of the secondary story lines are summaries only, seeming thrown in to tie up loose ends, regardless of making sense.

THE INSEPARABLE MR. AND MRS. DARCY could be so much better. (C)
 
THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE CUCUMBER TREE is the first book in Susan Wittig Albert's Darling Dahlias series of cozy mysteries set in Darling, Alabama (near Monroeville). For the record, cucumber tree is a common name for Magnolia acuminata, so-called because after flowering, the tree produces fruit that looks like small red cucumbers. It was published in 2010 in traditional and digital formats.

It's spring 1930, and the Darling Garden Club (aka the Darling Dahlias) moves into its new clubhouse bequeathed by Mrs. Dahlia Cartwright Blackstone. Everyone is uneasy because times are hard following the Black Tuesday stock market crash; hobos offering to work for food are increasingly common; there's concern for the future of the Darling Savings and Trust Bank, on which the town depends. Beatty Blackstone, Mrs. Blackstone's nephew by marriage, blusters and threatens to contest the will leaving her estate to the Club. Then two convicts escape from nearby Jericho Prison Farm, one is recaptured but the other disappears. Local good-time girl Bunny Scott goes missing and is found dead in a stolen car, wrecked when it went over a washed-out bridge; only, she'd been shot in the head. The Cartwright ghost is walking and digging in the clubhouse gardens. Trouble at the bank includes $10,000 in missing funds, with cashier Alice Ann Walker, one of the Darling Dahlias, accused of the theft. The Dahlias go into action, led by Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Lacy, president; Ophelia Snow, vice-president and secretary; Verna Tidwell, treasurer; and Myra May Mosswell, who runs the telephone exchange and hears all the calls.

I'd gradually lost my taste for most cozy mysteries, so THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE CUCUMBER TREE is a pleasant surprise. The plot itself is well constructed, disparate elements foreshadowed enough that an experienced reader may well discern its patterns before the Dahlias. The Dahlias are individuals and appealing. My only complaint is the number of characters not essential to carrying the story.

THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE CUCUMBER TREE exceeds its genre through its outstanding evocation of time and place. Details of daily life create authenticity without impeding the flow of the tale. Albert is a storyteller, her prose enhanced by her mastery of the pattern and attitudes of Southern speech: "Mrs. Adcock wanted to let Ophelia know that certain folks in town--she didn't like to name names--were saying that Jed was fooling around with his cousin Ralph's pretty young wife while Ralph was away, working on the railroad. Of course, Mrs. Adcock went on piously to say, she never liked to interfere in other people's private business. But she did think it was her bounded duty to let Ophelia know what was being said. Not that there was necessarily anything in it, ...since even Christians were always going to gossip. No matter what the truth of something was, they'd have it told six ways from Sunday, and there never was any real knowing just what the facts were. Still, she was sure that Ophelia would like to hear about this, 'cause goodness only knew, it was terrible when people you thought were your friends were talking about your husband and his cousin's wife behind your back and you didn't know a thing about it." Darling, Alabama, is fictional, but Albert uses physical locations and descriptions with asides from local history to create the sense of a genuine community.

THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE CUCUMBER TREE is Southern done right. (A)
 
THE BEST OF RELATIONS is Catherine Bilson's novella-length variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in digital format in 2014.

THE BEST OF RELATIONS opens with an exchange of letters between Elizabeth Bennet and her aunt Mrs. Madeline Gardiner. Not only is Fitzwilliam Darcy a friend and a partner in Gardiner Imports, Mrs. Gardiner and her brother are Darcy and Georgiana's only living relatives on the Darcy side; she's sure Elizabeth's dislike of Darcy is based on misunderstanding. When Elizabeth mentions George Wickham's presence in Meryton, Mrs. Gardiner rushes to Longbourn to expose his character to Mr. Bennet and Elizabeth. Her common sense helps smooth the way to suitable husbands for the older three Bennet sisters and influences Mrs. Bennet to more appropriate training for the younger two.

This retelling is low-angst, a version which eliminates most conflict. With her aunt's firsthand knowledge of both Wickham and Darcy's characters, Elizabeth's feelings toward both change rapidly; with his cousin's correction for his arrogance, as well as Elizabeth's willing support, Darcy quickly modifies his demeanor and social behavior. Darcy deals with Wickham and Lady Catherine so expeditiously that neither becomes a problem; he routs Collins and his pretensions from the Netherfield ball. Caroline Bingley fumes but is ignored. Since there's no opposition, events move rapidly, the women's correspondence beginning 4 November 1811; the courtships culminate with the triple wedding of the eldest Bennet sisters the week after Christmas. An exchange three months later provides a brief epilogue. There's little sense of direct action, events more summarized than shown.

Characters are logical extensions of Austen's originals. A more appealing Mrs. Bennet comprehends the need and then implements the changes needed in Kitty and Lydia's socialization. In the most satisfying scene in THE BEST OF RELATIONS, Mrs. Bennet confines Lydia to the nursery, where she's guarded by Mrs. Hill with a switch and instructions to use it on her youngest daughter's bottom if she misbehaves. Good onya', Mrs. Bennet! (A-)
 
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