The Orchid Hour by Nancy Bilyeau is a historical mystery set in the 1920s.
After the death of her husband, Zia De Luca lives a quiet life working in the public library and her in-laws store as she raises her son. But when a regular patron is murdered outside the library, Zia is questioned by the police. Shortly after, someone comes into the store to question Zia and then her father-in-law is murdered in his store. A man is arrested but Zia is positive Nettuno is not guilty.
Zia realizes that to find the answers, she will have to investigate herself. Through a connection with her cousin Salvatore, and using her maiden name to hide her identity, she goes to work for an upscale speakeasy called The Orchid Hour. Will she find the murderer of the library patron and her father-in-law before the mobsters find out who she really is?
I really enjoyed this well written historical mystery. My own complaint is that the ending is wrapped up very quickly. But the characters are fascinating and the mystery gives a very good picture of the Italians in New York in the Twenties. Recommended.
Now that the holidays are over, it is time to get back into the routine.
Over my week off, I read three books by Larry Niven and Stephen Barnes. Although classed as science fiction, they are also murder mysteries.
The first in the series is Dream Park.
Dream Park is a gamers’ paradise, a giant park with live games involving holograms, as well as actors, and puzzles. A group of gamers is just beginning the South Seas Treasure game when in the surrounding tunnels a security officer is found dead, murdered. A valuable chemical scent is missing. Alex Griffin, the head of Dream Park Security, enters the game to find the murderer. He becomes enmeshed in the group and is soon involved in the game.
The New Guinea setting, the zombies, and the myths surrounding them are absolutely captivating. I would so want to participate in such a game.
The Barsoom Project is the second in the series.
This entry begins with a bang. This game is set in an Inuit village and the gamers are menaced by a monster from the sea. Eviane shoots at the members of the Cabal, the group controlling the monster. To her surprise, instead of a flash of red signifying a kill shot, the man’s head explodes.
Eviane has been given a rifle with live ammunition and kills two men very very dead. Now, after a stint in a mental hospital, she is back in dream park to lay her demons to rest. She is participating in a Fat Ripper special. (the participants are trying so hard to stay alive that they barely eat.) Eviane hopes she will remember the events surrounding the deaths but someone is determined to prevent that. It is up to the Griffin to solve the mystery.
The third in the series is the California Voodoo Game.
The new game will be held in a damaged building left over from the big California quake. Before the game begins, Alex Griffin’s new love is discovered murdered. Not long after, it is discovered that someone is trying to throw the game. Why? What is their end goal?
Furious and grieving, Griffin enters the game as a guide, a NPC (a non-playing character) to find the truth as the gamers battle monsters and zombies rising from their graves.
This entry was a bit darker than the first two but the adventure was just as riveting.
This mystery features Jemima Pitt, daughter of Thomas and Charlotte. Jemima is hired to accompany Delphinia Cardew, a very wealthy young woman, on her journey across the Atlantic. Jemima and Phinnie are taken in to the Albright home (Phinnie is engaged to marry Brent Albright). But there is concern that Phinnie’s mother, Maria, will reappear and cause a scene at the ‘wedding of the year.’ But the discovery of a woman’s body by Jemima means she is suspected of murdering Phinnie’s mother.
If I were scoring this book, I would assign a B. It includes Perry’s characteristic characterization BUT it is much too short. I felt as if swaths of plot and character reaction were left out.
Enjoyable but not one of Perry’s best.
I also read Mistletoe, Mutts, and Murder by S.A Kazlo.
It is Christmas time and Sam’s parents are arriving for a holiday visit. Her father has always had an antagonistic relationship with Theo Sayers, the man who lives across the street. He blasts Christmas music loudly (to annoy his neighbors?) and his decorations floor the neighborhood with light. When he is found strangled in his snowy front yard Sam’s father, and his best friend are instant suspects. Although Hank, the town’s police chief and Sam’s significant other, tells her not to investigate, she and her cousin Candie, question Theo’s wife Rosa and his boss at the mall. Theo was a mall Santa. As Candie and Sam go forward, they discover quite a few people had reason to murder Theo Sayers.
Very light but a quick fun read, appropriate for the season.
Like several other of the Greek Gods we are familiar with, Aphrodite’s origins are much earlier than Classical Greece.
There are two myths about her birth. One is a fairly standard one in which Zeus was her father and Dione, a sea nymph, her father. The other is much darker. Gaia, the earth goddess, married her own son Uranus. This was a loveless marriage. He hated their children (the Titans and the Cyclops among others) and trapped them under Gaia’s belly in the earth. Gaia persuaded another of her sons, Cronus, to help her. He did so by castrating his brother. (I told you it was dark.) His male parts fell into the sea and drifted east from the island Cyprus. From the foaming mess arose Aphrodite.
The historical past of this Goddess is more prosaic. Fertility Goddesses were common in the Bronze Age Middle East. These Goddesses went by various names: Inanna, Ishtar and Astarte. (One theory of Aphrodite’s name is that it is a corruption of Asteroth.) All of these Goddesses inhabited the sky in the form of a star – actually the planet we still call Venus.
The Pomegranate is her fruit and birds are sacred to her. I want to point out that Birds were also sacred to the Supreme Goddess in Crete. In the beginning of the third Crete mystery, (coming soon), Martis participates in a ritualistic bird dance honoring the Goddess.
Another interesting point. Aphrodite was not only the Goddess of romantic and carnal love, but also of the lust for battle and conquest.
The cult of Aphrodite spread throughout the Mediterranean, with its center in Cyprus. (Supposedly her birth place.) Aphrodite is also associated with copper – which is mined on Cyprus.
The first is by Victoria Thompson. She previously wrote the Gaslight mysteries. City of Lies is roughly the same period but very different.
Elizabeth is a grifter, a con woman, now going by the name Betty Perkins. When the current con. goes badly, she has to run for her life. Chased by two heavies, she takes refuge in a protest by a band of suffragists. They are quickly arrested and Elizabeth finds herself in a workhouse in Virginia. All of the woman embark on a hunger strike, including Elizabeth. She is greatly changed by her experience and her growing connection to Mrs. Bates and another young woman.
But the mark is still waiting for her to appear so that he can wreak his vengeance.
Highly Recommended.
The second book is a collection of short stories by Elly Griffiths.
The stories include some with Ruth Galloway and Max Mephisto, but others are cozies and a few are barely mysteries at all. But they are all captivating and show Griffiths is a master of the short story as well as the novel. Highly recommended.
This week I read two books by members of my writing group – the Mavens of Mayhem.
A Wedding Gone to the Dogs is the fourth in Kazlo’s cozy Samantha Davies series. In this outing, Samantha and her cousin Candie are preparing for Candie’s wedding. Of course, nothing goes smoothly. One of Candie’s previous suitors has photos of her – and those photos might disrupt her relationship. More concerning, a dead man is found in Candie’s house and it looks suspiciously as though she has murdered him. Samantha is convinced her cousin could not be involved and investigates.
Frothy and fun.
The second mystery could not be more different. Autumn Embers by Tina De Bellegarde is a more traditional mystery.
While Sheriff Mike is worried about his upcoming election (and is already upset over his separation from his wife, Bianca is heading to Kyoto, Japan to visit her son. A murder, witnessed by Bianca, upsets everything. J.C. was universally disliked so there are many suspects, including Bianca’s son Ian. In a foreign country with none of her usual supports, Bianca calls Mike for help. He runs background checks on some of the other expats and gradually Bianca unravels the mystery.
De Bellegarde’s admiration and affection for Japan shine thorough out this beautifully written mystery. It really inspires me to visit Japan myself. Highly Recommended.
Tragedy’s Twin is the second Carrie Lisbon mystery by Chris Keeper. (After No Comfort for the Undertaker.)
In this outing, Carrie and her Uncle have left Hope Bridge to visit a relative in Duncan, New York. Carrie has an ulterior motive; Sheriff Del Morgan is also in Duncan. Despite their vow to forget about their impulsive one night stand, Carrie can’t resist her attraction to the Sheriff.
Unexpectedly, Carrie is called to the local poorhouse to tend to one of the women there. She is supposed to have fallen from a window, but Carrie immediately notes the scratches on Abbie’s arms and hands. The fact that the poorhouse windows only open eight inches convince Carrie something about the death is wrong. Enter the Sheriff who agrees and the two are involved in another case, one in which Carrie is almost murdered.
This mystery has everything. Intriguing characters, a fascinating setting, a great story and excellent writing. The Carrie Lisbon series deserves a wide readership.
The third of Amy Myer’s cozies, Marsh and Daughter’s murder mysteries, Murder in Hell’s Corner, finds Georgia and her father investigating the murder of Patrick Fairfax, a revered WWII pilot.
As Georgia and Peter investigate, especially looking into a close knit group of pilots who knew Fairfax, they realize that he was not as universally admired as his family believed.
Was the murderer one of his many women? Or one of the other pilots? Or his business partner? The solution, and the twist at the end, is surprising.
What I found captivating, though, was the descriptions of WWII. The relentless bombing by the Germans, the loss of friends and comrades that occurred almost hourly, the sheer scale of a war pounding at this small country. Like Foyle’s War, it is a reminder that England was almost destroyed and was metaphorically hanging by its fingernails.
On a Bookbub recommendation, I bought the set of Marsh and Daughter mysteries by Amy Marsh.
So far, I have read the first two and begun the third.
Georgia and her father, a retired police detective, research cold cases. Anything that piques their curiosity – a little bit of supernatural here – and then write books solving the mystery.
In the first one, The Wickenham Murders, a young gardener Davy Todd is accused of murdering Ada Proctor, the Doctor’s daughter. But so many parts of the story don’t make sense. The villagers don’t want the Marshs poking around but there is that strange music indicating someone doesn’t believe Davy was guilty. Then Georgia discovers Davy’s old sweetheart, still alive, and convinced of his innocence.
In the second book, Murder in Friday Street, a rock musician, Fanny Star, is murdered when she returns to the village to give a concert. Although her partner is accused of the crime, serves time and is murdered almost immediately upon his release, Georgia and her father don’t believe he was the guilty party. Suspects abound but the investigation into ‘the gang’, the friends of Fanny when they were kids, leads to the solution.
These are darker than Agatha Christie but, like her mysteries, show that murders happen even in cozy villages.
I’ve been a big fan of Victoria Thompson for many years. Murder on Madison Avenue is book 25 in her popular Gaslight Mysteries.
Malloy is approached by a distraught Mrs. Bing who wants a divorce from her husband but won’t explain why. Mr. Bing is the owner of a automobile company, an EV too – a really interesting part of the book. Curious, Malloy and Sarah attend the car show to get a read on Mr. Bing.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Bing is found murdered, run over by on of his very own cars.
To complicate matters, Bing’s first wife, who he abandoned but never divorced, shows up. Her story is that when Bing abandoned her, he also took their daughter Pearl, and Nora Bing wants her back.
Now, hired by the second Mrs. Bing to discover the murderer, Malloy and Sarah investigate.
As always, the characters and the setting are fascinating. I knew what was going on, though, from very early in the book. I suspect most modern readers would. But I did not guess the identity of the murderer. B+. Recommended.
