There’s something comforting and familiar when I pick up one from my collection of affable British people bumbling into murders mystery books. I know basically what I’m in for and it’s like cuddling up in your favorite blanket. I know I’m not in for any life changing epiphanies or revelations, but at least for one afternoon, I get to visit an England where everyone is proper and has a much higher than average chance of being murdered in a terrifically bizarre and baffling way. This […]
Noncanonical Miss Fisher Mysteries Crossover
That is, if Phryne Fisher would ever let herself be murdered or stay in her grave long enough for someone else to solve her murder. Nevertheless, our murder victim in Many Deadly Returns, eccentric, elderly Lady Crystal certainly would have Charleston’ed her way into Miss Fisher friendship back in the day. It’s the 60’s now and Lady Crystal’s friends have all grown up and become respectable members of society. But they still have a special place in their hearts for her and when she calls saying […]
Begging to be on the BBC
If Chief Inspector Barnaby can have his own TV series, that continues even after he left the show, then I see now reason Henry Tibbett couldn’t have his own series set in the 50’s-60’s. Or at least have just this book filmed. Mark Gatiss needs to add playing another weird eccentric to his resume. The book revolves around the kooky Manciple family, even though none of them are the murdered party. The victim is Raymond Mason, nouveau riche in the village who has his eyes […]
That Cover Artist is Getting Lazy
He or she just painted the skull on the plane this time! Where’s the nuance in that? It’s no Grim Reaper on a ski lift, I can tell you that. A skull in the clouds would’ve been more imaginative. In all of the Henry Tibbett books I’ve read so far, his wife, Emmy, seems to usually be a prop for him to take on vacation or call occasionally, saying he’s going to be late so keep the roast warm because what else could she possibly be […]
A Change of Pace for a Formulaic Genre
Unfortunately, not like my previous review of Dead Men Don’t Ski, there were not a lot of wonderfully on-the-nose covers of this book to choose from. The one from Amazon is the same as my copy, which is lacking in over the top death melodrama. (Although this is the first time [out of all of two books of hers I read] that a big clue was printed on the cover.) Another first is the narration perspective. Instead of following Detective Harry Tibbett on his investigations, […]
There’s Actually a Lot of Things Dead Men Don’t Do
I really didn’t think anything would top my cover of Dead Men Don’t Ski – as a lone skier ascends a mountain on a ski lift, the rocks below form a skull. I have a handful of Moyes books, no idea where they came from, and they all find a way of inserting a skull into the picture, as subtly as a rhino crashing through your living room. But the covers on Amazon are all gems. Like the one on the left, with the Grim […]