I added this book to my TBR pile because it was described as an early example of Gothic Horror combined with psychological realism. The description is spot on. I started reading with the expectation of a spooky little Victorian thriller. What I got was over 600 pages of intrigue, madness, and of course, a love story. The Woman in White is a surprising work of fiction that needs to be made into a PBS miniseries, stat. Though the story is centered around the fortunes […]
A very early American mystery
According to some, Ebenezer Gryce was the first American detective in mystery stories. According to Amazon, this book was published before the Sherlock Holmes stories, and “changed the mystery genre forever.” Horatio Leavenworth is murdered in his home. The prime suspects are his nieces, only one of whom stands to gain from his death. But the clues all seem to be pointing to the niece who doesn’t have any skin in the game, so to speak. Mr. Raymond is a junior partner in the law […]
Phryne Fisher #3
Phryne and Dot, her maid, are traveling to Ballarat via train (no spoilers here, folks). But there’s one problem – there’s a bad smell and everyone in first class is passed out. Luckily, our hero(ine) Phryne stays awake long enough to shoot out a window, alert the engineer, and rescue most of her fellow passengers. Well, except one – the mean old lady who spent the whole time complaining and being nasty to her daughter. They were in the first car, where the chloroform was […]
Phryne Fisher Part Deux
A few months have passed since the conclusion of Cocaine Blues. In the interim, Phryne has been burnishing her reputation as a private investigator in Melbourne. She’s also found a house, and is in the process of moving out of the hotel and settling permanently in Australia. A very high strung lady approaches Phryne with a commission – she thinks her son is going to kill his father, and she wants Phryne to stop it. So Phryne goes off to the son’s flying school (planes […]
The Woman in White
This book is considered to be one of the first mystery and one of the first detective novels ever written. Wilkie Collins was a lawyer, and presented the story the same way that witnesses would present a case in court. Clever. Walter Hartright is walking home one night when he runs into a woman wandering around wearing nothing but white (which apparently was unusual at that time). He helps her on her way, and then finds out later that she had escaped from an asylum. […]
No Marple or Poirot? Is this Agatha Christie?
This book is a little bit different from your average Christie mystery. Instead of our normal English countryside cozy with one of our usual detectives, we have spies in the Middle East. Christie had traveled to Baghdad with one of her husbands, and this is one of the stories inspired by those travels. There’s going to be a big meeting in Baghdad, and it’s supposed to be super secret. But, much like today’s super secret activities, word has gotten out. Bad guys are out to […]