Readingomnivore Reviews

THE CHELTENHAM SQUARE MURDER is one of Ernest Carpenter Elmore's Superintendent Meredith series from the Golden Age of Murder written under his John Bude pseudonym. Originally published in 1937, it was reissued in 2017 in print and digital formats.

The murder of Captain Mark Cotton, shot in the head with an arrow, reveals outwardly serene, upscale Regency Square in Cheltenham seething with ill-will. At least five of the Square's residents are members of the Wellington Archery Club, and several had motives. On leave from the Sussex County Constabulary at Lewes and staying at #8 Regency Square to collaborate with detective story writer and friend Aldous Barnet, Superintendent Meredith takes the case along with Inspector Long of the Cheltenham force. Investigation reveals fraud, adultery, blackmail, gambling, and revenge as motives, but those with motives seem to have no opportunity to commit the murder, and those with opportunity have no motive. Then Edward Buller, in whose study Cotton had been killed, dies in the same way. What is going on?

THE CHELTENHAM SQUARE MURDER is typical for its age. Residents of Regency Square are the best developed of its characters, though they are stereotypes--dithery spinster sisters, aloof aristocratic couple, busy doctor, gossipy vicar and downtrodden sister, respectable bank manager and flighty wife, retired stock broker, professional man losing his money and his wife, a man of questionable background. There's little development of Meredith or Long; neither have first names.

The plot is repetitious. Meredith and Long form a theory of the crime, then charge about after evidence against their current candidate to discover that he or she could not be guilty. Start over with another suspect. The solution finally comes down to a process of elimination. Repeated recounting of "who shot whom from where" becomes tedious. Several major real-world holes seem evident in the plot even by the standards of 1930s police investigation. The police allow Dr. Pratt, a suspect, to be first examiner on each of the bodies, and they accept his conclusions on timing and cause of death. No autopsy is performed on either body; Buller's later exhumation confirms the arrest but is not part of the solution of the case. Neither crime scene is promptly or properly searched, neither preserved intact, only the first photographed. Background checks on suspects and victims are delayed or only partially complete. Meredith and Long make no attempt to trace the highly original weapon--a socketed longbow that breaks down for easy concealment, available but rarely used in England.

I am not impressed with THE CHELTENHAM SQUARE MURDER. (C)

CHANCE ENCOUNTERS is Anne-Marie Grace's 2018 variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It is available in free or inexpensive digital format.

When she joins Jane to visit the Gardiners, Elizabeth Bennet speaks with a pleasant young woman over a volume of poetry in a London bookstore; she's surprised when Fitzwilliam Darcy, accompanying his sister, introduces Georgiana. Following his inept proposal, her wrathful rejection, and his letter of explanation, Elizabeth's opinion of Darcy has improved, though she has not forgiven his interference between Charles Bingley and Jane. Urged on by Georgiana's enthusiasm, both confused about their feelings, Darcy and Elizabeth spend time in company tentatively establishing a relationship. However, before Darcy can bring about a reunion for Jane and Bingley, Mr. Bennet recalls his daughters to Longbourn to tend Lydia's severe pneumonia and Mrs. Bennet's nerves. Will another chance encounter bring the couples together?

I like this adaptation. Most of Grace's characters are faithful to the original, their development a logical progression. Both Darcy and Elizabeth experience regrets and correct their mistaken ideas, but angst is minimal. Grace softens Mrs. Bennet's outrageous behavior somewhat and makes Mr. Bennet more loving toward all his daughters. She omits canonical characters not needed in the modified story line and adds no new ones.

The plot, as expected from the title, involves a series of chance meetings that allow each protagonist to demonstrate to the other changed new feelings and behavior. Revised events are believable, though two small problems bother me. Georgiana knows nothing about Darcy's alleged engagement to Anne de Bourgh, so her reference to Darcy and Elizabeth brings Lady Catherine down on Longbourn. How likely is it that Georgiana would not know this common family gossip? The other is, as usual, Lydia's escaping the consequences of her folly with a slap on the wrist.

Two other quibbles. One is an anachronism--Grace has Elizabeth paraphrase the famous "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world..." line from Casablanca (1942). The second is Don Figaro as the opera to which Darcy invites the Gardiners and their guests. I assume the reference is to one of two operas by Mozart, either The Marriage of Figaro (1784) or Don Giovanni (1787).

CHANCE ENCOUNTERS is definitely a keeper. (A)

CLOSE HER EYES is the fourth book in Dorothy Simpson's long-running series. Originally published in 1984, it was reprinted in 1995 in THE SECOND INSPECTOR THANET OMNIBUS. The OMNIBUS has not been digitized, but it is readily available in inexpensive secondhand print format.

Only a short time elapses on Spring Bank Holiday Monday evening between Nathaniel Pritchard's reporting his daughter Charity missing and Inspector Luke Thanet's finding her body. She'd left Friday morning for the weekend at a Dorset church camp, her parents had been called out of town for a death in the family, and she'd not been missed until her father's return home. She'd arrived back in Sturrenden as scheduled, then died shortly from a contre-coup brain injury, knocked into the broken latch on a garden gate along the footpath to her home. The Pritchards are members of the ultra-conservative Children of Jerusalem; fifteen-year-old Charity is described as an ideal child. So where has she been and what has she been doing over the long weekend?

Simpson plays fair in providing appropriate foreshadowing of the killer's identity and motive and disclosing relevant information as it is uncovered. This makes for a believable, if somewhat surprising, 1984 conclusion. The motif has since increasingly entered both life and crime fiction.

Inspector Luke Thanet and Sergeant Mike Lineham are an interesting pair, friends as well as professional colleagues, with enough details of family and personal lives to make them believable. Characterization for other major figures in COVER HER EYES is well developed, especially of Charity, Nathaniel, and Hannah Pritchard.

Simpson is good at revealing character through details of setting. "People's homes, Thanet believed, were highly revealing. A man's sitting room is an expression of his personality--his choice of colour and patterns, his furniture, his objets d'art, his books, his records, all are evidence are not only of his tastes but of his attitudes and habits. What he saw here appalled him. Apart from a three-piece suite upholstered in slippery brown rexine and a heavy upright piano standing against one wall, the room was bare of furniture. The only ornament was a wooden clock placed dead in the centre of the mantelpiece, the only concession to comfort a small beige rug in front o the empty Victorian basket grate, the only wall decoration a religious text in a narrow black frame. Thou, God, Seest Me, it proclaimed in curly black letters on a white ground. Thanet shivered. It was as if he had been vouchsafed a glimpse of the poverty of Pritchard's soul, of the bare rigidity of his outlook." (21)

COVER HER EYES is sold. (A-)

"A Tender Moment" is a short story variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Witten by P. O. Dixon, it is the prequel to IRREVOCABLY GONE presented with the novel in a digital edition published in 2018.

Quite brief, "A Tender Moment" narrates the confrontation between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy when she condemns his derogatory comment about her mother's wit. Despite her dislike, she's physically attracted to Darcy, while he, despite his belief in her unsuitability to wive, desires her. As the evening progresses, he expresses contrition, and she agrees for him to call on her at Longbourn.

"A Tender Moment" changes little from the canon, simply ending the willful misunderstanding between the protagonists earlier. Elizabeth is more openly challenging while Darcy is quicker to acknowledge his faults. Otherwise, nothing at all new. Pleasant, but what's the point? (B)

IRREVOCABLY GONE is the sequel to P. O. Dixon's short story "A Tender Moment," both variants on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. They are bundled in a free or inexpensive digital edition published in 2018.

Told by Caroline Bingley that Elizabeth Bennet is to marry William Collins and secure her family's future at Longbourn, Fitzwilliam Darcy leaves Netherfield the morning after the ball despite the relationship that has grown between them. Elizabeth is confused by Darcy's unannounced departure and, ignorant of George Wickham's past and flattered by his attentions, considers accepting the lieutenant's proposal. She goes to Hunsford knowing that Darcy visits Rosings at Easter, hoping to meet him and discover his intentions toward her.

Minor problems include who's the chaperone on Darcy and Elizabeth's walk to Oakham Mount. Mrs. Bennet tells Mary to accompany them, but the next paragraph identifies Jane. Word choice is not always felicitous. "Severe alacrity" is almost an oxymoron. Darcy and Elizabeth schedule a dawn meeting reminiscent of the 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

. ~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

IRREVOCABLY GONE is at once too much and not enough. Lady Catherine de Bourgh has paid servants at Netherfield to spy on Darcy, she orders Collins to marry Elizabeth, she authorizes a minion Thomas Teller to bribe George Wickham to marry Elizabeth "by whatever means," she lies to Darcy that Elizabeth is engaged to Wickham. All this foreshadows great dramatic fireworks when Darcy discovers his aunt's machinations, but he never finds out! Likewise, Caroline Bingley lies about Elizabeth and Collins to Darcy; she lies to Jane's face about her brother's relationship with Georgiana Darcy, saying he knew and ignored Jane's presence in London. Charles Bingley learns but does nothing about Caroline's duplicity. Neither woman has the "coming to Jesus" experience she so richly deserves. Wickham's foiled attempt on Lydia to exact revenge on Elizabeth and Darcy is mentioned without details. External conflict is minimal, considering the buildup.

Internal conflict, Darcy and Elizabeth's reservations about the likelihood of marriage though each is certain of feelings for the other, forms the core of the plot. Both are believably drawn from Austen's originals. Others are only slightly changed. Charlotte Lucas reveals herself as a skilled manipulator as she engineers her engagement to Collins. Jane actively seeks a meeting with Bingley and, when she faces him, makes clear Caroline's double-dealing. Thomas Teller is the only introduced character.

IRREVOCABLY GONE has nothing major wrong with it. It's just bland with little dramatic action to engage the reader. (B)

Laura Thompson's A DIFFERENT CLASS OF MURDER recounts the murder and inquest in which Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl or Lucan, 13th Baronet Bingham of Castleban (Co. Mayo), 3rd Baron Bingham of Melcombe Bingham, and baronet of Nova Scotia, was named as the killer of his children's nanny Sandra Rivett. Originally published in 2014, it was revised, enlarged, and reissued in digital format in 2018.

I assign no grade to A DIFFERENT CLASS OF MURDER because I have skipped about in reading it and formed no conclusion as to its accuracy. Notes are general, and there is no separate bibliography. A list of characters, a time line, and a diagram showing of the area around 46 Lower Belgrave Street would be helpful.

As implied by the title, Thompson views the murder and Lucan's subsequent disappearance through the lens of class animosity in Great Britain in the 1970s. She sees Lucan as the victim in an investigation that looked no further than the statement of his estranged wife Veronica, facilitated by media coverage portraying him as the epitome of the arrogant, privileged aristocrat. She, however, goes to the other extreme, highlighting or glossing every discrepancy depending on its denial or support of Lucan's guilt. Lucan receives the benefit of every doubt. She discounts stories of Lucan's friends organizing his escape and supporting him abroad, concluding instead that he committed suicide soon after the murder.

If you want an objective account of the Lucan mystery, look elsewhere.

FAIR STANDS THE WIND is Catherine Lodge's variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in digital format in 2017.

In FAIR STANDS THE WIND, Fitzwilliam Darcy is the second son of the Pemberley Darcys, sent to sea at nine years old, the half-brother to Georgiana Darcy. Captain of HMS Achilles of the Royal Navy, he's a decorated hero who's earned a fortune from prize money; he's recovering from a head injury with his friend Charles Biingley when he attends the assembly at Netherfield. He dances only two dances and leaves early but does not offend Elizabeth Bennet. She's too preoccupied to pay him much attention. Mr. Bennet is ill with pneumonia contracted following a summer cold. His prognosis is guarded at best, and Mrs. Bennet exerts every possible pressure for Jane and Elizabeth to marry somebody, anybody, forthwith. When Collins arrives on the scene, Mr. Bennet regrets but asks that Elizabeth marry him to save her family; she does not promise, though she knows she has no realistic alternative. Or does she? Darcy must rescue Georgiana and her mother from Pemberley and, to improve his position in gaining custody, offers Elizabeth a marriage of convenience. Though neither is in love, they marry but do not consummate their marriage before Darcy must return to sea on a secret mission. He's gone for months, his brother tries to regain control of Georgiana and her £20,000, and Elizabeth must cope.

This may be the best Jane Austen fan fiction I've read. Ever. The major characters are faithful to the originals. Point of view is limited third person through Elizabeth, so most characterization comes through her thoughts and feelings about herself and about Darcy's observed actions and attitudes. Both are appealing personalities. Lodge introduces no extraneous characters; newcomers, mostly ex-Navy men who'd served under Darcy and his dastardly older brother George Darcy, have secondary but crucial roles. As Darcy and Elizabeth correspond in his absence, their love develops believably, and events in their lives require no suspension of disbelief. Editing is first-rate.

While it in no way detracts from my enjoyment of FAIR STANDS THE WIND, the Darcy-Elizabeth reunion at Portsmouth is a reprise of Jane Eyre-Mr. Rochester after the fire at Thornfield Hall.

Recommended whole-heartedly. (solid A)

A GRAVE DENIED is the thirteenth book in Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak mystery series. It was published in 2003.

On a school field trip, Kate's foster son Johnny Morgan finds a corpse exposed by spring melt on the Grant Glacier. The man, shot in the chest with a shotgun, is Len Dreyer, handyman about the Park for years, competent and hard-working, but about whom nothing is known. Alaska State Trooper "Chopper Jim" Chopin, busy with several other cases and the upcoming move to the new station being built at Niniltna, hires Kate as a consultant on the Dreyer case. She finds Dreyer's cabin burned sometime the previous fall, and her questioning Park rats for whom he'd worked leads to someone torching her own cabin at a time she and Johnny should have been inside, asleep. Chopin tries to call Kate and local Daniel ("Dandy") Mike, who sees solving the case as his guarantee of a job at the Trooper post, off the case, without success. Dandy is killed, and Kate and Mutt nearly so, before the deaths are explained.

There are three story lines in A GRAVE DENIED. One is the mystery of the life and death of Len Dreyer, in which Stabenow keeps readers' attention focused away from the killer's motive so thoroughly that the conclusion feels deus ex machina. The second is Jane Morgan's continued campaign to recover Johnny from Kate's care. Kate forces Jane into a cease fire, though is no sense that the war is over. The third is the relationship progressing between Chopin and Kate. Stabenow is skilled at balancing personal life with the mystery to create the sense of real people whose lives continue outside the confines of the story.

Stabenow keeps the characters fresh by focusing on a few of the Park rats, revealing back stories that explain who and what they are. In A GRAVE DENIED, Bobby Clark's older brother comes to take him home to make peace with their dying father who'd cast a teen-aged Bobby off years before. Stabenow uses Bobby and Johnny's situation with parents and Kate's complex relationship with her grandmother Emaa to explore what constitutes family.

I particularly like Stabenow's use of details of setting to lead into revelation of character. "A trail...led to a rock perched at the top of the steep path. The patch climbed down to the creek below and the swimming hole the creek had carved in the bank. The rock was an erratic dumped there by some itinerant glacier and instead of putting it into orbit with a stick of dynamite, her father had left it where it was, a four-by-six-by-eight-foot misshapen lump of weathered granite. It was streaked here and there with the odd vein of white, glittering quartz that sparkled when the sun got high enough in the sky. The top of the rock was worn smooth from three generations of Shugak butts, into which Kate's fit comfortably. Due to a judicious thinning of trees and the precipitous nature of the cliff, the sun made a comfortable pool of golden warmth in which to sit and contemplate one's navel, a pastime to which Kate was addicted." (23)

A GRAVE DENIED maintains the strength of the series. (B+)

A TAPESTRY OF LIVES, Book 1, is Jean Sims's adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2014.

Multi-generational back stories to canonical characters including Thomas Bennet's family, the Gardiners, the Fitzwilliams, the de Bourghs, and the Darcys form the framework of A TAPESTRY OF LIVES, Book 1. The stories go a long way toward explaining the personalities of the Regency individuals. The problem is that they tend to overwhelm Elizabeth and Darcy's changing relationship.

When she opposes Lydia's visit to Brighton with Mrs. Forster, Elizabeth shows her father the letter Darcy wrote following the proposal at Hunsford. Determined to perform his proper role, Thomas Bennet forbids the trip, institutes a new regimen for his daughters, and assures Elizabeth that the letter is a reflection of the depth of Darcy's love, not an indictment of her behavior. Their trip North delayed, the Gardiners and Elizabeth meet the Darcys in Hyde Park; Darcy and Elizabeth, each conscious of past mistaken ideas and behavior, soon agree to begin anew.

The canonical characters are reasonable outgrowths of the originals, though much more modern than Regency in attitude. Many, both men and women, support the ideas of Mary Wollenstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). Madeleine de Bourgh Gardiner's mother had been a mathematician whose work was published only because it appeared by "R. A. Churchill," assumed to be a male; Madeleine's father Reverend Jonathan de Bourgh, ran their household, cooked, and founded halfway houses for disabled and PTSD soldiers and sailors. It's easy to suspend disbelief and go with them.

There are some problems, however. Editing is sometimes lacking: "debutants" instead of "debutantes," "course fishing" not "coarse," binoculars and nouveau riche (anachronisms), "site" versus "sight," Georgiana telling a servant to "belay" an order. Colonel Fitzwilliam is first younger, then older than Darcy. I did not need to know that Darcy has a wet dream and masturbates to take care of his morning arousal. The major problem involves dating the action. Mr. Gardiner comments on taking Elizabeth to the opening of Mozart's The Magic Flute on her sixteenth birthday. Since it premiered in 1791, Elizabeth turned sixteen in 1807 at the earliest. However, Darcy escorts the Gardiner party to the opening night of La Donna de Lago, composed by Giacchino Rossini (1792-1868). The opera premiered in 1819, which fits neither the Mozart reference nor the normal dating of events in Pride and Prejudice to around 1811-2.

A TAPESTRY OF LIVES, Book 1, is well worth the time. (A-)

A TAPESTRY OF LIVES, Book 2, follows the pattern established in the first with many back stories--Wickham's birth and fate, Lady Catherine's plans for Pemberley after her sister's death, George Darcy's death, more depravities of the older de Bourgh brothers, Anne's situation. The stories, however, become more soap opera than realistic, most of them tangential at best to the main story line of Darcy and Elizabeth.

Sims gives Elizabeth, Darcy, Jane, and Bingley more modern attitudes than in Book 1 with both Jane and Bingley more forceful personalities. As they prepare for their wedding, each couple develops current rather than Regency expectations of marriage. Lydia after her wild-child performances shows a few signs of improvement; Mr. Bennet reverts to his indolent ways. Sims introduces many characters who have yet to serve a vital function in the plot.

Editing is less effective in A TAPESTRY OF LIVES, Book 2. Word choice is often incorrect or questionable: "just desserts" instead of "deserts," "goofy," "want to do" instead of "wont to do," use of "lay" (to place something) instead of "lie" (to recline), "discreet" versus "discrete," "court marshaled" instead of "court martialed." Anachronisms abound: "tummy," "git," "surreal," "synchrony," "too much information."

Sims describes George Wickham as "deported" for his crimes. In the Regency period, when an extraordinary number of relatively minor crimes were subject to the death penalty, it was not uncommon for a prisoner to be sentenced to death, then have the punishment commuted to "transportation" or "transportation for life." The "transported" prisoner was sentenced to serve a specified number ofyears at hard labor in a penal colony (usually Australia following the American Revolution); at the end of that time, should the convict survive, which was problematical, he/she would be legally free to make a new life wherever. A prisoner "transported for life," however, could never return to England; if he/she did so and was apprehended, the death penalty would be carried out without any appeal. This is the situation of Joe Magwitch, Pip's benefactor in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations.

Other problems that editing should have caught include two allusions to the 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice: "incandescently happy" and the dawn meeting scene. Currency changes; Wickham is said to have received four thousand dollars for the Kympton living. Giving Wickham's career in Australia as a school essay written in 2014 by his six-times great-grandson is jarring. Most of all, I do not want to know details of Elizabeth's menstrual period, Darcy's learning about this aspect of female physiology, or his sexual initiation by a prostitute.

A TAPESTRY OF LIVES, Book 2, continues a good read, though Sims seems at times to have lost control of her material. (B)

A TAPESTRY OF LIVES, Book 3, concludes Jean Sims's three-volume variant on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in digital format in 2015.

Like its predecessors, A TAPESTRY OF LIVES, Book 3, contains detailed stories focusing on various of the canonical characters: Caroline Bingley's behavior and karma; Elizabeth Bennet Darcy's maid Tilly and Viscountess Ashbourne's rescues, Georgiana Darcy's debut and marriage; Lady Catherine de Bourgh, William Collins, and Mrs. Bennet's deaths; Mary, Lydia, and Kitty Bennet's marriages, Colonel Fitzwilliam's postwar career and marriage. I could go on. Sims introduces subsidiary characters lavishly though, to be fair, most have a distinct purpose.* They are generally well-drawn.

Attitudes are more current than Regency, particularly the egalitarianism that animates various members of the aristocracy including the Earl of Matlock, the Dowager Countess of Trowbridge, and the Duke of Grafton (who turns out to be Thomas Bennet's long-lost University chum). Almost every female is a closet if not active feminist and social reformer. Medical practices involving obstetrical care, addiction, wound care, and treatment of syphilis, seem early twentieth century. Sims makes it easy to ignore the anachronisms.

Editing is generally good, though homophones such as discrete-discreet and principal-principle slip through. Word choice is sometimes awkward: "long-suffering smirk." Use of "smirk" in Austen fan fiction to name any facial expression not involving tears or outright rage is ubiquitous. Sims has an error of canonical fact in referring to the Gardiners' offspring as Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's grandchildren. I object to details of Elizabeth and Georgiana's menstrual periods not because I'm prudish but because it is in no way necessary to the plot.*

A TAPESTRY OF LIVES, Book 3, satisfyingly carries the canonical characters' lives to their children's adulthood. (B) A TAPESTRY OF LIVES, Books 1-3 (B+)

*Two fundamental rules for writing fiction: 1) thou shalt not multiply nonessential characters, and 2) if in doubt, leave it out.

DEATH OF AN HONEST MAN is the latest to date in M. C. Beaton's long-running Hamish Macbeth series set in Lochdubh, Sutherland, Scotland. It was published in print and digital editions in 2018.

Newcomer to the village of Cnothan Paul English prides him on his honest speech, unconcerned that he offends everyone. When he meets Hamish and PC Charlie Carter, he slurs Carter's Outer Hebrides birth and tells Hamish, "You gay men are always dyeing your hair." (2) He's also cheap, hiring elderly Granny Dinwiddy as housekeeper because she's poor enough to work for less than minimum wage. She goes missing, as does English himself after an altercation at the pub, his arrest, and a subsequent escape. When his body is found in a bog, stabbed in the base of the skull, nobody much cares, except that Hamish wants no murderer loose on his patch. Still missing Sonsie, his wild cat released on the preserve at Ardnamurchan, Hamish recovers her, he thinks, gravely wounded by poachers; others sense a very different animal. DCI Blair's campaign against Hamish escalates into open warfare, complete with charges of pedophilia and outright attempted murder.

~~~SPOILERS~~~

DEATH OF AN HONEST MAN never quite jells. The Granny Dinwiddy subplot touches the murder case(s) only at Paul English; when he's murdered, she's on a cruise he's been blackmailed to fund, busy setting up another victim. The connection between English and his killer is obscure, its discovery by nine-year-old Fairy McSporran improbable. The killer's alibi uses Sherlock Holmes's trick to establish his presence at 221B Baker Street in Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Empty House" (1903). The conclusion of the English murder story line highlights Hamish's ethical and professional philosophy: "the end justifies the means." The Sonsie subplot seems contrived to add a supernatural element; it serves deus ex machina to extricate Hamish from a TSTL situation. Loose ends abound.

Police practices in Sutherland are lax. Officers routinely alter each other's reports to steal credit, English's first autopsy misses the stab wound cause of death, and a comatose victim of attempted murder is not protected. When a guard is provided, he goes to sleep and the woman is killed. No standards or established procedures seem to exist. Hamish breaks and enters, ignores chain of evidence to remove items, and generally ignores orders from superiors. Blair's enmity for Hamish has been a feature of the series from its beginning, but DEATH OF AN HONEST MAN carries it above and beyond any semblance of reality. Superintendent Daviot, commander of the Sutherland police who's blackmailed into protecting Blair's job, would be unable to protect Blair from forced retirement, at the very least. Merely transferring Blair to Glasgow is surreal.

Another long-running element has been the stream of constables posted to Lochdubh to punish Hamish and to spy on him. This continues to absurdity in DEATH OF AN HONEST MAN, in which Charlie Carter returns to a croft in the Hebrides; he's replaced by Larry Coomb, almost killed with Alison Ford. Coombe is succeeded by Silas Dunbar, who becomes a security guard at Tommel Castle Hotel; Dunbar is followed by Freddy Ross, a poacher who rivals Hamish but becomes chef at the hotel. Ross is relieved by gorgeous Constable Dorothy McIver, set up in the epilogue as a new love interest for Hamish. Along with these new officers and all the characters involved in the murder cases, Beaton includes most of Lochdubh's named inhabitants, even if their only function is to tell Hamish the cat isn't Sonsie. Too much, already!

DEATH OF AN HONEST MAN simply is not worth its price. (D)

The title page of Kate Speck's new digitally-published GROWING PAINS calls it a variation on Pride and Prejudice, but I'm confident that Jane Austen is rotating in her grave at what's been done with its characters' names and scraps of its plot. GROWING PAINS also includes the Wentworth brothers, the Crofts, and the Elliots from Persuasion, presumably for name recognition because none are essential to the story.

The best thing I can say about GROWING PAINS is that Speck gives Caroline Bingley and Lady Catherine de Bourgh an appropriate karma.

~~~DEFINITE SPOILERS~~~

The least of my problems with GROWING PAINS includes word choice: Lydia "strutting" her chest forward, Elizabeth "sullen" to Darcy and Georgiana on their departure from Netherfield, Caroline "casted out" of Bingley's home, personal letters written on parchment.

Speck changes the dynamics of both plot and character by having Elizabeth already a friend of Georgiana when the Darcy siblings visit Charles Bingley at Netherfield. Following Ramsgate, Georgiana lived with Mrs. Annesley in Bath for three months during which she met Elizabeth, visiting the spa with the Gardiners. She and Colonel Fitzwilliam moderate Darcy's aloofness so that Elizabeth and Meryton society forms a favorable impression. Speck's Darcy is not perceptive, convinced for months that Elizabeth is to marry the colonel when he resigns his commission. After their marriage, Darcy pulls a major TSTL in going with Elizabeth to Oakham Mount without their body guards when he knows George Wickham has deserted the army and is planning revenge on Colonel Fitzwilliam and himself.

Attitudes are modern, not Regency. Elizabeth and Darcy spend considerable time alone on Oakham Mount in Hertfordshire and in the gardens at Rosings. Darcy holds, kisses, and caresses Elizabeth, and she permits him but protests she will never marry. He gives her books, which she accepts, a definite violation of propriety. Before he declares himself to her, Darcy arranges with Georgiana's modiste to pay for a new wardrobe for Elizabeth, an action that would brand her as his mistress should it become known. Elizabeth accepts the clothing. Most modern of all is Darcy's reaction to Elizabeth's revelation that she's not a virgin, that she'd been raped by a vagrant when she was fourteen years old. He treats her as a blameless victim, in no way "ruined" or unsuited to be his wife.

Making Elizabeth a rape survivor segues into my major complaint--the sexual embellishment of Austen's characters. Speck's revelations of Georgiana's menstrual period and Caroline Bingley's attempt to compromise Darcy are minor. More important is Darcy's acceptance of Anne de Bourgh and Alicia Jenkinson as lesbian lovers, arranging for them to live together in London and at the Rosings dower house, in no way criticizing or condemning their sexual preference. Not only is Lady Catherine also lesbian, she is a pedophile who has young house maids serve her needs. After Lady Catherine and Caroline Bingley are forced by their relatives to share a townhouse in Cheapside, both enjoy sexual service by George Wickham. Wickham's explaining to Mrs. Younge that he must pleasure Lady Catherine as another woman would, is the last straw.

I find GROWING PAINS thoroughly distasteful. It doesn't deserve an F. (G-)

BEAST OF ROBBERS WOOD is the third book in Ralph E. Vaughan's mystery series featuring DCI Arthur Ravyn. It was published in digital format in 2017.

BEAST OF ROBBERS WOOD is set in Vaughan's fictional county of Hammershire, where the past lives on and newcomers remain strangers for untold generations. Near Midriven on the River Orm, villagers believe the Robbers Wood, formerly called Freya's Forest, is the lair of a mythical Beast that has existed since the beginning of time. For hundreds of years, girls have periodically vanished, never to be found, accounted for as runaways or as victims of the Beast. When young Lisa Marks goes missing near the Wood, DCI Ravyn and DS Stark begin the search. Their job becomes more complicated when they learn that Billy Tremble, the Suffolk Ripper, escaped Irongate Prison three days before and is in the area. Is Lisa a runaway as the local constable believes, has Tremble grabbed her, or has the Beast awakened hungry? The situation worsens when Lisa's friend Anne Treadwell also disappears, then Tremble's body is found in Robbers Wood, slashed to death by an unknown animal.

Vaughan, an authority on horror maven H. P. Lovecraft, has written among other works, a series of Sherlock Holmes stories incorporating elements from Lovecraft. Lovecraft's preoccupation with the survival of ancient gods, old before the human race began, is basic to the DCI Ravyn series. Vaughan skillfully provides a genuine human agency for each supernatural-appearing crime, yet leaves a nagging splinter of doubt whether this explanation is complete. Atmospheric descriptions enhance both action and characterization in BEAST OF ROBBERS WOOD.

Though the series is called after DCI Ravyn, to me the protagonist is East Ender transfer from the Metropolitan Police, Detective Sergeant Leo Stark, from whose point of view most of the action is seen. Beset at home by pregnant, recovering alcoholic wife Aeronwfy, Stark at work must cope with attempts to enlist him in Superintendent Giles Heln's vendetta against Ravyn while dealing with culture shock. "[Stark's] English would have pleased even the ear of Professor Henry Higgins. Months of immersion had acclimated him to the 'Hammershire voice,' with its drawn vowels, soft consonants and idiosyncratic vocabulary, but the isolated, probably inbred villagers remained less intelligible to him than a Yorkshireman. He almost preferred his wife's tongue-twisting Welsh to what passed for the Queen's English in Hammershire." (66) Ravyn and Stark's relationship is believable.

It's unclear if Vaughan plans to continue the DCI Ravyn series. I hope he will. (B+)

DARCY'S ULTIMATUM is the first book in Jennifer Joy's The Cousins series of variations on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in digital format in 2015.

George Darcy is adamant. His son Fitzwilliam Darcy must be engaged to be married by the end of the Season or be disinherited. Mrs. Bennet is adamant. Jane and Elizabeth must become engaged during their Season with the Gardiners or Elizabeth be married to Mr. Collins to save Longbourn. Darcy and Bingley meet the Bennets during their inspection tour of Netherfields. Bingley is smitten with Jane's beauty, and Darcy is attracted to Elizabeth, so when they meet again in London, relationships develop quickly but not without obstacles. Darcy believes Elizabeth's dowry, connections, and family inferior; the discrepancy between her observations of Darcy's character and Wickham's tales confuses Elizabeth. Caroline Bingley tries to put the men off the Bennet sisters, while Collins shows up to claim imminent engagement to Elizabeth. Time passes without proposals, and deadlines loom. What else can go wrong?

I don't much like this Fitzwilliam Darcy. When DARCY'S ULTIMATUM opens, he's intent on marrying Anne de Bourgh to honor his dead mother's wishes and to unite Rosings and Pemberley. Darcy is astonished when Anne turns down such an advantageous match and resentful that her refusal forces him to the trouble of finding and courting another woman. He worships his dead mother, taking her fantasized perfection as the standard by which to judge a potential wife. He's unperceptive about his father and Georgiana. He jumps to conclusions. Even on his wedding day, Darcy is condescending.

After prolonging Darcy and Elizabeth's experiences of the Season, Joy rushes the Wickham subplot to an unsatisfactory conclusion wherein Collins serves as deus ex machina and Wickham escapes kidnapping and attempted murder charges. Annoying problems include homophones (reigns of horses, peaked curiosity), anachronistic expressions (uppity; push his buttons), word choice (smiling a snarly smile; door open as if aghast), dangling modifiers (a horse in fresh clothes and riding boots), and grammar errors (lie-lay, weaved as past tense of "to weave"). Characters too often smirk, and dapple gray horses are ubiquitous.

DARCY'S ULTIMATUM is okay but nothing special. (C)

LATTER END, one of Patricia Wentworth's long-running Miss Maud Silver mystery series. was originally published in 1949. Though often considered a knockoff of Agatha Christie's spinster sleuth, Miss Silver actually predates Miss Marple. LATTER END was published in digital format in 2011.

Lois Latter, successful social climber, married Jimmy Latter in preference to his cousin Antony Latter. Antony was younger, vital, and poor; older, ineffectual, adoring Jimmy had money and a beautiful country estate Latter End. Two years into marriage, Lois has ample funds from settling her first husband's contested will. She's bored with Jimmy, determined to evict those family connections that interfere with her plans for Latter End, and ready for a fling with recently de-mobbed Antony. After a fashionable psychic warns Lois to be careful about poison, she suffers a series of nausea attacks that stop when Jimmy begins to share her Turkish coffee. Two days after a quarrel over a tied cottage and Jimmy discovering her propositioning Antony in his bedroom at midnight, Lois is found dead, victim of an overdose of morphia. Jimmy, who'd earlier consulted Miss Silver about the nausea attacks, is the primary suspect. Miss Silver comes to find the truth at Latter End.

Wentworth employs a similar cast of characters in many of the Miss Silver novels, one of whom is the femme fatale, quite often the murder victim. "Miss Silver looked at the miniature for quite a long time. During that time the idea of Lois Latter as the subject of an hysterical fancy faded from her mind. This was the portrait of a resolute and strong-willed woman. The line of cheek and jaw, the moulding of the chin, the curve of the lips, were eloquent of this. The beautiful red mouth was hard. The eyes, for all their beauty and their brightness, were hard. This was a woman who knew what she wanted and knew how to get it." (91-2) Lois is despised for good and sufficient reasons. All characters, including Miss Silver and her Scotland Yard cohorts Chief Detective Inspector Lamb and Sergeant Frank Abbott, are static, though most are sympathetic.

As in many mysteries of this vintage, LATTER END is more plot than character-driven. Wentworth develops a neat "impossible murder" situation in which only three individuals--Jimmy Latter and Latter End residents Minnie Mercer and Elliie Street--have the opportunity to poison the cups of coffee left for Jimmy and Lois. No one controls Lois's choice of which to drink, and neither Minnie nor Ellie would take a chance on Jimmy's getting the poison. So how is the murder achieved? LATTER END holds up well. (B)

Nora Kipling calls SHADOWS UPON NETHERFIELD a variant of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book form in 2016. It varies from the original enough that a more accurate description is a story using Austen's characters' names and a few plot elements. Because many Amazon reviewers inflate Austen fan fiction ratings, I now seldom read an example with much less that a four-star rating. SHADOWS UPON NETHERFIELD averages 3.9 stars. I wonder if I read the same text.

~~~DEFINITE SPOILERS~~~

For fan fiction to work, the characters have to be right. Few in SHADOWS UPON NETHERFIELD are consistent with Austen's originals. Jane is amorphous. She's older than Elizabeth, age never specified, often seeming more mother than sister; she's thought herself in love many times without receiving a proposal and now considers herself an old maid, destined never to marry. She swings from warrior princess defending Elizabeth from Caroline's verbal barbs to Bingley's doormat forgiving his desertion instantly. Lydia is so immature she seems simple-minded. Not only is Mr. Bennet uninvolved and ineffectual, he's greedy, writing into Elizabeth's marriage settlements that Darcy must pay for her new wardrobe and add a substantial sum to each Bennet girl's minuscule dowry.

Neither Elizabeth nor Darcy is well done. Darcy is a cipher, showing no emotion, not open with Elizabeth during their engagement and, while away from Pemberley to recover Lydia, not writing Elizabeth. He does not tell Elizabeth the truth about Wickham until after the elopement. Though Darcy professes his undying love for Elizabeth and knows she's suffering a difficult early pregnancy and great stress, Jane conveys the news of Lydia's recovery. When showing events from Darcy's point of view, Kipling reveals little about his feelings; he's occasionally said to be hurt or to be happy, but it's told, not shown. The oddest thing about Kipling's Darcy is that he travels with women's dresses (at least two) in his luggage in case a female traveling companion needs to change. (134)

Elizabeth calls herself a country girl, more enlightened than most fashionable ladies, yet still intimidated by Society's expectations. Kipling says she's well-read, though Elizabeth's only expressed literary preferences are Wordsworth and gothic novels. After the first groping by Mr. Hurst, she debates with herself about whether she's traumatized. She's unperceptive about people, especially Darcy. Her TSTLs include believing Wickham, wandering around in her night clothes, and not telling Darcy of Wickham's blackmail demand. After vacillating about her feelings for Darcy for most of the book, her sudden deep love for her husband isn't convincing. Kipling isn't even consistent about Elizabeth's appearance. She first has a fine stout figure, then sees herself as too slender to be appealing, thinner than Jane.

There are holes in the plot of SHADOWS OVER NETHERFIELD. For instance, the Bennet sisters take an open carriage to shop in Meryton, then they walk home escorted by Wickham. What happens to the carriage? After Elizabeth's compromise, Mr. Bennet stays the night at Netherfield in the guest room next to the one shared by Elizabeth and Jane, but the next morning he returns by coach from Longbourn to negotiate settlements with Darcy. Dating of events is erratic. Mr. Bennet at first means Darcy and Elizabeth to marry immediately by special license; the ceremony is next scheduled as soon as the banns can be called (three successive Sundays), then Elizabeth thinks of becoming Mrs. Darcy in a few months. Kipling gives no specific wedding date or length of engagement. Likewise, when news of Darcy's interference between Jane and Bingley causes estrangement between the Darcys, its length changes from days to weeks to implied months.

The biggest hole involves the compromise(s) in SHADOWS UPON NETHERFIELD. Elizabeth experiences three potentially compromising situations, the first two of them resolved without marriage. When walking to care for Jane, she injures her ankle so severely that she must accept Darcy's horse to reach the house; she cannot walk. Late that night, despite agony in walking, she wanders the halls at Netherfield, a house which she does not know, and spends time alone in the library talking with Darcy. The next morning Hurst, who interprets Elizabeth's solitary walks as trysts, catches Elizabeth alone and gropes her with enough force to cause bruises. When rumors spread of Elizabeth being alone in a room with a man for an hour with the door closed, Elizabeth attributes her loss of reputation to her going wandering at night in her night gown and robe. (69) But when Darcy denies Hurst's alleged compromise, he says he'd been with Elizabeth and Hurst in the library at midnight discussing ethics in latin theatre. (70) So--who compromised Elizabeth, when, and where?

Details of the most important situation, the successful compromise that results in Darcy and Elizabeth's marriage, are not given. According to Hurst, Louisa Bingley Hurst hired a low-class minion to ruin Elizabeth during the Netherfield ball (240), and Wickham promised Hurst £5,000 to arrange for Elizabeth to be undressed in the bed chamber (a footman spilled wine, soaking her dress). The plot fails when Darcy arrives instead of the hireling. But is this one plot, two separate plots, or an accidental conglomeration?

This review has gone on far too long to venture into problems with plot structure, grammar, and usage. The shame is that SHADOWS UPON NETHERFIELD has good possibilities that are ignored. It needs at least one more thorough content revision and professional copy editing. (D-)

John Marquis published BLOOD AND FIRE: THE DUKE OF WINDSOR AND THE STRANGE MURDER OF SIR HARRY OAKES in 2006.

The Duke of Windsor, formerly Edward VIII, was Governor of the Bahamas when its wealthiest citizen Sir Harry Oakes was brutally murdered at his home Westbourne in Nassau during the night of 7-8 July 1943. Marquis contends that the Duke's response to the Oakes murder shows "...he was involved in a enormous conspiracy and cover-up and that he was prepared to send an innocent man to the gallows in an attempt to save himself, and his friends, from the kind of intense scrutiny that might well have resulted from a full and proper investigation." (31)

Within a couple of hours after he learned of Oakes's murder, the Duke of Windsor performed four actions that support the conspiracy theory. He declared a news blackout (never explained, but not in pace before Etienne Dupuch of The Tribune put the news on the wire services). Instead of allowing Nassau police to investigate, calling for Scotland Yard detectives, or asking for F. B. I. assistance, he personally called in two detectives from the notoriously corrupt Miami Police Department to handle the case. He identified Alfred de Marigny by name to the policemen as the only realistic suspect. He thwarted all investigation of Harold Christie, the only other man definitely known to remain at Westbourne during the night of the murder, who had motive, and who discovered Oakes's body. Adding weight to the theory of his involvement, the Duke visited the crime scene that day, possibly with the body still in situ, and ordered all evidence not pointing to de Marigny destroyed. Medical personnel and police were ordered not to commit materials about the murder investigation to paper. Subsequent actions support the idea of an ongoing conspiracy. BEFORE he appeared at the inquest and again before he testified at de Marigny's trial, Harold Christie was allowed to hold press conferences in which he explained his upcoming testimony. Following de Marigny's acquittal, the Duke carried on a determined campaign to drive him out of the Bahamas, demanding in November 1943 with war raging, that London dispatch a military plane or naval vessel to remove de Marigny forthwith; he actively hounded de Marigny for the rest of his life.

According to Marquis, the Duke of Windsor's role as a conspirator was tied to his activities before and during World War II. Before its outbreak, the Duke and Duchess were known Nazi sympathizers. After the war began, many believed that they conveyed military information to the Germans and were prepared, in case of German victory, to serve as monarchs of a conquered Great Britain. Their doubtful loyalty led to their assignment to the Bahamas. Always obsessed with money, the Windsors were convinced in the early years that Britain would lose the war or, even if victorious, would suffer years of economic austerity. To guarantee continuation of their lifestyle, the Duke engaged in illegal currency transactions to move his assets to Mexico. Involved with this money-laundering were friends Axel Wenner-Gren (Swedish industrialist with Nazi ties, whose assets had been frozen by the Allies), Harold Christie, and Sir Harry Oakes. Wenner-Gren's Banco Continental also served as a money-laundering conduit through which Nazi leaders transferred funds to Central America, whence they planned escape in case of German defeat. Oakes knew too much about too many things to continue to live.

Marquis speaks magisterially of the Duke of Windsor's guilt, his premise holds together logically, but its authoritative tone is undercut by its paucity of supporting data. He offers no footnotes or end notes that indicate specific sources; references within the text name individuals without giving information needed to follow up on their disclosures. Marquis refers to a few, mostly undated stories in The Tribune and to released government files without going beyond their most generic identification (e.g., FBI file, government record).

Other problems with BLOOD AND FIRE include the absence of an index of any kind. Marquis often does not give specific times or dates of relevant actions or events. The book needs a cast of characters, a time line and/or graphic organizer detailing who was doing what and when, and a map of pertinent locations within Nassau. Photographs are small, low resolution head shots of named individuals, not including Wenner-Gren or Christie; the only photograph of the Duke of Windsor appears on the book's jacket but none within. Marquis's extravagant use of commas is annoying. He carries the story through subsequent political and economic development of the Bahamas, discusses and dismisses the Meyer Lansky theory of the Oakes murder, and finishes with the statement of a 91-year-old, previously silent witness that de Marigny was indeed guilty of the murder. BLOOD AND FIRE thus ends not with the bang of proof but with the whimper of the old Scottish verdict, "not proven." (D)

ANNE'S ADVERSITY is the second book in Jennifer Joy's The Cousins series, a trilogy of variants on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was published in e-book format in 2015.

Anne de Bourgh has believed all her life that her father Sir Lewis de Bourgh died six months before her birth. When she discovers his letter from Paris written months after her birth, Anne is shaken to the core to learn her father faked his death and her mother lied about him. She changes her life completely when she refuses to marry her cousin Fitzwilliam Darcy and defies her mother's demand for obedience. Lady Catherine evicts Anne from Rosings. Colonel Fitzwilliam finds her temporary accommodations, but Anne and Nancy, her maid and friend, are on their own in London with little money. Forced to cope, Anne finds herself stronger than she'd believed as she provides for herself, develops the strength to stand up to Lady Catherine, finally meets her father, and falls in love with a handsome Frenchman.

ANNE'S ADVERSITY is refreshingly free of most editing problems, though misused apostrophes in plurals and possessives slipped through. "Deviate" is an intransitive verb, one which does not require an object to complete its action; thus "deviate her from her path" is incorrect usage. Otherwise the writing style is attractive, the introduced characters are appealing (if more modern than Regency in attitude), and there's an effective blend of internal and external conflict. Changes to the original story line offer intriguing new possibilities for character development--Sir Lewis rescues French aristocrats from the guillotine à la the Scarlet Pimpernel.

~~~POSSIBLE SPOILERS~~~

ANNE'S ADVERSITY raises some common sense plot objections. Is it likely that Colonel Fitzwilliam and Darcy, knowing Anne's inexperience, simply deposit her in London and ignore her existence for two months? Too many coincidence smooth Anne's path. She accidentally meets the French Mauvior siblings who introduce her to Sir Lewis's older sister Miss Beatrice de Bourgh; she finds a miniaturist willing to instruct her in painting on ivory and to share his clientele; her Frenchman turns out to be a comte. The major improbability involving Anne is her triumphant acting of Lady Macbeth in a dramatic scene at Luc Mauvoir's theater, literally at the last minute with no rehearsal, without his prior knowledge. Lady Catherine's possible reconciliation with her husband, now known as Sir Francis de Bourgh, a member of the Continental de Bourgh family, seems as implausible as her rationalization of Mauvoir's profession: "Art could never be subjected to the same criteria a trade. It transcends vulgarity when done tastefully... Besides, Luc owns the theater. He does not act in it." (244)

Joy makes it easy to ignore these quibbles and go with the flow in ANNE'S ADVERSITY. (A-)

THE GOAT PARVA MURDERS is one of Julian Worker's Inspector Knowles police procedurals. It features Detective Inspector Colin Knowles and his assistant Detective Sergeant Rod Barnes of the Scoresby CID. Published in 2014, it is available in free or inexpensive digital format.

Knowles and Barnes are involved with three murders in three days in the tiny village of Goat Parva, all three bodies discovered by the retriever Bingo on his early morning walks with owner Adelaide Hills. All had been killed in the same manner. All three victims had been dedicated voyeurs who watched and photographed the constant irregular sexual antivities of their neighbors, then shared their observations. As the investigation continues, the detectives learn that the victims are connected through animal rights--two had been berated for mistreating animals by the third, who worked at the Scoresby animal shelter.

Use of a detective duo is a common feature in the police procedural mystery sub-genre with the personal and professional interaction between the individuals a major component of the story. The problem with Knowles and Barnes is that the men share only impersonal work contact with no synergy. Both detectives are superficially sketched. Barnes is young, drives a white Morgan sports car, and wears designer suits. Knowles is overweight and on a diet, drives a dirty Land Rover, and lives alone with his cat Gemma. Worker gives no other details of their lives off the job, offers no back stories. Other characters remain names, and none of their behavior invites emotional investment from the reader.

Goat Parva is a wonderful village name, in large part the reason I chose to read the story, but sense of place is lacking. Goat Parva is a ninety-minute drive from London, with names of wooded crime scenes, streets, and roads are the only other indications of physical setting. Writing style is simple, dialogue stilted.

The plot is disjointed, with less than satisfactory integration of the voyeur and animal right story lines. Knowles apparently guesses what's behind the murders, and no foreshadowing makes the killer's identity come as a surprise.

I am disappointed in THE GOAT PARVA MURDERS and won't continue the series. (C-)