Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled

 

Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled / Dorothy Gilman
read by Barbara Rosenblat
Recorded Books, 2023, c2000.

So I have come to the end of my Mrs. Pollifax adventures. This is the final book in the series, although it doesn't read like a final book - the author died before she could write any more, so there is no big tying up of any story here. It gives us the opportunity to imagine Mrs. P continuing on with her many adventures. 

In this book, Mrs. P and John Farrell are once again travelling together. They are heading to Syria, where Mrs. P is posing as an American lady looking for her missing niece -- a girl who averted a terrorist attack on a plane, got off in Syria, got into the wrong car at the airport, and hasn't been seen since. The CIA isn't sure whether she was kidnapped or part of the plot. Mrs. P. has to find out. 

She and Farrell are supposed to be working together, but he gets himself arrested almost immediately, leaving Mrs. Pollifax to continue on her own. She can't give up on this delicate mission. This gives us a chance to really revel in Mrs. Pollifax alone on a mission, finding ways to get to where she needs to be. Her strength at really connecting with people is so key here - she gets help from locals who she is kind to, who she simply talks to, and they always know someone to help her out. And she always seems to have what she needs to trade with others to smooth the way. 

Eventually she and Farrell are reunited, they find out where the girl is being held (in a camp in the middle of absolutely nowhere) and come up with a slightly ridiculous rescue mission, one involving a lot of sheep. Fortunately there is a camp of archeologists nearby, and Mrs. P's age makes her the perfect 'visiting aunt' who crashes the camp with the help of one of the young scientists, giving her a base of operations. 

It's a fine close to Mrs. Pollifax's adventures. It highlights her on her own, it ties in with her previous adventures with Farrell, and it really gives her a chance to both shine individually and reminisce about her past adventures right in the middle of this one. I really liked this one, with the only letdown being that is the last fresh Mrs. P. book I will ever read for the first time. I feel that this is a series I will reread in a few years, though! 

Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist

 

Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist
Dorothy Gilman
read by Barbara Rosenblat
Recorded Books, 2011, c1997.

Nearing the end of the Mrs. Pollifax series, and feeling a little sad at seeing Mrs. P to her finale. But this one is well suited for nearly the end -- here Mrs. P meets up with old friend John Farrell, to take an "off the books" trip to Jordan, where he hopes to retrieve a manuscript smuggled out of Iran. 

Jordan plays a big role in the story; Mrs. P is almost run away with by an out-of-control horse on the road to Petra -- current events are mentioned (Saddam Hussein, which puts the series timeline out of whack and would make Mrs. P nearly 90 in this book if it was going by the beginning novel -- so you have to let the suspension of disbelief stay strong here!) -- and the political status of borders and politicians is so important here. We do get to see various 'sights' of Jordan via Mrs. Pollifax's travels, and she and Farrell reminisce quite a bit about their past adventures together. For someone who has read the whole series in order, this is a nice way to recap some of the earlier books and see Mrs. P's character development. 

The plot is a bit weaker than earlier books, and Mrs. P doesn't really save the day here - she is more being saved, which is a bit of a letdown. But there are some great local characters who take her and Farrell to the desert, and their time at a Bedouin camp is a wonderful element. This really adds to the atmosphere of the book - Gilman is back to embedding real places and politics into the series, which is very welcome after the imaginary African country of the last two books. 

I enjoyed this one and am only sad that the series is concluding in one more installation... 

Crafting a Knock-Off

 

Crafting a Knock-Off / Barbara Emodi
Concord, CA: C&T Pub., c2026
232 p.

I love this series of cozy mysteries set in Nova Scotia, written by a Canadian craft legend :) When book 7 became available, I grabbed it! This details the further adventures of Valerie Rankin, middle aged craft and general store owner, as she once again gets involved in a mysterious death -- and like usual, goes off on many misguided suspicions before the truth is revealed. 

In this volume, she encounters Murray Nunn, a big talker who is trying to push business development and an export scheme. He won't leave anyone at the local craft fair alone, and while Valerie is talking to him, he suddenly drops dead. On camera. She has a wide range of suspects, from local craftspeople to those who have just arrived in Gasper's Cove for their own purposes, and even including her boyfriend's nephew -- which causes some relationship bumps. 

But Valerie must continue on her sleuthy ways no matter what, and with the involvement of the local RCMP and her crafting ladies, they eventually solve the mystery, and Valerie's fears of the end of her relationship prove unfounded. 

I love these books for their characters and the Nova Scotia setting -- and of course the inclusion of craft content! There are upcycled quilted coats, tartans and kilts, piecework sewing and craft fairs as integral parts of this mystery, and they are important. I thought this one was well constructed and entertaining. Always a treat to revisit Gasper's Cove! 

(Review first appeared at Following The Thread)

Two Mrs. Pollifax

More Mrs. Pollifax in my quest to read the whole series - this time two books that work together almost as two volumes of the same story. They take place both in the US and an imaginary African country, Ubangiba. I thought it was a bit unusual to have this imaginary country, rather than the finely evoked real places in all of her other books. But listening to a lengthy author interview, I discovered that these two books were written during a time that she was suffering from a form of agoraphobia, and couldn't travel for research. So this choice makes more sense. I didn't feel that same sense of exploration and interest, though, because of the imaginary nature of the country. Still, these worked together well and had some new, intriguing characters. 

Mrs Pollifax Pursued / Dorothy Gilman
Recorded Books, 2011, c1995
read by Barbara Rosenblat 

This first story sets up the premise - Mrs Pollifax drives her husband Cyrus to the airport and when she gets home and feels something is up, she searches the house and discovers a young woman, Kadi Hopkirk, hiding in a utility closet. She had escaped from men trailing her a couple of days before. Mrs. Pollifax is of course interested in the story and decides to rescue Kadi, driving her back to NY City. But things go wrong, as Kadi's pursuers catch sight of them and trail them. Mrs. P, fortunately, has important friends -- and thinks quickly. She pulls in to a busy hospital and calls her CIA contacts from the ER. 

They rescue and deliver Mrs. P and Kadi to an unexpected safe house: a travelling carnival. The story has a lot of fun with the characters and the setting of a carnival, and Mrs. P discovers new depths to herself! She also puzzles out why Kadi was being watched (her connections to Ubangiba, where she grew up thanks to her parents medical mission) and they end up travelling to Ubangiba to see the conclusion of Kadi's involvement. This one felt really escapist and light, thanks to the imaginary political setting of this invented African country. I loved the carnival and some of this story, but didn't find it as engaging as the others so far in the series. Still, the next book carries on this tale.
 

Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer / Dorothy Gilman
Recorded Books, c1996.
read by Barbara Rosenblat

Mrs. Pollifax and Kadi head back to Ubangiba to see the coronation of Kadi's childhood friend Sammat. They are special guests of the government, but that doesn't mean there aren't shenanigans to deal with. There have been a rash of violent killings in the capital, where the victims are slashed with what looks like lion's claws. The catch is that there are no lions in Ubangiba. Rumours of supernatural causes abound, causing Sammat political difficulties. 

Mrs. P is on the case - she explores the area quite fearlessly, and gets involved with locals in the way that she always does. And thank goodness, because the silent, grim bicycle seller named Moses turns out to be integral to the plot, and their survival! There isn't that much of a mystery going on here, and definitely not the exciting spy thriller sense of the other books -- this is an imaginary country, and there is no CIA involvement here. This duo of books is probably the weakest in the series because of these elements. Mrs. Pollifax is always delightful to read about though, so while they are not the best of this series, I still liked them well enough.  

Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief

 

Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief / Dorothy Gilman
read by Barbara Rosenblatt
Blackstone Audio, c1993.

Another trip for Mrs. Pollifax! Her latest assignment is to take some photos at a small funeral in Virginia, then deliver them to her old friend Farrell in Sicily. He has specifically asked for her and Cyrus, but as usual Cyrus is busy with something else and Mrs. P goes alone (I do find it amusing how Gilman regularly gets rid of Cyrus, after introducing him in Book 5). 

Nothing that Mrs. Pollifax does ever turns out as easy as promised. Here, she is met in Sicily by Kate, a young woman also from the CIA but who is on holiday and just doing a favour. But their trip to meet Farrell turns into a car chase, rescue and retreat to a safe house of sorts - Kate's aunt's country house where she is staying. This aunt turns out to be almost as mysterious as the men searching for Farrell. 

This book was a bit slow for me, with most of it taking place within one house. There is some adventure beyond its walls, and an unlikely romance for Farrell too, but overall it's not as dramatic or eventful as some of the others. The plot can be a touch thin at times. 

However, it is always enjoyable to see Mrs. P and Farrell back together, and the main element that is tying this story together is a suspected assassin who they put behind bars some books ago, who Farrell is sure he has seen in Sicily. The resolution of that is a little amusing but definitely suitable for an Emily Pollifax story. This one was just okay for me, but there was still that layer of social commentary that made it worth reading. 

Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish

 

Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish / Dorothy Gilman
read by Barbara Rosenblatt
Recorded Books, 2011, c1990.

I haven't been writing too much this month, but I have been reading -- I need to catch up on some reviews, so I'll start with a series I've been obsessively listening to, the Mrs. Pollifax series.

In Book 9 of this fun series, I was transported to a hot and dangerous trek across Morocco. Mrs. Pollifax has been asked to deliver some important documents to an agent in Morocco, where an underground network of informants may be at risk. But when she arrives, she doesn't like this agent; there is something off she doesn't quite trust. So she tells him that she has memorized all the info and destroyed the documents for safety -- so she will have to come along on his journey to check up on their secret allies. He is not happy. 

Her instincts prove correct, when he is not what he seems to be, and her karate is about to come into play again. But then someone else appears, and the story moves forward with a different vibe. It was a bit of a different storyline, just Mrs. Pollifax and one other character at a time, essentially, on a long and lonely road trip. There is, as always, information about the country she's in and some history/sociology about the inhabitants, always thrown in as part of what she needs to know for her job but illuminating for the reader at the same time. 

This was quite a good one that I found appealing, with a strong setting and interesting set-up. I do like this series! 

Crafting a Cold Case

 

Crafting a Cold Case / Barbara Emodi
Concord, CA: C&T, c2025.
256 p.

I read the latest volume of the Gasper's Cove series by Barbara Emodi at the very end of December, during a huge winter storm. Timely, as it is set mostly during a huge winter storm! It made it feel quite recognizable. 

This is such a fun series, and the characters grow with every new story. In this 6th installment, Valerie shows her inimitable amateur sleuthing skills again, when there's a murder, a snowstorm, and a number of strangers in town outside of tourist season. 

The story begins with the usually unflappable Catherine, former librarian and Valerie's cousin-in-law, calling her in panic mode. Valerie drops everything and heads right over, to discover that the crisis is two unwanted guests at Catherine's B&B who are driving her crazy. Valerie responds immediately. 

“I went over to the pantry and found a box of Morse’s Tea, the official consolation beverage of Nova Scotia since 1870. I picked up the kettle and filled it at the deep, stainless-steel, industrial-sized sink. While I waited for the water to boil, I found a tin of shortbread and put enough for four people onto a plate. Emotional breakdowns are no time to be skimpy with baked goods.”

This book is such a great balance of mystery and humour. I love this series for this reason, and I find that each book gets better. There are two extra guests, one a prepper who follows Catherine's partner Rollie around constantly, and one a peevish old professor there to talk to a local group about antiquities. The other stranger in town is a smooth talking podcaster, unfortunately brought to Gasper's Cover by Valerie's daughter -- nobody else really likes him, but her daughter seems enamoured. 

There is intrigue from the start, but then a storm blows in, one that their local weather station seemed to miss completely. And it's a bad one. It snows them all in, even as one of the locals in the antiquities group is found dead in a snowbank. Murder, and who was it? It's a real mystery this time with some plausible red herrings sprinkled around liberally. Lots of people to dislike and suspect, whether of murder, stealing a snowplow, or just being a jerk. 

I really liked this one. So many good characters, intriguing setup, funny commentary, and an unexpected conclusion. Even a big surprise for everyone (even herself) when one of Valerie's guesses proves correct. I'd read this again, just for the characters. And that snowstorm!

(first published on FollowingTheThread.ca)

Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle

Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle / Dorothy Gilman
read by Barbara Rosenblat
Maryland: Recorded Books, 2005, c1988.

In this book, Mrs. Pollifax gets back on the horse after her traumatic experiences in Hong Kong and takes a commission from the CIA to go to Thailand. There is supposed to be a quick drop of documents for her to pick up from an informant, pass on to the CIA, and then she and Cyrus can have a holiday together in Thailand. 

But this is a Mrs. Pollifax book, so you know she is going to get involved in the heart of the issues instead of just being a courier! In this one she really gets embedded in field work; on the morning that she is supposed to casually walk down an alley and find the exchange location, she instead finds a dead body. And as she rushes back out of the alley, she sees Cyrus (who'd stayed on the street watching out) being bundled into a truck by two strangers. He's been kidnapped, who knows why. 

Mrs. Pollifax is resourceful, especially when Cyrus is endangered, so she finds someone to drive another truck and follow the kidnappers. This all happens very quickly. But then the "car chase", so to speak, is endless -- they drive into the hills, they are followed by young men on motorcycles (when Mrs. Pollifax's karate skills again come in useful), and they spot the kidnapper's van drawn up on the side of the road, empty. Luckily for Mrs. P, her driver is more than he looks and they head off into the dangerous forest, tracking Cyrus' kidnappers. There is a lot of chance and coincidence in this one, and at times it feels a little dreamy -- especially when Mrs. Pollifax and her companions come across a hidden monastery in the forest, with only a few devotees and a holy man, who isn't from Thailand. 

The conclusion of this one involves drugs, CIA side quests, and the irrepressible Mrs. Pollifax rescuing her husband, her informant, and another CIA agent (unknown to them both). It was good, lots of interesting connections made for Mrs. P in the third of the "Asia" trilogy of this series. Looking forward to the next volume, in which she heads to Morocco. 

Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha

Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha / Dorothy Gilman
read by Barbara Rosenblat
Ashland, OR: Recorded Books, 2011, c1985.

This volume of the Mrs. Pollifax series carries on shortly after the events of her last adventure. In this one she is asked to go to Hong Kong, make contact with a CIA asset to check on his being alive and well, and then come home. Does the trip turn out this simply? Of course not! 

She gets involved with the situation, going to the home of one of the suspicious characters and befriending the housekeep to get as much gossip as she can. She is given a lovely statue of a Buddha in the small shop she enters to try to find this asset -- mainly to get her out of there, but it turns out it's a rather important statue, leading to someone searching her room at night while she is supposedly sleeping (but she's not, really) and eventually to her kidnapping by the baddies. 

At this point the story takes a darker turn. She and a couple of others have been kidnapped and they are being held in a warehouse of sorts by the villains. They are an international group of random men, all part of an anarchist terrorist cell. They've been involved in this by someone in Hong Kong who wants to see the "rightful" ruler of China restored. This all goes back to the upheavals of Chinese history and politics, and the British rule of Hong Kong, and the fears of it reverting to China. This was written in the 80s so this was something yet to happen, although within in a little more than a decade after the story was set. In any case, the bad guys are taking this very seriously. 

During Mrs. Pollifax's lengthy kidnapping, she engages in her usual efforts to talk to the others. This time only one of her fellow captives has any feeling for her. Another tries to sabotage the communications that the terrorists are using, and in a shocking turn is shot for it. This leads to the feeling of darker elements of the story, and a stronger sense of danger. Mrs. Pollifax herself endures torture as they try to get information out of her. And her salvation comes from the ideas of two amateurs at the other end, who've joined the American agents trying to find her. 

I found this one politically astute, relevant, and very thrillerish. I loved the descriptions of Hong Kong, of some of the eccentric characters who Mrs. Pollifax befriends, and the relationships between old and new agents. It was a strong book in the series, with lots of intrigue and mystery. I really liked it, it felt well plotted and engaging.  

Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

 

Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station
read by Barbara Rosenblat
Ashland, OR: Recorded Books, 1990, c1983.

Mrs. Pollifax takes us to a China that was still difficult to visit in 1983, in this story of her assignment to infiltrate a tourist group and contact a Chinese informer, who will give her a vital piece of information that she will then pass on to the "real" agent on the tour. But thankfully for that agent, Mrs. Pollifax is part of this tour, since things go awry and require her inimitable assistance. 

With a mixed group, including two young women who are of great interest to all the middle aged men on the tour, Mrs. Pollifax must try to figure out who her fellow agent is, find a way to leave the tour long enough to find her contact, and then she can wash her hands of events and just continue with the rest of the tour. But one thing that was stressed to her; if anything at all went wrong, she was to get herself and the tour group out of China as quickly as possible. 

With great perspicacity, she does her part. Her habit of talking to and befriending locals and tourists alike serves her well here. And when things do go very unexpectedly south -- when they aren't the only foreign agents in town -- both her karate lessons and her stubbornness help out immensely. 

There were some iffy elements to this one; Mrs. P and her fellow agent dress up as Chinese peasants to do one part of their job, which includes some offensive references to eyes. And as if anyone would believe Mrs. Pollifax was Chinese. But there are also sympathetic Chinese characters and some understanding of the cost of dissent in a Communist country, including a work camp. And the bumbling tourists and their Western attitudes are contrasted with their guides and the people they meet in their various stops, including Kazakh horsemen of the steppes. I liked this one and learned a fair bit, but there sure was a lot of coincidence in the plot here. Still, another interesting tale from Dorothy Gilman! 

Mrs. Pollifax on Safari

Mrs. Pollifax on Safari / Dorothy Gilman
read by Barbara Rosenblat
Ashland, OR: Blackstone Publishing, 1992, c1976.

 

Continuing my run of the Mrs. Pollifax series, I've made it to book five. In Mrs. Pollifax on Safari, we find Emily heading to Zambia, assigned to join a safari and take photos of all the others in the group. Carstairs just needs photos so they can try to figure out the identity of a political assassin who has eluded all the intelligence agencies. They think he'll be on this safari to meet his next contact - so no theatrics, just photos to share with the CIA when she returns. But of course things quickly get much more complicated and Mrs. Pollifax finds herself in the centre of a few different imbroglios. 

On the safari, she needs to be suspicious of everyone. Who knows who the assassin really is? But she meets Cyrus, a retired judge and fellow American, who is travelling with his adult daughter. Surely he can't be her target -- thankfully so, as they begin to develop an affinity during the days that follow. 

The set-up, a closed group of suspects that Emily has to carefully examine, gives great opportunity for character development and description. I greatly enjoyed that part and also the descriptions of the Zambian countryside. The Mrs. Pollifax stories are like travelogues and that is one of the delights of them for me. 

The characters in this story are all quite intriguing, ranging from quite ordinary to eccentric to boorish to completely delusional. There are some chilling parts of this story, as Mrs. Pollifax finds herself in darker circumstances than expected. And some startling turns in the story too, to keep you on your toes.

Once again I listened to the audio version read by the delightful Barbara Rosenblat. She rarely makes a misstep but in this one, one of the characters, a doctor from a charity hospital elsewhere in Zambia, is originally Canadian. And I don't know why she gave him an accent but it made me laugh out loud when it started. It had the weirdest tinge of both Maritimes and Mike from Canmore. 

But a good read and the enjoyable return of a character from the first volume in this series made it extra fun. I'm really liking this whole series so far. 

Crafting an Alibi: a Gasper's Cove mystery

 

Crafting an Alibi / Barbara Emodi
Lafayette, CA: C&T, c2025
224 p.

It's the beginning of a new month, and I have lots of Christmas reading planned. But I still have a bunch of reviews to share from my recent mystery binge, so will have to catch up on a few of those before I switch over to holiday fare. 

Starting with one in a series that I've read all of so far -- this is Book 5 in the entertaining Gasper's Cove mystery series. We meet many of the same characters we've seen over the last few books, but see them from new angles. And there are some new characters added too, perhaps ones we will see again. 

As this story begins, Valerie is invited into a big secret held by a group of senior ladies, now resident at the Seaview Manor. She is asked to find some valuable fabric hidden decades ago, but before she can do it, the hiding place is burned to the ground. Unfortunately for Valerie, it was her family cottage and there was a renter in it. 

This set-up leads to some dramatic events -- insurance investigations, attempted murders, further fires -- all while Valerie is trying to puzzle out the clues (missing important steps as usual). She is also in the midst of helping to plan her cousin/best friend's wedding, dealing with her emotions over being an empty nester, and of course losing a family property. 

There is a lot going on here, but it's rooted in the same small town atmosphere as the previous books in the series. It has the hallmarks of a Gasper's Cove story - some Nova Scotia history, some cozy relationships which involve food and tea, and Valerie's crafting knowledge, which always plays a part. I really enjoyed the cabal of old ladies at Seaview Manor in this novel and hope to see their cleverness highlighted again.  

If you've enjoyed this series so far, this is a good addition, with some lovely scenes as well as some heart-pounding ones. Beware, you may be left craving butter tarts after this one!

(first published in slightly different form at FollowingTheThread)

A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax

 

A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax / Dorothy Gilman
read by Barbara Rosenblat
Ashland, OR: Blackstone Publishing, 1991, c1973.

As I mentioned in yesterday's review, I've been loving the Mrs. Pollifax series. I had to continue my streak by listening to the next book in the series. This fourth volume has Mrs. Pollifax staying put in one place: a health spa in Switzerland. This is quite a different situation than the wide ranging travels of her first three adventures. It also feels a bit more fanciful, with the inclusion of an imaginary country as the centre of a conspiracy. 

Mrs. Pollifax is once again sent out for an 'easy job' which becomes much more complex. She meets an intriguing cast of characters, none of whom are who they first seem. Being trusting and friendly, she makes many connections, one of them with a young boy who is there with his recuperating grandmother and is very lonely. This boy is also clever and resourceful, which comes in very handy later on. 

I loved the way that the closed room feel of this one allows for some deep character development. And there are some anxious bits mixed in with the humour and lightheartedness, as usual for this series. Mrs. Pollifax finds a gory dead body near the beginning, and later is kidnapped by the villains along with her young friend; they end up (through many twists) touring a castle nearby, in which Mrs. P uses her new karate skills and the two of them evade capture for hours. 

The finale is a bit nail biting, and the moment that saves them is hilariously unlikely but perfect. And once again Mrs. P encounters a helicopter in the closing pages of a story. 

I enjoyed this one greatly, finding the characters memorable, and the outlandishly mustache twirling villains entertaining - I feel that she could let herself go a bit since she'd created an imaginary country and so didn't have to be so careful or exact. Loads of fun, and I definitely recommend the audiobook series as the reader is so good. This is proving to be my series of the year ;) 

The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax

The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax / Dorothy Gilman
NY: Doubleday, c1971. 
240 p.

I've also been reading quite a few mysteries and suspense books in the last while, so will move to some reviews of this reading streak. Beginning with another in a series I've discovered fairly recently but am loving. This is book 3 in the Mrs. Pollifax series, and I was lucky enough to find a copy of this original hardcover at the thrift store just when I needed it :) So of course I read it quickly. 

In this episode, Mrs. Pollifax is asked to courier some passports to Bulgaria, where she will have to deliver them to an operative who needs to get some political targets out of the country. Easy peasy! But is it? No, it never is when Mrs. Pollifax is on the job. And this time, she is carrying some contraband, totally unknown to her until the end. 

She realizes that she (and her backup man) are being watched, and dangerous things begin to happen. Luckily for Mrs. Pollifax, she makes connections wherever she goes and they always turn out to her benefit. 

This one was frenetic and really enjoyable! Mrs. Pollifax meets some men in an underground cell, and spurs them to action. They travel to a distant cave where she almost meets her own end, and then back in the city, she leads a siege on one of the most impregnable prisons imaginable, to rescue a young American student who is being held as part of a larger plan. This part was both thrilling and hilarious, a common blend for these stories. 

Mrs. Pollifax uses her common sense and her appearance of innocuous innocence to once again foil plans that she wasn't even supposed to be mixed in with. But with experience she is getting tougher, as well. This book is unexpectedly lovely in parts, too; Mrs. P has a conversation with Tsanko, her contact for the passports, while they are waiting in the darkness before their siege. It is about love, and peace, and human connection, and it's thoughtful and moving. 

I thought this was a strong addition to the series so far, and look forward to more. 

The Bewitching

 

The Bewitching / Silvia Moreno-Garcia
NY: Del Rey, c2025.
356 p.

A perfect book to share on this haunting date, The Bewitching is all about witchcraft in a family line and how it has travelled from Mexico to Massachusetts, starting with Nana Alba in small town Mexico and following her granddaughter Minerva to university in the US. There are three storylines here; the third follows Beatrice Tremblay, the writer who Minerva is researching. The story intertwines the three threads, and slowly comes together the further you get into it. 

Because there are such distinct storylines, I did find it started slowly, and it took me a good quarter of the way to get into it. But once I began connecting the stories and getting in to the plot, it sped by. I do like an academic gothic!

I found this book fascinating for many reasons. The story of Alba, discovering black magic in Mexico, was eerie and almost fairytale-like in some ways (the dark kind). A lot of the folklore was new to me and so really intriguing. Minerva was a good contemporary character - intelligent, courageous, curious, and tough; a poor scholarship student who was also working to keep herself going. Lots of grit. And that helps her in the circumstances she has to face as the book develops. 

Meanwhile Beatrice Tremblay's story feels a bit like a story within a story, one that Minerva is uncovering as we go. It's intimately connected to Minerva's family history, but she doesn't know that in the beginning. There are a few male characters who play foil to Minerva in a couple of different ways but it's really Minerva and all the women, past and present, who are the focus of this book. And that was something else I appreciated about the story. 

There is a little bit of gore and some creepy elements that I found a bit disturbing, especially in Alba's storyline. You can always skim a bit though! As a whole, I thought it was a good read with unexpected elements and connections between the characters. A bit tricky for the reader, in the best ways. 

Writers & Liars

 

Writers and Liars / Carol Goodman
NY: William Morrow, c2025.
258 p.

Carol Goodman's latest was a delight - another great read about writers and students and academic shenanigans, including murder and theft. Set on a Greek island, awash in myth and mysticism, these young and no-longer-young writers must face both the past and a current threat to them all. 

In a similar vein to her earlier book The Bones of the Story, this novel has a group of writing students reunited after many years, brought back to the elite island that was the site of a writing residency they had attended when they were young and naive. There were idyllic days there, and new relationships, but also betrayal and manipulation that most of them didn't recognize until much later. 

Now they've all been invited back, and refusals were not allowed. Not all of them are back as writers, though; a few who haven't really made it are now working for their rich patron as staff. Once they all arrive, however, they discover that their absent host is dead. And they are all stranded on the island, worried about getting picked off one by one, suspecting one another in a nerve wracking game of chicken. 

It's a bit Glass Onion, a bit Agatha Christie, and so rich with Goodman's usual themes. Added to the regular academic/writing undercurrents, this one has a vein of Greek myth and mysticism. It's a wonderful addition and I found the pace and the plot really enjoyable. This is a bit shorter than some of her earlier books and I think that added to the tight narrative, not too much filler here, but still lots of great characterizations and a wonderful setting. Not only the island, but also the sprawling house, are evoked with distinctive imagery. I was almost sure who was the villain, by the end, mostly by the process of elimination, but Goodman keeps us on tenterhooks, not easily giving anyone a solid alibi. This was a haunting and satisfying read. 

A Stranger in my Grave

A Stranger in my Grave / Margaret Millar
NY: Soho, 2018, c1960.
354 p.

I have to parcel out Margaret Millar's books so I don't run through them too quickly! I only have a few left unread now. But this one was one I picked up recently, set in California like many of her stories, and focused on the psychological state of Daisy Harker, a young woman convinced that there was something important happening on a date that she sees on a tombstone in a dream, a tombstone with her name on it.

Daisy is a young married woman and her mother lives in a small house on their property, but is always in the house, picking at her as much as her husband does. They don't listen to her, tell her not to be hysterical, and seem to communicate more with each other than either does with Daisy. 

But this time Daisy isn't going to take it. She goes out on her own and finds a private detective to help her figure things out. Stevens Pinata is a mystery in his own right; raised as an orphan, he doesn't know his own real name or even ethnicity. He's a cipher. But he has ethics, and when Daisy asks him to help her find out what happened on Dec 2, 1955, the day that she thinks was the day of her death, he at first demurs - but then decides to help her. They spend time at the library, examining records and newspapers, which is quite a delight. But they also cause gossip, as this young white housewife is seen by older ladies walking down the street with a brown person. 

As always, Millar delves into the psychological elements of a story, the "why" that drives it. Daisy's father is a no-good drunk, who her mother had separated from years before. But Daisy still gets letters from him now and again, and this becomes part of the mystery. 

How all these characters, as well as the occupant of the real tomb, are connected, comes clearer to the reader page by page. The plot is convoluted, full of strange characters and odd behaviours and obsessions. Daisy is the linchpin to all of it, even if she doesn't know it, and her insistence on following the eerie guidance of her dream unravels it all.  

I thought it was fascinating, delving into this one woman's repressed memories as she fights against all social conditioning and the efforts of her husband and her own mother to keep her childish and innocent. Millar openly includes many issues: sexism, racism, alcoholism, even religion, and how they all twist people in different ways. This story depends heavily on the schisms around race and class, and doesn't pretty anything up. 

This was compelling reading, but a bit more complicated plotwise than some of her others I've read. There were a lot of angles going on. And the one false note for me was the unconvincing romance that becomes apparent in the last pages. But Daisy isn't going back to the way things were before, after shaking off her willful blindness through her investigations, that is one certainty that you can close this book with. It's a haunting drama with some powerful moments. 

Kills Well With Others

 

Kills Well with Others / Deanna Raybourn
NY: Berkley, c2025.
356 p.

Book Two of the Killers of a Certain Age series, this one was just as readable as the first, although maybe missing just a touch of the humour in the first volume. 

In this volume, the quartet of retired assassins (Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie) are called back into an off-the-books assignment -- there is a mole in The Museum feeding info to a criminal mastermind in Eastern Europe, who the director of The Museum things is then killing off agents who had ever been involved in working against this gangster. 

She asks the group to uncover the mole and to work to stop the powerful woman targeting them all. So the four head off on a bargain tour of Europe to do what they can. There is a similarity to the first book; quite a bit of gore, lots of women in all the roles (only a few men to serve as light interest), but there is also more focus on the relationships between the women. This was both a positive (we learn more about them) and a negative (it slows the action down a bit). The plot was fast moving with lots of twists and revelations, and the thriller element was strong. But I was a little less enamored of the flashbacks, they took you away from the pace of the crime story. 

Still, I did like this one and thought the finale was well done. And besides just the plot, there are issues of aging, friendship, loyalty, the ways the past affects the present (personally and in more of a world events sense), and more. I hope the next one returns to the more omniscent narrator (this one is largely from Billie's viewpoint) but I will likely read it no matter what. This group of women have great stories to tell!   

The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax

 

The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax / Dorothy Gilman
read by Barbara Rosenblatt
Landover MD: Recorded Books, 2019, c1970.

After being introduced to this series by reading the first volume, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, I knew I had to search out more in the series. I found all the titles available through Hoopla, in audiobook format, read by the inimitable Barbara Rosenblatt (who also reads the Amelia Peabody series). Score! 

I immediately checked out the second volume, in which Mrs. Pollifax is sent on another courier mission, this time to Istanbul. And of course she gets far more involved than she should, as she encounters a series of disasters on her mission and must get creative. But that's what she does best. And this time, she is more prepared - she's been studying karate.

Emily Pollifax is being sent, as the only agent that CIA man Carstairs can think of who would not be suspect in the city of professional spies. And with her flowered hats and grandmotherly demeanor, he could be right. Her mission is to get information to a defecting Soviet spy to help her escape the many countries and agents pursuing her. Things don't go so smoothly as they were supposed to, though. 

Thankfully Mrs. Pollifax has great skill (and luck) and picking up random strangers who prove helpful to her in many ways. She encounters a young man early on, thanks to talking to a young woman on the plane over, who ends up having a very important van available when Mrs. Pollifax needs to go on the run. And they both encounter a criminal in the dark, in a graveyard, who joins them, but WhatTheHell! (long story). 

The story leaves Istanbul and ranges across Turkey, where they find help from various strangers including clever young people creating distractions, to a band of gypsies (this book was published in 1970, so they are called gypsies and somewhat stereotyped, but they are presented very sympathetically). In the final scene, Mrs. Pollifax has to take some extreme and very unexpected measures to get her spy to an airport -- and it is hilarious as well as exciting. Overall, there was great pacing, lots of gorgeous Turkish landscape and culture, engaging characters and thoughtful writing. I love how Gilman creates a balance between crime caper, spy thriller and cozy mystery; it works beautifully. And Barbara Rosenblatt's narration is just A1. Loved this one, and will be continuing with the series. 

Crafting with Slander: Gasper's Cove mystery #3

 

Crafting with Slander / Barbara Emodi
Lafayette, CA: C&T, c2025.
242 p.

I've missed posting in October (time just got away from me, again!) and so for the last week of the month I am planning to share some seasonal mysteries and thrillers. I'm starting with this light-hearted cozy, for a gentle start.

I'm going back a little in this series, as I had missed this one, the 3rd in the series, even though I recently reviewed #4! But it doesn't matter too much, as the stories do stand alone even if they are more entertaining when you read in order, since you can follow the characters. 

I really enjoyed this one. The set up was tricky and the solution unexpected. As the story begins, Gasper's Cove is being told that the larger town of Drummond across the causeway is going to amalgamate the community. The residents don't want this at all, but "Mighty Mike" Murphy, the mayor, thinks it's a great idea. (and the crafters start coming up with some wacky ideas to stop it, like blowing up the causeway that separates the two communities, or less violently, using their crafting skills to knit a giant barrier including a button up gate for emergencies.)

There is a municipal election, though, and Valerie's cousin Darlene decides to run. There are a couple of other local candidates, one who runs just to bring attention to the issues he is concerned about, and one more serious candidate, the son of a prominent local family hoping to use this as a stepping stone to bigger and better political roles. 

Valerie steps up as Darlene's campaign manager, and gets her crafters involved. They hand-stencil election signs, cross-stitch up some badges, and generally stump for Darlene. But then Valerie goes to complain to the mayor about some dirty tricks and finds him dead with one of Darlene's signs next to him. Concerned that Darlene is being framed, Valeried starts another round of investigations. 

This one was tricky and has some red herrings that were very convincing to me. There are also a few new characters added into the mix, and some moments where Valerie's nosiness gets her into some serious trouble. Thankfully, as always, Valerie prevails -- even if she starts by accusing a bunch of non-guilty characters! There was fascinating info about local Nova Scotia history, as always, and in this book it was focused on the famous painter Maud Lewis. Readers will always learn something even in these light and entertaining cozies. And as always, sewing and crafting talk is naturally woven into the story. Really enjoyable. 

(review first published at FollowingTheThread)