Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout
My housemate’s mother has been reading the Nero Wolfe series for as long as I can remember. She works through the series in varying order every two years. Nero Wolfe has become almost a family member to my housemate. He has always been there, popping in at least once a month for a visit. But for reasons she cannot accurately explain, my housemate resisted reading the Nero Wolfe books, despite her mother’s assurances that she would enjoy them.
Then last year, as part of the 2015 Popsugar Ultimate Reading Challenge, she decided to give the series a try with a book she picked up on sale for her Kindle. We read Murder by the Book, and just as her mother predicted, she really enjoyed it. After which, she decided to pick up a few more Nero Wolfe books as they came on sale for the Kindle. I think she is enjoying sharing the books with her mother.
We are currently reading Guns, Germs and Steel, but together we deiced we wanted something fun to read as an alternative to the heavier book. And after consulting with me, she decided to give another Nero Wolfe story a try. Because I prefer to read the series in the order the author intended, she agreed to go with the earliest book in the series we have, which is not the first book in the series, but the sixth — Some Buried Caesar. My housemate’s mother, along with other reviewers, assures us that it is not necessary to read this series in order, so I am not as concerned by the fact that we didn’t start at the beginning.
As I mentioned, I am not unfamiliar with Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. We thoroughly enjoyed the far too short-lived series Timothy Hutton did for the American cable network A&E. (I must get my housemate on finding that series on DVD. I could watch them over and over and I would love to share them with our newest housemates.) So we know the characters, and while my housemate declares that Nero Wolfe annoys the heck out of her, she does really like Archie Goodwin and the other supporting characters. This episode in the series introduced a recurring character, Lily Rowan, and it was nice to see how Archie and Nero met her.
What I discovered was that the book, originally written, or at the very least copyrighted, in 1938, really stands up and does not feel as dated as more modern mystery novels do as little as five years after they were written. I also agree with my housemate’s parents: Rex Stout does have a way with language. I had to check the dictionary quite a few times, and was, quite frankly, disappointed to find that the words we needed to look up were not in the onboard dictionary on the Kindle. What good is a dictionary that only includes words you already know? Poor form Amazon.
I honestly enjoyed this book, though I will admit to being nearly two-thirds through the book before I realized that the title did not mean that a number of people buried someone named Caesar, but instead referred to (misquoted) a line from The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, discussing a plot of land where a caesar was buried:
I sometimes think that never [grows] so red
The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled.
The title made more sense when I realized what it referenced.
The book was a fun and easy read, at least as long as I had a handy dictionary, and I am definitely going to encourage my housemate towards reading more of Nero Wolfe. She has another two novels and a novella on the Kindle, but I may have to gently steer her towards violating her self-imposed Kindle spending limit to get more. We need far more visits with Nero and Archie. It's delightful there are 45 books for us to discover and re-read.
One Bear’s Opinion: Five bottles of beer with five plates of Chicken Fricassee and Dumplings from the Methodist Tent at the North Atlantic Exposition
Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver
Window’s Tears by Susan Wittig Albert
This is the twenty-first book in the China Bayles mystery series. But really, there wasn’t much of a mystery. In fact, the mystery aspect of the book was far down as far as plot elements in this book. If I hadn’t been expecting a mystery, I may have missed it completely. And normally that would make it a book worth skipping in the series as far as I’m concerned. This, however, was a very good book.
It was a hard book for my reading companion to read. But in the end, it was worth the time. The main story of this book centered around the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. It seemed to be well-researched though it was a fictionalized account of the event. Real people and real events featured in the book, though the main characters were entirely fictional.
The main action of the story centered around a house haunted by the ghost of a survivor of the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. I did not particularly care for that supernatural/ghost aspect. I think that was a ploy to capture a market that exists right now rather than true character development. I did find the historical flashbacks were definitely worth the read.
I would have preferred this story been told as a stand alone book, rather than having a combination ghost story/murder mystery clumsily woven into it. By weaving together the stories, in what I can only assume was an attempt to please too many audiences all at once, no one part of the story was given the attention it deserved. And the historical tale was well worth telling, even as a (well-researched) fictional account.
My reading companion is fairly sure she is suffering from the after effects of having lived through Hurricane Katrina, so it was difficult for her to read, and it may have been good for her that she was partially distracted while reading this book. But as hard as it was for her to read, it was definitely a book that will stay with us. I doubt we’ll read more about the Great Galveston Hurricane, just because of our own experience in Katrina, but the story of the Great Galveston Hurricane is definitely worth being told.
As a China Bayles mystery, Widow’s Tears is a failure. The murder mystery is far down in importance. The main series characters are largely absent from this episode, and nothing happens in the book that will not be recapped, if necessary, in future episodes. As far as the overall story arc goes, this is not important at all. In terms of the series, this feels like a contract negotiation vanity project. If you are reading the book for the characters and the mystery, you will be disappointed. But as a book worth reading, it succeeds spectacularly. The description of the hurricane is terrifying and incredibly realistic. And it brings questions about the failure of the weather forecasting, warning, and emergency systems long before Hurricane Katrina. It really shows the power of nature and humanity's fight against that nature.
One Bear’s Opinion: Four cups of strong coffee spiked with a good bit of Irish Cream and a plate of rum balls
Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma
by Trenton Lee Stewart
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma are the second and third books in a three book series. I read the first book a couple of years ago, and was completing the series. Last year most of our (my housemate/reading companion and me) reading energies were spent on the Popsugar 2015 Ultimate Reading Challenge so the books we read we geared to ticking off categories above anything else, expect enjoyment. After finding reading to someone else’s parameters was not for us, my reading partner has set a goal to catch up on series and tackle more of the books she already owns than trying to tick off someone else’s arbitrary boxes, so more of our reading this year will probably be books by the same author with the same characters read in groups. I may review each individually, or I may, as in this case, review them together as a whole.
While the first book in this series, The Mysterious Benedict Society, can be read on its own, it does leave part of the story open in an almost-but-not-really-a-cliff-hanger style ending, which takes the next two books in the series to completely wrap up. These books could be read each on their own, but it’s probably better to read them together, and as a continuation of the series, as the story carries on from one to the next in a way that it does not from the first to the second books.
These books are officially written for middle-grade readers, but that does not mean that other readers, adults, older, or younger children, would not enjoy them. I definitely enjoyed them and found the characters engaging and fun. I think though, like other books featuring children as central characters, adults may find it harder to relate to the characters who are the most unlike them when they were children. I see that as a common complaint in book reviews of children’s books by adults. But that may be a common problem with all forms of novels — if the reader does not identify with the characters, much of the enjoyment of the book is lost. And the characters in this series of books are very peculiar children, advanced in some areas but not in others. The adults are also a bit quirky and, in some cases, almost one dimensional. I can understand why some readers do not like the books.
It is hard to discuss the books without spoiling them, because while the plot is integral to any novel, it is particularly hard for me to discuss much about these books without mentioning things which may be considered spoilers by some readers. If you have read and enjoyed the first book in the series, you may be a bit disappointed in these two adventures. I found there are fewer clues and puzzles to solve, and the ones that were there were easier for me to figure out. I missed the puzzles because the lack of them seemed to make it harder for the reader to play along with the children, which was a big part of the fun of the original book in the series. Also, the adventure, as it plays out, in the second book is rather unbelievable, even within the world constructed by the author for the book. I can forgive many things in fiction, but not as much of the situations do not even make sense in the world created for the fiction. It was almost as if the author had written himself into a corner and could not get out without re-building the room and not letting readers know he had done so. That is a dramatic example, and not what happened the book, but there were large parts of the Perilous Journey that were unbelievable, even within the world contracted for the book.
All of which is not to say I did not enjoy these books; I did. Visits with Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance are always enjoyable. I was pleased with the final ending in book three, which wrapped everything up neatly, but honestly, I did not enjoy them as much as I did the first book. I would say to read the books for the visits with the characters, but do not expect them to be as good as your first adventure with the Mysterious Benedict Society.
One Bear's Opinion: Three cups of apple cinnamon tea and a huge slice of apple pie a la mode
Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver
