One Bear's Opinion -- Book Review

Murder on the Minnesota by Conrad Allen

For this third adventure, George Porter Dillman and Genevieve Masefield have moved from the Cunard Line to the Great Northern Steamship Line, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Despite the change in ships and oceans, the basic story is the same.

Series mystery novels do all tend to have similar basic plots, particularly murder mysteries. Going in I knew this was going to follow the basic formula of murder and investigation until the culprit is unveiled. Reading mystery series is more a visit with old friends and solving a puzzle along the way more than it is just to solve the puzzle. The formulaic nature of the novels can grate on some people, but it’s not really a problem for me.

Murder on the Minnesota was similar to the first two mysteries in the series, but it’s different as well. The personal relationship between George and Genevieve develops further, but there is more than that. In the first book, there were many lavish descriptions of the Lusitania. The second book brought some descriptions, but not as many, or the Mauretania. This episode had very few descriptions of the Minnesota. That may be explained because the ship was not only an ocean liner, but also a freighter, but still, I missed the descriptions of the ship. Having been on several modern-day cruise ships left me something of a deck plan junkie. I love pouring over deck plans and imagining the way the passengers move and flow along the ship. I would have really enjoyed having a page of deck plans for the classic ocean liners used in the series. Even if they were fictionalized, along with the passengers and stories. It would have also helped in this episode, because much of the action happened “around corners” and in cabins close to each other, but with easy access to escape passages. It would have been much nicer to have an idea of how everything fit together according to the author’s mental deck plan of the ship.

It was a fun adventure, full of disreputable, dislikable characters and innocent bystander victims. There were plenty of red herrings and false starts in the investigation, and though the solution was satisfying, the ending of the book felt a bit rushed and unfinished. It definitely set the read up for more adventures with George and Genevieve, but there was a bit of a disappointment in the hanging stories of a few of the innocent bystanders.

I am excited to get to re-reading the next episodes in the series, and the mysteries have stood up to the re-reads. I did not remember who was he murderer or that the initial investigation was headed down the wrong track. I remember the characters more than the story. And that is the way it should be with re-reads — enjoyable visits with old friends.

One Bear’s Opinion: Three Mai-Tais on the Lido Deck with breezes gently swaying the umbrella

Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver

One Bear's Opinion -- Book Review

Bitter End by Rex Stout

Bitter End is a Nero Wolfe novella. I picked it up for the Kindle when it was available for free. I think Amazon intended it to be an introduction to Nero Wolfe as a character, and having met Nero and Archie, readers would seek out other books. Good marketing strategy.

In this edition, Bitter End is paired with a short story that does not feature Nero Wolfe. That is a bit disappointing, and a bit of false advertising, in my opinion. While it never says that the short story, On the Line, features Nero Wolfe, it doesn’t say it does not either, so readers can get the idea that both stories in the volume do feature the famous detective.

Bitter End is a good story and a fun read. I wasn’t sure of the murderer until Wolfe’s revelation so that was good. And it was a fun adventure with Archie, though I think almost all the adventures with Archie are fun.

It’s a quick read and definitely worth it. According to other sources, this story is available in a volume of Nero Wolfe short stories, but whether you read it like that or as the one-off single I did, it is absolutely worth the time. Short stories like this are perfect for reading while in waiting rooms or in line at the post office.

I debated my rating for this book. I loved the Nero Wolfe novella. But I was disappointed by the short story. And the advertising lead the reader to think both featured Nero Wolfe. It was this perceived deception that lowered my rating more than the writing, plot or other literary concerns.

One Bear’s Opinion: Three Glasses of Iced Tea poured from a bottle with Fig Netwons

Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver

One Bear's Opinion -- Book Review

Murder on the Mauretania by Conrad Allen

This is the second adventure with George Porter Dillman and Genevieve Masefield aboard a classic ocean liner. And it’s one of my favorite of their adventures. Mostly because of a central character — the mystery is solved with the aide of the ship’s mascot, Bobo, a black cat.

Fortunately, books and movies have editors, so if a seemingly minor detail is important enough to mention in the narrative, you can be pretty sure it will be important to the story later. Because Bobo is introduced in the first chapter, I am pretty sure that he is going to play a very important role. And he does. Saying any more would be spoiling the book for other readers.

My reading companion and I have already read the entire series, but both of us noticed during this re-read that we had forgotten the murderers in the books, though we remembered many of the supporting characters. The books definitely stand up to re-reading.

This one does not have the descriptions of the ship’s facilities the way Murder on the Lusitania did, but there is still an excellent sense of setting. I have taken several cruises, so I have a fair idea of life on board, but my cruises have been in the era of cruising for pleasure not transportation, and none of them have been on classed lines. Even though we prefer to cruise in Ocean-View cabins on lower decks, they are not classified as “steerage” or “third-class” and there is no passenger accessible area that is off limits to any passenger. The food and service is the same in the Main Dining Room or the Lido Buffet for all passengers, regardless of the cabin category in which they are sailing. I’m not sure, but I would hazard that the accommodations on board today’s cruise ships are closer to the Second Class accommodation on the classic ocean liners, though I have no real basis for comparison other than pictures and fictional descriptions. I did miss the lavish description from the first adventure aboard the Lusitania.

Overall this is a better mystery, though there are fewer red herrings and false starts to the investigation. I found the structure of watching the crime unfold, then then playing along as the detectives investigate, to be more engaging than coming in after the crime has been committed and working back. It’s more like watching a television mystery. And I find knowing details of the crime the detectives do not makes for a better read. But that’s my opinion.

George Porter Dillman and Genevieve Masefield do not disappoint. It’s a fun adventure on a classic ocean liner, made even better by Bobo (though I’m not sure Bobo would approve of that name for himself).

One Bear’s Opinion: Four Grapefruit Cosmo Mocktails in the Ocean Bar with a plate of hot hors d’oeuvres

Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver

One Bear's Opinion -- Book Review

Murder on the Lusitania by Conrad Allen

Since my housemate and reading companion and I were on a bit of a roll with fun books, we decided to leave Guns, Germs and Steel for a while and pick up something else fun. I suggested we invite old friends for a visit and re-read a series she had read a while ago.

She agreed and together we decided that we could have a nice visit with George Porter Dillman and Genevieve Masefield, who are detectives on a cruise ship in the early 1900s. Not quite the same as the cruise ship my housemate will be going on later this year, but still similar.

We had read the entire series of eight books previously, so this reading is a re-read of Murder on the Lusitania. I have no problem re-reading books, as I do look at books as friends and reading them as visits with good friends. Everyone needs more time with good friends.

The R.M.S. Lusitania made its own mark on world history, but this book is not about that moment.  It is set on the maiden voyage in September 1907. It is interesting to have a view of the ship that is not about that moment, even if it is entirely fictional.  There is a postscript in the book detailing the real story of the Lusitania, but it was very nice to have the story set completely apart from the moment that made the Lusitania a household word.

I checked out when we began this series the first time we read it. It was March 2002. I was surprised how little of the details of the book I remembered from that first time. I could not remember who the murderer was, and even though we had read it before, I was, like the detective, on the trial of the wrong person all the way through the book.

After I finished my re-reading, I read a review that said this book will never be mistaken for great literature, and I cannot disagree. But that does not mean it’s not a fun book to read, or that you should not read it. The book is reasonably fast-paced, and there are plenty of sub-plots to follow, which also served to complicate the murder investigation.

The book stands up to a re-read, and the series is fun, if only because of the setting. It’s really nice to disappear into a bygone era for a while. Who would not want to spend some time in the first class cabins on a trans-Atlantic crossing on the Cunard line?

One Bear’s Opinion: Four cups of tea, leisurely enjoyed while watching the gentle waves

Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver

One Bear's Opinion -- Book Review

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

One Bear's Opinion -- Book Review

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

One Bear's Opinion -- Book Review

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