Tag: Fiction

And Be a Villain

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Stout, Rex. And Be a Villain. Bantam, 1994.

Reason read: to continue the series started a year ago!

Nero Wolfe is crafty. The way he finds clients is to insert himself into a dilemma (pretty much always a murder) with the promise of a solution (usually by proving someone’s innocence)…for a price (usually pretty steep). However it is up to Archie Goodwin to sell that service and bring the client onboard. When on-air guest Cyril Orchard is murdered by cyanide poisoning during Madeline Fraser’s radio program, Archie’s spin is that the heat will be off Madeline as a suspect if she hires the great Nero Wolfe to find the real killer. Logic prevails and Madeline agrees to Wolfe’s demands; except now it looks like the poison was meant for her. Is someone out there is trying to kill her? At the same time Beula Poole is found shot to death and a seemingly unrelated gynecologist is being blackmailed. Then a third person is poisoned. Are all of these events related? The case so stumps Wolfe that he begrudgingly involves his on again-off again nemesis, Inspector Cramer. As usual, Goodwin is the star of the show.

Line I liked, “No doctor should assume responsibility for the health of one he loves or one he hates” (p 168).

Author fact: according to one biography, Rex Stout devised and implemented a school banking system.

Book trivia: As with most Stout books the publishers lets the reader peek behind this curtain. This time And Be A Villain shared Viking’s lawyers’ attempt to find any detail that resembled real people or situations.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Bee Season

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Goldberg, Myla. Bee Season. Doubleday, 2000.

Reason read: I have a category called “Special Child Month” and this book falls in it.

Poor eleven year old Eliza Naumann just wants to be noticed by her family. Every member of her family has their own preoccupation. Older brother Aaron, once destined to becomes a rabbi, is on a quest to discover the right religion for him. Slowly he becomes absorbed into the Harre Krishna culture and dreams of becoming a pujari speaking Sanskrit. Mother Miriam has a fixation on stealing things. She stole a random shoe from a mall department store sale rack. She didn’t even want the shoe, useless without its mate, after all. She ended up throwing it away. Each theft begs the question why Each family member slips further into the background while Eliza becomes obsessed with words. When she discovers she is good at spelling her father becomes her champion and urges her to “remove herself entirely from daily life, to brush against the limitless” (p 98). There is an open-ended conclusion to this fractured family.

Lines I liked, “Besides, he can always masturbate to his memories” (p 48) and “It is late enough that the grass is filled with tomorrow’s dew” (p 196).

Author fact: Bee Season was Goldberg’s first book and the only one I am reading for the Challenge.

Book trivia: the front and back covers of Bee Season mimic a dictionary. The novel was made into a movie in 2005.

Music: Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Flock of Seagulls, Pachelbel canon, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman,” the Eagles, and “Oh Susanna.”

BookLust Twist: first, in Book Lust in the chapter called “Jewish American Experience” (p 132), and then again in More Book Lust in the chapter called “Child Prodigies” (p 43).

Piano Tuner

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Mason Daniel. The Piano Tuner. Vintage Books, 2002.

Reason read: In November Aung San Suu Kyi was released from a Burmese prison.

Edgar Drake, a reserved piano tuner from London, has been given a curious assignment by the British government. He has been hand picked to repair an ancient grand piano belonging to Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll. Carroll, stationed in the jungles of Burma, refuses to work without the ancient piano in working order. As Edgar journeys to the Surgeon-Major he learns the man is polarizing. In some circles Carroll is a legend and is toasted as a hero; almost a god. While in other places Edgar Drake has been warned not to talk about the Surgeon-Major at all. Not one word. Everywhere Drake goes everyone knows Anthony Carroll for better or worse. [As an aside, there is a such a build-up in The Piano Tuner to meeting the man himself; it is 165 pages before Drake even arrives in Carroll’s Mae Lwin village.]
The jungles of Burma are a far cry from the damp and stodgy London Drake is used to. Before he arrives in Mae Lwin to meet Carrol, he is taken on a tiger hunt. He sees the cruelty of the culture first hand. It was interesting to witness the personal transformation of this quiet Londoner. By the time he reaches Mae Lwin he has fallen in love. His quest doesn’t seem to be about a piano anymore.
[As another aside, I loved the character of Khin Myo, especially when she said “One learns a lot if others assume you are deaf to their tongue” (p 123).]

Author fact: while Mason has written other books The Piano Tuner is the only book I am reading for the Challenge.

Book trivia: The Piano Tuner is Daniel Mason’s first novel and was adapted for an opera in 2004. The audio version is read by Richard Matthews.

Music: Vivaldi, “God Save the Queen,” “God Bless the Queen,” “The Woodcutter’s Daughter,” Liszt, Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Sharp, and Chopin.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Burmese Days” (p 45).

Feast of Snakes

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Crews, Harry. Feast of Snakes. Atheneum, 1976.

Reason read: October is scary month and this one takes the cake.

Feast of Snakes is not for the fainthearted. There is every kind of excessive abuse one can think of within its pages. Rape, domestic violence, corruption, animal cruelty, racism, adultery, elder abuse, alcoholism, gambling, murder, and even castration.
Joe Lon Mackey exists as your typical down and out alcoholic twenty-something year old. His high school glory days as a football star have long faded, “Then one day football was gone and it took everything with it” (p 102). Saddled with a mealy wife and two small squalling kids, trapped in a small town with no future, Joe Lon forever lives in the past. His sister is mentally unstable after coming home to find mom murdered by dad. Dad spends his time getting dogs to fight to the death. Old flame Bernadette is still as beautiful as ever, but committed to someone else. It pains Joe Lon that she has moved on and doesn’t seem to remember the good old days, but he’ll force her to think of them one way or another. The memories of what Joe Lon Mackey had but lost have made him brutally mean to everyone around him. His innermost thoughts lead one to believe that deep down inside he has a tiny smidgen of good that is trying to find a way out. Like mean Mr. Grinch, one had to have faith Joe Lon would crawl out of the anger that ensnares his soul. Unfortunately, the entire town seems to be full of brutally mean men and deeply sad women. It’s only a matter of time before the community explodes with rage.

As an aside, there is a rattlesnake round up that happens every year in Claxton, Georgia.

Line that summed up the entire book, “He always got mean when he got nervous” (p 141).

Author fact: Crews has written a bunch of stuff but I am only reading Feast of Snakes for the Challenge.

Book trivia: the dedication is pretty cool, “I have never raised a glass with a better friend.”

Music: Merle Haggard

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Grit Lit” (p 106).

Love at Second Sight

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Leverson, Ada. The Little Ottleys: Love at Second Sight.

Reason read: to finish the series started in August.

When we catch up to the lovely Edith she is now the mother of a ten year old and still married to the horrible Bruce. It has been three solid years since Bruce was so taken with Mavis Argles that he tried to run away and elope in France. It didn’t work out and Edith, faithful to a fault took him back. Home again, Bruce continues to point out Edith’s shortcomings like they are earth-shattering catastrophes, “…as a matter of fact, a curl by the right ear was only one-tenth of an inch further on the cheek than it was intended to be” (p 348), but Edith just shrugs him off more than ever. Despite her steadfast loyalty to Bruce, Edith hasn’t completely forgotten Aylmer Ross. Alymer, home with a war injury, is still madly in love with Edith, but she stubbornly is determined to make her marriage work.
The new element of Love at Second Sight is that Edith and Bruce are housing a widow who shows no signs of leaving. We have no idea where she came from or why she is there but, Madam Frabelle charms her way into every person’s heart and influences every mind. She determines the outcome of Love at Second Sight.

As an aside, Bruce and Madame Frabelle’s little journey confused me a little. First they are on a train, then a boat, then they frequent a hotel for lunch. Then they pop over to Hampton Court and then back to the river where Bruce shows off his rowing skills and then back to the Belle of the Rover and to the train. What a day!

Music: Mozart, Handel, Debussy, Ravel, Faure, “Drink To Me Only with Thine Eyes,” and “I’ll Sing Thee Songs of Araby.”

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Viragos” (p 227).

Absolute Truths

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Howatch, Susan. Absolute Truths. Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.

Reason read: to continue the series started in April in honor of Good Friday and Easter (the theme being religion).

Even though Absolute Truths is part of the Starbridge series, each story is self-contained and can be read on its own. It should be noted that each book is connected to the others through characters and plots. This has been said before, but never is it more true than in Absolute Truths. We come back to the character of Charles Ashworth. If you remember from the very first Starbridge novel, Glittering Images, Charles was sent to make sure there was nothing sinister happening in the Jardine household where a young woman (Lyle Christie) was serving as companion to Mrs. Jardine. Charles became obsessed with Lyle and eventually married her. When we catch up to Charles in Absolute Truths, Lyle running the perfect household. When Charles loses Lyle he has to figure out his absolute truth. I have to admit, I was disappointed to return to a character who already had the spotlight in 1937. It would have been more fun to explore the life of a younger character and move beyond the 1960s.
As with every other installment in the Starbridge series, the main character is plagued by sexual impulses and the threat of excessive alcoholic stupors. Charles Ashworth is no different. He is wracked by guilt over things he barely understands. As always, ghosts circle and demons threaten. Jon Darrow leads the charge back to sanity, asking the question: is love the absolute truth?

Quote to quote, “No degree of impatience can excuse vulgarity” (p 43).

Author fact: Wheel of Fortune is Howatch’s most notable novel.

Book trivia: Absolute Truths is the sixth and final book in the Starbridge series. Book Lust To Go only lists three of the books while More Book Lust mentions seven. Pearl is in error when she lists Wonder Worker as part of the Starbridge series.

Music: Jack Buchanan, “Tennessee Waltz,” David Rose’s “The Stripper,” “Zadok the Priest,” and “Thine Be the Glory.”

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: the Family of the Clergy” (p 86) and again in Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Entering England” (p 76). As an aside, Pearl mentions Wonder Worker as the last Starbridge book in the series. Even though Wonder Worker does have some of the same Starbridge characters Howatch does not consider it part of the series.

Ellington Boulevard

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Langer, Adam. Ellington Boulevard: a Novel in A-Flat. Spiegel and Grau, 2008.

Reason read: September is when the New York Gypsy Festival usually happens.

Ike Ambrose Morphy has been away from his beloved Manhattan for seven months while he cared for his dying mother in Chicago. In that short time, the New York he knew has changed dramatically. The off-limits parts of Central Park he used to frequent with his dog, Herbie Mann, are now patrolled by police. Right away you know Ike is headed for trouble. The hole in a particular fence he used to sneak through is no longer there so he has to cut a new hole. His carrying a tool for that? That’s new. The cop who caught him gives him a hard time about trespassing. That is also new. Even more disturbing, there are people in his apartment when he finally arrives back home; the place where he has never needed a lease or contract. It is no longer his apartment just as it is no longer his New York. Welcome to Ellington Boulevard. But Ellington Boulevard isn’t just Ike’s story. Readers will meet the buyer, her husband, the real estate agent (an out of work actor playing the part of a real estate salesperson even though his heart isn’t really in it), the broker and a bunch of other interesting characters. Readers will also get a few lessons in music history (like the inventor of the B-flat clarinet, Iwan Muller).
My initial complaint? Some of the characters in Ellington Boulevard were very cliché: stereotypical descriptions of the haves and have-nots. Mark Masler is a good example of that. My only other complaint about Ellington Boulevard? In a city as vast as the Big Apple is, I was surprised Herbie Mann’s world was so small. What are the chances that his current owner and previous owner would run in the same circles?

As an aside, I love any author that slips in a little Dr. Seuss (who remembers Gertrude McFuzz?).

Author fact: I am only reading two books by Adam Langer. I finished Crossing California earlier in the Challenge.

Book trivia: Ellington Boulevard uses real N.Y.C. locations like the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and the Untermyer Fountain to name a couple.

Setlist: 50 Cent, “Air Algiers” by Country Joe McDonald, Bruce Springsteen, Black Sabbath, Barry Manilow, Busta Rhymes, Beethoven, Beatles, Buddy Holly, Benny Goodman, Bob Dylan’s “Hard Times in New York Town,” “Conquering the City,” Cole Porter’s “I Happen To Like New York,” the Damage Manual’s “Sunset Gun,” Dave Matthews, Dokken, Easy-E, Eric Dolphy, the Game, Gil Scott-Heron’s “Blue Collar,” “Angola, Louisiana,” and “Winter in America,” “Hava Nagilah,” Hendrix, Herbie Mann, “Here I Go Again On My Own,” Ice Cube, ” (I Believe) I Can Fly,” “(I Wanna) Soar,” “(I’m a) Love Man,” “In the Court of the Crimson Kings,” John Mayer, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Keith Moon, King Crimson, Kurt Cobain, Kool & the Gang, Leonard Bernstein’s “Conquering the City,” Lake & Palmer, “A Little Night Music,” LL Cool J, Lou Reed’s “NYC Man,” “A Love Supreme,” Mozart, Mahavishnu Orchestra, “Merrily We Roll Along,” Moby, Mongo Santamaria, Nirvana, Nas, N.W.A., “Our time,” Ornette Coleman, Patti Smith, Paul McCartney, Peter Frampton, Peggy Lee, the Pogues, Procul Harem, the Prodigy, “Raisins and Almonds,” “Rough Boy,” Rovner!, Snoop Dogg, “Straight Outta Compton,” Sun Ra, Sidney Bechet, “Sunride, Sunset,” “(To Dream) The Impossible Dream,” Tupac’s “Resurrection,” U2’s “Yahweh,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” and “Crumbs From Your Table,” “Winds of Change,” “Wheels On the Bus (Go Round and Round),” “I’ve Seen All Good People” by Yes, “(You Are the) Wings Beneath My Wings,”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “New York City: a Taste of the Big Apple” (p 151).

In Revere, In Those Days

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Merullo, Roland. In Revere, In Those Days. Shaye Areheart Books, 2002.

Reason read: Merullo was born in September. Read in his honor.

Anthony Benedetto is a sweet kid (almost too sweet) growing up in Revere, Massachusetts. His is a world where his extended Italian-American family is everything. When Benedetto loses both his parents in a plane crash his grandparents are quick to take him in. Recognizing Anthony’s sweet nature his grandfather teaches him to play hockey to avoid street fights Anthony would inevitably lose. This love of hockey is the foundation for Anthony’s young life and carries him through high school and college.
Anthony is also surrounded by aunts, uncles, cousins; an army of people who support him in every possibly way. These characters are not without their flaws and Anthony must navigate his confusion surrounding their actions. An uncle who gambles too much. An aunt who commits infidelity. A cousin who insists on dating the wrong boys. He loves them all, but does not completely understand their self destructive ways.
Merullo’s imagery is everything. An example: most people would take the easy route and describe a waning relationship as people “drifting apart.” Merullo says “melt” instead. In Revere, In Those Days is beautiful and I cannot wait to read his other works.

An an aside, I ran my first half marathon in Alton Bay.

Author fact: Like his protagonist, Anthony Benedetto, Merullo went to Exeter and Brown. I wonder if he played hockey.

Book trivia: this should be a movie.

Music: “O Signore,” “Lenta Va La Luna,” “O Sole Mio,” “Silent Night,” The Impressions, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” “Lenta Va La Luna, Lenta La Luna Va,” Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla,” and Bach.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter “Italian American Writers” (p 129).

Tenterhooks: The Little Ottleys

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Leverson, Ada. The Little Ottleys: Tenterhooks. Virago, 1908.

Reason read: to continue the series started in August.

We return to the marriage of Edith and Roger. By this time they have been married for eight years. As a twenty-eight year old, Edith has more spunk in Tenterhooks. Her relationship with Aylmer is one of refreshing independence and gaiety. I practically cheered when she ended a letter to him with “I want you” even though it was not what she intended to say. Poor Aylmer! But there is hope for Edith. She spreads her social wings, becoming popular with the Mitchells to the point where they cannot have a social gathering without her in attendance. She is desirable and charming. She even laughs off her husband’s verbal abuse and silly philandering. She proves to be stronger than he ever imagined.
Tenterhooks is a society brimming with silly people. Someone could say “do not write to me but here is my address of where I will be…”; where when marriage happens by accident that relationship greatly scandalizes the community for decades. The insult of the day was to say that someone was dowdy or out of fashion. Eloping while married can be laughed at and ignored.

Quote I liked: even though I did not care for Mr. Ross as a person I liked when he said “Time doesn’t go by hours” (p 218). More quotes to quote, “Why cry for the moon?” (p 269) and “It is human to play with what ones loves” (274).

Music: Tosti, Melba, Caruso, Bemberk, Dubussy, and Brahms.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Viragos” (p 227).

Brass Dolphin

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Trollope, Joanna. Brass Dolphin. Viking, 1997.

Reason read: In September Malta celebrates their independence.

As a young woman, Lila Cunningham dreamed of running away. She had been saving for her escape from her widower father for years. Freedom seemed just around the corner until one day her father admits they are in debt so deep they are going to lose their house. How can Lila leave her father now? Financially ruined, he only has his art…and he is not that talented of a painter. Even Lila does not believe in his paintings. [As an aside, I found Lila’s father to be a very selfish man. He bartered Lila’s mother’s pearls for paints. But Lila has her immaturities as well.] Neighbors Mr. & Mrs. Perriam come up with a plan to send Lila and her father to the island of Malta where their second home needs looking after. The plan is perfect except for the timing. Hitler has appointed himself war minister of Germany. Lila is naïve to this and she goes to work as a secretary for Count Julius. The theme of naivety runs strong with Lila. She doesn’t realize the importance of Malta to Hitler’s war. She is naïve about Malta’s society. She doesn’t understand the proper decorum of the wealthy. She has never been in a relationship. Readers watch Lila mature as she is faced with difficult and life-altering situations.
As an aside, the first time readers meet a brass dolphin it is in the shape of a knocker, placed high up on an enormously tall door of the Tabia Palace, home of Count Julius. It becomes a symbol of hope for the future later in the book.

As an aside, Joanna Trollope introduced me to the plumbago plant. It is beautiful!

Author fact: Joanna Trollope also wrote under the name Caroline Harvey, probably to scape her famous novelist ancestor, Anthony Trollope.

Music: “Flat Foot Floogie,” and “Jeepers, Creepers.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Messing Around on Malta” (p 144).

Too Many Women

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Stout, Rex. Too Many Women. Viking Press, 1947.

The backstory: a businessman falls victim to a hit-and-run driver. Accident or murder? The firm, Naylor-Kerr, Inc, where the businessman worked, is convinced it was foul play. The board of directors hire Nero Wolfe to prove it. The only problem is Wolfe thinks the clues to solving the case are hidden in the executive offices of Naylor-Kerr. It is up to wise-cracking and devilishly handsome Archie Goodwin to find the evidence by going undercover in Naylor-Kerr. He starts in the Structural Metals section but gets distracted by the Correspondence Checker, namely the victim’s fiancé. In fact, there are too many beautiful women for Archie to handle. He starts dating a few of them to get to the gossip. The best part of his job is entertaining the women in the company. Dancing, dining, and drinking to interview them all.
Once his cover is blown, true to form, Archie is still the sarcastic and sharp-tongued sidekick to Nero that we all know and love. When a second man from the same company is found dead in the exact same manner on the exact same street the pressure mounts to solve the mystery. Even though this was a case that was harder than most for Wolfe to solve as Wolfe mysteries, they wrap up Too Many Women like an episode of Scooby Doo with a long narrative about how it all went down.

A favorite quote, “It wasn’t a conception that hit him, it was a sedan” (p 96).

Author fact: Rex Stout held a job as a bookkeeper.

Book trivia: There was a significant absence of Nero Wolfe in this installment.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Sunne in Splendour

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Penman, Sharon Kay. The Sunne in Splendour. St. Martin’s Press, 1982.

Reason read: King Richard III died in August. Read in his memory.

Fabulous. Glorious. Beautiful. Absorbing. Exceptional. Painstaking. Immersive. Captivating. These are the words critics used to describe Sunne in Splendour when it was first published. The only word I focused on the most? Painstaking. I was intimidated by all 900+ pages. I will be the first to admit that historical fiction is not my thing so I thought this would be a slog. And yet. Sunne in Splendour is a best seller. And. And! And I admit, very entertaining.
This is a time in history when boys of ten wed for political positioning. Brothers killed brothers for the throne. Beheadings were the entertainment of the hour. Backstabbing and betrayals of all kinds ruled the day. Christmas truces could be broken without warning. Penman delivers a glorious fifteenth century England that is bloody and brutal. Richard III is right smack in the middle of it; becoming king on a technicality of legitimacy.
Everything about Sunne in Splendour is detailed perfection. Everything from the food people ate, their choice of drink (spiced hippocras), where they lived and the clothes they wore.

Author fact: Penman died in 2021.

Book trivia: Sunne in Splendour contradicts the well known view of Shakespeare’s Richard III.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Digging Up the Past Through Fiction” (p 80).

Mystical Paths

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Howatch, Susan. Mystical Paths. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.

Reason read: to continue the series started in recognition of Easter back in April.

As with every other Starbridge novel, Mystical Paths is designed to be read independently of others in the series, but it is recommended to read them in order. Characters who were in the background in previous novels jump to the forefront in later ones. This time, Jonathan Darrow’s son, Nicholas, narrates the story. Nicholas and his father are modeled after the work of Christopher Bryant and are both psychics. Nicholas is now twenty-five years old and has a “sex-mess” in the middle of the 1960s. He believes he is one half of his father and suffers from somnambulism. Every night he has to tether himself to something before falling asleep for fear of wandering off somewhere. He leads a double life in order to protect his father, his other half. Yet at eighty-eight years old, Jonathan Darrow is still sharp as a tack and can run circles around his son. Like the other Howatch books, psychological situations are examined through a spiritual and theological lens with the help of a spiritual advisor or religious mentor. Mystical Paths is one of my favorites due to the plots many twists and turns.
I think I have said this before, but the benefit of reading the Starbridge series in order, one right after the other is that besides character development the reader gets the varying perspectives of the same history. Each character recalls the same point in time with different feelings and memories. It reminded me of Michael Dorris’s Yellow Raft in Blue Water.

Every Howatch book (so far) has a character with sexual hang-ups or has trouble with alcohol. Nicholas Darrow is no different. Lines I liked, “As I mooched around, bored out of my mind, I wondered how the Church could survive the 20th century when one of its most famous training-grounds had been so wholly smothered by the dead hand of an irrelevant past” (p 19), “Funny how the vast majority of the human race has to generate a repulsive amount of noise before it can convince itself it’s having a good time” (p 55),

Author fact: Beyond the Starbridge series I have two more Howatch books to read for the Challenge.

Book trivia: According to the author’s note, Mystical Paths is the penultimate book in the Starbridge series. However, Pearl lists a seventh book, Wonder Worker, to round out the series. Wonder Worker is actually the first book in a different series.

Setlist: Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Beethoven, Rolling Stones, “River Deep, Mountain High” by Tina Turner, John Lennon’s “Money,” Mick Jagger, “It’s All Over Now” by the Rolling Stones,” Ella Fitzgerald, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Berlioz, Dead March,

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: the Family of Clergy” (p 86).

Silent Speaker

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Stout, Rex. Silent Speaker. Bantam Books, 1946.

Reason read: to continue the series started in November.

One of the aspects of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe that I just adore is that Wolfe’s unscrupulous tendencies. He does not mind stooping to all new lows when trying to solve a case. When Cheney Boone, Director of the Bureau of Price Regulations, is murdered right before he was due to deliver a speech to the National Industrial Association, Wolfe pounces on a way to make NIA his client. Since the BPR and NIA are not exactly friendly, it is easy to pit them against each other. What better way than to accuse NIA of murder? Wolfe then finds a way to turn a $30,000 fee into an $100,000 reward along with faking a mental breakdown. As usual, it is Archie who steals the show.
Who would have predicted Nero Wolfe would come to the defense of Cramer? When Cramer is taken off the case Wolfe actually disapproves of the way the inspector has been treated. It is strange to not have him be the rival of a case.

Small confession: when I don’t take a lot of notes while reading that usually means I am not into the plot. But! I did find this quote that I liked, “An unaccustomed chair always presented him with a complicated problem” (p 238).

Author fact: Among Stout’s many occupations he was also a sightseeing guide.

Book trivia: Walter Mosely provides the introduction to Silent Speaker.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe: Too Good To Miss” (p 226).

Love’s Shadow: the Ottleys

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Leverson, Ada. The Ottleys: Love’s Shadow. Virago, 1908.

Reason read: August is Levenson’s birth month. Read in her memory.

All three novels contained in The Ottleys are portraits of marriage or deep friendships. The three novels, published four years apart follow the relationship of Edith and Bruce Ottley. In Love’s Shadow Edith acts as a punching bag for her husband’s criticism. She takes the blame for things she did not do. She is often ridiculed for not being smart. Occasionally, Edith with participate in verbal sparing with her husband – only her jabs fall short of making any lasting impact of Bruce. Confessional: I found Bruce Ottley to be a detestable creature. He is even worse when his hypochondria acts up. There are other romances in Love’s Shadow that are just as ridiculous as Edith and Bruce. Edith’s friend Hyacinth has eyes for Cecil, who in turn desires the older, widowed Eugenia.
Levenson is a master at delivering sly humor. The subject of aging, “all men are good for, at a certain age, is giving advice” (p 89). Levenson’s insults are pretty clever, too. “You’re full of faults, and delightfully ignorant and commonplace” (p 147).

Author fact: it is a well known fact that Ada Levenson was a good friend of Oscar Wilde. His nickname for her was Sphinx. It is a shame that she was better known for that unique friendship more than her novels.

Book trivia: Love’s Shadow is the first book in the Ottley trilogy. Tenterhooks and Love at Second Sight follow. Sally Beauman wrote the introduction to The Little Ottleys.

Music: Schumann’s “Merry Peasant,” Mendelssohn’s Wedding March,

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Viragos” (p 227).