DMV

 

Bentley Little takes on the DMV. I think everyone has a DMV horror story. Mine's not too bad: last year I needed to renew my license and decided to get a Real ID. I applied online, uploaded the documents, everything was approved, and I made an appointment. When I arrived there was a line around the block, but I got to go right in since I had an appointment. I was still there almost 3 hours, it was insane. I'm sure Bentley also had a bad experience, and poured his frustration into this book.

The DMV is all reaching and all powerful. It can issue someone a driver's license that allows them to run people over, become a mass shooter, drive stolen cars, etc. DMV employees can kill people with impunity, and the police can't do anything because the DMV is above them. 

Zal and Bernard are programmers, working for a company that the DMV hired to revamp their online system. They keep finding very odd things in the database. Jorge is kidnapped and taken to a DMV "training" camp. Danny and his sister are also kidnapped after the DMV kills their father and taken to a "re-education" camp. It was a pretty wild ride. Not as gory as some of Bentley's earlier works, and of course the whole premise is ridiculous, but it was still fun. 

Case of the Demure Defendant; Case of the Deadly Toy

 

I completely forgot to write about this one, I finished it last week sometime. And I'm pretty sure I've read it before, I remembered parts of it very well. 

Nadine Farr goes to a doctor for help with her nervous exhaustion. The doctor puts her under a truth serum and she confesses to poisoning her Uncle Mosher, who died a few months earlier. At the time, it was ruled a death by natural causes. Nadine is sure she put poison in his chocolate instead of the artificial sugar substitute. DA Burger really thinks he has Perry nailed to a wall when witnesses testify that he threw a bottle of sugar substitute into a lake to confuse the issues. The courtroom scenes were fun. 

I know I've read this one before too. Seven year old Robert's parents are divorced and he spends most of his time with his mother. When his father, Mervin, is shot dead, it's Mervin's ex-fiancée, Norda, who the DA blames (a side note--Gardner picks the *strangest* names sometimes. I've never in my life heard of the name "Norda". "Nora", yes, but Norda? Really? And Mervin? At any rate...) 

Robert has an unusual fascination with guns, and one of his babysitters lets him play with an unloaded pistol. The night Mervin is shot, Robert has what his mother and step-father convince him was just a bad dream. While sleeping out in at tent on the patio, Robert was woken up and startled, grabbed the gun from under his pillow and fired. Did he accidentally kill his own father? A lot of people seem to think so (that wasn't the solution, by the way). It was entertaining.  

The Case of the Nervous Accomplice

 

I'm fairly confident I read this one before I started keeping really good track of the books I read. Sybil Harlan's speech in the beginning about how to make her husband want to stay married to her sounded so familiar, and I had that same feeling throughout the rest of the book. 

Sybil's husband has strayed from the ranch (as Perry put it). She doesn't want a divorce, however, she wants her husband back and she's hatched a kind of brilliant plan to do it. The woman Enright has been fooling around (Roxy) with has some property and Sybil wants Perry to buy stock in the company that's looking to do business with Roxy and then throw a wrench in the deal. That will make Roxy pester Enright about getting her deal pushed through, and when Enright comes home to Sybil she'll be the picture of delightful, loving wife who eases all his cares. You gotta admit, it's smart. 

Perry does just that, but then there's an added twist: Lutz, the man Perry bought the stock from, turns up murdered in the house next door to Roxy's, shot with Enright's gun that Sybil just happened to have. There was a whole lot of trickery going on (I remembered the part about the cab very vividly) and in the end Perry was able to clear his client. It was really fun, I enjoyed this one a lot. 

Hercule Poirot's Silent Night; Les Paul 70 Years; The Case of the Silent Partner; The Case of the Gold-Digger's Purse

 

I really enjoy what Hannah has done with Christie's character. It was a good mystery that kept me guessing and was totally unsolvable by the reader, so I didn't feel dumb at the end for not guessing ahead of time.

Inspector Catchpool's mother shows up at Poirot's London home, insisting he and Catchpool come at once to a house she's staying at in Norfolk. A man was murdered in the hospital in September, and the police haven't had any leads. Mrs. Catchpool's friend, Arthur, is dying and wants to check into the hospital after Christmas so he can solve the mystery himself, kind of like one last hurrah. She would like Poirot and her son to solve the crime first so Arthur can die peacefully at home. As an added twist, Arthur's wife, Vivienne, is convinced if Arthur checks into the hospital he too will be murdered. 

The solution involved a lot of "wrong place, wrong time" and someone pretending to be someone they were not. And Catchpool's mother is awful. I wouldn't want to spend Christmas with her, either. 

I know absolutely nothing about guitars, other than liking to look at them. This was a big book with lots of pictures of the Gibson Les Pauls from throughout the years. Some of those rare vintage guitars go for millions, which is just wild to me. But I still enjoyed hearing how they evolved over the years and how most musicians have heavily modified their guitars, no one leaves them the way they come from the factory. I had no idea. 

On to some Perry Masons! I had to buy these two since the library I've been using didn't have them. "The Case of the Silent Partner" was an early one (1940). Mildreth owns three successful flower shops. She and her ill sister, Carlotta, own most of the stock, they issued five shares to a now former employee, who sold them to a competitor named Harry Peavis. Mildreth consults Perry and expresses concern about her brother in law, Bob. Bob took over all of Carlotta's finances when she got sick and he's a degenerate gambler. She finds out Bob was in a car accident that he lied about with a young lady named Esther. She wants Esther to meet Perry and tell him what she knows, but before Esther can come in she calls Perry's office to say she's been drugged by poisoned chocolates. 

In typical fashion, a lot happens, although sadly without Paul, who only answered the phone once or twice, never actually showing up. Perry did everything on his own. I'm not sure when he had time to sleep. Lt. Tragg makes his first appearance here and is shamelessly flirting with Mildreth Faulkner, which was outstanding. Could we get a fanfiction about Tragg and Mildreth? That would be awesome. 

And finally, "The Case of the Gold-Digger's Purse". I love this cover because it actually depicts a scene in the book. 

Perry, Della, and Paul are eating dinner when a man comes over to talk to Mason about a goldfish. Perry is decidedly not interested, even when he sees the "dish" the man is dining with (Paul's words. Paul, you scamp). Sally Madison is a gold-digger (according to her dinner companion, Harrington Faulkner). Faulkner eventually persuades Perry to hear him out. He breeds a rare type of goldfish. They're sick, suffering from gill rot (sounds awful). Sally's boyfriend Tom has perfected a treatment for the fish, but Sally refuses to let Faulkner have it until he ponies up the money for Tom to get treatment for his own tuberculosis. As if that wasn't bad enough, Faulkner's business partner, Carson, won't let him take the fish tank out of their shared office space. 

Missing goldfish, feuding business partners, too many ex-wives, and a gun in the gold-digger's purse...all in a day's work for Mr. Mason. 

Just Another Missing Person

 

I enjoyed Gillian's book "Wrong Place, Wrong Time", so I decided to give this one a try. I think I actually liked it better, it was really good. 

Julia, a police detective, is notified of a missing person, a young lady named Olivia. She and her partner Jonathan start their investigation. Then Julia is threatened by a man who sneaks into her car: stop looking for Olivia and plant evidence framing a man named Matthew for her murder. If she doesn't do it, he will tell everyone that her daughter killed someone the year before and Julia covered it up. 

Julia is pretty distraught but does as he says, willing to do anything to save her daughter. She continues looking for Olivia after planting the evidence, and the case gets stranger. No one actually saw Olivia after she moved into her new house the day before, the housemates just texted with her. She disappeared down a dead-end alley. There are barely any clothes in her room and they're all different sizes. Something isn't adding up. It definitely kept me guessing and it had a happyish ending, so that was nice. 

Counting the Cost; One of Us is Back; The Case of the Restless Redhead; The Case of the Sun Bather's Diary

 

Why yes, I did spend all weekend reading, thanks for asking! (Although, to be fair, I started "One of Us is Back" a few weeks ago. The other three I read in one day: this one Friday, "Redhead" on Saturday, and "Sun Bather" on Sunday. It was that kind of weekend). 

I wanted to see what Jill had to say after reading Jinger's book. Much like her sister, she had nothing bad to say about her parents, in fact, she emphasized how lovely her childhood was and how much she loves them, which is why she felt all the more betrayed when she discovered that her father, Jim Bob, was keeping money that she earned from the show from her. He tricked her into signing a contract the day before her wedding to Derick, and as a result they lost out on an opportunity to be missionaries because they couldn't get out of it. Jim Bob did eventually pay her some of the money he owed her, and their relationship is now on the mend. I'm glad for everyone involved. 

The third book in the "One of Us is Lying" series, after "One of Us is Next", was pretty good. I remembered the first book pretty well, but not the second one (maybe I wasn't paying very close attention?) so I was a bit lost. Easy enough to catch up, though. 

The whole crew from Bayview is back in town for the summer. A mysterious billboard pops up, and it's time for a new game. Jake, who terrorized them in the second book, is released from jail while waiting for a new trial. Everyone is on edge. Turns out there are still a lot of secrets in Bayview, including the identity of Jake's biological father and who really killed the man his mother was having an affair with. 

And then two more fun Perry Mason's. I feel like Gardner really found his groove in the '50s. 

Perry goes to Riverside to get some documents signed by a judge and since he's early, he sits in on an ongoing trial. A young woman named Evelyn is accused of stealing $40,000 of jewelry from a woman who was on her way to Las Vegas to be a bridesmaid in a starlet's wedding. The newbie attorney defending Evelyn isn't doing such a great job, so Perry gives him some advice. The next day Perry reads in the papers that Evelyn was acquitted, all thanks to her amazing attorney. 

Evelyn shows up in Perry's office to thank him in person, and Perry takes a liking to her (no, not like that) and helps her get a job as a waitress. She calls him up, frantic, saying someone tried to run her off the road and she fired two wild shots at the car from a gun she found in her room. Well, that sounds like a frame up, especially when it turns out the driver of the other car is dead--shot in the head. Perry has a fun time mixing up the two different guns in this case (Holcomb never learns). 

"The Sun Bather's Diary" was even better. A young lady named Agnes calls Perry's office. She's been robbed--of everything. She can't come into the office since she doesn't have a stitch of clothing. She was out sun bathing in the nude when her house trailer and car were stolen. Della runs out and meets her with some clothes, and then she tells them what happened. Her father was convicted of stealing close to $400,000 from the bank where he worked. Agnes quit her job to prove his innocence, and kept a detailed diary hidden in her trailer. She thinks it was stolen so someone could read it. 

Perry gets himself mixed up in it all the way to his eyebrows, to the point where Hamilton Burger accuses him of perjury and calls him as a witness for the prosecution, which was all kinds of awesome. Gardner really makes the DA out to be a chump. Perry paid Paul a nice compliment, so that was good. It's about time he learned to appreciate him!
 

The Case of the One Eyed Witness; The Case of the Hesitant Hostess

 

This was a pretty fun one. Perry and Della are dining at a new nightclub Paul recommended (when does Paul have time to go out? Seriously) when Perry receives a mysterious phone call from a woman who refuses to give her name and sounds perfectly terrified. An envelope arrives for him with some money and a cryptic newspaper clipping. To add to the confusion, the cigarette girl at the club gives him a sob story about having her baby taken away from her and put up for adoption, stating that she is part Japanese. 

The newspaper clipping leads them to a man named Carlin. Perry puts Paul on the case, asking him to have operatives shadow the house. When a fire starts, the police are immediately suspicious because Perry and Paul are involved (honestly I don't blame them). It appears as if Carlin perished in the fire. Then a sketchy relator is murdered in his home and his wife patches together a terrible alibi that is easily refuted by a eyewitness. Perry defends the wife, even though she insists she isn't the one who sent him the retainer. At first I thought Perry was going to turn the witness around and show she was mistaken (there was a lot of buildup about glasses and poor eyesight), but no, she was right. The actual conclusion was quite a bit twistier. 

"The Case of the Hesitant Hostess" started out in the courtroom, and I'm not sure I've read a Mason mystery that started that way. Perry is defending Albert Brogan for a stick up job pro bono. Albert's niece, Mary, shows up and insists that her uncle is innocent. The two people in the car that were robbed are clearly lying, but Perry isn't having any luck proving that they perjured themselves. His one witness, Inez Kaylor, vanishes before she can testify. There was a lot of time spent trying to find out if Inez was one person or two (and a fun scene with Perry trying to fight off the advances of a very persistent hostess in the back of a limo).  When a young woman turns up dead, the DA decides to just prosecute Brogan for that, too, since he's already in custody. 

There were some fun moments, and shockingly the solution involved gambling, organized crime, and drugs. Plus Perry and Della running off to Vegas to get married (they didn't, really, but that's what they wanted everyone to think). 

17 Carnations; Dirty Thirty

I've been wanting to read this one for a little while now. Morton talked about how Wallis Simpson was entangled with German Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop (the 17 carnations he sent regularly supposedly signified how many times they had slept together). The book also delved into the sheer selfishness of the Duke of Windsor--complaining about his house in Bermuda, demanding more money and respect for his wife, sending a maid to go into a Nazi occupied area to rescue their sheets, etc. He was bugging Winston Churchill and his brother, George VI, over petty nonsense while they were busy fighting a war. 

After the war ended, documents were uncovered, showing the Duke's duplicity and the German's plan to install him as a puppet king and rule England through him. I don't think the Duke and Duchess were deliberately evil, just incredibly oblivious and naïve. 

Still trying to figure out how Evanovich has been writing these for 30 years now. This one was pretty good. 

Morelli has to go out of town to testify in a case and leaves his big dog, Bob, with Stephanie. Stephanie is trying to track down Andy Manley, who worked as a security guard at Plover's jewelry store. The store was robbed one night by Andy's friend Duncan, and the next day Plover discovered jewels from the safe were missing and blamed Andy and fired him. Stephanie has to have Ranger's help (awesome). There was also a fun scene where her mom and Grandma Mazur go with her on a stakeout (Stephanie's car gets wrecked and she can't go on a stakeout in Big Blue, and Stephanie's mom won't let her drive her car) and her mom ends up really getting into chasing Andy and takes the side mirrors off in a tight alley. It was pretty funny. 

Best part: Ranger PROPOSED. Like seriously proposed. Then Morelli comes home and *he* proposes. Wowza. 

 

The Case of the Cautious Coquette; The Case of the Negligent Nymph; Not Forever but for Now

 

Okay, back to Perry Mason!

It starts out with Perry looking for a witness to a hit and run. He's representing the young man who was hit and is now injured. Not one but two different witnesses come forward, both claiming to know who hit the young man, and they're pointing the finger at two different men. 

Perry ends up embroiled in a case with too many suspects, too many ex-husbands, and too many keys. Lucille Barton wants to take her ex-husband for every dime she can so she can marry another man without having to give up her monthly alimony. Perry wants nothing to do with her (smart man) but unfortunately gets tangled up when he and Lucille are spotted at the scene of her ex-husband's murder. The DA is gunning for Perry (as always) and he has to use every advantage he has to get out of it and clear his client. 

Perry is out canoeing (working on another case, actually) when he spies a young woman coming out of the water naked, carrying a waterproof bag. Intrigued, he watches through his binoculars as she puts on a fancy dinner gown and goes into the mansion of George Adler. She comes running out with a dog at her heels and dives into the water. Perry rescues her and takes her to her boat, where she shows him what she took: a glass bottle with a note inside. Perry has her make a copy on her typewriter and suggests she give the original back to Adler. 

Adler complicates things by accusing her of stealing $50k worth of jewelry. It turns out the young woman is related to a woman who accuses Adler of killing her in the note in the bottle. There wasn't enough of Della and Paul in this one for me to love it, but it was entertaining. 

Chuck Palahniuk is certainly unique. 

"Not Forever but for Now" is about a family whose business is murder for hire. The grandfather brags about killing Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, etc., and making them look like suicides or overdoes. The mother supposedly killed Princess Di (her husband was supposed to, but he chickened out, so she killed him, too). Otto and Cecil are the heirs apparent. Otto takes to killing like a duck to water, and Cecil happily goes along with his big brother. They go on jobs their grandfather sends them to do as well as practicing their skills on the servants. It was long on dark and short on humor. 

Dark Reunion

 

This cover is so hysterical. It looks like she has four eyes and a growth out of the side of her head. 

It was told from Bonnie's point of view, since Elena is dead. The vampire that made Katherine, Klaus, is one of the "Originals": someone who was born a vampire and didn't have to die in order to be one. Bonnie, Meredith, and Matt summon Stefan to come back and help them after Bonnie has a dream where Elena warns her something bad is coming and to summon help (they surmise Elena was talking about Stefan, I thought Damon, because he drinks human blood and is therefore stronger than his wimpy, whiny little brother). Both brothers show up, so there's that. Everyone is mean to Damon, which ticked me off. 

They end up defeating Klaus with some help from "unquiet spirits" and then Elena comes back to life. Yawn. 

Apparently Smith sold the rights to the characters when she made the deal with the publisher, so the books continue, written by other writers, but I'm over it. Say what you will about Stephenie Meyer--at least she knew how to give the audience what they wanted. Oh well. I still have the show, which is much more entertaining. 

The Fury

 

Oh man. What a disappointing turn this book took 😒 such a promising start, too!

Elena dies at the end of the second book, but because she's had Damon and Stefan's blood she comes back as a vampire. When she wakes up, she finds the brothers fighting and goes to stop them. She doesn't want Stefan to hurt Damon, since she feels he's the one she belongs with. 

Now, had the author taken it from there and had Damon and Elena get together, it would have been so much more fun. Instead, Elena "comes to her senses" once she feeds and realizes she's in love with Stefan. 

Sigh.

Something big and bad and evil is causing all sorts of trouble in Fell's Church. Since everyone thinks Elena is dead, she has to hide out. Her good friends (Bonnie, Meredith, Caroline, and Matt) know her secret, and along with the Salvatore brothers, go to work trying to figure out what it is and how to stop it. 

It's Katherine, the vampire who changed the brothers over back in the 1400s. They thought she died in 1864, but she tricked them. She wants Stefan back (seriously, why does everyone want Stefan?!). She ties Elena, Stefan, and Damon up in a crypt and tortures the boys (mostly Damon) until Elena figures out a way to kill her. And she does, but she dies in the process too. 

Have to admit, I was not expecting her to *really* be dead. There's a fourth book, how in the heck is the series going on without the main character?! What an odd decision. Well, I'm only halfway through season two of the show and it's really good, so at least I still have that to look forward to. 

The Awakening; The Case of the Vagabond Virgin; The Struggle

I was looking for a new show to watch, and Max suggested "The Vampire Diaries", since apparently I watch a lot of overwrought television aimed at teens. 

What can I say? I have a type. And *maybe* because I just finished watching "Gossip Girl" for the third time...

Anyway. I figured why not, let's give it a go. So far the show is really good. Of course I didn't get far before I decided I needed to read the books, too. Obviously. And simultaneously while watching the show, just so I can really confuse myself as to what is happening (the show differs quite a bit from the books). 

In the first book, beautiful Queen of Fell's Church, Elena, meets the new boy at school, Stefan Salvatore. He's absolutely gorgeous, and seems to want nothing to do with Elena. Since she's used to getting what she wants, she takes it as a personal challenge and goes after him with every tool in her considerable toolbox. Stefan has a dark secret (not that hard to guess, given the name of the series). He wants Elena, but he's scared for her safety. Even more so when his brother, Damon, shows up. Damon has a bad habit of taking things that belong to Stefan, just for spite. 

I took a short break in between Vampire Diaries books to finish a Perry Mason I had started. This one felt very familiar, I think I read it before, ages ago. 

Perry gets a frantic call at his office from Addison, a wealthy department store owner. A young lady he knows, Virginia, has been unfairly arrested for vagrancy. Addison wants Mason to do whatever it takes to bail her out, only keep his name out of it. He stresses what a sweet, innocent young girl Virginia is. 

Virginia plays the part well, but Perry doesn't buy it. The girl is up to something. He finds out Addison picked her up hitchhiking. Ironically enough, out on a lonely country road by a house his business partner just bought and whoops! just turned up murdered in. And can you believe it, right around the time Addison was driving by?! The main clue was the window the bullet went through and which side was on the inside or the outside. 

Book 2 of the Vampire Diaries. Damon is determined to have Elena. When Stefan goes missing, Elena and her friends finally find him trapped in an old well and rescue him. Elena gives him her blood to save him. She continues to walk a dangerous line, trying to keep on Damon's good side so he won't hurt Stefan, but not give in to the growing attraction between them (just do it, Elena. He's so much more interesting than boring, brooding Stefan). 

The book ends on a very interesting cliffhanger, and if I'd had to wait a year to read it I would have been frantic, but luckily, since these books are 30+ years old, I have book three ready to go. 

 

Killing of Lord George

Wow, what an interesting book!

"Lord" (he gave himself the title and no one questioned it) George Sanger grew up in the traveling entertaining business in Victorian England. His family traveled the countryside in a caravan, putting on shows for the locals. When George reached adulthood, he and his older brother John set out on their own and created the biggest and most well-known circus in England. He married a former lion tamer, Nellie, and had two daughters who both participated in the family business. 

After his wife died, George retired from the business and took up residence in his house in East Finchley. He was used to a bustling and exciting life and he was lonely in retirement, so he hired companions to keep him company. One of the them was Herbert Cooper. George's mind seemed to slip in his advancing years, and he was forgetful and belligerent at times. He unceremoniously fired Cooper one day and hired Harry Austen to take his place.

Here's where it gets interesting. By all accounts, Cooper returned to the farm and attacked Harry and George with a felling axe. George died from his wounds the next day, Harry recovered. Cooper was found dead after a nationwide manhunt. He had put his head on a railroad track and the first train that came by killed him instantly. Shaw pointed out the inconsistencies in the official record. For one, Cooper was rumored to be having an affair with Harry Austen's wife. Since Austen was the only other person in the room who survived, we only have his testimony as to what actually happened. Decades after the murder, we have the Villisca axe murders to know what happens to a body when it's hit with a large felling axe. George's wounds were nowhere near as devastating. Shaw theorized that in the scuffle, George picked up a brass candelabra that was found on the scene and ended up getting knocked in the head with it. He didn't die instantly, but the blow rendered him unable to speak until he did ultimately pass, so we don't have his side of it. Shaw pointed out how difficult it would have been for a tall man like Cooper to swing a heavy axe in a small room and not cause more damage. And then the police spent hours looking for the murder weapon, only to have a Sanger family member find it tucked into a nook by the fireplace. Did Cooper really take the time to put the axe there before escaping, after murdering his former employer? And why couldn't the police find it? I really enjoyed this one. 
 

Girls and Their Monsters

 

I really wanted to like this book. It sounded so interesting: in 1930, Sadie Morlok gave birth to identical quadruplet girls. Right from the start, the girls garnered a lot of media attention. There was even a contest to name them. Sadie and her overbearing, abusive husband Carl, vacillated between trying to keep the girls cloistered in a bubble and using them to their advantage. The girls toured when they were little, wearing matching outfits and dancing and singing. But Carl refused to let them go to friends' houses or invite anyone over. They went to a dance in high school and he drove over to the school and straight up lied, telling them their mother was in the hospital, to make them leave. When he drove them home instead of the hospital, his response was something like "you had enough fun". 

In their early 20s, the girls were all diagnosed with various types of schizophrenia. It was heartbreakingly tragic what these poor girls were put through in the name of science. Only one of them, Sarah, managed a semi-normal life, working outside of the home, getting married, having two sons. The other girls tried to leave home and work, only to fail and have to come back. Carl died relatively young, but Sadie took care of them for as long as she could, until she passed away. 

The parts of the book about the Morlok quadruplets was interesting, but Farley went far afield and started talking about the history of mental health care in America and all its shortcomings. I felt like those observations really deserved their own book, not to be kind of shoehorned into this one. As soon as I would reach one of those passages the book literally ground to a screeching halt. I had to slog through them. It's too bad, if she'd just stayed on topic it would have been a really fascinating book. 

The Enchanters; The Case of the Fan Dancer's Horse

 

James Ellroy's latest was, of course, brilliant beyond words. I love Freddy Otash, the anti-hero. I know I'm not supposed to like him. He's a sleeze and admits it, but goddamn if the man doesn't have style. 

It's the summer of 1962 and Marilyn Monroe is found dead. Bobby Kennedy wants Freddy to suppress any burgeoning rumors that his brother John or himself had anything to do with her death. Also, he wants him to get dirt on Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters' leader who is causing some trouble for the Kennedy brothers. 

This one was easier for me to follow than some of Ellroy's other books. I think I was paying closer attention. I doubt I've gotten smarter 😁

This one felt really familiar, and I'm not sure if I read it a long time ago or if it's because I've seen the episode of the TV show based on this book and they actually stuck pretty close to Gardner's story (not usually the case with a lot of the show). 

Perry and Della were returning from Mexico (I think...the book doesn't make it really clear. Maybe there was a case in Mexico in the book preceding it? I don't really remember. At any rate...) when they witness a car sideswipe another car and keep going. They stop to help out the elderly woman in the car that got overturned, but she doesn't speak English. Luckily another motorist who speaks Spanish comes along and offers to take the woman to the hospital to get checked out. Perry and Della search the car to make sure nothing valuable gets stolen and they find a pair of ostrich fans and dancing slippers--a fan dancer's stage costume. They take them and Perry puts an ad in the paper, saying he has the fan dancer's property and will return it if someone can describe it. The fan dancer, Lois Fenton, sees the ad and thinks Perry has found her missing horse. Intrigued, Perry gets embroiled in a case involving two fan dancer's of similar build who are arguing over use of the name "Lois Fenton". When the original Lois Fenton's husband is found murdered, there's a lot of confusion over which Lois Fenton visited his hotel room and at precisely what time. I enjoyed this one a lot, it was fun. Perry was still really mean to Paul, though. 

The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde

 

Perry is intrigued when a young blonde, dressed in a fur coat and nothing else, sporting a shiner, comes into his office with an interesting story. She's been employed for a little while reading articles to a wealthy man who has poor eyesight. His stepson, Carl, has been hitting on her pretty much non-stop, so she finally went to dinner with him, only to get tossed out of the car on the way home for not playing along. Carl was going through her room when she got back to the house and he popped her one. She fled the house, grabbing the coat out of the closet, and came to see Perry. 

The wealthy man, Jason, had one son, who died at Pearl Harbor. He was married to a woman named Helen. Jason thought Helen was a useless gold-digger and had no use for her, until he found out that Helen gave birth to a little boy a few months after his son died. Jason is wild to get his hands on the kid, but Helen won't play ball. 

Believe it or not, the blonde (Diana) and Helen are all mixed up together in some fantastical way, as is the murder victim (Mildred). It was a fast paced story--so fast that poor Paul didn't get to eat his dinner. Perry's so mean to him sometimes. 

The Case of the Crooked Candle; Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I

 

I thought perhaps I had read this one, the bit about the candle felt familiar, but I didn't remember anything else about the book, so I'm not sure. It's entirely possible Gardner used the candle in more than one book, like he did the ice picks. 

Fred Milfield is found dead aboard his partner, Roger Burbank's, yacht. The tides played a big role in this one. The prosecution's theory was that Burbank and Milfield argued on the yacht about a business deal and Burbank slugged him hard enough to cause him to fall and crack his skull open on the brass threshold. Burbank left and as the tide went out the yacht ran aground and the boat tipped, causing Milfield to roll to the other side of the yacht. The police found blood on the floor by the threshold as well as where the body was found on the other side of the yacht. Mason points out the candle was found at a seventeen degree angle, suggesting it was burning when Milfield was killed and it also tipped when the boat did, causing it to tilt and the flame to go out. I immediately guessed that Milfied was actually killed on the low side of the boat (position two to the prosecution) and someone dragged his body to the first position to make it look like he'd hit his head on the threshold. Guess what, I was right! So maybe I did read this one before 😊 at any rate, it was fun. Not his best (not enough of Paul and Perry and Della scenes to score top marks from me) but still entertaining. 

I don't know why I keep reading books about Elizabeth I and Anne Boleyn. I've read so much about them that each book that comes out doesn't have any new information. This one was interesting but just rehashed a lot of things I already knew. 

She came at it from the framework of Anne's influence on her daughter, despite dying while Elizabeth was just a toddler. Anne surrounded her with people she trusted to instill the right values in Elizabeth, and she did a good job. Many of Elizabeth's attendants were with her from the time she was an infant and devoted their lives to her service. Elizabeth was a good queen and it sounds like it was mostly due to Anne, not Henry. Borman also noted how Elizabeth II was related to Anne Boleyn through Anne's sister, and Prince William is actually related to the Boleyn's through his mother and his father, so 500 years after being executed, Anne's descendants still rule England. Pretty impressive.  

The Case of the Mythical Monkeys

 

This was a really fun one. Gladys is a personal secretary to bestselling author Mauvis. Mauvis's book caused quite a sensation and the author is in high demand. She sends Gladys to the Summit Ski Resort to meet with a man named Carlisle, who's purporting to be from the movie studio that has optioned Mauvis's book. She tells Gladys a shortcut to get down from the mountain, since traffic on Sunday is bumper to bumper. Gladys goes and has a great weekend, but hits a snag taking Mauvis's shortcut. There's a bad storm and her car gets stuck. Gladys manages to find a cabin. The man in the cabin seems standoffish and irritated that she's there and refuses to help her get her car out of the mud, claiming he's getting over a bout of pneumonia. Gladys decides she'll take a hot shower and spend the night, and the man, John, doesn't argue. 

When Gladys wakes up the next morning and goes looking for John in the other bedroom, she finds a corpse instead--not John, but another man. She flees the cabin, finds someone has pulled her car out of the bog and she races back to the city, only to discover Mauvis's penthouse has been ransacked. Mauvis told her to go to Perry Mason if there's any trouble, so she does. 

Mason gets himself (and poor Della and Paul) up to their eyes in trouble with this one, but of course it all worked out in the end. 

The Windsors at War; The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife

 

Apparently this was a follow-up to "The Crown in Crisis" (which I did not read, and my library does not own), which talked about the abdication crisis. This was about the Duke, Duchess, and the King during WWII. The Duke of Windsor was whining about all manner of ridiculously inconsequential nonsense while his poor brother was desperately trying to hold his country together and win a war against a tyrant. It really solidified the fact that England had the right king during the war, Edward would have been a disaster. 

A nearby library system has *almost* all of the Perry Mason books, so I'm determined to read as many as I can.

This one did not feel familiar in the slightest, so I'm going to guess I've never read it. A woman named Jane and her sister visit Mason. Jane's husband died and left her with a little bit of money, which his brother has been investing for her (not well, by the way). Jane recently sold a little island to a millionaire named Parker Benton. There's just one little snag: there's an oil lease on the island owned by Scott Shelby. Since Shelby hadn't made payments in five months, Jane thought it was lapsed, but it turns out there's a clause that says Shelby has up to six months to make any back payments and retain his rights. Shelby tries to pay Jane the five months back pay, but she won't take it. 

Benton invites everyone involved (and then some) on his yacht to go visit the island and discuss the issue in order to hopefully come to a peaceful resolution. Unfortunately, Shelby is killed and it looks like his wife is the culprit. Mason doesn't buy it though and starts digging into things. It was very clever and I enjoyed the twists and turns it took. 

Gates of Zion

Book one of the Zion Chronicles series is set in Palestine in 1947. Ellie Warne is an American photographer who is staying with her Uncle Howard, an archeologist. She thinks she's in love with Moshe Sachar (whose brother, Eli, was one of the main characters in "Jerusalem Interlude"). Moshe is a Professor by day and a member of the Hagenah in his other time. Ellie doesn't know this, though, for her own safety. Her uncle is away when two Bedouin herders show up with ancient scrolls. Ellie photographs them and the Bedouins leave. Ellie is able to consult with a Rabbi Lebowitz in the Old City, who confirms the scrolls are the Book of Isaiah but cannot tell how old they are. Rabbi Lebowitz has a grandson named Yacov (who was smuggled out of Warsaw in "Warsaw Requiem" as the rest of the Lubetkin family went to Auschwitz). Eldest Lubetkin daughter Rachel gave her forged British passport to Eva (Eva was a main character in "London Refrain" and "Paris Encore"). 

Moshe ends up rescuing a young Jewish woman he's helping to smuggle into Palestine, and she turns out to be Rachel Lubetkin. There was a lovely reunion with Rachel, Yacov, and their grandfather until it took a tragic turn. The Mufti are after Ellie because of the pictures she took of the scrolls, which Uncle Howard and Moshe determine are on leather, not parchment, dating them 2,000 years old. They're desperate to get them back. Meanwhile, the world has voted to give Jews their own nation, and the British are planning on leaving Palestine. Jews will finally have a homeland again--if they can survive the Arab onslaught. Oh, and Ellie's boyfriend from California shows up--David Meyer. Who we last saw planning to marry Annie in "Dunkirk Crescendo". Not sure what happened there, but I'm not holding out much hope I'll find out. Thoene doesn't seem to care overly much about loose ends. 
 

Dunkirk Crescendo

 

All right, so the last book in the series. I gave up all hope early on of finding out what happened to my favorite characters and focused on the plight of all the new folks, who pretty much all got caught up in Dunkirk after fleeing various other parts of France. 

I knew about the miracle at Dunkirk from a movie I watched about Churchill, as well as a book I read about him during WWII. A civilian flotilla rescued over 300,000 English and French soldiers from the beach at Dunkirk and got them to safety. Everyone who had a boat, big or small, went out there to rescue people. Even so, the Allies had a lot of causalities, but without those brave people there would have been hundreds of thousands of more dead. Most of the new characters made it out, some did not. The last two pages of the book wrapped up everyone's story, a paragraph for each of them. Well, cheers, thanks a lot. And they didn't even tell us what happened to Sam and Lucy, if she ever got her baby back from Lori. I hope so.  

London Refrain; Underboss; Paris Encore; The Librarianist

 

I thoroughly enjoyed my long weekend, and I actually did get quite a lot accomplished, not just reading. But I did a lot of that too 😀

So the final three books of the Zion Covenant series were billed as "readers will finally know the fates of all their favorite characters". LIES. Instead of just telling us what happened to Jacob and Lori and Elisa and Murphy and everyone else, Thoene introduced a whole new cast of characters. I do not have the emotional energy to invest in yet *more* people, I'm sorry, I just don't. And they're all carbon copies of Elisa and Murphy. There's Mac, a cameraman reporter who falls for the lovely Eva, the woman Rachel gave her British passport to at the end of "Warsaw Requiem". Davey, a RAF pilot who falls for Annie, studying to be a nurse. Annie's brother, Trevor, is a sailor with the British Navy. Churchill becomes Prime Minister and England kind of enters the war, along with the French. Apparently all these folks show up in other series, which is all fine and well and good, but I must admit, the nonstop heartache in these books is really getting to me. I know it was a tragic war beyond all human comprehension, but making me care about more people who are doomed is just wrong. 

A few months ago I saw Sammy the Bull Gravano's story on a show called "Very Scary People" and I was fascinated. I'd heard of John Gotti, but not Sammy. 

Sammy was John's underboss. He killed a whole bunch of people but unlike John, he kept a low profile and tried not to be noticed. Unfortunately John was so carefree and didn't take proper measures to avoid implicating himself and Sammy ended up arrested, along with John and a couple of others from information gleaned from wiretaps. When Sammy heard John basically making him out to be the fall guy on the tapes, he turned and testified for the prosecution. At the time, Sammy was the highest ranking member of the Mob to do so. John went to jail and Sammy went into Witness Protection--for a time. He found it didn't suit him, so he left, deciding to take his chances. He's still alive, in his late 70s, and has a podcast. It was interesting and a bit chilling to hear him casually describing murder so cavalierly. 

"Paris Encore" was more of the same from "London Refrain". A quick page or two about the main characters from the first six books, then on to the new folks. 

Madame Rose and Madame Betsy, sisters from America, have been living in Paris for decades and run an orphanage they fund by taking in washing. Jerome and his sister, Maria, show up after their father goes off to join the war and the woman he left in charge of them sells their boat out from under them. Andre Chardon is hiding a Jewish scientist in his Paris home while he works on decoding the Enigma machine (which he helped build back when Jews could still work in Germany). Josie Marlow, a reporter, is trying to get Yacov Lubetkin to Jerusalem and to his grandfather with the help from an unlikely source. 

And finally, "The Librarianist" by Patrick DeWitt. DeWitt is usually pretty good with the dark humor. This one just made me sad. Maybe because it hit too close to home. 

Bob Comet is a retired librarian living in Oregon. He never knew his father and his mother died while he was relatively young, and he inherited her house and a bit of money. He met his wife, Connie, at the library, as well as his best friend, Ethan. Not long after he and Connie got married, she left him and ran off with Ethan. He never saw them again, although he did hear that Ethan died in a car accident not long after he and Connie married. Bob never remarries (or even dates again) and has no children. One day Bob is out walking and comes across a woman with a card attached to her, identifying her as living in a retirement home, so Bob returns her. He starts hanging out at the home, helping out. He eventually breaks his hip and has to sell his house and moves into the retirement home. It had its funny moments, but all in all it just gave me a too stark vision of my own future. 

Warsaw Requiem

I had forgotten how much I hated how the series ended. It was just so abrupt and left *so many* loose ends. But, I just discovered that there are three more books after this one, written after I read these for the first time back in the 90s. I ordered them online last night, so I'm looking forward to how it turned out for all my favorite characters 😀

Lori, Jamie, Alfie, and Mark are all able to get passage on one of the children's refugee ships to England, but the official decides Jacob is too old and denies his application. Before they are separated, Jacob and Lori marry. When they go to get on the ship, Lucy, who has just given birth to a son and is being pursued by Wolf, shows up, begging the ship to take her baby to safety. They refuse, so Alfie gives up his spot. He and Jacob stay behind with Sam Orde, fresh from Palestine. Lucy is reunited with Peter, who still hasn't found his mother or his sister but is eager to train with Orde and fight the Nazis. Meanwhile in London, Elisa (remember her?) has given birth to a daughter and she and Murphy are working on continuing the brave plan of faking passports to smuggle Jews out of Poland, only using British passports instead of Czech like Rudy was doing way back in book 1. 

Like I said, the book just ends, basically two weeks after Poland was invaded. Everyone's stories were still up in the air (except for the poor unfortunates who died--RIP Pastor Karl). After spending six books with some of these people, I would have liked a *little* more closure. Let's see how well the last three wrap things up. 
 

Danzig Passage

 

Danzig used to be a free city-state on the shore of the Baltic that was part of Germany before WWI. We are introduced to some new characters, like Lucy Strasburg. Lucy is dreaming of marrying dashing S.S. officer Wolf now that she's pregnant with his baby, and realizes her naiveté when he laughs and tells her he already is married. He and his wife have three daughters, so he's hoping for a boy for the Reich. Lucy is determined to keep her baby. Otto is shielding the family of dissent Michael Wallich in his apartment when Wolf and Lucy pay him a surprise visit. Wolf gets Otto arrested, and Otto takes cyanide before he can be interrogated. Poor Otto. Lucy's warning saves the Wallich family, and she escapes with eldest son Peter and the baby, Willie, to Danzig. 

Meanwhile, Anna's sister Helen is arrested in Berlin, along with her husband, Pastor Karl Isben. Their children, Lori and Jamie, hide out in a church, along with two Jewish children they grew up with, Jacob and Mark. Together with a young man named Alfie, who is developmentally disabled and managed to escape from the hospital before he could be euthanatized, manage to make their way to Danzig too. But with Hitler breathing down Poland's neck, how long will Danzig be safe? 

Jerusalem Interlude; The Creative Act

 

Book four of the Zion Chronicles takes us (mostly) to Jerusalem, following Leah and Shimon as they arrive in the Promised Land, and introducing us to some new characters, including star crossed lovers Eli and Victoria. Eli is a Jewish boy, studying to be a rabbi, and Victoria is Muslim. Her brother is trying to marry her off to an influential businessman and Victoria is trying to stall so she can figure out how she and Eli can be together. Much like Romeo and Juliet, their ending was tragic.

Elisa, Murphy, Charles, and Louis are all in London, along with Elisa's parents. Theo makes a brave decision to go back to Berlin to try to talk Hitler into letting the Jews leave with the promise that other nations will buy German products again. He is there to witness Kristallnacht firsthand. 

I remember being impatient with this book the first time I read it, just because I was so invested in Elisa and Murphy's love story, but this time around I appreciated it so much more. 

I was mildly curious about this book by well known record producer Rick Rubin. He seems like a super interesting guy. I wasn't expecting too much, but my goodness, was it profound! This book spoke to me in a way that I don't think any other book ever has. I borrowed it from work, but I'm definitely buying a copy to own, it's something I'll want to read again, or just dip into for inspiration. 

Rick is basically giving his best advice on how to foster and develop your creativity. He is quick to point out that just because it works for him doesn't mean it will work for everyone. Pick the advice that speaks to you, he advises. Some of my main takeaways were: don't be derailed by imperfections, they often lead to greater understanding. Don't create for anyone else but yourself. Don't try to fit in--foster your own unique voice. There were so many more, I felt like every page had an "oh wow!" moment. 

The Case of the Green Eyed Sister; The Birth of Rock n' Roll

 

I thought for sure I had read this one before when the murder weapon was an ice pick and multiple ice picks appeared on the scene, but no, that was "The Case of the Footloose Doll". I guess Gardner ran out of murder weapons to use. 

Sylvia Bain and her sister, Harriet, are worried about a would be blackmailer trying to threaten their fragile father. When Fritch, the blackmailer, turns up dead, Harriet is suspected and Perry defends her. 

The courtroom scenes were great. D.A. Moon instead of Burger, but he's just as inept. When one of the witnesses gets irritated at Mason's cross-examination tactics, he angrily asks how Mason thinks the murder could have been committed, since he doesn't believe the prosecution's theory (he was right not to, it didn't make any sense). Mason cheerfully tells him exactly how he thought the murder could have happened (clearing Harriet, of course) and the witness, D.A., and judge are all at a loss as to how to debunk Mason. It was a lot of fun. 

The story of Sun Records and the birth of rock n' roll (or at least one theory as to how it got started). Sam Phillips' little recording company ended up discovering many big name music stars: Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash. Sun Records got a reputation as being *the* place to go when everyone else turned you down. Phillips had an ear for spotting unique talent and knowing just how to sell it. It was a fun look at some of the most important records to come out of Memphis. 

Prague Counterpoint; Munich Signature; Strangers in the Night

 

Book 2 of the Zion Covenant series finds Elisa and Murphy still at cross purposes, but at least they finally figure it out by the end. 

Walter Kronenberger, a former journalist, became an enemy of Hitler's Reich when he refused to allow his son Charles to be killed. Charles was born with a harelip, and rather than let the surgeon correct it, the Gestapo wanted him dead. Walter and Charles were both sterilized against their will, and Walter's pregnant wife died as a result of the abortion issued by the Nazis. Walter is killed, but his boys, Charles and his twin Louis, manage to escape and find their way to Leah, who protects them. Eventually Elisa returns to Vienna and is able to help get Charles out while sending Leah and Louis to Tyrol to escape to Paris over the Alps. 

Things continue to get darker in Europe in the third book. "Peace in Our Time!" the newspapers cry as Prime Minister Chamberlain reneges on the promise to protect Czechoslovakia against Germany. For the Jews living in Prague it's devastating. 

The ship Darien leaves Hamburg with over 700 Jews, bound for Palestine--until Britain says "no more" due to riots by the Arabs. Darien tries to go to New York, where it's also turned away. On board the ship is the Holbein family: Klaus, Maria, and their five little girls. The Holbein's grandmother, Bubbe Rosenfelt, an American citizen, left Germany on the Queen Mary and meets Murphy and Charles Kronenberger, who are on their way to New York. Murphy gets involved in the story of the doomed ship and the grandmother desperate to be reunited with the only living family she has left. After being turned away in New York, the ship heads for Cuba without any success. It was so heartbreaking. Well, to be honest, everything about these books is heartbreaking. 

Onto something a little more lighthearted. Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner's love story was one for the ages. So in love, but unable to live together, like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The story of how they met, fell in love, married, and broke up was passionate and tumultuous and lots of fun. Webb did a great job of really bringing it to life.