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.