Death at La Fenice: a Novel of Suspense

Comissario Guido Brunetti #1

by Donna Leon

I find it funny that the author only wrote this book as a joke then put it aside before submitting it to a contest and winning. Now it’s the first book in a long running series (33 as of 2024) that has been made into a television series.

Comissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice police is called in to investigate when the world-renowned conductor Helmut Wellauer is found dead partway through an opera.

I really liked the organic way that Brunetti followed leads and pursued avenues of investigation with very few leads. He has questions, he gets answers, and those lead to new questions. He knows how to handle people and uses, not exactly psychology, but knowledge of human nature. He observes, and he remembers.

Brunetti’s forthright pursuit of truth is a wonderful foil to some of the other characters. Wellauer’s widow is significantly younger than he, but she seems to have truly loved him. And yet, there is something off about her reactions. Likewise with the star of the opera, Flavia Petrelli, and her companion, Brett Lynch.

Brunetti delves into Wellauer’s actions during the war in order to better understand his character, and learns some dark truths.

These questions lead him to Clemenza Santina, a former singer who worked with Wellauer long ago. I really felt the bitterness of the old lady having lost her family and being all alone. Perhaps part of that is the setting – the cold damp of her little apartment with the narrow hallway leading to a chair where she sits covered in old shawls.

There is subtle humor as well, as in the description of the doctor who confirms the conductor is dead at the opera “She pulled in a deep breath of smoke and glanced down at her watch. Mickey’s left hand stood between the ten and the eleven, and his right was just on seven.” A doctor at the opera smoking and wearing a Mickey Mouse watch? Okay.

One of the most interesting images to me was that of Brunetti walking through the streets of Venice in a thick fog and having to reach out to know where the wall is. I imagine that a lot of people could end up in a canal over time due to intoxication.

What led to the death is barely hinted at fairly early on, but we don’t really know until very close to the end. Also, who exactly killed him is a surprise and yet not. I had begun to suspect about halfway through.

I would highly recommend this as an atmospheric and well written police procedural. I’ll definitely read more in the series.

 

Storymusing: The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie, plus!

 

This month for our Thematic Book Club, we went with the theme “Replay.”

I happened to be listening to an episode of a favorite podcast, Shedunnit with Caroline Crampton, and she was featuring mystery books published every ten years from 1925 to 2025. She mentioned The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie and then Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers.

My mind said, “Eureka!”

The Secret of Chimneys is a book I read many times in my teen years. The latter I’m not sure I read, but I have adored Dorothy L. Sayers ever since I took a detective fiction course in my junior college days.

I hopped onto our Hoopla app and searched for The Secret of Chimneys. There were no fewer than FOUR audiobook versions of the story. I clicked on each, checking out the ratings and who the narrator was before settling on one that had a good rating. (Age can also be a factor in the quality of the recording.)

What about Gaudy Night? Was that also available? It was. Just one recording, but I grabbed that too.

The Secret of Chimneys was published in 1925, but it has a modern style of fast-paced storytelling with lots of chipper dialogue. Even a hundred years later, the humor brings the word romp to mind. I kept thinking of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, as he’s being intimidated by the Nazis, and says, “Are my eyes really brown?”

Many of Agatha Christie’s books feature a detective of some kind, like Miss Jane Marple or Hercule Poirot. However, there are a few standalone novels such as The Man in the Brown Suit and The Secret of Chimneys.

In this vein, we start the story with Anthony Cade who is working as a tour guide in Bulawayo when he runs into his old pal, Jimmy McGrath. McGrath has a commission to deliver a politically charged memoir manuscript to the publisher in London for a whopping 1,000 pounds. But, he wants to go off and do something else so he subcontracts the job to Anthony. Oh, and by the way, can Anthony drop off these letters to one Virginia Revel? The poor girl wrote some indiscrete messages and Jimmy feels she should have them back. Considering the amount of money Anthony is about to make, how can he refuse?

Little does Anthony realize, there is more than one party who wants to get hold of that memoir. There will be several attempts at getting the memoir before he can get it to the publisher. Likewise, there is far more to the letters than meets the eye.

Anthony and Virginia are soon deeply embroiled in a complicated little plot and on their way to a house in the country called Chimneys where we meet a host of funny characters including the lord’s daughter, referred to as Bundle, who drives fast enough to make her dangerous.

Really, this is a just short of a farce. I loved the whole thing and now I remember why I read it through so many times as a teen. The audiobook enhances the experience and I may listen to it again before I lose access. If you haven’t read this book and you like golden age murder mysteries, grab a copy. You won’t regret it!

Gaudy Night was an interesting book but it weighs in at a whopping 450 pages. Perhaps it could have been shorter but it slowly develops the relationship between Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Whimsey while Harriet investigates an increasingly dangerous series of destructive pranks and poison pen letters at her old university. It delves deep into the difficulty of getting an education as a woman in the 1930s and hints at the coming world war as the world was in the grips of a depression, with one working man going so far as to suggest that what England needed was a Hitler. It’s a far ranging literary mystery and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I actually ended up reading four different books this month. I finished The Dark Vineyard, book two in the series by Martin Walker, set in the Dordogne region of France. From the solid Chief of Police, Bruno, with his concern for the well-being of the people in St. Denis over the letter of the law, and the beautiful descriptions as well as the solid pursuit of truth, I can’t recommend this enough. I found it interesting that though there is some very dangerous sabotage of a GMO farming facility and fields, the murder does not happen until quite far into the book. An unusual choice, but it suits the style of story. It’s a very methodical and relaxing read with excellent setting and characterization.

The fourth book I finished in record time — The Little Lost Library by Ellery Adams. It’s a much lighter cozy mystery, heavy on dialogue with very sympathetic characters. There’s a sad story behind this one but one of the main premises of this series is the healing power of books, so that makes sense. The main character, Nora, runs her own bookstore. She takes books to a recluse named Lillian on a regular basis but doesn’t realize the extent of Lillian’s book hoarding because she is never allowed inside the house. There’s a lot Nora doesn’t know about Lillian and the book reveals all the secrets contained in the house bit by bit. It was a lovely, fast paced cozy mystery that I would also recommend to any fan of the genre.

All in all, it was a fabulous month of reading in hard copy, ebook and audio. What more could I ask for?

Next month’s theme is Elementals, as in Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. It’s a pretty broad theme so I’m sure I’ll find some good mysteries to fulfill the mandate.

Happy Reading!

Storymusing: "As long as I'm down here . . . I might as well put on my shoes: A Memoir" by Sandra Justice Hall

 

As long as I’m down here… I might as well put on my shoes: A Memoir

Sandra Justice Hall

Our book club’s theme for December was simply “sanity” because who isn’t just trying to stay sane with the holidays?

I realized I had the perfect book on my shelf. I had been meaning to read it ever since Sandra Justice Hall spoke at our library. She made a real impression with her sense of humor and her tale of tenacity in dealing with a brain tumor. I knew I wanted to read this book, so I bought a copy and put it on my shelf.

As long as I’m down here… is presented in short vignettes organized under the time frames of her first brain surgery, her second brain surgery, and the path back to health. The memoir is thin at only ninety-eight pages, with chapters just a scant few pages each, and eminently readable.

The stories are humorous, illuminating, and uplifting. There is also a strong cautionary note to the stories as she talks about not listening to her gut and having to fight to get properly diagnosed.

Hall had been under the care of a neurologist who diagnosed her with myasthenia gravis. “Secretly, my colleagues, friends, and family labeled me a “hypochondriac.”

After seven years of no improvement with treatment, unrelenting headaches led to the discovery of a tumor on her brain stem. Partially removed, it continued to cause problems. Finally, balance issues led her to another MRI and the recommendation of another surgery, this one high risk.

The writing style is just as humorous as her talk. One vignette is titled, “Were you normal before brain surgery?” A question that would make anyone gape, Sandy merely thinks it through and says, “Honey, I was never normal!”

The vignettes are filled with her gratitude for the support of so many people.

·         Her children and husband, including some exasperating times with her husband.

·         The nursing staff, such as the nurse who made ice chips for her from bottled water on her lunch because she couldn’t drink and there was an outbreak of legionnaires at the hospital.

·         The doctors, those she had to fight with and those she had to find.

·         Therapists, like the one who talked to her about Moby Dick.

·         Her friends who buoyed her on the way like the letters one wrote to open on certain days after the surgery, and the group who kept her from shutting herself away.  

After reading this book, I felt that the author is a kindred spirit, for so many reasons. 

It may be a small volume, but its impact is mighty, and I highly recommend it.

Storymusing Review: The Grey Wolf: A Novel by Louise Penny

 

The Grey Wolf: A Novel

by Louise Penny

November’s theme for our book club was “places you’d like to visit.” I’m afraid I didn’t so much look for books that fit that theme, taking me outside my comfort zone, as pick books I wanted to read anyway that were set in places I wouldn’t mind visiting.

British village? Yes, please. The Murders in Great Diddling by Katarina Bivald fit right in. I listened to that one on my commute and had many a laugh out of it. The characters were unique and quirky, bringing humorous twists to the traditional murder mystery. I highly recommend it.

My main read, The Grey Wolf: A Novel by Louise Penny, is set in Canada, throughout many parts of the countryside and Montreal, plus has characters flying off to Washington D.C. and Europe. I couldn’t have chosen a more perfect book for our theme if I tried.

I have wanted to read The Grey Wolf for a month, but it’s hard to get your hands on a copy in my library, digital or print. However, I was in a little village near home with my daughter and decided to stop in at the library there while we were killing time waiting for the farm store to open. Their display of books held not one, but two copies of The Grey Wolf. Small libraries for the win!

I’ve been reading in hard print whenever I can lately to help me unwind so I happily checked one out and sat down in my chair with a cup of coffee to start reading right after lunch.

The book begins with short chapters. I found each scene to be an individual puzzle piece with a certain color or pattern, defining a certain plotline or subplot of the story. As I read on, new chapters attached another piece to the puzzle until it all took on a shape and began to make sense.

Though the village in the story, Three Pines, is fictional, I love visiting there each time a new book comes out. It sounds so peaceful, with the village bistro for community and the little church to sit in and reflect.

The story opens in the village with our hero, Armand Gamache, head of the Surete in Quebec, relaxing in his garden with his wife, Reine-Marie.

A persistent caller that Armand does not want to speak to provokes him and our favorite village residents are soon drawn into the story. There’s the old poet Ruth and her swearing duck, the retired psychologist / bookstore owner Myrna, Gabri and Olivier who own the bistro, and the artist Clara. (Though I will say that Clara finding candy in her hair and actually eating it is a little off putting. But maybe that’s just me.)

Gamache is also surrounded by his family as the story progresses, with his daughter and son plus their families. There’s his trusty co-workers Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Isabel Lacoste.

Many important characters from past stories are revisited in this book, but not all in the capacity that we’ve known them. I was so disappointed in the choices some characters ended up making, characters we had once loved. But that is the crux of the story.

One of the biggest difficulties for Gamache in this book is knowing who to trust and who not to trust. Who are the bad guys? It’s not a new situation for him, but it’s a painful one at times.

How far will someone go? Do the ends justify the means? And keeping fear from leading to inaction is one of the biggest tests people often face.

One of my favorite parts of the book begins rather abruptly with Jean-Guy saying, “Oh God, oh God, oh shit.”

A pilot has insisted it’s okay to take off but now Armand and Jean-Guy are in a small plane flying through a storm and afraid they aren’t going to make it. The pilot isn’t sure anymore either.

The handling of the subplot for about thirty-five pages, intertwined with the rest of the story, the tension, feels like a masterful touch to draw the reader onward.

I adore the little bits of French that are sprinkled throughout the text, and the reminders that though we’re reading in English, they often aren’t speaking in English.

The pacing is not frenetic but it does move at a good clip. I think part of that is the judicious use of a variety of sentence lengths and the fact that there are tensions falling and rising, keeping the characters on their toes. I can’t stand stories where the tension rises and rises but nothing ever happens. Penny has things happen that the characters have to work through. She puts the characters in hot water and we see how they struggle and emerge, usually changed in some way.

I highly recommend this book. Three Pines is a wonderful place to visit.

Storymusing: The Haunted Season by G.M. Malliet

 

The Haunted Season

by G.M. Malliet

Well, I actually picked up a book in hard copy from our library for a change! I read one chapter at lunch and often one in the evening. It was just what I needed to unwind.

Our book club theme for October was simply “Spooky Reads” and I grabbed The Haunted Season based simply on its’ title and that it was a mystery, number five in the Father Max Tudor mysteries. It was a very pleasantly relaxing, slow, read set in the English village of Nether Monkslip.

I will admit that a couple of things gave me pause in the reading of the book.

First, Father Max Tudor is introduced in the most exalted terms. I almost gave up after reading it.

“…if Max had a fault, it was that he had been born open and trusting, expecting and generally receiving the best from people. Along with his handsomeness, it was the equivalent of a one-two knockout punch as far as women were concerned.”

Oh, really? I’m just not a fan of overly idealized characters. I prefer characters to look interesting. This had also come just after the author spent a very lengthy paragraph (fourteen lines) disparaging a middle-aged woman for her looks and the way she was dressed. Yeah, I almost chucked the book right there.

But, I kept going. I’m not big on giving up on a book and I’d already had a good prologue to pique my interest. In fact, the introduction of the junior priest in the parish, the Reverend Destiny Chatsworth, in a sauna where she overhears some incriminating conversation, was lovely. Unfortunately, we don’t see her again until nearly halfway through the book, and then only as a much more minor character. Kind of disappointing.

The mode of murder was interesting and the explanation of how it was accomplished was solid. Father Max is a former MI5 agent so that gives him some interesting background to draw on, and he’s quite besotted with his new son and his wise wife. (She seems a bit idealized as well.)

The identity of the murderer was not really something the reader could have figured out for themselves, but I’m okay with that. I was a little more annoyed by the *shocked gasp* presentation of who it was. While I couldn’t figure it out ahead of time, it wasn’t in any way shocking to me.

There’s a subplot going on that’s very minimal so its use at the end was a bit of a surprise.

I like the police procedural style of Father Max going and interviewing people, getting a lead, and following up on it, then reporting in with the local police. The plot is solid and pacing is good, edging toward slow.

I think the setting and description is one of the strongest points of the book.

“It was fall, and the patchwork fields around Nether Monkslip were changing color from gold and jade to bronze and topaz in that strange alchemy of the turning seasons.”

It’s a solid book, enjoyable and relaxing, I’d give it 3 stars out of 5. I might read another, but I also might look for something a little more modern. 

Have you read any of the series? What did you think?

Storymusing: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

 

Demon Copperhead

by Barbara Kingsolver

For September, our book club theme was “injustice.” I found Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Demon Copperhead in our Hoopla catalog and that seemed to fit the bill, so I downloaded it and started listening, not realizing at first that it was about 22 hours long.

I have to admit, I almost DNF’d (Did Not Finish) it a couple times in the first half. It was just so bleak to begin with. I kept thinking of the book by sociologist Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities. That title seemed to fit here very well.

Demon Copperhead is inspired by the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. It’s an updated version of the look at the inequalities of the criminal justice system, quality of schools, child labor, and class structure that bedeviled Victorian England, this time set in modern-day Appalachia and entrenched in the modern drug epidemic of prescription opioids.

Damon Fields, aka Demon, is born to a drug addicted young mother after his father dies in a swimming hole accident. Young Damon is watched over by the older next door neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Peggot, as much as they can, while they also take care of their grandson, Damon’s friend “Maggot.” Damon has far too much responsibility thrust on him at a young age, watching over his mother. Things get worse when his mother remarries, a hard man named Stoner.

It only goes down hill from there as Damon is put into foster care, which turns out to be a squalid tobacco farm where the boys are taken in for the check from DSS and the free labor. Eventually Damon ends up in a second placement that isn’t all that much better.

The story took a turn upward for me around the halfway mark as Damon set out to find his paternal grandmother. He meets some interesting characters along the way and fins his grandmother and her brother are decent people who find a place for Damon to live, back in his hometown with the football coach.

It’s an interesting story told in beautiful language through the eyes of Damon, whose saving grace is his way of seeing the world through his artwork. It also illuminates the trials and tribulations of addiction, though I can’t say how true to life that representation is.

Though one critic referred to it as “poverty porn,” I thought Kingsolver gives her characters dignity through even the most difficult situations. Good books often make people think hard and tend to receive a wide range of reviews. The book also received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, sharing it with Hernan Diaz’s Trust. 

I questioned where the author lives, as I'm always leery of people who write books of places well outside their sphere of knowledge, but Kingsolver lives in Appalachia so that does offer some credibility. 

It’s thought-provoking with some incredibly painful situations and some beautiful ones. Though long, it is a rewarding read and I recommend it. I have not felt my time was wasted. It has taken me on a journey and the characters will stay with me for some time to come.

I could say a great deal more about the story, but not without spoilers so I suggest you give it a try for yourself.

Storymusing: Purple Crayons: The Art of Drawing a Life by Ross Ellenhorn

 

Purple Crayons: The Art of Drawing a Life

by Ross Ellenhorn

First off, I have to confess, I haven’t finished this. In fact, I have decided not to finish it.

Our theme for writer’s group this month was “Dogs, Crayons, and Wellness.” I went to our Hoopla app, where I find audio books, and tried searching for “Dogs” and then “Crayons.”

This title caught my eye because it talks about Harold and the Purple Crayon, which I adored when I read it to my daughter as a toddler.

However, the reader is--not terribly enjoyable. Perhaps a little too clinical. Monotone. Boring. I find I enjoy a book when it sounds like someone is performing it, not when they are straight up reading it. That may be a fine distinction, but the amount of inflection and enthusiasm used needs to keep my attention. This reader did not do that.

Beyond that, I felt that the author gives some interesting background information which is useful in understanding where the author of Harold and the Purple Crayon came from and the social history of the time when the book was written. It can illuminate what influenced the artist, even if they themselves are unaware.

Then the author begins drawing some tenuous connections and making some very big assumptions.

The author ascribes some profound meaning to every aspect of how the book is drawn. I feel that is a mistake. Sometimes an artist decides to do something one way simply because they like it, and it feels effective to them.

I guess, in the end, I’m very leery of having a critic or anyone other than the artist explain how and why the artist did something, without drawing directly from a primary source of the artist’s own explanation.

I have found the reviews on Goodreads are equally mixed. I think a 3-star is appropriate and I would recommend it be read, rather than listened to.