Wow, it definitely doesn’t seem like 6 months since I signed off with the hopeful, “More updates as warranted!” But here we are, and September is starting up with some really lovely weather. I have not read many books this year so far (life is a tricky thing lately). Started several, finished a few more (mostly horror!), and looked longingly at the stack I posted in that February post without having a chance to get to any of them. Well, except one. Read on!
In that time, I did manage to start and finish one classic mystery, and started a few more recent arrivals from the shop.
I just started to nibble at Peter Nichols’ Granite Harbor, which is set in Maine, and promises to be a lot of fun. Set in the fictional town of Granite Harbor, which has as its primary attribute an archaeological site now open as a colonial reenactment attraction, its previously sleepy workaday population wakes up one morning to find not only is there a murderer in its midst, but also that murderer has aspirations to keep on murdering more folks from Granite Harbor’s small population, now dwindling.
I also got a good start on Mick Herron’s Standing by the Wall, a collection of “Slough House” novellas, which has been a great introduction to that world of intrigue. This is the only one from my TBR pile that I’ve cracked into! And if these stories are any indication, I now know why people are so avidly devouring his Slough House novel series. Clever but not obnoxiously so, and interlaced with a sense of humor, these will appeal even to those of us who haven’t felt inclined to pick up a spy novel since the Cold War ended (like me!). If you ran out of John Le CarrĂ© novels and have been hunting around for his successor, start with Mick Herron! You won’t be disappointed.
I’m including Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning, even though it’s really a horror book, because it is a fun summer campfire read, and is light enough (at 3/4 of the way through it) that I think most mystery readers would enjoy picking through its clues and trying their hand at the mystery of who is the killer, without being too freaked out by the horror content (it feels like YA horror, which is certainly not a bad thing if you don’t want a full-on nightmare to read).
Sitcom star Willow has gotten herself canceled by tweeting a comment in poor taste, and the repercussions have been shockingly immediate and catastrophic. She takes her last wages and in desperation spends them on a tech-free retreat. Designed as a connectivity detox for all sorts of reasons, campers know each other only under aliases, and spend their days doing wholesome outdoor activities and participating in group therapy sessions. There’s even a kind-of-hokey local axe murder legend about Knock Knock Nancy, which lends itself to campfire spookiness and pranks.
Everything seems to be going pretty well until folks start disappearing. Willow stumbles across a few clues that put her radar up, and decides to look for more. But who can she trust? No one is who they say they are, or was where they were supposed to be during critical time frames.
Not saying there’s a lot of substance to this one, but a fun summer read!
The queen of this array is Mary Roberts Rinehart. I’ll be honest -- when I tried reading The Yellow Room years ago, I didn’t like it. But I made up my mind to give it another try a decade later (or more?). This time it clicked. The WWII era setting jived with a Maine history research project I’m doing, and I can view the Maine summer-only people vibe with a dite more perspective now. Just a dite. I’m glad to say that I wound up enjoying the book a lot more this time through!
Published in 1945, the novel follows Carol, a young woman with a well-off and pushy family, as she makes the wartime trek up to Maine to reopen the family’s summer home against her better judgement. The men in the family are mostly away in service or already dead, yet her mother wants them all to go on vacation, while the rest of the world burns and dies.
The surreal isolation caused by the wartime setting is a primary character in this book. Add to this the already stark quiet of coastal smalltown Maine’s pre-season dormancy, and the reader subtly starts to feel on edge.
Not long after Carol’s arrival in the empty, echoing house on the hill, she discovers a perplexing and grisly crime has been committed in their absence, and concealed in the linen closet upstairs. There is no phone with which to call the police, and having been brought by train and taxi due to gas rationing, there is no working car to make the cold, mile-plus walk into town any easier.
Numb with shock but driven by propriety and duty, Carol makes the trek down the hilly road to the small police station.
As one can imagine, this being a murder mystery, things go from bad to worse before there is any hope of them getting better. A pretty gripping read, with intriguing local characters plus a dash of romance and adventure, set in the Bar Harbor area during World War II.
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| Old Orchard Beach - photo (c)2024 by Michelle Souliere |
As the golden days of September begin to cool at night, there will still be time for much more reading this year, I hope.
Until next time, keep reading!
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