THE BLACK CAMEL

The Black Camel by Earl Derr Biggers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

THE BLACK CAMEL         by Earl Derr Biggers


'Death is the black camel that kneels unbidden at every gate.' This is the quote used by Charlie Chan minutes after he is called to investigate the murder of Shelah Fane a Hollywood actress who has just arrived in the Hawaiian Islands to wrap up a movie that had been begun in Tahiti. She had hoped to have some time to recuperate once filming was done. Shelah was quite famous for her work and appearance but these were on the cusp of a downhill slope, something that actresses in the movie business always feared when the little lines on the face became more obvious.

This is a very high profile case for Inspector Chan of the Honolulu police and he proceeds warily among many possible suspects. One man a mysterious crystal gazer or fortune teller known as Tarneverro is well known among the Hollywood set and a close personal friend of Miss Fane is very eager to help in the solving of this murder and Charlie accepts this philosophically with help from another wise saying: ‘the bird chooses the tree, not the tree the bird.’


Most of Charlie Chan’s approach relates to basic philosophy of what will be will be. Life is predestined and so there is no use worrying about things not easily controlled such as the weather, one’s weight, and other facts of life. But he has no intention of behaving like the crane, which waited for the sea to disappear and leave him dry fish to eat, starves to death. Thus he proceeds and in his quiet intuitive way knows he can find the murderer.

Diamond Head

Charlie Chan has eleven children and in this book we are introduced to his oldest son, Henry, his oldest daughter, Rose and the next in line Evelyn. We also meet little Barry who was born while he was helping the SFPD during his recent adventures in California in BEHIND THAT CURTAIN.

Cooking With Fernet Branca

Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had put off reading this book thinking that it would be a book similar to others about people buying houses in Tuscany or France and making food and drinking wine. I was wrong. I found it to be hilarious and wonderful.

Cypress Grove

Cypress Grove by James Sallis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a wonderful book. The author has the elements of the story come together like partners in a tango. Deep emotions held in control as the music of life swirls around and the past and the present are brought together in a satisfying climax. Already the next in the Turner series is in the mail, I look forward to it.

Turner, the central character is an ex-cop, ex- con who has moved to the small town near Memphis after retiring from his career as a therapist. When murder comes to Turner's hideaway Sheriff Lonnie Bates needs Turner to help him solve the crime because Turner had a great track record for solving homicides.

I did not know it but the three books in this series were available in an omnibus, the cost of which is  now is not in my range.

Black Land, White Land: A Mr. Fortune Novel by Henry Christopher Bailey


The title to this novel was very intriguing giving the impression of meaning one thing, but in reality meaning another. It is taken from the saying "Black land, white land, always at strife". It came from an area of the British Isles where the dark loam rich fertile ground is cheek and jowl next to white chalky dirt fit for nothing but sheep. There has always been fierce competition to own the more productive black land.


This is the second of H. C. Bailey's Mr. Fortune novels and is felt by some to be his best case. Mr. Fortune is asked to look at some bones recently found when a chunk of chalk fell off one of the white cliffs. The man who unearthed them was hoping that Mr. Fortune would substantiate his theory of the existence of giants in days of yore. Instead Mr. Fortune reveals the bones to be that of an elephant mixed in with newer bones, those of a young man  that had been in the earth for about ten years. Reggie Fortune sets the town police on their ears as he knows who the victim must be and he accuses the investigators of not investigating the disappearance of this man because they were afraid to reveal the culprits who might be responsible.

  I found myself wishing the prose was more black and white. Mr. Fortune speaks in a convoluted confounding fashion that was difficult to understand at times.Sometimes he is given to grandiloquent statements like "Everything meant something and nothing meant anything."


These words express my feelings to a T.

Over The Gate

By Miss Read



 This book, the fifth in the Fairacre series is a story pulled together by the school year and a group of anecdotes that several of the characters tell to Miss Read as they reminisce and teach her more about the area she calls home.

Miss Read, the village school mistress has been doing the same thing now for several years and while she still enjoys her job and the children, she wonders if it is time to move on and get out of her rut. The thought of another teacher taking her place is what makes her accept the fact that desperately miserable winters are not enough to chase her away.

Miss Read creates an idyllic world where even a stranger at one's door is more of an adventure than a threat of home invasion. Her description of the bucolic surrounding sent me to google on several occasions to find out what feverfew, cowslip and thrushes look like. These pleasures in the smallest of plants and animals that inhabit a country lane, all of which have individuality is lovely.


Sadly when I take a walk in a rural setting I can put a name to nothing but the most common of plants like yarrow, Queen Anne's lace and dandelions.

Gently Does It

by Alan Hunter

This is the first of the George Gently series that was begun in 1955. Gently is a Scotland Yard police inspector from the East Anglia section of England who eventually becomes a Chief Superintendent. This case begins while Gently is on vacation and he gets involved in the murder of a mean old man.

 The local police force regret asking him to help because  he won't let them settle for the easiest to catch and most likely suspect. Gently quietly but surely teases out the truth from a tangle of lies while eating one pepper met cream after another.

What these confections are exactly is unclear, but if he consumes several an hour I wonder that he has any teeth left in his head. Gently is portrayed as a large man who is past worrying about calories. Perhaps Hunter never realized at the time of Gently's debut that he would go on to feature in forty six Gently mysteries the last of which was published i 199. Hunter died in 2005.





There was also a BBC series featuring George Gently and it was after seeing an episode that I dug out my old Gentlys and picked up the birth of Gently.

Goal !! Leighton Gage

This review is from: A Vine in the Blood: A Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigation (Hardcover)
"Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood" (Ezekiel 19:10)

The blood-red tint of bougainvilleas is the main concern of an unusual color-blind gardener named Luca Vas when he arrives at the São Paolo home of Juraci Santos.
Tico "The Artist" Santos is the principal striker for the Brazilian team, which has been favored to win the FIFA Fútbol World Cup, which is being hosted by Brazil and is slated to start in three weeks. Whereas for many fútbol lovers, the game is their main love, for The Artist, elite though he may be, his mother is more important.

Fútbol is better known to us as soccer, but the rest of the world prefers the original name because it is a game matching balls and feet. I was fascinated by the little tidbit Gage dropped in the story that the English brought the game to Brazil. It took off in such a way that the prophetic words of Ezekiel can equally be rephrased to say, "Fútbol is like a vine in the blood" because it takes hold of a fan to the point of mania. Thus, there is a national push to get this crime solved as quickly as possible. Chief Inspector Mario Silva and his crack team from the federal police are summoned to São Paulo and the game is afoot.

It is immediately obvious that there is a long list of people who might want to keep The Artist off the field.
I was caught up in the fútbol fever within a few pages of opening the book. Leighton Gage paces this interesting, exciting story just like the build-up to a big game. . Inspector Mario Silva's mandate is clear: he is to find Juraci Santos alive and before the World Cup begins. All of Brazil is depending on it. He has 13 days.

Murder mysteries are my main reading and it is always exciting to find a novel that takes me to an interesting locale and that is an original, exotic and stimulating story. The finale of this complex tale was not what I expected, but it made sense. This is the fifth of the Mario Silva series. As it has progressed, the characters and their personal lives are being fleshed out, which adds to the story without diluting the action. Though part of a series, this book can be read as a standalone because it is complete within itself.