Telling Tales

Vera Stanhope is one of the most interesting characters in detective fiction that I have come across in a while. She looks and dresses like a bag lady because of an unfortunate figure and a recalcitrant skin condition. She is frequently underestimated and often over looked so she has developed a personality that is warm and caring on occasion and very snarky as the British say, on  others.

Vera looks and dresses like a bag lady because of an unfortunate figure and a recalcitrant skin condition. She suffers from a severe form of eczema and it is only when she wears loose baggy clothing that her skin is comfortable. This also explains why she wears a type of walking sandal most of the time.

Stanhope is the perfect Detective Inspector to reinvestigate a case of the death of a young girl ten years prior. She knows people and also knows how to manipulate them on occasion as she ferrets out secrets that only an elephant would remember. The case revolves around the murder of a lovely young girl who was the apple of her father's eye.

 The easiest person to pin the murder on is the the slightly disturbed girl who was obsessed with Mr. Mantell and whom Mantell had recently asked to leave his home.  The death was was supposed to have come as an act of retaliation for Abigail Mantell's manipulation of her father. after ten years in prison someone comes forward to finally verify Jeanie's long ago alibi but it is too late. After she was recently denied parole Jeannie committed suicide.

A central character in the story is Emma Bennett who was a friend of Abigail's and who was severely traumatized by the discovery of the body and has been somewhat withdrawn ever since. There are others who also felt that the easy answer was the wrong answer. As in all investigations the underbelly of a village's life is revealed and a second murder brings the cold case into the present.



This is the second of this series and like all of Ann Cleeves' series is well worth reading.

Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards has written a series that takes place in the lake district of England. This series has developed some critical acclaim in some blogs are British mystery discussions. I began the series at the beginning which is a smart thing to do because  the subsequent book frequently talked about people, places and things that appear in book one THE COFFIN TRAIL.

The main characters are Daniel Kind an ex-Oxford historian who is seeking the quiet life in a new location and DCI Hannah Scarlett a police detective who had a case fall apart on her so she had been shunted to a newly formed cold case unit, of which she has been put in charge.

A coffin trail was a pathway from small towns to the nearest consecrated ground. It was used for transporting the caskets of dead people for burial. In the area in which where Daniel now lives  the trail is also associated with a large flat=topped stone that the ancients used for sacrifices of different kinds for different purposes, but mostly to appease the pagan gods in one way or another.


Daniel has moved into a lovely house that has unusual history. It is where an acquaintance of his once lived. He is now dead but was accused of murdering a lovely woman and leaving her on the altar stone before he tumbles to his death in a hideous accident. Daniel believes his friend was innocent but the incident was decades ago and is settled for most people.

Hannah is called to reopen this case.  The two dance around the case poking it to see if it stirs. This occupies the first 2/3 of the book. Finally the investigation begins and proceeds nicely to an interesting conclusion.

In THE CIPHER GARDENS Daniel and Scarlett dance the same dance around another case of the murder of as local lothario who was also a mean, disliked man who was part owner of a landscaping business. Both Daniel and Scarlett  worry at the edges of the mystery until finally the case opens up. There is a new murder and it is this one that helps the historian and the detective find the killer.

Mean while back at the ranch or the lakeside cottage Daniel is trying to figure out the mystery of his unusual garden which is called a cipher garden because it is a puzzle set up by early owners of the home to explain either their lives or their deaths.




A subplot running through the story is the relationship between Daniel and his live-in girlfriend who always appears to me to be straining at the leash which is just as well because Daniel has eyes for Hannah who is already in a long term relationship in which there are several cracks in the foundation.These little characterizations don't paint Daniel in the strongest light because the reader really questions his judgement.

No Second Wind

A.B. Guthrie Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jason Beard has left college to come back home to Midbury after his father died.He is working as a deputy once again for Sheriff Chick Charleston. The story begins in what people in that neck of the woods call a cold snap, the temperature is about 45 degrees below zero. This is unimaginable cold to me, but it did mitigate my sense of unimaginable heat that the east coast has been experiencing with days of 100+ degrees. I was fascinated by one description of the trouble people have to go through to keep their cars running.

 The people in the town are up in arms about the new hard hats and their families that are coming to town preparing for the passage of a law that will give permission for widespread coal strip mining.

If this happens the land will be destroyed for years and will never be good for ranching or farming again, The incomers are just hoping for jobs which will support their families and resent the way that are being treated like lepers from the town folk. It is only the bitter cold that takes the edge off the hostilities. But not for long, soon there is the death of a newcomer who owns a bar and the sounds of wolves are heard coming ever closer to town and the people on both sides of the mining question fear for the safety of their children.

Sundogs

 Sheriff Charleston is always a man of reason but people in a panic won't listen to reason and are not ready to test the idea that wolves don't go after humans. He also is always on the side of law and order regardless of who he is protecting. Jase Beard is maturing nicely and the weather doesn't seem to bother him, as he walks out in all weather even when the sundogs are showing. This is a cold weather phenomenon seen when the sun is just above the horizon  and there is a cold frost in the air.

Death follows death and soon a resident of the town is found dead. It is likely that both deaths are accidental but when people are up in arms that explanation is never satisfying.

Montana strip coal mine

This is an intriguing story written in the eighties and it is interesting to compare the background of the story with the situation of coal mining in Montana today.  I recommend googling this subject for some interesting information.The sense of time and place is wonderful and I shivered in my boots until the very satisfying conclusion. This rates as one of my favorite series. There are two more in this very short series and I am keeping them for special times.