Cutaneous Clues

Every time I read that a knowing sleuth leans into the vicinity of the newly corpsed and says sagely "ah, the scent of bitter almonds." I wonder if I would recognize the odor my self.  I smell almonds everyday but my old nose is not what it used to be which is sometimes a good thing. These almonds are not bitter of course. Besides if the detective can smell it, why does the victim never get a whiff of the characteristic aroma? In Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Cracked the doomed secretary did smell it but alas it was too late to stop the effects of the poison in the atomizer.

There are some other signs more readily visible which might help me if one were at a weekend party at a country house isolated by some freak weather. If the body is found in the library but seems to have sustained no trauma the characteristic cherry red coloring seen on the skin of someone who has succumbed to Carbon Monoxide is easy to spot. Naturally one would rather not come upon the naked dead in which the livedo pattern is most clear and so a glance at the hands may be all that is needed.

The eyes are the mirrors to the soul it is said. They also give clues that are easier to detect when you come across someone who is moribund, in those final seconds before all the muscles relax. Pinpoint pupils are seen with many narcotic poisonings including morphine and heroin. They are also a factor in organophosphate toxicity. Organophosphates are substances such as pesticides and nerve gases. These can be absorbed through the skin. In these situations there may also be obvious tearing of the eyes and lots of saliva as well as other intestinal side effects.

Dilated pupils are seen with poisonings by drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine as well as more exotic agents like hemlock or Jimson weed. In The Affair at the Victory Ball cocaine was the cause of one murder.

Pupils that are unequal in size suggest head trauma or even a stroke.

Another cause of death that an amateur sleuth may be able to determine is no laughing matter despite the name Risus Sardonicus. This is the one of the final living expressions of the dying person and it resembles a tremendous devilish smile or maybe a grinning grimace. The cause is Strychnine, which causes the body to go into spasms that are terrible to see.

This method of murder was used by Miss Christie in The Murderous Affair at Styles

Observers with a keen eye for detail may be able to diagnose one last poison by looking at the fingernails.  A horizontal white band affecting all the nails is a sign of arsenic ingestion. The poisoning in this case would have been some time in the past determined by the rate of nail growth. Some times there are several bands suggesting that the ingestion may not be purely accidental.

So the next time it is your lot in life to help Miss Marple, well maybe not her, she needs no help keep these little tips in mind.

Chronicles of a Curate

Fred Secombe has finished his religious studies in the later years of WWII. After spending some time in an apparent bad situation he has moved to Pontywen, a town in the Welsh Valleys where he has been named as a curate for an elder Vicar, Canon Llewellyn. There were three churches in his parish in this lovely township of about 6000 population. Fred tells his story of his sojourn to Pontywen in How Green Was My Curate.

Some times Fred finds that his clerical collar makes him an outcast from society as he finds that he rides in solitary splendor on the train, because one look at it and no one will join him in his compartment. Vicar Llewellyn is more prosaic and tells him that there will come a time when he will cherish he solitude and thus begins his sojourn in Pontywen.

Fred's first stroke of luck was that he was housed with a very nice landlady who got him on the right footing on town and was able to explains anything that puzzles him about his parishioners . The life a a curate is a busy one and Fred settles in helping with church services and activities.

These are still times of rationing of most things. A pound is a lot of money and many people like Fred own few things. Like many men Fred had one good suit, one OK suit and a couple of shirts. But at one point he feels completely modern living in 1945 and not 1845.  Single man frequently lodged with others and people were glad to have extra income. He describes houses with no bathrooms and out door privies and it sounds like 1845 to me!

His best stroke of luck is when his landlady , who does have a bathroom, but no indoor plumbing paints the bath tub and after a long day he goes for a nice hot soak and finds his fanny fixed to the new paint when he tries to get out. He does get out but he is left in arrears and has to see the local doctor to have his rump repaired. This turns out to be the lovely Eleanor with whom he falls in love with at first sight.

Fred's adventures as a curate are often hilarious, but he does deal with the problems of real people which are sometimes heart rending.


In A Curate for All Seasons the saga continues as Fred now well established is trying to fulfill one of his dreams, which is to start a Gilbert and Sullivan Opera society. His vicar approved this because he thought it might bring more people to the church. The Welsh are well known for their music.  The first production is to be The Pirates of Penzance. There is no shortage of willing participants, from milkmen to schoolgirls. Fred made this sound like so much fun that I felt like getting the movie version and watching it myself, which I did.

In this book as well the lively curate finds life mixing the bitter with the sweet and the war winds down and some men are never to return to their families. But Fred is learning that to every season there is a purpose and that is one of the reasons for this title.

Fred's life becomes full in Goodbye Curate as he finally marries his beloved Eleanor even though by now he knows it will be a while before his mother-in-law thaws out. They make a good pair as their careers intersect, Eleanor taking care of the physical and Fred shepherding the souls.  They both have acute senses of humor and their banter reveals that each can hold their own. Fred's time as a curate has come to an end as the Bishop has other plans for him. I am really looking forward to further chronicles in the same fashion that I awaited James Herriot's stories of live among the animals in Yorkshire.

          The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Every time I read this book  and it is worth rereading, I am flabbergasted by the fact that Georgette Heyer began it when she was fifteen years old. The characters are very well drawn with a subtle mixture of emotional depths that is very insightful. Even her villain is quite three dimensional with an intriguing blend of good and bad that made him in the end quite likable.


Nobody does period speech as well as Heyer and she has been much emulated. If I had to compare Heyer with Jane Austen all I can say it I have read her more often and more repeatedly that any of Austin's works in which case once was enough. Heyer sets a beautiful scene and takes the reader back in time. Then she gives each character a voice and they come alive. 




The first books that she wrote had several that either foreshadowed or segued into other books.

	In These Old Shades it is apparent that the story was foreshadowed in Georgette Heyer's first book The Black Moth because the main characters bears many similarities in both books. But in this case Justin Alastair the Duke of Avon is more fully fleshed out. He is never as bad as he is painted. This is one of her best. Heyer spends a lot of time discussing the clothes of the era. The wealthy had little else to do so they spent an inordinate amount of time on their person and their outfits. . She does have a thing for shoes with red heels, they show up in all her early books. The story begins when he rescues a waif from the streets of Paris with striking hair and makes him his page. There is a mystery subtly interwoven in between action and adventures that makes this book very enjoyable. The sequel to this book is Devil's Cub. The young Marquis of Vidal is known to be even wilder that his father the Duke of Avon. As he flees England after one misadventure he kidnaps a young lady who changes his life. This book is one of my favorites. The Talisman Ring is not classified as one of Georgette Heyer's mysteries but the story does revolve around the solving of the murder of Sir Matthew Plunkett and discovering the location of a talisman ring. When Lord Lavenham crosses the great divide, his grandson and heir Ludovic is supposedly hiding in Europe because he is suspected of being the killer of Sir Matthew. There is definitely an air of adventure and excitement mixed with some romance as the story unfolds with with, humor and mild suspense. There are cutthroats, smugglers, Bow Street Runners, hidden basements, priest holes and foolish as well as clever heroes and heroines. It is fun to read. Regency Buck

This is Georgette Heyer's first story actually set in the regency era .  Beautiful heiress Judith Tavener and her younger brother become wards of Julian St John Audley the Earl of Worth. What a great name! The two young people have travelled down to London from Yorkshire planning not to set the world on fire but just to shake the straw out of their hair.

Before long a game is afoot to murder the young Percy. Is the culprit the free spending Lord Worth  are there other villains in the family such as a dipsomaniac uncles whose pockets are to let. The book is filled with such interesting turns of phrase which are well researched by Heyer at heart a historian. It is said that her book The Infamous Army which details the battle of Waterloo and the defeat of Napoleon is used a a British Military college as required reading.

These books are just a taste of Heyer. She has written excellent historical books, golden age mysteries and more. Her books are still frequently republished.

Snakeskin Shamisen by Naomi Hirahara
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Japanese Americans are a very unique group. As far as I know they are the only  people who have names for the different generations with in their group. The SOB (Straight off the boat) are  the Issei, their children the second generation are the Nisei and their grandchildren or third generation are the Sansei.  In addition to this they are one of the most resilient people who suffered great indignities and hardships  in the course of their history in the Western Hemisphere. It was not until the 1950's that they were allowed to become naturalized American Citizens. Despite being interned during the war, losing their property and more they elected to look to the future rather than to the past.

There is a subgroup the Kibei Nisei who were born in America and raised in Japan. Mas Arai is one of these young men who eventually found himself deep in a subterranean train station in Hiroshima during the 1945 bombing and it had naturally marked his life in very significant ways. He is now a 70 year old part time gardener who is getting a reputation for solving murders and he gets involved in the death of a recent lottery winner. The situation is complex and reaches back to Okinowa and WWII, to the red scare in the 50's and brings up some of the bad things men do for what they think are good reasons.

Mas Arai may appear to be a grumpy old man, but in reality he is just a person who suffers fools badly, has little use for regrets about things that cannot be changed and he never wears his heart on his sleeve but he definitely has one.

There are a lot of characters to keep straight and convoluted motives but you won't regret reading this book, both for the history and the mystery. The tidbit I took home was the fact that many Japanese went to Peru when a call when out in a need for labourers. The Peruvian government rounded up these Japanese-Peruvians and sold them to the US Government who planned to exchange them for US POWs who were being held by Japan. This tranfers was incomplete but some were sent to Japan.. The other kidnapees were held in Texas and eventually release and some stayed in the US and some returned to Peru and their previous lives. Peru refused to have most back and they languished in Crystal City,Texas for two years after the war was over.

Crystal City Internees

Crystal CityInternees