First written in 1926, Clouds of Witness is the second in Sayers’ series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, after Whose Body?. Like Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness also offers up some complications arising from mistaken identity, albeit in a different context. As Sir Peter Wimsey sorts through the evidence, the clues incriminate one person, then another, until all the characters know who is dead, why this person is dead, and who is at fault. Continue reading →.

Anyone who is a fan of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel, Rebecca would benefit from reading Rebecca’s Tale. Published in 2007, it is one of the best non-author written sequels I have read to date. The most interesting facet of this novel is that Ms. Beauman tells the story from four different points of view: Arthur Julyan, the confidante who fell in love with Rebecca; the orphan, Terence Gray, looking for answers as to his parentage and to his relationship to Rebecca; Ellie Julyan, Arthur’s overly protective daughter; and finally Rebecca herself. Continue reading →.

One of the beauties of reading well-seasoned literature is that we modern women forget what life was like for women a hundred or more years ago. How easily we forget that having the liberty to choose one’s own activities is a relatively recent phenomenon for women. For Elizabeth, an upper class woman who was not enchanted by cooking and sewing, her passions for such “wasteful” activities as reading books and garden planning could only be fulfilled because of an indulgent husband, but even then, only then with ever-present feelings of guilt. Continue reading →.

The First Sir Percy could be called The Laughing Cavalier, Part II because it takes up where the previous book leaves off in the highly addictive Scarlet Pimpernel series. The story teeters on the brink of disaster, as again, we wonder just who can we trust, and how in the devil is Diogenes going to get out of this trap, and again, should he? If you have read The Laughing Cavalier, don’t stop there. After all, you’ve already learned the Dutch, you know the characters, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy The First Sir Percy. Continue reading →.

The first of two prequels to The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Laughing Cavalier is set in Holland in 1623. It tells the story of Percy Blake, a foreign adventurer and ancestor of the Scarlet Pimpernel who goes by the name Diogenes. Unlike The Scarlet Pimpernel, Diogenes has not yet established himself as a man of sterling character or irreproachable moral integrity. Some of the fun of The Laughing Cavalier is that one is uncertain whether he will wind up in jail or on the scaffold, and whether he just might deserve such a fate. Continue reading →.

Meet Peter Wimsey, an English lord with a penchant for solving sordid crimes. Mervyn Bunter, Wimsey’s valet, plays Dr. Watson to Lord Peter’s skewed Sherlock. What makes this a unique detective novel is that before the crime can be solved, the investigators must decide if a crime has been committed and, more importantly, who is this dead man to begin with? And what is he doing in someone else’s bathtub wearing only a pince nez? Continue reading →.

In this first novel (but third in chronological order) of the Scarlet Pimpernel series, the question foremost in the reader’s mind is “Who is the Scarlet Pimpernel?” The plot involves an unintended betrayal by a loved one, a desperate flight into France to save more Aristos, and a daring charade to mislead an unscrupulous French henchman hot on the Pimpernel’s trail. To tell more would be to give away some of the delights of this novel. Continue reading →.

Womanless, homeless and broke–this is the way Jim Qwilleran finds himself at the beginning of any early Cat Who novel. In The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern Jim is richer only by the company of one cat who shares his interesting in solving crimes. He is older by six months. He has a job, albeit with a shaky future. Continue reading →.

Here we meet a slightly younger, much poorer Jim Qwilleran who has managed to work his way down the social ladder thanks to a few poor lifestyle choices. He is worlds away from Pickax’s celebrated “Mister Q”. This Qwilleran owns no pets. He has no job. He has no home. All his worldly goods can be packed into two suitcases. And his wife is now his ex-wife. Continue reading →.

In this first novel by Agatha Christie, published in 1920, she introduces the inimitable Poirot, who would go on to appear in 33 Christie novels and 54 short stories. In fact, Christie spent so much time with Poirot that she began to think of him as “insufferable” and “an ego-centric creep.” Continue reading →.