The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman #1970Club

Book Beginnings (hosted by Rose City Reader)

Mrs. Pollifax had attended church that Sunday morning, and her hat--a garden of pale pink roses and green leaves--still sat on her head as she ate lunch in the sunny kitchen of her apartment. She had a tendency to be absentminded lately about hats--in fact since beginning karate lessons she had become forgetful about a number of things--and since she would be going out again soon she had anticipated the problem by placing her hat where it could not possibly be left behind.

👒 If that opening lines can't intrigue you to read on, I don't know what can. Floral hats and karate lessons don't usually go together in one paragraph. But that's what Mrs. Pollifax is - if you haven't familiar yet with the series - unexpected. The first book in the series, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, is a strong proof.

👒 Still assuming you haven't read the series - what are you waiting for?? - Mrs. Emily Pollifax is a sexagenarian widow who loves gardening - hence her floral hat - but isn't prepared yet to lead a quite and monotonous life, alone in her apartment. So she went to CIA headquarters and unexpectedly got hired by a Mr. Carstairs to be... a spy! Well, not a proper, as she's unqualified, but she's done her first courier job perfectly in Albania, that Mr. Carstairs, her boss, was quite both surprised and amused.

👒 This time she was tasked to go as tourist to Turkey, to assist Magda Ferenci-Sabo, a defecting Russian spy and double agent to leave the country. She only have to arrive at an hotel at certain time, and be at the lobby with a battered copy of Gone with the Wind as a sign. It's sounds easy, but as usual, Mrs. Pollifax's innocent impulses and affectionate heart brought things to totally different direction; more dangerous, but also more exciting. And along the mission, Mrs. Pollifax found friendship with unlikely people and allies.

👒 Davida @ The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews has recently reviewed this book, and I agree with her comment that it is even better than the first one. I see Mrs. Pollifax is becoming more adept to her new "profession" - she's been taking Karate lessons anyway - and in more than one occasion she quickly took initiative for further plans or actions. The writer, Dorothy Gilman, also brought more colorful characters to assist Mrs. Pollifax in her mission, including some gypsies. They helped brighten the story and some hilarious moments came from their encounters. But what I loved most is Gilman's picturesque portrayal of Turkey, especially the hilltop caves at Göreme where Mrs. Pollifax and co. used for hiding place, they were gorgeous!

(abandoned) cave dwellings at present-day's Göreme
National Park, Turkey

And here I quoted one beautiful landscape at night:

Friday 56 Quote (hosted by Head Full of Books)

They were passing over the Galata Bridge now, and the lights of moving tugs and boats slashed the glistening inky water with long ribbons of gold. Even at midnight the bridge was filled with traffic: miles, trucks, and donkeys bearing fruit and vegetables to the markets and merchandise to the bazaars. Pale moonlight etched out the silhouette of the mosque at the foot of the bridge and touched each passerby with a high light of silver.

👒 Needless to say, I loved this book! It has a perfect balance of mystery, suspense, comedy, love, and friendship, with a touch of cold war and exotic place.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

The 1970 Club

hosted by Simon and Karen

The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky #1970Club

❄️ Published in 1970 in Russian, this book is a locked room mystery with a touch of science fiction. It follows a police inspector, Peter Glebsky, who is on vacation to the titular inn, in order to stay away from his job and family. Also staying at the remote inn and ski chalet, a bunch of eccentric people. There is a famous magician, Du Bramstoker, with his nephew Brun - an adolescent with indeterminate sex (what is it, a boy or a girl?). Then there's a physicist Simon Simone, a wealthy man Moses who's perpetually drunk, and his beautiful wife.

❄️ Then strange things start to happen. Small items are missing, but other stuffs appear mysteriously, voices are heard where no one had been. Are those only innocence though annoying pranks, or, as the inn owner indicates, a supernatural manifestation? He seems to believe that the dead mountaineer - whose legend inspired the inn's name - is still present.

❄️ Things then begin to get more serious; a murder, no less! The latest guest who has arrived right before an avalanche blocked the mountain pass, is found murdered in a locked room. Glebsky had no other choice than investigating the crime, albeit reluctantly. The deeper he investigates though, the more he's confused. There are too many strange unrelated things happening, which ones were pranks, and which were true? And who's telling the truth, who's been prankster? Was the murder a usual crime? Or was there aliens involved like what some of the guests have been incredulously insisting?

❄️ This is such an eccentric yet entertaining story. It's weird but funny at the same time. You'll keep wondering whether this is a clever and complex murder mystery, a huge joke, or a science fiction? And my advice if you want to read this book is, don't google or read any synopsis or blurb beforehand. Just read the book with open mind. It will be more fun. Knowing what it is before reading would totally ruin it! All I can say that I had fun reading it. The book was well constructed, and represented the vibes of the 1970s - that's why mystery novels of vintage era are always my favorite, when everything was still simple and, therefore, more meaningful.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

The 1970 Club

hosted by Simon and Karen

Thursday's Child by Noel Streatfeild #1970Club

🔶️ Margaret Thursday is an orphan, though, as she always tells people,

"I'm not properly an orphan. I was found on a Thursday on the church steps, with three of everything, all of the very best quality."

🔶️ She's actually a daughter of a respectable lady who had stubbornly eloped with her lover. When Margaret was a baby, the lady left her on someone's doorstep, inside a basket with those three of everything of the very best quality, which we will be reminded over and over again throughout the book. It's not that she's boasting, as I first was inclined to think, but it's the lady's way to plant in her daughter's heart that, despite of her demise, she is a special child who deserves respect from others. And this seemingly foolish way did work out. Margaret grows as a up high spirited girl with strong self confident, always believing she can become anyone she wants, that she can be a famous person, even. And most importantly, it gives her self respect and courage to stand on her own against people who would bully and belittle her throughout her adolescence.

🔶️ Margaret Thursday got her surname from the good people who had found her on a Thursday. It follows a nursery rhyme titled Monday's Child:

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace.
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living.
But the child that is born on Sabbath day,
Is bonny and blithe, good and gay.

🔶️ At first regular fund kept coming every year for her upkeep, but one day it had stopped. And the good people had no choice except sending her to an orphanage. It was supposed to be a good one - recommended even by the Archdeacon. But of course it's as bad as in Dickens' stories, with evil and greedy mistress, who starved the children, punished them severely, and all. But Margaret also found new best friends at the orphanage in Lavinia, Peter, and Horatio - siblings from a broken family.

🔶️ When things turned from bad to worse, Margaret arranged an escape from the orphanage with Peter and Horatio. Lavinia, meanwhile, had gotten a job as scullery maid at the manor house. But what could these little children do to save themselves? What would happen to them? Plenty of Interesting things, it turns out, from working as leggers in a canal boat, to performing in a theater!

Horse-drawn canal boat [pic: from Wikipedia]

🔶️ Their canal boat career is what interested me most. I didn't know that horse-drawn canal boats are mode of cargo transportation in England from mid 19th century to mid 1960s. The horse walked on the canal bank. A strong rope around its head was connected to the boat. The horse need someone to supervise and lead it along the journey, to walk beside it. This person was called a legger. Margaret and the two brothers shared many shifts to do this. And Streatfeild described the beauty but hard canal boat life with the simple but lovely people so vividly I felt like living there myself.

🔶️ On the whole, it's a beautiful and wholesome book, vividly written by Noel Streatfeild. This is my first children novel from her, but certainly not the last.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

The 1970 Club

hosted by Simon and Karen

Mr. Niyogi's Last Audit (2024) by S.N. Rao #Netgalley

Thanks to Copperplate and NetGalley for providing me review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Beginnings on Fridays (hosted by Rose City Reader):

I was feeling cold, so I opened my eyes to find myself in a cold room. It was unfamiliar room, and I could not recollect how I got here. The room was dimly lit. I did not know what time it was; the curtains were open, and it was dark outside. I needed to pee. I took a deep breath, turned onto my left side and pushed myself into a sitting position. My arms trembled with the effort, and I felt a pain in my left shoulder.

👴🏼In his 77 years of age, Mr. Vikram Niyogi is struggling with Parkinson's - the same disease my late father had had in the last years of his life (he passed away last year). That was the main reason I picked up this novel in the first place, a story I could surely well relate. Moreover, my father was also an accountant like Mr. Niyogi, before retirement. And it is a way, I hoped, to better understand the extend of what my father must have had through - something I hadn't fully appreciated at that time, as those were quite distressing times for me and my mother.

👴🏼 Mr. Niyogi is a retired accountant for an airline company of Bengaluru branch, India. He had been an invaluable member of the enterprise before retirement. Now that Parkinson's is eating away his movement as well as his dignity - causing him more dependent on his wife, daughter, and a caretaker - he felt more desperate to be useful in life. But what can he possibly do, when, even for basic activities like eating, walking, and peeing he can't do without help?

👴🏼 The answer came in two ways. His former company faced a serious money embezzlement, and only a senior accountant like Mr. Niyogi could trace it. Then his daughter Archana has a friend, whose son was hopelessly stranded on a small island in Maldives with 200 other miners, when their employer went bankrupt, with no one able to help as most institutions are focusing in recovery after Covid-19. It should not be of Mr. Niyogi's concern, however he starts hearing the stranded young man's voice, urging him to send for help. But what can he do? Maybe if he helps Saran airlines in his last audit for them, they in turn might be persuaded to send boats for the stranded miners. But that would be an impossible task for Mr. Niyogi - or is it?

👴🏼 I applauded S.N Rao for the writing. Either he has been dealing with Parkinson's patient before, or he has done a thorough research; painful dealing with Parkinson's disease were captured vividly throughout the story and become one of the strong points of this book. Mr. Niyogi's meal, for instance, was pictured in minutest detail from preparing the liquified food to the injection to his feeding tube. Or the procedure of various treatments given to Mr. Niyogi to ease his rigid muscles, were described in chronological detail that I felt like being trained as a nurse. It might bored some of you who dislikes medical or uncomfortable scenes in a book, but it's interesting if you want to know more about Parkinson's disease, and felt relatable for you who have dealt with it.

Quoted for Friday56 hosted by Head Full of Books :

I was nervous. Ever since I got Parkinson's, I hadn't been confident or sure of myself. I was not sure how I would do here, but I decided to give it a try nonetheless.

👴🏼 Most of Mr. Niyogi's symptoms were also experienced by my father. Once he came back from a grocery store (he went alone as he could still walk at that time) with treacle of blood flowing from his eyebrow, without remembering what had happened. I think he had experienced a combination of one-second blackout and muscle-freeze. Luckily it happened right in front of the store's glass door, so his forehead bumped the door instead of completely falling over. We never let him go alone after that incident.

👴🏼 Hallucination had also happened once to my father, he saw flowers everywhere, on the wall, on the bed, on the floor. He's really freaked out that he's going crazy, but luckily it never happened again. Mr. Niyogi's hearing the minor's voice is hallucination, by the way, if you've been wondering. My father also had throat muscle rigidity that his diet was limited to only very soft porridge and steamed egg custard (chawanmushi) or soft tofu during his last year. Thank God, except during his last days in the ICU, he never needed feeding tube. I can't imagine the trouble and cost we'd have to bear if it happened.

👴🏼 All in all, it is an intriguing novella about struggles and resilience, sacrifices and humanity, with an elaborate theme of Parkinson's disease. The writing style is a bit too formal to be an entertaining novel, but other than that it has quite a perfect balance on all sides.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2


** Mr. Niyogi's Last Audit has been published in August 15th, 2024 **

A Telegram from Le Touquet (1956) by John Bude

📬 The titular telegram from Le Touquet is indeed a center point of this mystery by John Bude. I have thought from the first that the telegram must be something to complicate the case - and it is. But the telegram is also the turning point for Inspector Blampignon from Surete to solve the murder of a wealthy widow called Gwenny.

📬 The story opens with Nigel Derry, who is vacationing at Aunt Gwenny's house, where he would find the girl he has wanted to marry: Sheila. Also coming for holiday several of Gwenny's lovers, for she's been notoriously picking up a lover after another. There are no less than three whom Nigel meets: two of her old lover/friend, and the latest one, a Frenchman. The atmosphere soon gets tensed - there's a knife fight, and Gwenny suddenly, and without specific reason, thwarts Nigel and Sheila's marriage. Nigel's vacation is abruptly cut short when Gwenny leaves for her cottage in France.

📬 But Gwenny never reaches her cottage. Or technically, her body reached the cottage, found inside her own big trunk, but she's been dead for three days. It's at this point that Inspector Blampignon steps in. After a couple days of interviews and investigations, he gets no further than the first day. The telegram which Nigel received from Gwenny, sent from Le Touquet makes things more complicated still. It's clear that the murderer is a man, and one who's close to her. But which one?

📬 The most interesting thing about this book is the denouement. Blampignon knew the murderer near the end, but I think, not how it was performed, nor the motive. We get to know that from the murderer himself. And it's such a clever elaborated effort that might puzzle many amateur sleuths. In fact, the motive is so simple I wonder if it's worthwhile considering the great effort the murderer has taken. I think, psychologically, it's not the suitable kind of murder he would have taken for the motive anyway. And the murderer was quite predictable, it's no surprise when Blampignon revealed it. But still, it's an entertaining mystery with an intricate method of murder, and listening to the audiobook had been fun.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

#MurderEveryMonday: Two Stories with Same Title

Murder Every Monday was created by Kate @ Crossexamining Crime and @ArmchairSleuth. Put simply, the plan is for readers to take a photo of a crime fiction book (novel or short story collection) which meets a given week’s theme criteria and to then share it online, using the hashtag #MurderEveryMonday.

This week's theme is:

Two crime fiction stories which share the same title

This title is the only one I remember, I have only read the one from Robin Stevens. But maybe it's time to take on the Daisy Dalrymple for the upcoming Christmas?
 

Have your read any of them? Which cover(s) do you like most?

If you want to participate, here's the list of the weekly theme.

Six Degrees of Separation, from Long Island to Vintage 1954

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme, now hosted by Kate @ books are my favorite and best.

On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

This month we start from yet another book I haven't read, though I have read the previous book in the series:

0. Long Island by Colm Tóibín

Long Island is the long awaited sequel to one of Tóibín's most memorable novels: Brooklyn. We are following again the fate of the heroine, Ellis Lacey. From Goodreads: "From the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving and intense novel of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love, the story of Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work, twenty years later." This reminded me of another book whose heroine name is also Lacey, though it is the first name, not surname, of the heroine.

1. Pretend You Didn't See Her by Mary Higgins Clark

Lacey Farrell is the heroine of this thriller - a murder witness placed in a witness protection program by the police, with new identity and new life. But originally she is a young woman works as real estate agent. Lately I have read another book, whose heroine shares the same occupation.

2. The Girl Who Reads on the Metro by Christone Féret-Fleury

Julie leads a boring, unwholesome existence in Paris as a real estate agent. She struggles to follow her routine life, because deep inside, she's an imaginative girl. And that's why her daily métro journey is the one sparkle in her otherwise dim existence. Her imagination brings life to her fellow passengers as if they are characters in her book. Julie instantly reminded me of another imaginative girl I have read about long ago.

3. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Francie Nolan is a little girl who comes from a poor family in Brooklyn. Excerpt from my review: "In a way, her ‘dreamy’ father had a contribution to Francie’s imagination quality, and fortunately, she also inherited her mother’s toughness and practical way of living. With all these, Francie became the first of the Rommelys who could go to college and had a decent career." There is a very strong tree near the Nolans' house. "Now here is the resemblance of Francie and the strong-built Tree of Heaven. Throughout the story, you would be taken to witness how Francie strove from the poverty, the loneliness of being unique, and the strong need of love." This tree reminded me of another tree in another title which also becomes a crucial point of the story.

4. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

Six boys prepared to go for trick-or-treating, and found in front of a haunted house, a huge tree with branches, laden with Jack-o-lanterns - The Halloween Tree! That Halloween would be the one they'll never forget. Last year I have read another book by Ray Bradbury with adolescent boys as main character, about a summer one of the boys will never forget.|

5. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Dandelion Wine is Ray Bradbury's remembrance of his childhood. Quoting from my review, "[...] summer is Douglas' favorite season. During summer holidays Douglas and Tom, his little brother, used to stay at their grandfather's house, and help him preparing bottles of Dandelion wines. In Douglas' view, each bottle contains the essence of every event that had happened during that summer holiday, that he wishes not to forget." Another book where certain wine transported the characters to a unique experience is...

6. Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain

I'm glad this chain ended with one of my favorite authors. "The year 1954, wine and UFO. These are three elements that Antoine Laurain had woven into a fantastic time-travelling story set in Paris." Here is my complete review if you're intrigued.


Have you read those books? If you do #sixdegree, how it worked out for you this time?