The Woods in Winter (1970) by Stella Gibbons #DeanStreetDecember25

❄️ The story centers on Ivy Gover, a thrice-widowed char woman, who inherited a cottage in the countryside of Little Warby. Ivy's eccentric character is the backbone of the story. She has a gypsy-strand from her ancestors, and it reflects on her longing of freedom and solitude, now that she is in her fifties. The cottage was in bad condition when she inherits it, but it doesn't concern her much. Accompanied by a rescued dog, a pigeon, and a host of several other creatures (fox and cockroaches included), she leads a carefree life which disgusted others, but suits herself.

❄️ The rough beauty of winter landscape in the woodland and Ivy's solitude existence surrounds by animals and nature are two dominant elements in this book, and I think not everyone would be charmed by these two qualities. But for an introverted like me, who is tired of the modern life's buzz, they provide a perfect escape. If only I can live carefree like Ivy - not to the extent of ignoring sanitation (the cockroaches really annoyed me) - but living on my own, without burden of constantly keeping respectability or appearances, or the worst - social convention, is what I always dream of. ❄️ However, despite of Ivy's keep-herself-to-herself kind of life, she, nevertheless, has certain effects upon her neighbors or people who interact with her. These 'satellites', so to speak, consist of a Lord Gowerville - who's lenient to her eccentricities after Ivy cured his beloved dog; Helen Green - Ivy's former boss - who's considering marrying an old flame; sisters Coral and Pearl Cartaret who has just opened a tea shop; the young vicar who fell head-over-heels with Pearl, and last but certainly not least, a runaway boy who shows up at Ivy's door one snowy evening, and became attached to her in no time. Despite of her intention of living as recluse, Ivy has had some dealings with them all, some time or other. And it just shows us the challenges of living in solitude and defying social conventions. I would have loved this more had the cockroaches didn't make appearances at Ivy's cottage. I'm okay with the idea of ignoring appearances, but living with cockroaches is too much for me. Hence, the half stars less from the rating. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

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Dean Street December 2025 hosted by Liz @ Adventures in reading, running and working from home

Landscape in Sunglight (1953) by Elizabeth Fair #DeanStreetDecember25

💚 Landscape in Sunlight is my second read of Elizabeth Fair. The first one, A Winter Away (read last year for #DeanStreetDecember24), was not a favorite, and I'm glad I haven't bailed her out completely, because Landscape in Sunlight is much better and delightful to read! It's a slice-of-life type of novel, concerning residents in a small village of Little Mallin. Four families are at the center of the story. There are Edward Custance (the dreamy vicar); his wife Amy whose concern is for her daughter to marry well; and the daughter, Cassandra, who works as governess for the Templers'. The Templers consist of the eccentric Eustace Templer, a 'retired' artist who lives in Prospect House, and whose concern is to get rid Prospect Cottage (also belongs to him) of its current tenant, a Mrs. Midge, a recluse who dotted on her only son, and her 'delicate' artist son of Lukin. 

💚 Completing the Templers household are Mrs. Templer and the children: two orphaned nephews (one of which is Cassandra's pupil), and Lily, the adolescent girl who's starting to wear lipstick, and whose current preoccupation is to "rescue" the 'genius' Lukin from his mother's clutch. Then there's Colonel Ashford, or Uncle Henry Templer, to whose benefit Eustace wants the Prospect Cottage for. Last but not least there are Sir James Brigham and his son George, who live in the Hall, and who're having trouble to control their servants.

💚 When spring turns to summer, there are a lot of things happening. A holiday for Mr. and Mrs. Custance is arranged by Sir James (who feels responsible for his vicar's well being, and knows that they couldn't afford one), but is in reality funded by George. Then there are tennis parties which are Lily's and Cassandra's scheming to 'rescue' Lukin - the latter feels it's time to be independent, but don't know how to - and an eventful picnic. On the top of it all is the Church Fête, or the Day, as people call it, organized by Amy Custance. Along the preparations, a romance is burgeoning of two young people who had been separated over misunderstandings, and the budding young artist is looking towards his starting career.

💚 Amidst all that's happening among those four main-characters group, Fair did not forget to throw in some secondary but none the least colorful characters, like the two middle-aged spinsters Misses Fenn - nicknamed Fizz and Pop - who live near the toll bridge that connects Little Mallin with the bigger market town of Mallinford. Their 'strategic' location enables them to rush out of their house to 'talk' to whomever is pulling up at the toll (that's how they become up-to-date with every village rumours). All in all, this was a charming and delicious story of a quaint busy summer life in an English village. Just the kind to warm and cheer you up during the hustle-bustle of December.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

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Dean Street December 2025

hosted by Liz @ Adventures in reading, running and working from home

Maniac Magee (1990) by Jerry Spinelli

🏃🏻 Jeffrey Magee had been unfortunately orphaned at about fifteen of age, and has been living with his uptight aunt and uncle ever since. The aunt and uncle had been living separately albeit in the same house. This caused unhappiness in the house, and one day, when Jeffrey has had enough of that, he ran away. By 'ran away', I mean that Jeffrey was literally running, away from home, to nowhere to be exact, as long as it's out of the home he never really felt. Jeffrey is a runner - a terrific runner - and while other people walk to travel from one place to another, Jeffrey just runs. He soon becomes a nomad, running on the streets by day, and by night sleeping in the park or the zoo, or anywhere his legs brings him to.

🏃🏻 One day he came across some boys playing baseball, joined in the game, and successfully played it to the astonishment of everyone. That's the beginning of a legend Jeffrey is shaping his life into - or 'Maniac', as people are beginning to call him. Besides running and playing baseball, Jeffrey has the knack of untying knots - from shoestrings to yo-yo, you just name it. But that are all practical things. What Jeffrey astonished, not only children or teenagers, but adults also, was his indifference to racial distinction at that time. At Two Mills, the town where he lives, people don't just go casually from East End to West End. East Enders are where the blacks live, while the whites live in the West End. However, to Jeffrey, the two Ends are just locality, and the blacks and whites are just skin colors. He interacts and mingles with both residents without feeling any barrier.

🏃🏻 What is it that Jeffrey has been seeking during his runaway? At first it was not clear. He lives in several temporary homes - even a buffalo pen at the zoo - but he always runaways when things go not as he expected. So, what was his expectation? It became clear near the end. It is love and acceptance that would make Jeffrey call a house home. It is that character, and his love of human being that surpasses racial barrier, that makes Jeffrey an exemplary figure for middle-grader readers. It was clever of Spinelli to attract his readers first with some of Jeffrey's 'heroic' acts - at least from middle-grader's point of view: brilliant baseball player, fast runner, courage in facing bullies, and his overall good manner and helping hands. From then on, it is easier to interest them (the readers) to the racial issues. Overall, it's an interesting read, with unusual main character and some funny scenes intermingled with the moral lesson slipped gently and unobtrusively between the lines.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Constable on the Hill (1979) by Nicholas Rhea

👮🏻 Constable on the Hill could be put in the same category with James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small series. Both were written based on the writer's daily working lives. Just change a vet (in Herriot's) to a police constable. Nicholas Rhea himself was a police officer in a rural Yorkshire village in the 1960s, and this book is all about that experience. I won't call it memoir, because, like All Creatures Great and Small, I believe there are many fictional quality in every events presented to us.
👮🏻 Rhea was posted in the village beat of North Yorkshire at the beginning of the book. He moved into the house allocated for policeman, together with his wife Mary and his three children. It was located up on the hill, overlooking the moors. He had been posted in the city before, so there's much he needed to be accustomed to. Since he was the only policeman, it means that he takes care of almost anything that happens about the village; from animal shenanigans, neighbors' disputes, to checking vehicle or stock licenses. His main job was to maintain peace and harmony in the village; thus in many occasion, the constable needs to think creatively, instead of rigidly following the rules and systems.

👮🏻 The book is structured as collection of clustered anecdotal stories. For instance, all incidents related to animals are clustered in one section. Some chapters would talk about different stories of animals shenanigan, than the next cluster would be about craftsmen: a smith, a cobbler, etc. There's always a mixture of hilarious incidents, simple people with either quirky or friendly characters, and of course, the idyllic landscape of the Yorkshire moor. One of the interesting and unusual "cases" that Rhea handled was when a sculptor who had a commission of Madonna and Child had difficulty in unloading the cargo of a huge stone to arrive safely in the small house. It needs an inventive thinking of a constable to arrange for everything. Another time (quite often, really), Rhea must deal with neighbors' dispute. The funniest one is with a 'Houdini' pony who enters neighbors' locked-gates, and steals or breaks things. It's amusing to follow what Rhea do to make everyone happy - humans and pony.

👮🏻 Strayed animals and found money should be dealt too by the police. You would laugh out loud reading a strayed donkey and a missing dog sharing a new-architected dog house, with an angry rich woman (owner of the dog) in the bargain. Rhea's boss (Sergeant Blaketon) was having a good time pranking Rhea at that incident. Well, with good result, because only that way Rhea could learn the way of dealing with eccentric village people (and animals). Other hilarious events ranged from a naked woman on the loose, Rhea leading a circus procession and his encounter with the elephants, a batty spinster who imagined her neighbors pranking her, to Rhea running out of petrol for the bike, and received unexpected title of super performance of the month.

👮🏻 Beyond the funny anecdotal stories like those I mentioned, there's some touching moments. Of these, an abbot of a Catholic church showed a good example of 'loving your neighbors'. Interestingly, the Anglican and Catholic churches in the village had a lovely relationship. When one of them needed an organist, for example, the other supplied it. Thanks to the generous abbot, his assistants and people in the parish could learn to accept differences, and how to live in harmony in the small village. All in all, this book might not be written as eloquently as All Creatures - it's rather the milder version of it - but I love to learn about police procedure at that era; the eccentric personalities that peopled the village; and above all, the picturesque description of the landscape. I love it especially because Rhea chose to end the book with a beautiful snowy winter scene, which you can only find in the countryside. For me, the ending of a book is the second most important thing about the book besides its content. A book can lack of plot or characters-development, but when it ended beautifully, I will be satisfied nonetheless. And it works the other way round too.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

The House on the Strand (1969) by Daphne du Maurier

🧪 Richard Young has befriended Magnus Lane since university. He often stayed with the Lanes on holidays at Kilmarth, an ancient house near the Cornish coast. Magnus Lane is now a scientist, a chemical researcher or biophysicist at the University of London, and Richard, or Dick, has often been his guinea pig. Magnus has a laboratory in his house, and here he is perfecting a special concoction, which Dick has agreed to test, while staying at Kilmarth with his (Dick's) family during summer holiday. Dick's wife, Vita, and his two stepsons are still a week or so from joining him at Kilmarth, so he has ample time to do with the potion, or you may call it drug.

🧪 The potion brings him to the past, in fourteenth century to be precise, when the house was called Kilmerth. Yes, this is a time-travelling story. The place is the same, but the landscape has changed after six century. Dick soon becomes drawn into the people's lives and affairs, though they can't see him. There is a set back though, he'd get severe vertigo and nausea if he touch them. The man who stayed at Kilmerth (the same house, but humbler at that time) was Roger, a steward to Sir Henry Champernoune. And it is this man that Dick follows everytime he drinks the potion. His fascination is centered on the faith of Isolda, a beautiful woman and wife of Sir Oliver Carminowe, but who had had a secret affair with the brother of Sir Henry's wife, Otto Bodrugan. During these time-travels, Dick wanders around the landscape, often ends up quite a distance from where he's been taking the potion.
🧪 So drawn is Dick to the past, that his present is gradually fading. It's more and more difficult to focus on things he needs to do, and this secret also puts a barrier in his marriage life, when Vita and the boys finally join him at Kilmarth. But now that Magnus will be staying at Kilmarth for the weekend, they would have fun adventures together - or so Dick thought. Unfortunately, something terrible happens, that thwarted this excitement, and Dick is left with two choices: stop the test all together and return to his own life, or continue secretly the time-travelling to the past on his own, with its consequences.

🧪 As is usual with all of du Maurier's, this one is also a gripping story about the addiction to another life when ones' own is less eventful and stuck in a place one doesn't want to be. I think in Dick's case, he feels like a stranger when he's with Vita and the boys - the boys being only step sons. However, instead of trying to find a solution, he prefers to be out of that life and pursue another which is more engaging. We do that a lot, but with books. When one's tired of one's life, one can always be out of reality for a few hours at a time, and drawn in a good and engaging story of another life. But one must return to reality and deal with it anyway in the end. I believe that's the moral background that du Maurier wanted to highlight with her inconclusive ending. Nevertheless, this is an engaging gothic/science fiction story with a touch of historical theme. Not of du Maurier's best, perhaps, but still is fun to read.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge 2025 (Wrap Up)

I think I have participated in this challenge once years ago, but failed completely. This year seems to be a perfect time to re-enter the challenge, as I think my reading will be more organized, and (hopefully) less frantic than before. Cloak and Dagger reading Challenge is hosted by Carol @ Carol's Notebook. Click the link to find more details on the challenge. It runs from 1 January to 31 December 2025.

I am aiming the Detective Level (16-25 books). And here's my list (I'll add titles after I've read and reviewed it), and this would be my goal post, to add links to my reviews.

=WRAP UP=

Today, the 11th of December 2025, I wrap up the Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge 2025. I have ended up reading twenty books as I have intended. Here is the list, with links to my reviews.

1. The Bird Found the Body by Bailey Booth (2023)
2. The Black Spectacles by John Dickson Carr (1939)
3. The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1908)
4. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
5. The Hollow by Agatha Christie
6. Crook o' Lune by E.C.R. Lorac
7. A Picture of Murder by T.E. Kinsey
8. Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie
9. Missing or Murdered by Robin Forsythe
10. Crooked House by Agatha Christie
11. The Black Cabinet by Patricia Wentworth
12. Artist in Crime by Ngaio Marsh
13. The Murder at Sissingham Hall by Clara Benson
14. Weekend at Thrackley by Alan Melville
15. The Theft of the Iron Dogs by E.C.R. Lorac
16. Tea on Sunday by Lettice Cooper
17. Murder by Firelight by Merryn Allingham
18. The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers
19. Still Life by Louise Penny
20. Richardson's First Case by Basil Thomson

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025: Reviews for December #AgathaChristieSS25

The Thumb Mark of St. Peter

My last review for this year's Agatha Christie Short Stories is coincidentally the only story (or case) contributed by Miss Marple at the Thursday Night Club. If her life had seemed to have been uneventful in St. Mead, Miss Marple was by no means bored. As she was observing the life of the inhabitant of that small village, she learned a lot about human character; that would be her foundation to help solving so many cases which otherwise baffled the police. In this story, the case concerned herself. Miss Marple's niece has had an unsuitable marriage with a man with violent temper, who's inherited insanity from his ancestors. Ten years later the husband died suddenly one night, allegedly from mushrooms poisoning during dinner. But rumors soon started circulating that Mabel, the wife, had probably poisoned him by arsenic, so that everyone in the area avoided her.

Upon interviewing the cook and house maid, Miss Marple learned that the deceased had been rambling something about "pile of fish" when he's dying. Baffled that the exhumation result which was inconclusive, Miss Marple said a prayer while taking a walk in the street, and lo and behold... there she found the solution of the case. It has, indeed, something to do with fish. The "thumb mark of St. Peter" refers to the characteristic dark spots on John Dory's fish flank, which are said to be the thumbprint left by the apostle when he lifted the fish from the sea. What an interesting feature Agatha Christie had infused in this story. I can imagine how Agatha Christie, upon learning about the saying, thought instantly how she could incorporate that into a murder story. I always love her ingenuity! An interesting fact: do you know that the John Dory is also called "St. Peter's fish" in some countries?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

The Fruitful Sunday

One Sunday morning, Dorothy, a housemaid, is enjoying a Sunday drive with her young man with a picnic in the picture. On the way, they are stopping at a small town, where they find a fruit stall. On the display is a pretty fruit basket full of peaches, which Edward, the young man, reluctantly buy for his sweetheart. The seller keeps saying that 'they're getting more than their money's worth'. Dorothy and Edward are soon eating the fruits near the stream by the road, while reading the headline of a stolen ruby necklace worth fifty thousand pounds in the Sunday paper. When they have eaten all the fruits, what do you think they'd found at the bottom of the basket? A ruby necklace with the same specification they had read about in the paper. Is it really the stolen necklace? How did they end up in the fruit basket? And what shall they do with it? Edward is for reporting it to the police, but Dorothy insisting that they sell it.

This is another of a non-crime-mystery story. There's no mystery at all, just a fun, light story to enjoy leisurely on a Sunday afternoon.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐