Three Different Genres I've Enjoyed Recently: Mini Reviews

I have successively enjoyed three books from three different genres: one is a young-adult fantasy, the other a Golden Age mystery. The last one is a book from the middlebrow collection of Dean Street Press. I loved them all, and here's why...

Book of a Thousand Days (2007) by Shannon Hale

💙 This story was reimagined from a Grimm's fairy tale (an obscure one, which I doubt you've ever read - I haven't even heard of it). It becomes a sort of fairy tale, set in medieval Mongolia. Young Dashti is an orphaned commoner girl, who's brought up in steppes. After her parents died, she got a job as a lady's maid of Lady Saren, whose father is imprisoning her for seven years in a tower, for refusing to marry a wicked and cruel Lord Khasar. When Dashti agreed to serve her lady in imprisonment - for seven years, no less - I instantly loved her character. Serving here isn't just in the ordinary way, Lady Saren asked Dashti to pretend to be her, whenever Khan Tegus - Lady Saren's betrothed - came secretly to the tower. Thus I learned that Lady Saren isn't just a spoilt or lonely gentry girl, there's something dark and mysterious lurking in her heart. The mystery revealed when they have been out of the tower. Another thing revealed is that the Titor's Garden, the Realm whence they came, had been destroyed by Lord Khasar. Homeless and fearful, Dashti must save and protect her lady. But where could she go? And how could she do that by herself?

💙 All in all, it's a wonderful tale. There's enough of everything for everyone - the romance, the humour, the battle, the exotic background. And the story is told from Dashti's point of view, as a diary. When you read a diary of a pleasant and interesting character, it's bound to be entertaining. Add that with a medieval realm in Mongolian, well... like I said, a wonderful tale, is what you'll get.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Crook o' Lune (1953) by E.C.R. Lorac

🧡 Derived from the idyllic rural village in England, Lunesdale, E.C.R. Lorac presented a mystery set in High Gimmerdale, in the same dale. Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald is on holiday, and aiming to learn more about farming - an occupation of his dream after future retirement. However, when an arson and sheep-stealing cases took place, he couldn't say no when the local constable asked him to co-investigate. The fire was aimed to destroy Gilbert Woolfall's - the current owner of Aikengill - study. But his housekeeper was also found dead because of the fire. Who would have the motive? Was it the vicar, who resented the lose of a stipend; or the shepherd and his bethroted, who were promised by Gilbert Woolfall to stay at Aikengill if the housekeeper handed in her notice? Or was it only a decoy to smoothen a sheep-stealing scheme? 

🧡 I have realized from quite the beginning of the story, that its main attraction wouldn't be the mystery itself, but the vivid description of the beautiful countryside, the farming's hardship, and the people, which Lorac made live with her wonderful penmanship. You'd feel as though you yourself are making a holiday in Lunsdale, and breathing its countryside air. The result is a refreshing novel with an entertaining mystery. For once, I didn't try to guess the whodunnit or howdunnit, but just flowed with the story.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ten Way Street (1941) by Susan Scarlett

🤎 I have enjoyed some of Susan Scarlett's (pseudonym of Noel Streatfeild) novels before, and this one is no different. Number ten of Way Street is the the abode of an actress called Margot Cardew, with her three children. And that's where Beverley Shaw had landed her first job as governess right after finishing the training, provided by the orphanage school, where she had come from. Beverly is a spirited young woman with positive attitude, ready to bring the three unruly children to their better selves. Peter Crewdson, Margot's admirer and friend to the children, saw Beverley as Joan of Arc. You know the drill... a governess to work her way to the children's heart that they're afraid of losing her, again. Then a handsome guy fell in love with her, triggering jealousy, not only from the children, but their temperamental narcistic mother too.

🤎 As were with all Susan Scarlett's, though the premise is predictable, the story was woven skillfully, and the characters are perfectly drawn. The result is a delightful story and a page turner - I knew how it will end, but still, there'd be little surprises along the way - that in the end, I sighed contentedly after "the end". What more would you ask?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Books from Two Women Writers New to Me: Mini Reviews

Cold Sassy Tree (1984) by Olive Ann Burns

🧡 Set in the early of 20th century of Southern America, here is a remarkably vivid story of a small rural village in Georgia, named after some iconic sassafras tree that shaded the village during hot summer days: Cold Sassy Tree. It's told from the POV of Will Tweedy, fourteen years old when the story begins. His Grandma had just been dead for three weeks when Grandpa E. Rucker Blakeslee announced that he is going to marry the young milliner who's been working at his store: Miss Love Simpson. The news shook both family and the village, like never before - the scandal, and the sheer audacity of it. Amidst all the turbulences, Will Tweedy learned substantial things, while growing up into adolescence. 

🧡 This is a wonderfully crafted story, vividly portraying the gossips and prejudices of rural villagers. I liked the heterogeneous characters; they are who drive the story. It tackles the theme of family, women's struggles, death, and religion. It is humorous, witty, and near the end, poignant and full of wisdom.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tea Is So Intoxicating (1950) by Mary Essex

☕ Germayne freed herself from what she felt as a boring marriage with a man called Digby, leaving her daughter, and ran away with her lover David Tompkins. They settled in a cottage in a small Kentish village called Wellhurst. David is the dreamy kind of chap. Right then his dream was to open a tea house; having worked at a tea house himself, though only as a bookkeeper. Although he didn't posses skill and experience, neither as cook nor businessman, David insisted that he's sure to make the tea house, aimed to cater weekend hiker and daily tourist, successful. The village's negative reaction and gossips doomed the tea house to be a failure from the start, not mentioning the Tompkins' lack of ability. And to add complication, entered an Italian flirtatious cake-cook that David hired, over whose furtive winks some men completely lost their heads.

☕ This is my first of Mary Essex - pseudonym of Ursula Bloom - and I liked her style. It's a satire without being too blatant; it's funny, though quite subtle. Based on this book only, I'll place her between Barbara Pym, Nancy Mitford, and PG Wodehouse. I know those are three different poles, but if you could draw three lines from them to one center point, that's where you'll find Mary Essex. A very entertaining and refreshing book!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025: MARCH #AgathaChristieSS25

What, we are already in March?! I haven't even posted my February reviews. Well, I would have to combine the two months into a post. Anyway, this month we will be back with Poirot and Tommy-Tuppence. You can find the complete reading list here, and please submit link to your reviews of this month's stories on the comment section of this post. Happy reading!

THE MYSTERY OF HUNTER'S LODGE

Poirot has influenza, but he is determined to solve a murder case in a country house. So, he asks Hastings to act as his legs. The story was first published as a book in the collection Poirot Investigates, 1924, by Bodley Head.

A POT OF TEA

Ensconced in the offices of Blunt’s International Detective Agency at 118 Haleham Street, London, the Beresfords meet their first client, Lawrence St. Vincent. His secret love, shopgirl Janet Smith has disappeared without a trace. A rather boastful Tuppence claims finding her will take but twenty-four hours, though it is by no means certain that they will meet this impossible task.

This story was published by Collins in the collection Partners in Crime in 1929, and had its title changed from Publicity to A Fairy in the Flat/ A Pot of Tea.