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

Bats in the Belfry by E.C.R. Lorac #1937Club

🦇 I am familiar with English idiom of "bee in the bonnet", but "bats in the belfry" is a new one that I got to know only from this title by E.C.R. Lorac. It's the 12th book of Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald - a police figure of my favorite from Golden Age detectives.

🦇 Bruce Attleton, once a successful writer, but is now struggling, is missing from his house. Two of his guests at dinner party where he was last seen try to take the matter in their own hand. They suspect a man called Debrette who must be behind it, most probably a blackmailer.

🦇 Their investigation brought them to The Belfry - an old dilapidated building with a tower, where Debrette is said to stay. It's a spooky old house, but few days later Debrette, too, vanished. The amateur sleuths found Attleton's suitcase with his passport inside The Belfry. At that point, they involved the police, and... enter Robert Macdonald. The thorough searching resulted in the finding of a mutilated corpse inside the wall. Whose was it? Attleton? Debrette? Did the one murdered the other?

🦇 This is my third Lorac so far, and I think it's going to be my favorite. A spooky house, an over-zealous amateur sleuth in Robert Grenvile, a cute love story, identity confusion, and an intricate plot that leaves us guessing until near the end. Even MacDonald wasn't so sure of who commits the murder until the murderer was forced to make a desperate move.

🦇 All in all, this book possesses every aspect of a great and highly entertaining crime story. The presence of youngsters in the center of the mystery: Robert Grenvile (who wants to marry Attleton's ward), Elizabeth Leigh (the ward), and Neil Rockingham added a refreshing charm that melted even Robert MacDonald's usual formal manner, that he becomes more charming and less serious in this story.

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read this book for:

The 1937 Club

hosted by Simon @ Stuck in a Book & Karen @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings

Fire in the Thatch (1946) by E.C.R. Lorac

🔥 Chief Inspector Robert MacDonald has become my favorite police-detective since my first E.C.R Lorac: Murder in the Mill-Race. I like his methodical investigation and communication skill. In this case, MacDonald (or the Scotland Yard) was summoned to give his opinion on a burnt thatched cottage in a rural countryside at Mallory Fitzjohn, Devon; whether it was an accident or a foul play.

🔥 Nicholas Vaughan bought Little Thatch, a cottage belongs to Colonel St. Cyres, and planned to farm the land and renovate the cottage. Colonel St. Cyres and his daughter were pleased with their new tenant, a conscientious hardworking man, compared to his competitor, a gentleman from London called Mr. Gressingham. The later was recommended by June St. Cyres, the colonel's daughter-in-law, whom the colonel had dismissed (the proposal from the gentleman, not the daughter-in-law).

🔥 One day Little Thatched was on fire, and Vaughan was found killed inside. The local police marked the case as accident, but a navy captain who had been Vaughan's chief suspected a foul play. This is a mystery where the key to solve it lays in the personality of the victim - a field where Robert MacDonald is an expert of.

🔥 The mystery itself isn't very complicated. It lacks of suspects and surprises. June St. Cyres hasn't got an opportunity to be closely investigated by MacDonald, and I feel that she's there at all only to bring Gressingham and his London lot into the picture. However, the countryside atmosphere and the detailed description of Vaughan's farming infused a charm into this story. Vaughan has a pleasant personality; his relationship with the St. Cyreses is heartwarming. We are fortunate to enjoy these two elements long enough before the tragedy came into the picture.

🔥 All in all, it is another enjoyable murder mystery from Lorac.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Murder in the Mill-Race (1952) by E.C.R. Lorac: An Audiobook Review

🔶️ When Dr. and Mrs. Raymond Ferens moved to a rural village called Milham in the Moor of Devon, they were charmed by the picturesque village. But after a while they begin to notice the hidden malice among its people.

🔶️ Sister Monica is the warden of the local children's home. Though everyone praises her very highly - almost like a saint - the Ferens see her as a cruel authoritarian woman with huge influence among the people. But they wisely keep their knowledge to themselves, and not interfere with the children's home affair.

🔶️ Then one day Sister Monica's body was found floating near the mill, with bruises on the back of her head. Neither suicide nor accident were considered possible, and therefore... murder it was. But, who's done it? And why?

🔶️ The local Sergeant finds it difficult at first to deal with the village people, in finding clues or motive. Unanimously they shut their mouths as tightly as clamps; no one seems to know anything, and everyone seems to protect the others. But Chief Inspector MacDonald is undeterred by this show off of "village loyalty". He's an outsider, and he wisely but determinedly uses his authority to dig for facts.

🔶️ The further Inspector MacDonald digs, the more it is revealed that Sister Monica wasn't saintly at all. Dark secrets were enveloping her person, that somebody's honour was threatened.

🔶️ This was my first Lorac's, and I instantly loved her style. She reminds me a little of Agatha Christie's small-village-mystery. Inspector MacDonald becomes my new favorite detective now; his deduction and understanding of psychological aspect of human beings is marvellous, and his way of handling people is uncanny. He has Hercule Poirot's confidence as well as intelligence, but without the latter's (cough) vanity.

🔶️ I always love simplistic mystery in small villages, where everybody knows everything about everyone - there's bound to be hatred, gossips, and jealousy underneath the supposedly peaceful atmosphere. This one is all that. A simple but satisfying read!

Rating: 4,5 / 5

This book counts for British Crime Classics Challenge 2023

For Bingo Card: Death by Drowning
For Monthly Theme: Authors New to Me