Reading Challenges 1st Quarter Roundup!

January 2008
1. All the Crazy Winters by Deborah Adams
2. Murder Shoots the Breeze by Anne George (4 Delights !!!!)
3. The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery by Nancy Springer
4. Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery By Peter Abrahams
5. Open Season by C. J. Box (4 Delights !!!!)
6. *O’Artful Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor (4 Delights !!!!)
7. *Evans Above by Rhys Bowen (4 Delights !!!!)
8. Web of Evil by J. A. Jance (3 Delights !!!)

February 2008
1. *Haunted Ground by Erin Hart
2. **Behind A Mask or A Woman’s Power by A. M. Barnard (5 Delights !!!!!)
3. Hunter’s Green by Phyllis A. Whitney (4 Delights !!!!)

March 2008
1. **Wyllard’s Weird by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
2. *Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn
3. Feint of Art by Hailey Lind
4. **Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (3 Delights !!!)
5. Mansions of the Dead by Sarah Stewart Taylor
6. Judgment of the Grave by Sarah Stewart Taylor
7. Still as Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor
8. *A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie
9. Consigned to Death by Jane K. Cleland

*1st In A Series Challenge: 5 Titles
**Nineteenth Century Women Authors Challenge: 3 Titles
100+ Challenge: 20 Titles

Gotta do better!

Tracker - 19th Century Women Writers Challenge

2nd Completed 19th Century Women Writer
(An Unexpected Addition)
Jane Austen
(1775-1817)


(A Public Domain Image)

Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen
Published posthumously in 1817

(My Purple Cover)


(A More Gothic Cover)

Serendipity! Sidetrack! Surprise!

My Spring Break began with a movie marathon - a DVD movie marathon! One of the titles was “The Jane Austen Book Club“. I am not sure what drew me to this movie, but I was. Maybe it was the phrase book club. At any rate, it is a fun escape movie that gives insight into a group of women (and one man) and their connection to Jane Austen. I enjoyed it, and it renewed my years old resolution to read Jane Austen. As a teenager I read Pride and Prejudice and at the time, being a romantic teenager, I loved it. As I grew older and perhaps more jaded, I turned from romantic themes to my genre of choice - mystery. As I watched the movie, I was immediately drawn to the description of Northanger Abbey and decided, why not? The next day I bought the book, a new edition whose cover is purple - what’s not to love?!? If I had followed the page 69 test, I would never have completed it. But I am nothing if not stubborn and so persisted - to my great delight! By page 107 I was hooked and finished reading the entire novel in one sitting thus experiencing serendipity and being surprised and sidetracked from my original choices for this challenge.

Northanger Abbey can, with a stretch, fit into my obsession with the mystery genre because Austen parodies Gothic Thrillers throughout, especially Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). And the case can be made that Catherine is a strong, independent female protagonist. She is determined to make the truth known to the Tilney family when she is tricked into missing an appointed walk. When she is rudely evicted from the Tilney home by the very autocratic patriarch, she finds her way home alone, never missing a coach connection. Perhaps my favorite example of her strength is Catherine’s dogged desire to explore what she imagines is a forbidden section of the Abbey, the room of the dead mother. Influenced by her love of Gothic novels, Catherine comes to believe that Mrs. Tilney is not deceased, but hidden from the public, imprisoned by General Tilney for nefarious purposes. This certainly brings to mind Jane Eyre which was not published until 1847 and suggests another avenue of research.

My favorite passage of Northanger Abbey is from page 107, the page that kept me reading:

But you never read novels, I dare say?

Why not?

Because they are not clever enough for you - gentlemen read better books.

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.

Abbey is described as a parody of the Gothic novels popular at that time, satirizing that popularity. Austen may have indeed intended that purpose, but her description of Catherine’s fantasy about fitting Northanger Abbey, the estate, into the Gothic mode suggests that she could have written an excellent thriller!

And are you prepared to encounter all the horrors that a building such as 'what one reads about' may produce? Have you a stout heart? Nerves fit for sliding panels and tapestry?" . . . We shall not have to explore our way into a hall dimly lighted by the expiring embers of a wood fire - nor be obliged to spread our beds on the floor of a room without windows, doors, or furniture. But you must be aware that when a young lady is . . . introduced into a dwelling of this kind, she is always lodged apart from the rest of the family . . . she is formally conducted by Dorothy, the ancient housekeeper, up a different staircase, and along many gloomy passages, into an apartment never used since some cousin or kin died in it about twenty years before. can you stand such a ceremony as this?

In the end, however, Austen has written a story about the rite of passage of a very young girl, a young girl who in the space of a year recognizes that she has been foolish in letting her imagination run away with her but not foolish in her estimate of the worth of Henry Tilney.

She did not learn either to forget or defend the past; but she learned to hope that it would never transpire farther, and that it might not cost her Henry's entire regard. . . . Charming as were all Mrs. Radcliffe's works, and charming even as were the works of all her imitators, it was not in them perhaps that human nature, at least in the Midland counties of England, was to looked for.

I am not sure that I entirely agree with Austen here. I choose to believe that this is another instance of her irony, saying one thing but meaning another, because I do believe that readers of mysteries and of thrillers can learn about human nature.

Three delights!!! (With scones and honey!)

Tracker - 19th Century Women Writers Challenge

I tend to become obsessive with my reading choices. If at all possible, I will choose titles that fall within my preferred genre, the mystery. In addition, I prefer mysteries by women authors with women protagonists. So, to appease my obsession and to meet this reading challenge was a challenge in every sense of the word. But I had an ace up my sleeve. I was aware of Capitola through one of my favorite mystery series by Joanne Dobson. Dobson edited an edition of this book. Furthermore, I had stumbled upon and purchased but did not read The Hidden Louisa May Alcott: A Collection of Her Unknown Thrillers years ago. In graduate school I obsessively challenged myself to make my assignments meet my reading preferences even preparing a paper featuring the strong girl characters of children’s literature who paved the way for Nancy Drew. In my research I learned of many women authors who wrote, as did Alcott, outside the accepted venues for women and came upon Braddon. Ta Da! I knew I could find titles for this challenge that paved the way for the mysteries that I love today.



1st Completed 19th Century Woman Writer:
Louisa May Alcott
(1832-1888)

(A public domain image)
Gravestone Image included through the inspiration of Sweeney St. George

Louisa May Alcott’s
Behind the Mask or A Woman’s Power
Published in August 1866 in The Flag Of Our Union
Under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard
(The identify of Barnard was not discovered until the 1950’s.)

Behind The Mask was, according to its author, a “blood & thunder” thriller. And it certainly is. Thrillers or Sensation Fiction in 1866 would have shocked Victorian readers with subjects such as murder, divorce, adultery, seduction, and bigamy, subjects shocking for the time when introduced into a domestic scene and which were thought not to occur in respectable middle-class families. At the heart of the novelette is a scheming woman of the world - a gold digger in today’s terms - masked (literally) behind the façade of an innocent, wronged, waif like enchantress. It is giving nothing away to reveal that within the first pages, Jean Muir - the schemer - unmasks her true self:

Still sitting on the floor she unbound and removed the long abundant braids from her head, wiped the pink from her face, took out several pearly teeth, and slipping off her dress appeared herself indeed, a haggard, worn, and moody woman.

And she reveals her true motive:

I will have the best.

Masking is a major literary motif in Mask. A turning point takes place during the performance of tableaux - dramatic scenes created with costumes, makeup, and props - scenes in which Jean assumes the mask of a naïve young girl trying to mask her feelings for Lord Coventry or rather the feelings she wants him to believe she has for him. Masks for masks! A thriller is often defined as having a hero who thwarts the plans of an enemy, climaxing when the hero unmasks the villain. In a sense, Behind the Mask fulfills this requirement. Jean both unmasks and is unmasked. Schemes are revealed both for good and bad. Jean is almost an antihero, lacking traditional admirable qualities yet achieving her goals. The early detective stories of Poe were ratiocinative, moving methodically to ascertain the truth. By that definition, Behind The Mask fits my obsession - the truth was ascertained. The reader always knows the truth, watching as the characters are mesmerized, wanting desperately to enter the plot to rip off the masks, reeling from the means used to reveal the truth to the Coventry’s.

Far from seeming outdated, Behind the Mask held me enthralled until its thrilling end. Alcott must have truly enjoyed writing this. She authored charming, domestic novels while all the while behind the mask of A. M. Barnard she thrilled readers with many, many plots that were far from sweet.



My first - Five Delights!!!!!

Dr. Seuss

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

March 2, 1904 - September 24, 1991

Tracker 6 - 1st To Read Challenge

Second 1st To Read completed!

Evans Above
By Rhys Bowen

I learned of Rhys Bowen from The Lady Killers Blog - highly recommended! Last summer I devoured Bowen's Her Royal Spyness, 1st in the new series featuring Georgie, Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, cousin of King George V of England. Had I not already read this book, I would have listed it first for this challenge. Honesty - perhaps learned from my mystery obsession, the criminal is always found out - prevented my cheating with it. But it certainly inspired me to try the Evan Evans series, and am I glad I did!

As noted in my O'Artful Death post, The Arthurian Legend is one of my passions. Arthur has many Welsh ties. The Constable Evans series is set in Wales so that in itself is one of my delights with Evans Above. The mountains of Wales are associated with mystery and play a major role in this book:

Up on the mountain the sun sank, plunging the cliffs into deep shadow so that it was hard to discern what it was that lay among the rocks. a chill wind sprang up, howling through the crevices and drowning a cry that nobody heard.

The mountain watched as two climbers fell or were pushed to their deaths. Were they murdered? And were their deaths associated with a long ago death of a young soldier who froze during training exercises? How were they connected to a missing apple pie and trampled tomato plants? And then a third body is found, at the back of a cave. What if any is the connection? What is happening to the peaceful Welsh village of Llanfair? Would Evan Evans succumb to the charms of the buxom barmaid, Betsy; or would the ethereal Bronwyn win his heart? Join Constable Evan Evans as he defies the order of his DI and solves the mystery of death on the mountain by looking to the past for answers to present day questions.



Four delights with a dollop of whipped cream!!!!^

Challenges to Read!

I have accepted two more reading challenges!



100+ Reading Challenge:
Read 100 (Or More) books during the calendar year of 2008-2009.
Should be a cinch - right? We shall see!



Nineteenth Century Women Writers Reading Challenge:
Read 4-6 books written by women authors between 1801-1900 - something that I have mentally challenged myself to do for years! Maybe putting my acceptance of this challenge out into cyberspace will inspire me to actually read them! My list is on the sidebar. I am researching a 6th entry to add later.

Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews is hosting this challenge. If you want to see what a truly dedicated reader can accomplish, look at the challenges on her sidebar!

Read on, bibliophiles, read on!

Tracker 5 - 1st to Read Challenge

First 1st To Read completed!

O’Artful Death
by Sarah Stewart Taylor
An 2003 Agatha Award Finalist for Best First Novel

What a great find! After accepting this challenge, I searched Amazon for new series, and this is one of my discoveries. My postlady bravely delivered my package from Amazon on a snowy day. Yes, my south Mississippi town had an actual snow day, and I snuggled up and read Death in one sitting as the beautiful flakes slowly drifted down turning my yard into work of art itself. What a great memory!

Possession by A. S. Byatt is one of my favorite novels, and the movie based on this work is one of my favorite films - one that I rewatch from time to time. O’Artful Death is reminiscent of Possession - there is a love from a past century with a mysterious allusion to that long past relationship. Sweeney St. George, the protagonist of Death, is a professor in the Art Department whose specialty is funerary art - gravestones.

Shortly before Christmas break, Sweeney finds a photo of an intriguing gravestone/monument left on her desk. In her words, it was “weirdly anomalous”. It did not fit in with the accepted grave art of its time. It featured a death figure, a death figure with the hint of a real man’s face gazing lovingly at the figure of a beautiful young girl. According to Sweeney, by the late Victorian period grave art featured more innocent figures such as sweet cherubim not death figures. She couldn’t resist an invitation to spend Christmas in the town where this monument stood, to spend time searching for an answer to this mystery.

Death had me almost from hello. There are references to my favorite things - Edgar Allan Poe, the Arthurian Legend, even Nancy Drew and secret codes! Tennyson’s “Lady of Shalott” is quoted liberally which could be a reference to Christie’s The Mirror Crack'd, another favorite.

I am going to call Death a modern gothic complex cozy mystery. Its setting is a genteel rural domestic with an amateur detective. But it has elements of the gothic - darkness, isolation, hints of past sins being visited on the present. And it is complex. It made me think and sent me to researching gravestone art. I have to admit I have always been fascinated by the idea of gravestone rubbings even though I have not actually tried this craft.

But here was this strange reaper, his figure so much more accomplished than those of his brethren on other stones. This death was a man, with a man's face somehow suggested in the familiar skull. He gazed down at the girl lying beneath him, his eyes soft, a dreamy smile playing at his bony lips. There was something familiar about the way he looked down at his prey, Sweeney realized, something loving.

Suddenly, she was afraid.. The wind had come up and the woods surrounding the house seemed sinister, full of evil. The night was so dark she could barely see the path her boots had stamped in the snow. As she turned and started for the house it was all she could do not to break into a run, and when she was finally inside, she closed the back door and locked it before it struck her that the person who'd been watching her was inside, and not outside.

4 big Delights !!!!
I just ordered the next three Sweeney St. George mysteries!