Happy Birthday, Georgette Heyer

Today, August 16th, is the 108th birthday of the extraordinary Georgette Heyer. Mostly known as a romance writer (she wrote over 50 books in her long life), she also wrote some pretty terrific mysteries. Some of which I've recently been reading for the first time. I've just finished Envious Casca, a classic of the locked room school from the golden age of mystery. A family gathers for Christmas festivities at an old English country house. Murder ensues. Fairly simple and yet, not. When done in the right way, this sort of mystery is perfection.

Other Heyer mysteries recently read by yours truly: A Blunt Instrument, Duplicate Death and Detection Unlimited. I recommend them highly to anyone interested in a darn good mystery written by someone who, if she'd written more of them, would surely have been considered another Grande Dame of Mystery.

Thanks to the Jane Austen World blog for alerting me to this auspicious day. There's a terrific post on there today about Heyer and her work.

Defending the Mystery/Thriller

John Meacham, until very recently, Editor of Newsweek, has a pleasant, non-preachy manner about him which goes down very well in TV interviews (usually on the Charlie Rose PBS hour). He is also erudite, un-snobbish, brilliant and self deprecating in an entirely believable sort of way. He loves history, writing, reading and ideas and he actually takes the time to explain things in ways that make sense. He is also - are you ready for this? - not into name-calling and snide remarks.

Unfortunately, since Newsweek has been sold, Meacham is moving on to other endeavors. I wish him well. I'll follow his witty, insightful writing wherever he goes.

But my thanks go out to Roberta over at Books to the Ceiling for calling my attention to Newsweeks's Book Issue (published Aug. 2nd), which Meacham still oversaw and which somehow I missed this year.

This time out, Meacham writes his rationale for reading mysteries and thrillers and why on earth shouldn't he? Read them, that is. Some of the best (and most readable and approachable) books out there are so-called genre and thank goodness for them.

The fact that Meacham reads some of the same books I do, of course, endears him to me even more.

Without A Clue

I was talking about Sherlock Holmes in one of yesterday's posts, talking about Jeremy Brett, the Holmes of my dreams. Today I'm talking about the Holmes of my nightmares - but in a good way. Ha! I remember seeing the film, Without A Clue, starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley many years ago in a nearly empty theater. It was just me and my ex-husband, well, he wasn't my ex at the time or I'd hardly have gone to the movies with him, but anyway, there we were. The two of us and about twenty others. Hard to watch a movie under those conditions, especially a comedy.

Without A Clue is a hilarious send-up of the Holmes myth and the relationship of Watson and Holmes. (So much funnier to my eyes than the Billy Wilder attempt at Holmes comedy, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, which I'd always found deadly dull, a shade too fussy and almost unwatchable.) In this version from the 1980's, written by Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther, it is Watson, played by Ben Kingsley, who is the brilliant detective. So the whole Holmes thing has been turned on its head. In fact, Holmes doesn't even exist as a real person since he is merely a figment of Watson's imagination - a character he's created to be more dashing than himself, star in his stories and sell newspapers. When Holmes becomes larger than life, Watson is forced to hire a drunken sot of an out-of-work actor, played delightfully by Michael Caine, to portray a real live Holmes for the police and fans who refuse to accept Watson as a 'dashing' Crime Solving Doctor.

Everyone wants Holmes on the case when foul murder and evil plots ensue, as of course, they do. The crime itself is not all that interesting and the last third of the film sort of degenerates into a blow-'em up, shoot-'em up. (Almost as if tacked on from another movie.) The villain, unfortunately, is one of those indivisible sorts who lurks in the shadows trying to look fiendishly

omnipotent. He weighs down the film and really keeps it from becoming the comedy classic it could have been.

But, imperfect as it is, I still love the film. If you like British slapstick humor mixed with suspense and murder, then this is your cup of tea. (Did I really just say that?)

In fact, in that nearly empty theater, it seems my ex and I were the only two people howling with laughter at the atrociousness happening up on the screen. Yes, embarrassing as it may sound. Obviously we were not surrounded by Holmes aficionados. Or maybe they were all purists and were affronted by the very idea of laughing at anything Holmes related.

More probably the rest of the people in that theater on that night years ago, had no sense of humor and worse, no sense of the ridiculousness of life. They were simply an audience - dare I say it? - without a clue.

Link here for movie trailer.

Fabulously, fabulous.

I am a big fan of Amy Hanna's very eclectic jewelry, it has a punk Victorian quality which is really fascinating to me. She uses the oddest mixture of items to make the most beautiful and strangely delicate jewelry. Check her blog for more treasures and her Etsy shop.

Pocket Books, Really

For the fashion forward book lover with cash to spare. Designer Kate Spade's Book Clutches. Read all about it here. Carry your lipstick, keys, credit card and phone inside your favorite book. It's a novel idea. (Sorry, couldn't help it.)

Sherlock Holmes

I've recently been watching all the Granada television episodes of The Return of Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes. (They're available now on Netflix for instant watching - how cool is that?) The Return...has some of my favorite adaptations of Holmes' stories, including the wonderful moment in The Empty House, when Holmes turns up back in his Baker Street flat after several years of being presumed dead, and almost gives Watson an apoplexy. Watching the two friends reunite after such a long time (Watson believing Holmes dead) is still one of my favorite moments on film. Edward Hardwicke as Watson is especially good in this episode as well. (I believe that's David Burke as Watson in the above middle photograph. He played Watson in several of the early episodes. I liked him a bit better than Hardwick, but I eventually came around.)

I am discovering again just how much I'd admired the troubled Jeremy Brett's singular and agonized portrayal of Holmes. To me he is the ultimate Holmes, even more so than Basil Rathbone, much as I loved (and still love) Rathbone's portrayal in the 1940's films. Those films though, were only loosely based on the Holmes' canon (some of the screenplays made no sense at all, but that's another story...), they were mostly fun to watch (and I still do) only because of Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. (I always forgave Bruce for making Watson such a bumbling duffer. There was just something about Bruce that made you forgive him anything.)

In the Granada series with Jeremy Brett as Holmes, the stories try to stick as close to the Arthur Conan Doyle originals as possible and the production values are painstaking - the Victorian era (and the melodrama) comes alive. Brett's uncanny portrayal of the Holmes I remember and admire from the stories makes this series glow. He is, simply put, brilliant.

This is the Sherlock Holmes of my dreams.

'Amelie' Artist Michael Sowa

Well, one of my very favorite blogs is Anna's LOVE FOR BOOKS. It features mostly vintage children's book illustrations. I'll show you just why I am so in love with it. I have been searching high and low for this beautiful 'Amelie' peacock and at last I've found it. Serendipity. I am smitten with this picture. And look at all the others, oh my. They are sinister while at the same being 'sweet' and magical. How is this possible? It just is. I didn't even know who the artist was, originally, I just knew I had to see more of his work.

The paintings are by German artist Michael Sowa and from these alone I am besotted with his work. Yes, I am shameless, I know but I am besotted. Michael's work appears in a few scenes in the wonderful romantic fairy tale film, AMELIE. If you saw the film, you'll remember the art - I hope. I've never forgotten it and today - woohoo! - I found it on one my favorite blogs. I'm gushing, I know, but that's how certain art affects me.

"If you want your children to be bright,

read them fairytales.

If you want them to be brilliant read them

more fairy tales."

Albert Einstein

Decoupage

Decoupage. Have you ever tried it? Just about anything can be transformed with a bit of paper, glue and your imagination. I love Durwin Rice's book - he's the expert of experts when it comes to the art of decoupage. I've owned an older copy of his book for years. Even if I don't actually glue anything down, I like looking at the beautiful designs and wonderful detailed work Rice does. You can also get his tutorials or attend his classes if you're in the neighborhood.

Designer Jonathan Fong has taken decoupage to heart, especially in his Andy Warhol kitchen.

I could see doing the same thing on any old kitchen cabinets that have seen better days. Not necessarily with Warhol, but with any pattern or image that strikes your fancy. Check out Jonathan's decoupaged chairs - how beautiful are they? This is something I think I'm going to try.

I've been saving old paperback Agatha Christie covers for years, thinking that at some point I'd use them in some sort of decoupage project. Maybe a chair? Or a small table or bookcase??

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

And don't these ladies look like they're expecting the worst?
I downloaded this photo from a delightful design blog, The World According to Isa. It gave me such a laugh. I'm glad I happened upon it. Isa was my late mother's name, actually Isabel, but most called her Isa. I check this blog now and then for the gorgeous photos and well, just because...

Watercolors by Celine Chollet

Today I have two other luscious blogs I want to show and tell you about. Artist and photographer Celine Chollet's French wonderland of beautiful illustrations of architecture, artifacts and nature are simply fabulous. (She has several published books of illustrations but I'm not sure if they're available in the U.S.) I've tried to read bits and pieces of her blogs in the remnants of my high school French, but mostly I use the translate to English thingy.

Celine has two lovely blogs and I really do recommend that you take the time to leisurely explore them both.

Catherine Nolin's Paintings

Meant to post these earlier so I'm playing catch-up. These wonderfully festive paintings are the work of the amazing artist Catherine Nolin. I've just recently discovered her work online and wanted to share it with you. Her blog is gorgeous. Thanks to Kellie over at the beautiful Ada and Darcy design blog who reminded me, by her own post of Catherine's paintings, that I'd meant to show you her work earlier. So round and round it goes. Isn't this blogging thing great?

And you might ask, what do paintings have to do with books or films or whatever? Well, it's all art to me.

The Zero Trap

Reviewing a not-well-known book published in 1980 seems a bit of a lost cause, but what the heck. The Zero Trap by Paula Gosling, is still available on some book sites and at the library. Jim Huang's book recommending Overlooked, Under appreciated and Forgotten Mystery Novels, They Died in Vain (about which I blogged a few days ago), mentions that The Zero Trap is out of print, but I had no trouble running it down and I'm glad I did. This is a terrific thriller which deserves a bit of overdue p.r. so I'm grateful to Jim Huang for mentioning it.

A U.S. Army plane is hijacked over the Middle East, the nine passengers gassed insensibly into submission. That the passengers include a nine year old boy (an especially well written character), makes the plot that much more affecting, the bad guys that much more chilling. When these passengers wake up, they find they are imprisoned in a luxurious old house, quite literally in the middle of nowhere. What's worse, they are surrounded by snow and ice and deadly cold. In fact, the cold itself is their prison guard. It is obvious they were flown into their predicament since a nearby lake is frozen solid and there are no roads anywhere anyone can see. But just to make sure no one gets any ideas of trying to hike out, the passengers' shoes and boots have been taken away, as well as any coats or heavy outer clothing. These people are meant, by their unknown captors, to stay in frozen place.

As the various personalities of the passengers become more defined, we begin to see an unlikely one rise above the others and assume a sort of grudging leadership. Bespectacled, music-loving, astronomy professor David Skinner is a not too typical sort of hero. But he is brilliant, an expert gatherer of information and an astute observer. He soon reasons that they are in Finland. But no one else in the world, except for their kidnapper, of course, knows their location.

One of the other passengers is the self-effacing Laura Ainslie, engaged to an ambitious Army captain and daughter of an American three-star general. Is it possible she is the target at the center of the kidnapping plot? Or could it be Skinner? His brother, a captain in the English navy, is involved in some sort of Cold War intrigue.

Soon enough, it becomes obvious that a spy lurks among the passengers, not to mention, a murderer. One of the passengers is Joe Mallick, currently in the custody of a U.S. Marshall and on the way back to the U.S. to stand trial for murder. But when one of the hostages is murdered, is Hallick the killer? Has he killed again? For that matter, has he actually killed before? Forced to interact with each other because of their situation (especially once the house's aging boiler develops trouble), no one has the luxury of setting themselves apart from the others, not if they want to survive.

Part of the lure of this book is in reading how the ingenious Skinner manages to work out a way to go out into the perishing cold to try and assess their surroundings. He also creates an inventive way (perhaps too inventive), to alert their location to the authorities when photographs of the hostages are taken to prove they are still alive.

Switching from the viewpoints of those family members and authorities searching for the missing while wondering who, what, when, where and why (mostly the why and the where) and the points of view of hostages Skinner and Ainslie, author Gosling creates a harrowing tale of non-stop suspense. Too good a story to be out of print and forgotten.

Re-Reading

Are you a re-reader? I am.

Despite all the new and/or unread books patiently waiting their turn in different piles all around the house, there are just certain books I keep going back to over and over again over the years - like visiting with old friends. Some books are read once, enjoyed, then set aside never to be opened again. But then there are those books that, for whatever reason, just keep calling me back. In Jasper Fforde's books featuring literature 'detective' Thursday Next, some of the characters can slip in and out of books (literally) and become part of the story (if they're not careful) though technically they are only allowed to witness. When Thursday touches the spines of books lined up on shelves, she feels the pull of the books and sees inside them, almost as if the spines themselves were portals into another world. (Actually, in the Fforde books the spines are

portals into other worlds.)

Well, that's how I feel sometimes. I touch the spine of certain books and I feel the familiar world inside beckoning me. Too fanciful? Maybe. But then, I am a fanciful person. (In case you hadn't guessed that from looking at my blog.)

Here are just a few of the old friends I like to revisit once in awhile:

Most of Agatha Christie's books, especially: They Came to Baghdad, The Man In the Brown Suit, So Many Steps To Death, Evil Under the Sun, Cat Among the Pigeons, Halloween Party, A Murder Is Announced, Mrs. McGinty's Dead, 4:50 From Paddington, Passenger to Frankfurt, Murder in Mesopotamia, The Secret of Chimneys, Dead Man's Folly, The ABC Murders...

All of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books, especially:

Plot It Yourself, The League of Frightened Men, Murder By the Book, Might As Well Be Dead, Please Pass the Guilt, The Mother Hunt, The Doorbell Rang, The Rubber Band, The Golden Spiders...

Amelia Peadbody books by Elizabeth Peters:

Crocodile on the Sandbank, The Mummy Case, Lion in the Valley, The Curse of the Pharaohs, Serpent on the Crown...

Vicky Bliss books by Elizabeth Peters:

Trojan Gold, Night Train to Memphis

Any and all Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Most especially: The Hound of the Baskervilles

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes books by Laurie R. King.

Most especially: The Beekeeper's Apprentice, O Jerusalem, The Moor, Justice Hall...

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

Loot by Aaron Elkins

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Outsider by Penelope Williamson

Dirty Linen by Nicholas Kilmer

Early Autumn by Robert Parker

Past Time by Robert Parker

Scandal by Amanda Quick

Ravished by Amanda Quick

Grand Passion by Jayne Ann Krentz

Hidden Talents by Jayne Ann Krentz

Trust Me by Jayne Ann Krentz

Lord Carew's Bride by Mary Balogh

Miss Emmaline and the Archangel by Rachel Lee

Empire Falls by Richard Russo

Most of Robert Crais' Elvis Cole and Joe Pike books.

Especially: The Monkey's Raincoat, Lullaby Land, Free Fall, Indigo Slam, Voodoo River, L.A. Requiem...

How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen, a short, brilliant, life-enhancing book.

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey

Of course, there are more, but these titles are just to give you an idea of what goes on around here. I also have to say that my preference seems to be for older books, so lots of the new stuff I read seems to be just older books I'd never read before.

But of course, I also read the new, new stuff as well.

As my friend Jean of BookJeannie likes to say, 'so many books, so little time'.

Hercule The Great

Nothing much to say except that I LOVE this photo of the marvelous David Suchet as the one and only Hercule Poirot. Too bad they've taken the great Agatha Christie's stories and bollixed them up, yet again. I mean, why bother to mess with perfection?? Christie's long suit was her plotting, so here's a dumb idea: let's mess with just that - the plotting. This is what killed the latest two incarnations of Jane Marple for me. If I'm in a Marple mood, I either read the books again or watch the wonderful Joan Hickson in those earlier adaptations which were almost completely true to the books. (Or as true as one can get given the time restrictions of film.)

Let's improve MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS - ye gads!! Whose idea was that? Heads should roll.

Does anyone else agree with me that Christie's brilliant plots should be left alone if they can't be filmed properly by people who respect the canon? Am I whistling in the dark?

Nick Bantock Exhibit

One my favorite artists, collage great Nick Bantock, of fabulous Griffin and Sabine fame, is having his first ever retrospective at the Museum of Outdoor Arts in Englewood, Colorado. The exhibit opens September 18th in the indoor galleries.