Mailbox Monday for 5/13/11

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme created by Marcia at The Printed Page and is being hosted all this month by The Bluestocking Guide.

I received an ARC of State of Wonder by Ann Patchett for an upcoming TLC Book Tour.

The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner

Part of the Synopsis From Back Cover:

Perry Mason had been warned that Eva Griffin was too beautiful for her own good.  He had also been warned that she was an out and out liar.  Perry took her case anyway.  It looked to intriguing...

In her wide-eyed, "innocent" way, Eva had been rather indiscreet with a gentleman who was not her husband.  Now her secrets were to be revealed by a paper called Spicy Bits.  Eva was ready to do anything to keep her name out of print.

What I did not know at the time I bought this book was that it's the very first Perry Mason mystery.  By now I think everyone knows that I'm a fan of both the books and the TV show.  The books I only discovered last year and this was my 4th one read.  To be honest I wasn't expecting  this book to be all that much different from the others, but boy was I wrong.

The Case of the Velvet Claws reads more like a typical "hardboiled" detective story than the others I've read. Perry is harder and more willing to get his hands dirty in order to serve the interests of his client.  There is s rather sharp edge to him that had been softened up just a bit in subsequent novels, though I'm not sure when the change happened.  He's angrier and doesn't have any problems showing it.  He's willing to blackmail and create false leads in order to get what he wants, all in the interest of the client.

That brings us to Eva Griffin.  Eva Belter is her real name, Griffin was an assumed name she took when she met Mason for the first time.  Della Street, Mason's secretary, takes and instant dislike to the woman.  It reminded me of a cat raising it's hackles at someone every time it sees them.  She warns Mason to not take the case, that Eva means nothing but trouble.  She was right.  Eva is a lying seductress who uses her looks and sex appeal to get what she wants.  She normally has no problems wrapping men around her little finger.  Mason is different though.  He sees through her and seems to have no problems ignoring the eyes and her killer body.  He takes the case simply because he is intrigued by it.

Eva and a politician had been spotted at a hotel bar after a homicide occurred and the police showed up.  Harrison Burke, the pol, was able to keep their presence out of the official report but somehow a gossip rag got a hold of his name but did not know that name of the woman.  Eva was desperate to stop the rag from printing her name, she was a married woman and it would destroy everything she had worked for.  Mason quickly learns that it's her husband who owned the paper, though he not publicly know to be.  The magazine was really a blackmail scheme, demanding money for "advertising space".  The advertiser would then have a say in what was printed.

When Eva's husband is found shot through the heart, she quickly comes up with a scheme to get her name out of it.  She fingers Mason as the man she heard arguing with her husband right before the shooting occurred.  The rest of the mystery involves Mason not only trying to keep his back stabbing client out of jail, but trying to clear his own name as well.  He gets down and dirty in the process.  In true Mason style he comes through in the end, proving both his and his client's innocence in the end.  There is not a court room scene in the book, though that will later become a trademark of the series.

I loved this book.  It's harder, grittier, and sexier than the others I've read in the series.  I almost wish Gardner had kept the character like this, though I appreciate the softer edges to Mason as well.  I also like the relationship with Della.  There is true physical chemistry between the two of them, a chemistry that is toned down in future books.  I was waiting for them to make that connection, it came close but never really got there.

I was trying to find a video of the TV episode of this one, I couldn't.  What I found interesting though is that even though this is the first book, it wasn't made into an episode of the show until the sixth season.  What I did find though, was the trailer for the 1936 movie adaptation.  From what I can see of the trailer, it follows pretty closely, though Mason and Della had just gotten married.  I tried to embed it, but for some reason it wouldn't play.  Here is the link instead.

Challenges: M&S, FF, VM

The Swimming Pool by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Judith Chandler had always been the spoiled beauty of the family.  But in her glamorous, jet-setting life, something had gone wrong.  And now, for the first time she was afraid.  Desperately afraid.

With a deadline to meet on her detective story, Lois had no patience with her sister's strange behavior.  Except the mystery Lois was writing was not nearly as deadly as the mystery about to unfold.  For ravishing, willful Judith was about to disappear from her locked bedroom.

And by the pale light of morning, a woman's body would be found in the crystal blue depths of the swimming pool.

I'm wondering if you guys are getting sick of all the Mary Roberts Rinehart reviews lately.  Especially since they are all so close together and all I do is rave about them.  As of right now there is only one more after this one, so I promise to make this one short and sweet.  I wish I could tell you that this review was going to be different, but it won't be.  Actually this book so out performed the previous three books, I'm not sure what I can say about it.

First of all, the story was quite a bit longer than the others, being 330 pages.  That meant that Rinehart was able to flesh out the characters and the plot lines in ways I had not seen her do before.  Judith is a spoiled little rich girl who at a young age was basically sold off to an older man.  Her older sister Ann had already married, her brother Phil was getting ready to start college, and Lois her youngest sister was still young enough to not fully realise what was going on.  Their father had just committed suicide after the stock market crash and their mother, comfortable in the life she had, needed the money.

Judith was the darling of her mother's eye and that of everyone else.  So years later when Judith comes back home to The Birches, the families Summer home in the country when times were good and now Lois and Phil's only home, and tells Lois that she is divorcing her husband and going abroad, Lois is at her wits end.  She accompanies Judith to Reno to get the divorce and on the way back, things start to get scary.  She faints, as in fear, as she is boarding the train.  Lois is convinced she saw someone there, but has no clue who it was.

Back at The Birches, things slowly descend into chaos as Judith shuts herself up in her room.  When the body of woman is found in the swimming pool, Judith and the entire situation gets worse.  With the help of a policeman staying on the property, Lois is determined to find out why her sister is so scared and who killed the woman in the pool.

What Lois find outs will change her outlook and the way she feels about her family.  She will discover not only why Judith married her husband, but why Judith and her mother took a surprise vacation out of town right before it.  She will discover how a murder that happened when she was just a girl, ties into the events going on now.  This is a story of revenge gone wrong and fear so overwhelming that it clouds all judgement.  It's a wonderfully complicated, twisting story that kept me entranced the entire time.

Rinehart created such a complex series of events that occurred over such a long span of time that I never found myself bored, though I do now understand why she is credited with creating the "Had I But Know" plot device.  This, and the next book I will review, both star female protagonists that are given the all the information they need to know to solve the crime.  They never understand the significance of it at the time and almost always make decisions that prolong the outcome coming out.  Since the books are told from their viewpoints after the fact, they oftentimes mention that if they had but know what the meaning was or how things happened, the situation may have turned out differently.  Thankfully, they didn't know then what they know now.  Otherwise the story wouldn't be as entertaining and thrilling.

Challenges: M&S, VM

Favorite Fictional Character --- Corduroy Bear

I think so far this month is shaping up to be my favorite theme so far.  I'm able to visit some old characters that I haven't seen in a while, and I'm remembering how much I really did love them.    One of my childhood favorites will be the star of this week's post.

I can't tell you how many times I've read the story of a a young stuffed bear who is missing a button on his green corduroy overalls.  Corduroy spent his time in a very large department store, sitting on a shelf just waiting for a little girl or boy to take him home.  He wanted to play, love, and be loved in return.  Nobody ever seems to want him though, no matter how adorable he was.  It could have been that missing button though, at least that's what Corduroy decided.  

When Lisa first saw Corduroy forlornly sitting on that shelf, she wanted to take him home immediately.  Her mother wanted none of it.  She had already spent too much money and the toy was missing a button, who wants a bear missing a button?  Naturally, this broke Corduroy's heart, so when the store closed, he started his journey.  He went all over the place looking for that darn button, he finally found it on a mattress.  He had to pull and pull even harder, but he finally got it.  Thankfully, he got it before the security guard found him and took him back to his shelf.  When Lisa came back the next day, with her own money, she took him home and sewed that button on.

I think what I loved about Corduroy was home much he wanted to be home.  It's that one thing that drives, I think, all of us.  We want a place, no matter how big or small, to feel like we belong there.  That we are safe and loved there.  Home is that one constant that we all strive for and need to feel good.  Corduroy epitomizes that desire for me in a way that most characters don't.  The face that he is so damned adorable doesn't hurt either.

Mailbox Monday for 6/6/11

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme created by Marcia at The Printed Page and is being hosted all this month by The Bluestocking Guide.

On a trip to a used bookstore I picked up 5 books for less than $5.  I picked up paperbacks of  The Swimming Pool by Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Wall by Mary Roberts Rinehart, and The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner.  I also picked up hardcovers of The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene and The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon.

I received a hardcover of Centuries of June by Keith Donohue for an upcoming TLC Book Tour.

Ten Adventures of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton

In this collection of ten short stories published between 1911-1927, the ingenious Father Brown uses his brains and insights to solve crimes both large and small.  Created by G.K. Chesterton, Father Brown is rather dumpy Catholic priest who has an uncanny ability to peer into the evils of the human heart and walk away unscathed.  He uses intuition rather than deduction to discover the culprit behind the crime.

This was a new mystery series for me as I've never read anything by Chesterton before.  I must say that I'm really regretting the fact that I'm almost 35 years old and just discovering one of the most fascinating characters to grace mystery pages.  I've tended to stray away from mystery series that star religious figures.  I don't know that I would ever say it was a bias, but I never got the impression that I would enjoy them. I think it has more to do with the "Father Dowling Mysteries" TV show.  I'm not sure what it was, but I could never get into that show.  It actually bugged me quite a bit.

Father Brown, even though he is a priest, doesn't really "preach" while he is solving the crimes.  His religion never really enters into it, though I think because he's a priest he is able to look at the situation differently.  He is a man used to hearing other people's confessions.  He has probably heard people confess to things that would make most of our toes curl.  He puts himself in the criminals shoes and takes the place of the murderer.  He becomes the murderer in his mind and using the insight gained to solve the mystery.  It's a refreshing change from the classic detective who uses clues to accomplish the same goal.  The other aspect  I found fascinating was how Father Brown, who has to believe in the divine workings of God, doesn't allow himself to be distracted by supernatural explanations.  He scoffs at the idea and always discovers the more rational, human solution.

As for the stories themselves, they were all previously published in other collections and I must assume that they are a good look at Chesterton's writing style.  They are all well thought out, meticulous mysteries that don't drop a lot of clues.  Instead you are brought along on a journey with Father Brown as he processes the information.  I think some people would classify them as unfair since the solution doesn't follow a set of clues. I don't think that's fair though.  There is no solution that doesn't make sense in the context of all the information given.  Nothing seems to come out of the blue.  It's a great way to tell a story and I must confess, I can't wait to read more of them.

Challenges: M&S, VM

The Case of Jennie Brice by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Synopsis From Back Cover:

She was only a bit player in the local repertory theatre, but nevertheless Jennie Brice had the strange nocturnal habits of her profession.

According to her husband, she had left him in the middle of the night after one more of their weary, continual arguments.

Since then he had had no word, nor had he the slightest idea where she was.

Nor, he might have added, did he particularly care.

Until the river gave up a headless woman's corpse, with Jennie's voluptuous body.  And the whole town began to look at Jennie's husband.  And wonder....

I think where this book sucked me in was the setting.  Much like the last Mary Roberts Rinehart book I read, The After House,  the setting is what dictates the story.  Pittsburgh in the early part of the last century tended to flood every Spring.  The problem was all the water, the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers meet in Pittsburgh and form the Ohio river.  Every year when the ice starts to melt the rivers start to rise and take over most of the city, especially the poorer areas.

One of those poor areas was lower Allegheny, which later became the northern part of the city of Pittsburgh.  Within that slum sat a rooming house operated by a Mrs. Pitman.  Pitman was not her real name, for the purposes of this book though that is all she would call herself.  She came from an upper class Pittsburgh family but when she married down, her family disowned her.  When she moved back to town, after the death of her husband, she never told them she was back and they never reconciled.  To make ends meet Mrs. Pitman operated a boarding house that served the theater district, most of her boarders worked in that field.  Two of those tenants, Jennie Brice and her husband, where a handful.  They were constantly fighting and never seemed to be in a good mood.  So when the floods came and took up most of the lower floors of the boarding house, the scene was set for murder.

Told over a period of a week or two by Mrs. Pitman, The Case of Jennie Brice, is a wonderfully told mystery that relies on the sense of isolation and confined quarters that a flood creates.  There is a wonderful group of supporting characters, including the niece of Mrs. Pitman, though the niece never realizes their connection.  Everyone involved is trying to figure out what happened to Jennie Brice the day she disappeared and whether or not the headless body is in fact the missing woman.  It's a short mystery, only 187 pages long, but it packs a punch.  There is no mystery of who did it, everyone knows that already.  Where the mystery comes in is how are they going to prove it.  How can they prove the body is in fact Jennie Brice when there is no head?  How can they dispute the claims of someone they all trust, when he says he saw her after she supposedly disappeared?  It's a brilliant piece of deductive writing and I loved it.  The way Mrs. Pitman and friends are able to piece the information together is methodically laid out in detail.  There are no missing pieces or illogical conclusions reached.

This was my third Mary Roberts Rinehart book, and I've already bought two more.  I think I'm officially hooked on her style now and I can't wait to read more.  She had an almost supernatural ability at creating just the right feel and atmosphere which highlights an almost perfect stage and background for the action taking place.  The fact that she populates that scene with wonderful characters and never seems to fail at giving them something to do is a godsend.  There are no wasted characters in her books, unlike a lot of mystery writers who simply throw in extra characters to confuse the situation.  I think this is one author who should be given more recognition in this modern age than what she gets.

Did I mention that my copy has some wonderful illustrations that I so wish I could share with you.  They are wonderful black and white prints that highlight just the right scenes.  I can't find them anywhere to show you so you will just have to trust me when I say, they are the icing on the cake.

Challenges: M&S, VM