June 2023 Wrap Up

Books Read

The Benson Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (1926)  4/5 stars  

This is the first in the series featuring amateur detective Philo Vance.  Van Dine (pseudonym for American art critic Willard Huntington Wright, 1888 – 1939) was best selling author, and even from this first in the series, it's easy to see why.  An arrogant aesthete, Vance is nonetheless appealing for his intellect, perspicacity, and a surprising amount of compassion.  There were so many possible believable solutions that I wavered back and forth as to who was the guilty party.  Only occasionally did Vance seem to pull a clue from thin air, and on the whole this is a well-written, interesting, and intelligent mystery. 

Post After Post-Mortem by E.C.R. Lorac   (1936)  4/5 stars  (my review here)

The Black Wings by Moray Dalton  (1927)  5/5 stars  (my review here)

The Tragedy at Freyne by Anthony Gilbert  (1927)  4/5 stars  (my review here)

One by One They Disappeared by Moray Dalton  (1928)  4/5 stars  (my review here)

The Night of Fear by Moray Dalton  (1931)  4/5 stars  (my review here)

The Belfry Murder  by Moray Dalton (1933)  4/5 stars (my review here)

The Mystery of the Kneeling Woman by Moray Dalton (1936)  5/5 stars (my review here)

Audiobooks Completed:

A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie (1993)  3/5 stars

This is the first in what has become a lengthy and well-regarded series.  It is attention-holding and entertaining, but seemed too contrived and not fully convincing.  I enjoyed it enough, though, that I will most likely continue the series.

The Dutch Shoe Mystery by Ellery Queen  (1931)  3/5 stars

Ellery is invited to witness a surgery, but the patient is murdered beforehand; he lends his investigative talents to his father, Inspector Queen of the NYC PD, but they struggle to find the solution.  This is an early Ellery Queen, and he's more pompous and less sympathetic a character than he becomes later in the series.  The mystery itself is layered, and while the clues are available for one part of the solution, I felt cheated by the solution to the second aspect.  It's still entertaining, though, and gives the reader a taste of NYC in the late 1920s.  

Fortune's Children by Arthur T. Vanderbilt II  (1989)  4/5 stars  (my review here)

Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile 

by Julia Fox (2012)  4/5 stars

This easy to read nonfiction account follows sisters Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile from marriage to death, showing how they shaped their world, and attempting to dispel the persistent negative portrayals of the two.   Fox is definitely prejudiced to her own point-of-view, but makes some compelling arguments.  There were inferences made, as well as some conclusions that seemed based on weak evidence, that I would want to research  myself before I could fully accept the information.  Otherwise, it's both entertaining and enlightening.

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