Ngaio Marsh. Overture to Death (1930)

     Ngaio Marsh. Overture to Death (1939) A committee of do-gooders put on a play, but at the first performance, the lady who substitutes at the last minute to provide the opening music is shot dead by the booby-trapped piano. The social comedy interests Marsh more than the crime solving, but the plot is solid enough, and the added mix of melodrama and love romance makes this a satisfying read. *** (2006)

Frank Herbert. Whipping Star (1969-77)

    Frank Herbert. Whipping Star (1969-77) Herbert has the knack for making an alien culture seem alien, yet accessible. His readers must work hard to imagine what he tells them, and even so his worlds retain that not-quite-intelligible strangeness that convinces. Abnethe, the universe’s richest citizen, has captured a Caleban in order to whip it; she cannot stand to see suffering, but she craves its appearance. Jorge X. McKie, Saboteur Extraordinaire, has the assignment of finding out what he can. He finds out that all sentient life will die if the Caleban dies. Finally, the forces of good triumph over the forces of evil (and stupidity: in Herbert’s world the two are twins). McKie manages to establish something resembling correct communication with the Caleban, and Abnethe’s plans are thwarted. A bonus is that McKie solves a few riddles, too: The Calebans are multi-dimensional sentients who manifest in our universe as stars. They also run the S’eye, a system of instantaneous transport between any two points in the human universe. True simultaneity has at last been achieved, despite Einstein’s discoveries.
      This book appears to antedate the Dune series, in which Herbert constructed a complete civilisation. In this book, he has certainly imagined one, but he leaves out almost all of the details. Nevertheless, well done. *** (2006)

M. J. Adamson. A February Face (1987)

     M. J. Adamson. A February Face (1987) Balthazar Marten, delayed in the Phillippines, is asked to investigate the dead bodies washing up on the beach. Trouble is, they were dead and embalmed before they were shot. A plot to scare away the squatters? Yes, it turns out, as the shore-line real estate is valuable only if owned as a single large parcel, and they are in the way. So are a couple of other people who also die, and the putative murderer is found floating in an ancient but still very wet cistern. Pleasant but forgettable entertainment. ** (2006)

Marcia Muller, Ask the Cards a Question (1982)

     Marcia Muller, Ask the Cards a Question (1982) McCone’s neighbour, Molly Antonio, is found strangled with a broken bag of groceries and a piece of McCone’s recently replaced sash cord next to her body. McCone eventually unravels a plausible tale of freight theft and pushing of stolen goods, but the murderer is a blinded man who wants his money back. McCone is smart, telling her tale in short takes (tailor-made for a scenario), and neither the reader’s imagination nor intellect suffers from overwork. A pleasant but forgettable entertainment. ** (2006)

Alexander McCall Smith. The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs

 Alexander McCall Smith. The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs (2003) Another entertainment about Prof. Whatsisname, an academic resident at some German university. McCall Smith must have something against German academics. True, they are easy to satirise, but so are other academics, and for the same reasons. Chief of which is their conviction that all other mortals are lesser beings. Mildly amusing, but I’ve had enough of this series. I’m going to try the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series. * (2006)

Gerry Lieberman. 3,500 Good Jokes For Speakers (1976)

     Gerry Lieberman. 3,500 Good Jokes For Speakers (1976) A compilation of jokes originally published in the 1950s. Categorised, a mix of one-liners, short setups, and stories, of varying quality. What’s interesting is how taste has changed: many of the jokes wouldn’t fly these days, too sexist or racist. The style of sexism and racism has changed: mostly, only women can makes jokes about women, only blacks about blacks, etc. The other interesting aspect is how topical humour is. References to the garment district of New York just don’t work as well today, for example, nor do jokes playing with good girl/bad girl contrasts.References to the Cold War are unintelligible to anyone under 30 and dated to anyone under 50. As customs and values change, so do jokes. Jokes depend on a shared cultural context between teller and audience. Much of that context has changed or disappeared in the 60-odd years since these jokes were first collected. Thus the book provides data for a study of humour, which I will not, however, undertake. **

H. E. Bates. The Triple Echo (1970)

     H. E. Bates. The Triple Echo (1970) Another book I didn’t finish (although I did read the final episode). Alice, a farmer’s wife alone during WW2, takes in Barton, a deserter. Inevitably, the MP catch up with them. She shoots her lover and his captor as they approach the house. Bates’ attempt at writing a D. H. Lawrence love tragedy, perhaps. In any case, the prose, while sufficient for the job, doesn’t rise above the ordinary. The characters are well enough drawn to attract interest, but not to sustain it.
     I’m tired of these gloomily passionate stories. They seem to me to be a sort of slumming. These people don’t deserve their fate, and absent the war, they would have managed to disentangle the woman from her marriage and live more or less happily ever after. It’s the soldier’s refusal to return from leave that precipitates the deception and the final hunt, so I suppose Bates may intend this novelette to be his anti-war story. As such, it would have had relevance when it was published, at the Vietnam war’s inglorious winding down, but now it is, as the academics say, of scholarly interest only. The cover photo shows Glenda Jackson in the role of Alice; Michael Apted is named as director. I suspect that the film is quite good; weak books often make good movies. * (2006)