There is nothing more satisfying than reading a book while sipping a hot cup of tea.
"I must have freedom," she declared. "My life embraces so much. I have so many interests. While you - you poor little soul - you are merely a - a veritable Cinderella." "Oh well, we know who came out on top in that story," laughed Faith good-naturedly. Faith Norman, the eponymous Cinderella, lives in an … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Book: What Came to Cinderella by Curtis Yorke (1926)
"One of them did it, of course," he told himself, "but we shall never know which, so what the hell?" A tense figure waits near a staircase, in anticipation. Suddenly there is a cry of fire and panicked figures come running out of the dark, converging near the staircase. A candle is lighted but before … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Book: The Mouse who wouldn’t play Ball by Anthony Gilbert (1943)
I have been facing a major blogging block but now the review pile has grown so big that I must really start writing or else... Val Gielgud and Holt Marvell are new authors for me. Little information is available on the duo except that both worked at the BBC, Marvell's real name was Eric Mashwitz, … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Books: Two Books by Val Gielgud and Holt Marvell
Shroud of Darkness, my favourite of Lorac read so far, begins with a train journey on a foggy night. Five strangers in a compartment reach London when one of them is coshed on the head and left for dead. As he has no identification-papers on him and his luggage etc has been stolen, Macdonald has … Continue reading Two Post-War Novels by E.C.R. Lorac: Shroud of Darkness (1954) and The Last Escape (1959)
"By the time Dodson gets here in his slow-motion vehicle," he muttered, "we'll be a bunch of maniacs." Marina Hays is invited to spend a weekend at their country-home by her friends, Elizabeth and Marge Packett. Also invited is another friend, Gert. The four are met at the station by Randall, the brother of the … Continue reading Rustling in the Dark: The Black Lady by Conyth Little (1943)
Conversations, conversations, and still more conversations. I don't think I have ever read a mystery in which there were so many conversations between the various characters. At times, it seemed Lorac was writing a Novel of Ideas rather than a mystery. And the situation is definitely serious. It is 1939 and the Jewish Question is … Continue reading Short Notes: Black Beadle by E.C.R. Lorac (1939)
a hot cup of pleasure 