The Quiet Gentleman

 

By Georgette Heyer

Napoleon is locked up and it is time for the British fighting men to come home. One such is Captain Viscount Desborough, Viscount no longer upon the death of his father, the Sixth Earl of St. Erth. 

Desborough, aka Gervase, was not liked by his father who favored Gervase's younger half-brother, Martin. Martin has grown up to be a spoiled brat who always thought Gervase would not survive the war and that he, Martin, would be the Earl when their father died. So when that didn't happen, Martin had a hard time adjusting to the reality and deeply resented his elder brother's ascension to the title. 

So Gervase has returned home to the family estate to take up his position as the Seventh Earl. But it soon becomes clear that someone is trying to remove Gervase from this position and all the clues seem to point to young Martin. 

This was an OK read. It's not one of my favorite Heyer romances, as the culprit is pretty clear from the get-go. The real villain is oddly portrayed as a really decent guy and it seems so completely out of character for this man to be capable of so callous a murder. 

Heyer did write a lot of murder mysteries and I have read some of them. But I have not enjoyed them as much as I liked her Regency romances. Too much of her murder style leaks into this story which taints it, in my opinion.

Here is a review by Deb Barnum from Austenprose.

Lore of the Witch World

 

By Andre Norton

A collection of seven Witch World short stories.

• "Spider Silk" Dairine was a refugee from hard times who survived a shipwreck as a young child and found a home among the folk of Rannock in Estcarp. The war is now over but the terrors of that time left their mark upon Dairine. What horrors she may have seen she does not recall. But her mind has closed her vision to the world around her and she is blind. Despite her handicap, over the years she became a talented weaver of cloth. Her skill came to the notice of a captain of Sulcar, an ocean-traveling nation of traders. The captain showed her a scrap of very finely made silk fabric and wondered if Dairine had the skill to attempt to weave something similar. But even though she was skilled, she was not that skilled, nor was any human weaver. Because this beautiful piece of silk was not woven by human hands but by the spider women of Usturt. But the spider women are hostile to humankind and will not willingly share their knowledge of weaving their beautiful silk fabric. Yet to Usturt Dairine must go, will she or nil she.
• "Sand Sister" Born to the Tor people of the Tormarsh, Tursla was not like the other children. But to a people declining in population, even one unlike the others is vital to the community's continuance. When a girl reaches a certain age, she is expected to take part in a fertility rite where she is impregnated by one of the village men. Tursla did not take part in the ritual but still claimed to have been impregnated even though she knew she had lain with no man. But she was filled, filled with knowledge after a visit to a holy site deep in the marsh. And this knowledge will enable her to step in to save the life of an outsider that the desperate villagers have marked for human sacrifice in the belief that it will restore fertility to their people and prevent their slow slide into extinction.
• "Falcon Blood" Tanree is a sailor, born and bred. But her home, the ship, the Kast-Boar, was caught in a storm and broken on a reef on an unknown shore. The only survivors are Tanree and the Falconer, a mercenary from a tribe where the men view women as untrustworthy creatures fit only for the bearing of children. But the Falconer has a broken arm and if he and Tanree are going to survive, they are going to have to work together despite his distaste for her gender.
• "Legacy From Sorn Fen" After the war was over, opportunities were abundant for an ambitious man to improve his lot in life, given the sad state of affairs in the land. One such was Higbold. And when a certain magical item came to his notice, Higbold saw no reason not to claim the item for himself. What he didn't know was the item was given as a reward for a kind and gallant service performed to ease the passing of a damsel in distress. Higbold is going to pay a price for his thievery.
• "Sword of Unbelief" Jervon and Elys from earlier stories not in this collection are featured in this story of a battle between Elys and an ancient and evil god who has captured Jervon and is slowing draining him of his life force. 
• "The Toads of Grimmerdale" After the war was over, a time of chaos overtook the lands and crimes and lawlessness where everywhere. Hertha, a well-born young woman, became a victim of this chaos when her camp was overrun and she was assaulted. But when her family discovered she was pregnant, she was told she must submit to an abortion or be cast out. She chose to be cast out. She just wants two things, a healthy baby and revenge on the man who raped her. She doesn't know who he was and never saw his face. But she did see a distinctive piece of equipment he wore, a find gold and jewel-encrusted bowguard. So when Hertha sees a man wearing that same bowguard at the inn where she is working, she is certain he is the one who assaulted her. The inn lies near a place of the Old Ones, the magical denizens who used to dominate the land but who have mostly gone away. The Toads of Grimmerdale are of such magical stock and Hertha goes to them, asking for their help against her enemy. Of course, there will be a deadly price to pay for such questionable help.
• "Changeling" The follow-up to "The Toads of Grimmerdale" finds Hertha on the road once again, traveling to confront the Toads, who as punishment for her forfeit, have cursed her newborn baby with bulgy toad eyes and blotchy, discolored skin. 

I really enjoyed the stories in this collection. I think my favorites are the last two, but I liked them all. The only one I liked the least was "Sword of Unbelief" which was rather slow compared to the other stories. 

The Pilgrim of Hate

 

By Ellis Peters

A festival is being put together to celebrate the transfer of the remains of a saint to her new home four years previously. It's an occasion that is drawing many pilgrims to the Shropshire area. Five of them draw Cadfael's interest. There is Matthew and Ciaran. Matthew attends on Ciaran and Ciaran has taken a vow to walk with a heavy cross around his neck and with bare feet. Ciaran comes to Cadfael to have his sore feet attended to. 

Another group that captures Cadfael's interest are Alice, Melangell and Rhun. While traveling to Shropshire, they joined up with Ciaran and Matthew and Melangell has become enamored of Matthew. Matthew returns her regard but will not leave Ciaran. Rhun has a bad leg and has come to Shropshire to pray at the coffin of the saint. But he comes to Cadfael for some help sleeping, as their long journey on foot has aggravated his bad leg. 

Meanwhile, politics sticks its ugly face into their lives of the monks of the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, as two factions struggle for control of England. And emissaries are sent to ask for loyalty, requiring leaders  to switch sides or remain loyal. And of course there is a murder.

This was an OK story. Cadfael doesn't actively investigate the murder, even though he does solve the mystery. I also didn't understand why one of the characters had to travel under an alias. 

In God We Trust : All Others Pay Cash

 

By Jean Shepherd

A collection of humorous stories about a kid's life in a Midwestern industrial city in the 1930s, written in the 1960s. The stories are supposed to be fiction but are loosely based on the author's childhood in Hammond, Indiana. 

The main character, Ralph Parker, returns to his hometown of Hohman, Indiana and pays a visit to a local bar where an old friend of his now works as bartender. Together they chat and recall the good old days as kids roaming the streets of a very grimy city where the main industry is steel production. Pollution often figures prominently in his descriptions of his Hohman. 

The first story tells of a young boy's desire for an air rifle and how he finally gets one, only to nearly shoot his own eye out.

Next, Ralph desperately wants a Little Orphan Annie secret decoder pin. Little Orphan Annie was one of Ralph's favorite radio programs and it was sponsored by Ovaltine, a malt beverage mix. To get the decoder pin, you had to send in a proof of purchase from several containers of Ovaltine. But Ralph's mom never buys Ovaltine. 

The next story is the tale of a blind date when Ralph is fourteen years old. It doesn't go quite as he thought and he finds out something rather devastating about himself.

The next story is a fish story. It's a bit strange, more odd than amusing.

Next is maybe one of the most famous stories in the book, the Leg Lamp Story. Although he never names the soft drink, it's Nehi. And at one point it did feature a woman's stocking-clad leg on its label. I don't know if the Leg Lamp really was a prize offered by Nehi in a contest, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. 

All in all, the stories are interesting and mildly amusing and a look back at time nearly a hundred years ago.

Life Among the Savages

 

By Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson is a famous author, know mainly for her horror stories and novels, such as the short story The Lottery and the novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived In the Castle. But she also wrote in a lighter vein about being a mom to a large family, Life Among the Savages in 1953 and Raising Demons in 1957.

Life Among the Savages begins with the family moving from New York City to a small rural town in the northeastern United States. Jackson tells the story of adapting to a more restricted life and also bringing two more kids into the world. Actually, the story ends with the arrival of the fourth child, Barry. 

Reading these stories, one senses that life was not quite as jolly as Shirley Jackson paints it to be. In fact, there are clear hints that this setting was the seed that grew to be her famous horror novels and stories. Still, I did find the family stories to be interesting if not the laugh fest I was rather hoping for. 

Here is a review by The Guardian.