If you liked Red (the Bruce Willis movie where someone is trying to kill off the retired black-ops team and they decide to fight back), Killers of a CIf you liked Red (the Bruce Willis movie where someone is trying to kill off the retired black-ops team and they decide to fight back), Killers of a Certain Age might be up your alley.
Here we have an all-woman team of assassins who've been working for 40 years with a secret organization, called the Museum, to take out Nazis and other villains. Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie are now being retired by the Museum and are given an all-expenses paid vacation as a send-off. It turns out to be planned as more of a send-off than the four women signed up for! They go into hiding together to figure out who's planned their demise and how to get the order for their deaths revoked ... or assassinate the people who gave the order.
I noticed a couple of plot inconsistencies (they say at one point that the Museum doesn't want innocent bystanders being killed, but then what's up with (view spoiler)[the whole blow up the entire cruise ship part of the plot (hide spoiler)]?
It's kind of a beach book, not deep but a fun read ... at least if you like murder mysteries and don't mind a high death count. And I loved Helen Mirren in Red and this is kind of like her times four. Hard to go wrong with that!
Agatha Christie was an extraordinary mystery writer, and several of her earlier works are now free on Project Gutenberg, where I was poking around a fAgatha Christie was an extraordinary mystery writer, and several of her earlier works are now free on Project Gutenberg, where I was poking around a few days ago to see what new books from 1926 are now in the public domain and available for downloading there. I got sucked into this collection of eleven early short stories featuring Christie's favorite detective, Hercule Poirot. The stories are a bit of a mixed bag but it was still fun reading, and Agatha Christie still fools me pretty much every time.
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This collection includes: 1. "The Adventure of 'The Western Star'" - written warnings are sent to two women, an American movie star visiting London and a British lady, ordering them to turn over their identical, valuable diamonds (the Star of the East and the Western Star) ... or else. Solid thumbs up for the mystery element. Minus points for the casual use of racial insults to describe Chinese people (keep in mind this was written in the early 1920s, so this kind of thing comes with the territory). 2. "The Tragedy of Marsdon Manor" - a middle-aged man dies in a strange way, leaving a beautiful young wife behind. Was it suicide? 3. "The Adventure of the Cheap Flat" - a very nice apartment is rented for a suspiciously low price. Poirot too is suspicious. Nefarious dealings ensue. 4. "The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge" - Mr. Havering, a baronet's younger son, consults Poirot and his friend Hastings about the murder of his wealthy uncle at their hunting box in the country. Poirot is ill, so the intrepid Hastings goes to the lodge with Havering, sure he can solve the mystery as well as Poirot could. Hastings is, of course, wrong. 5. "The Million Dollar Bond Robbery" - an enjoyable story featuring a cross-Atlantic voyage and a million dollars in Liberty bonds stolen from a locked chest on board. The chest was in the custody of a nice young banker, who’s now in hot water. His distraught fiancee begs Poirot to figure it out. I came thisclose to figuring it out, and a little more pondering probably would have done it. Still, a good story. 6. "The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb" - this story plays with the popular idea of a deadly curse against those who open ancient Egyptian tombs. Several people die. A solid mystery. 7. "The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan" - How did wealthy Mrs Opalson's opals pearls get taken from jewel case in her hotel room while her maid and the hotel chambermaid were right there, except for about 15 seconds a couple of times when the maid stepped into a connecting room? I like these stolen jewels mysteries, and this is a tricky one. 8. "The Kidnapped Prime Minister" - The British Prime Minister needs to attend a secret peace conference in France, but someone first tries to shoot him and then kidnaps him on the way. Another interesting one that I had half-figured out ... 9. "The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim" - A banker mysteriously disappears from his country home one afternoon, and soon after it is found that the safe in his home has been forced open and emptied. More stolen jewels! plus money and bonds. Christie is at her trickiest here. I thought I had the answer but I was barking up the wrong tree. 10. "The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman" - an Italian count staying in England is murdered, his head crushed by a small marble statue. How then did he telephone his doctor for help? And what is one to make of the remains of the dinner found in the count's apartment? Only Poirot knows. 11. "The Case of the Missing Will" - I really enjoyed this one! No murder, stolen jewels, or other dastardly crimes for a change, just a sneaky, rich dead uncle who wants to make his niece prove herself in order to inherit his wealth. Not being stupid, she turns the case over to Poirot.
3.5 stars overall. Not bad at all for a freebie if you like little mystery bites, though I think I like Christie's full-length novels better....more
The Witness for the Dead is the long-hoped-for sequel to Katherine Addison’s marvelous and unusual 2014 fantasy, The Goblin Emperor, in which we met Maia, a half-goblin, half-elf young man who unexpectedly inherited the throne of the elf kingdom when his father, the emperor, was killed along with his brothers in an airship explosion. Thara Celehar, an elven prelate and a Witness for the Dead, was a minor character in that novel who investigated the airship accident at Maia’s request and eventually was able to unearth the truth of why it occurred.
The Witness for the Dead is more of a companion novel set in the same world, rather than a direct sequel, so it can be read as a stand-alone book, but it’ll give you a better grounding in this world if you read The Goblin Emperor first. This book picks up with Thara’s life some time after he has left the elven court, leaving behind a slight cloud of scandal — Thara is gay, and his married lover was executed for murdering his own wife. Thara has now moved to the city of Amalo and taken up his calling again as a Witness for the Dead.
A Witness for the Dead wears several hats, including murder investigator, priest and funeral director, but Thara also has the unusual magical ability to touch a dead body and sense memories and impressions from the spirit of the person who died. When a woman’s body is pulled out of the canal in Amalo, Celehar is asked to investigate to find out who she is — which doesn’t take too long — and who killed her and why, which is far more difficult to determine. For one thing, her bones aren’t telling Thara anything really useful, so he has to rely on other, more mundane investigative methods. For another, the woman was an opera singer who had an unfortunate habit of making an enemy of nearly everyone around her. One of her enemies is the in-house composer for the Vermilion Opera, Mer Pel-Thenhior, to whom Celehar is rather reluctantly attracted.
There are a couple of other interesting subplots that help to liven up this murder mystery novel. One involves a missing pregnant woman whose family believes that her husband killed her, eventually leading to a trail of questionable deaths. The other subplot concerns the wealthy Duhalin family whose patriarch has died, leaving behind some greedy heirs who are disputing which of two wills is the real one and which is the forgery. When Celehar announces his finding, based on touching the grandfather’s cremated ashes, it has repercussions for him as well as for the Duhalin family members.
To try to avoid the resulting trouble, Celehar is packed out of town and told to take care of a ghoul problem in a small mining town two days’ journey away. Ghouls start out eating dead meat but sooner or later switch to killing and eating the living. Celehar’s talents include the ability to quiet and rebury ghouls (more permanently the second time around), but the journey turns out far more exciting and dangerous than he expected.
Actually I found both of these subplots more intriguing than the main plotline. The opera singer’s scandalous ways couldn’t quite make up for the plodding nature of Celahar’s investigation. The main beauty of The Witness for the Dead isn’t in the main murder mystery plot, which is serviceable but not particularly memorable, but in Addison’s extraordinarily fine world- and character-building.
Like The Goblin Emperor, The Witness for the Dead is somewhat slow-paced but lovely in its detailed world-building. Addison has created a richly-imagined, steampunk-flavored fantasy world, slightly touched by magic, and brimful with vivid, realistic details, like stray cats that impatiently wait for handouts and teahouses with fragrant, exotic offerings. There’s a wide variety of skin tones and eye colors, especially due to the mixing between goblins and elves, which is far more prevalent here than in Maia’s court.
Addison’s characters are well-rounded and realistic. Thara Celehar is a particularly complex soul: he’s humble and shy, tending toward melancholy and isolation, and on the edge of poverty. At the same time, he’s a decent, kindhearted man who’s resolutely determined to be honest and to do his duty, even in the face of daunting opposition. He’s also rather awkward and ill-at-ease with others, even with the charming part-goblin Pel-Thenhior … who is, unfortunately for Thara, one of the chief suspects in the opera singer’s murder.
The Witness for the Dead isn’t as brilliant or delightful as The Goblin Emperor (few books are), but it’s still well worth reading if you were a fan of that book and have been longing to return to that world. If Addison writes more stories or novels set in this world, I’ll definitely be there for them.
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽
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