Reading Recommendations: Ferguson, Kennedy, Rinehart, Osler
Dear listeners,
It's time for another monthly book recommendation newsletter, in which I and Shedunnit production assistant Leandra offer you a peek of our personal reading experience. There was some excellent chat in the comments of last month's edition, so if you have suggestions for what we should read next or thoughts about any of the books we mention after perusing the below, please do let us know.
Caroline Has Read: The Death of Mr Dodsley by John Ferguson
As I noted in last month's recommendations newsletter, the next title in the Green Penguin Book Club series is The Man in the Dark by John Ferguson from 1928. That episode will be coming out next Wednesday, 9th July, if you are eagerly anticipating it! The Death of Mr Dodsley from 1937 was the only other Ferguson novel that I could find in an easily-accessible edition (it was republished by British Library Crime Classics in 2023) so I read this as part of my preparation for the episode.
There lots of things to like about this book. It has a dramatic opening scene in the Palace of Westminster, as MPs are enduring an all night sitting of the House of Commons and waiting for an important vote on a key amendment. Meanwhile, at a secondhand bookshop on the Charing Cross Road, a bookseller named Mr Dodsley is being murdered while a drunk toff is giving two patrolling police officers the runaround on the street outside. There's even a cat that uncovers a key clue and a hand drawn map of the bookshop! All great fun.
Where this book fell short for me was in its pacing. After this promising start we spent what seemed like a very long time with a rather dull police inspector as he questions all the workers in the shop one by one, and this frankly felt repetitive and rather redundant. The narrative momentum improved again later on as Ferguson's recurring sleuth Francis McNab was able to take more initiative in the case, but to my mind the book never wholly recover from its slow middle section. A mixed experience, then, although reading this book has inspired an idea for another episode of the podcast that I hope you will get to hear in August.
Caroline Will Read: The Feast by Margaret Kennedy
In July, the Shedunnit Book Club has chosen to read a novel with a hotel or resort setting and picked this story set in a fading hotel on the coast in Cornwall in 1947. I had never heard of it before a member proposed that we read it, so I'm excited to get stuck in and find out what Kennedy did with this premise. All I know of her is that in 1924 she made a big splash with a book called The Constant Nymph, but given that more than two decades separate that from The Feast, I'm not assuming that they will have a lot in common.
Leandra Has Read: The Album by Mary Roberts Rinehart
Last month, I promised to report back on my first experience with the "American Agatha Christie", aka Mary Roberts Rinehart. Originally published in 1933, The Album opens with the residents of Crescent Place discovering that one of them has been axed to death. The mystery becomes ever more twisted as more victims are slain one after the other.
Admittedly, I entered the novel with some apprehension! A friend of mine recently abandoned The Album, giving up halfway through it. Not to mention, I'm always suspicious of any comparison to Agatha Christie. And yet, I was pleasantly surprised. The conclusion to the mystery plot is outlandish, but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the world through protagonist Louisa Hall's eyes. She is both sheltered and restricted by Crescent Place, a cul-de-sac impervious to the societal progress occurring outside these five Victorian mansions. In my mind, the murder mystery came second to her coming-of-age journey, as she discovers that she has options beyond a suffocating future at Crescent Place under her mother's thumb.
This slow burn mystery is nothing like any mystery by Agatha Christie that I have read, and readers will be disappointed if they enter it expecting this. With that said, I enjoyed the pacing, the many moments of humor, and Rinehart's observations on the changes to society and gender roles in the early 20th century.
Leandra Will Read: The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler
This is the first in a new historical mystery series following junior detective Harriet Morrow in 1898 Chicago. Inspired by Kate Warne, the first female detective in the United States, Harriet applies for an open position at the Prescott Detective Agency in the Windy City. To everyone's surprise, she is not only hired as a probationary junior detective, but she receives her first case. Pearl Bartlett, owner of one of the most extravagant mansions on Prairie Avenue, believes her maid has been the victim of a kidnapping. No one else is willing to take this woman's claims seriously, and if Harriet can't get to the bottom of this missing person's case, her future at the Prescott Agency is at stake.
The Case of the Missing Maid is the selected read for another book club of which I am a member, and it has already received some early high praise from others members in the group. My mood has been drawing me to historical mysteries lately, which makes this the perfect next book for me. It also follows a queer main character sleuth, so even though Pride Month has just come to a close, there is never an "off season" for reading diversely!
That's what we've got coming up reading-wise. What are you planning to read this month? Let us know by replying directly or by leaving a comment to join the conversation with other readers. If you'd like to follow our reading adventures in between these posts, I (try to) publish monthly reading updates on my blog/newsletter and Leandra documents what she's reading on her YouTube channel.
Until next time,
Caroline
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