Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

A Golden Age Mystery

Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes has been languishing on my TBR shelves for 9 years, mainly because it is in such a small font making it difficult for me to read. It was first published in 1937. My copy was published in 1961 in paperback with the cover shown in the photo above.

Synopsis:

A Scotland Yard detective probes a high-society house party for someone rotten when a government official is murdered in this classic British mystery.

Preparations are underway for a grand party at Scamnum Court, the sweeping English country estate of the fabulously wealthy Duke of Horton. Some of the nation’s elite are invited for dinner, and some are even set to star in a semi-amateur production of Hamlet on an authentic Elizabethan stage in the banqueting hall. No expense is spared, but one guest soon pays with his life. Before the play ends, a shot is fired, and the actor playing Polonius―Lord Auldearn, the Lord Chancellor of England―is dead.

With war looming on the horizon, suspicions arise over the possibility of espionage. Therefore, the prime minister sends Insp. John Appleby not only to investigate, but to also find a confidential government document. Appleby is lucky there’s a mystery novelist eager to lend a hand with the extensive guest list at Scamnum Court. He will need all the help he can get if he hopes to prevent the killer from making an encore performance . . .

My thoughts

This is the second Inspector John Appleby book. And like the first, Death at the President’s Lodging (my review) it is a most complex mystery. When Lord Auldearn, Lord Chancellor of England is murdered on stage during an amateur production of Hamlet at Scamnum Court the Prime Minister asks Appleby to investigate. Because there’s a possibility that espionage is involved, the PM tells Appleby not to trust anybody. It’s all very vague. The PM tells him there’s a document concerning

… the organization of large industrial interests on an international basis, in the event of a certain international situation. The general drift towards the matter such a document embodies cannot, you realize, well be secret; nothing big can be secret. But the details may be. And this document might be useful in two ways: the detailed information might be useful to one powerful interest or another: and accurate possession of the details, as circumstantial evidence of something already known in general terms, might be useful to an unfriendly government.

…War? said Appleby … (pages 83,84)

The book begins with a Prologue.which is is longer than most prologues. It sets the scene, describing Scamnum Court in detail. It’s the family seat of the Crispin family, described as ‘a big place: two counties away it has a sort of little brother in Blenheim Palace.’ All the characters are introduced, including Giles Gott, who was also in Death at the President’s Lodging. An eminent Elizabethan scholar, he is the director of the play. The other characters are also introduced; Lord Auldearn, the Lord Chancellor of England, who plays Polonius, and numerous other family members, guests and members of the Scamnum Court staff.

There are thirty people involved in the play, actors and those behind the scenes, plus twenty seven in the audience. I found this section too long (74 pages in my copy) and it took me more than a while to identify who was who! My attention was drooping as I read pages of long meandering, descriptive paragraphs and I wondered when there would be a murder. And there is a lot of information about the staging of the play and numerous Shakespearean references. Before the performance the murderer delivered a number of warning messages about revenge, so everybody is on edge.

Appleby doesn’t appear until the second section and then the pace picks up considerably as he and Gott question the suspects. It gets more complicated when a second murder, that of Mr Bose, the prompter who was on stage and who could possibly have seen who shot Lord Auldearn. I was puzzled for much of the time as I read – it’s a book that you can’t read quickly and it requires concentration. I had no idea who the culprit was as Appleby and Gott tried to eliminate the suspects and answer numerous questions, such as why was Lord Auldearn shot and not stabbed as Polonius the character he played was, why did the murderer come onto the stage to shoot him and risk being seen by Bose, why did he send the mysterious messages about revenge – what revenge was being sought, and was the possible espionage plot the reason behind the shooting? Or was the reason a personal one?

From being confused and overwhelmed by the puzzle I became thoroughly absorbed by the mystery and was eagerly turning the pages to find out all the answers. It’s a book I really need to re-read to get to grips with it – I’m sure I missed so much. My post falls far short of doing justice to the book!

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I’d Love a New Book From

Published on by Margaret12 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is Authors I’d Love a New Book From (These could be authors that have passed away, who have retired from writing, who have inexplicably gone quiet, or who might jut not be able to keep up with how quickly you read their books!)

These are just some of the authors who immediately came to my mind, and who sadly are no longer with us. Apart from the first and last authors I’m lucky that I don’t have to wish for a new book from them because I still have books of theirs to read.

I’ve listed them as I thought of them:

C J Sansom 1952 – 2024 I love his books and was so sorry to hear he had died recently (27 April). I can’t remember how I heard of his books, but I read his first book, Dissolution in March 2006 (before I’d started writing this blog). It was first published in 2003. Ever since then I’ve read each of his historical mystery novels featuring barrister Matthew Shardlake, set in Tudor England. There are seven in all – he was working on the eighth, Ratcliff when he died. He also wrote two standalone novels, Winter in Madrid and Dominion, which I have also read.

Hilary Mantel 1952 – 1922 The first of her books I read was Beyond Black, which I also read in 2006. Since then I’ve read quite a lot of her books, including the wonderful Wolf Hall trilogy. She wrote seventeen books, including the memoir Giving Up the Ghost, and she was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the Walter Scott Prize, the Costa Book Award, the Hawthornden Prize, and many other accolades. In 2014, Mantel was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. But there are still more books by her for me to read.

Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976 I have been reading her crime fiction for years – first from the library, as a teenager. Since starting this blog I’ve read all her crime fiction books and her Autobiography. As well as being a record of her life as she remembered it and wanted to relate it, it’s also full of  her thoughts on life and writing. I still have a lot of her short stories to read. She is most probably the author that has given me the most enjoyment over the longest period of time.

Daphne du Maurier 1907 – 1989, another author whose books I began reading as a teenager, thanks to my mother. The first was Rebecca, which I have read many times over the years, followed by Jamaica Inn and Frenchman’s Creek. A prolific author, I haven’t read all of her books.

Elizabeth Jane Howard 1923 – 2014 I can’t remember when I first read her books – but they are definitely pre-blog. I loved her historical fiction novels, the five Cazalet Chronicles, a series of books telling the story of the family from 1937 to 1958. I still have some of her standalone novels to read.

Reginald Hill 1936 – 2012 crime fiction author – Dalziel and Pascoe series, Joe Sixsmith, plus standalone novels and short stories. I’ve watched practically all the Dalziel and Pascoe episodes on TV  before I knew they were based on books and I’ve still got quite a lot of them still to read.

Beryl Bainbridge 1932 – 2010 An Awfully Big Adventure is semi-autobiographical based on her own experience as an assistant stage manager in a Liverpool theatre. She wrote dark novels with an undercurrent of psychological suspense. They are disturbing, unsettling, chilling stories, with flashes of humour and farce. She also wrote historical fiction – my favourite is The Birthday Boys, a novel about Captain Scott’s last Antarctic Expedition. Another prolific author there are plenty of her books I haven’t read.

Ruth Rendell 1930 – 2015 – another crime fiction author I first came across on TV in the Chief Inspector Wexford series and then read the books. She also wrote under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. A most prolific author she wrote numerous books and won many awards, so I still have plenty of her books to read.

Peter Robinson 1950 – 2022 Peter Robinson was a British-born Canadian crime writer who was best known for his crime novels set in Yorkshire featuring Inspector Alan Banks. He also published a number of other novels and short stories, as well as some poems and two articles on writing.   Beginning with Gallows View in 1987, Robinson delivered a novel in the series, or short story collection, almost every year until his death. He won a CWA Dagger in the Library (2002); Anthony Awards 2000; Barry Award 1999. I still have some of his Inspector Banks books left to read.

And last but not least, Jane Austen, 1775 – 1817, one of my longtime favourite authors ever since I read my mother’s copy of Pride and Prejudice   – it’s the brown book shown in the photo. Wouldn’t it be great to have another novel to add to her six completed books and three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, the short epistolary novel Lady Susan, and the unfinished novel The Watsons?

Close to Death: Book Beginnings & The Friday 56

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

I’m featuring Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz, book 5 in the Hawthorne and Horowitz murder mystery series. It’s on my 20 Books of Summer list.

Book Beginning:

It was four o’clock in the morning, that strange interval between night and morning when both seem to be fighting each other for control of the day ahead.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

‘We’re not going to let them get away with it,’ Roderick exclaimed. ‘Someone should do something about him! Someone should … I don’t know! Ever since he came here, he’s been nothing but trouble.’

Synopsis from Goodreads:

In New York Times–bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s ingenious fifth literary whodunit in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series, Detective Hawthorne is once again called upon to solve an unsolvable case—a gruesome murder in an idyllic gated community in which suspects abound

Riverside Close is a picture-perfect community. The six exclusive and attractive houses are tucked far away from the noise and grime of city life, allowing the residents to enjoy beautiful gardens, pleasant birdsong and tranquility from behind the security of a locked gate.

It is the perfect idyll until the Kenworthy family arrives, with their four giant, gas-guzzling cars, a gaggle of shrieking children and plans for a garish swimming pool in the backyard. Obvious outsiders, the Kenworthys do not belong in Riverside Close, and they quickly offend every last one of their neighbours.

When Giles Kenworthy is found dead on his own doorstep, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest, Detective Hawthorne is the only investigator that can be called on to solve the case.

Because how do you solve a murder when everyone is a suspect?

~~~

What do you think, does it appeal to you? What are you currently reading?

Top Ten Tuesday: Quotes from Hamlet

Published on by Margaret35 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is Favourite Book Quotes (You can pick your favourite quotes from books, or about books! You can set a theme like quotes from books about love, friendship, hope, etc. or you can just share quotes you loved from your recent reads!)

Here are 10 quotes from my favourite Shakespeare play Hamlet.

O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 2)

Neither a borrower nor a lender be, 
For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
(Polonius, Act 1 Scene 3)

That one may smile and smile and be a villain.
(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5)

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.
(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5)

Brevity is the soul of wit.
(Polonius, Act 2 Scene 2) 

Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.
(Polonius, Act 2 Scene 2) 

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
(Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2)

To be, or not to be, that is the question.
(Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1)

The lady protests too much, methinks.
(Gertrude, Act 3 Scene 2)

If it be now, ’tis not to come: if it be not to come, it will be now: if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.  
(Hamlet, Act 5 Scene 2)

Nero by Conn Iggulden

Published on by Margaret3 Comments

Penguin 23 May 2024 | 392 pages|e-book |Review copy| 5*

Synopsis

ANCIENT ROME, AD 37

It begins with a man’s hand curled around another’s throat.

Emperor Tiberius first dispatches a traitor. Then his whole family.Next all his friends. It is as if he never existed.

THIS IS ROMAN JUSTICE.

Into this fevered forum, a child is born. His mother is Agrippina, granddaughter of Emperor Augustus. But their imperial blood is no protection. The closer you are to the heart of the empire, the closer you are to power, intrigue, and danger. She faces soldiers, senators, rivals, silver-tongued pretenders, each vying for position. One mistake risks exile, incarceration, execution. Or, worst of all, the loss of her infant son. For Agrippina knows that opportunity waits, even in your darkest moments. Her son is everything. She can make this boy, shape him into Rome itself – the one all must kneel before.

BUT FIRST, THEY MUST SURVIVE . . .

This then is the story of Nero’s birth and raising under the watchful and scheming eye of his mother Agrippina – a woman every man crossed at his peril.

My thoughts:

I’ve enjoyed three books by Conn Iggulden and Nero is no exception. It is excellent. It’s the first in a new trilogy and having read it I’m eagerly looking forward to reading the next two books about Nero. This is the story of his birth and early years up to his 10th year. But it’s more about his mother, Agrippina than about him. She was ruthless, scheming and ambitious for her son, allowing no one to stand in her way.

My interest in historical fiction about the Romans really began in 1976 when I watched the BBC adaptation of I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves, starring  Derek Jacobi as Claudius. Later on I read the books, which I loved (I’m tempted to re-read them). Nero brought it back to me as it covers the reigns of Tiberius (the end of his reign), Nero’s uncle, Caligula, and then his great-uncle, Claudius.

Iggulden writes well, bringing life during this period vividly to life. He doesn’t hold back on describing the cruelty and brutality of the times. – he states in his Historical Note: ‘Tiberius was a horror of ancient Rome, who tainted or destroyed anything he touched. … Details of Tiberius’ parties on Capri are too grim to relate …’ There are episodes where, if I’d been watching on TV I would have been covering my eyes, and peeping through my fingers – but I am rather squeamish!

The Historical Note at the end of the book gives further details about the characters, their lives and relationships; and about the ad 43 invasion of Britain, about trade between the empire and Britain before the invasion, and the battle of Medway that took place in Kent.

Despite the gory and bloody scenes I thoroughly enjoyed Nero. Iggulden is a great storyteller.

My thanks to Michael Joseph / Penguin Random House, the publishers for a review copy via NetGalley.

Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56: Archangel by Robert Harris

Published on by Margaret10 Comments

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

I’m featuring Archangel by Robert Harris, one of my TBRs, a book I bought five years ago. It is a thriller set in late 20th century Russia.

Book Beginning:

Late one night a long time ago – before you were even born, boy – a bodyguard stood on the verandah at the back of a big house in Moscow, smoking a cigarette.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Page 56:

Stalin had suffered a catastrophic haemorrhage in the left cerebral hemisphere some time when he was alone in his room between 4 am and 10 pm on Sunday March 1 1953. Academician Vinogradov, who examined the brain after death, found serious hardening of the cerebral arteries which suggested Stalin had probably been half-crazy for a long while, maybe even years.

Synopsis from Amazon:

When historian Fluke Kelso learns of the existence of a secret notebook belonging to Josef Stalin he is determined to track it down, whatever the consequences. From the violent political intrigue and decadence of modern Moscow he heads north – to the vast forests surrounding the White Sea port of Archangel, and a terrifying encounter with Russia’s unburied past.

~~~

What do you think, does it appeal to you? What are you currently reading?