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Green for Danger by Christianna Brand

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Christianna Brand presses a lot of buttons. The setting of this 1944 mystery is an English military hospital, so right away we gulp at the prospect of murder in the OR. We feel the stress of wartime with the characters frazzled with work and quietly miserable about deprivations of decent food and heat. As if medical murder and home front fatigue were not enough, we have the Blitz: sirens screaming, Nazi bombers droning and roaring overhead, crammed shelters, bombs falling and wreaking havoc on lives and property. This novel is worth reading for the immediate atmosphere alone.

But it’s also a refined puzzle of a whodunit. A mail carrier dies on the operating table. The death is ruled an accident but the head nurse, in a drunken unguarded tirade, claims that it was murder and that she has hidden the evidence. She is found stabbed to death. Suspects can be narrowed down to six, three doctors and three nursing staff. Romantic feelings and the accompanying jealousy are a little tedious at the beginning but they turn out to be crucial to the unfolding of story.

Inspective Cockrill, who will call to mind Fat Andy Dalziel in Reginald Hill’s novels, gets on the case only to find that he knows but can’t prove whodunit. How to force a confession? By putting them all under extreme pressure. The half-dozen suspects are all unique personalities. Brand makes us see that the flawed characters like and respect each other enough to tolerate faults – and that makes the reveal all the more painful for them and the reader.

And it’s also well-written. Brand describes people and places vividly. The characterization and dialogue are convincing as are the solution and motivation. The action scenes are exciting. It’s understandable that a film version was made in 1946, starring Alastair Sim as Cockrill and Trevor Howard. Directed by Sidney Gilliat, it is regarded by mystery fans and film historians as one of the greatest screen treatments of a whodunnit.

“You have to reach for the greatest of the Great Names (Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen) to find Christianna Brand’s rivals in the subtleties of the trade” said Anthony Boucher, a well-regarded critic for the New York Times. 

Lifeboat by James White

Review by Thomas F. (hardtack)

It was not just another drill. The spaceship’s nuclear reactor started to overheat. The passengers had just minutes to abandon ship. Now the passengers are scattered all over space, their small rescue pods out of sight from one another. Due to the rush, families often did not escape in the same pods. Some of the pods are overcrowded, while some have just one person in them. All the pods are transparent, and space is a big, empty, dark and scary place.

The first couple of days the excitement of the situation keeps everyone occupied. Then the boredom and the problems creep in. Personality conflicts, the perceived lack of air and ‘taste’ of recycled water, the heat generated by human bodies, food that does not satisfy, all begin to put the passengers on edge. Sexual attractions, some unwanted, arise in pods that cannot handle the heat generated. People starting bickering with each other, then the bickering turns to hate. Some passengers start fighting each other.

The few officers, all of whom are in their own pods, are absorbed with the technical problems of rescue and a nuclear pile that might explode before the destroyed ship is out of range of the rescue pods. Mercer, the ship’s medical officer on his very first cruise, is also in his own pod; and now his job is to control the passengers in sixteen other pods he cannot even see. But, despite the instruction manuals, in all the short history of space travel no one has ever done this before. Sounds like fun? It gets better. The captain is injured and sedated, and the first officer, who apparently hates Mercer’s guts, is in charge. And a 10-year-old boy, alone in his own pod, who tries to be a spaceman, but sometimes cries for his mother, looks to Mercer for help.

Meanwhile, company executives are trying to decide if it is worth the money to send a rescue ship for people who are probably going to die anyway. And in the pods, the air is starting to run out.

This absorbing sci-fi thriller from a completely different perspective will not bore you.

James White is the respected author of a number of other ‘medicine in space’ sci-fi novels in his Sector General series.

Scorpio Rising by Monique Domovitch

Review by Kelsey O.

Domovitch starts her novel with the life of Alex Ivanov in Manhattan, New York. Nothing comes easy for him. He has had to fight for everything since the day he was born. He finally gets the chance of a lifetime time to pursue his dream of being an architect, in Paris. Brigitte Dartois’ life is very similar. Raised by a jealous mother and abused by her step-father, Brigitte is kicked out of her house to the streets of Paris where she struggles to make a living with her art. Though they both face many ups and downs, they take what is thrown at them with determination and strive to better themselves. Then their lives eventually intersect leaving the reader anticipating the next installment.

Scorpio Rising was recommended to me by one of my book club members. She said that the novel will surprise me. It did. I found the plot moved quickly and the passion of the characters leaped right off the pages. I like how Domovitch sets the characters up so that their past defines how the react to each other. Alex who was used by a woman and thrown away tends to stake claims on all his future relationships quickly and walks away before becoming hurt. Brigitte has been abused by men and is weary about entering a relationship with someone. Somehow they are able to get through each other’s barriers but not without some drama.

I highly recommend this book for anyone just wanting a bit of a change of pace. I was skeptically at first but was instantly drawn into this 1940’s world. I would consider Scorpio Rising a hidden gem and look forward to reading The Sting of The Scorpio (which I have already purchased).

5 BUTTERFLIES

Getting Old Is A Disaster by Rita Lakin

Review by Cheryl R. (Spuddie)

Series: Gladdy Gold mystery series

Series order: #5

Well now, here’s something those of you who know my reading tastes well will be surprised at: a review of a cozy mystery! I am not really much of a cozy reader—I find most to be sort of cookie-cutter quality, much alike with interchangeable lead characters that have quirky names, own quirky businesses, with predictable plots and outcomes—and often, way too much romancey stuff for my taste. There are, however, a few series I tried and surprisingly liked and stuck with, and this is one of them.

Perhaps part of the reason for that is that the main character is old. Like, 75. So even older than me. J Gladdy Gold, a Jewish widow originally from New York, lives in a condo in Ft. Lauderdale and has three dear friends and a sister who live in the same complex. The girls have a detective agency, run by Gladdy but they all help out, and often are quite successful because nobody notices old people so they can observe without arousing suspicion. They have their routines, and though they’re as different as can be from one another, they obviously care for each other. These characters have become like friends over the course of the series, and many other secondary characters are familiar as a well-worn shoe as well. Even though they’re elderly, they aren’t senile—well, mostly. The stories are funny, yet respectfully done such that people who are old (or care for the elderly) will smile in recognition at problems and quandaries that younger folks just don’t think about.

Gladdy and her “boyfriend” Jack have been trying to get together to consummate their relationship for two or three books now. Something—usually something to do with one of Gladdy’s friends—always seems to get in the way. This book, it’s Jack’s bridge club, and then some bad storms and a hurricane bearing down on the city that stirs up trouble—including knocking down part of one of the buildings that exposes a decades-old skeleton buried under the foundation.

Meanwhile, an elderly bank robber sends the girls a challenge letter, basically telling them to ‘catch me if you can’ and signs it “Grandpa Bandit.” He’s already robbed six banks, changes his looks every time such that there’s not a good description, but he’s giving the GG detective agency some clues about his next planned hit, so Gladdy feels compelled to report it to Jack’s son Morrie, who’s a detective for the Ft. Lauderdale police. Grandpa gets the better of them though, and then is forgotten for a few days as the brunt of the storm hits.

This is a sweet, light, enjoyable mystery series and this book was no exception. It’s not all cozy goodness, though—it deals with some very dark things (in this book for example, the storms trigger a PTSD-like reaction in one of the residents whose family was all taken from their home and executed during a storm during the Holocaust) and present some realistic hurdles that the elderly have to overcome. If you’re looking for something a little lighter and aren’t a big fan of most cozies, I recommend trying this series out.