It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
The heat this past week was awful. Just awful. We couldn’t get out house to cool down part of the time. But we survived and are experiencing much nicer and cooler temperatures now.
I haven’t been adding a lot of books to my shelf lately, but I thought I’d share this lovely Little Women book I recently bought from an online used bookshop.
It is an illustrated copy from the 1970s and I absolutely love the feel of the book overall, the illustrations inside, and the beautiful outside of the book, under the outside cover.
I know I will be rereading Little Women this year and other years. I might not read it all the way through again, but there are favorite sections I will definitely read over and over after I finally read it for the first time last year.
When I posted about this edition on my Instagram, several people commented that they had the exact same copy. Do any of you have a copy like this too?
I am still reading The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie but will have it done later this week. I’m not sure what I think of this one, but will probably go for a Miss Marple book for my next Agatha read.
I am also reading The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene. It is a Nancy Drew mystery and it is the first book where she meets Ned Nickerson, who readers of Nancy Drew will know is her boyfriend throughout the series.
I am reading The Imitable Mr. Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse off and on.
I just started The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh. It is too soon for me to decide if I will like it or not.
Up next I hope to read Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis.
Little Miss and I are listening to Prince Caspian at night but she can hear it better because the phone is closer to her and I am closer to the air conditioner, which means I really can’t follow the story at all. That’s why I am glad I am going to be reading it soon.
The Husband is reading Glitz by Elmore Leonard.
The Boy is listening to Perturabo by Guy Haley. It’s a Warhammer book.
Little Miss just started the fourth book in The Harry Potter series, Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling.
I rewatched The Manchurian Candidate with The Boy last night. I picked up even more than I did when I watched it. Earlier in the week I watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks and an episode of Ludwig. This week I hope to watch Agatha and Me With David Suchet, more Ludwig, and Gaslight with Angela Lansbury for my Summer of Angela.
I’ve been listening to old Jack Benny radio programs before bed.
Now It’s Your Turn
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Here I am with another recap of an episode from The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries show from 1977.
As I’ve mentioned before, in the first season of this series, the episodes switched back and forth from Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew episodes and in the next season, they started to join together. Eventually, they began to phase out the Nancy episodes and focus more on The Hardy Boys. A new actress also started as Nancy when Pamela Sue Martin became disenchanted with the parts that were being written for her character.
This time around I am writing about a Nancy Drew centered episode called The Mystery of the Fallen Angel.
*Disclaimer: These posts do spoil the entire episode. Also, I do joke around a lot about the cheesiness or plot holes or the “weird” 70s hairstyles, clothes or music, but please know it is all in good fun. I have fun watching these and the mysteries are often very interesting. Please don’t leave me comments enraged that I am making fun of your favorite show. *wink* I make fun of my favorite shows too!
To me, this was one of the better episodes I’ve seen so far. It was fairly well written, simply put together, and Nancy’s character was less whiney or rude than in other episodes.
We start out at a carnival. George and Nancy are playing a carnival game and they are winning. The man running the game isn’t altogether pleased with them winning and reminds them that the event is for charity.
Nancy lets him know she’s going to give the toys they are winning to the children.
Next, we find Ned in with a fortune teller. She looks at his palm and tells him that’s “too masculine.” (Snicker).
“You’re too dominating of a man for the average girl to handle,” she says.
Ned blushes and scoffs. Laughing nervously he says, “Oh…so that’s my problem.”
The fortune teller suggests that his forcefulness is what causes women to run from his advances.
“Oh. That’s because of my forcefulness?” Ned says with wonder.
The fortune teller says, “Yes, trust me.”
Switching scenes, we see a glass of champagne being poured for Carson Drew, Nancy’s dad. He’s telling a man named Robert that this is the best benefit they’ve had so far.
Robert thanks him and says the benefit is one excuse to “keep the old place” now that all the kids have moved out.
The wife laughs and asks how they could possibly downsize anymore.
“We’re already down to 18 rooms a piece,” she says.
Jocular, rich-people-laughter follows.
Outside we see a young man with long dark hair and a sports jersey sneaking around in the dark. He knocks on the back door and a woman lets him in. Both looked panicked and she says, “We’re going to get caught, Henry. If only you could tell people who you are.”
And – oh! Who is this young man? He looks very, very familiar.
Now I shall confess that I took a photo of the actor while I was watching this the first time and asked my husband who it was. I knew he looked very familiar.
The answer I got back was, “A. Martinez. Longmire.”
Yep. A Martinez was in this one. Maybe one of his first shows? Not sure, but he was very good and it was a sign of good acting to come, in my humble opinion.
Anyhow, without giving us much more information we switch to another scene of a group of bikers pulling up and a woman scolding them for not being there to help run the carnival.
“Where have you guys been? I pay you to work for the carnival, not to go joyriding,” she says in a thick New York accent.
She tells them to all get back to work and tells the one girl to go home. The young girl says she’d prefer to stay there, she’s having fun.
When the woman leaves, the man says they’ve got important work to do later. He hugs the young girl, squeezes her face and tells her to lighten up but she says, “I’m just not used to all this.”
“There’s a lot you’re not use to, but you better get used to it,” he says. “Tonight’s your first lesson.”
We don’t know what that means but we are certain to find out at some point.
Later Henry is caught leaving the house by the rich wife who asks if she can help him.
He says he got lost and Robert says, “You’re Henry Salazar, aren’t you?”
Henry doesn’t reply but says he has to be going.
When he leaves, Robert tells Carson he’s the kid who used to work in Foster’s drugstore until old man Foster caught him with his hand in the till.
“That was never proven, as I remember,” Carson says.
“Still,” Robert says. “I don’t like him hanging around here.”
Henry sneaks back to say goodbye to Tina and makes her promise she won’t say anything about who he is or who she is. He says she’ll get into big trouble if she says anything and we aren’t sure if that is a threat or a reminder.
Next, we see the young carnival girl looking worried outside, a window opens in the mansion and the other carnival workers are — gasp! Inside the mansion!
The girl blows a whistle at the moment that Nancy, George, and Ned walk by. Ned is telling a joke, and they are laughing but hear the whistle, which I gather is to alert the carnival workers it’s all clear.
Ned, Nancy, and George shrug the whistle off and keep going and then we see all the carnival workers nonchalantly returning to their places at the carnival…somehow no one noticed they were gone. Hmmm…
Oh well. Back to the mansion where chaos has ensued because the rich lady, Clara, went to put a pin back into her safe and discovered all of her jewels are gone. She let out a scream like she found a dead body and George, Nancy, Ned, and Carson go running.
Clara and John clarify that the jewels weren’t worth a ton but they were insured for over a million dollars. The sheriff comes rushing in not long afterward and greets Nancy and Carson then asks if anyone touched anything.
“Of course not!” Nancy says, clearly offended.
The sheriff is immediately apologetic. “Sorry. I forgot who I was dealing with for a moment.”
He’s been in similar situations with them before, after all since Nancy can’t keep her nose out of police business.
The sheriff wants to know if they saw anyone suspicious walking around or in the house and — Of course! Snap! Robert and Clara immediately think of Henry. He was in the house. He must have taken the jewels!
Carson backs up the couple by saying that Henry did seem suspicious, which he adds he hates to say since he seems like a good young man who Nancy went to school with.
We don’t know how the sheriff finds Henry but after the commercial break (though they are cut out of the YouTube videos I watch) we see Nancy in a jail cell with Henry, telling him she works as a part time investigator for his attorney, Carson Drew.
Carson is going to take on his case and she wants him to tell her why he was in the mansion.
He refuses. He didn’t steal Mrs. Jordan’s jewelry but he won’t tell Nancy why he was in the house.
She wants to know if had anything to do with seeing Tina.
“Tina who?”
“The Jordan’s maid. I thought you two knew each other.”
(Um…how did she make this connection? I’m not sure but I think I missed a scene where Nancy saw them together in the house.)
Henry says he doesn’t know here and never met her and there is no reason to get an innocent person involved in anything.
(If he doesn’t know her then how does he know she’s innocent. Right? Right?!)
“I do not know her. I did not rob the Jordans,” he tells Nancy.
Nancy tries Tina. She won’t say anything either.
The Jordans are pleased that Carson is going to defend Henry. The sheriff doesn’t know why the man would care about defending a man who might have stolen things from him.
“If he’s guilty, the law will take its course without my direction,” Robert Jordan says. “If he’s innocent, I don’t want to be responsible for destroying anyone’s life.”
The sheriff wants to look into Tina now. Nancy, though, says there were tons of people there the night of the carnival, including the carnival workers.
While leaving with Carson, Nancy says she wants to check into the carnival workers and see if they could have been involved in the theft of the jewels.
Carson is one of the most laid-back dads I’ve ever seen (in the books and the show) and sometimes expresses concern for Nancy’s safety but usually only sends her on her way with a small laugh and a “You be careful now,” like she is playing make believe in the backyard.
This time around, though, Carson actually expresses concern!
“That might not be too safe,” he tells Nancy.
“I’m just going to go ask a few questions,” Nancy assures him.
Carson isn’t buying it. “Nancy, people don’t like having their lives pried into.”
Right?! Yet your daughter is doing it all the time, dude, and usually you don’t seem to care too much, just letting her gallivant around, sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. (Remember I am joking around in these posts, not actually slamming the show. Just having a little fun.)
“I’m not going to pry,” Nancy insists. “Just observe.”
“Well, you be careful while you’re observing,” Carson says with a nervous laugh.
Nancy’s idea of observing is dressing up in a bikini top under a buttoned down shirt, and pretending she’s a runaway to try to get a job with the carnival.
Ned and George don’t like this at all and warn her against it. In true Nancy fashion, she ignores them and moves forward, but does thank them when they say they’ll be showing up to the carnival later in the day to check on her.
Nancy struts into that carnival with an attitude. Her hair is all feathered, her cleavage is showing, and the mom in me is like “Oh no. No. I don’t like this one little bit.”
But I can’t do anything about it so I just have to watch Nancy try to make herself fit in by jumping on a motorcyle and taking off when a guy tells her he bets she doesn’t know how to ride it. Then, after the carnival owner hires her, I have to keep watching when these creepy dudes later put her in the cage of a ride and spin her upside down up in the air to try to get her to admit she’s a narc.
I’m telling you these guys are creepy! They are definitely the r-word type and Nancy is truly putting herself at risk. If she was my daughter, I’d be flipping out on her. I don’t care if she is 18 now. I think she’s 18 in the show. I’m not actually sure. She’s still my child and I’d be fuming mad if I saw her doing these things.
So, after these guys try to get her to confess who she is, the young woman we met earlier )who was afraid she was going to blow their mission – whatever it was) says she knows Nancy. Nancy, she claims, is a friend of her sister’s and that she’s there to try to bring her home since she ran away from home.
She’s lying of course. We also learn her name is Anne.
Nancy thanks Anne when they are alone, but the girl tells her to get lost because she is in danger.
“You be gone by tonight or you’re on your own!” she tells Nancy.
This whole episode had me anxious. The creepy guys, Nancy putting herself at risk and being away from friends and family, the young runaway girl.
Boy was I relieved when Ned and George showed up and the three of them joined together to find out if the carnival workers are the real thieves of Mrs. Jordans jewels. They don’t find the jewels, but they do find a van full of stolen televisions and other electronics. These carnival workers might not be jewel thieves, but they are thieves of some kind.
Ned and George also let Nancy know that Henry was let out on bail, but he jumped it. The cops are looking for him. Just lovely!
Nancy tells George and Ned to write down the serial numbers of the electronics before they leave to try to find out if the items are stolen. The three of them then part ways, Nancy back to her ruse and Ned and George to find out if the TVs are stolen.
Nancy runs into Henry while he’s snooping around the carnival. He tells her that her dad told him she was following the carnival to try to find out if the workers were involved and that he also found the van with the TVs. He tells Nancy that Tina was arrested as his accomplice. He has to find out who really stole the jewels so she doesn’t have a crime pinned on her that she didn’t commit. He admits he knows Tina but won’t tell Nancy how.
They part ways and Anne finds Nancy at the game booth she’s working at later and says that Vince, the head bad guy, knows someone was in his van. They found out who the person is and they’re going to find out why they think Vince is guilty of something.
Nancy isn’t sure what that means and then Vince’s creepy henchmen tells her that shes’s taking a ride with them so they can show her how they deal with spies.
Nancy is put on the back of a bike and driven to a rural area where Henry is in the middle of a circle of motorcycles while they taunt him.
Nancy watches this for a while and then she has had enough. She jumps on the bike the other guy (essentially her kidnapper) got off and roars toward the other bikes, somehow knocking them all over (it’s television, people). She gets Henry on the back of her bike ,and they take off toward the carnival, all the bikers soon in pursuit (once they get their bikes back up). This leads to a windy and twisty chase among the carnival booths during which a lot of the bikers crash out.
Eventually the cops show up and stop the highspeed bike chase. Ned and George are with them. Nancy stops her bike and thanks Ned for calling the police. As an aside (yes, I do a lot of these), I noticed that Nancy was a lot nicer to Ned in this episode than previous ones. She even compliments him by saying, “Ned, you are without a doubt the smartest, neatest, most…”
“Most forceful?” Ned asks, harkening back to the fortune teller’s comments at the beginning of the show.
“Most forceful man I know,” Nancy agrees.
Anne, the young woman who tried to help Nancy, says she was forced to help the burglary gang. She’s scared to go with the police, but Nancy says Carson will help her. This poor guy. Nancy is always finding people for him to help, and he rarely gets paid by them, which will actually be commented on at the end of this episode. It does have me wondering how this man has time to make money with all the pro bono work he does.
To wrap things up with the Jordans, Carson and Nancy visit them, and Nancy asks Mrs. Jordan to open the safe in front of them. The Jordans are a bit offended but agree. While working on opening the safe, Mrs. Jordan breaks down and confesses she doesn’t know how to open the safe. She never has. The safe was already open when she came in the room.
Nancy says George and Ned uncovered in their investigations that the Jordans are broke (how did they find this? I have no idea!) and says she believes the couple sold the jewels off and then when they had no more to sell, they pretended the jewels were stolen so they could get the insurance money. The Jordans admit that this is exactly what they did and are ashamed.
Nancy says it was very convenient for the couple that Henry walked into the house that night. She asks if they were willing to let Henry go to jail for their crime of insurance fraud and they said they were sure Carson would find out that Henry didn’t do it and if he didn’t, they were going to confess before Henry’s case went to trial. They even asked Carson to represent him so he would find out that Henry wasn’t guilty, they say. Robert asks Carson to not only forgive them but represent them in their insurance fraud case. He agrees, saying he can’t let their 20-year friendship end over this mistake. (Carson is way too nice.)
Another aside — does George have another job? I mean Ned works for Carson but what does George do? She doesn’t go to school. She doesn’t appear to work anywhere. She runs around with Nancy solving crimes so does Carson pay her too? And if he does, how does he since he keeps taking cases on for free for Nancy? Of course, he does have wealthy clients like the Jordans so maybe that is how.
There is also a final wrap up scene with Henry and Tina. It turns out that Tina is Henry’s sister. She’s in the United States illegally from Mexico and Henry was helping her get her green card and papers so she could stay legally. He didn’t want anyone to know who she was so she wouldn’t be deported.
Carson says he will help her get her papers and make sure she’s not deported. Luckily this is the 70s and not today or Carson might have a pretty hard time keeping Tina from being sent back to Mexico.
As I mentioned above, this was one of the better episodes in my opinion. The story wasn’t too bad, the writing was better than others and Nancy was a lot nicer to Ned all around.
If you want to read other episode recaps you can do a search for Hardy Boys Nancy Drew via the search bar to the right.
Up next, I will be recapping The Hardy Boys episode Wipe Out.
Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.
You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
I shared what I did last week in my Saturday Afternoon Chat yesterday. It was actually my Saturday Evening Chat because I got it up so late.
After I posted that, The Husband took Little Miss and her friend swimming at the local YMCA, which we had never visited before. Now that we know the pool exists we will probably visit it more this summer.
Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are still holding Drop-In Crafternoons once or twice a month.
We will be holding another one Saturday, July 19 at 1 p.m.
The crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. There is one woman who creates with beads, another who colors, I sometimes draw or color, and Erin does a variety of art, including embroidery. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on. No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.
If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.
If you are looking for a link party to participate in, I co-host one with three lovely blogger ladies that goes live on Thursday nights. The Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot goes live about 9:30 p.m. each Thursday and if you scroll on my right-hand sidebar you should find the link to the latest one.
I also have added a link to parties I participate in at the top of my page.
What I am reading – I finally finished All Things Wise and Wonderful the week before last and really loved it – especially a story at the end of the book involving Tristan, the date he tossed into the rose bushes, and a missing dog.
I also finished A Midnight Dance by Joanna Davidson Politano. I would give it about a 3.5. I didn’t like how the mystery part wrapped up or how the main character had this huge secret she dropped at the very end but never really resolved. Politano’s writing is very good, though, and I am sure I will read another one by her at some point in the future.
Right now I am reading The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie and switching off with The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Woodhouse.
I plan to start The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh sometime this week.
I hope to start Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis soon as well.
The Husband is reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Little Miss is finishing up the third Harry Potter book after a long break, and she and I are reading Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink together and listening to The Moffats at night.
I didn’t add any new books to my shelves recently, other than a couple I found on Project Gutenberg and will be sending to my Kindle to read.
Last week I watched National Velvet for my Summer of Angela. I also rewatched The Sound of Music for a comfort watch and a few episodes of Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet.
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Today’s prompt is: Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List
I have already posted about 15 books I hope to read this summer so I’ve narrowed it down to the top ten I hope to finish by the end of the summer. I’ve also swapped some books out after doing some research on them and deciding they most likely aren’t really my thang, ya’ know.
As always, these are subject to change, and other books may catch my attention and take precedence.
1. The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Woodhouse
I’ve already started this one and I am enjoying it, so I am sure I’ll finish it in the next couple of months at least.
2. The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie
I’ve also started this one, but just a few pages. I need a good mystery right now.
3. The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene
I’ll probably read a couple Nancy Drews this summer. I usually do.
4. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
Children’s books are apparently my thing this summer.
5. But First Murder by Bee Littlefield
Because I like Betti and want to see what’s going on with her. Plus…more mystery, which I like.
6. Spill the Jackpot by Erle Stanley Gardner
Cool and Lamb. Yes. I need some more of their wicked bluntness and mystery.
7. The 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonassen
I have no idea if I will like this or not, but I am going to give it a try anyhow.
8. The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley By Courtney Walsh
I swapped this one out with Summer of Yes because it has better ratings.
9. Dave Barry is Not Taking This Sitting Down by Dave Barry
I need some humor. Like bad. That is all.
10. The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondragon
What books are you looking forward to this summer?
Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.
You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
Mildred Wirt (later adding Benson to her names) was the original Carolyn Keene, who wrote 28 of the first 30 Nancy Drew books. Mildred also wrote other books for other companies under her own name, including the Penny Parker Mysteries.
She once called Penny more Nancy Drew than Nancy Drew and after reading the eighth book in the series, The Wishing Well, I have to agree with that statement, especially the Nancy Drew that Harriet Adams created when she rewrote Mildred’s books years later.
I didn’t actually research what the first book in the series was before reading this one, my first Mildred book other than Nancy Drew. I just snatched it up to try and I ended up really enjoying it.
Teenager Penny Parker is rebellious, snappy, smart, bold, yet also cares about people. She might be even a bit more pushy than Nancy and she’s certainly more mouthy. In this book she pulls her friend Louise into her investigations and shenanigans.
According to Wikipedia, “Penny is a high school student turned sleuth who also sporadically works as a reporter for her father’s newspaper, The Riverview Star. . ..On her cases she is sometimes aided by her close friend, brunette Louise Sidell, and occasionally Jerry Livingston or Salt Sommers who are, respectively, a reporter and photographer for her father’s paper.”
In The Wishing Well, Penny is pulled into the mystery of a boulder with “odd” writing on it that appears in a farmer’s field, as well as the mystery of a wishing well on the property of a wealthy woman, Mrs. Marborough, who recently moved back into her family’s old mansion.
Tied into it all are two foster children who are living at a campground with their foster parents and who become the focus of a blackmail plot.
Here is a quick description from Project Gutenberg, where I found the book available to download for free:
“The Wishing Well” by Mildred A. Wirt is a novel written in the early 20th century. The story follows Penny Parker, an enterprising and spirited high school girl, as she embarks on an adventure surrounding the mysterious old Marborough mansion and its wishing well. With her friends, Penny explores themes of friendship, kindness, and intrigue as they uncover secrets of the past and the potential to grant wishes.
The opening of the story introduces Penny and her friends at Riverview High School, where they eagerly anticipate exploring the Marborough place and its famous wishing well. After making a thoughtful wish for the restoration of the property, Penny invites a lonelier classmate, Rhoda, to join their outing.
The group encounters a light-hearted adventure as they discover a possible chicken thief in pursuit. This sets the tone for the unfolding plot where friendships are tested, and unexpected events arise, including deeper mysteries tied to the characters’ lives, particularly Rhoda’s connection to the Breens and the arrival of two strangers from Texas. As Penny’s curiosity propels her into the adventure, readers are drawn into a world of mystery and the promise of fulfilling wishes.”
I find it interesting that like Nancy, Penny does not have a mother but only a father and a live-in housekeeper, Mrs. Weems. I am beginning to wonder if Mildred had some mother issues herself. She sure liked to kill off moms.
The wit and banter between characters in the Penny Parker series is much stronger than in the Nancy Drew books. There are also so many funny sayings or phrases that were probably used by teens at the time these books were written (1939-1947).
“We’re the same as absent right now,” Penny laughed, retreating to the doorway. “Thanks for your splendid cooperation.” (Oof! The sarcasm!)
________
“You’ll be home early?” her father asked.
“I hope so,” Penny answered earnestly. “If for any reason, I fail to appear, don’t search in any of the obvious places.”
___
“In case you slip and fall, just what am I to do?”
“That’s your problem,” Penny chuckled. “Now hand me the flashlight. I’m on way.”
_____
“What do you see, Penny?” Louise called again. “Are there any bricks loose?”
“Not that I can discover,” Penny answered, and her voice echoed weirdly. Intrigued by the sound she tried an experimental yodel. “Why, it’s just like a cave scene on the radio!”
“In case you’ve forgotten, you’re in a well,” Louise said severely. “Furthermore, if you don’t work fast, Mrs. Marborough will come our here!”
“I have to have a little relaxation,” Penny grumbled.
___
Neither Louise nor Rhoda approved of interfering in the argument between Mrs. Marborough and Mr. Franklin, but as usual they could not stand firm against Penny.
_____
As I mentioned above, I downloaded this one from Project Gutenberg. They have quite a few of the 17 book series.
The books from the series are:
Tale of the Witch Doll (1939, 1958)
The Vanishing Houseboat (1939, 1958)
Danger at the Drawbridge (1940, 1958)
Behind the Green Door (1940, 1958)
Clue of the Silken Ladder (1941)
The Secret Pact (1941)
The Clock Strikes Thirteen (1942)
The Wishing Well (1942)
Saboteurs on the River (1943)
Ghost Beyond the Gate (1943)
Hoofbeats on the Turnpike (1944)
Voice from the Cave (1944)
The Guilt of the Brass Thieves (1945)
Signal in the Dark (1946)
Whispering Walls (1946)
Swamp Island (1947)
The Cry at Midnight (1947)
Have you read any of the Penny Parker Mysteries series?
Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.
You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
The most exciting thing that happened last week is that our son graduated from a local career center (high school level). We are proud of him and are excited for him to receive his other high school diploma in a couple of weeks when we meet with our state-certified homeschool evaluator. She will sign off on his diploma through the Pennsylvania Department of Education and he will be a high school graduate!
He’s taking a few weeks off to decide on his next step and his dad and I are fine with that.
He and Little Miss both have a few things to write for me this upcoming week and then we will be done with school for this year. Little Miss and I can start counting anything we do, such as field trips, books read, etc. after July 1 toward our school year next year so this year I am not waiting for a start date in August for our school year. We’re just starting whenever in July and taking days off whenever we want. I’m looking forward to it, but I am having a hard time adjusting to not planning for The Boy’s lessons next year.
It has been very cold in our neck of the woods for the entire month of May. I enjoy snuggling up under my blanket, so I don’t hate it when I am in the house, but it has not been super fun going out in it. Wind, rain, more wind, more rain. Bleh. But it looks like June will be when things warm up and I’ll probably be a medical mess in July and August with the heat like I usually am.
Today we visited a small bookstore about 20 minutes from us. I didn’t even know it existed before a couple of weeks ago. They held a book sale on their porch. I’ll chat about it more in a future post or next week.
We will be holding another one Saturday, June 24 at 1 p.m. I’m tentatively looking at one for June 14, hosted by me, but I haven’t finalized that yet with anyone. Keep an eye on this space for that announcement if it does happen.
The crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. There is one woman who creates with beads, another who colors, I sometimes draw or color, and Erin has been embroidering lately. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on. No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early. We are usually on about two hours, three if we all get chatty and don’t have something else to run off to.
If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.
I finished Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on A Deadman by Jesse Q. Sutanto last week and enjoyed it but not as much as the first book. This one seemed a bit more rushed and contrived and pretty obvious when it came to finding out who the perpetrator was. It was also darker in subject matter than the first. Vera’s sense of humor and sweetness made up for all of that, though, and it was, overall, a good escape. Don’t avoid it because of anything I said, because you may have a totally different opinion of it.
I DNF’d one book when the author said the woman enjoyed the male main character’s “male spicy scent”. I will have to go sniff my husband, but I’ve never noticed he smelled spicy and if he did I might tell him he spilled pepper on himself and suggest a shower.
Thea romance was also overtaking the mystery, which was also falling apart. Life is too short to read books we don’t enjoy I say.
I am still reading All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot but not enjoying it as much as I did his other books. The stories are good but I keep wondering what’s actually true and what isn’t now that I know how actually semi-autobiographical the books are. I still very much am enjoying the stories, but I’ll be making my way slowly through the book.
I started Mansfield Park by Jane Austen which I had actually started on Audible last year. It is interesting so far. I know Austen fans think everyone should start with the big ones like Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, but I know those stories pretty well from watching the movies and don’t know the story of Mansfield Park.
I’m also reading The Wishing Well by Mildred Wirt, which is a book from the 1930s by the original writer of the Nancy Drew books.
Last week I watched Murder, She Wrote, Ludwig, Everybody Loves Raymond (good grief..the laugh tracks!), The Dick VanDyke Show, and Just A Few Acres Farms (on YouTube). I also watched The Intouchables again with my son and his friend and they ended up loving it. I didn’t think they would.
I made a bit more progress on book four of the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series. I don’t know why but this one is really a struggle for me. I am really in my head too much on this one. I am comparing my books to other books and overthinking pretty much everything — from the story idea to the structure to the actual writing.
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
I never got sick after everyone else in the family did the week before last, but this past week I did get some major sinus issues that have left me with blocked nose, a cough, and a full ear that clicks when I talk.
I never had a fever and didn’t feel so great on Friday, but I was better by later in the day when Little Miss and I had an impromptu dance party on the back porch during a rainstorm. Okay, we didn’t so much dance as jump up and down in puddles on the porch and splash each other with the water in the puddles. We also dumped water on each other from the water bottles we’d had at supper, and I convinced The Husband to pretend we were in a Hallmark movie and kiss me in the rain.
It wasn’t as romantic as I hoped since he kept laughing and looking at me like I was crazy, but at least we tried.
Little Miss thought she was funny by filling her water bottle with very cold water and mine with very warm water, so she was doused with warm water, and I was doused with freezing cold water. It backfired the second time she tried it because I poured the warm water over me instead.
Yesterday Little Miss and I headed 30 minutes away for a grocery pick up. We were about two miles outside of town when a little spider decided to do a little crawl in front of me at the top of the windshield and I did my best to stay calm as I pulled the car over to the side of the road. I really thought in this type of situation — with a small spider trotting across the windshield, right in front of my face, that I would drive the car into a field or body of water and I had that opportunity since we were right next to a pond.
Instead, I tried to squish the spider with a chocolate wrapper but then he dropped in front of me and all bets were off. I swatted at his web with a wrapped slim jim (don’t wask), yelled, and then jumped out of the car and swatted some more.
I really wanted to burn the car and call The Husband to pick us up, but I needed to be an adult (something I have to whisper to myself several times a day, “I’m an adult, I can do this.”) so I took a deep breath and continued on, feeling like there was a spider in my shirt the rest of the way.
I’m really praying it is not a dangerous spider because I have to get in the car again today and I don’t want to be friends with a spider. At least we don’t live in Australia where the spiders are bigger than a human head. I really would have driven the car into the pond if I had seen one of those.
We will be holding another one this Saturday, May 24 at 1 p.m.
The crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. There is one woman who creates with beads, another who colors, I sometimes draw or color, and Erin has been embroidering lately. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on. No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.
If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.
I was so excited that the new library I’ve been borrowing books from actually responded to a request I had for a book and uploaded Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on A Deadman by Jesse Q. Sutanto to Libby this past week. It’s the sequel to Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice For Murderers.
The previous library we went to never responded to requests to add books and told me they had no control over it and didn’t know who to ask to add books. I didn’t worry too much about it but was totally shocked when this library added this book. It could have been a coincidence, of course, but either way it was great timing.
I didn’t have as much time to read as I wanted to this past week, but I’ll have the book finished this week. It’s hilarious and engaging. For those who read cleaner books, this one does have bad language, but not as bad so far as the previous book. There is no sex or violence in the books, though.
I am also continuing All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot as a leisurely read though. I read a chapter or two here or there.
Little Miss and I are still reading Magical Melons or Caddie Woodlawn’s Family by Carol Ryrie Brink. We didn’t read it a lot last week since we were at my parents a few days helping there but we will be reading it this week and next as we finish out our school year.
The Husband is reading The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson to avoid reading a book I suggested he read (Vera Wong’s first book).
I have no idea what The Boy is reading because he is a teenager and hasn’t shared with me lately what he is reading. He is simply trying to get to graduation this week.
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis, The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene, The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham, and The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared by Jonas Johassen.
The entire family watched Paddington in Peru last night together and I have to be honest that I was so thrown off by them replacing Sally Hawkins as Mrs. Brown that I couldn’t get into the movie. *joking around alert after this point: If you can’t get the actors back, don’t make the movie! That’s what I say. My husband said he didn’t even notice the actress was different and I guess movie goers didn’t care either because it has a very high rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
I’m a creature of habit. I don’t like changes. Even in my movies, if they are a series.
And Sally Hawkins reason for not coming back was definitely a nice way of saying she feels she’s way too talented for a movie that probably should have gone straight to video.
In all seriousness, the movie was a good children’s movie but nowhere near Paddington 2, which was very well done.
This movie had a different director as well so that might be one reason it wasn’t as good.
It was okay, but just not as good as the first two, in my humble opinion. The special effects were very good in this installment. So there was that at least.
I also watched Miss Austen last week and am looking forward to the third installment tonight.
I watched Just A Few Acres Farm on YouTube this morning like I do every Sunday after church.
I did make progress on the fourth book in the Gladwynn series, however. I hope to be able to release it in the fall, but we will see how that goes.
Also, Cassie, the book I wrote as part of a set of novellas by several different authors, is on sale this week for 99 cents and you can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D1VW9TVK
Some videos from the YouTube channel this week:
I hope to start sharing longform videos on the channel soon, but I haven’t yet decided how I want to do that so I’ll keep you posted.
Now It’s Your Turn
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
This week was way more relaxed than I thought it was going to be but only because the whole house, except me somehow, came down with some kind of cold virus. I’m usually the one who gets sick when no one else does so that was very unusual. Maybe I had a minor version of it since I had a slight sore throat and headache on Monday.
I could, of course, still develop it, I suppose, but so far only Little Miss and The Boy and maybe The Husband have had it. It was fairly minor but a total nuisance.
The Boy was hit the worst with running nose and leaking/burning eyes and a major headache and sore throat. Little Miss had a sore throat but then the dreaded postnasal drip set in and Little Miss refuses all help for that particular symptom, so she slept very little the one night due to a dry, repeated cough.
Not being able to go anywhere was tough on me because I wanted to be at my parents helping them but none of us wanted my mom to get sick since she is still dealing with some health issues.
I didn’t develop symptoms by yesterday so I went to their house and took Mom some fresh fruit and visited for a while.
It was chilly and raining almost all week and I am not going to lie, I really enjoyed that. I am not a fan of warm weather so curling up under a blanket and being able to sleep comfortably at night (other than the nights Little Miss hacked all over me all night) was very welcome this week.
I spent most days with a blanket around me while I worked on blog posts, my book, and read. Okay, so the real bitter cold wasn’t as welcome this past week, but I can warm up easier than I can cool down. Humidity makes me very sick and cold makes me achy …. I’m a mess. I need it to be just right. I’d take about 67 to 72 all year around if I could.
This week I should be able to help my parents again and next week The Boy is graduating. Two weeks after that we will be meeting with our homeschool evaluator and official school for the 2024-2025 year will be complete. We still do a lot of educational stuff over the summer and after July 1 that can all be counted toward our hours for the next school year. So any field trips, 4-H groups, museum visits, books we read, or art projects we undertake for July and August counts as “school”. I love that about homeschooling.
We will be holding another one on May 24 at 1 p.m.
The crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. There is one woman who creates with beads, another who colors, I sometimes draw or color, and Erin has been embroidering lately. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on. No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.
If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.
The Hardy Boys: A Twisted Claw by Franklin W. Dixon.
This week I started Peg and Rose Solve A Murder by Laurien Berenson and finished it last night.
It is a cozy mystery and it took until chapter 11 (!!!) for a mystery to unfold but I still enjoyed the book and learning about the two women, who are sister-in-law’s who haven’t gotten along for years.
I guessed the guilty party before the end of the book but I was entertained enough with the characters and backstory that I didn’t mind. I hope to read more in the series, but they aren’t free on Libby and I can’t bring myself to spend $10 for a kindle book so it might be a bit before I get to the rest.
I am still reading, slowly, All Creatures Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot. I hope to continue Grave Pursuits by Elle E. Kay this upcoming week. I had taken a break from it because it dealt with the topic of a serial killer, and I wasn’t sure I could handle that with all the stress we had going on in our family. Still, I would like to know what happened so I am going to pick it back up again
I am still reading, slowly, All Creatures Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot. I hope to continue Grave Pursuits by Elle E. Kay this upcoming week. I had taken a break from it because it dealt with the topic of a serial killer, and I wasn’t sure I could handle that with all the stress we had going on in our family. Still, I would like to know what happened so I am going to pick it back up again
Last night I started Miss Austen on Amazon, which is about Cassandra Austen, Jane’s sister, and her decision to burn all of her letters between her and Jane to keep their lives private. She also burned letters between Jane and other family members. I was really getting into it and looking forward to part two and then discovered part two doesn’t drop until tonight. Siiigh.
For some reason I’ve always been fascinated with Jane and Cassandra and how fiercely Cassandra protected Jane’s privacy. We would have known a lot more about Jane and how she thought and spoke in her real life if it wasn’t for Cassandra, but, at the same time, I can totally understand her protecting her sister from being scrutinized after her untimely death.
This week we also watched Everybody Loves Raymond, Blue Bloods, Murder She Wrote, Charade, and my “farmer guy” on Just A Few Acres on YouTube.
This past week I worked more on the fourth Gladwynn Grant book (by the way, the first book is free on Kindle right now) but I am still quite behind on finishing it.
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Whose Body? was my first book by Dorothy Sayers, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I might when I first started it. Ironically, the book was also Dorothy’s debut book, written in 1923.
As I got into the book there were some references to ethnicities that I thought were a bit inappropriate but when I found out that Sayers wrote this series, featuring Sir Peter Whimsy, with satire in mind, I hoped that the references were meant to show the incorrect attitudes of the characters and not show what Sayers really thought about Jews.
One article I read said that her goal was to poke some fun at the upper crust and their attitudes about Jewish people but other articles disagreed. Some literary critics said they weren’t really sure what Sayers thought about Jews but that she did perpetuate quite a few stereotypes while also appearing to paint Jews in a positive light.
Before we get into all that, though, let’s talk a bit about the plot of the book.
Lord Wimsey is a nobleman who has developed an interest in solving murders and mysteries as a hobby. At first, he seems rather stuck up and proper, but as the book continues, there is much more to Peter Wimsey than meets the eye.
Thipps is an architect who finds a body in his bathtub wearing nothing but a pair of glasses. He looks to Lord Wimsey to help him solve this murder before he contacts the police.
Wimsey agrees to privately investigate the matter but still suggests the police be called. An Inspector Sugg shows up and believes the body may belong to famous financier Sir Reuben Levy, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances the night before.
His disappearance is being led by Inspector Charles Parker, who Wimsey knows.
The body in the bath does somewhat resemble Reuben, but not exactly and soon it’s clear the body isn’t his and the two cases probably are not connected. Despite the lack of connection, Wimsey joins Parker in his investigation.
Wimsey’s connections to other wealthy people will help Parker in his investigation, he decides. Together with Wimsey’s manservant Mervyn Bunter, who he just calls Bunter, the three work to find the identity of the one man and to find out if Reuben was, in fact, murdered.
Like any mystery with a lighter flair there are red herrings and complex twists and turns aimed at confusing the reader and delaying the revelation of the true killer
Eventually Wimsey and Parker visit a teaching hospital near Thipps’s flat to see if one of the students had been trying to play a practical joke on Thipps.
Evidence later given at an inquest by Sir Julian Freke, who runs the teaching college, reveals that no bodies were missing from his dissecting room, which leads Wimsey to believe he is on the wrong trail.
I enjoyed the twists and turns of this one and I especially enjoyed Wimsey’s tricks, verbal sparrings with suspects, and how he seemed to mock his own class throughout much of the book.
His character was created by Sayers during a time when she was low on money and prospects. She’d also had a few failed love affairs, according to historians.
Of her creation of Wimsey, Sayers said, “Lord Peter’s large income… I deliberately gave him… After all it cost me nothing and at the time I was particularly hard up and it gave me pleasure to spend his fortune for him. When I was dissatisfied with my single unfurnished room I took a luxurious flat for him in Piccadilly. When my cheap rug got a hole in it, I ordered him an Aubusson carpet. When I had no money to pay my bus fare I presented him with a Daimler double-six, upholstered in a style of sober magnificence, and when I felt dull I let him drive it. I can heartily recommend this inexpensive way of furnishing to all who are discontented with their incomes. It relieves the mind and does no harm to anybody.”.
In their 1989 review of crime novels, the US writers Barzun and Taylor called the book “a stunning first novel that disclosed the advent of a new star in the firmament, and one of the first magnitude. The episode of the bum in the bathtub, the character (and the name) of Sir Julian Freke, the detection, and the possibilities in Peter Wimsey are so many signs of genius about to erupt. Peter alone suffers from fatuousness overdone, a period fault that Sayers soon blotted out”
Going back to the antisemitism that seems to be in this book — and from what I read, other Sayers books: this was prevalent in books written by British crime writers, especially those who came from upper class families. There was a deep-seeded distrust and dislike of Jews among the rich of Britain. We can see this most clearly in Agatha Christie’s novels where, to me, it is clear she wasn’t a big fan of Jewish people and often made them the villains of her novels.
Sayres views of Jews are complex, muddled and confusing, wrote Amy Schwartz of Moment Magazine. Sayers was once in an affair with a Jewish man who broke her heart and worked with many. She didn’t shy away from writing characters who married and had children with Jews, even if they weren’t.
She still used many stereotypes, including that they were greedy, or at least good with money, but did she feel that way about Jews herself? There is a ton of evidence that suggests she didn’t and as one commentor on Schwartz’s article writes: “Isn’t it possible that writers reflect in their fiction the world that they observe, rather than create themselves over and over again? The character is not the author.”
In other words, it is very possible that Sayers was writing the characters and how they thought and believed, not saying she believed the same things.
Despite not being sure what Sayers thought of Jews and being a bit uncomfortable with the comments of some characters about them, I did enjoy the book and Sayers writing style. I enjoyed that she writes more descriptively than Christie and therefore helps the reader feel closer to the characters and more involved with the story.
The complexity of this story was just enough to keep me puzzled until very close to the end and even when I knew who the guilty party was, I thoroughly enjoyed Wimsey’s verbal banter with the “villain.”
Have you ever read this book or any of Sayers books?
*Note: If I review Sayers books in the future, I don’t plan to comment on her views of Jews every time. Many writers portrayed people of various minorities in a negative light throughout the years. It doesn’t make it right, but it happened often. Sometimes the writers believed those things about the minorities but sometimes they were showing the true feelings of the characters they were writing for the sake of the story. It’s impossible to determine what a writer’s actual intentions were in most cases. I hate to throw out entire books simply because I don’t know the actual heart and mind of the authors since they are all dead now. Instead, I will try to focus on the stories as a whole.
