"A Cup of Ale Without A Wench"

"A cup of ale without a wench, why, alas, 'tis like an egg without salt or a red herring without mustard." (Attributed to Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene in A Looking Glasse, for London and Englande {1592}) I think Alan Bradley must have as much fun giving titles to his books as Flavia does experimenting in her chemical lab.
A Red Herring Without Mustard is Alan Bradley's third mystery novel celebrating the deductive powers of his young heroine. From the back cover: "In the hamlet of Bishop's Lacey, the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce had asked a Gypsy woman to tell her fortune - never expecting to later stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned almost to death in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores: revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? As the red herrings pile up, Flavia must sort through clues fishy and foul to untangle dark deeds and dangerous secrets."
In an introductory quote, Louise Penny, author of the Inspector Gamache series, says of Flavia: "She is always feisty, always smart, I adore her. And while it is wonderful to read her as an adult, I wish I'd had Flavia as a role model while growing up. It's cool to be smart." I concur whole-heartedly. I would have loved these books when I was younger. I have to wonder if that is part of the appeal now. Does reading about this inquisitive young woman remind me of myself when I was first discovering the magic of reading books? As quickly as I finished this book, I began looking forward to the fourth in the series. I believe there are hints in this one that the death of Flavia's mother is not all that it seems and that the de Luce's may not lose their ancestral estate after all. I'll just have to be content to wait to see if I'm right.

               

Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series began as a serialized story in The Scotsman in 2004. Inhabitants at the address become the characters in the books - people we come to know and care about. The Unbearable Lightness of Scones is the fifth book in this series - wherein the precocious six-year-old Bertie is still being controlled by his over-bearing mother, but, for the first time, Bertie's father finally has some say-so and Bertie is allowed to join the cub scouts; Cyril, the gold-toothed canine friend of Angus Lordie finally succumbs to the temptation of Matthew's lovely ankles; Domenica finally confronts her neighbor, Antonia, over the theft of her blue Spode tea cup and Bruce finally realizes what an egotistical bore he is and decides to change.

So with all these 'finallies', does that denote the end of the series? Not to worry, there are still many questions and answers to come regarding these familiar friends. It's like not hearing from old friends for a year and then receiving the annual yule time letter and getting caught up all at once. You don't realize how much you've missed hearing about their daily lives until you do hear about them - very interesting and comforting.

One question I had (have) that I could not find an answer for, was how the book title related to that other book - The Incredible Lightness of Being. Even if it is McCall Smith's tongue in cheek, I thought I would be able to find some reference to it. (It may have helped if I'd read the other book.)                                                                                                                  

Murder on Marble Row is the sixth in the Gaslight Mysteries series by Victoria Thompson. I am so glad a fellow friend of the library decided to fill in the gaps of missing books in this series so I can continue reading them in order. "When an explosion kills wealthy industrialist Gregory Van Dyke, Police Commissioner Teddy Roosevelt presumes that anarchists are responsible and personally asks Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy to track them down. Malloy is up to the challenge - but he faces a different kind of challenge when he encounters Sarah Brandt paying a condolence call on the Van Dykes. Faced with he impossibility of ever expressing his true feelings for Sarah, Frank had vowed never to see or work with her again....."
I like that this author incorporates true happenings from stories in the newspapers during the time period into her fiction. In this case an article in The New York Times from October 22, 1896 about a man being killed by a bomb in his office. And while that mystery was never solved, Sarah Brandt and Frank Malloy once again work together to uncover the real culprit in the book.

Luckily my cataract surgery only kept me from reading one day. And a bout with a cold and the flu kept me pretty much confined to my reading nook (recliner and lamp - not something electronic) so I also managed three other quick reads - two M.C. Beaton Hamish Macbeth mysteries - Death of a Charming Man and Death of a Bore and a Dorothy Garlock - Train From Marietta - all three of which I picked up at a church rummage sale last fall an put aside for a time when I wasn't able to get to the library. Now that I am feeling better and the weather is still beautiful, it's time for a library run and a reading re-supply.