Wednesday wonders will summer ever come?
What I read
I did, finally, get through By Demons Possessed. Maybe it's me, but somehow I was reminded of ES Turner writing of serial fiction in boy's magazines around the turn of the C19th/20th, whereby if a serial/character was popular, if they had gathered up x-1 of the necessary plot coupons, there would be some misfortune leading them to lose them all and having to start again, whereas if it was not pulling in the punters, they might grab the last handful in one episode and check out. This felt like rather more running on the spot, or at least, as with The Gates of Tagmeth, that we have not really advanced very much further with the meta-arc of the series.
Christopher Hilliard, The Littlehampton Libels: A Miscarriage of Justice and a Mystery about Words in 1920s England (2017) - true story of a poison-pen letter case in which, yes, it finally turned out that it was the respectable working-class spinster (''tes nature turned sour in her veins') who was writing them - and sending quite a lot of them to herself as if from the presumed culprit whom she in fact succeeded in getting convicted and imprisoned - and only finally revealed after a lot of intricate police-work, and even so, in one case her respectable mien led the jury to dismiss the police evidence. Interesting thoughts on literacy and the role of writing and the written record in ordinary lives by this period.
Una McCormack, The Undefeated (2019) - sf novella, pivots on an elegant twist which I will not give away. Excellent.
Carol Brennan, Headhunt (1994) - this, and its sequel, to the charity-shop bag. I cannot fathom why Our Heroine was not arrested for interfering with a crime scene and concealing evidence, and I think the principal investigating officer should probably have recused himself from the case due to conflict of interest given that he was still carrying a torch for her after their high-school days.
Cat Sebastian, Hither Page (2019). Rather lovely m/m romance/spy thriller/mystery, but a few period niggles over some anachronistic linguistic usage. I am really not sure (I should really read Emma Vickers' Queen and Country: Same-sex desire in the British Armed Forces, 1939-45 (2013) but my impression is that it makes this case) that during World War II there was much concern to prosecute cases involving same-sex activity in HM Forces or indeed among those engaged in vital war work generally - There Was A War On. I can, however, see a malign person who had observed same during the years of conflict resorting to blackmail afterwards. I give points for knowing about Prontosil: but surely by the period in which novel is set, the wonder drug penicillin would be a bit more foregrounded?
On the go
Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (yes, Monsignor RA Knox, of the Crime Club rules, etc), Memories of the Future: Being Memoirs of the Years 1915-1972; Written in the Year of Grace, 1988 by Opal, Lady Porstock (1923). Not really quite as amusing than perhaps he thinks, or maybe it has just not worn well in his imaginings of the future, but moderately interesting.
John Carter Wood, The Most Remarkable Woman in England: Poison, Celebrity, and the Trials of Beatrice Pace (2012) - another microhistorical study around a trial that was famous at the time (1920s) but has not become as notorious as Thompson/Bywaters etc.
Up next
Not sure: seem to have enough on the go? There was supposed to be a new Courtney Milan out this week but no sign of it. This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2939288.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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