Read Books

This is the fifth book in The Cat Who… series. In this story, James Qwilleran has to move again, Maus Haus is being sold and the paper may be giving him a new beat.

Jim decides to take a vacation, to go to visit Aunt Fannie, a friend of his mother, in Moose County, ostensibly to work on his book. Being a cityfolk, he’s a bit lost in the rustic cabin Fannie is letting him use, there are noises and things go missing.

The people who live in Moose County all have their quirks, but are cordial. His calls to police turn to be animal encounters. Until he goes fishing and catches a body, things start to get interesting.

Koko, Yum Yum and Qwill’s mustache take center stage as dead bodies and odd behaviors take center stage. Qwill is out of his depth, but Koko helps make things clear.

This book isn’t as good as the previous ones. I felt is was more of an interlude between different story styles or settings – I haven’t read beyond this one yet. The story was somewhat interesting, but did pick up at the end.

This is a fully-text Batman story. Set in his pre-Batman years, Bruce Wayne is a rich spoiled kid coming of age. He is about to graduate from high school when he gets involved in a police matter, putting himself in the middle of the action as Nightwalkers are preying on the rich of Gotham City. Bruce Wayne is to be one of their targets. he interferes with a police chase, or solved the problem depending on your perspective.

He ends up in court for his interference and is sentenced to public service, cleaning at Gothom’s insane assylum. This was the first of many irrational decisions made by key people that were necessary to further the story. And this is what ruined the story for me.

There were a number of bad decisions made, from a judge assigning a teenager to public service in a dangerous environment, police confiding in the teenager to get information, the asylum staff not keeping an eye on the teen and allowing him access to areas he should be in. It all felt rather convenient.

Then the pacing was too fast, in the style of a comic rather than prose. Much of the dialog was more suited to a visual medium and descriptions seemed weak.

Overall, the story didn’t quite work for me, but it wasn’t all bad. It was interesting to see someone’s perspective on his early life between the death of his parents and his emergence as the Batman.

The book is fun, but I don’t think his recent work is as good as his early work. It’s still worth reading.

Starting slowly, Nero Wolfe needs clients to support his lifestyle. Archie is to find some. The mystery begins when Archie meets Thomas Yeager, the president of Continental Plastic Products. Thomas is concerned and wants to be able to make a clandestine meeting in a less-than-desirable part of town without being followed.

Archie arranges to watch him in controlled conditions so that he can make his meeting safely, but he doesn’t show. The next day Thomas Yeager turns up dead outside of the meeting location, but it isn’t the man that Archie met.

This is a good mystery, but Archie still doesn’t have a client. He proceeds with an investigation, staying both just ahead of the police and keeping out of jail for interfering.

At the address that Thomas gave, Archie finds an apartment set up as a private love nest done out in style. He manages to get several clients, the owners of the love nest, the directors of the Continental Plastics Company, and the wife of Thomas Yeager, each of whom is looking for a different outcome. He and Nero Wolfe have to keep the clients separate, feed them the information they are entitled to and feed the police what is necessary and not raise too much suspicion.

It’s a fun read and a good mystery.

This is the first book in the Horatio Hornblower saga, being written as a prequel. It is a series of short stories telling his tale from arriving at his first post through his promotion to Lieutenant.

The author shows his knowledge of tall ships in its handling, manning and in damage. I found it useful to keep a nautical dictionary at hand, but the details are not needed for a full appreciation of the stories.

I found the stories interesting, well-paced, well-told and hard to put down.