Mr. Finchley Discovers His England

Canning, Victor. Mr. Finchley Discovers His England. 1934. Reprint, Richmond, United Kingdom: Farrago, 2019.

Mr. Finchley who serves as clerk for a London firm finds himself taking a 3-week vacation for the first time in years. The new manager insisted he take it. He books himself for a trip to Margate, but from the beginning of his trip things take a strange turn. Mr. Finchley finds himself in one adventure after another. Mr. Finchley is not one to be on the wrong side of the law, but he finds himself skirting it on several occasions because he is too trusting of shady characters he encounters along the way. The humor comes mostly from seeing what one considers a straight-laced person in the situations in which he finds himself. He learns quite a bit about himself along the way. The novel is not a new one. It first appeared in print in 1934. Although I enjoyed the book, I found it was one I could easily put down. I received an electronic galley in exchange for an honest review of the book.

A Shot in the Dark

Truss, Lynne. A Shot in the Dark. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.

Inspector Steine (pronounced Steen) solved the Middle Street Massacre in 1951, still glorying in its resolution 6 years later when Constable Twitten enters the Brighton police force. Theatre Critic A.S. Crystal knows a secret concerning the unsolved 1945 Aldersgate Stick-Up case and goes to the theatre intending to share his secret with the constable when Crystal himself is shot in his seat. Constable Twitten and partner Sgt. Jim Brunswick set out to solve the decades-old case while the Inspector busies himself with the new one. When I requested this one, I expected it to be a police procedural. The book contains some humor, although not necessarily the most enjoyable variety of that. While it was that, it was a bit too "noir" for my personal taste in detective fiction. I prefer books more like Deborah Crombie's Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series. The seedy elements in the book simply failed to work for me, but I'm certain others would enjoy the book more than I did. If you enjoy noir and hard-boiled detective stories, you will probably enjoy this one. If you prefer your books to contain a little less seediness, you will probably want to avoid this one. I received an advance e-book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Murder of My Aunt

Hull, Richard. The Murder of My Aunt. Scottsdale, Arizona: Poisoned Pen Press, 2018.

In an amusing plot, Edward tries to kill his Aunt Mildred. I didn't really care for Edward who lacked ambition, with the exception of ridding the world of his aunt, or Aunt Mildred, who was too controlling. I really wanted something with more of an investigation. We don't really get any sense of any suspicion that follows through with investigation until the final chapter. The structure is different, but I did not like it. I received this advance review copy through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review.

Levi and Stephen Do the Hula

This was created at JibJab. Janice Brown over at Cow Hampshire has challenged all the Genea-bloggers to show our humor gene. Here's two gentlemen (my great-great grandfathers) from McLean County, Illinois doing the Hula. Stephen Taylor (1814-1881) is the dark-headed one. Levi Lantz (1811-1887), an Amish man, is the other.

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