When A Mystery Isn't What You Expected

I needed a mystery for my next mystery book club meeting, but I didn't get the usual sort of mystery this time.  That's why I lined up a more conventional mystery for my next read.  So this book has been given the title of A Ghastly Catastrophe.  I got the novel from the library.

Veronica Speedwell, the female protagonist of the series, wants to sue Bram Stoker for writing a novel with similarities to her life.  I don't think it's all that similar.  Her lawyer advised her not to engage in litigation. Veronica nevertheless said "Bram Stoker is a thieving blackguard!" I wrote in my notes that I can't be too upset about a fictional character I've just met thinking she's had her life stolen.

So Speedwell and Stoker have been investigating murders together, but the novel is written from Veronica Speedwell's perspective.   This is the tenth book in the series.  As my readers probably know, I read out of order.  I haven't read any other title in this series. 

I expect that the overwhelming majority of people who read this review will know that Bram Stoker is the author of  Dracula.  He apparently hasn't written it yet within the series continuity.

                                               

      

 Speedwell and Stoker's latest case depicted in A Ghastly Catastrophe  is the death of Maurice Quincey who had been found dead in a carriage outside a cemetery.  He had two puncture wounds on his neck that dripped blood,  but Stoker said that there is no such thing as vampires.  Speedwell wanted to find out the truth, but Stoker wanted nothing to do with it.

There is a Hippolyta Club in the novel.  All the members have to be women with original minds.  Why?  Did Hippolyta in Greek myth have an original mind?  I don't recall any mythic evidence that she did.  I looked her up on Wikipedia and didn't see any indication in the article that she did.  I wonder if the author really meant the historical figure, Hypatia.  The link is to an article that discusses Hypatia's mathematical work. 

 In A Ghastly Catastrophe there was also a discussion of Byron, Shelley and Mary Shelley's famous ghost story competition.  John  William Polidori was Byron's physician and was also present on that occasion.  He wrote The Vampyre, a short story based on the one that Byron told.   Lord Ruthven was a name Polidori got from Glenarvon, a novel in which the author, Lady Caroline Lamb, satirized Lord Byron.  I'd imagine that Polidori didn't exactly hold Byron in the utmost esteem if he was reading a novel of that period that made fun of his aristocratic employer.

The Brisbanes were a pair of aristocrats who became involved in the cases that Veronica Speedwell and Bram Stoker were investigating.  Lord Brisbane turned out to be part Romany. His Romany mother left her people to marry Lord Brisbane's father.  Speedwell learned this when a search for a Romany witness brought them to a Romany camp.  

That's when I found out that Romany don't do divination for each other.  Reading palms or  cards is something Romany do for their survival.  It's not really a Romany cultural practice.  The Romany called Magda read for Stoker.  She asked him to "knock on the cards as if upon a door."  I've never seen that in a card reading.  So I ran a search on it.  I'd imagine that she thought Stoker would like knocking on the cards or be impressed by the idea. There were reasons for knocking on the cards that I found when I did a search for it that resonated for me.  

          *To clear energy--This is clearing residual energy from previous readings.

          *To ground the cards making them more receptive to the reader's energy.              

          *Finding the answers to specific questions.

          *Inviting the spiritual realm such as spirit guides or higher powers. 

Magda dealt five cards in the shape of a cross.  It occurs to me that the cross shape need not be the Christian symbol.  It could represent a crossroads that the person being read for might be experiencing in his or her life.   She called it  "the Cross of Destiny". 

Magda said that the cards were "Romany Oracle Cards".  They were drawn in Bohemia. She informed him that the cards "might call forth memories, emotions and fantasies".

She said the first card represented the present.  Magda called it Sweetheart.  The woman was reading a letter and smiling.  

The second card represented the past.  Magda called it Sorrow.  Veronica knew Stoker's former wife had been a painful experience.  She had been cruel.  

The third card is the near future.  There was a letter on the card with illegible writing.  Magda  said that a communication would come that would be very significant and that it would come soon.  Veronica now thought that Magda was a fraud.  

The fourth card was Misfortune, but it was a burning building.  I'd say that's a good deal more than a misfortune.  It would be a disaster.  There was a fireman on the card, but the water in his hose was obviously inadequate.

The last card was Death.  I've read that the Death card didn't have to be an actual death.  It could be major change. 

    She gave Stoker a white stone and said it came from a place where the magic was old and had never been forgotten.  She called it a Hag Stone. I wondered why a Hag Stone would be white.  In reading about Hag Stones, I learned that they might be stones of any color containing at least one hole.  She said Stoker should wear the Hag Stone to protect him.  He would know when he no longer needed it and could take it off.

Eventually, Veronica and Stoker solved the case, and the villains were defeated.  Vampires usually aren't interesting to me and these weren't at all. The most interesting aspect were the Romany characters, but they didn't appear for very long.  So I gave it a C+. 

                                                           

                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prison Librarian in Kentucky

 After having read The Mountains We Call Home, I thought it was odd that the book had been given that title.   Perhaps it was done to link it to the earlier books in the series which were much more tied to mountain life.  It seemed to me that the plot of this novel was centered more on life in prison.  That was where the female central character largely spent her days.

                                                       

The protagonist Cussy was arrested because she was a non-white woman who married a white man.  He too was arrested.  This meant that this pair who loved each other were living in a gender separated prison.

This book also brings to the fore ethical issues in the treatment of prisoners in Kentucky during the early 1950's.  I considered the policy of routinely lobotomizing prisoners particularly heinous.  An article by Esther Annorzie on the subject called A Procedure Gone Wrong  provides an overview on why lobotomy was adopted and the reasons why it has been discontinued.

In "A Note From The Author" at the back of the book, I learned about some library improvements.  One example is that Kim Michele Richardson, the author, got an initiative signed into law in Kentucky to establish 26 libraries in courthouses.  Indiana, California and Ohio are also interested in installing libraries in courthouses.  

Bookmobiles are generally used in isolated areas of the U.S. that don't have libraries.  Kentucky has more bookmobiles than any other state.  Author Richardson tells us this is because Kentucky places a high priority on literacy.  I would suggest that Kentucky also doesn't have very much funding to build libraries.  Kentucky isn't by any means the poorest state.  That is Mississippi which almost certainly doesn't have the funding to provide very many bookmobiles.   On the other hand, the choice of whether to build a library or give the community a bookmobile might be partly based on racism in Mississippi. African American Mississippi author W. Ralph Eubanks gives us his  Bookmobile Memories, but he doesn't ask why there was no library. He was evidently grateful for the bookmobile.  

Actually, I think bookmobiles may be inadequate in some cases.  There could be isolated areas, for which bookmobiles are intended,  that might be better reached with wings. Winged dragons guard treasure, and books are indeed treasures for book deprived readers. A small plane could be painted as if it were a dragon.  So we might have Book Dragons that fly into the more extremely isolated places to transport books. It's a thought.