It happened in the USA, in Virginia, during the last days of 1995 and the first month of 1996. It started when, instead of cooking lasagna for the New Year Eve Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the chief medical examiner of Virginia, had to dive into the cold water of the Elizabeth river just so she could personally examine an apparent drowning victim – and, immediately after that, personally, do the post-mortem.
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The Hallowe’en party for schoolchildren who are over 11 has been a success. The contests have been finished, the winners defined and the prizes given for everything: bobbing for apples, cutting the flour cake and the best decorated broom. After the Snapdragon everyone should go home – there is nothing more to do here. Only nobody can locate that thirteen-year-old girl, Joyce, who always boasts… annoying, isn’t it, that she delays everyone else?
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This is another one of the two huge volumes I received as a gift from an English friend – it’s obvious that Ian Rankin doesn’t fancy short novels. Inspector Rebus never investigates one case at a time – he has to have several, and his friend DS Clarke (Siobhan) usually works on a few more thus making things more interesting. This time Rebus is in charge of the murder of a Turkish immigrant – at first glance it looks like a common racist attack – locals going for an unwanted newcomer “taking their jobs” or whatever – but Rebus suspects there’s more to this murder than meets the eye.
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A young student nurse dies during a demonstration in the Nightingale Training College – she acts as a patient, and two fellow students demonstrate intra-gastric feeding. The feed that is thought to contain milk turns out to be disinfectant, which makes Nurse Pearce’s death extremely painful. It happens in the presence of Miss Beale, the General Nursing Council Inspector – highly damaging for the reputation of the College, but otherwise it’s thought to be an ordinary murder – or even an accident – so Inspector Bailey from the local police force takes charge of the case. Only after another student nurse dies in her sleep – about a week later – the case becomes serious enough to call Scotland Yard, and Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh enters the scene.
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This neat and tidy detective story is part of the author’s Perry Mason series. Perry Mason is, as we know, a defense attorney who usually makes his stunning discoveries and solves crime mysteries in the courtroom – usually as soon as at the inquest, without waiting for the trial.
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“The Importance of Being Earnest” is a light-hearted play – and like everything written by Oscar Wilde it’s absolutely perfect. The author has produced the greatest abuse of Victorian morals, but in such a charming way that nobody could possibly be angry with him for this.
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Another one of Hercule Poirot cases – this time, his friend Captain Hastings is here too. The setup is a little unusual – before each murder is committed, Hercule Poirot receives a letter from the murderer, challenging him – and then, when it’s actually committed, Poirot can do nothing about it. Not every day we see this great man fail!
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As three men with a dog travel along the Thames in a boat faithfully following the route taken by the characters of “Three Men in a Boat” by Jerome K. Jerome, Sergeant Cribb follows them. They are his chief suspects in the murder of a tramp. Accompanied by Constable Thackeray, Constable Hardy and a young principal witness, Miss Harriet Shaw, he travels by boat, by cab, by steamer and by train, only to find out that his investigation as not going to be as simple as he expected. He’ll need Miss Shaw’s assistance to succeed this time – she is shrewd enough to be a plain-clothes detective herself, only in those Victorian days nobody in England heard about policewomen. But she gives the Sergeant a very useful tip.
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