After messing with my computer for several nights trying to get rid of a redirect virus and finally calling Dell to work on my computer remotely I thought the problem had been fixed. I see, however, that my web searches are still being hijacked. I knew the solution seemed too easy. You know how you complain about a problem...you know it exists but when the repairman comes in to take a look, the problem mysteriously disappears? Well, that seems to have happened to me. Obviously a follow up call will be needed. Since I've frittered away my weekend and have very little to show for it, my post today is going to meander.
I had planned to write about a short story I read this week for the RIP Challenge, but now I find I don't really have all that much to say about it. I discovered that Ethel Lina White, of The Lady Vanishes fame, also wrote a number of other novels and some short stories. One of the stories is collected in a great little anthology I found at a past library sale. English Country House Murders: Classic Crime Fiction of Britain's Upper Crust edited by Thomas Godfrey is a collection of twenty-two stories by famous practitioners of the genre: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, John Dickson Carr, Michael Innes, Christianna Brand, Cyril Hare, Ruth Rendell, and P.D. James among others.
Ethel Lina White's contribution is a story called "An Unlocked Window". I had high hopes for the story, as I really enjoyed The Lady Vanishes, but it was a little disappointing. Although it had all the right elements for a good mystery story, it lacked any real tension and was sadly predictable. Still, there was a certain quaintness to the story (probably not what she was going for however) as it reminded me of a type of cozy mystery prevalent during the Golden Era of Detective Fiction. It was similar to Mignon Eberhart's stories, a number of which feature a nurse who gets involved in detection (I read one last year).
In this case, nurse Stella Cherry (what a name!) is working with another nurse taking care of an ailing professor in a country manor house miles from anyone. Nurse Cherry is young and attractive, whereas her colleague is older and ungainly. There's an unspoken jealously between the two as nurse Cherry has caught the eye of not only the patient but also the attending doctor. The caretaker of the manor has been called away, the cook has been caught tippling and so is sent off to bed leaving the two women alone with their sick patient. No worries, though, right? Except there happens to be a mad medical student on the loose who has been murdering nurses! It is a little bit outrageous as you can see, but I could still visualize it as an entertaining movie--a country house set on sprawling grounds, a certain tension between the nurses who are all alone with a crazed murderer trying to get in. And then one of the nurses realizes she forgot to lock a downstairs window....cue scary music. Or, maybe I just have a good imagination.
I have not given up on Ethel Lina White, however. I brought home with me from work two of her books that I requested via ILL. The Man Who Was There is a "fantastic tale of murder and revenge; a plot laid against a background of horror and suspense." After seven years seven friends meet to "take inventory of their lives" and at least one of them will end up dead! The Third Eye is set at an exclusive school for girls. A new games mistress discovers there is something not quite right with the head mistress who perhaps dabbles in the occult? I'm hoping they will be as good as The Lady Vanishes (and not quite so clichéd and predictable as the story I just read).
Since October is speeding along I've decided to set aside Nicci French and concentrate instead on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None and Michelle Paver's Dark Matter as both seem to fit my mood a little better (nothing wrong with the French--only it hadn't quite grabbed me and I know time is runing out and can't read all the books on my list...). They'll be my gym books for the next couple of weeks--perfect distractions I think. Last week I read Ruth Rendell's most excellent Demon in My View, which I will be writing about soon.
And now I am off to finish the first section of The Lantern for Carl's readalong, so I can write about it tomorrow.