Carol's Notebook

The Gathering of Clan McFee by Karen Baugh Menuhin

January 24, 2026January 23, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

The Gathering of Clan McFee was not my favorite of the Heathcliff Lennox #14 but it was enjoyable enough. A Castle McFee, the laird has passed away without a clear heir. Descendants from across the globe had gathered at the castle, each hoping to prove they have the best claim to the inheritance - essentially a money pit of a castle and the land that goes with it. When one of the potential heirs ends up dead, Lennox and Swift are dispatched by Scotland Yard to investigate.The group that has crowded the castle is an odd bunch, as are Lady Peggy and her staff. The potential motive is obvious and shared by all the guests, but when another body is found, the whole situation becomes more dangerous.I found most, if not all, of the potential heirs annoying. Lady Peggy's butler was overly eccentric. The plot moved along at a good pace, though, and I didn't guess who the...

May Contain Murder by Orlando Murrin

January 23, 2026January 23, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

Paul is invited to travel with Xéra, his good friend of fifteen years, on board a private yacht as they travel from England to the Caribbean. The trip is part pleasure, a celebration of her recent wedding, and part work - she wants Paul to write her biography and they plan to work on it together on board. The trip starts out poorly when Paul's clothes are dropped in the water and his cabin located in the crew area. Xéra seems tense, which only increases when her priceless necklace, a present from her new husband, is stolen. And the other members of the trip, family and friends of the husband, are self-centered, unlikeable people.I like Paul, I really do, which is why it annoys me that so many bad things happen to him here. I guess I should really list them, because that would probably ruin half of the plot, but it's a bit over the top. It's almost like...

The Queen Who Came in from the Cold by S.J. Bennett

January 21, 2026January 21, 2026 by Carol2 Comments

The Queen is travelling to Italy and one of her entourage witnesses a body dump while traveling on the train. Initially it is thought that the witness was drunk, but the more time that passes, the more they are realizing that it might have actually happened. The Queen, along with her assistant private secretary, Joan McGraw, decide they need to look into the case, maybe give the official investigation a nudge or two.This time around, as the title suggests, we get a little Cold War intrigue along with the murder mystery, While some of the household are reading James Bond thrillers, the Queen is dealing with her own potential international incident. I love the Queen in these books. She's a working woman, with an unusual job with unusual constraints, but still a job, in addition to being a wife, mother, daughter, sister. She's also a woman in a man's world, surrounded by people who try to protect her when...

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie

January 20, 2026January 20, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

Our story opens with Mrs. Dolly Bantry being woken up by a maid and told there's a dead body in the library. She, in turn, wakes her husband, Colonel Arthur Bantry, who takes a bit of convincing before he will go down and check for himself. Sure enough, there's a dead girl in the library, a stranger wearing a rather cheap dancing dress. Mrs. Bantry immediately calls Ms. Marple and states if there has to be a murder in her house, she intends to enjoy it. The two women end up heading to a nearby hotel, where one of the staff has disappeared.I enjoy Miss Marple. She's so observant and maybe a bit cynical. She allows people who don't know her well, to believe she's just a harmless, quiet older village lady when she is really quite shrewd and intelligent. She sees everything and bides her time, asking seemingly innocent questions and making seemingly absurd comparisons until she has...

The Last Death of the Year by Sophie Hannah

January 13, 2026January 13, 2026 by Carol6 Comments

Hercule Poirot has brought Edward Catchpole to the House of Perpetual Welcome on a Greek Island for New Year's Eve, 1933. They are staying as the guests of Nash, the wealthy young man whose parents own the estate. Nash espouses the idea of radical forgiveness and has formed a small community that lives out that ideal, with the stated intent of changing the world. Of course, if he's invited Poirot, we know all is not well. When an after dinner game of guessing each other's New Year's resolutions shows someone is definitely contemplating committing murder, probably before the night is out, celebrations are put on hold.I don't really have a lot to say about this one. Poirot is not exactly Poirot, but he's fine and I've read others in this "New Poirot" series, so knew what to expect. I actually like Catchpole, even if he's a step or two behind Poirot. The folks who live at the...

The Right Murder by Craig Rice

January 8, 2026January 8, 2026 by Carol1 Comment

The Right Murder was my last read of 2025, which worked well, since the book starts on New Years Eve. Defense lawyer John J. Malone is getting drunk in a bar - no surprise - and missing Jake Justus and Helene Brand, who are on their honeymoon. This is a direct follow-up to The Wrong Murder, in which Mona McClane bets Jake her Casino that she can murder someone in a public places and get away with it. In that book a murder is solved, but Mona was not the killer and she states that they had ‘followed the wrong corpse," so the question of who she killed is still hanging out there. Then a man staggers into the bar, calls for Malone, and falls down dead, stabbed - and we're off. I don't think I'm giving away anything the title doesn't by saying this time the murder is connected to Mona.Before Malone and Chicago Police Captain von Flanagan have...