The Ruby in the Smoke (Sally Lockhart Mystery #1) by Phillip Pullman
Veronica “Sally” Lockhart’s father has just passed away. Her father had traveled to China to look into some of his accounts there as he felt something fishy was going down and wanted to speak to a Van Eeden for help. The ship went down and sixteen year old Sally finds herself at loose ends. She has to stay with a distant relative Aunt Rees, who hates her.
She then receives an anonymous note about the “seven blessings”. She heads over to her father’s former shipping agency to speak to his partner Selby, but he is out and she has to talk to Mr. Higgs. She asks him about the seven blessings and he has a heart attack dying of fright.
She mets Jim Harper, boy messenger, who was listening in. He thinks Higgs knew something and was doing something shady. He agrees to help her and keeps the real story secret along with having his eyes and ears open to anything and everything in the office.
Keeping an eye out for you
What are the Seven blessings? It must be something horrible if it can cause a heart attack.
Hmm…
Meanwhile a mean cruel hag has been blackmailing a Mr. Marchbanks, former Major in the military. She finally has what she wants, but then Mr. Marchbanks does a switch on her. He spots Sally’s name in the newspaper and knows he must contact her.
Sally returns “home” (as it is no real home) and she receives a letter from Mr. Marchbanks asking her to visit as he has information for her. She thinks it might be about the Seven Blessings and heads over there.
Hmm…
Meanwhile, a sailor, Matthew Bedlam, groggy from sealife and opium has come to London. He is searching for Sally as he has a message from her father but has to stop and stay somewhere, he cannot go any further. He stops at the hag’s boarding house, and when she overhears some of his words-imprisons him upstairs to get more info. She’s never one to pass on an opportunity.
Hmmm…?
Sally goes to Marchbanks, but gets lost and has to ask a handsome photographer for help. He points the way saying that he did the same not too long ago for an old witch.
Sally arrives at the house and Marchbanks is scared stiff. Mr. Marchbanks is freaking out as doesn’t want “her” to find Sally so he gives her a diary that is coming apart and says it rightfully belongs to her.
Mrs. Holland is angry that the ruby that was promised to her is no longer in the bank. She is harassing Machbanks, and when she finds out he is giving it away, she murders him and heads after Sally.
Sally hides out in Fredrick’s photography tent, and he helps her. He wants to ride with her on the train to potect her, but she declines taking his card instead. On the train she starts to read the diary-an account of when Major Marchbanks served in India along with her father. She starts to read the story, but falls asleep. When she wakes up, she discovers the diary has been stolen! The only thing left is a note to find “it”, but what?
Sally goes home and is berated by Aunt Rees. That night Mrs. Holland sends a man to pinch any papers from Sally. He doesn’t find what they are looking for but does steal her gun. He goes to deliver it to Mrs. Holland, but is murdered.
Sally wakes the next morning and knows her belongings have been riffled through and things are missing. Her aunt accuses her of lying and Sally decides to leave.
She has nowhere to go and ends up in Fredrick Garland’s house living with him and his sister Rose and their assistant Trembler. Sally has no “skills” useful for woman’s job, but has an affinity for numbers and business and helps the Garland photography studio start making money.
Meanwhile, Matthew has begged Adelaide, Mrs. Holland’s servant girl to contact Sally Lockhart and she heads to the shipping agency. There she runs into Jim and gives him her information.
Hmm…
Jim contacts Sally and they search for Matthew’s minister brother, Nicholas. They are twins and Nicholas has been waiting for his brother to return. He goes with Fredrick to find him and bring him home. After a tussle with Mr. Berry (Mrs. Holland’s muscle) and Mrs. Holland they bring Matthew back. After a long wait Matthew reveals that Sally’s father was murdered. There is a gang called the Seven Blessings, a part of the Triads, and run by the terrible pirate Ah Ling. They didn’t want her father to reveal what they were doing, smuggling opium, and murdered him and the whole ship. Matthew barely escaped.
Meanwhile, when buying opium for Matthew, Sally went under and was affected by the opium. She had the nightmare, the same one she is always affected by. Something about India, Marchbanks and her father. It turns out to be a memory but what does it mean?
Hmmm…
So Sally has two adversaries and three mysteries. Where is the item Major Marchbanks wanted, the Ruby?
What happened in India when she was a child?
Hmm…
Who is this mysterious man that killed her father? Will she be able to figure it out before the killer strikes again?
Thoughts After Reading:
This was an extremely intriguing mystery with a lot of fun characters. I enjoyed every page of it, and who Ah Ling turned out to be was a great twist!
“The Tell-Tale Purr” from Death Wears a Beauty Mask by Mary Higgins Clark
If you haven’t figured it out this is a play on the famous short story, The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allen Poe. It really is ingenious, even borrowing lines from the original story but infusing it with a few other things…namely cats.
Our narrator is someone who likes having money and hates almost everything and everybody. One person he especially dislikes is his grandma who he has to be nice to as she has a ton of money and he stands to inherit, just as long as he stays sucking up to her.
One day at a dinner party he gets a most marvelous idea of how to bump his grandma off without being suspected of murder. She has a weak heart and is absolutely terrified of cats. Scared to death of them, they being the perfect thing to end her. He could use their cries to scare her into a heart attack, but how?
Hmmm…?
The elevator! Grandma just has one installed, and on a stormy night when power cuts out she could be trapped in there, him playing recordings of cats which should induce a heart attack.
So the plan is put into action, mean yowling cats are caught and recorded until he has a horrifying symphony.
Dinner comes when such weather is horrible. He leaves as normal and returns in secret-turning off the power, trapping grandma, and playing his merciless tune to terrify her.
But things do not turn out as expected.
WHAT! I’m HOOKED!!!
Thoughts After Reading:
Oh, such an amazing read. So good and such a great twist of an ending. AMAZING!
Goldy has a new gig doing a low-fat catering job for a very expensive make up line, Mignon’s, show of its new product.
After that she will have a booth at Furman County’s Food Fair, over the 4th of July weekend, and a 4th of July party for a rich and very irritating client.
Between all that she is trying to adapt to married life as she is no longer Goldy Bear, but Goldy Schulz, wife to Tom Schulz of the Sheriff’s department. It’s great having this man in her life as he loves her and loves to cook, but being the wife of a policeman has its rough moments as well.
I’m scared!
Arch has ended his magic phase and has entered into a new love of all things ’60s. Hopefully it ends soon (may the next book he be into something else please!).
Goldy is preparing to say good-bye to Julian as after the summer he will go away to Cornell. He has become a true part of the family and a great help in taking care of Arch and in her catering.
Speaking of Julian, he has a new love interest. A knock-out gorgeous, blonde, Australian: Claire. She’s everything a guy could want and everything girls want to be. She is a sales rep for Mignon cosmetics and the one that got Goldy her low-fat gig.
They head over to where the demonstration will be and right smack in the middle of a group of protestors saying that Mignon is testing on animals and making rabbits go blind. One member and Goldy get into a confrontation, with grilled veggies going everywhere.
To make things shockingly worse, Claire is killed in a hit-and-run that turns out to be murder!
Then Goldy’s best friend Marla ends up in the hospital with a heart attack!
Goldy is visited by her abusive ex-husband, John Richard Korman!
What?!
And reporter Frances Markasian keeps popping up everywhere trying to question Goldy or involve her in her “investigation”.
Goldy tries to help find out what happened to Claire and finds out there is a lot more going on in this case-shoplifting, cooked books, love affairs, peeping toms, industrial espionage, and more. Will she make it to see the fireworks? Or be the next victim?
Thoughts After Reading:
I thought it was pretty good and grabbed you well. You kept reading to find out what happened next and it had quite a group of characters to choose from as to who the killer was.
Hmm…
I figured it out though and thought the ending was missing the extra oomph.
So I thought it was time for another Cat Who… mystery. I thought, I could write this myself, or once again borrow from an older family member. As you can see I am borrowing my sister blog’s review of the second book in the Cat Who… series.
“We want you to publish a weekly magazine on interior design.’ ‘On what?‘ Qwilleran said in an unintended falsetto…Qwilleran’s throat felt as if he swallowed his moustache. ‘Gracious Abodes? Is that the name of the thing?” (pg. 10)
In this book I always feel bad for Qwill, as nothing seems to go right for him.
In book two, we pick up a little time after The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, where we find Qwill eager for a new assignment. While he had some enjoyment on the art beat, art is not where he really wants to be. He wants to do something more exciting like crime, government issues, etc. However, his boss Percy (called that because of his excessive use of the phrase per se) doesn’t really go for that type of “disunity” and “abandonment” of your post.
The Sign of the Four (Sherlock Holmes #2) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
**Contains Spoilers**
So the second book of Sherlock Holmes has us go on as equally an interesting adventure.
We begin the case with a Miss Morstan coming to Sherlock to get assistance with a problem. And immediately Watson finds himself attracted to her.
“In an experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents, I have never looked upon a face which gave a clearer promise of a refined and sensitive nature. “
Miss Mostan comes on the recommendation of her employer, a Mrs. Cecil Forrester, who Sherlock Holmes helped before. Her father was an officer in an Indian regiment, and sent her to a boarding school in Edinburgh after her mother died. She stayed there until she was seventeen, when her father took 12 months leave and planned to come home. He telegraphed her in London than he was safe and to meet him at the Langham Hotel. When she arrived she couldn’t find him, and the manager told her he was there but left.
Since then no one has seen him since and the police have been unable to discover anything.
Luggage was left at the hotel with nothing missing. Her father had only one friend lived in London, Major Sholto, but he didn’t even know that Captain Morstan had returned to the country. That was December 3rd, 1878, ten years ago.
But then six years ago, on May 4th, 1882; as advertisement appeared in the newspaper asking after a Miss Mary Morton, saying it would be to her advantage to answer.
When she did s small cardboard box came to her containing a large pearl, but no note.
Since then every year on the same day, May 4th, a similar pearl arrives. She took them to an expert and they were pronounced rare and valuable.
But this morning she received something different; a note that troubles her.
London, S.W.
July 7
Be at the third pillar from the left outside the Lyceum Theatre to-night at seven o’clock. If you are distrustful bring two friends. You are a wronged woman and shall have justice. Do not bring police. If you do, all will be in vain. Your unknown friend.
I wonder…
Sherlock agrees to take the case, planning for Dr. Watson and him to accompany Miss Morstan on her meeting.
Holmes looks at the note, studying it and leaves to find the answer to what pricked his mind.
While he is gone Watson can’t get Miss Morston out of his mind, but tries to move past it, Who could want an ex-army surgeon, with a weak leg, and weaker bank account?
Holmes returns much later than planned with some news. Major Sholto died on April 28, 1882. Within a week of his death a pearl arrives for Miss Morston and follows every year? A letter talks about a wrong that has happened to her. What other than her father’s disappearance could be the wrong? And why presents, unless Sholto’s heir knows something about the whole thing.
Miss Morston comes in the carriage, and they start away. She can’t believe Major Sholto would do anything, as he was her father’s best friend. However, she has a new clue to throw in the mix. A piece of paper found with his belongings that no one could quite figure out what it was. She gives it to Sherlock.
Sherlock examines it and sees that it is from India, part of a blueprint for a large building, with a + and “3.37 from left” written in red ink. In the left hand corner, a symbol that looks like four crosses in a line with the following
++++ The sign of the four- Jonathan Small, Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan, Dost Akbar.
I wonder…
Sherlock can’t see how it relates now, but asks Mary to hold onto it.
They head to Lyceum Theater where the crowds are thick. Before they even reached the destination point, they are approached by a coachman. They are invited into a coach and travel to an unknown location, a house that appears to be the only one on the block that is occupied. They are met by an Indian servant, who lets them know that the sahib is waiting.
The sahib is Mr. Thaddeus Sholto, Major Sholto’s son. The house on the outside may look worn and neglected, but in this room are riches. After they introduce themselves Thaddeus asks Watson to examine his heart, as he worries about it.
He reveals that Miss Morston father is dead, that he died of a heart attack. (But then why wasn’t the body found?)
He wants them to help settle this matter, to be a united front against his brother Bartholomew. He then tells his story. Major John Sholto was a part of the Indian army but retired 11 years ago and moved to Pondicherry Lodge in Norwood. Thaddeus and Bartholomew lived in luxury with many Indian servants. However all was not happy. Their father was afraid to go out alone and hired ex-prize fighters as body guards. He avoided men with wooden legs, and shot at one once; who was later revealed to be a harmless tradesman. In 1882 he received a shocking letter, that nearly caused him to faint. He suffered previous medical conditions and by April was reaching the end.
Major Sholto then shared his guilt at never helping Miss Morston and asks his boys to give Mary her share of the Agra treasure, but not until he died. Morston and Sholto had come into a large treasure and brought it over from India to England. When Morston came from India he meet with Sholto and wanted his share of the treasure. Sholto and him argued about what was fair, with Morston becoming angry and his weak heart gave out, making him fall, crack his head, and die. Major Sholto then told his son to make sure that Mary received the father’s share and that the treasure was hidden…
After asking them to promise that, Major Sholto started to yell and scream “keep him out”. The two brothers turn to look and see a bearded man with a wooden leg. They try to get him, but he escapes. The next morning the whole house was searched and one message left behind.
The sign of the four
Their father died and then the two brothers dug everywhere searching for the treasure. Bartholomew didn’t want to part with the pearls, but Thaddeus sent them as they was his father’s last wish. The two argued and Thaddeus left to set up his own home. Yesterday, Thaddeus received word that the treasure was found, and valued at half a million.
The group sets out to talk with Bartholomew, Watson a little saddened ay he state of affairs as to how could a millionairess ever want him?
When the reach Pondicherry, they find a strange state of affairs. The servants will let Thaddeus in but no others. To make things even stranger, Bartholomew hasn’t been out of his room all day. And even though he is in there and expecting them, there is no light in the window. Strange.
Thaddeus goes in while the rest wait outside. Mary is frightened and grabs Watson’s hand.
Inner squeal!
They don’t wait long before Thaddeus comes running back out. He knows something is wrong but not what, they all rush indoors and up the stairs to his room.
He and Watson break down the door and see Bartholomew with a hideous smile fixed upon his face. Bartholomew is dead.
Above him there was an opening large enough for a person to pass through. A piece of rope on the ground and a brown, close-grained stick, with a stone head like a hammer. Beside it a note
The sign of the four
By his ear was a long dark thorn stuck into the skin. A poisoned one according to Sherlock. Watson grows grim at them ever figuring things out.
“On the contrary,’ [Sherlock Holmes] answered, ‘it clears every instant. I only require a few missing links to have an entirely connected case.”
Meanwhile, Thaddeus has discovered that the treasure is gone. Yesterday they lowered it into the room through the ceiling and locked it up at ten last night. What happened since then? Holmes sends Thaddeus to tell the police of the death and assures him he will figure this out.
Holmes deduces it was the one-legged man aided by another, a sailor; and they dropped one of them in through the hole in the ceiling.
The police arrive and suspect Thaddeus of killing his brother, just what Thaddeus feared. Sherlock urges the police to follow his lead. The first man was a Jonathan Small (one of the original four). He’s small, poorly educated, with a wooden leg. The other, too little info yet to determine who he is.
Watson takes Mary home and then heads to a home near the water’s edge to pick up Toby, a dog with the best nose for hunting down criminals.
When he returns he discovers that not only has Thaddeus been arrested, but the gatekeeper, housekeeper, and Indian servant.
The two examine the house closer, seeing the path that the one-legged man took. They also find his thorns dropped in his hurry to leave. They then set Toby upon it and head out after him.
Watson is still mystified as to what happened but Sherlock sets him right. Two officers were in command of convicts and learned an important secret about where the treasure was buried. Jonathan Small drew a map, putting his name and his associates in the corner. The officers took the treasure, one bringing it over from India. Jonathan Small couldn’t get it himself as he was a convict and in jail. What had upset Major Sholto, was that he had received a frightening letter, a letter about Small’s escape. He then tries to protect himself from the one-legged man. Small tried to get the treasure, but his presence interrupted Shlolto from revealing it to the sons. He searched the whole house but found nothing.
Smalls kept watch and when the brothers finally found the treasure he and his associate broke in and killed Bartholomew, escaping with the treasure. Toby takes Watson and Sherlock down to a wharf, where they discover that the one-legged man and his associate have gone in the water.
The two head home while Holmes employs his street urchins to root out some info. He does figure out more about the assistant. He turns out to be a cannibal from the island Andamand.
Watson heads over to Mary to give her an update and stays for most of the day. When he returns home nothing has come to pass. That night Sherlock dresses up as a sailor and heads out to the river to try and find some answers.
It was a long day with no answers as Watson waits for Holmes’ return. Athelney Jones, the inspector joins them and soon an old man arrives, but it turns out to be Holmes himself.
That night they head out to the ship Aurora and capture Smalls. He reveals all that Sherlock Holmes surmised is true, even Tonga, the islander, having killed Bartholomew.
Watson brings the box to Mary and tells her of the good news, The two break it open but find it empty.
Where is the treasure?!
But this gives Watson the courage to tell Mary how he feels. And she responds the same.
Yay!
They return to Smalls but he won’t reveal a thing about where the treasure is, other than he has hid it where none shall find it. They never discover its whereabouts, Smalls goes off to jail, and another case closed for Sherlock.
It ends with Watson sharing how he is engaged to Mary, soon to be married. So ends this story, but many more are right around the corner.
Thoughts After Reading:
I loved it. I thoughts it had great action, drama, mystery, everything you could want.
I highly recommend it for any Sherlock fan.
And I’m pretty sure that this story is what The Great Mouse Detective writers took a lot from when creating their story. The peg-leg, dressing up as a sailor, Toby, missing father, etc.And I love that film so it definitely already set the foundation for how much I would enjoy this.
But whether you are Sherlock or Basil fan, you should definitely take a look over this book. It was fantastic.
Mysterious Eats 
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