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Doris Kearns Goodwin On Lincoln And His 'Team Of Rivals'
Doris Kearns Goodwin On Lincoln And His 'Team Of Rivals'
Team Of Rivals
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This interview was originally broadcast on Nov. 8, 2005.
When Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg were working on the film Lincoln, they had many conversations with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Her book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, is about Lincoln's relationship with his cabinet. Both her book and the film showcase Lincoln's remarkable political skills.
When Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election, he appointed three men who'd competed with him for the Republican presidential nomination to his cabinet: New York Sen. William H. Seward, Ohio Gov. Salmon P. Chase, and Missouri's distinguished elder statesman Edward Bates.
In Team of Rivals Goodwin recounts the life and work of our 16th president and his relationship with these powerful men.
Goodwin won a Pulitzer Prize for her book, No Ordinary Time, about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. She has also written books about Lyndon Johnson and the Kennedys.
This is FRESH AIR. When Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg were working on the film "Lincoln," they had many conversations with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, as she was working on her book "Team of Rivals" about Lincoln's relationship with his Cabinet. Both her book and the film showcase Lincoln's remarkable political skills.
When Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election, he appointed three men who'd competed with him for the Republican presidential nomination to his Cabinet: New York Senator William H. Seward, Ohio Governor Salmon P. Chase, and Missouri's distinguished elder statesman Edward Bates. Lincoln appointed Seward secretary of state, Chase secretary of the treasury and Bates attorney general.
Doris Kearns Goodwin Chronicles Lincoln's relationship with the men in her book Terry spoke to her in 2005, when "Team of Rivals" was published.
What do you think Lincoln did to bring together this Cabinet of rivals?
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN: Well, what he had going for him, which I think is so unusual in political life, is that he had a set of emotional strengths that today we might call emotional intelligence. So when all sorts of rivalries sprung up with these guys, and when they got hurt with one another, when they would call each other names - I mean if we ever heard what they were calling each other then in today's parlance - liar, traitor, thief - I mean and these things are being said in Cabinet meetings - but he was somehow able to be in the center of that storm. When one of their feelings would be hurt he'd be able to write a letter saying, if I hurt you in any way I did not mean to do so. Forgive me for things that I might do hastily. When he was upset with somebody he would write what he called a hot letter where he would write it all down and then he would put it aside until his emotions cooled down, and then write: Never sent. Never signed.
And there was a sense about him where he was just kind and sensitive to them. If one of them was feeling he was spending too much time with another one, he would call that one aside and give him a special time to walk together or to go on a carriage ride together. So what he essentially did is what a great politician does, which is to understand that human relationships are at the core of political success. And he somehow managed these people, who as I say, oftentimes hated one another, wouldn't even go into the same room with each other after a while.
Stanton and Blair, his postmaster general and his secretary of war, said such terrible things about each other that Blair would never even go to the War Department, even though he wanted to find out what was going on in the battles. It's almost unimaginable that he was able to keep this group together. But the success in keeping it together meant they also represented very different spectrums of political opinion from very conservative to moderate, to radical. And as long as he could keep that coalition together by keeping these people inside the tent, he was actually keeping those strands in the country together as well.
GROSS: What was considered radical then?
GOODWIN: Well, what was considered radical then was the idea that early on you wanted to make emancipation the central focus of the war. And then later on, even after emancipation was made the focus, the radicals were more desiring to make the South pay for having gotten us into this war in their judgment, and to wreak vengeance on them in order to be able to make sure that the old social structure would not come back in the South. Whereas, the conservatives were thinking that the Union was more important than emancipation. And also, at the end of the war they wanted to make sure that the South came back in a more gentle way so that the Union would be preserved, even if it meant not punishing the leaders of the South, who had been part of the Confederate cause.
GROSS: And where did Lincoln stand?
GOODWIN: Well, Lincoln stood in the middle of all these things - I mean naturally in the middle - not because he was positioning himself in the middle. At the start of the war he thought that the Union was the most important thing, and that emancipation, he wasn't sure was something that he as president could do anything about, much as he might have wanted to because it was in the Constitution protected, so he thought the most important thing was to get a constitutional amendment to eradicate it, which he eventually did. But by the middle of the war, he came to understand that, as president, he would have powers as commander-in-chief when a military necessity was at issue to be able to do something about the slaves. And the slaves were being used to help the South. They were digging the trenches. They were acting as cooks. They were protecting the home front when those soldiers went off to war. And they just unbalanced, gave so much benefit to the Confederacy as opposed to the North, that he finally was able to decide legalistically that if he issued a cry for the emancipation as a military necessity he would have that power to do it. Eventually, you'd need a constitutional amendment, so he moved toward what might have been the radical side.
On the issue of Reconstruction, I think even by the time of his death however, he did not want to have vengeance against the South, but he would have been worried about protecting the rights of blacks, which they were also worried about. So he probably would have been in the middle on that ground as well.
GROSS: What did he do to hold together this group of people within the Cabinet who had such differing views about what the fate of the South should be and what emancipation should look like?
GOODWIN: Well, I think partly what he did was to move step-by-step toward emancipation. You know, just as Franklin Roosevelt moved step by step toward getting us more involved in World War II even before Pearl Harbor by Lend-Lease, by the peacetime draft, Lincoln began to move toward certain steps that would allow the Army, for example, if slaves came into the Army camp, to take them into the camp and keep them protected from the Southern slave owners.
And these steps allowed him to move some of the conservative members to see, well, we did that, and it didn't produce some sort of race war. Because the conservatives were always afraid if you emancipated, there'd be this incredible servile war in the South - so that it got them accustomed to the idea.
And finally, however, the interesting thing is when he finally made the decision to emancipate the slaves, he called his Cabinet together and he told them: I want to tell you what I've decided, and I will listen to your comments, but I want you to know I've made this decision. I think he finally knew that if he put it up to a vote or a discussion, then it might make it harder for these people to understand that this was his decision.
And the only thing he did was he accepted their thoughts on the style of it. He accepted Seward's advice that he not issue it - he was going to issue it in the summer of 1862, and the war was going very badly for the North. And Seward said he thought it would look like he was just desperate, and that it wasn't an act of considered opinion. Why not wait for a victory to issue it?
And Lincoln took that into consideration, agreed with Seward, and waited until the battle of Antietam was fought and successfully resolved before he finally said he was going to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
So I guess, in some ways, what it meant was he listened to them as he was going along, but he finally had to decide for himself what he was going to do and then just tell the Cabinet in a very forceful way: This is what I'm going to do. I'd like you to think about it, but it's my decision.
GROSS: Now that we know so much more about depression than we used to, historians are starting to examine how, you know, depression may have affected important figures, including Lincoln. Do you have any new thoughts about what you describe as his, you know, melancholy temperament and how that affected him as a leader?
GOODWIN: I came away feeling that rather than suffering from chronic depression, that Lincoln did have a melancholy temperament from the time he was born. There's a writer named Jerry Kagan who studied children from the ages of zero to 20 and argues if you look at them even three months, six months old, you can divide them into whether or not they have a melancholy or a sanguine kind of optimistic temperament.
And clearly, I think Lincoln had that melancholy temperament. But he also had enormous resources all the way along to figure out how to get himself out of his sad moods, humor being one of them, conversation. During the Civil War, he would go to the play when he wanted to. He went to the theater a hundred times during the Civil War, if not more.
He would go to the battlefront when he felt sad over the loss of a battle to talk to the soldiers. He had an acute awareness, I think, of his own needs. And except for two depressions which we know about - one when his first love Ann Rutledge died, which it's natural for somebody to fall into a depression - and secondly, there were a series of events that took place when he was in his 30s.
His best friend Joshua Speed was leaving town. His political career had suffered a blow. And he had broken his engagement to Mary Todd Lincoln. And he really did feel overwhelmed then by depression, and we have letters that he wrote saying that he was the most miserable man on Earth, and that if everybody felt like he did, there would not be one cheerful face on Earth.
And he actually was so frightening to his friends that they removed all razors and scissors from his room, fearing that he might take his life. But his best friend Joshua Speed came to his side and said, Lincoln, if you do not rally, you will die. And he said I would just as soon die now, but I haven't done anything yet to be remembered by.
He had this dream from the time he was young that he was so fearful of just dying and turning to dust that somehow if he could accomplish something great - this is the way the Greeks used to think - your name would be remembered after you die. And that powered him through the early losses of his childhood. It powered him through his early days in the state legislature, and it helped get him out of this depression.
And the great thing is that many years later, when he finally signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Joshua Speed came to see him, and he said, well, Speed, remember that conversation we had when I was in my depths? Well, maybe at last, my fondest wish has been realized. I will be remembered after I die.
DAVIES: Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about Abraham Lincoln is "Team of Rivals." Her interview with Terry was recorded in 2005. Coming up, John Powers reflects on the fact that the Rolling Stones and the James Bond film series have both turned 50. This is FRESH AIR.
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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured these infrared images of a nearby spiral galaxy that resembles our own Milky Way. The targeted galaxy, known as NGC 7331 and sometimes referred to as our galaxy's twin, is found in the constellation Pegasus at a distance of 50 million light-years. This inclined galaxy was discovered in 1784 by William Herschel, who also discovered infrared light.
The evolution of this galaxy is a story that depends significantly on the amount and distribution of gas and dust, the locations and rates of star formation, and on how the energy from star formation is recycled by the local environment. The new Spitzer images are allowing astronomers to "read" this story by dissecting the galaxy into its separate components.
The image, measuring 12.6 by 8.2 arcminutes, was obtained by Spitzer's infrared array camera. It is a four-color composite of invisible light, showing emissions from wavelengths of 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (yellow) and 8.0 microns (red). These wavelengths are roughly 10 times longer than those seen by the human eye.
The infrared light seen in this image originates from two very different sources. At shorter wavelengths (3.6 to 4.5 microns), the light comes mainly from stars, particularly ones that are older and cooler than our Sun. This starlight fades at longer wavelengths (5.8 to 8.0 microns), where instead we see the glow from clouds of interstellar dust. This dust consists mainly of a variety of carbon-based organic molecules known collectively as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Wherever these compounds are found, there will also be dust granules and gas, which provide a reservoir of raw materials for future star formation.
One feature that stands out in the Spitzer image is the ring of actively forming stars that surrounds the galaxy center (yellow). This ring, with a radius of nearly 20,000 light-years, is invisible at shorter wavelengths, yet has been detected at sub-millimeter and radio wavelengths. It is made up in large part of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Spitzer measurements suggest that the ring contains enough gas to produce four billion stars like the Sun.
Three other galaxies are seen below NGC 7331, all about 10 times farther away. From left to right are NGC 7336, NGC 7335 and NGC 7337. The blue dots scattered throughout the images are foreground stars in the Milky Way; the red ones are galaxies that are even more distant.
The Spitzer observations of NGC 7331 are part of a large 500-hour science project, known as the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey, which will comprehensively study 75 nearby galaxies with infrared imaging and spectroscopy.

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I've long looked at JavaScript as a second-class citizen in the programming world. Early on, it was the source of numerous security problems; it was a nice bit of glue to patch together HTML applications with a bit of styling, but nobody would use it for serious code; and so forth. Java, Ruby, Python, they were the languages for doing real work.
The potential of Node.js
Node.js has the potential to revolutionize web development. It is a framework for building high performance web applications: applications that can respond very quickly and efficiently to a high volume of incoming requests. Although Node is a low-level framework that can build any kind of application, it's particularly useful for building web servers. Its asynchronous event-driven paradigm is arguably more effective for web applications than the more familiar request-response paradigm.
Two things make Node particularly valuable, though. First, Google has started a revolution in JavaScript performance. This isn't to say that at any given moment they have the best JavaScript engine available (though that's a fairly good bet). But what's certain is that Google took JavaScript performance seriously when other players didn't, and in doing so drove Mozilla, Apple, Microsoft, Opera, and other vendors into a performance race. The result is that the JavaScript engines we have now are much, much faster than they were a few years ago, and are capable of running a serious web application.
Second, Node has benefitted from an enormous pool of JavaScript developers. Whatever language they use for the back end "server," few developers don't use JavaScript in the client. It may only be for bits and pieces of glue; it may be for sophisticated Ajaxian effects; it may even be to write full-fledged applications, such as Twitter or Gmail. But whatever the case, the number of JavaScript developers is huge. And authors like Doug Crockford have been pushing the idea that JavaScript, despite many warts, can and should be treated like a serious programming language.
At this point, writing Node applications is relatively crude: it's a low-level library, about as close to the metal as you can get with JavaScript. It is not a full-fledged web framework, like Rails or Django. But that is certain to change. Lightweight frameworks like Express are starting to appear, and I have no doubt that we'll see more full-featured frameworks built on top of Node.
HTML5 is about JavaScript
JavaScript and databases, compilers and languages
The use of JavaScript has also exploded in databases. Three of the leading databases in the NoSQL movement, CouchDB, MongoDB, and Riak, are "document databases." Rather than storing tables, they store documents. And for all three databases, a "document" means a JSON document, not a Word or Excel file. (Riak also supports XML documents and plain text.) While JSON has been widely adopted as a data exchange format (there are libraries for parsing JSON in almost all modern programming languages), it's important to realize that JSON is really just a format for serializing JavaScript objects. So while you can use JSON with any language, it's a natural fit for JavaScript development; and the fact that JSON has become a cross-language standard, rather than some Python, Ruby, or Java serialization format, says a lot about JavaScript's readiness to take a role on a larger stage. But even more than that, all three of these databases have facilities for executing JavaScript as part of queries. In the coming years, I would not be the least surprised to see JavaScript and JSON embedded within other kinds of applications.
We've only seen the beginning of JavaScript development. At this year's JSConf, javascript-to-javascript compilers were a big theme, and seen as a major trend for the future. Google has been the hotbed of compiled JavaScript. GWT is the first framework I'm aware of that used compiled JavaScript (compiled from Java). I have never taken GWT that seriously; a framework that exists just to save Java developers from having to use JavaScript just doesn't seem worthwhile. However, GWT does some amazing JavaScript optimization in the process. Closure is a JavaScript-to-JavaScript compiler that does the same kinds of optimization. Traceur, which first appeared a few weeks ago, was designed to allow experimentation with the language itself: it compiles JavaScript with experimental language features into JavaScript that can run on any modern platform.
Finally, we're starting to see some languages compile to JavaScript, much as we're seeing JVM languages in the Java space. Some of the more interesting languages, such as Coffeescript and Kaffeine, are similar to JavaScript in style, but focus on smoothing out JavaScript's rough edges. Do you find the JavaScript object model interesting, but awkward, and are you put off by the ritual you need to go through to create a working object from a prototype? You may find Coffeescript a significant improvement. In addition to smoothing out the object model, Coffeescript adds features like list comprehensions, and does away with most of the curly braces. As in Python, indentation serves to delimit blocks.
Web servers, rich web client libraries, HTML5, databases, even JavaScript-based languages: I see JavaScript everywhere. If you have avoided JavaScript, this is the year to learn it. There's no excuse — and if you don't, you risk being left behind.


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A couple who lost their baby four months into their pregnancy says they buried the wrong remains because of a mix-up at a Brooklyn hospital.
William Werner and Abaline Nieves are suing Maimonides Medical Center for mental anguish and emotional distress.
The couple says they were devastated when they lost their baby, and even though he died before he was born, they still felt like parents.
"We held him, had him baptized and everything," said Werner.
They had the baby's ashes cremated and had a ceremony at a family grave. Then, a month later, the couple got a call asking them to come back to the hospital. They said they were told they had been given the wrong remains by accident.
"How do you apologize for something like that?" said Werner. "They're like, 'We made a mistake.' How is that an apology?"
Nieves said, "I still can't wrap my head around it, and they still can't answer us why or how."
Werner and Nieves say they don't know whose remains they were given, and have now had to say goodbye to their son for a second time.
"We went to the morgue to pick up our son and Abby viewed him. I couldn't do it," said Werner.
"I couldn't trust the hospital, so I felt I owed my son to ensure we had him this time around," Nieves said. "No one should have to lose a child, but then to not be able to properly bury or scatter the ashes of the cremation, that's just wrong."
A Maimonides Medical Center representative said the hospital is not allowed to comment on any of the couple's claims due to health privacy laws.


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1941 GMC Panel Truck - Candy Apple Panel
David Favorito's '41 GMC
Related Video
Inspiration can come when one least expects it, and from unlikely places. Take David Favorito and his '41 GMC panel truck for example.
"It all started 31 years ago," recalls David. "I went to the beach with a friend, saw this truck, didn't know what it was, but I loved it. It was for sale for $2,300. I didn't have the money but I knew I had to have it. I returned three weeks later and it was still there but the price on the "For Sale" sign was covered up. I knocked on the door of the house and no one answered. Just as I was leaving, this little kid rode up on his bike and asked if I was looking for the owner of the truck. I told him yes and he answered that he [the truck owner] was moving to Lake Tahoe tomorrow and that he couldn't take it with him. Jackpot! As soon as I got home I called the owner and worked out a deal with him."
The next morning David picked up the truck and drove it home, sans brakes; an interesting trip, as one could imagine.
David used the panel as his daily driver for a number of years until one day he decided it was time to tear the truck down and rebuild it from the ground up. The first step was to take the truck down to Nor-Cal Metal Stripping in Windsor, California, for a quick dip in the acid bath. From there, it was off to Joe Brusaschetti's shop where Joe and fellow metal man "Hoop" plied their trade to every square inch of the Jimmy. Hidden hinges, remote door pops, modified driprail, and a new rear roll pan are all items that received the duo's attention. Up front, the hood was molded into one piece, with the ability to open from either side thanks to a Dan Fink kit, while the grille was completely reworked. Other custom items include the V-butt windshield, frenched headlights, shaved parking lights, and '40 Chevy parking lights reworked to function as the taillights. From there, the body was sent over to Jason Haskin's shop in Roseville, California, where the House of Kolor Candy Apple Red paint was applied.
While the body was out getting painted, Ron Attebury and Joe Brusaschetti decided to sort out the chassis. The rails were boxed before a Total Cost Involved Mustang II IFS kit with 2-inch dropped spindles and disc brakes was installed. Out back, a Currie 9-inch rearend hangs off of parallel leaf springs. Weld Tomahawk 15-inch billets reside at all four corners, wrapped in BFGoodrich rubber. Powertrain responsibilities for the panel come in the shape of a 383ci stroker small-block Chevy V-8 wearing aluminum fast-burn heads topped by an Edelbrock intake and a Holley four-barrel carburetor backed by a 700-R4 transmission with a Lokar shifter. Dress-up items including Billet Specialties finned air cleaner and "smoothy" valve covers, a chrome one-wire alternator, and an A/C compressor round out the engine compartment.
Once the chassis was sorted and the body freshly sprayed in that deep Candy Apple Red, the GMC was shipped over to Finish Line Interiors in Santa Clara, California, where Byron Robeck wrapped every square inch in tan leather and ginger ultrasuede, including the Glide bench seat. A subdash was fabricated to house the climate controls, vents, ignition, and headlight switches while in the stock gauge opening resides a billet aluminum panel filled with a quintet of Dakota Digital gauges. Under the dash sits a polished tilt steering column topped with a Billet Specialties steering wheel wrapped to match the interior.
What began as an innocent trip to the beach transformed and turned into a 31-year-long dream for David Favorito. From the messy hulk David barely made it home in to the daily driver that served him for a number of years to the multi award-winning (Fresno Autorama Invitational, Best Under Construction, Best Truck, Best Interior) finished version seen right here on these very pages, David's dream of breathing new life into the '41 GMC has been fraught with hard work, dedication, and lots of waiting. But with the help of those involved in the build, including Gary and Nancy at Reliable Plating, Mike and Joe at Center Paint, Nor-Cal Metal Stripping, Sherm's Plating, and the '34 Store, David's dream was made a reality. And it's one that he enjoys every chance he gets.
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Sunday, October 2, 2011
Lawnscaping Challenge 19 and a SAD Goodbye
16 comments:
Both cards are adorable, I love the first with that paper, it is one of my faves right now!ReplyDelete
Ashley, please take care of yourself!! :) Hugs!ReplyDelete
Thanks for linking yet another beautiful card!! :)
What a cute second card you made. I love it! You know I will miss you on the team, but really want you concentrate on your health right now!!! That is what is most important! BIG HUGS my friend!ReplyDelete
OMGoodness, those bandaids are just the CUTEST!! Absolutely fantastic!! :)ReplyDelete
Hopping over from Yolie's blog and the Link Up for Pink Party!! :)
Happy to be a new follower,
Amy :) at www.lovetocrop.com
- AnonymousOctober 3, 2011 at 4:55 AM
Hope you get better... Take care of yourself. Thank you for linking another card with us.ReplyDelete
really cute cards....hope you feel better!!!!!!ReplyDelete
These are really cute cards. Now I know that you feel sad I can read it. But I know that they will want you to go and take care of your self. Me and my family will keep you in our prayersReplyDelete
So sad you are leaving us Ashley, you and your talent will certainly be missed. The cards are absolutely adorable, those bandaids are so clever and would definitely cheer up someone. Take care of yourself, and I pray your health returns to normal soon. Hugs to you sweet friendReplyDelete
So sorry you are not feeling your best -- more credit to you for taking the time to enter our LUFP ~GabyReplyDelete
Darling darling card....those bandages are just tooo cute. Take care of yourself and you have done a wonderful job as part of their design team. Wish you the best of luck.ReplyDelete
This is so...so...so C-U-T-E!! Love it.ReplyDelete
Love both card Ashley,they are so adorable, hope you feeling better soon :)ReplyDelete
I love the get well card with the bandaids. So cute!ReplyDelete
Both cards are fablous - just love the Feel better card!!ReplyDelete
Hugs & Happy Days!
Two wonderful cards but those little bandaids I spied over at LUFP and had to have a closer look. So cute.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 18, 2011 at 10:32 AM
I wanted to let you know you are a LUFP winner. I will be emailing you later today with the details... Check out my blog in a couple hours to see what you won.ReplyDelete


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Rivers, Chargers (8-8) win West crown in rout
SAN DIEGO -- The mild, mild AFC West belongs to LaDainian Tomlinson, Philip Rivers and the rest of the San Diego Chargers.
The Chargers won their third straight division title by finishing 8-8, becoming the first team to go from 4-8 to the playoffs by routing the Denver Broncos 52-21 in the Ed Hochuli Bowl on Sunday night.
"This is obviously history in they way we trailed the division and now won it," Rivers said after San Diego's fourth straight win -- and 14th straight in the month of December. "We all had the expectations to get here. We obviously went a different route than we thought we would. But we're here."
It really, truly wasn't the way anyone thought the talented Chargers would get to January, considering they were a popular preseason pick to make it to the Super Bowl.
Mission Valley turned into Mediocre Valley as the Chargers became the first team to win a division at 8-8 since the Cleveland Browns did it in 1985. They're the ninth team overall to make it to the playoffs at 8-8; only two of the previous teams to do it managed to win a game in the playoffs.
Tomlinson, who didn't return after straining a groin muscle in the third quarter, had his first three-touchdown game of the season. Rivers threw his 33rd and 34th touchdown passes to break Hall of Famer Dan Fouts' 1981 team single-season record.
"It's a tribute to the guys who kept believing and kept fighting," said Tomlinson, who plans to have an MRI exam on Monday. "Very prideful guys in that locker room. And at the point we were 4-8, we didn't know what was going to happen with Denver, but for us it was about how were we going to finish."
Said Rivers: "Chances were slim, but we kept playing hard and fighting just for us to salvage whatever we could salvage."
Denver (8-8) completed a monumental collapse, becoming the first team since division play began in 1967 to miss the playoffs after having a three-game lead with three weeks to go. Needing just one win to wrap up the division, the Broncos lost at Carolina, at home to Buffalo and then to the Chargers.
"Obviously it's not the same football team that started the year," Denver coach Mike Shanahan said of a team that started 3-0.
"It was kind of frustrating to see that three-game lead come down to this and see San Diego kind of take off on us," Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall said. "But, hey, that's football.
"We did have to score," quarterback Jay Cutler said. "They punted once, I think. It puts a lot of pressure on us."
The Chargers were 5-1 in the division but 3-7 outside it, and had zero wins against playoff teams. San Diego will host Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday night. San Diego upset the Colts in the playoffs last year, but Indy won 23-20 in San Diego on Nov. 23.
Denver won the first meeting between the increasingly bitter rivals on Sept. 14 with some last-minute help from referee Ed Hochuli. When the ball slipped from Jay Cutler's grasp and was recovered by Chargers inside linebacker Tim Dobbins, Hochuli ruled it an incomplete pass instead of a fumble. Hochuli later acknowledged his decision was wrong. However, by rule, the call could not be changed and Denver kept the ball. The Broncos scored on fourth down, followed by the winning 2-point conversion.
On Sunday night, the Chargers looked like world-beaters and Tomlinson was far more animated than at any point of the worst year of his otherwise brilliant career.
After he scored on a 14-yard run midway through the third quarter, L.T. celebrated with his teammates and then high-stepped across the field to the bench.
San Diego scored twice in 18 seconds midway through the third quarter. Rivers threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to speedy Darren Sproles to make it 31-13. Defensive end Luis Castillo intercepted Cutler's deflected pass on the first play of the ensuing Denver drive, and Tomlinson then scored on his 14-yard run.
Tomlinson wasn't sure when he hurt his groin and said it didn't bother him on his final TD run.
"I don't know how bad it is," he said. "I'm not going to jump to conclusions or say anything more about it because I really don't know at this point."
San Diego set a team record with 289 rushing yards.
"We physically beat the hell out of them. I can't say it any other way," Pro Bowl left guard Kris Dielman said.
Tomlinson used a nice spin move to score on a 4-yard run late in the second quarter, adding to the 1-yard scoring run he had in the first period.
Sproles also scored on a 2-yard run in the fourth quarter. He finished with 115 yards on 14 carries. Tomlinson had 96 yards on 14 carries.
With 126 touchdowns rushing, L.T. moved out of a tie with Marcus Allen and into sole possession of second place on the career list. Emmitt Smith is No. 1 with 164.
Rivers picked apart Denver's porous secondary and also threw two blocks on reverses by wide receiver Vincent Jackson. Jackson's diving catch of a 37-yard pass helped set up L.T.'s first TD run, and Rivers threw a 34-yarder to Pro Bowl tight end Antonio Gates on a drive capped by a 12-yard scoring pass to tight end Brandon Manumaleuna early in the second quarter.
Denver's Tatum Bell had touchdown runs of 26 and 37 yards. San Diego's Nate Kaeding kicked a 28-yard field goal.
San Diego rookie Jacob Hester scored on a 4-yard run late in the game.
"It's obviously very disappointing," Shanahan said. "I give San Diego credit. They really picked us apart."
Game notes
Gates sprained an ankle and didn't come back. Coach Norv Turner said Tomlinson and Gates could have returned, but the team wanted to be conservative with them. ... Rivers was 15-of-20 for 207 yards.
Game Information
- Referees:
- John Parry


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Charge Nurse (RN) - Clinical Decision UnitWellstar Kennestone Hospital • Marietta, GA • Nursing: Direct Care • 99599 • Days • Full-Time
How would you like to work in a place where your contributions and ideas are valued? A place where you can serve with compassion, pursue excellence and honor every voice? At Wellstar, our mission is simple, yet powerful: to enhance the health and well-being of every person we serve. We are proud to have become a shining example of what's possible when the brightest professionals dedicate themselves to making a difference in the healthcare industry, and in people's lives.
CLICK HERE for virtual tour of Kennestone Hospital
- The RN Clinical Charge Nurse is responsible for directing and overseeing the daily activities of the unit on an assignedshift to assure successful safe delivery of care.
- The Charge Nurse is a caregiver and often takes modified patientcare assignment.
- They practice in a clinical environment that is administered by Nurse Managers and other leaders and is supported through the WellStar Shared Governance Model.
- The framework for practice is steered by the WellStar Professional Nursing Practice Model and evidence based practice and research.
- RN competencies are derived from these models and supported by the WellStar Core Competencies.
- The role contributes to the establishment and maintenance of practices that ensure excellence in patient care, provides for the efficient use of resources, and undertakes leadership task such as staff schedules, unit patient flow, subject matter expertise for clinical concerns, physician rounding, committee involvement, survey readiness, and other task as assigned by the manager, which are basic to the department's ability to function in a smooth and effective manner.
- The RN Clinical Charge Nurse is a resource to other areas opportunity to learn about operational functionality and hospital/facility awareness.
- Assists in the growth and development of team members in the unit to help build department skills sets and to inspire expertise.
- This leader brings with him or her ability to build rapport between nurses and physicians to continue service to the patients and is a role model to others.
- It is expected that all RN Clinical Charge Nurses are licensed, knowledgeable and uphold the practice of nursing as outlined by the Georgia Professional Nurse Practice Act and implements the Scope of Practice and Code of Ethics Standards put forth by the American Nurses Association.
- As a member of the patient services team, it is expected the individual upholds the voice of the patient, system policies and procedures while supporting service excellence goals.
- Possesses (advanced) clinical expertise and utilizes this expertise to support and promote the delivery of safe, age appropriate and culturally aware patient care and serves as a partner in care.
- The RN Clinical Charge Nurse is a proactive member of an interdisciplinary team of licensed and unlicensed care givers who ensure that patients, families and significant others receive individualized high quality, safe patient care.
Expectations of practice include:
- Accountability
- Responsibility and authority for the practice of nursing
- Effective teamwork
- Delegation
- Communication
- Respect
- Personal development
- Development of team members
Required Minimum Education:
- Graduate of an accredited/approved school of nursing as and Associate Degree/Diploma Nurse.
- Baccalaureate degree in nursing (BSN) from an accredited school of nursing preferred.
Required Minimum Licensure/Certification:
- Current/active license as a registered nurse in the State of Georgia.
- Must have a current BLS card from the American Heart Association on the first day of employment in position.
- National certification in area of specialty preferred. (Dependent on area of Service may require additional certification such as ACLS, PALS).
Preferred Minimum Experience:
- One year of nursing experience required, two years preferred.
- Experience as relief charge with clinical expertise preferred.
Required Minimum Skills:
- Ability to read, write and speak English language.
- Optimize the use of technology to support clinical care and holds basic computer skills.
- Strong interpersonal skills, critical thinking and decision-making skills.
- Works well with others in a collaborative, team-focused, patient centered way.
- Communicates effectively both orally and in written form with all levels of internal and external resources.
- Analytical skills necessary to solve technical, clinical and managerial challenges.
- Ability to communicate verbally and in writing.
- Sufficient clinical and leadership experience to ensure competence and credibility to lead others.
Related Jobs
- RN Clin Nurse L&D III N Marietta 07/13/2023
- RN Clin Nurse L&D III Marietta 09/10/2023
- Unit PRN RN MedSurg KH CH Marietta 09/24/2023


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For a lucky cadre of moviegoing families, simply uttering the name "Miyazaki" is enough to send them straight to Fandango to scoop up tickets to the Japanese director's latest anime charmer.
Anyone familiar with Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke," "Howl's Moving Castle" and "Spirited Away" can attest to the enchanted web he's been weaving for three decades, telling simple stories of loss, adventure and resilience against backdrops of beguiling lushness.
The surprise with "From Up on Poppy Hill" is that the Miyazaki in the director's seat isn't 72-year-old Hayao but his son, Goro, who proves superbly well-poised to carry on his father's legacy.
The story of a girl grappling with first love, the absence of her parents and the anxieties of an on-rushing future in 1963 Yokohama has all the earmarks of a Miyazaki classic.
Umi (voiced by Sarah Bolger), who runs a household that includes her grandmother, little sister and a group of female boarders while her mother is studying in the United States, has the wide-eyed innocence of a little girl, even as she attains emotional and practical wisdom beyond her years.
Mourning the loss of her father at sea some years earlier, Umi transfers her hope and longing to Shun (Anton Yelchin), a student from a nearby boys school who is trying to preserve his gang's delightfully ramshackle clubhouse from demolition.
The interplay between the romanticism of the past and the progress of the future is the tension that propels "From Up on Poppy Hill," in which the Japanese authorities are seeking to erase painful memories of World War II and the Korean War as they prepare for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Accompanied by sunny '60s pop tunes and hand-drawn in the house style of Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, "From Up on Poppy Hill" occasionally succumbs to the "cheap melodrama" Shun invokes at one point (parents might want to prepare themselves for explaining why family members are ill-advised to fall in love with each other).
But the film's tender voice, captivating atmosphere and painterly visuals more than compensate for any narrative weaknesses.
From the vibrant red poppies of Umi's sun-dappled garden and the cool interiors of her old-fashioned house to the splashing waves of Yokohama's harbor and the dancing oil around a pan of frying mackerel, "From Up on Poppy Hill" pays homage not just to pre-CGI animation at its finest but an entire material culture, in scenes as carefully composed as anything found in the domestic dramas of Ozu.
Umi ultimately makes peace with her past, as she makes tentative steps toward promising days ahead. Considering that journey, as well as one Miyazaki passing the torch to the next generation, the film's exquisite lyricism and subtle tone of aching melancholy seem exactly right.
Somber, gentle, transporting and unapologetically beautiful, "From Up on Poppy Hill" is the kind of family film Hollywood doesn't make anymore. Thank goodness Tokyo does.
'From Up on Poppy Hill' ½
The charming story of a young girl in 1963 Yokohama falling in love for the first time while trying to keep her family together. The beautifully done pre-CGI animation is done by the son of famed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki.
Rating: PG. Contains mild thematic elements and some incidental smoking.
Showing: Egyptian and Sundance Theaters.
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Learning, understanding and changing food safety behavior through simple everyday practices can help make a substantial difference in reducing the incidence of foodborne illness. Based on a 2010 survey of consumers, NSF developed the following list of food safety best practices for the home:
It's important to always wash hands with soap and warm water before cooking as well as after handling raw meat and poultry. Warm water is recommended because it is effective at removing grease and grime as it increases soap's ability to penetrate dirt and oils found on the skin. Lather your hands for at least 20 seconds before rinsing off the soap and drying.
Always use a food thermometer to ensure that meat and poultry are thoroughly cooked to the proper internal temperature as follows:
|Whole or ground poultry
|165º F
|Ground meats (other than poultry)
|160º F
|Fresh fin fish
|145º F
|Fresh pork, beef, veal
|145º F with a three-minute rest time
Rest time refers to the time the meat needs to stand without carving or consuming once it has reached a minimum safe cooking temperature. During the three minutes after meat is removed from the heat source and allowed to stand, its temperature remains constant or continues to rise, which helps destroy harmful bacteria.
Don't rely on sight to gauge if meat or poultry is cooked to the proper temperature, as meats can change color before reaching a temperature sufficient to kill bacteria.
If you need to defrost food, don't place it on the counter to thaw at room temperature. Instead, use one of the following methods:
Most meats and other foods can be cooked from a frozen state, although quality may not be the same. Be sure to remove all packaging materials before placing the frozen food in a pan and set the oven for the normal temperature recommended for that item. It will take approximately 50 percent longer to cook meat or poultry that is frozen compared to defrosted.
Pre-packaged produce that is in an open package or does not specifically state it is has been pre-washed should be washed before consuming. Wash produce in a colander to help avoid cross contamination from the sink surface. It isn't necessary to re-wash pre-packaged produce provided that the package is tightly sealed and the label indicates that it was pre-washed and is ready to eat.
Microwaves aren't what kill bacteria – it's the heat generated by microwaves that can kill bacteria in foods provided the food item is heated to a safe internal temperature. Microwaves can cook unevenly, even when equipped with a turntable, due to foods' irregular shape or thickness. They can also leave cold spots in food where harmful bacteria can survive. Follow package instructions and rotate and stir foods during the cooking process if the instructions call for it. Observe any stand times as called for in the directions. Check the temperature of microwaved foods with a food thermometer in several spots to ensure doneness.
Whether you are attending a party or giving one, remember the two-hour rule — never eat perishable foods that have been sitting out at room temperatures for more than two hours.
Leftovers need to be placed promptly in the refrigerator and should be consumed within three to four days and disposed of thereafter. If you don't plan to consume leftovers right away, consider freezing them, which can preserve food safely for longer durations.
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Crime, Supernatural and Adventure fiction. Obscure, Forgotten and Well Worth Reading.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
FIRST BOOKS: The Secret of Bogey House - Herbert Adams
Golf will play a prominent role in Adam's later detective novels (sample these titles: The Body in the Bunker, The Golf House Mystery, Death off the Fairway, The Nineteenth Hole Mystery). It is usually the one thing that Adams is remembered for in his contributions to the genre. Both Jimmie Haswell and Adams' later detective Roger Bennion are avid golfers. The game is almost always present in some way in the majority of his mystery novels and in some cases takes center stage. Here golf serves only as atmosphere in a tale of a murdered man found dead in a sportsman's private hotel.
While hunting for a treasured golf ball in Mr. Teesdale's backyard Tony Bridgman is invited inside and quickly charms the old man and his young ward, Molly. Upon learning that Tony is the famous golfer Teesdale entrusts him with the task of discovering what happened to his nephew, David Gregson. The nephew recently asked for a loan of £2000 from his uncle but did not mention why he needed it so urgently. He then left with the money and has been not heard from since. Last word Teesdale had was that David had been staying at a private hotel for sportsmen run by James Mitchell. Entry to the hotel is by Mitchell's personal invitation and Teesdale hopes that Tony will be able to charm his way using his celebrity as a golfer as added incentive. Once inside he is sure Tony can learn what happened to David Gregson.
Tony finagles an invitation and sets up his investigation using Jimmie Haswell as an outside resource. Gregson does eventually return to the hotel but that very night is found stabbed (in the eye!) in a secluded area on the hotel grounds leading to a boathouse. No sign of a weapon but Tony is the only one at the scene of the crime making him suspect number one.
The story has some standard examination of physical evidence for a few chapters, but the mysterious activities of a Polish count, his reticent daughter who seems to be hiding a secret, and the sinister Mitchell overtake the story displacing any hopes for a legitimate novel of detection. Tony spends a lot of his time making midnight trips to the boathouse, eavesdropping behind curtains, risking his life swimming around the boathouse, and eventually finds a secret passageway (not so secret thanks to the first edition dust wrapper illustration) leading to an underground cave filled with smuggled antiques. A side trip to Belgium, a shifty antique dealer and his thuggish sons also feature in the fast paced story. All the while Tony is wooing Molly and trying his best to impress upon her that he is not just a dumb jock with a great tee shot.
For someone like me who usually dislikes the "starry-eyed-young-lovers-mixed-up-with-sinister-criminals" plot I was taken aback by how much I enjoyed this. Adams writes a ripping yarn and has a deft touch in creating a likeable hero and heroine, not the usual sappy love birds. His obvious romantic streak is prevalent in all his books. I think in addition to golf Adams is deserving of mention for being perhaps the preeminent detective novel writer who knew why and how to incorporate love and romance into a story about murder.
Making a nice segue into this plug: Stay tuned for the "Neglected Detective" series, a soon-to-be regular feature on this blog that will discuss at length forgotten amateur sleuths from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. First up: Jimmie Haswell who, when he takes the lead role, will turn out to be quite a sharp-witted young man.
Posted by J F Norris at 11:31 AM 1 comment:
Friday, December 30, 2011
FFB: The Poisoner's Mistake - Belton Cobb
Mystery*File back in October 2010. With this one book, a startling shake-up of the old English manor murder mystery, Belton Cobb won me over. So impressive is this second novel of his I broke my rule of splurging on new books by obscure writers and purchased three more Cobb mysteries from UK online dealers and am eagerly awaiting my post-Christmas gifts to arrive in the mail.
The Poisoner's Mistake (1936) is Cobb's second detective novel with his wily police detective Inspector Cheviot Burmann in the lead role. He is called to the home of Rupert Bole on New Year's Day following the sudden death of one of Bole's party guests who was hospitalized for stomach pains. Turns out he was poisoned but just how that poison was administered is only the first of several puzzling incidents in this twisting and deviously told story.
The New Year's Eve dinner is followed by an elaborate game of anagrams and was to end with a traditional midnight toast with "Auld Lang Syne" playing on the gramophone while all guests joined hands around a table singing along. But a sudden fire in the garage adjoining the mansion interrupts the festivities. All the men run out to extinguish the blaze while the women stay indoors and call for the firemen. No one drank any of the cocktails intended for the midnight toast and Mary asks for them all to be cleared away when the fire puts a damper on the party atmosphere.
The intricately told murder investigation is fascinating but perhaps a tad overly methodical. The events of the party are dissected and examined minutely. Every detail is paid close attention -- from where the cocktail glasses were placed before the fire occurred to who picked them up and where the glasses were later found. The roles of the servants and their activity, usually a routine entry in similar stories of this period, are just as crucial as the main suspects' behavior during the party. For instance, we learn that one cocktail glass was broken from the set of ten that was intended for use at the midnight toast. One of the maids secretly substituted another glass from a cheaper set and did her best to make sure her finicky and temperamental boss Mr. Bole did not receive the odd glass. But of course things do not work out as she planned. That odd glass also was placed in a ring of books arranged to hide the anagram answers and supposedly was not touched for the entire evening. But somehow it ended up across the room hidden in a recess by the fireplace. Who moved it? Was that the glass that contained the poison? If so, it must have been Rupert Bole who was the intended victim posits Inspector Burmann. And so an elaborate plan is laid out that will both protect Rupert from a poisoner who is most likely hiding among the members of his household and flush out Bobby's murderer.
The book is not only dazzling in its presentation of the minutiae of the night of the poisoning but lays out several clues cleverly hidden in seemingly mundane snippets of dialog. The motive for the crime is mentioned in an odd exchange between two characters, for example, that is so jarring I knew it had to have something to do with the crime. In the final chapter in which Burmann explains all there are footnotes with page numbers directing the reader back to these cleverly planted hints recalling Mrs. Bradley's Notebook Pages in the addenda of Gladys Mitchell's early novels as well as C. Daly King's "Clue Finder" at the end of his Obelist books.
This is an impressive work by a little known writer who somehow fell though the cracks. Of his more than forty detective novels and thrillers published in England only two were published in the US during his lifetime and few received paperback reprints in his own country. But copies of his books are out there in the used book market and (for now) remain very affordable. Though Cobb had a long career in crime fiction lasting well into the early 1970s it is his early work from the 1930s through the mid 1940s that is worth your attention and The Poisoner's Mistake certainly serves as solid proof.
The Poisoner's Mistake (1936) is Cobb's second detective novel with his wily police detective Inspector Cheviot Burmann in the lead role. He is called to the home of Rupert Bole on New Year's Day following the sudden death of one of Bole's party guests who was hospitalized for stomach pains. Turns out he was poisoned but just how that poison was administered is only the first of several puzzling incidents in this twisting and deviously told story.
The New Year's Eve dinner is followed by an elaborate game of anagrams and was to end with a traditional midnight toast with "Auld Lang Syne" playing on the gramophone while all guests joined hands around a table singing along. But a sudden fire in the garage adjoining the mansion interrupts the festivities. All the men run out to extinguish the blaze while the women stay indoors and call for the firemen. No one drank any of the cocktails intended for the midnight toast and Mary asks for them all to be cleared away when the fire puts a damper on the party atmosphere.
The intricately told murder investigation is fascinating but perhaps a tad overly methodical. The events of the party are dissected and examined minutely. Every detail is paid close attention -- from where the cocktail glasses were placed before the fire occurred to who picked them up and where the glasses were later found. The roles of the servants and their activity, usually a routine entry in similar stories of this period, are just as crucial as the main suspects' behavior during the party. For instance, we learn that one cocktail glass was broken from the set of ten that was intended for use at the midnight toast. One of the maids secretly substituted another glass from a cheaper set and did her best to make sure her finicky and temperamental boss Mr. Bole did not receive the odd glass. But of course things do not work out as she planned. That odd glass also was placed in a ring of books arranged to hide the anagram answers and supposedly was not touched for the entire evening. But somehow it ended up across the room hidden in a recess by the fireplace. Who moved it? Was that the glass that contained the poison? If so, it must have been Rupert Bole who was the intended victim posits Inspector Burmann. And so an elaborate plan is laid out that will both protect Rupert from a poisoner who is most likely hiding among the members of his household and flush out Bobby's murderer.
The book is not only dazzling in its presentation of the minutiae of the night of the poisoning but lays out several clues cleverly hidden in seemingly mundane snippets of dialog. The motive for the crime is mentioned in an odd exchange between two characters, for example, that is so jarring I knew it had to have something to do with the crime. In the final chapter in which Burmann explains all there are footnotes with page numbers directing the reader back to these cleverly planted hints recalling Mrs. Bradley's Notebook Pages in the addenda of Gladys Mitchell's early novels as well as C. Daly King's "Clue Finder" at the end of his Obelist books.
This is an impressive work by a little known writer who somehow fell though the cracks. Of his more than forty detective novels and thrillers published in England only two were published in the US during his lifetime and few received paperback reprints in his own country. But copies of his books are out there in the used book market and (for now) remain very affordable. Though Cobb had a long career in crime fiction lasting well into the early 1970s it is his early work from the 1930s through the mid 1940s that is worth your attention and The Poisoner's Mistake certainly serves as solid proof.
Posted by J F Norris at 6:00 AM 9 comments:
Friday, December 23, 2011
Have a Cool Yule!
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Blessed Solstice
...and all the rest of it, gang!
Time to disappear for a while. I'll be back on Tuesday.
Here's an urban tribute to Christmas with Bob Hope, Marilyn Maxwell and Fred Mertz...uh, William Frawley in The Lemon Drop Kid. A great little movie based on a short story by the brilliant Damon Runyon.
(If the embedded video won't play just click here and watch it at YouTube)
Posted by J F Norris at 4:24 PM 5 comments:
Labels: Christmas, Damon Runyon, Movies, Tuesday's Overlooked Films, Video
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
NEW STUFF: An Uncertain Place - Fred Vargas
Randomness has no place and there are no coincidences. In a Keeler book, for example, the works of George Barr McCutcheon, a mysterious violin playing thief, and the science of acoustics all come together in the plot of The Mystery of the Fiddling Cracksman. A man eating a bowl of chow mein nearly chokes on a tiny hand made of jade in The Green Jade Hand, but the scene is not there merely to make us laugh it will have some greater importance to the story. Similarly, with Vargas the birth of a kitten is not thrown into the story offhandedly for cuteness factor; it will have repercussions throughout the entire novel. Likewise other events and discussions that seem to be mentioned in passing -- a brief talk about a man who decided to eat his wooden wardrobe piece by piece, the macabre history of Highgate Cemetery including what was discovered when the body of Dante Rossetti's wife was exhumed nine years after her death -- all have later ramifications in this hypnotically addictive book.
The ripple effect begins when Adamsberg who is in England for an international police conference quite by accident stumbles across a bizarre crime. Eighteen pairs of shoes have been found in front of Highgate Cemetery. And the shoes still contain feet. They have all been cut from nine different corpses and none of them are English. The shoes show signs of Eastern European manufacture and many of them are decades old. It appears that the feet have been collected over a period of years. But who on earth has dismembered several dead bodies and placed their feet in front of a cemetery with a past of legendary proportions? What have those feet do to with the horribly mutilated corpse of a reclusive Frenchman whose body quite literally was chopped up to tiny bits? Why are so many variations of a single name continually turning up in the course of the investigation - Plogerstein, Plögener, Plogoff, Plogodrescu.These names become so prevalent that one of the characters coins the term "Plog" as an exclamation denoting significance or surprise.
Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg will face one of the most unusual criminals in his career. He will discover that nearly everything in his life will be related to the solution of the crime. The people he encounters and takes for granted will play major roles. And most importantly he will discover that a long forgotten night in his past will come back to haunt him with a startling revelation. The less said about the wild fantastical plot the better.
Posted by J F Norris at 10:00 PM 9 comments:
VIDEO: Dean Martin and "The Christmas Blues"
Here's an antidote for anyone like me who is tiring of "Frosty the Snowman," "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" and the rest of those novelty Christmas tunes being piped in everywhere you go.
I had never heard this song until yesterday and I thought I knew all the sad Christmas songs ever written. It's kind of swingy and upbeat for a song that's all about loneliness.
Music by David Holt, lyrics by the incomparable Sammy Cahn. Vocal by the coolest member of the Rat Pack (IMO). I think he had a few too many cocktails before coming onstage.
If the video doesn't play in the window below you can watch it here.
I had never heard this song until yesterday and I thought I knew all the sad Christmas songs ever written. It's kind of swingy and upbeat for a song that's all about loneliness.
Music by David Holt, lyrics by the incomparable Sammy Cahn. Vocal by the coolest member of the Rat Pack (IMO). I think he had a few too many cocktails before coming onstage.
If the video doesn't play in the window below you can watch it here.
Posted by J F Norris at 10:47 AM 4 comments:
Monday, December 19, 2011
The Shadow on the Glass - Charles J Dutton
On the eve of his daughter's wedding Frank Rich, a millionaire book collector is found battered to death in his locked library, accessible only by private elevator and that elevator is guarded by two private detectives hired to watch over the wedding gifts. In addition to the murder it is discovered that a valuable rare book of Italian sonnets worth $30,000 and a box containing $5000 in gold coins (one of the many wedding gifts) are both missing. Donald Maxon, a spiteful cousin, who disapproved of the wedding goes missing the next day and is thought to have drowned in the ocean. For some reason the bulk of the novel is spent looking for this supposedly drowned character rather than trying to find out who killed Rich. Numerous "tabulation scenes," (a Dutton staple) an unnecessary inquest scene, and other extraneous action set pieces were surely inserted for the pulp magazine audience but serve only as padding and do not propel the story forward.
To be honest nothing much really happens in this very slight story except the endless repetition of the events of the crimes and the continual pronouncements of how puzzling it all is. The detection is negligible. Every three chapters something missing will be found in an obvious place. The "drowned" man turns out to be very much alive though this too is hardly surprising. Even with its tantalizing locked room problem the mystery is sadly routine with familiar tropes and more than a handful of "hackneyed devices." The only interesting piece comes at the end when the locked room is finally explained. But it turns out to be a faked locked room -- a definite anticlimax.
The book is chock full of lectures that are bound to annoy a 21st century reader. You will learn all about the inferiority complex and why at least two characters are thought to be suffering from this condition and will have to trudge through long paragraphs of psychological behavior. There are, however, some interesting passages on collecting medieval books as well as the art of the erotic engraving and how scandalous it was thought to own such a "dirty book" in the 1920s.
I have read several of Dutton's books but mostly those with his second detective, Harley Manners, in the lead. Manners is younger and more of an action hero than John Bartley who belongs to the old scientific detection school. This is pretty thin stuff even for Dutton whose early work first appeared in serial format in the pages of pulp magazines like Detective Story Magazine and Star Novels Magazine. Elsewhere on the internet I have written up plot summaries of some much better books by Dutton and talked about why I think he is worth reading for his insights into the early form of criminal profiling used in hunting down a multiple murderer. But I have yet to read one of his books that does not suffer from the reiteration scenes so necessary to the serial format with all those variations on how to convey "our story thus far." Sad to say that this is perhaps Dutton's poorest effort.
Posted by J F Norris at 9:24 PM 4 comments:
Labels: bibliomystery, Charles J Dutton, John Bartley, locked room mystery, Pulp Writers, scientific detection
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Drawing on the Past: CYRUS CUNEO
(Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905)
First American Edition
Artist: Cyrus Cuneo (1878 - 1916)
Apart from Arthur I. Keller who I wrote about briefly several months ago I think I have more books illustrated by Cyrus Cuneo than any other artist of his period. His work can be found in all sorts of adventure, crime and lost race novels: Queen's Sheba's Ring and Nada the Lily both by H. Rider Haggard, The Weird Picture (reviewed on this blog here) and The Viking's Skull both by John Carling, The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux, Dr. Silex by Harris Burland, The Red Room by William LeQueux, and nearly all the work of Charles Gilson, author of The Lost Island, The Lost Empire, The Race Round the World and other adventure and lost race novels.
American born Cuneo spent most of his life in San Francisco, moved to Canada where he did some paintings for Canadian Pacific Railway, and then moved onto England in the early 1900s where he remained painting, doing much of his work for magazines, newspapers and books. He died very young, only 37, from blood poisoning incurred after he was accidentally stabbed by a hat pin at a dance. For a brief overview of Cuneo's life and work go here. The essay is written by his son Terrence Cuneo, a British artist well known for railway studies and strange paintings of mice.
Below are seven of the ten illustration plates found in this excellent collection of short stories about literature's most famous gentleman thief, A.J. Raffles. Click to enlarge for better appreciation.
Posted by J F Norris at 9:25 AM 8 comments:
Friday, December 16, 2011
FFB: The Third Lady - Shizuko Natsuki
Kohei Daigo is waiting in a salon of a Parisian hotel when he is drawn to a woman. He does not see her face but hears only her hypnotically entrancing voice. He is also intoxicated by her unique perfume. They have an enigmatic conversational exchange and suddenly the lights go out throughout the entire hotel. The two are told by a passing hotel employee to remain in the room until the lights can be turned back on. And so Daigo talks with the strange woman who reveals that she is longing to revenge herself on an evil woman she knows to have murdered a dear friend.
Daigo finds himself ever more attracted to the woman – the darkness of the room, her voice and her sincerity all allow him to become far too intimate all too quickly. He also confesses to know an evil man– a professor in a chemical research lab who inadvertently used a poisonous ingredient in the manufacture of a popular brand of cookie then covered up the mistake with forged documents released to authorities. The ingredient caused cancer in several hundred children and their families. Many of the children died. Daigo admits that he would like to murder the man. The woman tells him her name and a few details about her work as a translator and after a brief moment of shared intimacy makes a quick exit. He has never seen her face throughout their brief meeting, but he is certain he has fallen deeply in love with her. What he does not realize is that he has also created a fatal bond between them that will lead to murder.
A few days later the professor is found dead in his home. He has been poisoned and a mysterious woman was seen in the vicinity of the dead man's' house. Several clues and coincidences eventually lead Daigo to believe that Fumiko, the woman he met in the hotel, is most likely responsible for the man's death. He starts to receive strange phone messages from a woman, a post card from a hotel is sent to his house and it dawns on him that all these things are related to the "evil woman" alluded to in Fumiko's conversation with him weeks ago at the hotel. Is he to track down the woman and kill her as well? He is devoted to Fumiko and vows to prove his love for her by doing just that. His life becomes increasingly complex as he adopts a variety of assumed identities, tells exaggerated lies to gather information about his intended victim, and stalks her like a predatory animal. Simultaneously he tries to locate Fumiko using clever detective work and an arsenal of alter egos.
The novel is mostly told from the point of view of Kohei Daigo. An alternating narrative is added by the halfway mark when the reader is allowed to follow a police investigation by two teams of detectives from two different cities. They begin to make amazing connections between the poisoning of the professor and a crime in the past. Slowly the police begin to suspect a conspiracy involving murder by proxy and are soon hot on the trail of Kohei Daigo.
It is not often that a crime novel packs so powerful a punch as this one does. The finale includes a gasp inducing twist that is poignant, sorrowful, and tragically inevitable. In the end this story of a frenzied obsessive love based on the slightest of contact but mostly the tortured imaginings of Daigo becomes a tale of remorse and shame that is deeply tied to the cultural mores of Japan. It is hard to imagine that this could have been written by a Westerner and turn out as believable and as moving as it is told here. If you have never read a Japanese crime novel here is the quintessential work. Cleverly plotted, imaginatively realized, beguiling and intriguing on so many levels The Third Lady transcends the genre to reveal the complexities of not only Japanese culture and Japanese philosophy but the intoxicating and mysterious power of love.
Posted by J F Norris at 12:45 AM 7 comments:
Saturday, December 10, 2011
The Carolyn Wells Technique, or: How I Learned to Stop Thinking and Love the Mess
It is always unpleasant to contemplate the hanging or the electrocuting of the fiction criminal. For this reason he not infrequently takes poison (which he has ready in his pocket), as soon as he is discovered, and dies peacefully, close upon the last words of his confession. This is one of the conventions adopted to spare the reader's feelings. For a criminal that can hold the reader's interest throughout the story is often too attractive a character to be permitted a horrible taking off.
from The Technique of the Mystery Novel by Carolyn Wells
The Technique of the Mystery Story (1913). That it was published by a firm calling itself The Home Correspondence School may tell you something about the intended target audience. It must have been popular, though in reading select chapters I really can't see why, for it remained in print through 1928.
For anyone acquainted with Wells' own oddball brand of detective novel reading her handbook for writers can be as unintentionally funny as reading her mystery novels. She repeatedly advises writers to avoid cliched mystery novel conventions that she herself used ad nauseam. An example is this paragraph taken from the chapter called "Devious Devices"
Another hackneyed device is the secret panel in the wall, which slides open by pressing a hidden spring. This was overdone in sensational fiction, before Detective Stories began, but was seized upon as a valuable device for Mystery tales. But it is easily suspected, and is unsatisfactory in modern settings.Wells was IN LOVE with secret passages, hidden entryways, and secret panels. It is laughable that she would call them "unsatisfactory in modern settings" when her books are littered with them. One particularly egregious example occurs in Spooky Hollow - the worst of the books I read - in which the solution of a missing jewel relies on not one, not two, but three secret panels hidden in a wall safe -- itself a hidden panel operated by a hidden spring! Perhaps she thought this some kind of neat twist but to me it was self-parody.
Wells also calls to tasks her fellow mystery writers of the period for relying too heavily on tiresome plot devices like birds that steal jewels, clothing threads as clues, initialed guns, calling cards and handkerchiefs left at the scene of a crime, and crimes committed during snowy, foggy or rainy weather. In giving examples of some of the better conventions to emulate Wells also reveals the identity of the murderers in five classic mysteries. Nice! Luckily I had read most of them. Finally, she also has the nerve to describe other writers' work as "bordering on self-parody." In response to that I think of a wisecrack one of my theater friends often used for people suffering from lack of self-awareness: "Alice, there's the looking glass!"
I recently went through a sampling of the Wells books I own. I selected three for their locked room and impossible crime elements, a subgenre Wells was drawn to, hoping that at least one of them would show her to be the kind of imaginative teacher she presents herself as in her handbook, one who at least avoids cliches and "hackneyed devices." I was miserably disappointed. Even as "alternative classic" reading it was a torturous couple of days. Only one of the three proved to have any lasting entertainment value. Below are my discussions of the books starting with the worst of the lot and ending with the one that I found most worthwhile.
Deep Lake Mystery (1928) The premise of this book seemed very promising. Sampson Tracy, a typical millionaire Wellsian victim, is found in his locked bedroom dressed up like something out of an ancient burial ritual. There is a garland of flowers draped around his neck, a women's scarf on his head, an inverted feather duster propped up behind his head giving him the appearance of an Indian chief. Also, an orange and some crackers are set beside him and a crucifix is placed in his hand. But does any of this come into play in the solution of the crime? No. Once again the most interesting bizarre elements are extraneous. Speaking of bizarre: the murder method is one that is lifted from a real story called "The Nail," by Pedro de Alarçon. At one point a character (who apparently has the same arcane knowledge of crime fiction as Wells does) purports that someone must have read the story and if they can find a copy of it which happens to be in volume eight of Mystery Tales of All Nations then they may get closer to finding the killer. Believe it or not, it will turn out that the book is in the library of someone's home and the killer did in fact read the story!
The majority of the story is annoying and repetitive - a recurring trait of Wells. The Watson character Gray Norris has fallen head over heals in love with the prime suspect Alma Remsen, Tracy's niece. Even though all the evidence points to Alma, even though three separate eyewitnesses claim to have seen her at the scene of the crime (including Norris who watched her paddle a canoe away from the house), no one believes her guilty. Why? Because she is so darling and sweet that she could not possibly have murdered anyone, let alone her own uncle. Nice people never commit murders in a Wells book. Here's some more of Wells' writer's philosophy:
The next character to be chosen must be our criminal. Here again is one, who, if he is to be convicted, must not be too deeply in the reader's sympathy. [...] The drawing of the criminal calls for fine shading and strong effects. He must be both intelligent and ingenious, in order to give the Transcendent Detective a foeman worthy of his steel. The reader must have no liking or pity for him.Finally, in Deep Lake Mystery we get another Wells staple and another "hackneyed device" for the murderer turns out to be a mad killer of the Mrs. Rochester variety. That's right -- someone who was thought to be dead was locked away in a room, managed to escape one night, and committed the dirty deed. But what of the locked room where the murder was committed? Well, there was that large window and it did happen to be directly above a lake - three stories above, that is. Look for the character who knows how to swim and dive, of course. And make sure that swimmer is the one who could dive perfectly into the safest spot in a rock-filled cove in the middle of the night with only the full moon as illumination. Oh. Are you sorry that I spoiled that for you? Didn't think so.
The story opens with a group of bored New Yorkers looking to enliven their dull summer by spending a weekend in a haunted house. They find the perfect place in Black Aspens, a mansion in a remote portion of Green Mountains of Vermont. Years ago a woman killed her husband with cyanide at 4:00 am. She ran out into the street in hysterics proclaiming the deed. A doctor chased her down, brought her back to the house and found what she said was true. He locked her in the room with the dead body and called the police. When they arrived and the room was opened the body was gone and the woman was raving mad. Now the "room with the tassels" where the two were temporarily imprisoned is said to be haunted by the ghost of the murderess who shows up looking for her dead husband. When the New Yorkers decide to take turns sleeping in the haunted room strange events take place. During the weekend two people are poisoned in the room while four others are present and the intended summertime lark of a weekend turns into a month long murder investigation. And later when one of the bodies disappears from the locked room with the tassels the suspects are convinced that a supernatural force is at work. Will it come as a surprise if I tell you there is no ghost? And that the massive pillars in front of Black Aspens have secret all their own? Yes, that's right -- more secret entrances. Double ugh.
For me the major flaw with Wells is her insistence on the inclusion of protracted "confab" scenes. Confab is a favorite Wells term. She uses these scenes repeatedly as "tabulation devices" in which the preceding events are discussed at length and mulled over by the numerous characters. She also has a habit of creating other private detectives as minor characters who come into the story to try their hand when the police (always inept) have failed. So when the series detective finally appears we have usually read about the events of the crime two or three times and must endure yet another confab by the REAL detective of the piece. It's her biggest failure as a mystery writer and yet it is something that she strongly believes is essential to the construction of a suspenseful mystery story. For me this endless reiteration and repetition is a suspense killer. An interest deadener. A brain numbing snoozefest.
In The Technique of the Mystery Story it is clear Wells has a wide reading knowledge of the writers of her period and those who came before her. Doyle, Gaboriau, Zangwill and Green are the most often mentioned in her discussion of what to strive for and what to avoid in writing a mystery story. Other minor writers like Burton Stevenson and Arthur Train are also cited in her numerous examples. Clearly she knew her stuff from the late Victorian and early Edwardian era. Yet with all this knowledge she still has no real understanding of how to construct and write a detective novel. She is quick to condemn the "hackneyed devices" but will use them herself. She discards useful conventions that move a story forward and invents some of her own that bog down the flow of the action. When it comes to putting it all together Carolyn Wells is more like the wannabe painter who throws buckets of paint on a canvas and sloshes around in it and then expects it to be accepted as art. Anyone else will look at it and call it a mess. But a loveable mess if you have an appreciation for her mastery of the early American alternative classic mystery.
Posted by J F Norris at 5:32 PM 15 comments:
Labels: alternative classics, Carolyn Wells, Fleming Stone, impossible crime, locked room mystery, occult detectives, Pennington Wise
Friday, December 9, 2011
FFB: Dead Man's Watch - G.D.H. & M. Cole
A drowned man washes up on the banks of a creek in the village of Studleigh Pepperton in Devon. He is discovered by Ronald Bittaford who happens to be passing through the town with his girlfriend, Dorothy. To his shock he notices that the man is his uncle Percy, a relative Ron claims he has not been in contact with for years. Later, other people will step forward to identify the body as Percy's brother Harold, recently arrived from Australia. The problem of the identity of the corpse leads to much confusion among the inept local police and infuriates Sir Charles Wylie, a local baronet and J.P., on whose land the creek flows. He is indignant that the police refuse to see some rather obvious signs that the corpse is most likely a murder victim. In addition to some complicated issues dealing with the tides there is the fact that the corpse has been shaven after death and one witness identifying the body notes that a valuable watch is missing from the personal effects of the body.
The book is divided into three sections. Wilson appears in the first and last sections while the second is devoted mostly to the detective work of Sir Charles Wylie and his reluctant sleuthing partner Dorothy Daniells, Ron's girl friend, who takes to her job with gusto once she settles upon it. Wylie convinces her to spy on the locals in the town where Percy Bittaford was living with his wife. He asks her to write daily reports to him in letters and he will reply in kind with his follow-up detective work. Dorothy's letters are fine examples of the Coles' skill in capturing the language and world view of working class girl in pre-World War 2 era England. They are rambling, chatty, gossip-filled missives that also cleverly manage to contain some of the most important clues to the solution of the many mysteries surrounding the death of the drowned man. This kind of burying of clues reminded me the way Christianna Brand manages to plant her clues in the garrulous chit-chat among the dialog exchanges of her finely drawn characters.
What really grabbed my attention in this quick paced story are the varied cast of characters. From the reporter who inveigles his way into the crime scene and gets his big scoop passing himself off as a police aide to the oddball residents in Marine View, a boarding house right out of an Ealing Studio comedy, every person in this densely populated detective novel has their moment to shine. In addition to Sir Charles and Dorothy (a better and more likeable amateur sleuth pair may not exist in the genre) I liked the unctuous Mr. Fishcote, a landlord who manipulates Sir Charles into buying him drinks and expects a little cash for his dirt on the Bittaford brothers; and also Mrs. Devene, described as a "grass widow," who while waiting for her husband to return from his military duties in India likes to entertain gentlemen privately in her Marine View bedroom under the pretense of having tea. Sir Charles risks embarrassment and marring his reputation by accepting her offer to "go upstairs" so he can ply her for much needed information about the Bittafords.
Such a shame that the Coles have been out of print for decades. I highly recommend this book to determined book hounds and devotees of traditional detective fiction; it's well worth reading if you can find a copy. And I would also strongly hint to independent publishers that if ever a detective novel was deserving of a reissue this is definitely it. I plan to review more of the Coles' mystery novels I have managed to acquire over the years. A bigger and unsolved mystery is why I have waited so long to read them.
Posted by J F Norris at 4:12 AM 10 comments:
Thursday, December 8, 2011
IN BRIEF: Fear and Miss Betony - Dorothy Bowers
Bowers is one of the few 1940s era practitioners of the fair play detective novel who might have become the only real competition for Agatha Christie. She certainly wrote a lot of books about poison murders. I would guess she must have some medical knowledge based on the way her nurse and doctor characters speak about disease and drugs.
The book is literate and cleverly plotted with one of the best uses of misdirection in a detective novel of this era. I wouldn't call the book "ingenious" (as Tom & Enid Schantz do in their introduction to the Rue Morgue Press paperback reprint) since the device is something Christie herself employed repeatedly in the 1930s. Bowers wrote her book in 1940. Nevertheless Bowers nearly fooled me.
There are some genuine surprises here, all of the characters are very well drawn, suspicion darts between a handful of them. There is a fortune teller who dabbles in black magic featured in the plot and those scenes are some of the best in the book. The puzzles and mysteries surrounding the odd goings on at the school-cum-nursing-home never fail to keep the reader involved and intrigued. The book really is fascinatingly well written, engaging from page one to the last word. Bowers' policeman detective Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe turns up in the final three chapters.
NOTE: The UK edition's original title is Fear for Miss Betony. The change in title for this US edition seems completely unnecessary to me. But I guess Americans don't often use the imperative mood for the verb "fear" which is how the title is meant to be read, and not as if someone were handing Miss Betony a plate of fear, so to speak. The Rue Morgue Press edition is the most easily found and in some cases can be purchased for under $9 if you are an assiduous book hunter.
Posted by J F Norris at 7:00 AM 3 comments:
Labels: Dorothy Bowers
Sunday, December 4, 2011
LEFT INSIDE: Overdue Book Notice, 1954
Today's item left inside one of my books is a postcard notifying someone of their overdue library book. The book, unfortunately, is referred to by its catalog number (damn OCD librarians) and not by its title. However, the stamp cancellation offered me an opportunity to research an interesting aspect of American civil culture during the Eisenhower years. Once again, I cannot tell you from which book in my collection this card was found.
I remember when libraries had staff to send out regular notices like this. These days, at least in Chicago, our library is so disgracefully funded they have no one to reshelve the books let alone remind people to return overdue books. Books sit on carts for months before being returned to their proper place in the stacks requiring diligent users (like me) to pore over not only the shelves but the carts which thankfully are at least alpha order. Still, it's a pain in the neck trying to locate books in our main branch these days.
Here's the name and address of the guilty party. Notice the cancellation mark on the stamp.
Apart from the curiously incomplete address revealing that local mail apparently merely needed the word City to be properly delivered, I noticed the "Wear Your Red Feather Proudly!" proclaimed in the cancellation mark dated Feb 18, 1954. "What Red Feather? Why is it so prominently displayed and so exclamatory?" I wondered. Research turned up these newspaper and magazine ads (which where not left inside a book).
The Red Feather was a honor awarded to anyone in the United States who contributed to their local Community Chest, a fund raising charity that used the money for local community projects. (Yes, it's the same Community Chest on those cards in the Monopoly game, too.) It started in 1913 in Ohio and slowly spread throughout the US and Canada. By 1948 there more than 1000 local chapters throughout the country. The organization continued through the 1950s and in 1963 became what we now know as United Way. The phrase "I gave at the office" is attributed to both these charities.
|Click to enlarge
I remember when libraries had staff to send out regular notices like this. These days, at least in Chicago, our library is so disgracefully funded they have no one to reshelve the books let alone remind people to return overdue books. Books sit on carts for months before being returned to their proper place in the stacks requiring diligent users (like me) to pore over not only the shelves but the carts which thankfully are at least alpha order. Still, it's a pain in the neck trying to locate books in our main branch these days.
Here's the name and address of the guilty party. Notice the cancellation mark on the stamp.
|Click to enlarge
|From an ad drawn by Robert Ripley of "Believe It or Not! fame, Life (Oct 5, 1953)
|from the Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct 7, 1945
Posted by J F Norris at 9:42 AM 4 comments:
Labels: American culture, ephemera, Left Inside
Friday, December 2, 2011
FFB: Peril at Cranbury Hall - John Rhode
Oliver Gilroy has recently been released from a seven year jail term for fraud. His half brother Arnold Gilroy, a lawyer, is engaged in acquiring an old mansion Cranbury Hall and its grounds for use by Dr. Richards and Professor Verclaes as a nursing home where they will cater to wealthy patients in search of the professor's anti-fatigue "miracle cure." The treatment itself sounds less like bona fide medicine at a nursing home and more like an elaborate con. Cranbury Hall will be transformed into something akin to a luxury spa/hotel designed to make the patients addicted to the comforts and indulgences like fine dining, massage treatments, and an enormous swimming pool, rather than the "miracle inoculations."
While Dr. Richards and the professor will handle the care of the patients, he tells Arnold that he will need a business manager and suggests Oliver for that position. Dr. Richards confesses that he also knows that Arnold has been manipulating the will of his dear departed Aunt Hilda and is planning to cheat Oliver out of his share of her estate. Armed with this knowledge and proof of the true will in a government registry open to the public (but unknown to Oliver) he blackmails Arnold into hiring his half brother.
Then a series of bizarre accidents befall Oliver and it appears that someone is trying to kill him. Dr. Priestley and Harold Merefield just happen to come across Oliver after he suffers a near fatal car accident – the third strange incident that nearly kills the ex-con. From Muriel Verclaes, the professor's daughter, Priestley and Merefield learn of the other accidents and Dr. Priestley is intrigued enough to investigate the possibility of foul play.
I was reminded of some of the less tightly constructed detective novels of George Bellairs and John Russell Fearn while reading Peril At Cranbury Hall. The clues are prominently displayed as if Rhode had spotlights shining on each one. There is no attempt made to hide anything, no misdirection, and no camouflage. Any sharp-eyed, attentive reader can figure out what's going on fairly quickly. This may be slightly disappointing to many readers, but perhaps a highlight for someone who has never solved a fair play detective novel. In other words, this is a great book for anyone interested in a training manual on how to solve a fair-play mystery novel.
For those who crave real puzzles there is a complex cipher that plays an integral part in the story. An entire chapter is devoted to the explanation of how the cipher works and there are ample opportunities for the reader to join Harold in decoding at least three different messages. However, you need patience and more of a mathematical mind than I have to understand how it works even with Priestley's detailed explanations. I attempted to try my hand at one, but gave up after about three minutes when I got mostly gibberish. I later discovered I misinterpreted the cipher rules and was inverting some letter pairs.
Finally, there is the puzzle of the fourth murder method -- the only successful one which dispatches Oliver Gilroy. Unfortunately, for me this was ruined on the title page of my reprint edition with an ill-advised illustration that gives it all away. Since I had read a murder method similar to what is used in an Agatha Christie novel the actual means was not as gasp inducing as perhaps it was intended. To echo something Patrick (At the Scene of the Crime blog) once said when he encountered a similar illustrated spoiler on an Edmund Crispin novel, there should be a special place in Hell reserved for book designers and illustrators who create these unnecessary ornamentations.
There is no denying that the death traps created in Peril at Cranbury Hall are the one of the main attractions of the novel. Rhode always is impressive in this regard. But it is Dr. Priestley's astonishing revelation about the multiple murder attempts that truly makes this book one of Rhode's better accomplishments. This violation of one of Father Knox's Ten Rules for Detective Fiction recalls a book by C. Daly King and another by Agatha Christie, both too well known for me to mention outright without ruining what should be a real surprise. Although most of the many mysteries can be easily solved there is this final twist that may be Rhodes' crowning achievement in this particular book. While not on the same level as something like The Claverton Affair (so far the best Rhode I have read) I would say Peril at Cranbury Hall is well worth a read if you are lucky to locate a copy.
NOTE TO COLLECTORS & BOOK BUYERS: This is one of the more difficult to find titles in John Rhodes' prolific output. Although there seem to be two copies for sale at reasonable prices at a site in the UK, I found five other copies for sale on the internet and all of them are priced over $100. One without a DJ (the Dodd Mead first US edition) although described as FINE is, I think, exorbitantly priced at $225.
Posted by J F Norris at 6:00 AM 6 comments:
Labels: Dr. Priestley, Friday's Forgotten Books, John Rhode
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Oct 26, 2020
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