Leslie's Reading the Rainbow in 2015

[LauraT]

I studied Du Bois at University and read several of his writings here and there, but never a whole book. Interesting I see, even if I can immagine not such and easy read

[Leslie]

Pink Challenge: Kindle Catch up
Black Hoarder's Challenge (#8)

Awakening,   (done 2/22)

3½★ This 'interlude' that starts off Volume 3 of the Forsyte Saga is quite short. It is from the perspective of Irene & Jolyon's son Jon at age 8. Life as a child in the first decade of the twentieth century...

[Leslie]

Tan Challenge: Historical Fiction
Yellow Challenge: Guardian's List
Purple Challenge: Bingo (3A)

Affinity,   (done 2/22)

2½★ Maybe even 2 stars. I got bored by this book by page 250 and had to force myself through the last 100 pages. Some lovely descriptive passages but too slow moving for my tastes -- still, if that was all I would have given it 3 or even 3 1/2 stars. However, I found the plot completely predictable and the characters unappealing. And why is this billed as a mystery? Romance, yes; ghost story, okay but mystery, no!

[Leslie]

Maroon Challenge: Mystery ROOTs

Appleby's End,   (contained in the omnibus "The Michael Innes Treasury") (done 2/24)

4★ While not for everyone, I enjoyed this peculiar but witty English mystery. I am not sure that I like the writing (the vocabulary is obscure to the point of words not even found in the dictionary), but I enjoy the varied cultural references and the plot is, as usual with Innes, bizarre but intriguing. And there is a twist right in the very last line!

[Leslie]

Green Challenge: Plays
Pink Challenge: Kindle Catch up

Caesar's Wife: A Comedy in Three Acts,   (done 2/24)

4★ As with all Maugham's work, this play is well written. I found it amusing on the surface but rather sad underneath.

This play centers on the relationships between several English people living in Cairo. Sir Arthur Little, a middle-aged man in the British civil service, has recently married a much younger woman, Violet, thus crushing the hopes of his close friend and contemporary Anne and ousting his widowed sister Christina from control of the household. Anne's younger brother Ronald is working for Sir Arthur as secretary. As the play opens, we find the Littles entertaining in honor of the visiting Appleby's, an MP & his wife from a North-country manufacturing district.

It soon becomes apparent that Anne, at least, is worried that there is something between her brother Ronny and Violet and she has pulled strings to have the Foreign Office transfer him to Paris. However, the Khedive has asked Sir Arthur to find him an English secretary who knows Arabic. While Christina would like Arthur to appoint her son Henry, Ronny is a better man for the job.

That sets up the central conflict -- Ronny loves Violet, who is married to Arthur -- it is Arthur, Gueniviere, and Lancelot in a modern setting. Does Arthur know? Should Christina tell him so that her son can get the job? If Anne tells him, would she be able to win over his heart? All good scenarios but none of them is what happens. The hint is in the title, Caesar's wife.

(view spoiler)[Turns out Arthur knew all along. He still keeps Ronny in Cairo since he is the best man for the job. Both Ronny and Violet are 'honorable' and so wouldn't dream of doing something so vulgar as having an affair so theirs is a doomed love. Arthur asks Violet, for the sake of the British Empire's mission in Egypt and Ronny's career in the Foreign Office, to try to behave irreproachably (hence the Caesar's wife bit). (hide spoiler)]

I felt that the behaviour and responses were all very believable, in terms of the time (1920s) and setting of the play. Typing this review has made some of the plot seem less plausible in retrospect but while reading it, it felt true.

[Leslie]

Brick Challenge: Books in Translation
Yellow Challenge: Guardian's list

"The Narrow Gate",   (done 2/25)

4½★ Better known as Strait is the Gate.

This is the second French classic I have read translated by Walter Ballenberger. I appreciate the way he has put them into modern English without losing the flavor of France.

I have only read one other book by Andre Gide, "The Immoralist". Both that novel and this one deal with people who choose to live their lives according to a guiding principle and where that decision takes them. While I could understand the main character in "The Immoralist" better, I had more sympathy for Alissa & Jerome in this novel.

Both are quite short and would make a good introduction to this Nobel Laureate.

[Leslie]

Pink Challenge: Kindle Catch up

Dutch Me Deadly,   (done 2/27)

3★ This is #7 in the Passports to Peril series, but the first one I have read. While I think the premise of a tour group of seniors is clever, I found these seniors not very realistic and all too similar to each other. I also found the "bleep"ing out of swears annoying -- either avoid profanity or use it, don't try to have it both ways by having the characters swear and hiding the words!

The murder plot was good, with plenty of clues to the solution without making it obvious, and the red herrings were fairly plausible.

[Leslie]

Purple Challenge: Bingo (4A)
Alabaster Challenge: A-to-Z

Pebble in the Sky,   (done 2/28)

3½★ I read this for the Bingo square "First book by a favorite author" (4A), as many other qualifying books had recently be read or reread. While I found it a fun read, and it was interesting to see so many of Asimov's themes already present, the plot itself wasn't as good as in his more famous works.

It was exciting but it had some science flaws (one of which Asimov apologizes for in the afterword! To be fair to him, that one didn't bother me that much). (view spoiler)[The one that bothered me was the biological attack, which would surely encounter some people with immunity. Plus quarantine or other isolation procedures must exist. I guess that we of the 21st century are more aware of the possibiliities of these kind of attacks than they were in 1950. (hide spoiler)]

[Charbel]

Leslie wrote: "Purple Challenge: Bingo (4A)
Alabaster Challenge: A-to-Z

Pebble in the Sky,   (done 2/28)

3½★ I read this for the Bingo square "First book by a ..."

I've never read anything by Asimov but I've always wanted to. Which one do you recommend?

[Leslie]

Charbel wrote: "I've never read anything by Asimov but I've always wanted to. Which one do you recommend? ..."

I started with Foundation, which I picked up for a quarter in a used book store. It was the book that made me decide I didn't hate sci fi after all! But I also really liked the short story collection I, Robot.

[Leslie]

February status update:

#1 SCARLET: Read the USA mysteries -- 1/13
       RUBY: Foreign mysteries -- 1
#2 MAROON: mysteries off my shelves -- 3/24
#3 BRICK: books in translation -- 5
#4 PINK: Kindle catch up -- 12/15
#5 ORANGE: short stories -- 2/12
#6 TAN: historical fiction -- 1/9 (plus 5 misc.)
#7 YELLOW: Guardian list -- 7/25
#8 GREEN: Plays -- 4/24
#9 INDIGO: Charles de Lint -- 0/5
     NAVY: Vorkosigan series -- 2/12
#10 POWDER BLUE: Discworld -- 1/5
#11 PURPLE: Bingo -- 17/25
#12 VIOLET: poetry -- 3/12
#13 SILVER: nonfiction -- 2/3
#14 ALABASTER: A-to-Z -- 16/26
#15 BLACK: Hoarder -- 3/10

[Pink]

Looks like you're doing great Leslie :)

[Leslie]

Pink wrote: "Looks like you're doing great Leslie :)"

Better with some than others... but overall I feel like I am on target.

[Pink]

Same here!

[Leslie]

updated my Bingo graphic in post #13

[Leslie]

Ruby Challenge: Foreign Mysteries (Icelandic)

Strange Shores: An Inspector Erlendur Novel,   (done 3/3)

4★ This 11th entry in the Scandanavian mystery about Iceland's Inspector Erlendur was a bit slow getting started but built up to a powerhouse finale. However, I don't think it would have the same impact if read as a stand-alone.

[Leslie]

I discovered a new 'toy', which I think some people here are already using - a way to show progress on maps. So here is my progress for my scarlet Read the USA mystery challenge:


visited 39 states (78%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or Amsterdam travel guide for Android

I have been working on this challenge since August 2012 and would love to finish it (finally!) this year...

[Overbooked ✎]

Interesting tool Leslie, not many unvisited states left ;-)
I admire your persistence, you've been working on this challenge since 2012? Wow

[dely]

I like these maps! They are also helpful to see better where we have been.

[Leslie]

Kiwi wrote: "Interesting tool Leslie, not many unvisited states left ;-)
I admire your persistence, you've been working on this challenge since 2012? Wow"

Well, it's been a rather faint persistence - I don't forget that this challenge is going on but I don't seem to make reading books for it a priority either :/

@dely - don't you have a map of India on your challenge thread? Or am I thinking of someone else?

[dely]

Yes, I have it. A few years ago I made a around-the-world challenge and used a world map. I like them!

[Leslie]

Brick Challenge: Books in Translation (from French)
Pink Challenge: Kindle Catch up
Tan Challenge: Historical Fiction (set 1649)
Purple Challenge: BINGO (1C: book made into a movie - "The Return of the Musketeers")
Black Hoarder's Challenge: (book so long it makes you want to cry -- 880 pages)

Twenty Years After ,   (done 3/11)

4★ for the book, 3★ for the audiobook.

While I appreciated being able to listen to this as a free audiobook, this isn't one of Librivox's best offerings. It was slightly annoying to switch narrators every few chapters (in a book with 90 chapters, that is a lot of switching!) along with changes in pronunciation of the French names and places. However, none of the narrators were unintelligible, which I have experienced with a few Librivox recordings. I just went to reading the text rather than listening for a couple of the narrators.

It took me a little while to warm up to this sequel to The Three Musketeers but it was worth perservering! Once again, our 4 friends have become embroiled in court politics, this time involving Richelieu's successor Cardinal Mazarin. One reason I think this was slower to start for me was that I had a little trouble in identifying all the people as some of the historical characters were unknown to me yet were presented with little or no explanation. Thank goodness for the internet!

Also, I was a little puzzled about Porthos -- I don't remember him being such a strong man (he is almost a Hercules or incredible Hulk in this book!). The characteristic of him I recall best from the previous book was his love of fine clothes & appearance.

Now that I have noted my complaints, here is the good parts. Although the 4 main characters (and Anne of Austria) are the same as in the previous book, this story stands alone quite well. Each of the 4 have gone their different ways, and at first, I was saddened that they were no longer the close-knit companions they were in The Three Musketeers. But as the story progressed, the strength of their friendship showed clearly and (view spoiler)[happily they all end up working together in an unsuccessful attempt to save King Charles I of England from Oliver Cromwell & execution. (hide spoiler)] The story becomes quite exciting and I found by midway through I was having trouble putting it down!

[Leslie]

Violet Challenge: Poetry

The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2013, (read ~50%)

3½★ My biggest complaint is that this volume is overwhelming -- too large to be appreciated in a 2-week library loan. If I owned this and could read the poems more slowly I would probably be giving it a higher rating. As it is, I just read about 300 pages before it had to be returned. Luckily my strategy of reading from about 6 different locations gave me a chance to experience at least a taste of each of the major selections included.

I found that my favorite section was from "White Egrets" although the "Midsummer" section ran a close second. I didn't care for the early work nearly as much as the later poetry.

[Leslie]

Orange Challenge: Short Stories

Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories, (done 3/15)

4½★ This mammoth volume contains over 50 short stories featuring Poirot. I was glad I read it on my Kindle as over 850 pages in print would have been unwieldy!

As a Christie fan, I found this a real treat. For those who don't care for her writing, the foibles of Hercule Poirot may grate on the nerves as they are more pronounced in these short stories than they were in her full-length novels and the short story format doesn't give much time for character development.

Despite the fact that I hadn't read many of the stories before, I was familiar with them from my repeated viewing of David Suchet in "Poirot" on PBS. In fact, so familiar was I with the TV adaptations that I noticed all the variations from their plots when reading these originals! One noticeable variation was the absence of Hastings from a surprisingly large number of the stories.

[Charbel]

Leslie wrote: "Orange Challenge: Short Stories

Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories, [bookcover:Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories: A Hercule Poirot Collection with Foreword by Char..."

Nothing better than some Agatha Christie after a long day!

[Leslie]

Charbel wrote: "Nothing better than some Agatha Christie after a long day!..."

That's my opinion! But I know that not everyone loves her as much as I do...

[Leslie]

Green Challenge: Plays
Pink Challenge: Kindle Catch up

The Duchess of Malfi,   (done 3/16)

3★ The play itself deserves a higher rating but this free Kindle edition from Amazon was annoying in its formatting so I downgraded the rating.

I have been curious about this play ever since I first read Agatha Christie's Sleeping Murder as a teenager. I knew very little about it other than what I gleaned from that reference... It is a tragedy very much in the style of Shakespeare's great tragedies, which is not surprising since Webster & Shakespeare were contemporaries, but without the 'comic relief' (a relief to me as I generally hate that part of Shakespeare!).

I do have some questions about some of the motivations in the play especially one crucial point -- why do Ferdinand and his brother the Cardinal want to prevent their sister from marrying again (she is a young widow)?? It can't really be for inheritance because she has a son from her first marriage (though he never appears). Everything that happens stems from this one point.

I also watched the 1972 performance on YouTube -- as is generally true with plays, it was better when seen than when read. The performance cut out some of the scenes & dialogue but was on the whole a faithful version.

[Leslie]

Brick Challenge: Books in translation
Tan Challenge: Historical Fiction

Wolf Totem   (done 3/16)

4½★ Although the ending is no surprise, tears still welled up in my eyes. The view of a lost way of life on the grasslands of Mongolia was fairly unsentimental most of the time, despite the narrator's somewhat heavy-handed infatuation with the wolf totem.

[Leslie]

Yellow Challenge: Guardian's list

Tales of the City   (done 3/16)

4★ Perhaps this book doesn't deserve such a high rating but its stories of 1970s pre-AIDS bohemian San Francisco was the right book for me at the moment. If you are offended by crude language, casual sex or drug use, this book probably isn't for you.

Although I was younger than these characters in '70s, I was old enough that many of the pop culture references (such as to the TV shows Maud and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman) made me nostalgic.

Frances McDormand does a good job narrating.

[Leslie]

Ruby Challenge: Foreign mysteries
Alabaster Challenge: A-to-Z

Excursion to Tindari   (done 3/17)

3½★ This 5th entry in the Inspector Montalbano doesn't disappoint. I particularly like to see how he navigates between the Mafioso and his incompetent & antagonistic boss.

[Leslie]

Pink Challenge: Kindle Catch up
Tan Challenge: Historical Fiction

Room With a Clue   (done 3/22)

3½★ It is a relief to read a cozy mystery that is a mystery and not a romance novel.

The protangonist in this cozy is a recently widowed hotel owner who decides to investigate the death of a guest in order to protect the hotel and its staff. I like the Edwardian setting and the main character Cecily Sinclair but a few of her close friends from the nearby town were less convincing (Phoebe and Madeline). However, the mystery was well crafted so I will be reading at least one more in this series.

[Leslie]

Navy Challenge: Vorkosigan series

Mirror Dance , which finishes the Miles Errant omnibus (done 3/29)

4★ The Vorkosigan series is such fun reading! I found the 3 stories in this omnibus were connected by a shared theme of identity -- what makes us who we are? How much of ourselves comes from outside versus innate traits? How do we maintain that identity under pressure? These questions are highlighted by the introduction of a surprising new character (view spoiler)[Miles' clone and therefore younger brother, Mark Vorkosigan (hide spoiler)].

I love the fact that after I surface from the adventure of these books, there is more to mull over. In this last book of the omnibus, the story took a darker turn (it has some fairly graphic torture scenes) but despite my discomfort for some of it, Bujold kept me reading - and thinking.

I do hope the next book (Memory) is a little lighter though. 8 more books to go in the series!

[Leslie]

Yellow Challenge: Guardian's list books
Brick Challenge: Books in translation (Italian to English)

Invisible Cities,   (done 4/1)

2½★ I think I read this at the wrong time in my life. I could appreciate the beautiful prose but only a few of the chapters spoke to me. Mostly I felt stupid as clearly there was some meaning that I was just not getting and didn't have the energy or interest to figure out.

[Leslie]

Maroon Challenge: Paperback mysteries
Alabaster Challenge: A-to-Z

The Quick Red Fox,   (done 4/1)

4★ Not a typical mystery. It took me a short time to warm up to this plot but once I did, I found it interesting and a bit sad. The early 1960s flavor is pretty strong so some might find this a bit too dated but that didn't bother me.

[Leslie]

Brick Challenge: Books in translation (Japanese to English)
Purple Challenge: BINGO (4C)

The Guest Cat   (done 4/2)

3½★ This was a charming book which was a quick read. However, I feel perhaps I should have taken a bit more time with it. I felt that I could sense that the writer was a poet, even in translation; his imagery was evocative.

On the surface, this is a simple story of a couple who meet and eventually fall in love with a neighbor's cat. I happen to be a cat person so I could relate to the descriptions of the cat's play and habits; I think though that the cat & her habits were also a metaphor for a part of Tokyo & a way of life that was disappearing in the 1980s and 90s. My knowlege of Japan is slim so I am just guessing...

[Leslie]

Brick Challenge: Books in translation (Russian to English)
Green Challenge: Plays

Uncle Vanya   Librivox audiobook   (done 4/3)

4★ I listened to the full-cast recording by Librivox while I read this play and would recommend that method.

This play struck me as having a lot going on even through it is mostly talk rather than action. Vanya (Ivan) has been caring for his niece Sonia's estate after his sister died; now, his (former?) brother-in-law & his second wife Helena are visiting. Helena exerts a disruptive influence on all the male characters which irresistably reminded me of Helen of Troy.

I was struck by how modern some of the ideas expressed were. One example of this is the doctor's ideas about forests - his thoughts about deforestation and climate could have been spoken by someone today. I hadn't realized that these ideas existed in the late 1800s when Chekhov wrote this play!

[Leslie]

Pink Challenge: Kindle ROOTs
Alabaster Challenge: A-to-Z

Open Season   (done 4/6)

3½★ I both read the Kindle ebook and listened to the Whispersync audiobook of this first book in the Joe Gunther series. This police procedural was a bit grittier than my normal mystery reading but I liked Gunther and the Vermont setting. I will be reading more from this series!

[Leslie]

Orange Challenge: Short Stories
Indigo Challenge: Charles de Lint

The Very Best of Charles de Lint   (done 4/7)

4★ I was pleased that 18 of the 29 stories in this collection were new to me (and the 7 from Dreams Underfoot I read back in the '90s were due for a reread). Some of the stories were very dark (one in particular about a very young girl suffering from sexual abuse) but there were enough hopeful stories to keep this volume from being too much for me to handle. I am glad however that I spread out my reading of them -- to read them all back-to-back might have reduced my enjoyment of the book as a whole.

I particularly liked "The Badger in the Bag" (about the souls of musical instruments coming alive at night), "A Wish Named Arnold", and "Pixel Pixies". Oh and the tribute to Joe Strummer "That Was Radio Clash"!

[Leslie]

Purple Challenge: BINGO

Corpse Diplomatique   (done 4/7)

2½★ While I enjoyed this cozy mystery, I didn't think it was as good as the first one (She Shall Have Murder). Perhaps this is due to the fact that Jane did very little sleuthing, leaving most of it up to Dagobert who performed his detective work unseen to both Jane (the narrator) and us readers. I got a bit tired of having him summarize what he had learned rather than being given the chance to 'experience' it myself.

[Leslie]

Yellow Challenge: Guardian's list

The Man In The High Castle   (read as part of Four Novels of the 1960s; done 4/10)

3½★ I would have given this alternative history sci fi classic a higher rating but I disliked the ending. Although I knew the basic premise, this book was not what I expected. One thing Dick did very well was describe how living as a conquered people had seeped into the mind-set of the various American characters (even those born before the war).

[Leslie]

Updated my bingo graphic in post #13 -- only 4 more squares to go!

And I have completed my Pink Category -- to read at least 15 Kindle books owned prior to 2015! :)

[[deleted user]]

Well done, Leslie!

[Leslie]

Heather wrote: "Well done, Leslie!"

Thanks Heather. I think I have managed to finish at least one book in each category now, so I feel more relaxed about the whole thing (even if I don't end up finishing all of it!).

[Leslie]

Violet Challenge: Poetry

This Great Unknowing : Last Poems   (done 4/12)

3★ or perhaps 3½ stars. I really liked a few poems in this posthumous collection and didn't dislike any of them. However, most of the poems didn't make any strong emotional connection with me. I'm curious now to see how some of her earlier work strikes me.

[Leslie]

Yellow Challenge: Guardian's list
Pink Challenge: Kindle ROOTs

Ruth   (done 4/14)

2½★ I have had this classic novel on my Kindle since October 2012, but unfortunately it was the worst Gaskell book I have read. The Librivox audiobook was also not great. I started by listening to the audiobook edition but eventually had to switch to reading the Kindle edition.

Gaskell is a great writer so it isn't the quality of the prose but the content which disappointed me. For those unaware of this classic, Ruth is about a young woman who (view spoiler)[gets seduced and becomes pregnant. Luckily for her, a Dissenting minister takes her in when she is abandoned by her lover and he & his sister decide to take her home and hide her "misfortune" by declaring her a widow. Eventually the secret comes out. (hide spoiler)]

I can see that this topic would have been daring when this was written. Unfortunately, Ruth is annoyingly sweet and simple (to the point of stupidity in places) and the entire novel is too preachy in tone.

That said, I added another ½ star because despite the fact I didn't like Ruth and was mostly bored by the book, I still cried at the end. Only a good writer could pull that off!

[Leslie]

Green Challenge: Plays

Fanny's First Play , read as part of omnibus

3★ I knocked off ½ star due to the poor editing on this edition -- almost all of the apostrophes were missing (for example: hes instead of he's or were instead of we're), which was quite annoying. Also for some reason, certain vowels were left out of contractions (havnt instead of haven't; arnt instead of aren't). I read this in the Kindle omnibus The Plays of Shaw.

I had never heard of this satire by [[George Bernard Shaw]] before. I did read the preface, which I normally skip or read afterwards, and am glad I did so as certain aspects of the play were much funnier knowing Shaw had published this play anonymously.

This play features a "play within the play". The 'inner' play is a spoof on the comedy-of-manners social satire such as Oscar Wilde wrote; it is about 2 middle-class families each of which have parents striving to maintain respectability and/or morality after suddenly discovering their child has been in jail after shenanigans on Boat Race Night. The 'outer' play is a satire on playwrights (including Shaw himself) and drama critics.

I was amused by both the 'inner' and 'outer' plays but some aspects of the humor in the 'outer' play were clearly aimed at contemporary critics of whom I have no information so my guess is it was funnier at the time it was first produced (1911).

[Leslie]

Scarlet Challenge: Read-the-USA mysteries {TN}
Pink Challenge: Kindle Catch-up

Out on a Limb: A Smoky Mountain Mystery   (done 4/15)

3★ Having spent time in eastern TN/western NC in and around the Smoky Mountains National Park, I loved the setting of this mystery. The mystery itself was OK -- a little predictable but with an interesting motive. I didn't much care for the scenes given from the culprit's perspective; the change in point-of-view was jarring and the information provided unnecessary. It would have been a better story without these bits in my opinion.

Another flaw, but a more tolerable one for me, was the explanations about slime molds. I found the information interesting but a less science-oriented reader may find them boring or overly long. Also, some of the information is given twice (once to Henry and then again to Phoebe) which seemed like padding.

[Leslie]

Brick Challenge: Books in translation
Yellow Challenge: Guardian's list

Love in the Time of Cholera   (done 4/17)

4★ Armando Duran was a marvelous choice of narrator for this audiobook. However, I think I might have had difficulty with the audiobook if I hadn't already read the book in print. Love in the Time of Cholera is more straightforward than One Hundred Years of Solitude but Marquez still writes with complexity, switching from past to present and back.

[Leslie]

Maroon Challenge: Paperback mysteries from my shelves

A Night of Errors   (done 4/19)

4★ Perhaps even 4½ stars...

Appleby has left Scotland Yard following his marriage to Judith Raven (whom he met in the previous book, Appleby's End) but still gets talked into helping the local police inspector when murder strikes the Dromio family. Based on this book, he will be back at Scotland Yard soon!

While this plot is convoluted in typical Innes fashion, this 11th entry in the series is more of a straight-forward police procedural than several of the previous books. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, I found this one of the more entertaining books so far in the series.

[Leslie]

Yellow Challenge: Guardian's list
Alabaster Challenge: A-to-Z

Friday the Rabbi Slept Late   (done 4/22)

4½★ I had been vaguely aware of this series before but hadn't paid it much attention until I was introduced to the Guardian newspaper's list of 1000 Novels Everyone Should Read and found this first book of the series in the Crime section.

I am so glad that I finally read this! I found the rabbi David Small very likeable, although he played a smaller part in the story than I expected. The relationship between the Catholic chief of police and the Jewish rabbi promises to be an ongoing pleasure. I hadn't realized until I started reading this that it was set in Massachusetts, which as a MA native is a plus for me.

The mystery itself was excellently crafted. The pointers to the culprit were there yet the revelation of who it was still surprised me (even though I had noticed one of the biggest clues!).