Unnatural Death - Dorothy L. Sayers

Unnatural Death is the third novel in Dorothy L.Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey series. How do we judge a mystery novel written 95 years ago? Fans of the genre, like myself are willing to overlook some things that haven't held up in these "modern" times.

I found the book entertaining, although I had a pretty good idea how the killer dunit very early on. The method used may have been unusual to the readers of 1927, but to today's audience, it seems fairly obvious.

Something else equally obvious to today's reader, which may have gone over the heads of some back in the day is the sexuality of certain female characters. I'm pretty sure the more astute readers understood that Miss Mary Whittaker and Miss Vera Findlater were lesbians. Of course, that word couldn't appear in a popular crime novel of the early 20th century, but Sayers certainly left enough clues for the would-be detectives reading this book.

I'm sure that many modern readers will frown on Sayers use of the "N-word" in the book, but as it turns out, the "person of colour" (as another character referred to the person in question) is one of the few characters that comes out on top in the end.

Readers who are fans of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction should enjoy this book, although I'm not sure it works for the general reader of today.

Cloud of Witness - Dorothy L. Sayers

In May of 2021, I began reading all the mystery novels of Agatha Christie (as well as several short story collections). This project was to keep me busy until October. At some point along the way, I learned of the mystery writer, Dorothy L. Sayers. Sayers was a contemporary of Christie, both writing during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

I learned that her novels were in the public domain in Canada and available for download at a Canadian website, fadedpage.com.

I proceeded to download all of Sayers' novels, although I knew I wouldn't be reading the ebooks right away.

I had recently been concentrating on "heavy" literature and toward the middle of July, I was looking for something "light" (yet enjoyable). As I mentioned  in an earlier post, I found what I was looking for, when a Facebook friend posted a review of Sayers' first book, Whose Body? . After reading Whose Body? , I knew I'd be reading more of Sayers' work. Not right away - I had already planned to read books on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

When I finished reading Hiroshima by John Hersey, Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War by Susan Southard and a book on the Manhattan Project, I still had three books (not on atomic bombs) in the queue.

After reading the two by Toshikazu Kawaguchi , I thought the time had come to get back to Dorothy Sayers.

I've just finished reading her second in the Lord Peter Wimsey series, Clouds of Witness . With this second ebook, I believe I might come to enjoy Sayers as much, if not more than I do Agatha Christie. There are enough twists and turns for any fan of the genre. I will most definitely go onto more in this series.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi

A few months ago, when I was reading a wide selection of novels dealing with Time Travel, I was unaware of Toshikazu Kawaguchi and his two time travel books - Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales From The Cafe (Before The Coffee Gets Cold Book 2) . Had I been familiar with these two back then, the two would have certainly made my list......perhaps even my my top ten.

The summary from the wikipedia page for the first novel does a very good job describing that novel -

In a narrow back alley in Tokyo lies a café called Funiculi Funicula. In the café, customers have the opportunity to travel back to a time of their choosing, as long as they follow a long list of rules. There is only one seat in the café that allows time travel; the seat is only available when the ghost that usually occupies it goes for a toilet break; once back in time, customers can't leave the seat; the only people in the past who can be met are people who have visited the café; whatever happens in the past, the present won't change; and, most importantly, the customer has to return to the present before their cup of coffee goes cold.
The novel follows the stories of the café staff, notably barista Kazu, and four different customers. The first, a businesswoman named Fumiko, tries to repair her relationship with her boyfriend after he left the country for a job in the United States. The second, a nurse named Kohtake, tries to find a letter her Alzheimer-stricken husband wrote. The third, a bar owner named Hirai, tries to talk to her sister whom she's been avoiding. The fourth, one of the café co-owners named Kei, tries to go to the future to talk to her unborn daughter.

Upon reading the first in the series, I immediately began reading the second book. A third book in the series, Before Your Memory Fades , is due for release in November, 2022.

In 2018, the novel was adapted to film as Kōhī ga samenai uchi ni (title translated to Cafe Funiculi Funicula ). I found the film on a Russian website - ok.ru - fortunately, with English subtitles. Watching it is definitely on my to do list.

The July 2022 Book List

Is it that time already? Seems like only yesterday that I posted the Reading List For June, 2022 . This month's list has fewer books than the previous list, but with 9 ebooks, it's still on par.

The first book read in July was the third novel in Naguib Mahfouz' The Cairo Trilogy . As I've mentioned before, I was so impressed with the Egyptian writer (who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature) that after reading his trilogy, I went on to read what some consider 3 of his best novels. I was a bit disappointed with Children of the Alley , but otherwise Naguib Mahfouz remains a favorite.

From Mahfouz I went on to read the only finished novel by a writer who might have gone on to follow in the older writer's footsteps; Waguih Ghali. Sadly, the writer of Beer in the Snooker Club died on 5 January 1969, after a fatal overdose of sleeping pills taken 10 days before.

The next two books on my list were written by Thubten Chodron, an American Buddhist nun trained in the Tibetan tradition. I recommend her books to anyone interested in Buddhism.

I have blog posts on the final two books of the month of July - Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers and Hiroshima by John Hersey. I mentioned in the post on Hersey's book that I had planned to read a few books on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August (the anniversary month of both bombings). I was a little early with Hiroshima but I'm on track reading a book on Nagasaki, to be followed by a book on the Manhattan Project.

So, now the reading list for July. With the exception of one book already mentioned, I can recommend all the books on this list.

Sugar Street    by Naguib Mahfouz
Children of the Alley     by Naguib Mahfouz
Midaq Alley    by Naguib Mahfouz
Miramar    by Naguib Mahfouz
Beer in the Snooker Club    by Waguih Ghali
Don't Believe Everything You Think    by Thubten Chodron
Open Heart, Clear Mind    by Thubten Chodron
Whose Body?    by Dorothy L. Sayers
Hiroshima    by John Hersey