A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch

image from Library Thing

I am on a Victorian England kick it seems - and here is another book set in that time frame.

Charles Lenox is the English amateur detective and aristocrat called to the scene of the startling death of a young maid...perhaps a suicide, perhaps not.  Charles and his butler,  Graham, set about investigating this puzzling death - it looks like she drank arsenic - but Charles is not fooled..in the bottom of the glass he discovers something else, the remains of a much more deadly and rare poison.  But, why would someone want to murder a maid?

Charles is helped in this investigation by by a cast of other characters - Lady Gray, his neighbor and confidante, a Scotland yard cop, an investigator and a one-time chemist.

It's been a while since I've read a straight up mystery.  This took me a while to get involved in. There were many mentions to previous cases that I didn't really get, and an overall assumption that I understood all about footmen, and poor nephews and much of English class structure.

So, although I liked the characters and the mystery itself was rather intriguing. It moved a bit slowly for me.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

I'm not sure this is the best book to break my reading haitus.
I wanted to like it.
I wanted to love it.
I wanted to see the beauty and the elegance in this.
But, instead it felt as prickly as a porcupine - not a hedgehog.

The story takes place in Paris. Renee is the dumpy, invisible conceierge in an upscale apartment building. She is also a closet snob and incredibly intelligent. Her whole theory is that she grew up as a poor, ugly woman and that is what she will remain..no matter what.

The other member in the house is Paloma - a 12 year old who has decided to commit suicide before 13. She believes that the world is a sad and unhopeful place one that she doesn't want to experience as an adult. But, she is also a very intelligent girl who decides to look for hope jsut to mae very sure that she is making the right decision.

The story follows these two women through a period of time. Then a new tenant moves in - Mr. Ozu a Japanese gentleman. Life in the building changes and the circles of these two intersect with Mr. Ozu.

The basic story is appealing and interesting - but there is so much other narrative about art and beauty and intelligence and blah blah blah...clearly I am not a part of the intelligent society.

So - I found myself skimming and scooting hoping for the story to open up and draw me in. Instead I just kept plodding along until it ended. I wanted to like it. I wanted to be in the know...but I've decided this proves that I am really not in the know!

Oh well!!!