Five notable nautical yarns

Herman Wouk's novels include The Caine Mutiny (one of the best books on World War II) and The Winds of War.

His new book is The Lawgiver.

Wouk named five top nautical yarns for the Wall Street Journal, including:

A High Wind in Jamaica
by Richard Hughes (1929)

This is Richard Hughes's masterpiece. Titled in England "The Innocent Voyage," a huge international success, it remains a classic for the discerning. This decidedly original tale of children trapped aboard a pirate ship mingles comic passages with sinister undertones anticipating William Golding's later "Lord of the Flies." The seductive narrative voice establishes its hold at once in this story of the English Thornton children, Emily and John, who live with their parents in Jamaica. By turns sunny and darkly suggestive, innocent and slyly witty, the novel tells us at every turn that this is no ordinary child's adventure tale—more to the point, this is no ordinary view of children. Neither is it revolutionary. It is a richly perceptive portrait of young children set in a novel of utterly adult, endlessly bewitching charm.

Read about another book on the list.

A High Wind in Jamaica is one of Wesley Stace's top ten books about children aimed at adults.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: William C. Dietz's " Andromeda's Fall"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Andromeda's Fall by William C. Dietz.

About the book, from the publisher:

The roots of the Legion of the Damned lie deep within the mythology of the future. But now, national bestselling author William C. Dietz goes back to the Legion’s early days with the story of one recruit’s rebirth and redemption…

Hundreds of years in the future, much has changed. Advances in medicine, technology, and science abound. Humanity has gone to the stars, found alien life, and established an empire.

But some things never change...

All her life, Lady Catherine Carletto (called Cat) has lived for nothing but the next party, the next lover, the next expensive toy. Until, in a bloodthirsty power grab, Imperial Princess Ophelia and her cadre of synth assassins murder her brother the emperor, and go on to purge the galaxy of his friends and supporters—including Cat’s family. The Carlettos are known to be staunch supporters of the Emperor and Carletto Industries has been in the forefront of his pet project—developing cybernetic technology for use by the masses.

Now Cat, one of the last surviving Carlettos, is on the run. And, like countless others before her, she finds her sanctuary among the most dangerous of society’s misfits.

Welcome to the Legion.

Cat Carletto vanishes, and in her place stands Legion recruit Andromeda McKee. A woman with a mission—to bring down Empress Ophelia—or die trying.

Learn more about the book and author at William C. Dietz's website.

The Page 69 Test: Andromeda's Fall.

--Marshal Zeringue

Giveaway: "Dead Women Talking"

The Johns Hopkins University Press and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a copy of Dead Women Talking: Figures of Injustice in American Literature by Brian Norman.

HOW TO ENTER: Visit the Campaign for the American Reader Facebook page, scroll down, and "like" the post for Dead Women Talking. Contest closes on Monday, December 17th. Winner must have a US mailing address. Good luck!

Learn more about Dead Women Talking at the Johns Hopkins University Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: David Papineau's "Philosophical Devices"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Philosophical Devices: Proofs, Probabilities, Possibilities, and Sets by David Papineau.

About the book, from the publisher:

This book is designed to explain the technical ideas that are taken for granted in much contemporary philosophical writing. Notions like "denumerability," "modal scope distinction," "Bayesian conditionalization," and "logical completeness" are usually only elucidated deep within difficult specialist texts. By offering simple explanations that by-pass much irrelevant and boring detail, Philosophical Devices is able to cover a wealth of material that is normally only available to specialists.

The book contains four sections, each of three chapters. The first section is about sets and numbers, starting with the membership relation and ending with the generalized continuum hypothesis. The second is about analyticity, a prioricity, and necessity. The third is about probability, outlining the difference between objective and subjective probability and exploring aspects of conditionalization and correlation. The fourth deals with metalogic, focusing on the contrast between syntax and semantics, and finishing with a sketch of Godel's theorem.

Philosophical Devices will be useful for university students who have got past the foothills of philosophy and are starting to read more widely, but it does not assume any prior expertise. All the issues discussed are intrinsically interesting, and often downright fascinating. It can be read with pleasure and profit by anybody who is curious about the technical infrastructure of contemporary philosophy.

Learn more about Philosophical Devices at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Philosophical Devices.

--Marshal Zeringue

Linus Roache's 6 best books

The British actor Linus Roache played young Bruce Wayne's father in Batman Begins and Michael Cutter in Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

One of his six best books, as told to the Daily Express:

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

I remember being absorbed, as with Tolkein but in a darker way. Very moving.

My mum gave this to me at an important time in my youth when I was starting to question things.

It opened me up to a spiritual dimension which I’ve continued to pursue throughout my life with answers to existential questions about why we’re here. A milestone book.

Read about another book on the list.

Siddhartha is one of Robert Irwin's top ten quest narratives.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Joy Fielding reading?

This weekend's featured contributor at Writers Read: Joy Fielding, author of Shadow Creek.

Her entry begins:

I just finished reading 419, a novel by fellow Canadian Will Ferguson, which just won the prestigious Giller Prize for fiction. It's a fast-paced, literate thriller about the various financial scams coming out of Nigeria and their potentially deadly consequences. The book appealed to me because of its original premise and the fact I'm always searching for well-written thrillers - sadly, I don't find too many of them. This one was both beautifully written and a real page-turner. It was very hard to put down. I read two-thirds of...[read on]

About Shadow Creek, from the publisher:

There’s something deadly lurking in the shadows at Shadow Creek...

Due to a last-minute change in plans, a group of unlikely traveling companions finds themselves on a camping trip in the Adirondacks. They include the soon-to-be-divorced Valerie; her oddball friends, Melissa and James; her moody teenage daughter, Brianne; and Val’s estranged husband’s fiancée, Jennifer. Val is dealing with unresolved feelings toward her ex and grappling with jealousy and resentment toward his younger, prettier new flame, a woman with some serious issues of her own. Brianne is sixteen and openly rebellious, caught up in a web of secrets and lies.

What Val and her companions don’t know is that a pair of crazed killers is wreaking havoc in the very same woods. When an elderly couple is found slaughtered and Brianne goes missing, Val finds herself in a nightmare much worse than anything she could have anticipated. She was half-expecting it to be the trip from hell, but what she never could have predicted was that this impromptu little excursion.

Learn more about the book and author at Joy Fielding's website.

The Page 69 Test: Shadow Creek.

Writers Read: Joy Fielding.

--Marshal Zeringue

Anne Lawrence-Mathers's "The True History of Merlin the Magician," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: The True History of Merlin the Magician by Anne Lawrence-Mathers.

The entry begins:

When I wrote The True History of Merlin the Magician I had no real visual image of Merlin in my mind – how can you tie down someone who ‘lived’ from the 5th century to the 16th, and took the forms of boy-prophet, scholar, doctor, hermit, Welsh warrior-prince and half-demon, to one physical incarnation or appearance? The one thing I was clear about was that the historical Merlin was not the aged sage in a pointy hat seen in Disney’s version.

But, once I started to think about Merlin as a movie, the actor to play Merlin was obviously Johnny Depp. A blend of Edward Scissorhands, Captain Jack Sparrow and The Mad Hatter is about as close to the Merlin of medieval chronicles and prophecies as I can imagine – though adding to these the hermit who can see to the very end of time and understands the secrets of the earth might be a stretch even for Johnny Depp. Of course, since Merlin can change shape, and take on the appearance of any person he chooses, this movie would not need to be restricted to...[read on]

Learn more about The True History of Merlin the Magician at the Yale University Press website.

Anne Lawrence-Mathers is senior lecturer in medieval history at the University of Reading.

My Book, The Movie: The True History of Merlin the Magician.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Mario Erasmo's "Death: Antiquity and Its Legacy"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Death: Antiquity and Its Legacy by Mario Erasmo.

About the book, from the publisher:

Personal and yet universal, inevitable and unknowable, death has been a dominant theme in all cultures since earliest times. Remarkably, across the span of several millennia and despite the myriad of cultural profusions since antiquity, we can recognize in the customs of ancient Greece and Rome ceremonies and rituals that have lasting resonance today in both the East and West. For example, preparing the corpse of the deceased, holding a memorial service, the practice of cremation and of burial in "resting places" are all processes that can trace their origin to ancient practices. Such rites-described by Cicero and Herodotus, among others-have defined traditional modern funerals. Yet of late there has been a shift away from classical ritual and somber memorialization as the dead are transformed into spectacles. Impromptu roadside shrines, "virtual" memorials, the embalmment of the deceased in the attitude of daily activity, and even firework displays have come to the fore as new modes of marking, even celebrating, bereavement. What is causing this change, and how do urbanization, economic factors, and the rise of individualism play a part? Mario Erasmo creatively explicates and explores the nexus between classical and contemporary approaches to death and interment. From theme funerals in St. Louis to Etruscan sarcophagi, he offers a rich and insightful discussion of the end of life across the ages.

Learn more about Death: Antiquity and Its Legacy at the Oxford University Press website.

Mario Erasmo is professor of classics at the University of Georgia and the author of four books on ancient Roman culture and the legacy of classical antiquity, including Reading Death in Ancient Rome and Roman Tragedy: Theatre to Theatricality. His forthcoming Strolling Through Rome: The Definitive Walking Guide to the Eternal City guides visitors step by step through the historic areas and eras of Rome.

The Page 99 Test: Death: Antiquity and Its Legacy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top literary subjects

The famed literary editor and author Robert Gottlieb's latest book is the new biography, Great Expectations: the Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens.

For The Daily Beast, Gottlieb named five great literary subjects, "those men and women who never cease to fascinate, whose lives we can follow again and again in various reiterations." One entry on the list:

Charles Dickens

Not only one of the world’s greatest and best-loved novelists, but the most famous Englishman of his time, he was a man of charm, magnetism, inner turbulence, and self-destructive contradictions. You can safely choose among the five major biographies of the last half-century or so—Edgar Johnson, Fred Kaplan, Peter Ackroyd, Michael Slater, and Claire Tomalin; each has its large virtues. Or you can go back to the basic book, written within three years of his death by his closest friend John Forster. “The inimitable” bursts through all of them.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Coffee with a canine: Colleen and John Marzluff & Reese, Digit and Bellatrix

Today's featured pack at Coffee with a Canine: Colleen and John Marzluff & Reese, Digit and Bellatrix.

On each dog's best quality:

We used to have Siberian Huskies who are notorious for running off, so having three dogs that will stay with you off leash is a quality that I really appreciate.

Reese is a real cuddler and great for when you need a dog fix which is why she makes a great pet therapy dog.

Bellatrix is good for a laugh, especially when she watches tv or the computer or chases random flashes of light when she is in the car or herds the waves at the beach.

Digit is a clown and...[read on]

About John M. Marzluff and Colleen Marzluff's Dog Days, Raven Nights, from the publisher:

Twenty years ago, fresh out of graduate school and recently married, John and Colleen Marzluff left Arizona for a small cabin in the mountains of western Maine. Their mission: to conduct the first-ever extensive study of the winter ecology of the Common Raven under the tutelage of biologist Bernd Heinrich.

Drawing on field notes and personal diaries, they vividly and eloquently chronicle their three-year endeavor to research a mysterious and often misunderstood bird—assembling a gigantic aviary, climbing sentry trees, building bird blinds in the forest, capturing and sustaining 300 ravens as study subjects, and enduring harsh Maine winters in pursuit of their goal. They also shared the unique challenges and joys of raising, training, and racing the sled dogs that assisted them in their work.

Accompanied by Evon Zerbetz's lovely linocut illustrations, Dog Days, Raven Nights is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the adventures of field science and an insightful exploration of the nature of relationships, both animal and human.

John Marzluff's books include In the Company of Crows and Ravens and Gifts of the Crow.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Colleen and John Marzluff & Reese, Digit and Bellatrix.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Joy Fielding's "Shadow Creek"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Shadow Creek by Joy Fielding.

About the book, from the publisher:

There’s something deadly lurking in the shadows at Shadow Creek...

Due to a last-minute change in plans, a group of unlikely traveling companions finds themselves on a camping trip in the Adirondacks. They include the soon-to-be-divorced Valerie; her oddball friends, Melissa and James; her moody teenage daughter, Brianne; and Val’s estranged husband’s fiancée, Jennifer. Val is dealing with unresolved feelings toward her ex and grappling with jealousy and resentment toward his younger, prettier new flame, a woman with some serious issues of her own. Brianne is sixteen and openly rebellious, caught up in a web of secrets and lies.

What Val and her companions don’t know is that a pair of crazed killers is wreaking havoc in the very same woods. When an elderly couple is found slaughtered and Brianne goes missing, Val finds herself in a nightmare much worse than anything she could have anticipated. She was half-expecting it to be the trip from hell, but what she never could have predicted was that this impromptu little excursion.

Learn more about the book and author at Joy Fielding's website.

The Page 69 Test: Shadow Creek.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Felix Gilman reading?

The current Featured contributor at Writers Read: Feliz Gilman, author of The Rise Of Ransom City.

Part of his entry:

At the moment -- having just handed in a novel draft to my editor, and started laying down groundwork for a new project -- I'm mostly reading for research. This means a big pile of books on:
...
-- General historical works that have struck my fancy. I read Huizinga's Decline of the Middle Ages years and years ago at university; it's even better re-reading it than I remembered - a beautiful book. Very old now and probably outdated now but that's OK; I'm reading more for inspiration than for the sake of strict fidelity to facts. A lot of what I want is out of print and I don't have convenient library access at the moment, so I'm dependent on what happens to be available online at a reasonable price. That's OK too; I like the element of...[read on]

About The Rise of Ransom City, from the publisher:

This is the story Harry Ransom. If you know his name it’s most likely as the inventor of the Ransom Process, a stroke of genius that changed the world.

Or you may have read about how he lost the battle of Jasper City, or won it, depending on where you stand in matters of politics.

Friends called him Hal or Harry, or by one of a half-dozen aliases, of which he had more than any honest man should. He often went by Professor Harry Ransom, and though he never had anything you might call a formal education, he definitely earned it.

If you’re reading this in the future, Ransom City must be a great and glittering metropolis by now, with a big bronze statue of Harry Ransom in a park somewhere. You might be standing on its sidewalk and not wonder in the least of how it grew to its current glory. Well, here is its story, full of adventure and intrigue. And it all starts with the day that old Harry Ransom crossed paths with Liv Alverhyusen and John Creedmoor, two fugitives running from the Line, amidst a war with no end.

Learn more about the book and author at Felix Gilman's website and Twitter perch.

Writers Read: Feliz Gilman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: John Hannigan’s "Disasters Without Borders"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Disasters Without Borders: The International Politics of Natural Disasters by John Hannigan.

About the book, from the publisher:

Dramatic scenes of devastation and suffering caused by disasters such as the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, are viewed with shock and horror by millions of us across the world. What we rarely see, however, are the international politics of disaster aid, mitigation and prevention that condition the collective response to natural catastrophes around the world. In this book, respected Canadian environmental sociologist John Hannigan argues that the global community of nations has failed time and again in establishing an effective and binding multilateral mechanism for coping with disasters, especially in the more vulnerable countries of the South.

Written in an accessible and even-handed manner, Disasters without Borders it is the first comprehensive account of the key milestones, debates, controversies and research relating to the international politics of natural disasters. Tracing the historical evolution of this policy field from its humanitarian origins in WWI right up to current efforts to cast climate change as the prime global driver of disaster risk, it highlights the ongoing mismatch between the way disaster has been conceptualised and the institutional architecture in place to manage it. The book’s bold conclusion predicts the confluence of four emerging trends - politicisation/militarisation, catastrophic scenario building, privatisation of risk, and quantification, which could create a new system of disaster management wherein 'insurance logic' will replace humanitarian concern as the guiding principle.

Disasters Without Borders is an ideal introductory text for students, lecturers and practitioners in the fields of international development studies, disaster management, politics and international affairs, and environmental geography/sociology.

Learn more about Disasters Without Borders at the John Wiley & Sons website.

John Hannigan is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Environmental Sociology and Fantasy City: Pleasure and Profit in the Postmodern Metropolis.

The Page 99 Test: Disasters Without Borders.

--Marshal Zeringue

Giveaway: "Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture"

New York University Press and the Campaign for the American Reader are giving away a copy of Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture by Rachel Lee Rubin.

HOW TO ENTER: Visit the Campaign for the American Reader Facebook page, scroll down, and "like" the post for Well Met.

Contest closes on Friday, December 14th. Winner must have a US mailing address. Good luck!

Learn more about Well Met at the New York University Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 time travel books

Michael Brooks is a consultant for New Scientist and the author of 13 Things That Don't Make Sense and Can We Travel Through Time?

He named a top ten list of time travel books for the Guardian, including:

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Laugh-out-loud funny one moment, astute social commentary the next. Twain's protagonist takes advantage of his knowledge to set up the infrastructure of a civilised society. The book is a thinly-disguised celebration of what Twain valued most about 19th-century American life: religious tolerance, egalitarianism, education for all, scientific thinking, human dignity and manufacturing industry. It would be interesting to bring Twain to our times and ask whether he thinks America has stayed true to its origins or become a new version of medieval Britain.

Read about another book on the list.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is the book Roman Simic most likes to re-read.

--Marshal Zeringue

Timothy Hallinan's "Crashed," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Crashed by Timothy Hallinan.

The entry begins:

My newest book, Crashed, is the first in a series featuring Junior Bender, a San Fernando Valley burglar who moonlights, usually reluctantly, as a private eye for crooks. I've been fascinated for years with the shadow world of crooks, which exists in the same towns and on the same streets as the world most of us inhabit. But let me tell you, a block of nice houses is a different landscape for a burglar than it is for someone who lives there.

The books are funny, although the mysteries are real, people actually get killed, and there's nothing “cozy” about them. If I were a film director pitching the idea (which has, in fact, been bought for movies) I'd describe them as “Monty Python noir.”

In addition to being a burglar, Junior is an unhappily divorced man and the father of a thirteen-year-old daughter, Rina, whom he loves more than anything else in the world. He's eminently plausible as a straightforward middle-class, middle-thirties guy, and he can easily muster a convincing semblance of innocence. The other thing about him that matters (for casting) is that he's nearly always the smartest guy in the room.

I've always been drawn to actors who seem to have a dozen things going on in their minds beyond the words they're saying. My first thought for Junior was Robert...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Timothy Hallinan's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Crashed.

My Book, The Movie: Crashed.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Stephen M. Feldman reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Stephen M. Feldman, author of Neoconservative Politics and the Supreme Court: Law, Power, and Democracy.

His entry begins:

I just finished reading Ann Patchett’s The Magician’s Assistant. To say that I loved this book would be an understatement. The protagonist, Sabine, is a devoted resident of Los Angeles. Her gay husband has recently died, and through an evolving series of odd events, she ends up visiting his estranged family (mother, sisters, and nephews) in Alliance, Nebraska. I have never lived in L.A., and I don’t live in Nebraska. But I grew up in New York, lived in San Francisco, and currently reside in Laramie, Wyoming, only a few hours from Alliance. Patchett’s comedic contrast between life on the coast and in the heartland is...[read on]

About  Neoconservative Politics and the Supreme Court, from the publisher:

In this concise, timely book, constitutional law expert Stephen M. Feldman draws on neoconservative writings to explore the rise of the neocons and their influence on the Supreme Court. Neocons burst onto the political scene in the early 1980s via their assault on pluralist democracy’s ethical relativism, where no pre-existing or higher principles limit the agendas of interest groups. Instead, they advocated for a resurrection of republican democracy, which declares that virtuous citizens and officials pursue the common good. Yet despite their original goals, neocons quickly became an interest group themselves, competing successfully within the pluralist democratic arena. When the political winds shifted in 2008, however, neocons found themselves shorn of power in Congress and the executive branch. But portentously, they still controlled the Supreme Court.

Neoconservative Politics and the Supreme Court explains how and why the neoconservatives criticized but operated within pluralist democracy, and, most important, what the entrenchment of neocons on the Supreme Court means for present and future politics and law.

Learn more about Neoconservative Politics and the Supreme Court at the New York University Press website.

Stephen M. Feldman is the Jerry W. Housel/Carl F. Arnold Distinguished Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Wyoming. His previous books include Free Expression and Democracy in America: A History and American Legal Thought From Premodernism to Postmodernism: An Intellectual Voyage. Free Expression and Democracy.

Writers Read: Stephen M. Feldman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Oren Bar-Gill's "Seduction By Contract"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Seduction by Contract: Law, Economics, and Psychology in Consumer Markets by Oren Bar-Gill.

About the book, from the publisher:

Consumers routinely enter into long-term contracts with providers of goods and services - from credit cards, mortgages, cell phones, insurance, TV, and internet services to household appliances, theatre and sports events, health clubs, magazine subscriptions, transportation, and more. Across these consumer markets certain design features of contracts are recurrent, and puzzling. Why do sellers design contracts to provide short-term benefits and impose long-term costs? Why are low introductory prices so common? Why are the contracts themselves so complex, with numerous fees and interest rates, tariffs and penalties?

Seduction by Contract explains how consumer contracts emerge from the interaction between market forces and consumer psychology. Consumers are short-sighted and optimistic, so sellers compete to offer short-term benefits, while imposing long-term costs. Consumers are imperfectly rational, so sellers hide the true costs of products and services in complex contracts. Consumers are seduced by contracts that increase perceived benefits, without actually providing more benefits, and decrease perceived costs, without actually reducing the costs that consumers ultimately bear.

Competition does not help this behavioural market failure. It may even exacerbate it. Sellers, operating in a competitive market, have no choice but to align contract design with the psychology of consumers. A high-road seller who offers what she knows to be the best contract will lose business to the low-road seller who offers what the consumer mistakenly believes to be the best contract. Put bluntly, competition forces sellers to exploit the biases and misperceptions of their customers.

Seduction by Contract argues that better legal policy can help consumers and enhance market efficiency. Disclosure mandates provide a promising avenue for regulatory intervention. Simple, aggregate disclosures can help consumers make better choices. Comprehensive disclosures can facilitate the work of intermediaries, enabling them to better advise consumers. Effective disclosure would expose the seductive nature of consumer contracts and, as a result, reduce sellers' incentives to write inefficient contracts.

Developing its explanation through a general framework and detailed case studies of three major consumer markets (credit cards, mortgages, and cell phones), Seduction by Contract is an accessible introduction to the law and economics of consumer contracts, and a powerful critique of current regulatory policy.

Learn more about Seduction by Contract at the Oxford University Press website.

Oren Bar-Gill is a Professor of Law and co-Director of the Center for Law, Economics and Organization at the New York University School of Law.

The Page 99 Test: Seduction by Contract.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten must-read books to understand the history of the Earth

At io9 Annalee Newitz tagged "ten books you must read if you want to understand [the Earth's] transformation, from the rise of oxygen in the atmosphere to the mass deaths of the dinosaurs," including:

Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth, by Andrew H. Knoll

Harvard earth scientist Knoll is one of the few people on the planet who has devoted his career to determining the dates on ancient pieces of rock in order to understand the origins of life. This book explores Earth as a "young planet," meaning in the years before the Cambrian Explosion that led to the development of multicellular life that could breathe oxygen. But there were billions of years of evolution before that time, in which single celled creatures lived in a world whose oceans and atmosphere were very different from today. Knoll does a terrific job showing you this lost world, and explaining how he and other scientists use evidence to speculate about what life would have been like billions of years ago.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: C. C. Benison's "Eleven Pipers Piping"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Eleven Pipers Piping: A Father Christmas Mystery by C. C. Benison.

About the book, from the publisher:

Father Tom Christmas, the recently widowed vicar adjusting to life in the English village of Thornford Regis, would do almost anything to avoid attending the annual Robert Burns Supper at the local hotel. But as chaplain to a traditional Scottish pipe band, Father Tom must deliver the grace—and contend with wailing bagpipes, whiskey-laced parishioners reciting poetry, and the culinary abomination that is haggis.

As snow falls to unprecedented depths, the revelers carry on—briefly interrupted by an enigmatic stranger seeking shelter. Then Will Moir, proprietor of the hotel and a dedicated piper, inexplicably goes missing—only to be found later in the hotel’s dark tower, alone and dead from what appears to be a heart attack.

Father Tom’s own heart sinks when he learns the actual cause of Will’s demise. When word gets out, the flurry of innocent speculation descends into outlandish gossip. And, for all its tranquil charm, Thornford Regis has plenty to gossip about—illicit trysts, muted violence, private sorrows, and old, unresolved tragedies. The question is: Who would benefit most from the piper’s death? Suspicion swirls around many, including Will’s beautiful widow, their shadowy son, Will’s obnoxious brother-in-law, and even the mysterious party crasher, who knows more than she lets on about the grudges she left behind—but never forgot.

Brimming with wit, full of genuine surprise, and featuring one of the most memorable (and unlikely) detectives in mystery fiction, C. C. Benison’s second Father Christmas mystery will delight readers with a puzzle that truly defies solution.

Learn more about the book and author at C. C. Benison's website.

The Page 69 Test: Eleven Pipers Piping.

--Marshal Zeringue