The Mystery of the Yellow Room - Gaston Leroux

I decided to read this because it's one of the first "locked room" mysteries. Published in the early 1900s, it was written in France and challenges the reader to solve a seemingly impossible crime.

We're following the detective skills of Joseph Rouletabille. He's a reporter by trade, but he believes that he can solve the attack of a young woman. He keeps his methods secret for most of the book, giving out little nuggets here and there. I didn't have it figured out, and I had to pay close attention to the reveal so I wouldn't miss any answers.

A couple things bothered me about this book. First was the usage of the word "murderer." For the entire book, they referred to the attacker as a murderer. The victim was NOT DEAD. If I put the book down for any length of time, when I came back to it, I would read "murderer" and wonder if the victim had died and I didn't remember. I got used to it after a while, but the real issue, the one I still don't understand, is the resolution of the book. 

SPOILER:

The villain gets away. Why? BECAUSE ROLETABILLE LETS HIM GO! And he doesn't just allow the villain to escape, he alerts the person he's going to expose them. Does Rouletabille have to answer for this? NOPE. Instead he tells the judge, "...my business is not to arrest people." and "I gave _____ time to catch the 4:17 train to Paris, where he would know how to hide himself, and leave no traces." Seriously?! That honestly ruined the entire story for me. There was no reason to let the villain escape, and he really is a murderer.

Yes it's fiction, and I shouldn't be annoyed. But I am. I hated almost all the characters by the end of the book. The crime itself was interesting, but the rest of it was a bummer. HUGE PASS.

In a Glass Darkly - Sheridan Le Fanu

 I downloaded this book in three parts from the Gutenberg website. I wasn't sure why it was broken up like that, but I was determined to give the gothic story another try.

I read two of the stories: Green Tea and The Familiar. While both stories have physical elements that affect the characters, the psychological effects of their persecution was the worst part. In Green Tea, the protagonist is afflicted by a demon-like monkey creature. The second story was worse. It was longer, so it had a lot more time to ramp up the anxiety. The protagonist starts out hearing footsteps following him. Then there's the letters and the man. The end almost had me checking behind my curtains.

I'm not finished with the book, but I have to stop. It isn't because they aren't written well, it's because I frighten easily. Once I was on a ride where I KNEW a shark was going to pop out of the water. My eyes were fixed on that spot, but I STILL jumped out of my skin when that thing broke through the water. I haven't been able to read much the past month, because I do most of my reading at night. The problem is, if I read scary stories before bed, I have nightmares...like I said, I scare easily.

This was the kind of gothic story I was expecting when I picked up the previous book. It seems that every 20 years, I read something to scare the snot out of myself. Then I swear off the genre forever. So, when I'm in my 60s, I'll probably read more horror since this experience will have faded from my mind, and I'll tell myself it won't be that bad.

The funny thing is that I picked this up because I wanted to read the story of Carmilla, a female vampire. Maybe one day I'll get back to this book, but I have to leave it for now. If you like this kind of story and you don't mind the dated way it's written, give it a shot. All you have to lose is a little sleep, right?

Aiming for Love (Brides of Hope Mountain #1) - Mary Connealy

When I learned I was going to be sitting at a lab for two hours, I decided I would take a break from the new stories and go back to my roots. I picked up this book last year, and I wanted something that wouldn't stress my brain too much.

This is the first book in the series. The other two are called Woman of Sunlight and Her Secret Song.

Jo and her sisters have been living alone up on Hope Mountain their entire lives. When Dave and his family show up, Jo is going to have to choose whether to accept them into her life or listen to the fear that they'll only bring trouble.

Dave hasn't just moved his cattle up onto the mountain. Soon, his mother shows up with a chicken, his father shows up shot, and his brother escapes from a couple of murder attempts. 

So many things go unresolved - the second "Bible," the future of both sisters (especially Ursula), the ranch, Wax, Mitch's past, and the parents of the sisters. All these threads get woven into the story only to be left to fray at the end.

I did enjoy the book, but the way it ended bothered me. So many subplots remain unresolved that you could make an argument that you need to read all three. You also get enough resolution of Jo's story that you could stop - as long as you didn't let yourself get too invested in the other characters. I may put the other two on my watch list, but I haven't decided. 3.5 stars.

The Lane That Had No Turning - Gilbert Parker

After reading the first story in this collection, I had to rethink gothic fiction. I'm not a fan of horror in general, but I have read The Picture of Dorian Gray. I don't remember a lot of the story itself, but the emotions associated with it remain. I was thinking I would get that same feeling from early gothic fiction, including this collection by a Canadian author.

The story I read dealt with the man in charge of a fictional town called Pontiac. Louis marries a beautiful young singer, Madelinette, and she returns home one day to find that her husband has a hunchback. From that moment forward, he turns bitter and violent, but never toward his wife. Louis almost kills a man who dares to question his place as leader of the town. One day, Madelinette finds a will that proves her husband has no right to his position. By this time, it's all Louis has, and she fears what will happen to his mind if he lost it. She doesn't want to be dishonest, but she isn't sure what to do. A disgruntled former employee steals the will and eventually Louis discovers the truth. He murders the employee and then himself. Madelinette returns to her life of singing and that's the end.

It was a pretty straightforward story, and I wasn't interested in the characters. When Madelinette chased after the employee for the will was the only time I was interested. And even then, I was disappointed, because she got what she wanted. I didn't mourn Louis. He wasn't a sympathetic character, and I didn't like him at all.

More than one story is included in this book, but I didn't want to keep going. It wasn't what I was looking for, and my disappointment stemmed from expectations I shouldn't have placed on the story. I went back and thought about The Picture of Dorian Gray and how I felt after finishing that story. Then I downloaded Edgar Allen Poe's stories and read The Tell-Tale Heart. Those are more in the vein of what I was looking for, and that's not what I got from this story. Pass.

Kidnapped at the Altar; Or, The Romance of that Saucy Jessie Bain - Laura Jean Libby

 I'm continuing with my experiment of reading some old dime novels. I chose this one purely from the title. It sounded exciting and weird. This particular novel was originally published in 1909, and I downloaded it from the Gutenberg website.

I honestly don't know what to think of this book. I normally don't give out spoilers if I can help it, but this book will be an exception. Too many weird things happened for me to gloss over the story.

Hubert is our hero, a man jilted at the altar. Except he wasn't. His fiancé was kidnapped by someone obsessed with her. She eventually escapes, but she is disappointed to find out that Hubert hasn't been looking for her and has even moved on. To a young woman named Jessie Bain. 

Jessie is a teenager and falls in love with Hubert. There are a lot of obstacles they have to overcome. I don't even want to try and start describing all the weird things they go through, it would make this post excessively long. Coincidence is also strong in this story. Jessie nurses someone back to health - it's Hubert's wife. Jessie finds a job with a woman who knew her uncle - it turns out to be Hubert's grandmother. Jessie gets abducted - Hubert's former butler finds her.

In the end, this story was just so strange and fantastical that it didn't appeal to me. The unrealistic ways problems were solved bothered me, and I didn't enjoy it. I don't expect 100% realism in fiction, that would be silly, but it shouldn't be so far out there that it would never happen. One or two coincidences - sure, I can handle that. A whole book of it? I'll pass.

The Bradys and the Girl Smuggler; Or Working for the Custom House - Frances Worcester Doughty

I'm continuing with my experiment of finding books I normally wouldn't read. This time, I wanted to dive into the world of dime novels, or penny dreadfuls as they were called in Victorian England. I chose this particular one, because the title intrigued me. A girl smuggler? I'm in!

The heroes of this novel are Old King and Harry Brady. They're on the trail of a diamond smuggler, and they soon identify the target. The rest of the novel is about them trying to capture the criminals and make sure they find the diamonds.

There were many times I thought the Bradys caught the criminals, but then the villains would pull off a daring escape, and the chase would be on again. From my research, it sounds like this is a common formula for these novels, so if I'd read a few it might get repetitive. Since this was my first one, I truly enjoyed it.

You've still got some definite "clews" that this was written in 1900, but it wasn't as obvious as some of the other older titles I've read.

I definitely plan on seeking out a few more of these. This was a fun book, and even with the minor issues, I had a good time reading it. For the next one, I'm going to try and find some different genres. I'm especially interested in trying a gothic novel, so we'll see what I can find. Fun book!

Betty Zane (Ohio River Trilogy #1) - Zane Grey

I've been purposely going outside my comfort zone, and my next choice was a book by Zane Grey. I remember seeing copies of his books at my grandparent's house, so I thought I'd see what the fuss was about. The book itself made me curious about the author and his inspiration. It was interesting and thought I'd share a bit about him.

Pearl Zane Grey was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1872. Though his life started there, he later attended college in Pennsylvania and eventually settled in California. He didn't only write fiction, he also wrote books about baseball and fishing. In all, he wrote more than 90 books. His works have been adapted into over 100 films and even a television series. Pretty impressive, especially for the the time period in which he lived.

This particular book, written in 1903, covers the lives of the people living in a settlement where attacks by Native Americans are commonplace. It's basically a novel of life on the frontier with a romance running through it.

The writing was good and more interesting in some places than others. I was confused why he chose to title the book Betty Zane since she's just one of a number of characters, but she is a main character and the completion of her romance is the end of the book. I also picked up a few little gems of genius that I liked. For example, "Happy hours speed away on the wings of the wind." But, there's also rampant racism and some real cringe-worthy moments.

I wouldn't say that I enjoyed the book (a dog died after all), but I was glad I read it. The main reason I got interested in Grey's life was the way he wrote the book. At times, it reads like a history book, and the epilogue covers what happened to the people mentioned in the book. It sounded like he was talking about real people, so when I read about the founding of various towns in Ohio, I couldn't help but do some research. His maternal great-grandfather, Ebenezer Zane, was a real person and is a main character in the book. Many facets of Ebenezer's family and life are written into this book, and it made it more interesting to me.

While I don't think I'll be reading any of Grey's other titles, I understand and appreciate his mark on the literary world. Zane Grey died in 1939 at the age of 67. He's had more works published after his death, and he's easily one of the most influential authors I've read.