Reading in Reykjavík

Announcing a new feature: book lists of written works mentioned in books. I have started compiling a list I have been considering for a while: of titles (and authors) of written works, real and imaginary, that are mentioned in the books I read. Once upon a time I came across a website wherein were listed such titles. I even bookmarked it, but some time later, when I was cleaning up my bookmarks, I found that the website had disappeared. There probably are other such lists out there, but I though it would be fun to compile my own. I plan to list books, short stories, essays, poems, magazines and newspapers, both real and imaginary that I come across in the books I read. To keep some order, I will post such lists on Fridays, but of course it might be weeks or even months between postings. First up is the book I have just finished reading:  The Watersplash by Patricia Wentworth. This is the 21st Miss Silver mystery. Links in author names lead to biographical information and li...

Genre: Mystery (cosy) Year of publication: 1951 No. in series: 15 Series detective: Miss Maud Silver Type of mystery: Murder Type of investigator: Private detective Setting & time: England, just after WWII Miss Silver arrives in a small village to visit a friend and a few days later is asked to discover the truth in a murder case. A man who has just returned to the village after an absence of 20 years has been found murdered, and right at the top of the suspect list are his former fiancé who broke off their engagement 20 years earlier, and her nephew, but there are also at least two others who could have done it. The former fiancé happens to be the love interest of the Chief Constable of the district who is an old friend of Miss Silver’s, a fact that guarantees that she is given full access to all evidence and testimonies, enabling her to unearth evidence that the police has overlooked, solve the case and unite two sets of lovers. SPOILERS ahead This is an unusu...

This time around I read three books for the review. Patricia Wentworth wrote about the same number of non-series mysteries/thrillers as she did Miss Silver books, but all I managed to get my hands on are Miss Silver stories, so the author review is based on them alone. (Typically, I came across some at the flea market on the weekend after I wrote the book reviews, but I’ll review them independently when I feel like reading them). Title: Grey Mask Series detective: Miss Maud Silver No. in series: 1 Year of publication: 1928 Type of mystery: General crime Type of investigator: Amateurs and private detective Setting & time: London, England, 1920’s Some themes: Blackmail, kidnapping, theft, murder Story: Charles Moray returns to England four years after his fiancé, Margaret Langton, jilted him, a week before their wedding. He discovers that she is a member of a secret society and that some of its members are planning to cause an heiress, Margot Standing, to lose her inheritanc...