On My Radar: Bruno's Challenge

 

 

It's always a good day when I find out about a new book from one of my favorite authors. When I learned that Martin Walker has a short story collection coming out featuring Bruno, Chief of Police, you know I did a happy dance. Let's find out more about it!

 

Synopsis:

"Martin Walker presents his first collection of stories featuring all the familiar characters from his Bruno novels and the glories of the Périgord, with ample helpings of food and wine.

After a prisoner breaks parole to see his son on Christmas, Bruno must track him down before he throws away his chance at eventual freedom. When a Senegalese man’s coffee sells superbly at the market, some café owners become incensed by the new competition and take matters into their own hands. As a Swiss tourist and a St. Denis native fall in love over the fruit-and-veggie stall, one of their family members takes drastic steps to break them up. A fledgling tour bus business is sabotaged, leading Bruno to take a closer look at a town love triangle. Called in to investigate a case of stolen oysters, our beloved policeman reunites with an old flame to catch the shellfish thieves.
 
In story after story, Bruno settles town disputes, mediates family quarrels, and tracks down lawbreakers in his adored village of St. Denis and its environs. Featured meals in the collection include a fatty Christmas goose, a savory nettle soup with crème fraîche, and a fluffy quiche Lorraine."

 

 

I did notice that some of the stories in this collection have already been released in digital format, so that's something you might want to take into consideration. There are new stories in the collection, so you know I'm still going to get my hands on a copy to read them!

 

I'm showing the UK cover of Bruno's Challenge in this post. The UK release date is November 11, 2021. The US edition will be available on March 15, 2022.

 

Bon appétit!

A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry

 

First Line: A book is already written before the reader casts an eye upon the page.

 

Circumstances are certainly keeping Dr. Will Raven off-balance. Few things ever upset him, but even he is shocked at the contents of a package that washes up at the Port of Leith, and he still can't understand why a man he's long detested is suddenly pleading for his help to escape the hangman.

 

Back at the home of Dr. James Simpson, Sarah Fisher has her heart set on learning to practice medicine even though almost everyone tells her not to. When she learns that a woman has recently earned a medical degree despite her gender, Sarah travels across the Channel to speak with her.

 

Sarah returns in a strange mood, but Will needs her help. His efforts to prove the man's innocence are failing. Between the two of them, they travel the great social divide of Edinburgh to discover the truth.

 

~

 

Once upon a time, I used to be a reader who had to read any series books in order. No exceptions. In the past few years, I've moved past that, willing to jump in with the newest book and then go back to the beginning if I enjoyed what I read. I've been lucky doing that, seldom choosing a series that didn't tell enough of the backstory to start me off on the right foot. Well... A Corruption of Blood, the third book in the Raven & Fisher historical series set in 1850s Edinburgh, Scotland, was not a good choice to jump into this new-to-me series. I spent almost the first half of the book feeling like an outsider and struggling to get the cast of characters straight as well as all their relationships to each other.

The mystery in this book isn't all that mysterious, although something a bad guy says did make my jaw drop. There were also a few too many romantic entanglements to suit me, although they never did cross my imaginary line in the sand.

What I did enjoy about this book is its depiction of the practice of medicine at that time, its mix of barbarism and advancement, as well as the almost insurmountable divide between the rich and the poor. And-- fancy that-- some of the same problems faced then are the exact same ones we face today. The more things change...

Now that I have my bearings in this Raven & Fisher series, am I going to continue reading? Even though I did like the story on the whole and I did appreciate the historical setting, I think one visit with Will Raven and Sarah Fisher is enough for me. Your mileage may certainly vary.

A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry

eISBN: 9781786899873

Canongate Books © 2021

eBook, 416 pages

 

Historical Mystery, #3 Raven & Fisher mystery

Rating: C+

Source: Net Galley

Off the Beaten Path: Seven Springs to Sheep Bridge

Sometime in the recent past, I think I mentioned that I was gathering together some photos for a "compilation" post about one of my favorite off-road drives here in Arizona. Denis and I have jumped into the Blazer or the Jeep and taken these trails more than once, and each time was an adventure.

The drive takes us past old mines, ancient Indian ruins, a favorite beat-the-heat spot for Phoenicians at the turn of the twentieth century, relics of the Civilian Conservation Corps, riparian areas tucked away into canyons, and a national monument-- just to hit some of the highlights.

There are two different directions you can take to get to Seven Springs and Sheep Bridge. Seven Springs was a popular spot for early Phoenicians to go to beat the summer heat. They'd load up their wagons for the two-day journey, and spend as long as they could in the shady green oasis at the cooler elevations. Seven Springs was such a popular spot that the Civilian Conservation Corps built a small campground among the huge sycamore trees in 1934. They did good work, because the stone buildings have survived many, many floods over the years.

Got your sunscreen, hat, and water? Good. Let's get started!

If you head north from Phoenix to get to Seven Springs, you drive through the swanky areas of Cave Creek and Carefree. The road (still paved) takes you past the old Cave Creek Mistress Mine up on the side of a mountain. It's an old gold mine, the remnants of which burned down in the 2005 Cave Creek Complex fire that burned over 250,000 acres. You see it here before the fire.

Just past the old gold mine, there's a turn-off to the Sears-Kay Ruins, the remnants of an ancient Hohokam hilltop fortress built circa 1050 AD.

There's a one-mile self-guided loop trail taking you through the ruins.

As the (now unpaved) road wound higher into the mountains and we got closer to Seven Springs, it was easy to tell that we were getting closer to water. In the desert, bright green means water.

And here we are at Seven Springs. As you can see, there was water running across the road, which is always a thrill to anyone who's lived in the desert for very long. After all, we're used to crossing bridges signed for waterless rivers.

I always feel like a child when fording any sort of stream. I want to make a big splash!

Denis and I never want to leave this gorgeous little spot. There are hiking trails, and those restrooms that the CCC built 'way back in 1934 can certainly come in handy!

Here am I, sitting in the Blazer in the middle of Tangle Creek. After Seven Springs, the dirt trail continues to wind higher into the mountains and cross through riparian areas. We picked up quite a bit of mud on this adventure.

Here I am, standing on a boulder above Roundtree Creek, a lovely riparian area in a small canyon filled with birds and other wildlife.

As always, I roamed the banks of Roundtree Creek searching for plants I'd never seen before, like this miner's lettuce. Miner's lettuce is packed with vitamins, and during the Gold Rush, miners ate it to prevent scurvy.

There were other plants to see, too. This is Golden Corydalis.

On this particular attempt to get to Sheep Bridge, we hadn't realized that this part of Arizona had gotten a lot more rain than Phoenix. The deep, slippery mud and huge, seemingly bottomless, "lakes" in the trail made us turn back.

This photo was taken shortly after Tangle Creek. When we'd given up on getting to Sheep Bridge, we turned around and headed back the way we came. Between the turn-off for the bridge and Roundtree Creek, there were some hair-raising, deep ruts in the mud that pulled the Blazer right into them no matter how Denis tried to avoid them. At one point, the Blazer was at such an angle, I wouldn't've had to stretch far to reach out and touch the ground! All we could do was keep moving, otherwise we'd been well and truly stuck and walking for miles. The fun side to this was getting back to swanky Cave Creek and Carefree. The Blazer was literally covered in mud. We looked like the hillbillies returning to Beverly Hills after a successful possum hunt. Mud would come off the Blazer in big squishy chunks and splat on the spotless SUVs that had never been used off-road. We saw some horrified looks from those drivers seeing mud touch their four-wheeled babies, and I have to admit that we laughed all the way back to Phoenix.

You can also get to Sheep Bridge by taking I-17 north from Phoenix to the Bloody Basin exit and heading east. We'd barely gotten off the interstate and onto the dirt road when a coachwhip snake crossed in front of us. I've never seen a snake move as fast as that one did. Just past the first snake encounter, we stopped so I could photograph one of an entire field of blooming desert mariposas.

Past the mariposas, we crossed the Agua Fria River. I know, it doesn't look like much, but during the 500-year flood of the late 1970s, this little nothing of a stream washed away a very large bridge in Sun City.

Another look at the Agua Fria.

Denis watching the minnows in the water.

Just past the bend in the road, you can look down at a very large ranch. Must be interesting living there during floods...

If you see what looks to be a stick lying across the trail, don't run over it. Snakes like to sun themselves there. This is a gopher snake, also known as "the farmer's friend" because it will keep barns and outbuildings mouse- and rat-free.

One reason why I like a good zoom lens on my cameras. I stayed far enough away not to bother it, and it didn't bother me.

Particularly in spring, these trails can be awash in wildflowers like this Arizona Yellow-throat Gilia. Wildflowers can be so small that, if you never get out of your vehicle, you'll never know they're there.

These golden desert-trumpets formed carpets of yellow in meadows and along the hillsides.

Large clumps of Blackfoot daisies also dotted the landscape.

Getting closer to Sheep Bridge, the trail was extremely washboarded. Our kidneys took quite a lot of jostling, and even this saguaro looked like it was trying to escape.

Our first view of Sheep Bridge.

Side view of Sheep Bridge over the Verde River. The bridge was built in 1944 to allow sheep to be moved from one grazing range to another without fording the river. The sheep drives stopped in 1978, which just happens to coincide with major flooding-- like that bridge collapse over the Agua Fria I mentioned earlier.

Sheep Bridge. We found fresh cougar tracks in the sand on the other side.

View from the bridge.

The Verde River.

 

I also want to mention that, when you take the Bloody Basin Trail from I-17 to Sheep Bridge, you'll be passing through the Agua Fria National Monument, an area rich in wildlife as well as human history. The name Bloody Basin comes from some contentious meetings between white settlers and the Apache. You can find yourself high in the mountains on a rocky trail so narrow that you can look out your side window and see nothing but a sheer drop of hundreds of feet. You'll cross a "saddle" of solid rock on which nothing can grow, and you know that it will still be there long after humans have vanished from the face of the earth.

This is one of my favorite drives in the entire state, and I only wish a computer crash hadn't destroyed some of my photos so I could show you more. But all good things must come to an end. I hope you enjoyed the journey. Now it's time to wash off the trail dust, grab a cold one, and put your feet up!

A Poor Denis! Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Things have mushroomed here at Casa Kittling since my last round-up, and I'm writing this early just in case. This week, work on the other two bathrooms  will have begun, so it's difficult to gauge whether or not I'll have the time or the peace and quiet to do much blogging. Instead of talking about bathroom remodels, I thought I'd spend a little time commiserating with my husband. 

Things have livened up considerably outside the big picture window where I sit to read, blog, and knit most afternoons. There is a pair of courting mockingbirds keeping me distracted. The male is determined to show how the big cactus and all the shrubbery are rich sources of bugs, perches, and hideaways, and that there's even a dedicated source of water for drinking and bathing. The female is playing hard-to-get, but I can tell he's convinced her that this is a prime area in which to nest. There's also been a trio of curved-bill thrashers frequenting my little impromptu live theater. They're after the bugs and water, too. What I didn't expect was how I metaphorically set the cat among the pigeons by the insertion of a small piece of yard art.

We recently had the remnants of a stump removed out there, and I had the bright idea to move a small rust-colored iron roadrunner out there. It looks as though it's racing from the fairy duster bush to the cactus. I didn't realize that the live birds might take umbrage. I've seen one mockingbird peck the roadrunner's tail, and the curved-bill thrashers have certainly given it the stink-eye. I've had so much fun watching all the antics!

Naturally, I've shared the goings-on with Denis, who spends his afternoons at his computer in our office, and he's feeling very left out, poor baby. We've had security cameras set up for a few years now, and now he's gone out and installed one that has a view of the birdbath and the general area in hopes that the birds will trigger it and he'll be able to see what I've been talking about. Well...

I've just told him that his camera isn't even recording one-tenth of what's been going on. Poor Denis! 

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Writing should be a visual art. Picture books aren't just for children.  
• Why you should sit on your library board. 
• Why we forget most of the books we read (and the movies and the television we watch.) Thanks, Sam! 
• "The beginning of the snowball": Supply-chain snarls delay books. 
• Reading beyond likeability.
• How can you write fiction that fights fake news? 
• On Babar: Model of integration or crumbling myth? 
• Has Amazon changed fiction? 
• Why translators should be named on book covers. 
• Sue Grafton's alphabet novels are headed for television.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A "spirit mirror" used by 16th-century occultist John Dee came from the Aztec Empire. 
• A 2,700-year-old private toilet has been found in Jerusalem.
• Unearthing the secret life of a Viking warrior woman.
• This trove of artifacts, many recovered from abroad, trace 4,000 years of Mexican history.
• A 3,000-year-old golden bowl with a sun motif has been found in Austria.
• X-Ray technology has revealed Marie Antoinette's censored secret correspondence.
• 3-D reconstruction reveals the faces of three ancient Egyptian mummies.
• "Box seats" have been found in a Roman Empire-era arena in Turkey.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• How octopuses use trial-and-error methods to get what they want.
• One month later, five escaped zebras are still roaming the suburbs of Maryland.
• How capybaras became the favorite animals of memes.
• Hundreds of three-eyed "dinosaur shrimp" emerge after an Arizona monsoon.
• A group of violent otters is mysteriously attacking people and dogs in Alaska. I wonder if one of them is named Emmet? (Name that movie!)
• Wanted: Sweet skunks that do sick stunts.
• The world's largest rodents are taking over a fancy gated community in Argentina.
• Frog foam may help deliver drugs to human skin.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• A lover's quarrel, a dilapidated mansion, and a body in the basement in Louisville, Kentucky.
• Eight of the biggest tsunamis in history.
• A mysterious woodland trail in Arizona will take you to the original Sinagua ruins.
• Biltmore Estate's secret passages.
• Pillow Cat Books in New York City's East Village pays homage to our furry friends.
  

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Jan Zwartendijk, the unsung Dutchman who saved as many as 10,000 Jews during the Holocaust, is finally getting his due.
• Meet Jeanne Villepreux-Power, the 19th-century French dressmaker who invented the aquarium.

 

►Craftsmanship & Artistry◄

• Hyperrealistic 3D hoop embroidered foods.
• Shiny insect and animal sculptures made out of recycled kitchen utensils.
• Six photographers invited to photograph one man reveal the power of perspective.
  

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• The best non-fiction to read this fall.
• Fourteen books written by Indigenous authors.
• The best new books for your book club.
• Fifteen Halloween movies for people who don't like horror movies.
• The twenty-five most iconic book covers in history.
• Books focused on opulent wealth, family secrets, and suspense.
• Eleven urban legends that turned out to be true.
• Eight essential Louise Penny books for any mystery lover.
• Seven ways Einstein changed the world.

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. And don't forget to curl up with a good book!

The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen

 

First Line: It's too dark to go out but too hot to sleep.

 

A police officer in sleepy Woodbury, Massachusetts, Ellery Hathaway knows a thing or two about serial killers, but it has nothing to do with her training. Ellery was the seventeenth victim of serial killer Francis Michael Coben... the only one of his victims to survive. No one else in Woodbury knows this.

 

When three people disappear from town in three years-- all right around her birthday-- Ellery starts to believe that someone knows her secret. Someone very dangerous. When her superiors dismiss her concerns and the vanishing season for a fourth victim approaches, Ellery turns to the one person she knows will believe her: FBI agent Reed Markham, the man who saved her from Coben all those years ago.

 

~

 

Even though I found the identity of the killer to be glaringly obvious, I still didn't want to put The Vanishing Season down. There's much more to this book than deducing whodunit. For one thing, there's Ellery Hathaway. Ellery, who was dragged into Hell and lived to tell the tale. Ellery who thinks, "They'd never sat in a killer's closet and felt the claw marks in the wood, left there by the girls who had already died." Ellery, whose best buddy is a Basset hound named Speed Bump and the only male allowed through her front door. Ellery, whose life has been turned into countless movies of the week, and who guards her privacy fiercely.

Then there's the layered, nuanced relationship she has with the man who saved her all those years ago. Reed Markham made his name and fame writing a book about Ellery Hathaway and the monster who locked her up in his closet. But his life has changed. His marriage is a train wreck. His bosses think he's washed up. He even blew the last investigation he worked on. So... he's certainly got the time to help Ellery out.

The Vanishing Season has a fast pace that keeps readers sucked in, and even though I've already said that whodunit was no mystery to me, I still enjoyed watching the investigation unfold-- mainly because of the interplay between Ellery and Reed. I am certainly looking forward to meeting these two fantastic characters again.

The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen

eISBN: 9781250126054

Minotaur Books © 2017

eBook, 304 pages

 

Police Procedural, #1 Ellery Hathaway mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

Our First Visit to the Musical Instrument Museum

This summer, my slowly improving leg health meant that Denis and I got out and about more. But when it's well over 100°F. in the shade, we opted for checking out indoor venues. A few weeks ago, we acted on a recommendation given to me by author Jenn McKinlay many moons ago and visited the Musical Instrument Museum.

What a fabulous place!

Denis and I spent so much time there and took so many photos that it's taken me a while to sort through everything. Today's post will give you an overview of the museum's purpose as well as a look at some of the exhibits that you will find on the first floor. As much time as we spent on the first floor, we really lost our minds of the second floor, and that's going to take more than one future post to give you an idea of what this incredible place is like. Let's get started!

 

From the museum website. I fell in love with the architecture and the landscaping, both perfectly suited to the surrounding desert.

From the website: "MIM [Musical Instrument Museum] began with a vision to create a musical instrument museum that would be truly global. Realizing most musical museums featured historic, primarily Western classical instruments, MIM’s founder Bob Ulrich (then CEO of Target Corporation) was inspired to develop a new kind of museum that would focus on the kind of instruments played every day by people worldwide." 

The Musical Instrument Museum is one of the top tourist destinations in the Phoenix metro area and is rated among the top fifteen museums in the country. Why it took so long for Denis and I to visit, I will never know.

MIM is a Phoenix Point of Pride.

The museum is filled with quiet spots looking out at nature. This one also looks out on the outside eating area next to the cafe.

An Electraglide guitar made in the Highlands of Scotland. Not all of the instruments are as "normal" looking as this one, however.

I'm still trying to imagine a pigeon that would put up with having this on its tail.

A lute made from an armadillo shell?!?

A pair of setoes (arched harps) from the Ngbaka people in the Ubangi River Region in Africa. Each instrument's body and sound in this male and female pair stand as metaphors for human/spiritual embodiment and "voice."

One of the museum's conservation areas.

The entrance to the Artist Gallery. I loved the different types of marble used in the floor.

Have you ever heard John Denver sing "This Old Guitar"? This is the guitar.

The "Plum Blossom" robe worn by Rockmore at the 1994 New York Film Festival screening of Steven M. Martin's film "Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey."

I loved the detail on the robe and was thrilled to find out that the museum held more than musical instruments. You know me and textiles...

Just the beginning of a large exhibit on Elvis. Natch!

Another cool and quiet spot for a little contemplation.

A large kempul (gong) from Indonesia.

There is a large Experience Gallery on the first floor filled with all sorts of musical instruments that you can play. I actually checked something off my bucket list here. I've always wanted to bang a gong, and I gave this kempul a couple of good whacks. One: that beater (mallet) is a lot heavier than I expected. Two: I want one here at Casa Kittling... ooooh, Denis!

The museum shop is also on the first floor, and it's filled with goodies. I bought two things on this, our first visit.

 

The pack of Dia de los Muertos-themed playing cards will go on my offrenda at the end of the month. Growing up, my mother and I would go to my grandparents' house for Saturday dinner and an hour or two of playing various card games before adjourning to watch my grampa's favorite, "The Lawrence Welk Show."

The basket is made from telephone wire. It all started as a recycling project in South Africa but has now turned into a thriving cottage industry for talented Zulu weavers living in rural areas. How thriving? Over 700 families are supported by weaving these baskets. I know I'll be getting more. I love them!

 

A pair of atingtings (slit drums) from Vanuatu outside the museum.

If you liked the first floor, you're going to love the second floor! I hope you'll be joining me on my next visit to the Musical Instrument Museum.