Category: Barbara Vine

Miss Pym Disposes

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

***May 2011 backlog post***

In an earlier post, I mentioned I’m really not a mystery reader. Now this could just be one of those psychosomatic things like a violent reaction to years of living in S-bury, Land of the Retirement Housing Developments For Rich People and every time you walked by the Mystery section of the library your eyes watered from the smell of old lady and cigarettes because this was the 1980s and all the old ladies in Fancy Retirement Housing Development had been smoking since a certain former First Lady was their classmate as Posh Girls School/Posh Girls College.  True story that!

So you can understand why the only reason I know about most mystery writers is from refilling the mystery section or working the cashwrap at Barnes & Noble or Borders. as a younger Gwen. Sorry all you Patricia Cornwall and James Patterson and Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton and INSERT MYSTERY AUTHOR NAME HERE fans!

But I’m not a total savage. Remember, I really like Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine and Kate Atkinson! And now I can add Josephine Tey to the list of Mystery Authors I Like. See, I had heard of Josephine Tey but feared she might rather Agatha Christie or too twee for words. Yes, I ACTUALLY USE WORDS LIKE TWEE ON A REGULAR BASIS!

So I approached Miss Pym Disposes warily. Pluses: English writer, boarding school, hazy 1930s/1940s time frame. Minuses: could be twee as all frosted pop tart, could be all Preachy, might not be able to wrap head around hazy 1930s/1940s time frame.

But Miss Pym Disposes didn’t disappoint. Miss Pym, French teacher turned best selling psychology author does a favor for one of her old school mates. Said old school mate saved the young Miss Pym from teasing over her government first name. Grownup Miss Pym is still grateful to old school chum years later. Said friend asks Miss Pym to give a guest lecture at the college old schoolmate runs.

The lecture goes well but Miss Pym doesn’t have the most pleasant first impression of the college. Old School Chum’s college trains physical therapists, masseuses, dance teachers and the like. Not the place if you like a cozy reading in bed and cups of tea. The students are lean mean physical culture machines. <shudders>

But the students adore Miss Pym and against her better judgment,  Miss Pym decides to stay for a visit and help one of the teachers with a schedule conflict. And thus seals someone’s doom. Because let’s face it, you can’t have a rip-roaring good mystery without something shocking, something sneaky AND high teas with clotted cream. Okay okay okay, you can all you American mystery fans but remember, I haven’t drank the grape Flavor Aid of the Cornwall/Patterson/Evanovich/Grafton school and I ain’t gonna anytime soon.

Things happen. There are twists and turns. Total awesome sauce. Will hunt down more Josephine Tey in a heartbeat and would even <cue pearl clutching> BUY THEM FROM AMAZON!(I know…my cheap rump roast PAYING retail for books!) And like any good English mystery, my tiny brain follows along, makes guesses and wishes Josephine Tey was around to ask questions. Because I am totally convinced Edward Adrian is Catherine Lux’s baby daddy. Little sister born when Catherine Lux was a teenager my foot!

Blacklight: “You watch WAY TOO MUCH MAURY POVICH!”.

Whatever, Blacklight, whatever. Shouldn’t you be reading Stephen R. Donaldson or watching some awful movie from the 1960s or reading Dungeons & Dragons game guides versus reading my blog?

A Dark-Adapted Eye

~ Wendy-Marie ~ 1 Comment

My mad love of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys aside, I’ve never been a huge mystery fan. However there are exceptions. And I have the BBC to thank for opening my eyes to Barbara Vine. All right, I’ve known who Barbara Vine is for the longest time thanks to years of combing racks at the library and book stores. But getting the book from the shelf to my hand? That’s the hard part. But when you stumble across a BBC production of A Dark-Adapted Eye featuring Helena Bonham Carter how can you not a) plonk yourself on the bed to watch until the bitter end and then b) hunt down the book the show is based on?

Like other Ruth Rendell Barbara Vine penned novels, A Dark-Adapted Eye is a maze of twists that draws you right into the action. You can be on Mr Couch, stuffing your face with Hershey’s Kisses and reading and then you’re deep in the world of 1930s/1940s middle class England. In real life your aunts are on Facebook or watching Nascar but in book land you’re the young Faith, attracted yet repelled by her Aunt Vera and Aunt Eden as unstoppable events lead to tragedy.

The core of book are Vera and Eden. Although she’s married with a child of her own, Vera has devoted her life and time to her younger sister Eden. Eden, who in my head looks like a cross between a 1930s film star and a Mitford sister, seems to be a total Mary Sue. Eden is lovely, tidy, good, loving and caring. What could possibly make her devoted sister Vera stab her to death years later?

One word: Jamie. Each sister claims Jamie, a beautiful little boy, as her own. But is Jamie Vera’s son or Eden’s? There are compelling arguments for both. But the true answer dies with the sister’s. Eden dead on the nursery floor and Vera hung as Eden’s murderer.

Most writers would just consider the Vera/Eden/Jamie story enough. But a Barbara Vine novel is never that simple. Eden is a cipher. Is she the Mary Sue or the schemer? And what of Vera? Is she a pawn in her sister’s game? A unfaithful wife? Has she draw blood before that dark day when her beloved sister lay dead at her feet? What really happened to Vera’s babysitting charge Kathleen Marsh?

Every time I re-read A Dark-Adapted Eye the answers change. Sometimes I put the book down convinced Eden is Jamie’s mother. Other times I’m convinced Vera killed little Kathleen. And every time I’m sure that Vera is really Eden’s mother even though Barbara Vine never brings up that possibility. (It’s a combination of one too many viewings off I  Didn’t I Was Pregnant and the timing of Vera’s major illness with Eden’s birth and Kathleen’s death). An author and a book that makes you think beyond what’s on the page and references true crime in a non-sensational way is a keeper indeed.