Nancy Drew and Laurie R. King and Home Depot and Electrolux!

I'm going to apologize for this post right now.  I slept for about two and a half hours last night, so I'm not operating at full steam.  If only I were capable of taking a nap.

I think sleep evaded me because I am angry about the problems we're having with our new washing machine and the response from both the store we bought it from (Home Depot) and the manufacturer (Electrolux).  The Electrolux compact stackable washer and dryer were rated in the top four of their kind, so we chose them.

We bought them on 2/19/16 but the washer was out of stock, so they weren't delivered until 4/12/16.  After the power button was pushed and the cycle particulars were chosen on the touch pad screen, I couldn't get the Start button (also touch screen) to make it start.  We called Electrolux, who sent out a repairman in 5/1/16, who admitted that he had no experience with these machines.  He didn't do anything except keep touching the screen.  He finally got it to start and suggested that I wasn't moving my finger on the screen properly.  Really?  I don't want to have to do magic spells to do laundry.

It seemed to work okay as long as I didn't try to go from one load to the next without turning the washer off.  I wasn't happy, but I was feeling my way along.  But this week, it's gone back to not starting.  I'm waiting for the repairman.  If he can't fix it, it's going back to the store, one way or another.  I think it's a lemon.

We called Home Depot and Electrolux.  Electrolux pawned it off on Home Depot since that's where we bought it.  Home Depot said that there's only a 30-day return window and that it starts with the purchase date.  I pointed out that our paperwork says a 90-day return window and that it's ridiculous for any warranty / return period to start before you have the appliance.

They finally agreed to a return  -  but we have to take it back to them, they won't pick it up, even if we get the replacement washer from them!  Two strong young men delivered the washer and dryer, hefting them up a flight of stairs to the second floor.  So how are my husband (71) and I (63), who don't own a truck, supposed to get this damn thing back to them?  And why should that be our responsibility?  Stay tuned.

Despite all this, I've been managing a lot of reading.  A friend gave me A Grave Talent when I was in Massachusetts a few weeks ago.  I've read all the Mary Russell books, but I haven't read any of the Kate Martinelli books.  I liked this one and plan to read others.

Kate has moved to San Francisco and has a new partner, Al Hawkin.  He's not pleased to have someone he doesn't know, a woman to boot, working with him on a case involving strangled little girls.  But, as a woman, she'll be good to use for the press.  The murders seem to have some connection to a commune type place.  They discover that a famous artist lives there under an assumed name.  They also find out that she was convicted of strangling a little girl she babysat for.

They become convinced that she didn't kill the three little girls who have just been strangled and that she was innocent of the previous murder.  They have a new suspect.  The artist helps with a trap

I liked the characters in the book.  There was enough detail that I felt I got to know them.  That's often missing.

In the summer, I have to read at least one Nancy Drew book.  This is one I bought recently, so I decided to read (re-re-read) it before I put it with my collection.  I collect Nancy Drew books, only the originals, not first editions, but before they rewrote them starting in 1959.  They rewrote them to remove some racist stereotyping and to update the stories.  I prefer the flavor of the originals, warts and all.

Nancy and her friends, George and Bess, and sometimes her boyfriend Ned, try to figure out why parties are being used to burgle the houses where the parties are held.  Does it have anything to do with the party company hired to stage the parties?  Does her friend Linda, who works for the company, have anything to do with it?  Who are the criminals wearing velvet masks?  Read it and find out.

The Murder of Mary Russell - Laurie R. King

I've finished a few books since last I posted, but I haven't felt like posting.  Too many trying things going on.  I thought I should at least post about this book, The Murder of Mary Russell by Laurie R. King.  I like the series, although there was at least one that left me cold.

The Murder of Mary Russell starts out with Mary alone in their house.  A man comes to the door and says he's looking for Mrs. Hudson.  Mary's uneasy about him, something doesn't feel right.  As she returns from getting tea, he confronts her with a gun.

Mrs. Hudson and Holmes return to find Mary gone and blood on the floor.  What has happened to Mary?

The book then tells Mrs. Hudson's backstory  -  which, for me, went into too much detail and went on too long.  That's about the first 1/3 of the book.  I resorted to skimming.  I got the idea, Mrs. Hudson and her relationship to Holmes were not what we thought.  Her past has come back to haunt her  -  and Sherlock.

Three Books

Until recently, my reading momentum was stalled.  I read almost nothing over the holidays and couldn't get back into a rhythm in January or February.  I was reading a little, but I wasn't finishing much.  I kept jumping from one book to another.  Now, I think I'm back on track, more focused.

It might help that I've been reading mostly library books.  You MUST read those first because you're under a deadline.  So here's what I've finished in the last week, all library books.

A book blogger mentioned reading one of Nick Hornby's collections of the columns he wrote for Believe magazine, thereby reminding me that I had read More Baths, Less Talking and would probably enjoy reading another.  His essays on books and reading seemed like just the thing.  I could finish them in a reasonable amount of time and they don't require sustained attention.  I borrowed Housekeeping vs. The Dirt from the library and dove in.  Just the trick.  

The chapters are usually only a few pages long and begin with a list of books he's bought during the month and a list of books he's read.  The lists don't correspond to each other.  We all buy more books than we can possibly read, don't we?  And we often buy books but put off reading them until later.  Or never.

I'm not going to go into the books he's read and written about.  He's an eclectic reader, so there's something for everyone.  Hornby's essays are personal and amusing.  I found myself smiling and nodding my head in agreement.  We readers have many things in common.  If you need a book to nudge you out of a reading slump, you might want to try one of Hornby's collections of reviews.

Next up is the latest in Laurie R. King's Mary Russell / Sherlock Holmes series.  It's a sort of prequel.  Russell and Holmes return to their home to find that a rock etched with a chrysanthemum has been artistically placed in their garden.  It can only have come from friends they made in Japan.  Dreaming Spies (a play on Matthew Arnold's name for Oxford, England, 'dreaming spires') finds Russell and Holmes taking a cruise from an adventure in India to San Francisco and then on to England.

On the ship, they meet Lord Darley, his much younger second wife, and his son.  Holmes suspects that Darley the elder is a sometimes blackmailer, something that he abhors.  They also meet an interesting young Japanese woman, Haruki.  She tells Mary that she and her family are acrobats.  They are, but they are much more than that.  Haruki recruits Russell and Holmes to help her recover a book that was accidentally given to the English royal family.  The book contains a secret that is being used to blackmail the Japanese royal family.

Haruki teaches Russell and Holmes the intricacies of Japanese customs.  There is a lot of detail about clothing, tea, Japanese baths, and food.  There is haiku and Basho, a famed poet who travelled all over Japan.  All that was interesting.  

Things come to an exciting finish back in England, at the Darley estate.

I like the Mary Russell series, but I liked the earlier books better.  Unless my memory deceives me, they were more exciting.  These later books seem to get bogged down in the details of places and often take a while to get exciting.  Details add much, but too many details seems like a tutorial, not a mystery.  Dreaming Spies was better than some of the recent books.

Now this is a cracking good read.  I'm always amused that this series of mysteries about a Maine Game Warden was introduced to me by Elaine, who lives in England.  I lived in New England most of my life and still own land in Maine.  But, thanks, Elaine for the tip.  I love this series, partly because I've been to many of the places mentioned in the book, partly because it's fast paced and exciting.

Mike Bowditch was a Maine Game Warden, but has resigned to live a less political life as a Maine hunting and fishing guide.  Unfortunately, he can't stay out of trouble.

Kathy Frost, Mike's former Game Warden mentor, and her new partner, Danielle Tate, shoot and kill a veteran of the Afghanistan war.  He had been horribly injured by an IED and had been scarred physically and mentally.  His mother calls to report that he's in the barn with a shotgun and she thinks he's going to hurt himself.  The wardens shoot him in self-defense.

Mike goes to visit Kathy and both of them are shot, she critically.  Even though he's no longer in law enforcement, he has to find out who shot her.  

His search leads him through Portland and Camden and up into the Maine woods.  He butts heads with the game wardens and the police.  He takes a couple of wrong turns and saves a life along the way.  There are a few women who distract him, too.  But Mike gets his man.  

I read this in two days.  It was hard to put down, pulling me along faster and faster.  The action starts right at the beginning and is sustained throughout the book.

More Mike Bowditch!