In 2005, the Mystery Guild published Queen’s Ransom: The Roman Hat Mystery; Calamity Town; Cat of Many Tails (Mystery Guild Lost Classics Omnibus). The Mystery Guild Book Club went on to publish other “Lost Classics” omnibus volumes which I’ll review in the months ahead. But Queen’s Ransom might be the best of them all.

The Roman Hat Mystery was first published in 1929 and became the first Ellery Queen mystery. A body is discovered at the play called Gunplay. The case is investigated by Inspector Richard Queen of the Homicide Squad with the assistance of his brainy son Ellery, a bibliophile and author. Most of the tropes of the future Ellery Queen mysteries are in evidence here: a bizarre crime, cryptic clues, a “Challenge to the Reader, and a shocking solution from Ellery Queen.

Calamity Town (1942) has Ellery Queen visiting Wrightsville getting lodging with the Wright’s – descendants of the town’s founder and members of local royalty.  Ellery settles in an abandoned guest house, nicknamed Calamity House after a series of tragic events that have taken place since it was built. Ellery hopes to use this time to work on his next book, but slowly he’s drawn into a series of murders.

Cat of Many Tales (1949) features a serial killer that throws New York City into a panic. Ellery Queen and his father follow the leads and reveal a cunning solution. Are you a fan of Ellery Queen mysteries? Any favorites? GRADE: B+ (for all three)

After winning two close games against the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions at Ford Field, the injury riddled Buffalo Bills (8-3) play their third Away Game in a row against the desperate New England Patriots (6-5). Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick knows a lost to the Bills would probably end any hopes for a Playoff berth so expect this team to be going all out tonight. The Bills are 4 1/2 point favorites.

Here are some photos from our fun trip to New York City for Thanksgiving:

Mistletoe Mysteries, an anthology of original Christmas mystery stories from 1989, delivers some entertaining mysteries with a Yuletide theme. My favorite story in this anthology is Dorothy Salisbury Davis’s “Christopher and Maggie.” Christopher is a struggling magician in the Great Depression and Maggie is a young woman who would love to teach History but given the harsh economic times, works for Christopher as his “lovely assistant.” Christopher believes Maggie brings “class” to his act. The pair travel from town to town and on their way home for Christmas, they get involved in a bizarre crime.

I also enjoyed Bill Pronzini’s “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Pronzini’s Nameless detective gets talked into being “Santa” for a charity event. Of course, there’s an unexpected theft and Nameless finds himself in the middle of the crime…in a Santa suit!

I’m a big fan of Edward D. Hoch’s Simon Ark series of mysteries involving bizarre crimes. In “The Touch of Kolyada,” Simon Ark confronts a mythical woman from Russian history, Kolyada, who gives presents to children just before Christmas. But, the murder of a professor in the Russian Department of a university casts a more sinister shadow on Kolyada.

If you’re looking for a fun anthology of Christmas mysteries, I recommend Mistletoe Mysteries. The variety of stories provides something for every readers’ taste. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Charlotte MacLeod: A Cozy for Christmas — 1
• Peter Lovesey: The Haunted Crescent — 38
• Dorothy Salisbury Davis: Christopher and Maggie — 66
• Eric Wright: Kaput — 94
• John Lutz: The Live Tree — 124
• Howard Engel: The Three Wise Guys — 142
• Mary Higgins Clark: That’s the Ticket — 163
• Bill Pronzini: Here Comes Santa Claus — 193
• Sharyn McCrumb: A Wee Doch and Doris — 220
• Henry Slesar: The Man Who Loved Christmas — 245
• Edward D. Hoch: The Touch of Kolyada — 274
• Aaron Elkins: Dutch Treat –307
• Susan Dunlap: Ott on a Limb — 335
• Isaac Asimov: Ho! Ho! Ho! — 360
• Marcia Muller: Silent Night — 375

A Beautiful Noise, a jukebox musical of Neil Diamond songs, farmed by a series of therapy sessions between Neil Diamond and his therapist. Diamond’s wife, Katie, persuaded her husband to seek help after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and could not tour anymore. As you might suspect, Neil Diamond is bitter at the drastic changes in his Life and for many of the therapy sessions, Diamond is a hostile client.

But the counselor manages to get Neil Diamond to open up on his long career…and what that success cost him. I knew about some of Neil Diamond’s problems but learned a lot about the ones he kept hidden…except in some of his songs.

Will Swenson (Audra McDonald’s husband), who plays the “young” Neil Diamond in this production, has the dual advantages of both sounding like Neil Diamond and looking like him, too. I loved the scene of Neil Diamond trying to get a job at the Brill Building. Diamond want to change his name but Ellie Greenwich (Bri Sudia) manages to dissuade him and then launches an impromptu audition—two minutes long! Diamond fumbles around while Greenwich rejects his first song attempts, but with only 20 seconds left, Neil Diamond starts singing “I’m A Believer” and a star is born.

A Beautiful Noise takes a chronological approach to Neil Diamond’s long career: the disastrous recording contract with the Mob-run Bang Records, the constant touring, the world-wide success, the failed marriages, and the fatal disease. All along the way, the great music is the one constant in this story.

Most of the audience for A Beautiful Noise were Senior Citizens, but many of them were clearly veterans of multiple Neil Diamond concerts as they knew when to raise their hands, clap along with the songs, and sing “Sweet Caroline.” If you enjoy this music, I recommend A Beautiful Noise. Are you a Neil Diamond fan? Any favorite songs? GRADE: A–

SONG LIST:

1. Opening Montage
2. A Beautiful Noise
3. Neil Pitches Songs: I’ll Come Running / I Got The Feelin’ (Oh No, No) / I’m A Believer (Medley)
4. I’m A Believer
5. Demo Medley: The Boat That I Row / Red Red Wine / Kentucky Woman (Medley)
6. Kentucky Woman
7. Into The Bitter End
8. Solitary Man
9. Cracklin’ Rosie
10. Song Sung Blue
11. Cherry, Cherry / September Morn’ (Medley)
12. Love On The Rocks
13. Hello Again
14. A Heavenly Progression
15. Sweet Caroline
16. Entr’acte
17. Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show
18. Play Me
19. Forever In Blue Jeans
20. Stadium Medley: Soolaimon / Thank The Lord for the Night Time / Crunchy Granola Suite (Medley)
21. You Don’t Bring Me Flowers
22. Brooklyn Roads / America (Medley)
23. Shilo
24. I Am… I Said
25. Holly Holy

At the end of the Second Season of Mad Men, Don Draper says, “Now I am quietly waiting for/the catastrophe of my personality/to seem beautiful again, /and interesting and modern.” (p. 308) Those are lines from Frank O’Hara’s “Mayakovsky” and they strike the right tone for that episode.

In The Heart of American Poetry, Edward Hirsch selected 40 poems he considers central to our cultural experience, from Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) to Joy Hard (1951- ). I was happy to see that Western NY poet Lucille Clifton made the cut.

After every poem, Hirsch writes about the poet and analyzes the poem. I thought Hirsch’s dissection of John Ashbery’s “Soonest Mended” was brilliant. Also excellent are Hirsch’s writings on James Wright and Philip Levine.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction: The Education of a Poet By Edward Hirsch — xii
Anne Bradstreet, “The Author to Her Book” — 3
Phillis Wheatley, “To S. M. a Young African Painter, on seeing his Works” — 14
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Jewish Cemetery at Newport” — 26
Walt Whitman, “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” — 35
Herman Melville, “Shiloh” — 52
Emily Dickinson, #479 [“Because I could not stop for Death”] — 61
Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus” — 70
Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Eros Turannos” — 80
Amy Lowell, “Madonna of the Evening Flowers” — 88
Robert Frost, “The Most of It” — 97
Wallace Stevens, “Sunday Morning” — 106
William Carlos Williams, from Spring and All, I [“By the road to the contagious hospital”] — 117
Ezra Pound, “The River-Merchant’s Wife: a Letter” — 128
Marianne Moore, “The Steeple-Jack” — 142
T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” — 154
Hart Crane, “To Brooklyn Bridge” — 168
Langston Hughes, “Harlem” — 178
Sterling A. Brown, “Southern Road” — 190
Theodore Roethke, “Cuttings” and “Cuttings (later)” — 204
Elizabeth Bishop, “In the Waiting Room” — 215
Robert Johnson, “Cross Road Blues” [Take 2] — 227
Robert Hayden, “Middle Passage” — 235
Muriel Rukeyser, “St. Roach” — 249
Julia de Burgos, “Farewell in Welfare Island” — 260
Gwendolyn Brooks, “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon” –269
Anthony Hecht, “‘More Light! More Light!’” — 284
Denise Levertov, “O Taste and See” — 296
Frank O’Hara, “The Day Lady Died” — 305
Allen Ginsberg, “America” — 314
John Ashbery, “Soonest Mended” — 325
James Wright, “Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio” — 339
Philip Levine, “To Cipriano, in the Wind” — 348
Adrienne Rich, “XIII (Dedications)” [from “An Atlas of the Difficult World”] — 358
Sylvia Plath, “Daddy” — 368
Lucille Clifton, [“won’t you celebrate with me”] — 379
C. K. Williams, “My Mother’s Lips” — 389
Michael S. Harper, “Dear John, Dear Coltrane” — 401
Louise Glück, “Retreating Wind” — 410
Garrett Hongo, “Ancestral Graves, Kahuku” — 421
Joy Harjo, “Rabbit Is Up to Tricks” — 437

Acknowledgements & Permissions — 447

The Buffalo Bills are recovering from playing–and winning–two games in Detroit last week. Up next is an AFC East game in New England with the Patriots on Amazon Prime Video this Thursday night. Bills fans worry Von Miller’s knee injury may derail their Super Bowl dreams. How will your favorite NFL team do today?

“Perhaps the ultimate Thanksgiving pie, pumpkin is a perfect match with this sweet Sherry—which isn’t actually creamy at all, despite the name. From the esteemed producer Emilio Lustau, it’s made from a blend of Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez wines. Smooth and rich, it has notes of fig and warm spice, enlivened by a brisk acidity.”

This is the review that led me to try Lustau Deluxe Cream Sherry. We usually have five pies for Thanksgiving–pumpkin, apple, pecan, banana cream and chocolate cream–and adding a dessert wine seemed to be the next step.

I found Lustau Deluxe Cream Sherry very tasty especially with the chocolate cream pie. Sherry and chocolate seem to go together for me. Usually I drink a glass of red wine per day. The alcoholic content is usually 5% to 7% depending on the wine I choose. Sherry has 20% alcohol so be aware.

“When it comes to matching dessert wine and pie, there are three main characteristics to keep in mind: acidity, sweetness and viscosity. The wine pairing for a very rich pie needs to be rich itself but also marked by bright acidity. And the wine should match the pie’s weight. For example, pecan pie and tawny Port make an ideal pair because tawny Port has terrific acidity as well as concentration and richness. “

Since pecan pie is my favorite pie, I’ll be trying a tawny Port next Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, the Lustau Deluxe Cream Sherry was a hit this Thanksgiving! GRADE: A

As Barry N. Malzberg (writing as “Mike Barry”) passes the half-way point of his Lone Wolf series, both book #9–Miami Marauder–and book #10–Harlem Showdown–reveal aspects of Wulff’s desperate mission to destroy the drug trade. The lurid violence amps up as Wulff surrenders totally to his key preoccupations and concerns about the toxic drug culture in America and his obsession to end it once and for all.

The size, the scope, and the heightened intensity of Wulff’s dark and deadly odyssey, tempered with only the bleakness of his chances against the army of thugs and killers surrounding the rulers of the drug cartels, sets off a series of chilling events.

From Miami’s sinister sunshine shrouded in secrets to Harlem’s dangerous darkness, Wulff pursues his devastating destiny as he feverishly fights the forces that seek to crush him and poison America with opioids. GRADE: B+ (for both)

By the time you read this post, Diane and I will be flying to JFK Airport. Once we land and pick up our luggage, we’ll be traveling by Lyft, Uber, or cab to Patrick’s apartment in Brooklyn where Patrick and Katie will have a Thanksgiving feast waiting for us. Our nieces Elise and Kristen will join the celebration as well as some “strays” who have nowhere to go on Thanksgiving. I’ll add some pictures of our Thanksgiving Feast to this post later today so check back and see what delights Patrick and Katie prepared.

The Buffalo Bills will be playing the Detroit Lions while we’re in the air to NYC. The Bills are favored by 9 points.

Hope you all enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving!

David Mitchell’s blurb on the cover of Claire Keegan’s novella, Foster, says “As good as Chekhov.” I wouldn’t go that far based on reading Foster, but Keegan is a very good writer. Foster is the story of a child taken by her wretched father to live with some relatives in rural Ireland while her mother gives birth to yet another child.

The little girl doesn’t know if she will ever be brought home again. The farming couple, the Kinsellas, provide the girl with a structure missing in her oversized and impoverished family. She’s cleaned up, given clean clothes, and taught to take care of herself. Mrs. Kinsella insists on truth, but the girl learns a few of the secrets of this new household.

Keegan’s story follows the development of the nameless girl over the summer. Mrs. Kinsella teaches her how to read. The girl’s narration of her experience with this couple operates on several levels. Yes, learning is going on. This life with the Kinsellas is vastly different from the grinding deprivation of her own family.

If you’re in the mood for a moving, subtle, and nuanced story, Foster provides in heart-rending glimpse into a desperate situation. GRADE: B