Tim's Public Domain Reads

Friday, February 8, 2019

March Mystery Madness 2019

It’s about that time of the year again and my favorite month of the year for reading. “What are you talking about?” you ask? Why it’s about time for the March Mystery Madness readathon. March Mystery Madness is a readathon that was created four years ago by two Booktubers Elizabeth (lizziefayeLovesBooks) and Troi (Troi Towel). Since then, the readathon has been expanded to Goodreads, Twitter and Instagram. The first year I participated was two years ago, less than a month after I started making videos on Booktube. Last year, Elizabeth wanted to add more co-hosts and asked me to be one of them, which I accepted. I was asked to be a co-host again this year and I couldn’t turn it down.

Like most readathons, there are challenges for this one. We have established five one word prompts which can be interpreted by readers in various ways and a bonus prompt for this year. The books that qualify are more than just mysteries. They can be thrillers, suspense, police procedural, true crime, pretty much anything that some sort of mystery of any kind is to be solved. The challenges/prompts are:

1.) Old – Read an older mystery/thriller such as a Sherlock Holmes book or one written by Agatha Christie. Or it could be a historical mystery or thriller. Or it could be one that gives you an old feeling.

2.) Again – Reread a mystery or thriller or read one by an author in which you read another one of their books or read another book in a series.

3.) New – Read a newly released mystery or thriller, or read a book that you just bought, or read one that is by an author that you’ve never any of their works.

4.) Borrowed – Read a mystery or thriller you checked out from a library, or one borrowed from a friend, or one from Kindle Unlimited.

5.) Blue – Read a mystery or thriller with a blue cover, or one that has blue in the title, or one that makes you feel blue, or one that has a setting around blues music.

Bonus) Read a mystery or thriller that has a wedding in it.

If you want to participate in it and make a video on YouTube or a post on Instagram, please leave #MarchMysteryMadness somewhere that it will let us know that others know that you are participating.

Here’s the announcement video that I posted on Booktube this morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN9bfl5kgio&t=1s

The Goodreads group for this readathon can be found at: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/184109-mystery-madness

I have a Goodreads group that does a read-along of a book in a series each month. The book that we will be reading next month will be Pop Goes the Weasel by James Patterson. That book would qualify for the again challenge if you have been reading these along with the group or if you read anything by James Patterson before. My Goodreads group can be found at: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/602824-world-of-sleuths

I will be posting more videos related to this throughout the rest of this month and next month. I will post something here when I make the videos that pertains the subject matter for this blog.

Below are the links to the other co-hosts channel. The will be posting videos from today through the end of March that promise to be interesting, so you might want to view them and subscribe if you have a Google account (that includes a gmail account). Here are their channels and other links:

Mystery Madness Goodreads Group:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/184109-mystery-madness

Twitter for the readathon
https://www.twitter.com/marchmysmadness

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Book Review #57: The Woman in White

I would like to first start off by apologizing to my readers for not posting any reviews for the past four months. It mainly due to my health problems. One of my New Years resolutions is to post reviews all of the books that I read into one of my blogs. The ones that are old enough to fall into the Public Domain will be posted in this blog. The others will be posted in my other blog, World of Sleuths. I have some more ideas for posts that I will go into over the next two or three months.

The Woman in White is a mystery/thriller novel by Wilkie Collins that was originally published in 1860. This book is written in a similar style as Dracula was written where it is a combination of documents written by characters in the story. In this story they are written more in the form documents for a inquiry for a law suit. It is either as characters testimony or their journal entries. This story starts out with Walter Hartright who is an artist by trade and gives private lessons to people. He applies for and is offered a position in the country at an estate where he will be instructing two younger women, Miriam Halcombe and her half-sister Laura Fairlie, and he will board at the estate. The night before he is to leave London, he comes across a mysterious woman dressed all in white while walking back to his flat after visiting his mother and sister. This mysterious woman asks him to walk with her into London where she disappears. When Walter arrives to the estate, he is greeted by Miriam and doesn't meet Laura until later. When he see's Laura, he cant believe how much she looks like the mysterious woman. He starts falling in love with Laura during his time there until he finds out that she is engaged to be married to Sir Percival Glyde, who along with his friend Count Fosco, has plans, other than what he perceives, to swindle Laura's inheritance.

This book had been put on my radar as one to read after reading David Morrell's novel Inspector of the Dead where he included an essay about thrillers and how this novel is credited to be around the first thriller. It was a slow read for me because of how it is written and the sheer size of the book. After reading it, I'm glad I did and plan to read more novels by Wilkie Collins in the future.

If interested in reading this book, you can download it at the following sites in various formats:

Project Gutenberg:  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/583

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Woman-White-Wilkie-Collins-ebook/dp/B0082Z447U/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1548387956&sr=1-1&keywords=the+woman+in+white+by+wilkie+collins

Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/woman-in-white-wilkie-collins/1001834504?ean=9781365970399

Tim's Rating: ➷➷➹➹➹
(Five out of six arrows)

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Book Review #56: When a Man Marries

When a Man Marries is a short novel that was originally a play written by Mary Roberts Rinehart. In this story, Kit is trying to cheer up her friend Jim who is depressed because it was two years to the day that his divorce with the woman that he is still deeply in love. Kit decides that they will have a dinner with several of their friends that evening and then play bridge. After all of their socialite friends and others have been eating, Jim's butler becomes very ill and they send for a doctor. Before the doctor arrives, all of Jim's servants disappear from the house. After the doctor arrives, he believes that the butler has small pox and quarantines the house with all of Jim's guests having to stay there until the quarantine is lifted. It is full of humor with all of these wealthy people having to do work which they have never done in their lives such as cook. There is a mystery included in the story when the guests' valuables start disappearing.

I enjoyed this book even with the romance that occurs in it. It kept my wondering what will happen next.

If interested in reading this book, you can download it from free in various e-book formats from the following sites:

Project Gutenberg:  https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1671

Many Books:  http://manybooks.net/titles/rinehartetext99whamm10.html

You can also purchase it from the following site in various formats:

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/When-Marries-Mary-Roberts-Rinehart-ebook/dp/B0082S24PQ?keywords=When+a+man+marries&qid=1537754604&sr=8-1&ref=sr_1_1

Barnes& Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-a-man-marries-mary-roberts-rinehart/1104709765?ean=9781548663230

Tim's Rating: ➷➷➹➹➹
(Five out of six arrows)

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Book Review #55: Love Insurance

Love Insurance was written by Earl Derr Biggers, who later on wrote the Charlie Chan books. In this book, a gentleman walks into the Lloyds of London office in New York City and introduces himself as Lord Harrowby and wants to take out an insurance policy to insure that his wedding with Miss Cynthia Meyrick in two weeks in San Marco, Florida. After making the policy Mr. Richard Minot was ordered to go down on the yacht that Lord Harrowby was to leave on that evening to San Marco to make sure the wedding goes on without a hitch.

After being thrown off the yacht by the supposed owner just before departure, Richard ended up taking a train down to Florida. After the train gets into Florida, Richard notices that the train was going slow. There was a beautiful young woman near him and agreed. They got off the train and hired a taxi to take them to San Marco. By the time they got to San Marco Richard fell in love with this woman. When they got to San Marco, Richard found out that the woman is Cynthia Meyrick, which saddened him that he had to help Lord Harrowby marry her. There are several incidents that happen after that which threatened the wedding.

This book as humorous moments along with plenty of action. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If interested in reading this book, you can download it from the various sites:

Project Gutenberg:  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56077

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Love-Insurance-Earl-Derr-Biggers-ebook/dp/B0091M9JQO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1536686925&sr=8-2&keywords=love+insurance

Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-insurance-edward-lee/1121328365?ean=2940151371575

Tim's Rating: ➷➷➹➹➹
(Five out of six arrows)

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Book Review #54: The Window at the White Cat

The Window at the White Cat is a mystery novel written by Mary Roberts Rinehart and was originally published in 1910. Jack Knox is an attorney in a city when a beautiful 19 year old woman comes to his office to ask him to help her find her father who is the state treasurer and has been missing. Because of her father’s position, she doesn’t want it to go public. Jack gets a detective to help him and there are mysterious happening from the start such as footsteps at night after everybody has gone to bed and the disappearance of objects and other people at night. Jack believes all of this is tied together and is set on seeing to these mysteries end.

There is action throughout the book and the mysteries aren’t solved until the last few chapters of the book. There is a little bit of romance tied in, but enough to ruin the story. This is only the third book of hers that I’ve read and am quickly becoming a fan. I highly recommend this book if you want to read a mystery that is in the public domain.

If interested in reading this book, you can download it in various e-book formats from the following sites:

Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34020

Many Books: http://manybooks.net/titles/rinehart3402034020-8.html

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Window-at-White-Cat-ebook/dp/B004UJSJKA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533243213&sr=8-1&keywords=the+window+at+the+white+cat

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-window-at-the-white-cat-by-mary-roberts-rinehart-mary-roberts-rinehart/1028944824?ean=2940012542021

Tim’s Rating: ➷➷➹➹➹

(Five out of six arrows)

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Book Review #53: The Wisdom of Father Brown

The Wisdom of Father Brown was the second collection of Father Brown short stories written by G.K. Chesterton. Father Browns friend, Flambeau, criminal turned detective, appears in around half of the stories in this book where Father brown solves mysteries, be it a death or theft, in his own unique way. There are some names and places repeated in these stories.

There is action in these books varying by degrees. Some hold the reader’s interest better than others. These stories are good, but not quite as good as the ones in The Innocence of Father Brown.

If interested in reading this book, you can download it from the following sites in various formats:

Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/223

Many Books: http://manybooks.net/titles/chestertetext95wifrb11.html

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Father-Brown-Stories-Book-ebook/dp/B00MF0ZVWK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1528224913&sr=1-1&keywords=the+wisdom+of+father+brown

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-complete-father-brown-mysteries-collection-g-k-chesterton/1102283690?ean=2940012630988

Tim's Rating: ➷➷➹➹

(Four out of six arrows)

Book Review #52: The Man in Lower Ten

The Man in Lower Ten is a mystery novel written by Mary Roberts Rinehart which first in magazines in 1906 in serialized form and was published as a novel in 1909. Lawrence Blakely is in attorney who has to travel by train to Pittsburgh from Washington D.C. to get depositions for a major forgery case. On his return trip, is is assigned berth lower ten in car seven for sleeping. When he goes to his assigned berth, there is a man drunk and passed out in his berth, which he can’t wake. He is given an open berth across from his assigned one. When he wakes in the morning, he discovers his clothes and other possessions have been stolen, including is bag that held the signed depositions. Even worse, the man that was found in his assigned berth is founded murdered and everything is pointing at Blakely as the murderer. Will he be able to to find actual murderer and avoid avoid jail time for himself and also find the depositions?

This is a good story and the author keeps you wondering if the truth will be found. That said, I didn’t like it as well as The Circular Staircase by the same author.

If interested in reading this story, you can download it from the following sites in various formats:

Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1869

Many Books: http://manybooks.net/titles/rinehartetext99tmilt10.html

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Man-Lower-Mary-Roberts-Rinehart-ebook/dp/B0082UL4F0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1525733491&sr=1-1&keywords=the+man+in+lower+ten

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-man-in-lower-ten-by-mary-roberts-rinehart-mary-roberts-rinehart/1028634242?ean=2940012539212

Tim's Rating: ➷➷➹➹

(Four out of six arrows)