Review: Sister Sleuths

 

Sister Sleuths: Female Detectives in Britain by Nell Darby

☆☆☆☆

Nonfiction — History, Women’s History

This is a history of woman private investigators, primarily in England. There is not a lot of information out there, so this author painstakingly went through decades of census records and newspaper archives to piece together biographies of some of these women.

The book ended at 70 percent; the rest was all sources and notes!

In the 1880s, England passed a divorce act, which opened the door to not only become more independent but to support themselves as private investigators, known then as lady enquiry agents.

Any fan of history, women’s history, or British history should be fascinated with this. The writing has a very pleasing style with a focus on accuracy and staying disinterested. I just wish there was more information about individual cases out there.

I received an ARC from NetGalley.

Book Lovers' Memes (set 13)

Lead and Led

Lead and Led

This is something that has been showing up more in my editing work. It’s curious because I don’t remember seeing any confusion on this ten or twenty years ago.

If you look at read and read (I will read this; I have read that), you see how the spelling stays the same but the pronunciation changes. We expect lead to follow the same pattern, but it doesn’t. The past tense of lead — led — is spelled how it sounds. Perhaps this is because lead (pronounced led) is a metal and was already taken (and red is a color).

Trick to Remember
Try to remember this sentence: 
He was led to a dark alley where he was shot full of lead.

Review: The Silent Patient

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

☆☆☆
Fiction — Drama

Alicia, an artist, adores her husband but then inexplicably shoots him five times and then never says another word. Theo, a psychotherapist, is obsessed with her case and manages to become her therapist at her mental hospital.



To be honest, I was pretty bored for the first half. It wasn’t thrilling or suspenseful; just drama laced with Deep Thoughts. I found Alicia’s diary more interesting than Theo’s life. I don’t care about art (my kids all surpassed my drawing ability around the age of 4) or other people’s marriages.

Then it got a little more interesting as I developed a bunch of wild theories, most involving split personalities. The surprise twist was one of those theories. So the ending is pretty exciting, but I wouldn’t call this a psychological thriller — just a psychological drama. I was pretty satisfied with the final ending. But is a book still a good book if it completely relies on a single gimmick to make it more interesting?



It is written well, though. I listened to the audio; I learned that Alicia is pronounced totally different in British English than American English.

Lots of strong language; some sexual content that is not too graphic; some violence.

Book Lovers' Memes (Set 12)

Spelling: Rein vs. Reign

(Sorry it has been so long. It has been crazy busy lately.)

Rein and reign and rain all sound the same*, and they all have both noun and verb forms, so it’s easy to mix them up. Misusing rain (as in weather) is very rare, so I’ll focus on the other two.

Reins are what you use to steer horses. It’s also used in metaphorical expressions such as “We’ve got to rein in spending.”

Reign is what a king does. Note how similar it is to sovereign.

Trick to Remember
Reins are long and used for control.
A king may reign long or short.

*This makes them homophones, not homonyms, as I was told in grade school.

Published: Humor Short Story

I have a short story published in a Utah humor anthology. The anthology is titled Heard at a Utah Diner. My story is called The Road from Grief. I set it on a road trip so I could mock Utah drivers. Several of my writing buddies are also in it.

I also have a few hard copies to sell cheaper than online.