The Leavenworth Case

The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green is a late 19th century crime story set in New York. 

This was a popular story in it's time and was said to have been Stanley Baldwin's favourite story. The story revolves around the murder of a rich merchant (Leavenworth). Suspicion falls upon his two nieces and a mysterious man. An investigator and a lawyer tackle the case.

Quite why this story was so popular is the true mystery (sorry Mr Baldwin!) I found the story a bit slow and tedious though it is undeniably pretty well written, but by the time you find out who was the murderer you may have largely lost interest. 

The story also suffers from a bit of over the top melodrama like many Victorian novels. Still maybe Mr Baldwin liked a bit of melodrama, he was a politician after all!

Illustrated Tales of Derbyshire

I like a bit of local folklore me. This interesting book by David Paul takes us on a tour around Derbyshire (a county i am very fond of) and recounts some of the folklore at various spots around the county. The folklore includes tales of witches, stories of old mysteries and crimes and even an odd marriage. 

The stories are accompanied by photographs taken by the author of the various locations. A lovely book that includes well known Derbyshire towns like Bakewell and Chesterfield and also more obscure and little known villages too.

I do enjoy books like this, i have a number of similar books in my collection. The only thing this book could do with is a map of the locations included but that is a minor criticism.

Distressed Damsels & Masked Marauders

The movie serial was a staple of cinema until the 1950s. Weekly episodes which ended on a cliffhanger to help draw the audience back next week to see how the hero managed to survive the seemingly impossible odds. This excellent book by Ed Hulse covers the serial from it's beginnings in the 1910s to the end of the silent era.

The influences and origins of the serial are also discussed, i found this most interesting. I'd never heard of the 10-20-30 melodramas popular on stage in the 19th century before and how they influenced the early serial. 

Much of the book is taken with a discussion of what happened in various serials. Many now lost, it is interesting that Charlie Chan first made his on-screen appearance in a late 1920s serial. Many more films were to follow in the following decades.

I enjoyed this book immensely, it is well illustrated with poster, lobby cards and on-set photographs from dozens of silent movie serials. A great book to introduce you to the serial, many of which can be seen on-line these days.

I reviewed a few silent movie serials on my old movie review blog. These include The Mystery Airmen and The Son of Tarzan.

A trip to Narborough

At the weekend i went to Narborough in Leicestershire. I have been once before, though quite a few years ago. That one time before i went in the Winter as well, if i come to Narborough again in future hopefully it will be in warmer weather! Narborough is a nice village near to Leicester itself. The church is lovely of course and there are a number of lovely old buildings too. Well Leicestershire is lovely itself of course, one of my favourite counties!

You can see my photos from Narborough here.

The Chinese War Machine

Considering the amount of change, and the rapid improvement, of the armed forces of the People's Republic of China even in the last ten years, this Salamander book from 1979 is incredibly out of date. 

However, the last actual war the People's Liberation Army took place in was around the time this book was published (against Vietnam, and China didn't do very well!)

This is an enjoyable period piece. China was building a lot of weapons back then too though they were largely copies of already ageing and often obsolete Soviet types instead of the weapons they build today which are as good as (and who knows maybe in some ways superior) to the West's.

Not much detailed in this book therefore will be relevant to today. However, if you have a nostalgia for Soviet era weapons and Cold War armies then this look across the Bamboo Curtain is very enjoyable.

The Golden Age of DC Comics - 365 Days

If you are not familiar with the 365 Days volumes, they had an entry for every day of the year (natch) on a specific subject, the daily subject often having a tie in with what the relevant date is.

The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days is on DC comics, home of the iconic Superman, Batman and a galaxy of other heroes, this book covers DC from its pre-costumed hero days (when it literally was Detective Comics) to the post-war when westerns and sci-fi periodically knocked the men (and women) in tights off their perches.

Most people will have heard of the main characters like Superman and Batman of course and they feature heavily here, though what is particularly enjoyable are some of the lesser-known and nowadays pretty much forgotten heroes like Air Wave, who apparently combated villains by roller-skating along telegraph wires and Fatman, who wore a lampshade as his mask. 

To be honest i think some of these guys would make for better films than some of the recent subjects like the Green Lantern (but considering the rate of which Hollywood is plundering the comic universe i suspect films about Air Wave and the like are probably only a few years off).

In fact that is the only criticism of this excellent volume, i wish there was an easy way to read the rest of some of the obscure stories featured in here! Its a chunky volume you will be dipping into all the time, a superb piece of work!