Snapshot Reviews: Mysteries

I have been a bad blogger. I am remiss in my reviewing.

I have a hard time reviewing books; I mean, who really cares what I think? But to technically finish most of my challenges, reviews are required. Besides, I know that I like to know what my friends think about books, it helps keep me from wasting my time! So I am doing a few quick reviews of my recent reads.

Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey: This was a very different sort of mystery; no crime occurred until very late in the book, and yet I enjoyed it quite a bit. The setting was interesting, being set in a College of Physical Training for young ladies in the first half of the 20th century. (In fact, I found the setting interesting enough that I found a book on this aspect of British education and it's impact on women's lives that I want to read.)
This is a quiet book. Lots of observation of characters. I am finding that I enjoy Josephine Tey quite a bit. Four stars.
 (Note: There are occasional glimpses of historically accurate yet still disturbing ways of thinking, such as when the very lovely protagonist describes a dress as "nigger brown." It is jarring. I see a lot of this in British writing from that era.)

A Christmas Hope by Anne Perry: I received this book as a review copy, so I supposed I'd better review it! I really like Anne Perry's Victorian mysteries, but I had never read any of her Christmas series. After this one, I will.
Claudine is a comfortable, well-to-do lady who is only really happy when she is volunteering at Hester Monk's clinic, a place very familiar to Perry fans. In this story she stands up to society to save the life of a man wrongfully accused of murder. The story was well-done and enjoyable.
Four stars.

The Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth: Even though Agatha Christie was writing in the same era as Patricia Wentworth, her books don't read as dated as Wentworth's do. This was a perfectly acceptable, if outlandish, story. I will probably try another of Wentworth's Miss Silver books at some point, and see if they are better than this one.
Three stars.