In these past few months I have found myself on several airplanes, waiting in several airports, and entering several countries. While travel is certainly exhilarating, I have to say that if you don’t have the right book for a long flight, things do not go well. Therefore before I travel I always choose my books very carefully keeping in mind my destination and lengths of flights.
For my trip to Hong Kong I decided to drop back to the 1920s. Those were good years – the Great War was over, a more democratic awareness was emerging in England, and the golden age of English crime fiction was coming into its own.
Into this age steps Jessica Fellowes, author of “The World of Downton Abby,” who has now penned “The Mitford Murders;” my book of choice for fifteen hours in the air.
Louisa Cannon is the main character of this murder mystery. Although born into very poor circumstances, Louisa is a survivor. She escapes London and a dangerous situation with a lecherous uncle by becoming a nursery maid in the Mitford’s aristocratic home. Eventually, Louisa becomes the companion, chaperone, and confidante to their eldest child, Nancy. Through a very interesting set of circumstances however, they both find themselves entangled in the murder of Florence Nightingale Shore – the goddaughter of the famous nurse Florence Nightingale.
The murder in the book happened on a train during the daylight hours and no witnesses appeared to have seen the crime. But Louisa thinks this crime can be solved, and with the interest and eventual partnership of a railroad police officer she begins to crack the case.
What is of interest here as well is that Fellowes researched the actual murder of Florence Nightingale Shore for this novel. Florence was indeed attacked on the Brighton railroad line, during daylight hours, on Monday, January 12, 1920. She died a few days later without identifying her murderer, and no one has ever been found guilty of this very real crime. By blending fact with fiction, Fellowes has written a fascinating ending to a genuine, unsolved mystery while at the same time giving the reader a marvelous view of the fashions, manners, and behaviors of the various post-war British classes. It felt like a very quick flight.
I finally made my way to Singapore and from there bounced around Southeast Asia for a few days reading my next book on several shorter plane flights. Still happily set in the 1920’s was the second hardcover, “The Widows of Malabar Hill” by Sujata Massey.
If Massey’s name seems familiar it is because she is the author of eleven Rei Shimura mystery novels set in Japan. Massey has again created a strong female protagonist for this novel set in India. The main character, Perveen Mistry, is the first female lawyer in India. She comes from a highly respected Zoroastrian family and was educated in England at Oxford. Sadly, she has a heartbreaking personal history involving a deceitful young man. But, this does not stop Perveen. Instead, she has taken up the standard for women’s legal rights in India.
This leads Perveen to the three widows living on Malabar Hill. These women were all married to the same man, living in full purdah – strict seclusion – and never speaking to any man except their husband. The husband was a client of her family’s law firm and when the man died these three women were put under the protection of a guardian appointed by the husband before his death. Almost immediately the women turned over all their inherited wealth to charity.
Purdeen is not satisfied that the widows understand what they have agreed to and she is clearly not happy with the guardian. Her investigation leads to a murder, and to prevent further violence and to protect the remaining family members, Perveen must find the answers to both the mysteries.
I have always enjoyed Massey’s mysteries and this first book in her new series is an even better read. So, a 1920s Bombay mystery kept me entertained on planes in Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand – but as I landed back in Hong Kong I realized I was out of books!!
There is good reason large airports have bookstores. I am convinced that people read faster in the air simply because they are trying to keep their mind off flying, and as a result many of us never travel with enough books. Remember, the typical airplane book tend to be entertaining, relatively fast paced, have well-developed characters, and contain at least one mystery that must be solved. Thus, airport bookstores have limited selections with respect to genre because air travel is not the time to begin that heavy philosophy book you have been meaning to get to. So, I found a book store and began my airport best seller search.
David Baldacci came through with “The Fix.” The plot begins with what appears to be a senseless murder right outside of FBI headquarters in Washington, DC. Anne Berkshire, who seemingly lead a very unremarkable life, was shot by Walter Dabney a sixty-one-year-old government contractor with four grown daughters and a loving wife. He then turned the gun on himself. But after he died, his autopsy showed that he was basically a dead man walking anyway – due to a seriously advanced brain tumor. Now, by chapter two the questions start to fly. Fortunately, one of the witnesses to the shooting was our main character, Amos Decker. An FBI very special agent who, due to a previous head injury, never forgets anything he has ever seen. Decker replays this murder in his head and cannot make any sense of it, and since he does not like puzzles that he cannot solve, he takes on this case with gusto.
The plot is complex enough to entertain without being so convoluted that a reader would become entangled in intricacies; the characters are very well developed, and the action is fast. This book, along with a Boeing 777, carried me across the Pacific and into Boston. Would I read a similar book on other trips? Yes. The airport best sellers have a real place in travel and also tend to be very entertaining on those Sunday afternoons spend on a lawn chair in the back yard.
My trip was excellent, the books were all worth reading, and I am looking forward to more from all of these authors. So, don’t worry when you run out of reading material between flights – just find that airport bookstore and you will be saved!