A Gilded Drowning Pool | A Book Review

 Disclaimer: I received this book from a publisher, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Greetings Adventurers, 

It's been ages since I wrote a book review, so now is the time to break my fast of not writing reviews and write one. This book is part of a series that I have never read before, but it's now a series I would like to read. I received this book early, and it will be released on May 9th. 

The book is the fifth book in a longer book series titled, The Roddy and Val DeVere Gilded Age series. However, I read it as a stand alone, and I believe it can be read without having read the other four books. 

The Review: 

(Image from Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123575213-a-gilded-drowning-pool?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=VJMjkmoZZA&rank=1) 

Genres: Historical fiction | Murder Mystery  

 I have always been a fan of historical fiction and mysteries, so this book immediately got me interested. While set in a different time and different place than books I usually read, the book itself reminds me a lot of The Murdoch Mysteries (but with a woman lead instead of a man).

Providing a heading with the date and location reminded me of other novels such as Frankenstein or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The author is a historian, so I imagine this influenced her choices in her writing. Like Where the Crawdads Sing, though, I would have liked the dates to continue throughout as it makes more sense for me as I read. 

The book itself was set in 1899. So, a year before the turn of the 19th century to the 20th century. I am not deeply familiar with the time period in America, but the author seems incredibly knowledgeable about it. At times I had to look up information, but that was not a failing of the book, because a reader could read it without having any idea of what is mentioned. Instead I was driven by my own curiosity to look things up. Another thing that is worth mentioning is the main character. I like that the main character, "Val," is a daughter of an Irish immigrant. My great-great-grandparents were immigrants from Ireland. So, that was a happy moment for me as a reader, because interestingly I have not read many books from the perspective of a character like that. The character herself is intelligent and is married. She and her husband work on the cases together. But she also works independently, and is shown to be strong on her own. She reminded me of detectives I had liked in the past, as she solved the case in a sophisticated way. She reminded me a bit of Enola Holmes, but a grown up version of her.

However, from the title of the series, it seems like both of Roddy and Val are main characters. I found Val to be more of a main character than Roddy. It could be because the whole story is told from her perspective, but she gets the most attention and detective work in this book. That might not be the case for the other books in the series, but in this one Val seemed like a more prominent main character. 

While the writing style is plain-- it does not sound like it comes from the time period-- it works for that story, since other stories have been written in a similar fashion. The opening paragraph was strong and set up tension with horse imagery, "[a] horse that kicks can kill anyone near its hind legs. A stable hand, a groom, a coachman, or a care-less owner will risk their lives if struck by the animal’s lightning-fast speed and power" (Tichi 1). I've been thinking a lot about opening sentences as a writer myself, and this one works because it sets up what is going to happen, not with a person-- but with a horse. The build up for the detectives going to solve the mystery was well done, for the characters received a message through telegram to show that they were going to go where the body was found. I preferred that to them stumbling over the body (in this case), because it seemed like a call to adventure, a call to the crime scene that is-- since Val had not been wanting to leave where they were currently staying. 

When the Hudson River Valley was mentioned by the characters, my mind instantly connected that to Sleepy Hollow. But the characters don't end up going there. In one of the chapters, when they came to the Hudson River Valley, reminded me strongly of Irving's writing. When they got onto a boat, for example:"Dark wisps from every smokestack signaled on-time departures when every giant sidewheel would churn the waters named for the Dutch explorer who sailed here nearly two centuries ago" (Tichi 33). This reminded me a little of Irving..."In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market town or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh[...]" (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, P.1). Despite the differences in what they're describing, I wonder if the author had researched anything about Irving when writing this, for there are references to what the Dutch did in the Hudson throughout. And also, supernatural elements are not the main theme of Tichi's book (there isn't a headless horseman running around for example), but there is a character named Cassie who sees auras and has visions. She is important to the ongoing mystery and seems to know information that was not ever given to her. 

The plot had many suspenseful elements: the idea of people wandering about on the property, the mysterious drowning, and who caused it. I felt like I was on the edge of my seat because of the way the author built up the tension-- in some cases, the fear turned out to be nothing, but it worked to set the scene for the suspense of the mystery. I won't be revealing who or what the killer was, but the author builds up the mystery well, laying clues throughout, making the reader want to solve the case along with the detective. It makes you wonder if those who you trust are trustworthy, or those who seem as if they could do the murder, don't. 

The clues were revealed steadily and mostly conveyed through dialogue instead of through research. The book relied upon social interworking between characters for the mystery to work: they heard about the murder through social connections, and got information through that, which added to the lively feeling. However, despite the feeling that the place was alive, the side characters were rather flat and not memorable. Some mysteries want the suspects or people the detectives talk to be memorable; others don't. This book went for the latter. So, I found myself more interested in the relationship between the detectives than I was in the suspects at times.

I normally find books that are so dialogue heavy difficult to follow, but this one was easy for me. I could keep up with the pacing because Val always brought up the questions over and over again, about who was the killer, why would they do this, so I could be up to speed and not fall behind. 

When the killer was revealed at the end, I was surprised. But I didn't feel like the author pulled something out of thin air. Instead, it came naturally. There was a red herring that I truly believed for a moment, the certainty of it from the character's perspective was what made me believe it. 

The ending hinted at a sequel. Since this is a part of a larger series (being the fifth book), there had to be room for the series to continue. But as a mystery, it resolved the plot well, and I am happy to have read it. 

This is a small note, but there were cocktail recipes, which reminded me of my reading groups at The Rosenbach where often the host posts recipes for alcoholic beverages relating the book. So if you're someone who makes cocktails and enjoys trying them, the book lays a short recipe in some chapters how to do so. I have not tried them, so I can't state how they taste or whether they are good. But there is a sort of audience interaction one can do between the characters and the reader, by trying what they make.

Overall, this was a fun and gripping (but not too intense) detective read. So if you're interested in adult cozy historical mysteries with a female lead, you will enjoy this. 

                 Overall rating: 

Descriptions: ⭐⭐⭐ (my own personal taste, but common for the crime genre to have simple descriptions). 

Dialogue: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (not much to say about it, other than it moved the story forward). 

Characters: ⭐⭐⭐ (the characters weren't as memorable as I thought they would be. But it's more plot driven than                                                       character driven) 

Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(overall a gripping mystery that made me want to keep reading). 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Have you read books from this book series? If so did you enjoy them? What's your favorite murder mystery book? 

-Quinley 

|The Legend of Sleepy Hollow | Novella Review

I often have different stories that I come back to every once in a while. Sometimes they are ghost stories or stories that are in the genre Gothic. Some of the many the Gothic novels or novellas I find myself rereading again and again are: Coraline, Frankenstein and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Interestingly enough, the first thing that introduced me to Washington Irving's story was a play of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow performed by a local theatre. After coming out of an acting/improv class I was looking at the posters hanging on the wall outside the classroom when I saw one for a play called The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The poster had an eerie feel to it and I was intrigued. I then decided that I was going to go see it, and I did. I was amazed afterwards that the ending had surprised me and left me thinking. The performance of the actor, who had played Ichabod, would influence the way I perceived the character in the future. I related in a weird way to his version of Ichabod, and if he happens to be reading my blog post right now, I would like to thank him for introducing me to this story.  I have kept the poster from that show to this very day, I have it in one of my old writing note-books as it brings back fond memories.

Afterwards, I decided I would check out the book. I read it once and I got the exact same feelings that I did from the play, and so I reread it and reread it over and over again...

and now I've read the Legend of Sleepy Hollow thirteen times (at least that is what I think). I put in a random number because I forgot how many times I have read it, because I read it a lot.  Either way Ichabod Crane would very much be freaking out by the unlucky number thirteen, especially since it would involve him. You probably already know I enjoy this book a lot, and this review will give you the reasons why I ended up reading it an unlucky number of times! 

The Review 

Irving in writing this book combines a mixture of the Gothic and satire. There is no dialogue in the story, because it is told the way that a storyteller would tell a tale around a campfire, or even how a historian, who was not there to witness it, would have told it. At the beginning we are introduced to the character of Ichabod Crane and to Sleepy Hollow itself. The hollow is introduced in a mysterious way for it is haunted and something is causing the drowsy feeling that come over people when they enter it. The narrator even remarks "the place still continues under the sway of some witching power that holds a spell over the minds of the good people." (32) As for Ichabod's entrance it is a satirical one, which still manages to keep in tone with that of the gothic atmosphere and somehow doesn't feel out of place. Ichabod is unusual in appearance and "one might have mistaken him for a genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from the cornfield." (35) The narrator then proceeds to insult Ichabod throughout the story, while also mentioning that he is the hero of a romantic tale. 

The Gothic genre is often paired with the romance genre, because it has tragic heroes. For Ichabod that really isn't the case. He is tragic in a self-indulgent way, but not a tragic hero with any ties to a Byronic past. 
In a very storyteller-like fashion we are introduced to the Headless Horseman (or the Galloping Hessian) who had his head knocked off by a canon ball. The Headless Horseman has often been portrayed in modern media as cutting off people's heads left and right. While we don't know that didn't happen to Ichabod, the townsfolk are never necessarily plagued by the fear that they might be next. Instead they live with the Horseman as a legend that is retold at parties. The story has its own eeriness, which is further embellished by the encounters some townsfolk say they have had with the Horseman, barely getting away with their lives. 

(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headless_Horseman#/media/File:John_Quidor_-_The_Headless_Horseman_Pursuing_Ichabod_Crane_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg )

The Headless Horseman is believed to be based on a lot of different historical events and legends. One inspiration is believed to be the legend of the Irish Dullahan, about a headless horseman and sometimes even a headless horse. It is believed that "Irving took the concept of the Dullahan and added elements that would be more frightening for his target audience, Americans. Irving uses the name of an actual town in the United States and his villain is called the "Galloping Hessian"-- a reference to the real German soldiers hired by the British to fight in the Revolutionary War known for their extreme violence." -- Dr. Emily Zarka, The Original Headless Horseman. Many movie adaptations show the Horseman holding a pumpkin as he rides, but the original text doesn't mention this. Irving's Horseman won't slash your eyes out, but it does seem to have an uncanny resemblance to the Dullahan. As Irving wrote, "[Ichabod's] horror was more increased on observing that the head, which should have rested on [the horseman's] shoulders was carried before him on the pommel of his saddle." (69)  In Irving's story, a pumpkin is not seen until the end, when shards of a pumpkin are found sitting next to the schoolmaster's hat.  It is also believed Irving was inspired by a battle from the Revolutionary War, for it is documented that there was indeed a Hessian who lost his head to a cannon ball. Roger Lucklurst wrote in his article that at "the Battle of White Plains, the British commanders sent forward their Hessian horsemen – merciless German mercenaries with a fearful reputation. On virtually the first cannon fusillade, one of these mercenaries had his head shot off. He was hastily buried in the churchyard of Sleepy Hollow, since the Dutch church had a feel of the homeland." - The Horror of the Headless Horseman.  Because the readers of Irving's novella would understand and relate to this event in American history, this would add to their fear of the Horseman.  
The last part of the book is even more interesting and mysterious to read, because of the additional elements of history and legend that Irving brings into his stories. Like a ghost story around the campfire, Irving leaves the end ambiguous. I often hear people express disappointment upon picking up this book, or even decide to turn away from it because the story might be gory or even brutal. However, what is scary about this book is where your imagination can take you, not what the Headless Horseman actually does to Ichabod, because we don't know, it is left unanswered. And it is perfectly deliciously spooky left that way. We don't need the Headless Horseman chopping off people's heads left and right in order for it to be scary. Not knowing what the Headless Horseman actually does is scarier, I mean they are so many possibilities. If we actually found out what happened to Ichabod, would the story still hold the same mysteries and even eeriness? I think not. Your imagination can do powerful things and Irving tapped into how it could be used to scare you. And the unknown, as we know very well at this moment, is very scary on its own, because you never known what will happen or what indeed has happened.
If we are going to focus on something else, rather than Ichabod's disappearance, we should focus on the satire of the story. The narrator is firmly not in favor of Ichabod, despite calling him a romantic hero for the story. The subplot while still managing to keep the eerie feeling of the hollow itself, does have a humorous take on the romantic side of things, if we are to call it that. The romance all and all is not taken very seriously by the narrator.

(Image from wikipedia, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=50&offset=0&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1&search=the+legend+of+sleepy+hollow&advancedSearch-current=%7B%7D#/media/File:Washington_Irving's_Illustrations_of_the_Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow,_Designed_and_Etched_by_F.O.C._Darley_for_the_Members_of_the_American_Art_Union,_1850_MET_MM89542.jpg)

For example, the main character has been named "Ichabod" which means "No Glory," perhaps foreshadowing what will happen to him in the future. The narrator delights in contrasting Ichabod's "quest" in wooing Katrina Van Tassel with the knights of yore and many romantic heroes. His "only study was how to gain the affections of the peerless daughter of Van Tassel. In this enterprise, however, he had more real difficulties than generally fell to the lot of knight-errant of Yore, who seldom had anything but giants, enchanters, fiery dragons, and suchlike easily conquered adversaries to contend with." (46) Ichabod has to deal with others issues which are of far less epic proportions (even if he views himself as an epic hero).  One of which is Brom "Bones" and the fact that Brom likes to play tricks on Ichabod to sabotage any relationship he may have Katrina Van Tassel. And it isn't quite as fair a competition as one may think. Brom decides to play some immature and unfair tricks on Ichabod, such as training a dog to bark whenever Ichabod is teaching singing lessons, or stuffing up Ichabod's chimney in the schoolhouse causing the schoolhouse to be filled with smoke.

The satire comes out the most during the times when Ichabod and Brom are fighting over who has the right to Katrina's hand in marriage. She has a lot of money, and both of them would gain a lot in marrying her. However, even when it seems like Ichabod might win this battle of sorts, the narrator is taking the time to describe how badly Ichabod dances, "Ichabod prided himself upon his dancing as much as upon his vocal powers. Not a limb, not a fibre about him was idle; and to have seen his loosely hung frame in full motion, clattering about the room, you would have thought Saint Vitus himself, the blessed patron of dance, was figuring before you in person." (59) The narrator delights in making Ichabod take on the persona of a fool in situations where it seems Ichabod has gotten higher ground. Even when Ichabod wins, he never actually does.

(Image from wikipedia, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=50&offset=0&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1&search=the+legend+of+sleepy+hollow&advancedSearch-current=%7B%7D#/media/File:Washington_Irving's_Illustrations_of_the_Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow,_Designed_and_Etched_by_F.O.C._Darley_for_the_Members_of_the_American_Art_Union,_1850_MET_MM89543.jpg)

When Ichabod is not trying to woo Katrina he is often spending time with the women of the village talking about gossip and telling ghost stories. By doing this Irving brought the familiarness of the town to life. That the town is alive in not only the horrors of the night, but alive in the way that everyone in the town seems to know each other and delight in the gossip spread around, adds a richer atmosphere. Ichabod is never exactly free from gossip ever, and even when he vanishes he becomes firmly a part of the town gossip and is even turned into a ghost story in his own right.

(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichabod_Crane#/media/File:What_fearful_shapes_and_shadows_beset_his_path_-_The_Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow_(1899),_frontispiece_-_BL.jpg)

I have often see portrayals of Ichabod where he is presented as silly and scared, scared enough that he doesn't even want to come across a ghost, but that is not the case. Always when people read ghost stories or listen to ghost stories there is a small part of them that actually want to come across this apparition to experience it. I must say he is not alone in that, because I sometimes imagine what it would be like to come across an apparition, and if it ever happened what I would do. While Ichabod is superstitious, a part of him also delights in the supernatural. During his walks home he half-expects to come across the Galloping Hessian upon his path. Ichabod would "look over his shoulder, lest he should some uncouth being trampling close behind him. And how often was he thrown into complete dismay by some rushing blast, howling amongst the trees, in the idea that it was the Galloping Hessian on one of his nightly scourings!" (41) And while he might have been frightened, he is interestingly frightened in a way that he desires to be scared by it, and perhaps have a new story to share with the townsfolk. When the Galloping Hessian isn't there, he is rather disappointed that it wasn't who he thought it was going to be.
Despite The Legend of Sleepy Hollow being written as a satire, where things tend to be over-exaggerated and sometimes too comical to seem real, I often felt like the characters are real people and not comical archetypes. Irving creates characters that show an interesting side of human nature. The complexity of the story, is perhaps why it is so hard to make a good film version of it. The novella lives between comical and realistic and is stuck firmly in between the two. Disney decided to go with the extremely satirical route in their animated movie, but it took the scare and atmosphere out of the story. Other versions have sometimes gotten it more balanced, but couldn't figure out how to keep the humor present while telling a ghost story.
Somehow The Legend of Sleepy Hollow manages to be in the middle between two genres and seemingly maintains the satire and humor, while also telling a story that is going to give you chills. Even during the scariest part of the book, Irving puts a bit of humor in. And I tend to notice that depending on how you read it, the atmosphere and the scary elements can be the most present or the satire can be, or it can even be a blend of both. It really depends how you read it. This is even why in writing this review I feel like I'm not deciding what part of the story I should focus on, because both the satire and the atmosphere of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow are present in the story, it just depends on where you look.

                            My overall rating: 

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Have you read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow? If so what do you think really happened to Ichabod Crane? 

-Quinley