J.R.R. Tolkien, Motorcars, and “The Bovadium Fragments”

We’ve visited Oxford during most of our trips to England. We rake the tube to Paddington Station and then a train to Oxford. The trip takes about an hour. We’d visit various colleges, the Sheldonian, Blackwell’s Bookstore, the covered market, the Ashmolean Museum, and the Bodleian Library. It’s an easy day trip from London.  

Christ College (which, if you’ve seen the Harry Potter movies, includes the dining hall) faces a meadow. It’s almost a shock to see a large tract of undeveloped land right by the bustle of traffic and tour groups. It’s quiet, peaceful, and rather beautiful. 

 

What I didn’t know until I read The Bovadium Fragments by J.R.R. Tolkien, was that for more than two decades, Oxford authorities almost ran a road through the middle of it.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings 

 

Greek Fire – poem by Andrew Roycroft.

 

The Loneliness of Russia’s First Poet: Pushkin – Ilya Ganpantsura at Front Porch Republic.

 

“From a Window,” poem by Charlotte Mew – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

How a Poem Often Happens – Megan Willome.

"Murder Now and Then" by Faith Martin

Cold cases offer both good news and bad news. The bad news is that witnesses have often moved on, memories dull over time, and official records can be lost or shelved in some out-of-the-way place. The good news is that people are often more willing to talk. They may remember things they forgot or overlooked in the immediate aftermath of a crime. And nothing seems quite as urgent as it does right after the act or event. 

Hillary Greene, retired Detective Inspector for the Thames Valley Police and now a full-time cold case consultant to the police, knows this well. Her knowledge of crime and human behavior, plus a certain doggedness, has served her well and continues to do so.

 

The latest case for Hillary and her team: a 10-year-old murder case. The body of a young man was found floating in weeds of the River Cherwell. He was known to be bright, deeply in love with ancient history, and well-liked. He had bicycled away from home one morning, his parents thought it might be to town (Oxford), and then his body was found. He had no addictions, no involvement in drugs or crime, and no enemies. Unless you counted the woman he’d broken up with who had stalked him, or perhaps the tutor who mistook friendliness and interest in history as something other than professional interest.

 

Faith Martin

At first, Hillary and the team get nowhere. They go over case notes and old ground, re-interviewing all the witnesses. No breaking leads or tips. And then an offhand remark by the young man’s mother about his metal detecting interest starts an entirely new line of investigation. And by the time they’ve finished, Hillary and her team will solve not just one but four murders.

 

Murder Now and Then is the nineteenth installment in the Hillary Greene mystery series, and it’s just as fascinating and entertaining as its predecessors. The reader is given access to an investigation that’s happening independently of Hilary’s cold case, suspecting (rightfully so) that the stories will converge. And she keeps a side story going about one of the police team members, which is a standard feature of her stories. It’s a very satisfying read.

 

In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.

 

Related:

 

Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at the University by Faith Martin. 

 

Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Village by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Family by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Home by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Meadow by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Mansion by Faith Martin.

 

Murder by Fire by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Work by Faith Martin.

 

Murder Never Retires by Faith Martin.

 

Murder of a Lover by Faith Martin.

 

Murder Never Misses by Faith Martin.

 

Murder by Candlelight by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in Mind by Faith Martin.

 

Hillary’s Final Case by Faith Martin. 

 

Hillary’s Back! by Faith Martin.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

My Mom Was Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Then She Got Better – Sean Fischer at The Free Press.

 

The Killers Angels Still Sings: Revisiting a Classic Civil War novel on its fiftieth anniversary – Will Collins at The Spectator.

 

Murders for January – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

Things Worth Remembering: ‘He Died Standing Up’ – Douglas Murray at The Free Press.

"Hillary's Back!" by Faith Martin

I knew the last DI Hillary Greene mystery novel wasn’t Hillary’s last case. Hillary’s Final Case looked like it might be, but author Faith Martin still had a few tricks up her sleeve, and a few more cases for Hillary to solve. 

Appropriately enough, the title of the next (and eighteenth) installment in the series is Hillary’s Back!. She’s back, all right, and still working as a civilian consultant in the cold case unit of the Thames Valley Police in Kidlington, near Oxford. But she’s experienced personal loss, and her boss is wondering how she’ll do.

 

She also has a new team, a retired soldier injured in an IED explosion and a formerly retired sergeant who seems like everybody’s favorite aunt until you know what she used to do for the police. The retired sergeant knows Hillary and what she can do, and the retired soldier soon comes to realize that he’s landed on his feet with an incredibly capable, competent, and experienced boss.

 

Faith Martin

Their cold case: the stabbing murder of a young man that everyone was glad to see the end of. He’d been a pusher, a pimp, and an all-around wastrel, probably killed by one of his drug clients. While there were plenty of suspects, there were also plenty of alibis or no way to prove someone was at the scene, which was in the woods near the victim’s house (where he liked to do his drug transactions).

 

Watching Hillary unravel an impossible case is just as much an education for the reader as it is for her new team. Hillary’s Back! is an enthralling story. 

 

In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.

 

Related:

 

Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at the University by Faith Martin. 

 

Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Village by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Family by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Home by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Meadow by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Mansion by Faith Martin.

 

Murder by Fire by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Work by Faith Martin.

 

Murder Never Retires by Faith Martin.

 

Murder of a Lover by Faith Martin.

 

Murder Never Misses by Faith Martin.

 

Murder by Candlelight by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in Mind by Faith Martin.

 

Hillary’s Final Case by Faith Martin. 

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

An Ode to Charles Willeford – Michael Ledwidge at CrimeReads.

 

Dark Academia – Pamela Steiner at Closed Doors, Open Windows.

 

A Wonderful Career in Crime: Charles Cowlam’s Masquerades in the Civil War Era & Gilded Age by Frank W. Garmon Jr. – Aaron Stoyack at Emerging Civil War.

 

The Socialite Kidnaper – Laura Shimel at Missouri Historical Society.

“C.S. Lewis’s Oxford” by Simon Horobin

The university city of Oxford will likely forever be linked with two authors – C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. It was where they studied as undergraduates, made their academic careers, lived most of their lives, and wrote their most famous works. Lewis would spend his final academic years teaching at Cambridge University, but he commuted back to Oxford on weekends. Oxford holds a special connection to both authors, and a special connection for their fans, admirers, and readers. 

Simon Horobin, a professor of English Language and Literature and a Fellow and Tutor in English at Magdalen College, Oxford, has drawn a fine portrait of Oxford and what it meant in the life of Lewis in, appropriately enough entitled, C.S. Lewis’s Oxford, published, also appropriately enough, by Bodleian Library Publishing. If you’re a fan of Lewis and hi writings, or even a fan of Tolkien, this book is a treasure of information, insight, and illlustrations.

 

Horobin describes the buildings and institutions associated with Lewis in Oxford and what they were like at the time Lewis knew them. He studied and received his degree at University College. He taught for decades at Magdalen College. He lived and attended church in suburban Headington, where fans still make pilgrimages to see his home The Kilns and Holy Trinity Church, where he worshipped and is buried in the cemetery. The Eagle and Child pub is forever associated with Lewis, Tolkien, and the other members of the Inklings as the place where works in progress like The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia were first read aloud. 

 

Simon Horobin

The Eastgate Hotel on High Street near Merton College was where Lewis and Tolkien often ate and drank together, and where Lewis first met Joy Davidman in person. For many years, Lewis was president of Somerville College for women, organizing lectures and programs. St. Mary’s Passage, which runs alongside the University Church of St. Mary’s and Brasenose College, has a credible claim for inspiring the streetlamp scene in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Horobin includes chapters on Cambridge, which is almost an “Oxford without Lewis,” discussion, and on “Global Lews,” about the collections of Lewis manuscripts, papers, and atrifacts in such places as the Marion Wade Center at Wheaton College in suburban Chicago and the C.S. Lewis Foundation in Redlands, California. 

 

And accompanying the text are 31 color plates and numerous photographs and maps.

 

Horobin, a grsduate of the Universty of Sheffield, has written numerous books and articles on such subjects as Chaucer and his language, early English, spelling, the importance of philology for Tolkien and Lewis, medieval literature, scribes and guilds, Piers Plowman, and many other related topics. He’s also served as the honorary secretary for the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature.

 

If you’re a fan or Lewis, or even only of Oxford, this book is a delight.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

“Your Friend, Wendell”: A 90^th Birthday Tribute to Wendell Berry – Library of America. 

 

Late Victorian London in Photos – A London Inheritance. 

 

‘Blasphemers on Pogo Sticks’ and the Art of Making People Laugh – Douglas Murray at The Free Press.

 

8 Books You Didn’t Know Were Originally Self-Published – Ellen Gutoskey at Mental Floss.

"Murder Never Misses" by Faith Martin

I’ve discovered I don’t like stalker novels, even when they’re well-written and gripping.  

Murder Never Misses, the 14th novel in the DI Hillary Greene series by British author Faith Martin, is the third in a row with a substantive stalker sub-theme. We know who the stalker is – a policeman working in Greene’s own Oxford / Kidlington police station. And we know who the victim is – Greene herself. We also know that he has stalked before, and he likes to visit a nearby woods and talk with “his girls.”

 

Narrowly escaping a serious injury at the hands of the stalker in the previous story, Greene convinces her superintendent to allow her to investigate the cold cases of three missing women, while another officer investigates her stalker case. It’s a dicey request – they know the same stalker was involved in the earlier disappearances.

 

As the investigations get underway, a college student assigned to Greene’s team is unknowingly feeding details about the cases to the stalker himself, and Greene and her colleagues are finding themselves outguessed at every turn. All the time the tension is mounting.

 

Faith Martin

Murder Never Misses is the kind of story you can’t read in one sitting with a experiencing a serious case of high blood pressure. Better to set it down for a time while you recover.

 

In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.

 

This installment of the Hillary Greene books will keep you on the edge of your seat, even with frequent breaks. My advice: read it, but make a point of not reading it before falling asleep. 

 

Related:

 

Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at the University by Faith Martin. 

 

Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Village by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Family by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Home by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Meadow by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Mansion by Faith Martin.

 

Murder by Fire by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Work by Faith Martin.

 

Murder Never Retires by Faith Martin.

 

Murder of a Lover by Faith Martin.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

The Practice and Place of Thanksgiving – Robb Brunansky at The Cripplegate.

 

2023: Ten Reasons I’m Thankful This Week – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian.

 

A Thanksgiving to Remember – Jacob Gerber at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Civil War Cooking: “What do you call this stuff, anyhow?” – Sarah Kay Bierle at Emerging Civil War.

Thanksgiving: a sonnet -- Malcolm Guite.

"Murder of a Lover" by Faith Martin

Former DI Hillary Greene is continuing her work with the cold case squad at the Oxford / Kidlington Police Station. Having solved her first cold case, a 20-year-old murder, she’s now handed one that looks almost unsolvable – a 10-year-old case of an Oxford student found stabbed to death with a pair of scissors in his flat near the university. 

The detective investigating the crime at the time focused his efforts on two other students, one the victim’s girlfriend. Both also rented flats in the building. As Hillary and her team slowly peel back the layers of the past, they discover a victim who saw himself as something of a sexual athlete and with a considerable number of people, women and men, who had been hurt and might have a motive for murder. But was any of these motives strong enough for murder?

 

Hillary’s stalker, whom we me in the previous novel, Murder Never Retires, starts becoming more aggressive. The reader knows who he is from the start; what we learn now is that he had previously stalked other women. When the relationships didn’t go as the stalker expected, they ended very badly indeed for the women being stalked. And the stalking of Hillary is taking a turn for the dark. She and her new boss decide to fake a relationship and force the stalker into the open, except there’s very little faked from the beginning.

 

Faith Martin

Murder of a Lover is the 13^th DI Hillary Greene mystery novel by Faith Martin. As with its predecessors, it’s fascinating to watch Hillary solve cases other detectives can’t, looking at facts, speculation, and motives in a completely different light. And so far, she’s solved everything handed to her. Her teams has its strengths and weaknesses – a retired police detective, a young man who’s eager to learn police work, and another student who’s less interested in the work at hand and more interested in pursuing Hillary’s boss.

 

In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.

 

Related:

 

Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at the University by Faith Martin. 

 

Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Village by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Family by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Home by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Meadow by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Mansion by Faith Martin.

 

Murder by Fire by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Work by Faith Martin.

 

Murder Never Retires by Faith Martin.

Some Thursday Readings

 

Myths and Legends of the London Stone – A London Inheritance.

 

The Generative Joys of Bookbinding – Jennifer Savran Kelly at The Millions.

How Subplots and Plot Filaments Lend Texture and Depth to Any Novel – Michael Craft at CrimeReads.

“Murder Never Retires” by Faith Martin

Hillary Greene, once a detective inspector with the Thames Valley Police, has retired. Nearing 50, she’d decided to retire and take her houseboat on a cruise through England’s canals. She’s been gone for 18 months, and now she’s returning to police work as a consultant, working in the cold case unit. 

She has a new boss, who isn’t sure he wants the famous Hillary Greene on his team or not. She has new colleagues – a retired officer like herself and two part-time college students. Her office is something of a glorified closet. And the first assignment is a 20-year-old murder case that no one was able to crack.

 

The victim was a housewife in her 30s, hit with a rolling pin in the kitchen. Her husband was a tour bus driver (with a rock-solid alibi) and they had three children, who are now about the age their mother was when she was killed. There was a suspect with a motive – the victim’s sister, unhappy with her younger sister having an affair with her sister’s husband. 

 

Faith Martin

It’s a case with lots of dead ends, people hiding secrets, and no one quite telling the truth. Complicating the investigation is that someone inside the police department is stalking Greene.

 

Murder Never Retires is the 12^th DI Hillary Greene mystery by British writer Faith Martin. It’s a well-written story, with tension building from both developments in the case and the stalker becoming ever-more daring. You know this isn’t going to end well for someone. Or someones.

 

In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.

 

Related:

 

Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at the University by Faith Martin. 

 

Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Village by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Family by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Home by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Meadow by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Mansion by Faith Martin.

 

Murder by Fire by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Work by Faith Martin.

Some Thursday Readings

 

A Classic California Mystery: The Life and Times of Lange Lewis – Randal Brandt at CrimeReads.

 

The Search for a Vanished Hiker on the PCT – Andrea Lankford at CrimeReads.

“Murder at Work” by Faith Martin

Detective Inspector Hillary Greene is retiring. 

She’s handed in her notice, made her plans for what she’ll be doing afterward (exploring England’s canals in her boat), and finding herself unable to imagine her existence post-retirement.

 

Her old team in slipping away. One is getting married; another has already gone off to be a sports agent. The third is almost too new to be “the old team.” Her boss is transferring back to York. One internal nemesis is being transferred (in something approaching disgrace), and he’s determined to bring DI Greene down before he goes. Another nemesis, Greene’s Detective Sergeant Frank Ross, has been forced to retire and is now working as a night security guard at a business complex, where he’s helping to orchestrate a bit of theft.

 

Her boss’s boss, Superintendent Marcus Donleavy, is not happy with Greene’s decision to retire. He devises a plan that he thinks will change her mind – he tells her boss to assign the next murder case to her. Donleavy knows she can’t resist a murder case, and he knows it will likely the case will push past Greene’s retirement date.

 

And sure enough, a murder case arrives. A man is found bludgeoned to death at the very same business complex where Frank Ross works. And it’s Frank Ross who finds the body. And, just at Donleavy hoped, the case looks for all the world that it will last beyond Greene’s retirement date. The victim was divorced, something of a man about town with an eye for women, a fairly successful gambler. He seemed to have been well liked, except by his former lovers. It’s hard enough to find decent suspects, and this case, Greene and her team can’t even find a motive.

 

Faith Martin

Murder at Work is the eleventh mystery novel in the DI Hillary Greene series by British author Faith Martin. It’s full of twists and turns, but with a major difference from its predecessors. Will retirement bring an end to the Hillary Greene series? Will one of our favorite detectives go sailing off into the canal sunset? And will she and her team solve the crime in time for her retirement to happen?

 

In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire. 

 

The short answer to Greene’s retirement question is, if she does or doesn’t, there are still eight more in the DI Greene series to come. I know, because I looked at the listings on Amazon.

 

Related:

 

Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at the University by Faith Martin. 

 

Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Village by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Family by Faith Martin.

 

Murder at Home by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Meadow by Faith Martin.

 

Murder in the Mansion by Faith Martin.

 

Murder by Fire by Faith Martin.