“Trapped in the Tunnel” by Katrina Hoover Lee

Young teens Terry, Gary, and Larry Fitzpatrick live with their parents on Brady Street in a small town in Indiana. The streets rather isolated; it’s near the river the boys love and has only two neighbors, an abandoned house next door and a home owned by “the German woman” Tina down the street. It’s early summer 1987, and the three boys find all kinds of things to keep them occupied.  

The boys have heard stories of how their area supposedly was part of the Underground Railroad before and during the Civil War. But it’s only when the local antiques dealer gives them an old map that their imaginations take flight. It appears that there are tunnels connecting the houses on their street, secret rooms in the basements, and all manner of secret doors.

 

Katrina Hoover Lee

They hunt for clues and soon begin to find them, including in their own basement and in the abandoned house next door. But things take a turn for the really exciting, and dangerous, when they’re asked to care for Tina’s dog while she’s away. 

 

In Trapped in the Tunnel, Katrina Hoover Lee tells the boys’ story. She combines strong Christian elements along with the things young teens can do to keep themselves occupied, with a good dose of mystery and mounting tension. The targeted age group for the series is roughly 8 to 13. And this is the  time before personal computers, mobile phones, iPads, and the worldwide web, so the book is a treat for those of us adults who can remember those ancient times.

 

Lee has published seven books in the Brady Street Boys 1980s Adventure Series, of which Trapped in the Tunnel is the first. She’s also published several other books, both fiction and non-diction. The Brady Street Boys originated as stories she told her brother, growing up on a Mennonite farm. She lives with her family in Elkhart, Indiana. 

 

Some Monday Readings

 

“My Letters! All Dead Paper,” poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The False Promise of Device-Based Education – Amy Tyson at After Babel.

 

Democracy in America: an introduction – Roger Kimball at The New Criterion.

 

Stark Truth: All the King’s Terrible Choices – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

Rest has meaning

After Exodus 20:8-11 and Matthew 12:1-14 

To rest is not doing

nothing; to rest is

to recognize we have

limits, that we cannot

do everything. To avoid

rest is destructive; it

will destroy you. To rest

is to acknowledge

dependence on one who

is greater. To rest is

to know we are not

the center of the universe.

To avoid rest is

to embrace slavery.

To worship busyness

is to worship self.

 

Photograph by Jessica Mangano via Unsplash. Used with permission.

 

Some Sunday Readings

 

The Bottle Collector – poem by Liz Snell at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Absent Fathers in Children’s Literature: A Problem? – Betsy Farquhar at Redeemed Reader.

 

For Richer, for Poorer: How to Steward Money in Marriage – Randy Alcorn at Desiring God.

Saturday Good Reads - Oct. 26, 2024

He was born more than 30 years after the end of the Civil War, but that conflict shaped William Faulkner and his writing more than any other single factor – and this despite that he rarely if ever wrote about the war directly. Author Michael Gorra wrote a book about it, The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil War, and he talks about it on a podcast with Chris Mackowski at Emerging Civil War. (I read Gorra’s book while doing research on my historical novel, and it's excellent.) 

While a few diehard conspiracy theorists still cling to the claims of “Russiagate,” the legacy media have generally moved on, with very few acknowledging how they themselves helped to propagate it. Now we had something credibly substantiated: Britaingate. The Britain-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), founded by the man who is now the chief of staff for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, apparently put both the Trump campaign and Elon Musk’s Xsocial medium in its crosshairs. Leaked files show how the elimination of X was the group’s main target. And then there’s Labourgate – with Britain’s Labour Party sending activists to campaign for Harris. So if it’s Russia or China trying to interfere, it’s bad, but British interference is good?

 

Samuel James at Digital Liturgies is a fan of the rock group Coldplay (full disclosure: I share at least some of his enthusiasm). He listed to the group’s recently released album – and was disappointed. But he realized something about the album and culture generally, and he understood how that album explained our current political situation. Another full disclosure: I think his analysis is spot on.

 

More Good Reads

 

Life and Culture

 

A Good Death? – Warren Peel at Gentle Reformation.

 

What is New York’s Abortion Amendment Hiding? – Maud Maron at Tablet Magazine.

 

Bring That Hammer Down – a talk by Paul Kingsnorth, The Abbey of Misrule.

 

Actually Existing Postliberalism – Nathan Pinkoski at First Things Magazine.

 

The Post-Cold War Apotheosis of Liberal Managerialism: A response to Nathan Pinkoski – N.S. Lyons at The Upheaval.

 

Writing and Literature

 

The Long Defeat of History: Tolkien’s hope for the entropy of ages – Jake Meador at Comment Magazine.

 

The Story Behind Shogun – Sky / History UK.

 

British Stuff

 

‘Vessel’: An Art Trail Along Remote Rural Churches in the Black Mountains of Wales – David Trigg at Religion Unplugged.

 

She Was Arrested for Praying in Her Head – Madeline Kearns at The Free Press. 

 

The Last Great Englishman: Arthur Wellesley – M.E. Bradford at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

WW2 Helmets Found in France Linked to SS Massacre – Katy Prickett at BBC News.

 

American Stuff

 

Independent and Unaligned – Ana Kasparian at Unaligned.

 

BLM Collected Over $90 Million in Donations. Where Did It Go? – Sean Patrick Cooper at The Free Press.

 

News Media

 

I am (not) one of the most 57 powerful people in media – Hamish McKenzie.

 

Why Is The New York Times Not Disclosing a Source’s Ties to Hamas? – Olivia Reingold at The Free Press.

 

Faith

 

It Was Never Just ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ – Daniel Darling at The Remnant.

 

Assisted Suicide and the Meaning of Life – Seth Lewis.

 

Letter #149: The Punchline of the Universe – Spencer Klavan at The New Jerusalem.

 

Poetry

 

“Alcaics: To H.F.B.,” poem by Robert Louis Stevenson – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Israel

 

Ad for Israel Book Canceled Because ‘Customers Might Complain’ – Francesca Block at The Free Press.

 

His Glory and My Good – CityAlight

 Painting: Scholar Reading an Illuminated Manuscript, oil on canvas by Claus Meyer (1856-1919). 

A day of rest

After Exodus 20:8-11 and Matthew 12:1-14 

It is a day of rest,

a day set aside,

a day to set work

aside, and rest.

The example is

there from

the beginning,

to work hard

six days and rest

on the seventh.

 

Rest does not mean

idleness, or a day

to observe rigidly,

without exception.

It can be a day

to do good, to bless,

to show empathy,

to show care and

compassion. That is

not work; that is

loving the Lord

of the Sabbath.

 

Photograph by Sincerely Media via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Autumn – poem by Rainer Marie Rilke at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

Every person is a tree. Every tree tells stories – Pierce Taylor Hibbs at Moments That Make Us.

 

The Good Life – poem by Rusty Rabon at Society of Classical Poets.

"Death at Silent Pool" by Benedict Brown

It’s 1928. Lord Edgington, retired head of Scotland Yard, is called to Silent Pool, the home of Abraham Hindmarsh. Hindmarsh is a member of Parliament and an undersecretary in the Cabinet, and his wife Patience has vanished, leaving behind on the estate a wrecked car with blood all over the interior. No body has been found, and no one has reported anything about the missing woman. 

Christopher Prentiss accompanies his grandfather, as he has been doing for the pat several years when the great detective is called in. What the investigating pir discover is a highly toxic brew of Hindmarsh himself, five adult children who seem to hate each other, and a niece who is treated with near contempt by most of her cousins. 

 

While they’re investigating, they hear gunshots; Hindmarsh has been shot dead. And his death won’t be the last, as the case is flooded with evidence that night or might not apply, bubbling anger, and the siblings physically attacking one another.

 

Benedict Brown

Death at Silent Pool is the fourteenth Lod Edgington mystery by British author Benedict Brown, and it takes a decidedly different turn from its predecessors. The previous stories had a strong element of humor, mostly emanating from Christopher and his observations, and a lightness to the story. Death at Silent Pool is a good, intriguing story, but it takes a much darker path.

 

In addition to the Lord Edgington stories, Brown has written seven Izzy Palmer mystery novels and three novellas. A native of south London, he lives with his family in Spain. The Lord Edgington mysteries are likely aimed at both the general reader as well as the young adult audience. And they’re well-researched stories, full of information about the mid-to-late 1920s.

 

I’m glad to see that a 15^th Lord Edgington mystery, The Christmas Candle Murders, returns to a more lighthearted story line. It’s due out Nov. 24.

 

Related:

 

Murder at the Spring Ball by Benedict Brown.

 

A Body at a Boarding School by Benedict Brown.

 

The Mystery of Mistletoe Hall by Benedict Brown.

 

 Death on a Summer’s Day by Benedict Brown.

 

The Tangled Treasure Trail by Benedict Brown.

 

The Curious Case of the Templeton-Swifts by Benedict Brown.

 

The Crimes of Clearwell Castle by Benedict Brown.

 

The Snows of Weston Moor by Benedict Brown.

 

What the Vicar Saw by Benedict Brown.

 

Blood on the Banisters by Benedict Brown.

 

A Killer in the Wings by Benedict Brown.

 

The Christmas Bell Mystery by Benedict Brown.

 

A Novel Way to Kill by Benedict Brown.

 

The Puzzle at Parham Hall by Benedict Brown.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

The Place of Murder – Sydney Graves (Kate Christensen) at CrimeReads. 

 

The Long Art of the Short Story – Elly Griffiths at Writer’s Digest.

 

The Everlasting Man – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule on G.K. Chesterton.

Some Wednesday Readings

Thou shalt not pray? – Lois McLatchie at The Critic Magazine. 

What Salman Rushdie Doesn’t Want to Talk About – Douglas Murray at The Free Press.

 

Writing in Spare Moments of Life – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

Confederate Guerillas: Effective Commands or Detrimental Service? Part 1 and Part 2– Daniel Welch at Emerging Civil War. 

 

Morphing: Lessons from Year of the Monarch – Dheepa Maturi at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Bookish Diversions: Lewis and Tollkien, Pen Pals – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

3 Goals for Writing Great Historical Fiction – Ryan Coleman at Writer’s Digest.

 

“I, Being a Woman and Born Distressed,” poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Generations by Jean Twenge – book review by Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

Photograph: Mosby's Rangers during the Civil War, with John Mosby in the center wearing a feathered hat.

Poets and Poems: Hedy Habra and “Or Did You Ever See the Other Side?”

“Or” is a curious, and unexpected, word to begin a title of a poetry collection. It’s more unexpected to begin each of the 67 poems in that collection with the word “Or.” Or maybe it isn’t. 

Curious and unexpected or not, that’s what poet, author, and essayist Hedy Habra does in Or Did You Ever See the Other Side?, her most recent collection of poetry. What happens is that each title suggests it’s an alternative to the original – an alternative title, an alternative theme or idea, or a different approach, description, or telling. As I began to guess an “original” title for each one I read, a rather fun exercise in and of itself, I began to understand what she’s doing here. 

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

“To Autumn,” poem by John Keats – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Fogs & Smog of Old London – Spitalfields Life.

 

“Look Up,” a poem inspired by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – T.M. Moore at the Society of Classical Poets.

 

Poetry Prompt: Aisling – Vision or Dream – Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

A Ritual to Read to Each Other – poem by William Stafford at Every Day Poems.