Dorothy Martin's wedded bliss could only be improved if her husband didn't have to go gallivanting all over the world, advising local police on new procedure. Dorothy's life could only be improved if she didn't keep stumbling across the recently-and criminally-deceased. The Victim In Victoria Station (Dorothy Martin, #5)
SUMMARY The Victim In Victoria Station (Dorothy Martin, #5)
The set up to catch the culprit was a bit too contrived, but the narrative of Dorothy being introduced to computers was funny (and a bit familiar) given this book was written in 1999.
208 Okay
The plot wasn’t to bad, but the overall story was a bit far fetched. One of my head scratchers was for an up and coming company especially in software industry, security was nil. The whole way Dorothy gets a temp job illegally, how others put there careers and more at great risk on the whim Dorothy is right on.
I’ll confess I’m a tough customer and most of my points don’t take away from the story for probably most readers and I don’t mean to trash the story but I have to review what nags at me.
Still, the Dorothy Martin Mysteries are clean and entertaining, despite my gripes that is why I’ll keep on reading. 208 Overall, I enjoyed it. The settings, the characters. I kept finding myself thinking, tho: “Were things really THAT different 22 years ago? Book is dated 2000, but no mobile phones, no security cameras—at a software company?!—, & people were still allowed to smoke in an office workplace? There is a glaring error that I at first thought was a plot twist, when the secretary called our protagonist “Mrs. Martin”, instead of her alias. I was actually rather disappointed that it WASN’T a plot twist. There seems to me possible error about the “Yale lock” on the back door, but I’m not 100% sure what kind of lock it was. I was picturing a dead-bolt with just a turn knob on the inside, but a key required on the outside. Also, for Dorothy to have “turned it to the unlocked position” & Evelyn not to have noticed because she doesn’t check it before going home, that would mean they leave a FIRE EXIT locked all day while the office is occupied—some fire exit! That seems high-risk, & I’d think illegal. Then somehow Dorothy is going to leave it locked when they leave? Without a key? Idk, maybe a different kind of lock than I’m imagining. I did guess at the who—partly by the “authorly” technique of distraction—who keeps being NOT considered by our “detective”—& partly from her “besottedness”. 208 Dorothy Martin enjoys her train ride to London; she spends the time in pleasant conversation with a young American man, although his discussion of computer matters goes right over her head. She goes out of the carriage momentarily and when she returns, the man is dead! Luckily for her, a doctor happens by at that moment, confirms the death and says he will contact the authorities, so Dorothy goes on her way, convinced that the matter is in good hands. She is curious about the identity of the dead man, though, so she looks for information about the death in the newspapers and by calling the local police, but nobody has any record of any death on a train anywhere near London. This arouses Dorothy’s sleuthing instincts, but when she discovers the man’s identity, she realizes just how much danger she is in…. I’m enjoying the Dorothy Martin books, this being the fifth in the series and published around 1998. I like the fact that Dorothy is an older woman, although I’m not convinced that she would have been as completely clueless about computers in 1998 as is portrayed here; nevertheless, she is a believable character for the most part, and her various contacts and friends are well-described. I don’t know that one needs to start this series with the first book, as I think the reader does not need to know her whole background to enjoy the mystery; I find the books a pleasant way to spend a wintry afternoon, so mildly recommended. 208 This novel is set about 4 months or so after the last MALICE IN MINIATURE. At the end of that novel Dorothy broke her leg and this novel begins with her travelling to London on the train for her last appointment with her Harley St. specialist.
On this journey she chats to a young American business man. As she is about to get off the train at Victoria Station she discovers that the young man has died after drinking a cup of train coffee. Dorothy is anxious to get to her appointment in Harley Street, and a doctor who comes along assures her the man is dead, that he will take care of getting the police, and that she should go. Dorothy is puzzled by the fact that there is no report of the death in the papers, and is assured by the police that no-one has died on the train. Dorothy is convinced that a young man had died, and eventually finds out who he was.
This leads to a most fanciful scenario where Dorothy gets herself a job in the office the young man had been heading to. She gets a computer expert and her London friends to help her in identifying the murderer, searching the offices etc, and eventually sewing the case up.
A really unlikely story with some parts that keep you reading just to find out how everything hangs together. First written in 1999, I thought Dams spent far too much of the book showing us how much she knew about computers and their software. In addition, Dorothy's new husband Alan was again conveniently away. Had he been at home, this investigation would never have got off the ground.
I might not be reading another in this series for a while. 208
a nice little cozy mystery. 208 The kind of cozy I like least
The protagonist not only does incredibly stupid things, she drags other people into danger, as well. I don't think she is going to enjoy what her husband has to say, no matter how gently he says it. 208 The Victim in Victoria Station by Jeanne M. Dams.
This is the 5th in the Dorothy Martin cozy mystery series.
Dorothy's husband, Alan, is away on business in Zimbabwe. So she is on her own and a bit lonesome for Alan's company already.
During a train trip to see her doctor in London Dorothy meets a young /American on his first trip to England. They strike up a brief conversation. Later Dorothy finds that same man, Bill, asleep. She tries to wake him but gets no response and calls for a doctor. A passenger aboard steps forward to pronounces Bill dead and states that he will take care of all that's necessary regarding the deceased.
The following day Dorothy searches through all the newspapers to find no article on a dead man on that train. She makes some inquiries to the police about this incident and finds that no one has heard anything about a dead body on the train.
She's soon invited to her long time friends, Tom and Lynn Anderson, for a week-end or longer if she wishes. Slowly Dorothy informs them of the dead man on the train and his apparent disappearance. Now Dorothy has two more associates to work with as she endeavors to unravel this mystery and find the identity of the dead and his whereabouts.
Another good read. This story takes a while to get me involved but by half way through I'm hanging on every word and every step in Dorothy's investigation.
208 Not for me.
I won't be continuing the series. Dorothy is the stereotype of a dotty old woman. She makes being 60-something old. I find it insulting. The plot is surreal, implausible. I couldn't finish this one. I really thought this character and series would be good, and I gave it a read through the first four, hoping to see development of characters and plot. It sees to be regressing with this one. I'm going back to the Regency period, I think. Contemporary settings just make me anxious, especially with such a stereotype as a main character. 208 I enjoyed this book but don’t think I can justify a 4 208