MARY'S BIT or AVOID STEPPING ON FROGS
We recently saw The Illusionist, the story of a magician working in late 1880s Vienna, whose childhood love is a woman of a much higher social class. Its production values are excellent and it's an interesting if occasionally predictable film. However, there is a wonderful twist at the end which neither of us saw coming until it was nearly at the door, although it was quite plain it would when we reflected on earlier dialogue.
Seeing the film reminded me that some years ago we attended a charity fete. While wandering about the garden there we noticed a young man with a small table of the type from which TV viewers ate their dinners. He was not in fact lunching but rather just standing there, casually performing the most amazing display of card magick.
We stood on the other side of the table, his only watchers at the time and close enough to touch the velvet tablecloth. Despite staring hard enough at his hands to verge on rudeness we just could not see how he managed to accomplish what he was doing. When he took a break we got into conversation and discovered he had begun learning card tricks to help increase the flexibility of his hands, which had been affected by illness. It certainly worked well, since there was no sign of hesitation, fumbling, or stiffness while we were standing right there boggling at his skill.
There is something compelling about watching magick of any kind, isn't there? Thus it was inevitable that sooner or later it would show up in John's adventures. And indeed it did with the introduction of Dedi, a diminutive Egyptian magician, in Six For Gold. That entry in the series relates how John, accompanied by Cornelia and Peter, is sent to Egypt to investigate the curious case of sheep committing suicide -- a matter for which Dedi claims responsibility, intending it as a warning to a local dignitary attempting to appropriate his land.
During the course of the trio's visit other puzzling events occur, including a fiery apparition in the sky terrifying the locals, who take it to be a visit from Hecate. John and his companions also witness a performance by Dedi in which a coin leaps from a bowl, three stone scarabs are produced from the ear of an onlooker, and Dedi's talking oracular human-faced snake makes an appearance. Of course Dedi is an audacious fraud, and we explain the workings of such apparently supernatural happenings, although one or two are simple enough for it to be obvious to the reader how they were accomplished.
Since I am talking about Six For Gold, let me mention one of my favourite scenes though I realise I say it as should not. However, our newsletter is after all located in Liberty Hall, so, then, at one point John, Peter, and Cornelia are stranded in Alexandria and forced to go in for a bit of street theatre to get enough money to continue on their journey to reach Dedi's stamping grounds. In this most unlikely endeavour Cornelia does a turn as Empress Theodora, Peter plays her servant, and John reluctantly appears as himself. Oh, and a counterfeit mummy of one of those most magickal of creatures -- that is to say a cat -- is also on hand to provide assistance in the riotous proceedings.
As had been the case with Peter, Dedi turned out to be a character who kept knocking on the authorial door demanding to appear in more novels. As indeed has happened. He is at his most audacious in Ten For Dying, to the extent of attempting to return Theodora to life. His ritual involves a number of frogs but to his horror he accidentally steps on one while performing the ceremony. While he truly believes he has succeeded in his dreadful endeavour, he also knows that, having croaked a croaker, the wrath of the frog goddess Heqt will fall on his head, and that it will be just the start of his troubles.
AND FINALLY
Speaking of riotous proceedings, we'll close with a reminder the next Orphan Scrivener will return to grace our subscribers' in-boxes on 15th June.
See you then!
Mary R and Eric
who invite you to visit their home page, to be found hanging out on the virtual washing line that is the Web at http://reedmayermysteries.000webhostapp.com/ There you'll discover the usual suspects, including more personal essays, a bibliography, and our growing libraries of links to free e-texts of classic and Golden Age mysteries, ghost stories, and tales of the supernatural. It also hosts the Orphan Scrivener archive, so don't say you weren't warned! Meantime, our joint blog, largely devoted to reviews of Golden Age of Mystery fiction, lurks about at http://ericreedmysteries.blogspot.com/ Intrepid subscribers may also wish to know our noms des Twitter are @marymaywrite and @groggytales. Drop in some time!
