Mark Gilroy

Bringing Books to Life!

The Secret to Getting Rich Fast

If you want to get rich fast, there are habits you must cultivate, but most of all, knowing what wealth means to you.If you want to get rich fast –

  • rework your budget and cut out some extras and immediately grow richer in your ability to save and invest.
  • invite new neighbors to your house for dinner and immediately grow richer in hospitality.
  • read a great book and immediately grow richer in knowledge.
  • introduce your child to a new hobby you can work on together and grow richer as a parent.
  • find a way each day this next week to practice a random act of kindness and grow richer in kindness.
  • write a check to a ministry or charity you believe in and grow richer in generosity.
  • think of a friend who is going through a tough time, write him or her a heartfelt note to say how much you believe in them, and grow richer in encouragement.
  • forgive someone who wronged you and immediately grow richer in grace.
  • volunteer to help at a homeless shelter and immediately grow richer in compassion.
  • make a list of as many of your blessings as you can think of and grow richer in gratitude.
  • spend time in prayer and immediately grow richer in your relationship with God.
We usually think of getting rich fast as getting more money. Cultivate the right habits and that just might happen. But the first step in growing rich is knowing what matters most to you. Then you can pursue dreams and riches that reflect your values.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
– Jesus (Matthew 6:21, NIV)
What do you value most? How can you get started getting rich fast?

Richard Jury Returns – One of My Favorite Detectives Is Still Solving Crimes

Martha Grimes' Richard Jury novels are dark and humorous with a melancholy detective.

Vertigo 42 is the 23rd Richard Jury novel.

Chief Inspector Richard Jury is surrounded by colorful characters – from the idle rich Melrose Plant (who gave up his hereditary title of Lord) who assists him on cases, to his assistant Sergeant Alfred Wiggins (a hypochondriac and tea lover of the highest order), to the copper-haired fortune teller Carole Anne (is Jury her father figure or a “person of interest”) who lives two floors above him, and the residents of Long Piddington, his frequent stop from London to the scene of the crime.

Jury is intuitive and methodical and always “gets his man” – but despite his new romantic interest who cuts up bodies in the morgue – he never seems to get his woman. Jury just doesn’t fare well in love. We can assume from descriptions and responses that he is handsome and attractive, but the melancholy war orphan sabotages relationships at every turn. Unrequited love is always a wonderful plot device!

The plots are both humorous and dark – and occasionally get a bit too charmingly convoluted. But if you like your murder mysteries laced and paced with psychological reflection, Richard Jury is your man.

By the way, if you shake your head when you see individual book titles – The Dirty Duck, The Stargazey, The Horse You Came In On –  Grimes names most books after an English pub.

Martha Grimes’ 23rd Jury novel, Vertigo 42, released on June 2, 2014.

I won’t do a full review but I’ll note:

  • Sargent Wiggins can still be distracted by a piece of cake and hot cup of tea, but Grimes is letting the plodder show some real detecting skills in Vertigo 42. He seems to be coming into his own.
  • Did child-waif, free-spirited Carole Anne do some grown up flirting with Jury? I think she did.
  • Yes, Vertigo 42 is another London bar – but not the usual quaint neighborhood pub, but a sleek sophisticated spot 42 floors above the city.
  • Jury and Plant have always had a good-natured rivalry, but they seem to be picking at each other in this novel more like … dare I say it … nah … I’ll leave it at that.
  • Yes – the plot is convoluted – but as is almost always the case with a Jury novel, very satisfying!

 

 

The Four Queens of Crime – When Women Ruled Murder Mysteries

Ngaio Marsh was one of the Four Queens of Murder.While growing up I consumed a lot of Agatha Christie novels – I even solved one of the murders before the ending. (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.) I met another of my favorite “locked room mystery” authors – almost as popular as Christie – when I was a junior or senior in high school – Ngaio Marsh.

Marsh was born in New Zealand and split time between there and London. She wrote 32 crime novels and was considered along with Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Margery Allingham one of the “Queens of Crime.” Women novelists dominated the genre in the 20s and 30s – and they don’t do too bad today either.

Marsh’s most famous character was Inspector Roderick Alleyn. Alleyn was smart and witty but didn’t have the noir edge of a Spade and Marlowe – two detectives “across the pond” as mysteries and all genres became more “modern” and heroes were shown with all their flaws.

Circling back to read A Man Lay Dead took me back to a different era of entertainment, when even murder was polite, civilized, and almost wholesome!

I highlighted Ngaio Marsh from a Pinterest board I keep with book covers that feature my favorite spies, detectives, hit men, and vigilantes.