The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

Despite my discouraging beginning thoughts which were along the lines of "This sounds like a history textbook," I rather liked The Zookeeper's Wife. 


The reason my initial impression of this book was bad was because I was expecting a historical fiction. I'm not much into nonfiction. I generally don't read it for entertainment (though I was momentarily tempted by A Brief History of Time). 


But if you approach it as nonfiction with historical fiction bits thrown in, you shouldn't be too perturbed. It took me about half of the book to get used to her style. When I'm reading nonfiction, I don't want to read historical fiction, and especially prose like hers, which borders on the purple at times (but isn't so bad as Frankenstein). When I'm reading historical fiction, I want a story, not what happened at the time this book was written. But once you get past that, the book is pretty decent, on the whole. I say that honestly, completely aside from the fact that I would feel bad writing a deeply criticizing review about a subject like the Holocaust. 


I enjoyed the little vignettes she put in about other refugees and other characters in the story, but I think there could have been a lot more structure. The whole storyline with Heinz and his brother's rivalry to recreate the extinct animals was very interesting and definitely intertwined with the group, but sometimes it was slightly, er, tangential. I don't know how many pages she devoted to that one story, but the main plot was left by the wayside for a while and by the time she returned to it I couldn't remember why she'd introduced those characters in the first place. 


She introduced some of the Guests well, but I feel that sometimes I had no perspective. She might have introduced about ten of the guests, but if, as the back cover announces, they "managed to save over three hundred people from the Nazis by hiding refugees in the empty animal cages," I would like to know a more of these people. I would have appreciated a scene where she (or even Rys) went into the animal houses and brought food to the refugees and remembered them as the bald guy, or the guy who always wore black, or the lady with the twins, and too many others to count, I think I would get a slightly better sense of the sheer magnitude of this operation. Granted, mentioning five or six more people will not communicate effectively "three hundred human beings fleeing from unimaginable cruelty," but at least I won't think of it as about the size of an average family reunion. 


I enjoyed the scenes with the animals (although they all seemed to /die/ in the end . . . whether by bombing or being shot by a German soldier in a cruel joke or by getting drunk). It was kind of nice and innocent, but it seemed slightly out of place in a Holocaust novel. The big cats being shot because they just /might/ get out and menace the population of Warsaw was excessive, but it seems like it was portrayed with more horror than the Nazi camps. I feel like if the entire Aryan superiority thing could be explained, they could spare a word or two about something that happened in a death camp. Maybe she could have even described a snippet of what Jan's POW camp was like--or, if she didn't know that, what it could have been like, based upon other accounts of POW camps. What might have happened to those two girls who jumped off the train and escaped into a field. Some horrors were described, and I hope I'm not morbid, but it wasn't enough for me. The Polish soldiers shot the elephant AS HARD AS THEY COULD FOR NO REASON AT ALL. (I'm kidding. They had a reason; though it wasn't very valid in my opinion, it was still a reason. I was trying too hard to include an inside joke but it really doesn't work.) But in all seriousness, the Germans took people and pretty much shot them (and all the other ways they killed them) as hard as they could for no reason at all. Again, as in the Polish soldiers' case, they had a reason. They had a Philosophy. Aryan superiority and purification of the human race was not a good reason for this massacre (as we well know). The risk of a loose and potentially dangerous animal roaming about a city in wartime was a better reason. And in the Poles' case, their victim was an elephant and an animal, not a person. 


I had another minor comment on this edition; I don't think the pictures should have been added in the middle of the book. I looked through them halfway through reading the book (as I came to them, that is) and didn't know who Teresa was. I also didn't know that Jan got sent to a POW camp. Yes, these are spoilers which could have been avoided if I had self control. But that's all right.




Stars:  7, mainly because I couldn't handle the genre switching (but there were other reasons--see above).  


Violence:  8-9.  Well, it's the Holocaust.  There were a few brief descriptions of animals being wounded by bombs or guns and . . . well, there wasn't much human cruelty in there, although one lady is tortured and her feet are broken.  


Romance:   1; it was pretty minimal.  Just a few couples mentioned.  And the protagonist is married.  


Language:  0, unless there's something I didn't catch.  


Appropriate for:  Older teens/adults (as I don't suspect it will be popular among younger children)

What If: A Frankenstein Fanfiction

A little background before we dive right in:  This was an assignment for a class, so I decided to post it.  It is intended to take place just before Justine's trial.  The hasty title (which can't really be called a working title anymore, as I'm done writing it) is What If.  And I know the last part was taken straight from the book, and that it was referring to the monster, not Frankenstein.  Well, this is a fanfiction. 

Convicted and cut to the heart by guilt, I stumbled at a shambling run towards the door of the dining room, searching desperately for my family.  The occasional sob escaped my lips, so great was my despair.  I attempted to reassure myself that it was not too late to act, but remorse still roamed restlessly in my soul.  The ornately carved wooden doors gave before me, swinging open with a great noise.  Around the table my family sat, all in positions of pensive thought, their supper – so mundane in the face of Justine’s impending trial, and even more so when I considered the fact that I had a hand in her doom – lay untouched in front of them.

No doubt I looked half-mad, with wide, wild eyes ablaze.  I cried out my confession in a screech of inhuman agony.  “O God, know that I have done a horrible thing.  I have murdered poor William and soon innocent Justine shall die by my hand too!”  I collapsed onto the end of the table, gripping the cloth for support as I wailed incoherently.

They all gathered around me instantly and began trying to comfort me, burying their own sorrow and worry.  I loved them for it, but it was not to be.  I was unquestionably guilty, and nothing could avert the weight that had settled deep inside me.  Eventually they were able to get the whole tale out of me, how I had created the monster and how I believed that he had killed William. 

“Leave me to my remorse,” said I.  “The only way to assist me is to save Justine.” 

My father laid his hand gently upon my shoulder and raised me to my feet.  “Do you think, Victor, that we shall leave you alone in your troubles?  Do not deceive yourself.  We shall stand by you in all.  Therefore, let us finish our meal and go out to the forest where you saw this monster.  We shall overcome it and take it back to the court as evidence, dead or alive.” 

My tears became bright tears of joy as the others nodded.  “Thank you,” I managed to say before my brother led me off to my bedroom to get some rest. 

“We shall come with you in an hour,” whispered he as we entered my quarters. 

-

The moonlight that filtering through my window danced across my eyelids and awakened me.  As I glanced at the clock, I realized with a jolt of horror that in half an hour we would be off to the woods to capture or kill my monster.  The very words I applied to the creature convicted me yet again.  It was my monster – my problem, not for me to endanger my family with.  The foul imitation of humanity must be destroyed.  It could not be captured, for it would only break free.  I must take back the life which I so foolishly gave to it. 

Thus, I set off to the dark forest to seek the monster.  At my first resounding step into the forest – a step in the right direction, a step towards the light – I saw that my way was lit by the crescent moon.  I considered it a sign that my endeavor was smiled upon by heaven.  I followed the faint track in the undergrowth, only to find myself hopelessly lost in the woods, in the middle of a wild tangle of ivy and knee-high grasses. 

I do not know how long I spent in the woodlands, but soon I heard familiar voices – those that I most wanted to hear, and those that I least wanted to hear in that place.  My family had followed me, and they were calling my name in loud and ever more desperate voices. 

I circumvented a tree and walked down among them.  “Call me not,” hissed I.  “The monster is a cunning beast.  It will seize upon the least clue of our arrival and find us!” 

As I said this, the mockery of humanity that I had created leaped from behind me, knocking me to the ground.  It ignored me, however, and set about the gruesome work for which it had lured me here.  I could not watch as it liberally baptized the ground with the precious blood of my loved ones.  It then turned to face me. 

The rags which were all that was left of my beloved Elizabeth’s garments were caught on a branch of an oak tree weakened by the massacre.  As the murderer drew nearer, the rags caught at his crudely made body and the heavy branch descended upon him like a fist of judgment, pinning the once mighty monster to the earth.  His struggles weakened quickly as I grasped my sword eagerly and advanced, ready to bring justice upon the beast’s head.  He barely twitched as I brought my blade down.  I lifted the repugnant twice-perished head.  My flesh crawled at the touch of the body, and I could see tiny blisters beginning to form on my hands. 

Seeing the sun approaching its noontime position, I hastened from the accursed spot, determined that the court should hear of this, the real murderer.  Then should Justine be acquitted and my hand be recognized as innocent of her death. 

I stalked up into the courtroom steps, flinging open the door and holding out before me the head of my creation.  Justine stood in the position of the defendant, staring sorrowfully downwards – worried, no doubt, about the absence of friendly faces in the crowd.  She looked up upon my entrance.  When she recognized me, her expression turned hopeful, but when she took in the rest of my appearance and the head I grasped firmly by the hair, her countenance fell again.  Undeterred, I rushed up the steps to the judge. 

“Honorable sir!” exclaimed I.  “I have here the head of poor William’s true killer!”  I held up the head so the judge could meet its blank, expressionless eyes.  I stared at him, willing him to understand.  O, could he not see the cruelty in that face?  But here the judge surprised me.  Rather than dismissing my evidence, he started up as one who had seen a supernatural manifestation and exclaimed in horror. 

“You see?” asked I triumphantly.  The judge turned his countenance upon me with a great and terrible expression and summoned the guards. They bound me in chains before I could continue. 

The judge addressed the court as I exited the room.  “This head that was brought in belonged to the Earl de Vere, who, you may recall, was interred a year past.  The statement is unreliable.  Proceed.” 

My heart sank.  I was to give my own life and bring everyone else down to Hades with me.  There was no chance of me saving anyone.  I prepared myself for death.  But even death was to avoid me, as I was deposited in an insane asylum. 

Since the blisters had developed upon my palms, the welts had inflamed and enlarged.  Furthermore, they had spread up my arms.  I did not know what the malady was that afflicted me, but I could not pretend that I was unafraid.  A slow, torturous death is the worst kind, and the agony it brought me in the last days was unimaginable. 

Worse still was the guilt I suffered the days I heard of a headless brute that roamed the countryside, killing innocents.  I had no doubt it was my monster, and the severing of its head had not ended its miserable life.  I looked forward to the ending of my own life, looking for relief of a sort.  It was not to be so.  When I died, I was free of physical pain, but the mental pain yet torments me.  I cannot rest until I have freed the world of my curse.  Life is a terrible gift. 

And so it is that I tell you this tale from beyond the grave.  You who hear my words, know that I regret my contributions to the gross product of humanity.  I wish to destroy this plague upon humanity, but I know not how.  Should you kill this monster, I would be eternally grateful – and finally at rest.

-

He sprung from the cabin window, as he said this, upon the ice-raft which lay close to the vessel.  He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness and distance. 

Starcross

Art and Myrtle Mumby are reunited with Jack Havock and his gang of alien-pirates-turned-spies under more sinister circumstances.  The sea at their resort abruptly disappears and appears, and strange top hats in their closets begin to call to them.

Myrtle grew faintly more likeable in this book.  Perhaps this was because she did more.  (See my other review for the explanation of Myrtle in the previous book in this series.)  Myrtle in Starcross starts ships with alchemy, uses her bathing dress to escape a . . . erm . . . starfish (yes, well, it was giant and carnivorous), hosts a friendly Moob (in the form of a hair cloth and a bonnet), rescues her brother Art and Mrs. Spinnaker, and more.

The randomness was a bit improved.  I appreciated it.  Brainwashing top hats?  Simply brilliant.


Stars:  6 because Myrtle was better, the plot was more random . . . in essence, just see above.

Violence:  5 for non-serious violence.

Romance:   6.  It was mostly avoided (since our narrator is a brave British boy not courageous enough to face this topic at most times - ha ha).  But Myrtle still likes Jack, and so does Ssil.  Jack tries to persuade Myrtle that they aren't right together, but Myrtle turns stubborn and refuses to listen.  Jack didn't answer Myrtle's letters (and Art finds a book on how to write love letters in Jack's cabin).  And finally, Myrtle thinks Jack likes Delphine instead of her.

Language:  5 because of some swear words with only the first letter printed.

Appropriate for:  9-11

Mortal Engines

"He cut through the 21st Century Gallery, past the big plastic statues of Pluto and Mickey, animal-headed gods of lost America" (7).

If you read Larklight or Starcross, this is much more advanced than those books.  It's more serious and deals with less random problems.

I won't go into a full-blown grammar rant now, but it isn't "try and book," it's try TO book (73).  Try AND book means that you are both trying and booking, and what is the point of trying if you're already booking?  Reeve apparently doesn't know about this rule, as he does it again with "try and be reasonable" (75).  He also does it in either Larklight or Starcross, I don't remember which.

On second thought, the two examples in Mortal Engines are both in dialogue, which is often rife whith grammatical errors that reflect the quirks of actual speech.  (I'm not just talking about Reeve's dialogue either.  C.S. Lewis ^.^ uses it himself in The Magician's Nephew, dropping hs and adding them just like a . . . um, I really have no idea what accent that is, but the word Cockney comes to mind, so I'll label that accent Cockney until I figure out otherwise).  Reeve may be pardoned.

This book has a great plot, cool premise, woo not-so-shiny technology (hey, it's steampunk, man), and amazing characters.  I'm not a fan of steampunk, so this didn't make the top simply because of my personal preferences, but it is a pretty good book.



Stars:  7.5, for reasons stated in the last paragraph.

Violence:  8.  Hester's entire face is cut up by Valentine (apparently it was an accident or something), Katherine gets stabbed (accidentally again) by her dad, and the traction city of London is blown up.  Pod dies under a roasting hot ship that lands on him.

Romance:  7.  Tom likes Kate at one point, then he likes Hester.  Kate likes Pod and he likes her (they get a kiss scene later in the book, which I didn't even notice was a kiss scene until afterwards, which shows either that I'm incredibly oblivious or that it was a harmless kiss scene.  Maybe both).

Language:  TBA (I forgot and I have to look)

Appropriate for:  11 to teen

Larklight

At first, Larklight sounds like a perfectly normal vacation house.  Myrtle's playing the piano and Art wants to see the delivery boat come in.  By the end of the third page, however, the mention of the gravity generator alerts you to the fact that something is not right.  Then the words "space damp" and various other clues tell you that this is definitely not Earth (4).

Here is an example of Phillip Reeve's dry wit and humor:  "I remember thinking that there could be no fate more horrible than to be buried alive, and wondering what type of deranged and sickly mind could have invented such a tale.  But as I lay there immobilised in a jar on the wrong side of the Moon with only a ravening caterpillar for company I realised that Mr. Poe was actually quite a cheery, light-hearted sort of chap, and that his story had been touchingly optimistic" (58).

There's an illustration of a skeleton on page 53, if you dislike that sort of thing.

Really, the only thing this book has going for it is the humorous circumstances which seem to be aiming for Hitch Hiker's Guide randomness.  Of course, there's no improbability drive, so the wild and wacky things which happen in this book are a little more restrained.

On the whole, Myrtle is a very disagreeable person.  I wouldn't like to talk to her, and though she has spunk, she is incredibly rude, annoying, and haughty besides.

Now all that I wouldn't mind in a character, but Myrtle pretty much does nothing exciting/adventurous/important during this entire book.  She cleaned Larklight, complained, was rude to the moon natives, complained, cleaned the Sophronia, complained, got kidnapped, got rescued, went to London, watched the city's destruction, and stomped Mr. Webster.  The only action that was really necessary for her to do was the arachnid squashing I mentioned last.  (Ulla could just as easily have told Richard Burton.)

Granted, many of these things in this book may not have happened without Myrtle, but the spider squishing is really the only exciting thing she actively did.  Oh, and singing.  Scaring away the cacti will be generously counted for her acts of heroism, but they still only number two.  One is a major plot point, and the other isn't really.



Stars:  7 for humor and ludicrous circumstance.

Violence:  5, for when people/aliens/sentient beings are sedated, shot, whacked, etc.  This is not described in detail.

Romance:  4.  Ssil secretly loves Jack, and so does Myrtle.  Jack likes Myrtle, too, and there's a kiss scene at the end of the book.  Art describes it by apophasis, as follows:  "And I cannot bring myself to describe what happened next.  It is one thing to write of giant spiders and man-eating moths, but there are some sights to stomach-turning for even the bravest British boy to contemplate, and the soppy way Jack and my sister ran to cuddle and to kiss each other is one of 'em" (392).

Language:  All the swear words have only one letter (the rest are replaced with a dash).  Some examples are d--n, d--n-d, bl---y, h-ll, and G-d.

Appropriate for:  10-12

Blackout/All Clear

I'm not precisely sure how a book can be both sci-fi and hi-fi (if hi-fi is the correct abbreviation for historical fiction at all), but Connie Willis' time travel books do it somehow. All the detailed research puts it squarely in the historical fiction genre. But time travel throws us off and this book into the science fiction genre. I still can't bear to rip the golden star sticker proclaiming its genre as historical fiction from this book's cover, so I leave it on and add a silver goat sticker proclaiming its genre as science fiction. Which makes it sci-hi-fi. 


All Clear is the sequel to Blackout, but it's more like the author wrote so much that the book would be too heavy and intimidating.  Blackout ends at a chapter ending, so it was pretty suspenseful.  They could really be spliced together into one volume without too much effort, other than the fact that you can suck more money out of readers by making them buy two books instead of just one book.  In any case, here's what happens in both books.  (I'm mashing the reviews of Blackout and All Clear together.)  


Polly, Merope, and Michael are time traveling historians exploring different aspects of World War Two.  There are also several other historians whose stories are interepersed among this main storyline (but they're actually the same historians at different times under different names).  Their drops, which are portals back to their home base in Oxford, won't open, so the three of them just try to survive in the middle of the Blitz, hoping that a retrieval team will come through and get them.  But time is winding down, and Polly has a deadline coming up.  That means she was in London previously (relative to her life) but at a later time (relative to history).  I'm not sure what happens if you're in the same place at the same time twice, but it's not a good thing.  Maybe disappearing from the space-time-travel continuum?  That would be odd, because of the matter can't be created or destroyed, but then, who knows?  Connie Willis is a great author and I'm sure she'd come up with something a lot more intricate than that. 


The character development in Blackout and All Clear was masterful and I was totally invested in the characters by the end. Except . . . except Colin. The parts about Colin that made me like him were at the beginning of Blackout, and I'd nearly forgotten. No matter /how/ much I hated the running around in Passage, I really think we could have used a little more time watching Colin's frantic efforts instead of just being told that his efforts were frantic. 


There were a few things about Colin that I wouldn't have minded being told straight out. Number one: Did he do flash-time drops or not? I know Polly said/thought something about him looking old at the end of the book, but that might have been because a) she'd been away from him for months or b) he was worried about her/Merope/Dunworthy/the entire blasted problem. Him looking old isn't a conclusive point for him being flash-time dropped. Number two: Was he Merope/Eileen's grandson? Polly mentioned the resemblance and the dear-boy-ing, so I assumed it was a genetic relationship (and obviously, Merope must be Colin's ancestor, because he wasn't married or anything at that point and Merope was in the just-post-WWII age and Colin was in 2060 . . . anyhow, I'm rambling, but it's sort of obvious).  


In addition, it did get long-winded and confusing at times, where the things that we were told about way before in the book happened afterwards, or happened twice from two different viewpoints.  It really couldn't be helped, though, since it's time travel.  


Merope seemed to be Pollyish and grown up when the story was told from her viewpoint, but she was far more childish when other people were narrating the story.  She seemed to be an inconsistent personality.  




Stars:  9 for an amazing adventure, in-depth research, and likeable characters.  


Violence:  7.  It's the Blitz.  Bombs are going off, people get cut in half, and at one point it looks like there's a pile of bodies in front of a store (they're actually mannequins that got thrown out of a store window by the force of a bomb.  


Romance:  4.5 since Polly and Colin have a slight relationship throughout both books (which gets put on hold when Polly, Merope, and Michael are stuck in London during the Blitz).  Colin (who's seventeen) suggests doing a bunch of flash-drops so he can catch up with Polly in age so it wouldn't be too awkward.  


Language:  6.5 for English swear words such as bl--dy, d-mn, etc.  


Appropriate for:  teen to adult

Beowulf

Beowulf consists of three major battles.  You could call it a trilogy, I suppose. 
Beowulf and Grendel
Beowulf and his Mother Beowulf and Grendel's Mother
Beowulf and the Dragon

(Right.  This is not about Beowulf's mother, the daughter of Hrethel, but about Grendel's mother, evil monster mommy who is so uncivilized that she doesn't say a single word.  Pay no attention to the movie version.) 

BEOWULF AND GRENDEL
Hrothgar owns a mead hall called Heorot.  (And that's only the beginning of the alliteration.)  But then this monster named Grendel starts invading Heorot.  He carries men off to his lair.  Beowulf enters the story to kill Grendel and save Heorot.  When Grendel enters, Beowulf pretends to be drunk and asleep.  He rises and fights the monster.  He doesn't use a weapon, because that would be an unfair advantage.  It would have been a waste of time to use a sword anyway, because Grendel can't be hurt by human weapons.  So Superman Beowulf tears off Grendel's arm.  The monster goes to die in his swamp. 

BEOWULF AND GRENDEL'S MOTHER
But wait!  There's more!  Grendel's mother is mad about her son's death.  (Perhaps that's understandable, as it's her son.  Perhaps not, because he was so ugly.  Perhaps, because she's so much uglier that she thought he was beautiful.  Unfortunately, if this is so, she doesn't have a revelation like Ophelia does:  "I was the more deceived!")  Anyhow, it turns out that Beowulf has to go Grendel's-mother-fishing in the lake.  He fights her underwater.  His sword doesn't work on Grendel's mother (Beowulf, you really need to fire whoever makes your weapons), so he grabs a giant sword that Grendel's mother had in her armory.  (She'd probably eaten its owner.)  He chops off her head.  Then he finds dead Grendel and chops off his head.  He resurfaces after who knows how long (wow, he must have taken a page or two out of Obi-Wan and Qui-Gonn's book) with the proof that the monsters are dead. 

BEOWULF AND THE DRAGON
Beowulf is now King of the Geats.  (Yeats.  Yayats.  Whatever.)  A slave steals a cup from a dragon.  The dragon is (understandably) angry, and starts burning towns down and having a major temper tantrum.  (These dragons . . . they're so touchy.  Look at Smaug!  He - oh.  Ohhh.  I see the connection . . . Tolkien took inspiration from Beowulf and . . . ohhh.  Let me quote Grace - "That's so awesome!")  So Beowulf and his buddies go take an expedition to take out the dragon.  Beowulf goes down to fight it alone (at his request) and starts getting pwned.  Wiglaf (Weelaf.  Wee-loff.  Yeah, that.) is the only one who goes to help him.  Beowulf's neck gets chomped and Wiglaf stabs the dragon.  Beowulf takes that opportunity to stab the dragon, but then he dies from the wounds.  Wiglaf gets the dragon's treasure and succeeds Beowulf. 

Passage

Passage by Connie Willis is for adults, but only because of a heavy overarching theme of death. 

It's an amazing premise (expecially having read 90 Minutes in Heaven and part of Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back).  Joanna Lander and Richard Wright are scientists researching NDEs (Near Death Experiences) using a drug that imitates NDEs.  When only a few of their volunteers are able to produce useful data, Joanna has to be "sent under."  She sees the Titanic, and she wonders what the connection is between this ancient ship and the NDE.  When she realizes the significance, she goes to find Dr. Wright.  Instead, she meets tragedy.  Dr. Wright, Kit, and Vielle must find answers - and quickly.  They were too late to save Joanna, but there are others on the brink of death as well . . .

Stars:  8.5 for its suspense, premise, and such. 

Violence:  6; Greg tries to force Joanna to show him where the lifeboats are. 

Romance:  7.  Some of the nurses find Dr. Wright "cute" and Vielle tries to do some matchmaking, but not much. 

Language:  7 or 8.  S-words and such. 

Recommended for:  older teens and adults

Ender's Game

I'd heard some good things about this book, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. (I was pretty sure Zoe's story about Iggy and the Vampire Academy [or whatever it was called . . . it's been a while] was based off this book. And the premise was amazing. So I was looking forward to reading this.)

I enjoyed it immensely. It lived up to my expectations and even passed them. (I've got rather high expectations.) The twist ending was really amazing.

Stars:  9.5, because . . . I never really give anything a complete 10 stars.  I believe that books are amazing, but I can always find something that I disliked. 

Violence:  8.  Ender fights several people who attack him.  Two he kills because he goes too far. 

Romance:  2 for slight references to . . . parts.  Mainly in the cussing sense. 

Language:  8 for intense cussing.  B-words floated all over the place with Ender and his pals in null gravity. 

Appropriate for:  older kids

What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!

This was a draft post that I never finished.  It's not a total review (it's missing the numbers, for one thing) but I figure I might as well post it. 

What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! by Agatha Christie details the investigation that follows Mrs. McGillicuddy seeing a woman being strangled in a passing train.  Though the body is not found, Miss Marple is convinced that the murder actually happened and enlists Lucy Eyelesbarrow to serve at a certain house where the body may be found.  Lucy actually finds the body, and the case that follows baffles the police and everyone concerned - except Miss Marple.

Lucy Eyelesbarrow is an practical, efficient girl, though lacking in Miss Marple's particular mental abilities.  Her trust in Miss Marple's good judgement is magnified through the book, first when she finds the body and second when Miss Marple actually solves the mystery.  She could be considered eccentric when she turns down a steady position for this more exciting and definitely more dangerous position, given that someone has been killed, and the murderer could kill again.