What I read in January

 I thought I'd already done this, then realised I hadn't! It doesn't seem that long since the December list. Again, this is a bit of a mixture with fact and fiction thrown in - something for everyone!

Cecilia Peartree, The Great Calamity: The calamity referred to is the death of almost the entire Royal Family at Osborne House due to one of Prince Albert’s experiments going wrong. The alternative history proposed here, therefore, outlaws steam power and has the throne pass to the Prussians, though the scope of the book is much more domestic. Two families who were involved in the Calamity have parted but are now drawn together again, initially through the deaths of family members. Though I love this author’s Pitkirtly series and have very much enjoyed her other books, I can’t help feeling that this is her best book yet – and there are hints at a sequel.

David Howarth The Shetland Bus: This is the story of the organisation of fishing boats that worked the winters of the Second World War between Shetland and Norway, rescuing refugees and helping the resistance. Their ingenuity and bravery is extraordinary. This is written by one of the Royal Navy officers who worked with them and though it veers into technical realms of which I know little, it’s still an excellent read with some good photographs, telling with deep affection and admiration of work that I know I could never have done.

Jodi Taylor, Saving Time: Team Weird are now fully qualified (terrifying thought) and Luke is determined to find his father guilty of involvement in all kinds of illegal time business. Jane, meanwhile, is enjoying an unexpected romantic interlude, and someone is going round destroying witnesses to various time misdemeanours. Really entertaining, and you find yourself caring deeply for the characters.

Jodi Taylor, About Time: I really didn’t expect to enjoy the Time Police series anywhere near this much!  The mystery of Jane’s past is mostly resolved, and Luke’s relationship with his father takes an unexpected turn as the team tries to bring the worst illegal time traveller to justice.

S.J. Richards, Change of Direction and Taken to the Hills: A prequel to this series which is in the box set, which explains Luke Sackville’s joining the police, and then the first in the series. By the beginning of the book, Luke is no longer in the police but despite a disrupted home life he is starting a new job related to security in a large financial firm. Several women have disappeared, apparently after issues at work, and as Luke and his new, inexperienced team begin to draw the cases together they realise that there is more peril to come. I look forward to getting to know the team better in the next book.

Takashi Hiraide, The Guest Cat: there’s a bit too much geography at the beginning of this, but there is some charm to it. The author is really writing about himself most of the time, and it’s hard to see how the cat fits in much. It’s not a long book, but there was only so much I could stomach at a time, as I found it not so much meditative as self-absorbed and unoriginal. Thank goodness I finished it at last. The author refers to it as a novel, but I couldn’t discern much in the way of plot – no doubt others love it but it was not for me.

Denzil Meyrick, The Death of Remembrance: Brian must at last confront his demons, but I preferred the bits set on the west coast and not the standard Glasgow mob violence of some of the scenes. There are a surprising number of typos in this, and in some places I found Brian intensely annoying – maybe I just wasn’t so much in the mood, but this wasn’t my favourite of this series. Still, it’s a good deal better than some of the stuff around just now, and in essence I enjoyed it. The ending was a bit odd but it was better than the rest of the book.

Ambrose Parry, Voices of the Dead: Here I am, back with one of these, despite the fact that I don’t really like either of the main characters. I think it’s for the plots, really, and the views of Edinburgh. One little note, however, pleased me: a reference not to the well-worn contrast between Old Town and New, or rich and poor Edinburgh, but the links between them that are so much part of the city. There are some concepts which don’t sit easily in the historical context, though I understand the authors have done some very careful research – still, there are plenty of uses of language that jar. And why couldn’t Raven have shopped the dentist to McLevy?

Ernest Bramah, The Complete Works: particularly the Max Carrados short stories. I enjoyed these short stories featuring a blind detective – clever deductions and quite witty. To be honest, I didn’t read much of the rest of this book. It’s well-written, but it was very political and just at the moment I wanted a bit of a break from that in my fiction reading. I think I might well come back to it, though.

Camilla Lackberg, The Cuckoo: I haven’t read much of this series but quite enjoyed this, the latest. The main character and those around him are pleasant company, which can’t be said for almost anyone else in the plot (there are about four exceptions). There’s an unbelievable level of come-uppance at the end – in fact, an awful lot of it is unbelievable, but an entertaining read, nonetheless.

S.G. McLean, The Winter List: For some reason this is the first of this series I have read, but I hope it won’t be the last (I should probably go back and read the first, in fact!). This is not my favourite historical period but in McLean’s hands it is of course wonderful – her writing is so accomplished, vivid and real, the characters rounded and interesting. And the plot – well, who could want for anything more?

Celia Norman Smith, The Tales of Harry Also: Harry Also is a rather philosophical scarecrow in a lovely vegetable garden. This is technically a children’s book – probably better as one to be read to a child than one for the child to read, as some of the words are a little advanced (though some are explained as we go along). The writing and description are beautiful and of real attraction to any child with an interest in the natural world, but themes of birth, death and indeed torture and redemption might call for some adult support. On the whole a rewarding read, but very hard to place.

Hans Rosling, Factfulness: Not my usual kind of read, but an interesting one. The subtitle is ‘Ten reasons we’re wrong about the world – and why things are better than you think’. Rosling analyses, with some frightening anecdotes, the ten instincts that cause us to believe the world is an increasingly terrifying place: gap (believing there is a gulf between the worst and the best, while actually most people are in the middle), negativity, straight lines (in projected graphs), fear, size (getting things in proportion), generalisation, destiny (forgetting that slow improvement is still improvement), single (use more than one tool to tackle a problem), blame, and urgency. It is a sort of reassuring book, though it’s harder to apply its principles when the world now does actually look worse than it did when Rosling died in 2017. I found myself trying to decide if he had been proved wrong and things really are in a decline, or if he was being proved right by my struggle to think otherwise.

Georgette Heyer, Death in the Stocks: I have only, and years ago, read one of Heyer’s murder mysteries, and had thought for a long time that it had been a one-off. I was delighted to find there were more. The Vereker siblings are fairly repulsive and both are fully deserving of being charged with the murder of their loathed half-brother Arnold. I didn’t care for either of them, nor for their prospective spouses, but their solicitor, their cousin Giles, saves the day as far as the book is concerned, being both sensible and charming.

The Gowden Wifie, Alec Cattanach 2, is gradually edging towards publication - the beta readers have it just now! I've started plotting Murray 14 (14, good heavens), which is set in Edinburgh in 1822 and is just now provisionally entitled Murder on the King's Jaunt. If I can dig myself out of knitting and some delectable research, I might start writing it soon.

Happy New Year! And December's books

 December was, of course, quite busy, but a few books managed to get themselves read in the cracks in the corners (a shame books aren't quite so quick to get themselves written, but there we are!). Anyway, the snow's on the ground (here, anyway) so see if you can find yourself a good read or two to keep you cosy.

Cecilia Peartree, Death at the Pavilion: another in this excellent and entertaining series set in the dysfunctional town of Pitkirtly and featuring an entire population full of aversions and complex self-confidence issues. Most of our characters by now have rich histories and it’s easy to feel at home even with retired spies and murder suspects. I hope this will not be the last we’ll see of Amaryllis and Christopher.

Simon Bond, Mrs. Pargeter’s Public Relations: This was a great ending to the huge box set … the explanations of UK terms to US readers at the end was, shall we say, idiosyncratic.

Veronica Heley, Murder by Accident: Another entertaining tale (and not quite as dark as the previous episode), with the usual tensions – will the dreadful Diana get the upper hand? Will the subservient Stewart stand up for himself? Problems with the electrics cause more than one shock before the usual satisfying ending.

Gareth Williams, Rescuing Richard: This is such rich fare it needs to be read a little at a time, absorbing the wonderful historical detail and the fine African setting. The complex and political plot takes him eventually to London in the company of a Zulu chief to visit King George IV. Extremely interesting and authoritatively written.

Wendy M. Wilson, Recalled to Life: The second in this unusual series set in late 19^th century New Zealand, with a retired English soldier set up as a private investigator in a town part Maori and part Swedish. Hardy has been arrested by the unpredictable Armed Constabulary for no reason he can establish, until it begins to seem the roots lie in his army service in India. A bit of me was intrigued by the Tale of Two Cities reference in the title, but this doesn't seem to go anywhere, sadly.

Jodi Taylor, Doing Time: My first in the spin-off Time Police series – Max’s son Matthew joins up, for complex reasons, and is teamed up with a timid soul on the run from her grandmother and a brash young man hoping to be thrown out to prove a point to his wealthy father. The characters are of course more complex than that, and we watch them develop through their training and against a background very different from St. Mary’s.

Jodi Taylor, Hard Time: Our Team Weird are in action again, sent on a dreadfully dangerous assignment before their training is properly complete. Extremely witty, tense and moving, this series is just as good as Taylor’s other books – not sure why I’d been avoiding it!

Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club: I’d only heard chunks of this on Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime when it first came out, so decided to give a proper chance. Of course I wasn’t keen on the present tense, never am for a narrative, but otherwise I enjoyed it quite well, even if I found it – perhaps it sounds stupid to say far-fetched in a cosy mystery, but yes, I thought it stretched credulity a touch too far. There are similar series I prefer and I wondered if Osman was trying to stuff too much into a cosy plot. Still, I’d probably read another one.

David Gatward, Blood Fountain: Another very good episode in this series with a couple of gory murders and, for a while, yet another dog. I miss Gordy (now down in Somerset) from the team, but the setting is still magnificent and the humour very welcome.

Hm, someone needs to update their covers online! David Gatward, Hatchet Hill: The second in Gordy’s spin-off series set in Somerset, and this is even gorier than Blood Fountain. The team is slowly building up steam and the addition of retired consultant Jameson is a good one. There were a couple of things I wasn’t so keen on in this one, one aspect that was a bit predictable (and that I would not have expected from this author) and one point that I felt could have been followed up again (but perhaps I was over-thinking that). Anyway, a good solid read and I hope to be back for more.

Rhys Dylan, A Body of Water: A man stabbed on the driveway of his remote Welsh farmhouse starts us off on another episode of this very good series, giving us plenty of examples of why one might want to retreat to the back of beyond. But what happened to the victim’s hens??

Carmen Radtke, Murder Makes Waves: The glamorous setting of a cruise ship heading for London gets us off to a good start, and I liked the way Frances’ involvement with the ship’s entertainment allowed us to see two levels of shipboard life. The plot is light and fun and Frances, Jack and Sal are so likeable it’s good to spend time with them. But what next, now they’ve arrived in Europe?

Ben Aaronovitch, Amongst Our Weapons: It’s a while since I’d read one of these so this was a bit of a Christmas treat to myself, and despite its length I whizzed through it. Pete’s narrative voice is really strong and very funny with his sarcastic asides about policing and architecture, and the whole mad world of the Rivers of London (one of whom is, of course, his girlfriend) is a rich, crazy delight with enough links to real life to make it weirdly convincing. I particularly like the talking foxes, but there’s so much here to enjoy that, apart from one uncharacteristic Latin error, it’s hard to fault it at all.

There we are, not too many to choose from! And as regards the very belated The Gowden Wifie (Alec Cattanach II) I can tell you that I've just reached the end of Chapter 44 (out of 50), and I'm pressing on, so perhaps there's hope!

Books in November

 

November was a busy month! Lots of reading done, much of it seasonal, so dip in and see if you can find something new to enjoy (or indeed something old)!

Carmen Radtke, Ghost Conquers the Castle: This charming series continues with an episode set in a Highland castle at Christmas. With the risk of Adriana actually meeting another ghost, and the challenges of several extensive meals each day, being snowed in with a murder victim is not ideal as Genie tries to learn the subtleties of upper class social life. Very entertaining – made me want to head for the Highlands!

David Gatward, The SomersetSlayings: Though I thought the plot here was a bit contrived, I enjoyed the possibilities of this Somerset spin-off with Gordy, one of my favourite characters from the Grimm books. I’m very fond of Somerset and look forward to seeing how this goes – the team already looks promising and the food equally dangerous!

M.W. Craven, The Mercy Chair: Too many Americanisms, like ‘pantsuit’ (horrid word), but although I found Poe really unnecessarily rude to start with, I relaxed back into the whole Poe/Tilly thing and mostly enjoyed it. There’s a slight tendency to have Tilly as the answer to everything, a kind of deus ex machina for anything Poe needs, but she is still very funny and the relationship is a good one.

Susan Hill, The Woman in Black: This is one of two books this month that are basically ghost stories, not my usual genre. It’s also one of two books that I feel I have read but haven’t really. In this case I saw most of a BBC production years ago and heard people talk about the stage production and the film. Of course it’s well-written – it’s Susan Hill – and of course it doesn’t have the jump-scares of the onscreen version. But it’s an insidious, creepy story, filled with malice and deep unhappiness, and I’ll remember it for a long time.

Michelle Paver, Dark Matter: This is the other ghost story, set north of the Arctic Circle on a long sunless winter between the wars, as the narrator, a young, class-conscious man on a scientific expedition, goes steadily mad in the face of a terrible haunting. The atmosphere is terrific and you can really see and feel the place, living his optimism even as you know it’s all going to end very badly. A very chilling read.

S.L. Ireland, The House on Devil’s Lane: And as it happens, another ghost story – this time a young-mother-in-peril style where you’re really not sure from one chapter to the next if it’s ghosts or there’s a rational explanation. There are certainly plenty of secrets to be revealed and fingers to point before it’s all over – if it ever is.

Anna Faversham, Beware the Midnight Train: And oh, my goodness, another ghost story! It must be the season. Set in the 1970s, this one involves a young, jilted woman going to live on her own in the countryside in what turns out to be a haunted cottage. Only by travelling back in time on the Midnight Train can she hope to help the ghosts and allow them to rest – but is it a trap? Funny and tragic (the upstairs neighbours are a joy), this is one of those reads where you dread the ending but have to read on.

Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana: And this is the other book I feel I’ve read but I haven’t. Poignant and funny, this is very familiar: you’ll all know the story of Wormold the vacuum cleaner salesman and his semi-accidental fall into espionage in order to support the ambitious lifestyle of his beautiful daughter, and the consequences. There are lots of beautifully observed details: someone in the audience receives a stripper’s gloves as if they were receiving the contents of an in tray; an old German doctor secretly dresses up in fancy uniform at night, in love with that aspect of the army but appalled by the idea of the actual Wehrmacht.

Various authors, A Right Cosy Christmas Crime: This was a good mixture of cosy crimes, from America to the UK to Nigeria, and a very pleasant light read for the season. This is the first in a serious of cosy crime anthologies edited by Wendy H. Jones – more to follow soon.

Alison Joseph, Thou Shalt NotKill: Another outing for fast-driving, fine dining Sister Agnes, this time involved in road protests and sabotage as she tries to help a young girl re-establish relations with her father and investigate two deaths. 

Simon Brett, Mrs. Pargeter’s Principle: My one qualm with this is that Mrs. Pargeter agrees to travel in a grand 4x4 instead of her usual Bentley. I can’t easily see Mrs. Pargeter in what I picture to be her usual wardrobe managing to climb into a grand 4x4. However, the rest of the plot is great fun, as we unravel more and more of Mr. Pargeter’s past and his team’s histories.

Simon Brett, Mrs. Pargeter’s Point of Honour: The return of stolen works of art to their rightful owners at the behest of a dying woman proves more challenging that she expects for Mrs. Pargeter, and very funny for the reader.

Fiona Veitch Smith, The Pantomime Murders: Despite occasional anachronistic jolts, this was a very enjoyable read set round about December Newcastle and York. The theatrical setting felt right and I do enjoy spending time with the main character. Less cosy, though, and more traditional.

Fiona Leitch, The Cornish Wedding Murder: Cosy and fun, with our heroine an ex-cop turned events chef in her childhood home, crossing swords with an unreasonable and unreasonably good looking local police inspector.

T. Kingfisher, A Sorceress Comes to Call: Kingfisher’s books are deeply written, her characters strong and beautifully developed. Within pages, you can find yourself crying for them, even when the situation is still not clear. The whole book is perfectly constructed and very funny, and would make you beg for more if it weren’t rounded off so well.

Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe’s Assassin: The last book in the Napoleonic War part of the Sharpe series, and as excitingly written as all the others. Sharpe’s occasional discomfort with his rank, his dissatisfaction with those who do not face up to their responsibilities, his conflict between finishing a job and his own responsibilities to his wife and son, all these feed into some cracking battle scenes and clever tactics, and the usual witty asides.

Claire Keegan, Small Things like These: Not my usual fare but this is beautifully written and at probably close to novella length it would make a lovely Christmas read. A family man is faced with a moral dilemma that causes him to reflect on his own birth and upbringing, and on the small Irish town around him.

And finally, an update - at last I seem to be writing again and am now over 3/5 through the first draft of The Gowden Wifie, Cattanach 2. It feels as if it's going quite well - hard to tell! I just hope it will keep going and make some kind of sense in the end.

October reading

 

Again, a relatively light reading month but very enjoyable! See what you might fancy:

Pat McIntosh, The Rough Collier: a fine complex plot, archaeological discovery leading to accusations of murder and witchcraft and a detailed investigation across a swathe of Scottish geography. The descriptions are realistic and lovely, and the relationship between the newly-wedded Gil and his wife is delightful. It’s a while since I’ve read one of these, and I was very pleased to return to them.

Carmen Radtke, Murder on theAirwaves: A good cosy mystery for this time of year, set in a quiet American community at Hallowe’en. Eve is visiting her father and stepmother but finds herself involved in investigating the murder of the local community radio host and bringing harmony back to a disrupted neighbourhood. Very readable and charming.

Simon Brett, Mrs. Pargeter’s Plot: A peculiarly devious mystery, this, as the detective is impeded by an old lag trying to make good on his previous mistakes while educating himself in humour – and a marmoset is involved, too. Very entertaining.

J.M. Dalgleish, The Cuillin Dead: This could do with a bit of tightening up in terms of typos and so on, and barring the Skye landscape I can’t really visualise much in the book, certainly not the people, all of whom seem a bit thin. Perhaps it’s me. There’s also a weird habit of putting place names into italics – maybe because they’re Gaelic, but not all of them are, and it’s not even consistent. And there’s a great deal of ‘scoffing’. I really didn’t enjoy this as much as previous ones, and I’m not particularly drawn to Duncan, the main character. Perhaps I just wasn’t in the mood.

David Gatward, Dark Harvest and See No Evil: very enjoyable as always, as the overarching relationship between the characters continues to develop and more murders and mysteries are solved against the lovely backdrop of the Dales. It’s just a little too easy to race through these books, though!

Jodi Taylor, A Bachelor Establishment: a lovely Regency romance with a family mystery wound in – will our hero and heroine recognise love despite the rift between their families? Will Lord Ryde survive the invasion of his home by countless women? As always, Jodi Taylor’s writing is historically lovely, touching and very funny.

G.G. Collins, Editor Kill Fee: Again, the setting is wonderful but threatening as we venture down Devil’s Road, where people have been known to disappear into the forest and never be seen again. There are problems at the publishing house and at a local crime book club, and chiles are also involved – this is irresistible! These books make me, an inveterate Scottish moor and mountain non-traveller outside the UK, make me want to visit Santa Fe quite badly.

Joy Margetts, The Stranger: There is a great sense of place and time here, and we are drawn quickly into Silas’ world and his mental struggles. Silas runs away from his monastery feeling he has failed in trying to establish its daughter house in a hostile environment. On his travels he is the stranger, stealing a coracle (with great incompetence), living with a carpenter’s widow and helping her find her feet, learning from a lonely charcoal burner … though he seemed humble enough he learns a proper humility as those he thinks less religiously educated than himself teach him something else about his faith. While he is a stranger to them, he has tried to make himself a stranger to God, too, but God, of course, does not take this lying down. Silas’ service to others is a strong theme – having felt he failed in this at Grace Dieu, he goes on to help everyone he meets quite unselfconsciously, though he also learns how to accept help from others. Though we can take Silas as the stranger of the title, one character, Cennad, who leads him and encourages him at one of his lowest ebbs is also a key stranger, not seen to speak to anyone but Silas, moving mysteriously and vanishing just when he has seen Silas to safety. This is a lovely and encouraging story, grounded in its historical setting, woven in with appropriate Biblical quotations and insights, particularly from Brother Hywel who has appeared in previous books. It is a delight to see Silas re-encounter God, the God who reminds him, surprisingly, that Silas loves Him (not the other way around, which is the more obvious statement!). A joy to read.

Well, there we are. The Gowden Wifie, Cattanach 2, is at last showing some signs of being a book one day, and if you're around Auchterarder, Perthshire, on 9th November or Montrose's George Hotel on 17th, I'll be making appearances at book fairs at both - pop in and say hello! Now I'm off to continue to work my way through the season's tomato glut - passata, anyone?