August and September - what I've been reading

I seem to have missed a month in my rush to finish the sixth Viking book! But here's the last two months' reading - quite a variety this time.

Nina Allen, A Granite Silence: This starts out more a book about writing a book, as it turns out, as the author, travelling to Aberdeen post-lockdown to research the book she intends to write, instead explores the true story of the murder of Helen Priestly in Aberdeen in 1934. It’s very detailed, which is a little unfortunate as some of the details are inaccurate and therefore slightly annoying. Some of the Doric speech doesn’t sit right either – ‘it were’ for ‘it was’, for example, sounding more like the north of England. Part of the way through we switch to a female journalist coming up to Aberdeen to cover the trial, which is briefly disorientating, and I couldn’t get a grip on the place in which she is staying – where is it? Who is the landlady, and how can she afford to spend a month in Italy? Then we jump again to Irma the dancer, then to Tam o’Shanter, then on again to someone called Pearl, grasshopper leaps with very little to guide us. Why did we need Tam o’Shanter rendered in London dialect? It’s hard to keep track of what time period we’re in. There’s quite an interesting biographical reflection on James Glaister the pathologist, but again it doesn’t really fit. I did like the description of a very sick man 'not sleeping so much as simmering’. I was surprised that in her modern review of the area she did not mention the significant bombing of Urquhart Road during the Second World War. Also, she says she was not able to find any trace of the Priestly parents, whereas they both seem to have their deaths registered in Scotland’s People – and she doesn’t seem to know that the court records will also be held by the national archives. Apparently this deconstruction of the narrative is Nina Allen’s usual style, and some people must like it as it did in fact win the Historical Dagger, but it’s really, really, not for me.

John Duncan, The Denburn: The start of a new police procedural series set in Aberdeen with links to Aberdeen’s history – not as many as I felt I had been promised, and some are inaccurate. The opening scene in the old Woolmanhill Hospital was promising but led to nothing, which was a shame partly because I’d really like something done about the building and this might have given it some prominence, and partly because it had great potential as a setting (maybe I should do something about that myself!). There’s a twin brother who pretty much goes nowhere, too. There are several odd misuses of words (regaling stories, rather than regaling people with stories, and the very common reign for rein when reining someone in). I don’t think the author ordered enough full stops and speech marks, as many are missing. Having said all that it was quite a good read and ultimately rather sad. I’ve certainly seen the city less convincingly portrayed in recent reads, and the police team has the capacity to develop quite well in future books.

Dale E. Lehman, The Wagesof Sin: this brings us in just at Dumas and Montufar’s wedding, but perish the thought we’d miss out on a bit of crime! The team are investigating several very different and apparently minor crimes, which in the end are cleverly brought together. I like the way the characters are developing, and though I’ve no idea whether Howard County is real or not, I find I can easily picture it. A very enjoyable series with distinctive plots.

Marsali Taylor, Death in aShetland Family: Lots of animal husbandry in this one but I like that kind of thing, and though I appreciate the descriptions of sailing and can feel the love the author has for the sea, it’s always convincing enough to make me slightly seasick. My failing, not hers. The animals, however …

Joel Hames, The Boatyard: I took a little while to get into this one and found the various bits of the police a little disjointed, but once it, and I, got going, it was a cracking plot and very enjoyable. It’s been a while since I read a book by Joel Hames but I must read more.

Carmen Radtke, Treacheryand Talismans: Another in this very cosy and comfortable series set in a small American town protected by benevolent witchcraft – protected to an extent, anyway, as we have yet another murder for Bex and her coven to solve. The series has really found its feet now and is thoroughly charming, not least because of the wonderful black cat at the heart of it.

T.E. Kinsey, A Quiet Life in the Country: This is well done with a sound background in social history and a keen sense of how to subvert it. It’s quite funny in places and the main characters are strong – others will no doubt grow. I would call it trad rather than cosy though it has a cheery, cosy air to it.

J.D. Kirk, Duty of Care: Great little novelette or thereabouts featuring young P.C. Tyler Neish, with Bob Hoon and Ben in side roles that are very important, particularly at the end. I do get a little tired of Hoon’s swearing but in this one he provides a very satisfactory conclusion to the business at hand, while Tyler gets to show just what a nice young man he actually is – nice, and also stubborn.

Paul Waters, Murder in MoonlitSquare: Very entertaining – our two investigators when an academic is found dead in a respectable Delhi hotel are the manager, fearing imprisonment and the closure of his hotel, and an elderly Irish nun, who has on occasion shared smoking time with him. Their mission is to protect the Pakistani pilgrim suspected of the murder, to prevent the hotel manager being imprisoned, to stop the hotel being shut down, to find the real murderer, and to save the face of Sister Agatha’s school class on the hockey pitch in the face of devastating opposition. Will they succeed?

A.K. Nairn, The Dance ofVipers: An excellent follow-up to the first in the series, but with more political intrigue and considerably more danger for our heroes, de Lisieux and Turnbull. We have wolves here as well as reivers, threats to the young King, escapes through privy floors, and lots in the way of death, injury and threats to anyone who comes close enough. There’s a good historical note at the back for those who want to know just how much is real and what has been made up. On to the next one!

Jodi Taylor, Lights,Camera, Mayhem: Lovely plot in this novella-sized St. Mary’s story, with the usual chaos and history flung together cunningly with a sizeable helping of hilarity and some real peril.

Peter May, The Black Loch: Once again I’m astonished at how many traumas one man can have in his childhood. I like the setting of these books, but the plots, though very well written, are just miserable. I prefer his French series, I think.

Ann Cleeves, The Dark Wives: I haven’t read many of the Vera books but I do enjoy them when I do. Some rather odd accounts of the Duke of Edinburgh Award here, and though Vera might have been surprised at finding a drama theatre in a school our school had one forty years ago at least. I loved the characters, but in the end did not find it as satisfying a read as many of her other books.

And a quick update - The Raven in Silver is drafted, wey hey! I'm waiting for the cover and will commence the edits shortly (possibly this afternoon ...)

July's reads

 

Alis Hawkins, A Bitter Remedy: I’ve always been fascinated by Welsh as a language, and had a nice little chat on linguistics with this author when I met her at Shetland Noir, so I was intrigued to read this book about a forceful Welsh woman in (but not quite at) Oxford in the late 19^th century. She has befriended a number of academics, including Charles Dodgson and the more fictional Basil Rice, but is hampered by her chaperone, a kinswoman called Lily, and her own attitude. Nevertheless she is determined to help when a student at the college she is most familiar with dies in mysterious circumstances. I love the portrayal of Rice’s general awkwardness and Tarley Askew’s quiet courtship of Non, who still talks to her long-dead twin sister.

Sue Tort, Witness a Killing: while this is in need of some apostrophe therapy, and a heavy dose of comma medicine, it’s off to a good start with an ex-copper, wanting to turn tennis coach, finding a body and being asked to investigate. Of course the locals resist and encourage in equal measure. I wouldn’t call this a cosy, as such, but his dog does get involved and his next door neighbour has quite a personable cat. The story has a good atmosphere and entertaining characters but it really does need someone who knows about punctuation to give it a look-over! And the word is narcissistic.

Louise Mangos, Confessions of a Crime Writer: This is horribly amusing, written from the perspective of Nigel Inchcock, a pathetic man convinced he’s irresistibly attractive and also moments away from being discovered as a brilliant crime writer. Though horribly impoverished, through his own determination to write for a living, he manages to get to Iceland Noir and Harrogate, thoroughly embarrassing himself on the way, before he meets an actual dead body and everything starts to go very wrong. An excruciating and very funny read, with a cleverly constructed plot.

F.M.H. Macdonald, Lewis Amnesia: I picked this up as a local book to read on holiday, but I think I might go back for the others in the series. The narrator is Helen, and she’s the kind of person that makes you feel you might be managing better than you think you are. She’s a locum doctor back on Lewis trying to deal with an alcohol and tobacco problem, a difficulty finding the right man, and a dreadfully disorganised life – and all that is before the murders start. It’s a good yarn set in the 1970s, and the pace is excellent. The story behind the crimes, though, is much more shocking than I had expected from the tone up to that point. The cover is sweet!

Colin Green, Trust: I succumbed to this because of the rugby/police crossover, but actually there does not seem to be that much rugby in it. There is a great deal of police procedure in it – maybe a touch too much for fiction, and also a lot of conversation that is reported rather than written, taking away from the immediacy and leaving it a little slow, but still quite interesting.

Vaseem Khan, Quantum of Menace: All right, I’m a Bond fan, and indeed a Q fan, and I was itching to read this as soon as I heard about it, being also a Vaseem Khan fan. And it did indeed live up to expectations – a satisfying murder mystery, developing Q as a character, with some nice little references to his work with the Double Os, his friend James Bond, and his relationship with Moneypenny (very nice!). Combining Albanian crime gangs with the cosy end of the spectrum this is still well handled and I look forward to the next one.

A.K. Nairn, The Trail of Blood: This one grabbed me straightaway, for some reason. It’s the same kind of setting as Patricia Chisholm’s books, the debatable lands (well, the eastern version of them) between England and Scotland in the 16^th century. This time it’s told from the Scottish side but with a main character who is French. It is resonant with the priorities of the period and the plot weaves all kinds of possible motives together: it moves along smartly and though it lacks the humour of some other books with this setting, it’s still intriguing and appealing.

There, that didn't take too long, did it?

As for where I am at the moment, well, I'm 3/10 through The Raven in Silver, so I really must order the cover soon! It's not going too badly so far, though I need to do more plot work. I was briefly distracted by an airfield last week which gave me some more information I needed for the book I was writing in the spring, and I've had some thoughts about the next book in that series, but I'm firmly focussed on my Vikings for now!

And the last batch for now!

 

This should be me up to date for now!

Laura Shepherd-Robinson, The Art of a Lie: One of the shortlist for the CWA Historical Dagger, this is set in Georgian London and concerns a recently widowed confectioner and Henry Fielding’s investigation into her husband’s murder. When a handsome gentleman comes into her shop and introduces her to the concept of iced cream, her life changes radically – he offers to help her reclaim money she did not even know her husband had, which will help her save her threatened business. And I don’t know what else I can say without giving away too much of this very clever switchback of a plot that really had me on the edge of my seat, wondering what would come crashing to the ground first. There are a few slightly anachronistic phrases which made me stop, but otherwise this is an excellent read.

 

Fflur Dafydd, The Library Suicides: Quite an odd but enjoyable book set mostly in what I suspect is intended to be the National Library of Wales, in an alternative future where paper is banned as something that carries germs after the great pandemic. A fire is said to have destroyed most of the historical books in the library, too. Ana and Nan, identical twins, work in the library but the focus of their life is to take revenge on a poet and critic, Eben, whose harsh reviews (on behalf of the Smotherhood) caused their mother, a very successful writer, to commit suicide. As part of their plan, they trick a new security guard, Dan, into helping them, which he does in part by hacking into the security camera system to play old footage instead of what is actually happening. But this illusion is only one of many: nothing and no one is quite what it seems in this clever satire on all kinds of attitudes in society today.

Cecilia Peartree, The Way to Icy Death: A long-standing character in this delightful mystery series lies dead in the ice, and another familiar person is suspected. This is a classic whodunnit set in the gloriously eccentric Pitkirtly community with all its weird characters – lovely comfortable reading with lots of laughs.

Helen Harper, Gifted Thief: An alternative reality fantasy set in Scotland. Our narrator is the last representative of the hated Clan Adair, one of the ruling fae Clans, needed to help in a desperate plan to save magic from vanishing. However, she has grown up away from fae culture in a gang of professional thieves in Aberdeen, and though she has not been granted her fae powers she has a few skills that might come in handy – that and a genie trapped in a magic letter opener. This author has a few complete series set in worlds where magic is a given and strong women prevail against the odds – I like her sense of humour and I’m looking forward to reading more. 

Jean Gill, With Raven Wine: This may seem an odd title, but raven wine is a poetic kenning for ‘blood’ and there is certainly a good deal of it in this, the fourth in Jean Gill’s Viking quartet. For me, in this book the parallel stories in Orkney and the Mediterranean were woven together particularly effectively and of course came together at the end. These books are tremendously well researched and again I thought that in this one the research and the story sat very comfortably together. A favourite piece was the professional comparison of Viking and Constantinopolitan armour about halfway through, which was beautifully done – in fact, the whole Constantinople section, with the Orcadians suffering severe culture shock, was fascinating. And the climax of the book, the last few chapters, were gripping and emotionally charged, and provided a very satisfactory, if sorrowful, ending to the whole quartet.

G.J. Williams, The Conjuror’s Apprentice: Dr. John Dee is the conjuror here, entertainingly portrayed and seen through the eyes of his Welsh apprentice, Margaretta, who can read people’s emotions. They are called upon to investigate the murder of a boy whose body was found in the Thames, and whose secrets may incriminate his employer, Lord Cecil. The characters leap off the page beautifully, real history is woven in without a bump, and the pace is cracking. I look forward to the next one.

Aline Templeton, The Trumpet shall Sound: The beautiful setting of Ramillies, a large private house now used as a music venue, is the scene for quarrels and jealousies over a declining music festival. Not perhaps the most convincing of Templeton’s endings, for me, but I still enjoyed her portrayal of breaking and broken relationships as usual.

Veronica Heley, Murder in the Garden, Murder by Committee, and Murder on a Bicycle: one of my favourite mostly cosy series and I’m delighted to see there are more, even if sometimes Ellie, the heroine, needs to be told exactly what to do with her horrible daughter.

Maureen Myant, The Confession: Though I knew this was the start of a series, it felt as if it could well be a standalone as for a while I wondered if the main police character would actually make it through the book. It’s written partly from his point of view and partly from the point of view of a woman with whom he unwisely becomes involved, the estranged sister of a suicide victim who has left a confession to five murders. The trouble is that only one of the murders appears to have happened, and the perpetrator of that seems very safely convicted. Then, of course, the murders do start. A lovely twisty plot, even if some of the characters need a good talking to.

Whew! there we are. Some terrific reads in here. 

And where am I? One and a half chapters in to The Raven in Silver (Orkneyinga 6), nowhere near as far ahead as I should be or wanted to be, but at least it has started.

Second set of books read March to June

 The next lot - in no particular order:

Linzi Day, Midlife in Gretna Green: This is one of those books where a woman at a crossroads in her life discovers she has inherited magic powers from a female relative. It’s a tight little genre, but certainly this is well done, complete with talking cat who reminds our heroine of Dame Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey, and lots of laughs. Four percent in and I already wanted to kill Janet. Fortunately, she’s the main character’s boss, not the main character, and she’s clearly meant to be unpopular. The narrative cracks along smartly and Niki is very sympathetic. Forty percent in and I was itching to know (1) how she would deal with her new assistants and (2) what happened her husband. The house is a great character in itself, and the whole book forms a firm basis to start the series.

Mamie Philp, Mr. Murdoch is Dead: The main character, the narrator and investigator, is fairly sympathetic here and the plot jogs along well – a well-liked teacher at her old school is found dead, while one of the pupils is stabbed around the same time. I’d have liked a bit more actual conversation rather than ‘We agreed he was lying’ sort of statements – there’s a huge quantity of reported conversation which doesn’t portray the characters quite so well to me. The main character comes across instead as someone who principally communicates by the notes in her police notebook, but perhaps this was what the author intended. Still, aside from that this is very well written in an assured style, and the plot worked well.

Carmen Radtke, Blackmail and Broomsticks: Another lovely comfortable mystery in Willowmere and neighbouring town, with our witch, her familiar and her coven – and all the right food. I’m starting to come away from these books feeling hungry! Bex makes some serious progress in her personal life while starting to settle down in her professional role, while others around her have some revelations that I think might have an effect on the next book. Lots of fun – and now I need to go and have a snack.

Simon Brett, The Body on the Beach: Carole meets Jude in this, the first of the Fethering series, and is appalled and fascinated by her new neighbour with whom she plunges into investigating the murder of an elusive body on the beach. This gives us plenty of insights into the dreadful nature of Fethering society in its various layers and sensitivities, very amusingly portrayed as Carole and Jude gradually become friends.

Simon Brett, Death on the Downs: Carole happens on some bones in a ruined barn and becomes involved in the complex politics of a small village, in which Jude, as it happens, is also a player. I enjoyed Carole’s attempts to wield her feminine charms (probably more successfully than I would have) as she tries to sort out exactly who might know more about the bones, as the local policeman is far too closely connected with all that’s going on.

Simon Brett, The Torso in the Town: More social observation and delicate negotiation here in the third in the series. The police scarcely feature in this one while the ladies manage everything on their own in a town where everyone seems very willing to tell them everything – just not, quite, the everything Carole and Jude need to solve the case.

Simon Brett, Murder in the Museum: Carole has become a trustee at the museum in question, the carefully preserved family home of a fairly notable writer. His descendants are also on the board of trustees, which is blessed with the usual tricky characters and conflicting needs. When a body, which might date from the time of the writer, is found in the grounds, it’s time for Carole and her neighbour Jules to step in again and solve the mystery, while balancing the various demands of the possessive trustees. Though this has some nice insights into working in the heritage ‘industry’, it’s also another look at the relationship between Carole and Jules, made more awkward by the reappearance of an old flame of Jules’ who also involves himself in the case.

Simon Brett, The Hanging in the Hotel: A posh hotel run by an ex-model and old friend of Jude’s is the setting for two deaths, both solicitors, a supposed suicide and a supposed accident, but of course our ladies aren’t having any of that nonsense and persist in investigating, even when members of the Pillars of Sussex start queuing up to give them alibis.

Simon Brett, The Witness at the Wedding: Carole’s meeting with her son’s soon-to-be in-laws is complicated by the sudden murder of Gaby’s father. The family is not all they seem, and though there is a Sussex connexion there is more action in Essex and France in this book, and we find out a bit more about the mysterious Jude, too.

Margery Allingham, The Tiger in the Smoke: I’d never read this classic, nor anything else by Allingham. It’s more of a thriller than a whodunnit, and I’d like to go back now and read one of her earlier works. Set mostly in London in a dense fog, it is tremendously atmospheric and the characters are very richly drawn, if occasionally a bit overdone. My main gripe early on is that I found it hard to work out who was related to whom and how, but I think it might just be that I came late to the series. The plot wound together beautifully so that the coincidences seemed credible, even inevitable.

Just one more tranche!

Reading from March to June!

 Life has really, really been getting in the way of posting! But I have been reading, and in order not to fling everything at you all at once, I'll post in three lots (unless something stops me!)

So here are the first ten - I'm sure I've read more than this but it's all so disorganised that I have no idea any more ...

Marsali Taylor, An Imposter in Shetland: With an excursion to St. Kilda, this is an excellent installment in the Cass series. A social influencer has arrived and then vanishes, but to what extent did she really exist? And who has she harmed in the process? Very enjoyable, as is the domestic life of Cass and Gavin and the cats.

Lydia Travers, Death at the Highland Loch: This is a bit of a jolly jape as Lady Poppy Proudfoot investigates the murder of a bookie’s runner on the estate of her new friend Constance. This is definitely a cosy in that we don’t get to care a jot about the victim, and Lady Poppy goes round ogling the police inspector and defying him in equal measure. Young Gregor needs a clip around the ear – apart from his outright cheek, any child of that class speaking that much Scots at that period would have been sent to bed with no supper for a fortnight, never mind being allowed to sit up and dine with the grown-ups. I liked Constance’s back story and poor Isla who appeared and disappeared again – I hope she returns in future books. All in all, an amusing read.

Olga Wojtas, Miss Blaine’s Prefect and theUncharted Island: As usual, our heroine blunders gloriously around the scene misunderstanding almost everything, from the intelligence of the parrot to the identity of the murderer, while at the same time lecturing us on every possible subject from northern European linguistics to unarmed combat – with the possible exception of sheep. Another hilarious episode in this series.

Eva St. John: Fire in the Flint: Bish is now the U.N. Ambassador to Norwich, a rather uncertain position which no one really seems to want her to have. She still remains a detective in the Norwich police force and therefore investigates local smuggling and the murder of a notable merchant at a formal ball. Still trying to identify the rogue practitioner and come to terms with her past and her present, she does her best – but there are sequels to come.

Harriet Steel, Trouble in Nuala: A charming start – it’s nice to see a happy marriage for a detective! This one, though, must have some difficulties, as it’s a mixed marriage – a Sri Lankan policeman and his English teacher wife in the 1930s. De Silva has a delicate path to tread when there are complaints against a British planter and a hothead Indian-named lawyer takes an interest. This is a very gentle book though of course there are some nasty things in the background. I look forward to finding out more about the De Silvas and his police colleagues.

Jim Kelly The Water Clock: I love the interwar books by this author, and some of the haunting atmosphere of those is carried over into these more contemporary ones (written in the 1970s). The investigator is a journalist on a minor local paper, trying to sort out the discovery of bones connected with a long-ago petrol station robbery, while at the same time doing his best to find out more about the incident that caused his wife to be left in a coma. Culminating in a night of stormy floods, this is a well-paced book though it takes a while, I found, to be fully behind the main character. But I loved all the dry little sarcastic comments.

Jim Kelly, The Fire Baby: The first odd thing about this book for me was that it was the second I picked up in the course of one evening with a character in it called Bracken – this one is Bill, the other one Bob. Not exactly a common name. This deals with the aftermath of a tragic plane crash in 1976 in the Fens – one of the few survivors is now dying of cancer in the same ward as Dryden’s coma-bound wife, and wants to make sure that some secrets do not die with her.

Jodi Taylor, Out of Time: This Time Police episode gets extra marks for having a mobile library called BookyMcBookface (presumably after the Orkney one), splendid librarians, and the ongoing professional relationship between Commander Hay and Captain Farenden, who reminds me more and more of Bernard in Yes, Minister. There are some truly horrific scenes in this one but also some great laughs, and as always I read it far too fast.

Carmen Radtke, Ghosts and Grimoires: If you follow this author’s Genie & the Ghost series as well as the Willowmere one, you’ll enjoy this crossover where Genie and Adriana appear in Bex’s world to solve a puzzle to the benefit of all concerned. The crow is a bit disturbing, but otherwise this is another jolly mystery for Bex and Cosmo. Very enjoyable.

Laura Shepherd-Robinson, The Art of a Lie: One of the shortlist for the CWA Historical Dagger, this is set in Georgian London and concerns a recently widowed confectioner and Henry Fielding’s investigation into her husband’s murder. When a handsome gentleman comes into her shop and introduces her to the concept of iced cream, her life changes radically – he offers to help her reclaim money she did not even know her husband had, which will help her save her threatened business. And I don’t know what else I can say without giving away too much of this very clever switchback of a plot that really had me on the edge of my seat, wondering what would come crashing to the ground first. There are a few slightly anachronistic phrases which made me stop, but otherwise this is an excellent read.

There, that's the first ten! More to follow.

January and February in books

 I did wonder if I'd skipped a month - there seemed to be a lot of books on my list just for February! So here we go - some crime, some fantasy, some other bits and bobs. There's bound to be something you fancy!

Carmen Radtke, Death at the Dock: It’s been a little too long since I read the previous books in this series, but I was delighted to meet the resourceful Alyssa Chambers again, one of the brides sent off from Australia to meet husbands in the west of America. Alyssa is trying to decide between two appealing men as the book starts, before she and her friend Mrs. Wainwright are summoned to investigate a mysterious disappearance in Portland. Alyssa is clever and sensible but of course has to work within the constrictions of her society and I love the way the author acknowledges that, instead of writing anachronistically. It’s a satisfying mystery in a very interesting setting with just enough period detail and a realistic view of poverty. I hope it won’t be the last Alyssa book!

Foday Mannah, The Search for Othella Savage: This is a murder mystery set mostly amongst the Sierra Leonean community in Edinburgh, where the problems seem to revolve around a wealthy evangelical church that draws in many of the expats whether they want to join or not. Hawa, funding her studies as a hotel maid, is joined by Anaka, an American singer keen to understand her African roots, to help the police in their enquiries when a number of young women are found dead. With nice touches of humour and observation this isn’t as heavy a read as it might sound, but nor is it cosy. My only qualm is that police detectives in this country are not called ‘Detective Smith’ or whatever but ‘Detective Constable Smith’ or whatever their rank is – and that you don’t go ‘up’ to Ayr from Edinburgh!

Cecilia Peartree, The Body on the Hill: The third in this gentle murder mystery series, where Pamela Prendergast and her stepson Andy help the police to solve the murder and any other unpleasant goings-on. Very satisfying.

John D. Burns, Bothy Tales: Generally this is an entertaining and informative catalogue of the author’s experiences in and around various Scottish bothies, and his comments on them. Towards the end it grows more fanciful, imagining a world where we must all be digitally connected and would be arrested if we dared to go into the wilderness without full mobile phone coverage, a future he strenuously resists. Well written and evocative.

Dorothy Dunnett, Tropical Issue: I really struggled with this, and I was the classic Dorothy Dunnett fan of her Lymond series and King Hereafter, and at least the first few Niccolo books. I didn’t really like Rita, the narrator, nor the setting, nor any of the characters. But then we discover the reason for the book’s peculiarities, and gradually some kind of sympathy develops. In the end, through convoluted explanations, it all makes sense and comes together and is very appealing, and I’ll probably read on through the series.

Magnus Mills, The Restraint of Beasts: This is a very odd book, telling the story of a fencing team – no, not swords, but grumpy installers of specialist high-tensile fences for farms – who are involved in a sudden death before departing for England (from Scotland) to fulfil a contract. The inexperienced English foreman who tells the story spends his time in mild despair over his reluctant, recalcitrant crew of drunkards and trying to do deals with the local competition whom he would rather ignore. The book ends so abruptly I flicked back and forth several times to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. It’s sort of fun and sort of weird and sort of depressing all at once.

Samantha Ward Smith, Ravenscourt: This is unfortunately not particularly well written, with grammatical howlers, some anachronisms and inaccuracies which jarred almost from the start. The feel of Venice isn’t badly done, though palazzi would have been better than palazzos (a common enough usage in English). I was struggling by 15% with the trite, soppy love story with the woke sentiments, and bored stiff. It’s all full of modern sensitivities, and Alex is a fool.

Bram Stoker, Dracula: I had never read this but of course knew a good deal of the story, so familiar bits kept appearing. I liked the way we were thrown almost at once into an atmosphere of dread, and very quickly Jonathan Harker was a prisoner in Castle Dracula and it almost looks, so early on, as if there is no hope for him. However, with excellent pacing the book moves on to Whitby and elsewhere, with the striking character of Mina Harkness taking the lead, educated, intelligent and loyal and a good judge of what’s going on. Such a shame that Jonathan Harker is such a numpty.

Aline Templeton, Last Act of All: Another of Templeton’s stand alone works, this time focusing on two actors married and living in a small village, the nature of which in the end poisons their lives. The husband is one of Templeton’s excellently drawn and thoroughly unpleasant characters, but he’s not the nastiest in this place by a long shot, in the end. She excels at these small community settings with deeply drawn characters, and this is as good as any of them.

Liz Hedgecock, The Magical Bookshop: Three books in one here. Jemma is made redundant and on impulse gets a job in a second-hand bookshop, a building that very much controls what goes on inside it. The owner, Raphael, is a touch too laid back to succeed, and the bookshop cat, Folio, has an unreliable temper, but despite them Jemma is determined to make the shop a wonderful success – helped by the discovery of a former cathedral vault under the floor, the assistance of Carl, actor turned barista, and Luke, suspiciously unhappy in daylight.

Rhys Dylan, A Matter of Evidence: Rather a sad plot, involving a man released after being erroneously found guilty of rape, only to be murdered. His mother disappeared under mysterious circumstances while he was in prison. The team as usual are great even though the situation is a tragic one, and a satisfactory conclusion was reached.

Carmen Radtke, The Case of the Christmas Angel: This one involves Uncle Sal rather than Jack and Frances, and film studios in London, and is a nice little tale to round up Christmas!

Carmen Radtke, The Case of the Christmas Bauble: A sweet Christmas story involving Frances and Jack and one of their descendants. Like a good cup of hot chocolate on a winter’s evening.

Ewan Wallace, Death Between the Rivers: This is slightly on the edge of too explicit for me, but I also found there were too many people I was expected to know about, and slightly too much information given on the main character’s personal life and medical history. I usually like fully rounded characters as the main lead, but I felt she became a list of physical conditions and needs. And why on earth would she not want her colleagues to know she was diabetic? Surely that would be something they should be aware of. Also, I have nothing against appropriate use of the passive, but it felt almost defiantly frequent here. However, in the end it was quite a well constructed book with a good, and not over-played, sense of local knowledge. I must read the first in the series which I thought this was.

Alex Walters, Dark Corners: My second book featuring Inspector Murrain with his odd sensitivities over things which might be involved in his investigation, a kind of blurry second sight. This one relates to a child kidnapping and murder, and there seem to be several threads to tie together. It’s a very satisfying plot and played out in a traditional way so that the reader can work it out for themselves.

Alex Walters, Snow Fallen: A great claustrophobic atmosphere in this Kenny Murrain book as the snow rises outside both police headquarters and the house where Kenny and his team are trying to protect several villagers from a violent attacker, knowing that three people are already dead. The events pretty much occur over the course of one night and it’s a wonderfully well handled plot, mystery upon mystery until almost the very end when everything becomes clear. One of his best.

Aline Templeton, Past Praying For: Once again, Templeton starts her book with an almost unbearable situation with nasty people triumphing over nice ones. I’d also like to note her acknowledgement that the hardest people to minister to, in this day and age, are the self-satisfied well-off middle classes, from a church perspective – Sunday mornings are for washing their BMWs, not for going to church. But in the end this is a disturbing tale of the effect a bad incident in childhood can have in adult life, and the tragedies that can ensue.

Forbes Inglis, Phantoms & Fairies – tales of the supernatural in Angus and Dundee: A classic local book written by a local man with a great feel for the place and its stories. This is lightly written but some of the stories are chilling enough for a dark winter’s evening.

T. Kingfisher, Hemlock & Silver: Once again Kingfisher has taken a well-known fairy tale, in this case Snow White, and retold it in her own wonderful style. The main character here is a healer, called in by the King to investigate the suspected ongoing poisoning of his daughter, Snow, after the Queen has killed Snow’s sister, Rose. The healer is a wonderful character, admitting to preferring problems to be solved concerning poison to actually looking after the victims, though she is kinder than she allows herself to seem. And the solution, involving cats and mirrors, is complex and clever and lots of fun.

James Oswald, The Rest is Death: A good plot involving a new laboratory intended to investigate cures perhaps leading to the infinite postponement of death, slightly dodgy eastern European immigrants, and some very mysterious corpses, and it’s another excellent Tony McLean case.

Alex Gray, A Pound of Flesh: I was galloping up a couple of wrong alleys in this plot which winds the murders of Glaswegian prostitutes with a series of murders of the men who use them. I like the main character, Bill Lorimer, and his friends Solly and Rosie, but for some reason I find his loving wife just a touch irritating – but that’s me. I’ve read and enjoyed a few books in this series but never quite find them compelling enough to read them in order, and I’m really not sure why. DC Knox was just stupid, I’m afraid, but heigh ho, people are.

Ross Greenwood, The Book Club Killer: Intermingled with the plot here is the question faced by several of the characters – is it time to retire? The general sense is that this is the last fling for them and they have to solve it to go out on a high. It became quite tangled towards the end but it was still a satisfying plot, sufficiently surprising.

Louise Penny, All the Devils are Here: If you want an example of well-used head switching, here it is, in the conversation between Gamache and Dussaud. They tell you you shouldn’t, and generally they are right, but when you break a rule, do it well and for a reason. The Gamaches are in Paris when Armand’s godfather is almost killed in a hit-and-run and a body is found in his apartment. The Paris police are fairly accommodating to Gamache and Beauvoir, but they need to discover what the godfather was up to, unearthing corruption in Beauvoir’s company or hiding his Nazi past. A grand conspiracy requires the whole family to work as a team, confronting past slights and present jealousies, to defeat the enemy.

David Gatward, How Grimm Saved Christmas: A Christmas novella. Ridiculously sentimental and touching. I cried. And laughed a bit, too. And I’m glad Gordy was back for the big moment.

Fergus Butler-Gallie, A Field Guide to the English Clergy: This very funny, and sometimes slightly alarming, book, brings together brief accounts of the lives of some of the Church of England’s more eccentric and less clerical clergy, along with a useful glossary of church terms which is also very amusing. It ranges from Tudor times to very recent, showing that the grand tradition of pottiness is being faithfully upheld. Another Christmas present, and a very entertaining one.

Dick Francis, 10lb Penalty: I started this, one I hadn’t read years ago, during a visit to a library, and finished it when I came home. Very much the usual formula and done just as well as always – here the specialist subject is British politics with racing on the side, and the plot, apart from attempted murders, concerns the narrator’s reconciliation with a distant father while learning how to grow up. Unusually paced as it starts when the narrator is seventeen and ends when he’s twenty-three, but it’s nonetheless fast-moving for that.

Sarah Sheridan, The Fair Botanists: I promise I didn’t even know this was set at the time of the King’s jaunt until I started reading it! At first of course I was all nitpicking, and there are a few nits to pick, but then I relaxed into an intriguing story of plants and perfumes and the niceties of Edinburgh society at the time. An elegant and enjoyable read, though I find myself hoping for a sequel – what happened to Mhairi, for example? And Edzell? And Inverleith House? (well, I sort of know about that). Couple this with a visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, and you’re all set.

I'm supposed to be writing the second Dr. Robert Wilson book, entitled The Problem at the Hotel-Dieu, but I've been distracted by (a) building issues at the archive stopping me from doing some of the research and (b) the necessity of writing an entirely different book which hopped into my head around Christmas time and is now half-finished. So I've probably almost written enough for one whole book this quarter, or very nearly, which was the plan - it's just not quite all in one book. Not sure what to do about that ...