I managed to hit the (admittedly pretty easy) target of reading a non-fiction and a non-crime fiction last month, as well, of course, as a varied selection of crime. First, the challenge books:
Mandy Haggith: The Walrus Mutterer
Fantastic title! Intriguingly, this starts off in a broch, a kind of
fortified tower house, in the north of Scotland in probably Pictish times. When
Rian is sold by her foster brother to a warrior-like merchant, then on to a
Greek traveller (the real-life figure whose account of his travels seems to
have inspired this book), her journeys begin. The merchant wants to find the
walrus mutterer, a man who can charm walruses, while the Greek is keeping a
diary of his adventures. Rian fortunately has healing skills which make her
useful in their travels. I had had this recommended to me as being beautifully
written and at first I doubted, but the author’s language when it comes to the
sea and their voyages really is stunning. Rian’s confusion in the face of
people with beliefs and priorities far from her own is heartfelt: she is a
woman of her time, and there is very little that breaks one’s willing
suspension of disbelief here.
And for non fiction:
Barbara Brown Taylor: Leaving Church
Extremely
readable, and tantalising as she teases out the story of her finding the
Episcopal church (in America), being ordained into it, finding a church she
loved, and leaving it again to follow a life outside parish ministry. A victim
of her own success, her own love for her work, she burned herself out and,
though her faith was not the least diminished, she had to step back from parish
ministry to re-evaluate all that had taken her there in the first place, her
place in the world, and her relationship with God and her fellow human beings.
She describes vividly her feeling of invisibility when she stopped wearing her
clerical collar, and her sense of a loss of power when she attended services
led by others, as well as her need to learn not to take responsibility for
everything and everyone. Her perspectives are perhaps more relevant to ordained
readers than to the unordained, but they are of deep interest, nevertheless, to
anyone who attends church, who knows clergy, and who is interested in the life
of the church and church people.
Now for the crime:
Alex Walters: Winterman
I suspect like many people I’m a sucker for
anything with Winter in the title. In this case it’s the main character’s name,
Winterman, but the book is also set in the winter, in just post-war England.
Very well written: it draws you in readily and pulls you along into a setting
where people, including the main character, are not quite all they seem and
unfold one leaf at a time along with the plot. The whole thing seems to reach a
climax about three-quarters of the way through but you need to give it a little
patience and work your way past that – there is more to come!
Jason Vail: Murder at Broadstowe Manor (aka The Hanged Man, who knows why?)
Another romp
for Steven and Gilbert with the usual teasing and insults between them and
Harry, now on the up in the world. Steven seems to have been relieved of his
various responsibilities but it does not stop him becoming involved in the
investigation of what might have been a suicide but turns out to be murder, and
murder of a man with more complex life than anyone at first guessed.
Abir Mukherjee: A Rising Man
I like this: good setting, main character in an
interesting situation. Post Great War India was an unsettled country and our
main character finds himself unsure whether he likes the Raj side on which he
is inevitably placed in the struggle, distanced from the two people with whom,
in any other circumstance, he might have found the greatest friendship.
Mukherjee’s portrayal of the unpunished corruption of the white rulers of the
country is fair enough: the plot and characters are well written and the
setting is far from idealised.
Marsali Taylor: Death in Shetland Waters
Another adventure for Cass and Gavin, this time
much more by sea than by land. There is little of Shetland here but there is an
excellent ‘locked door’ mystery of murders on board a tall ship, conspiracy and
corruption and, for Cass, some serious questions to be faced about her future.
I’m not sure how well this would do as a stand-alone – perhaps fine, but the
background to the relationship between Cass and Gavin, and Cass and Anders,
should really be enjoyed from the beginning of this series.
Meanwhile I've been pretty busy and I'm now on the last chapter of the first draft of Murray 11, A Deficit of Bones - out soon, I hope! I'll be participating in Aberdeen University's Mayfest this year (or the distant fringe of it, anyway) on 24th. May, and if you're up in Orkney at the beginning of July I hope to be signing copies of Orkneyinga Murders 2, A Wolf at the Gate, on the 3rd in the Orcadian Bookshop in Kirkwall. If it's ready! much crossing of fingers and toes!
