Partly because of it a
Partly because of this, and partly because I've been laid low by the winter lurgy, I never posted my reviews of December's reading - and my resolution to read a factual book and a non crime fiction book in December went rather by the wayside. I did pick up a book in Amsterdam that was factual and have read it, but that was mostly in January!
I'll start with that, which was Geert Mak's Amsterdam: A brief life of the city, translated by Philipp Blom. This is a terrifically readable history of the city, full of anecdote, irony, and humour, and packed with (for me anyway) useful information and information I sort of hoped was useful because it was going in anyway. One of the least onerous bits of reading for research I have done recently.
Then crime, crime, crime ...
EnElly Griffiths: The Janus Stone and A Room Full of Bones I suddenly
realised that there were early ones in this series I had somehow missed, so
went back to plug the holes with great delight. It does go to show, though, how
easily the later books in the series can be read as standalones, even if it’s
better to understand the overarching plot. The Janus Stone was excellent, and I
loved the beginning of A Room Full of Bones – there was something in it though
that left me – can’t quite put my finger on the word. Not disappointed, as
such, not confused, but I sort of felt that some of the answers were a bit
bundled together at the end. Nevertheless I enjoyed both books very much, and
will now go on to my next Galloway Lacuna.
Black Diamond: Martin Walker. Truffle hunting in the Dordogne and
Chinese versus Vietnamese immigrants feature here – a good complex mixture.
Bruno’s love life is as complicated as ever and his cooking as accomplished.
Robert Galbraith: Lethal White I do enjoy these, though I know many
don’t. She can certainly spin a yarn, though the device towards the end of
sitting explaining the whole plot to the murderer in the hope of postponing
being shot was maybe a bit overdone. There are many who would say that this
book could have been comfortably pared down to the action if all the constant
detail of the relationship between the two characters were omitted, but I enjoy
it: it is an excellent portrayal of the narrative we often have in our thoughts
of what others must be thinking of us, and how wrong that often is. Funny and
frustrating, and a good read.
The Shape of Lies: Rachel Abbott. Another excellent read in her Tom Douglas series –
likeable cops, woman in distress, but beyond that they are not at all samey and
you can’t really be sure what is going to happen. In this case, watch out for
the ending!
Denzil Meyrick: The Relentless Tide Here’s one with an archaeological
slant as well as time slips back to 1994 (1994? Wasn’t that just last week?)
and earlier incidents in Jim Daley’s career, also of course featuring the
endearing Brian Scott. I doubt he would like to be called endearing. A good
complex plot with a satisfying ending.
Glittering Death, Carmen Radtke: It was lovely to be back in the company
of Alyssa and her friends and admirers as they arrived in Canada to find their
husbands and new challenges amongst the prospectors. Historical details are
beautifully woven in as the women join the community of men and find partners
while dealing with new problems, an outbreak of smallpox and the reappearance
of an old acquaintance.A very satisfying story indeed.
Lady Justice and the Raven, Robert Thornhill: One of those eccentric books with
photographs to illustrate the story – and eccentric in other ways, too. This
one is heavily and openly influenced by Poe, but is sort of amusing, too, with
random characters wandering in and out much as they would in a real community.
No one has much back story explained, and the latter part is rather randomly attached.
For those who don’t like that kind of thing, a warning that the book ends at
about 83% and the rest is general guff.
EnlMurder by the Minster, Helen Cox: I thought this was a jolly good tale,
essentially cosy but with some darker aspects. Kitt, the heroine, is a woman of
mystery with occasionally just a little too much bitterness and back story, and the police, unencumbered by anything like normal procedure, are
good company as we investigate a serial killer of, for once, men. It’s a very
good yarn with some interesting characters and a nice bit of romance thrown in,
as is appropriate in the circumstances. I hope to read the next one.
Handcuffs, Truncheon and a Polyester Thong, Gina Kirkham – could have done with a good
edit, though I suspect this is deliberately left as ‘Mavis’’s authentic voice, but
this is a cracking yarn of someone starting their police career slightly late
in life. Maybe not an actual laugh a minute, but a fairly good aim at it, as
well as rather moving and extremely interesting, if oddly paced. It really is
very endearing.
Midwinter Mysteries, Keith Moray et al.: A good
collection, perhaps weighted towards the Victorian (note: Sandringham not a
royal residence until much later), which is no bad thing. Some crackers here,
if you’ll pardon the seasonal pun. I enjoyed Marilyn Todd’s story and M.J.
Logue’s 17th century one, though it’s invidious perhaps to pick out
one or two from a very entertaining collection with a seasonally spooky edge.
Death in the Lakes, Graham Smith: Quite an interesting start, with a
body found during a wedding celebration in a ruined house, arranged ritually.
The detective from whose perspective the narrative runs is new to her
department and coping with a strong female boss and an unpleasant immediate
superior, as well as trying to employ her own intelligence and lateral-thinking
skills. However, the book is gloomy and humourless, and I found it very hard to
sympathise with Beth, even as I quite admired her, and she’s often given excessive
praise for really quite obvious conclusions. She’s just too good to be true, in
every respect: her more senior colleagues wouldn’t be confiding everything to
her and humbly accepting her advice unless they’d been as Rohypnoled as the
victims. They even let her take over interviews without prearrangement when
she’s by far the junior officer. Things are over explained and there’s a good
deal of repetition, and I wasn’t convinced by a number of the characters. And
what age is Beth? Surely they can’t have been hushing people in the children’s
section of Penrith Library when she was small? Several of the reviews mention
‘The Silent Dead’ so I imagine this book has also changed its title somewhere
along the way – a pity, as Death in the Lakes evokes a Lake District setting
which I must say, apart from the narrator occasionally mentioning how much Beth
loves Cumbria, escaped me completely. And what was the stunning twist?
Death in Profile by Guy Fraser-Sampson: Well-written, and the characters
are interesting: given it’s another police procedural and I probably shouldn’t
read several of them at once, I found that these three, Death in the Lakes,
Death in Profile and Thorn in my Side (not yet finished) were all distinctively
different. This one had an unusual tweak which I suspect everyone would see
coming but which was compelling nonetheless. After that, the book takes a very
different and compelling turn, cleverly done. I worked out one major twist very
early on but not the other one, and enjoyed the ride very much though I suspect
being a fan of Dorothy L. Sayers helped!
Charlie Garratt, A Shadowed Livery: Set in 1938, this one has an interesting
start with an account of judicial hanging. Then we’re off to an odd apparent murder-suicide
at a manor house. The first person narrator is pleasant, interesting,
intelligent, and the setting of the threatened start of what we know now to
have been the Second World War makes for a good backdrop. Then we discover that
he is Jewish, and things take on a new depth. Perhaps it was because I had just
visited the Holocaust and Jewish museums in Amsterdam, but I found it fascinating
– it’s a good traditional crime mystery with an unusual background which I
believe continues to develop in the series. I hope to read more.
Now what?Well, I've decided I need a bit of a rest and I have a heap of lovely new (in some cases secondhand) books on Vikings to read. I've got Granite Noir coming up later this month when I'll be reading from The Slaughter at Leith Hall. I'm still trying to do an audiobook (waiting for my voice to come back after this cold), but I did say I was going to try that last year and nothing came of it!
As for reading, I thought I might try each month this year to read a book or author I feel I should already have read. But that's already gone by the wayside! I shall still give it a go, for some of my projected list, anyway (partly because someone has lent me a book for this purpose and I can't give it back unread).
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