April's reads! Definitely in no particular order, and I think all crime this time.
Keith Moray, Deathly Wind: I’m
sorry, the lurking ten-year-old in me just wants to giggle at the title!
Glasgow gangsters, dead dogs, revenge and retribution: quite an entertaining
read once you get all the characters sorted out.
Keith Moray, Murder Solstice: Entertaining now I’ve got to know the
characters a little, though I still don’t want to know what everyone is driving
or riding. Incidentally sixteen is the age of legal responsibility in Scotland.
I think I’ll happily carry on with this series.
Carmen Radtke, A Matter of Love and Death: Very different from the
Missing Bride series but really interesting, beautifully sensitive and
suspenseful. Set in Adelaide in a time of poverty and distress, this sees
respectable telephonist Frances edging into a much more dubious world of
nightclubs and illicit drinking, yet she manages to hold true to herself. A
very satisfying mystery.
Jason Goodwin, The Janissary Tree: Yashim is a eunuch in early 19th century
Istanbul, able to enter the harem of the Sultan and investigate the murder of
one of the girls, but also trusted to help the seraskier investigate the deaths
of of four young officers in his new army, the force brought in to replace the
Janissaries. The Janissaries, however, do not really want to be replaced. This
is a fascinating insight into the Istanbul of the time, fragile, flammable, and
frightening in many ways – exciting, too.
Lynda Wilcox, The Lockington Legacy: A very entertaining, light read,
with an awful lot of Ls in it! Linzi and Loren Repton have set up a detective
agency, and are commissioned to recover the Lockington Legacy, a diamond
necklace, in the course of which they stumble upon a murder. Instrumental in
their solution is the mysterious Magda, dog owner and feeder of the homeless
who looks like a bag lady but is evidently much more (quite apart from
consuming heroic quantities of tea and biscuits). I need to find out more about
Magda!
E.S.Thomson, Dark Asylum: The setting has shifted to a lunatic asylum but
this plot is just as deep, macabre and intriguing as the first book, and the
writing is just as good. As insanity is a looming threat in these books this is
particularly poignant for our main character: there’s just enough relief to
keep us going.
James Oswald, Nothing to Hide: Constance is a much put-upon person, so
that the reader feels some kind of relief when she fetches up in the Leith Walk
home of Madame Rose and her cats, to be succoured and supported. Constance is
rather self-destructive (she reminds me a bit of Claire Balding and her
autobiography My Animals and Other Family) but very sympathetic and we really
do want her to win, even if occasionally we’d like her to keep her mouth shut just
for a little while. I’m sorry it’s written in the present tense, but it’s
possible to get past it as it’s first person narrative.
Doug Johnstone, A Dark Matter: This was not what I was expecting – I had thought from comments I had read that
it would be more comedic. Instead it is tragic, wistful in places, but
ultimately very pleasing with some very odd turns in the mysteries that are
investigated by this odd family of undertakers and private detectives in
Edinburgh. For anyone concerned about these things (like me) the cat is all
right.
Elly Griffiths, The StoneCircle: Really enjoyed this as usual – the perfect pandemic escape. I had
intended to ration it and instead read it in a couple of evenings. What a
shame!
Cecilia Peartree, The Spy who came out of the Bushes: Delighted to
meet the 20th Pitkirtly mystery, which even makes reference to the
demand for archivists in the black economy. Oh, I love Christopher and
Amaryllis! And all the other regulars – and poor Maisie Sue whose wedding day
to Benjamin or Benedict is inevitably spoiled by the appearance of her
supposedly ex husband sporting a fatal knife wound.
M.J. Lee, Death in Shanghai: I wasn’t
sure about the cliched British (fine, no doubt a lot of British administrators
were indeed silly asses but this was a bit shallow) or the endlessly dancing waiters,
but I was intrigued by the set-up and keen to know more. I found a lot of it to
be rather trite, and here and there rather American. But there was originality
here, too, and some well observed characters: I don’t think I’d like to work with
Danilov, but I enjoyed reading about him, and about Strachan.
