A few books from February

Not so many books finished last month, though I seem to be halfway through reading quite a few. Still, here we are!

E.S. Thomson, The Blood: I'm slightly out of order on this series. As dark as ever, this episode takes us to London’s filthy docklands with some of the worst and most downtrodden of its inhabitants and a naval hospital ship where Jem has to stand in as apothecary when a friend dies. Poor Will continues to be embroiled in Jem’s investigations as their friendship grows stronger and potentially more ambiguous, and the plot revolves around one of the greatest challenges to medical expertise. Fascinating as always.

Jodi Taylor, Santa Grint: This is a bit of an excursion, a day at the seaside as Grint takes unexpected pity on a young lad in a children’s home waiting for his mother. Since the mother is said to be building an illicit time-travel pod, the Time Police take an interest, putting Grint and Jane in danger with hilarious consequences. I do enjoy the voices in Jane’s head!

Alex Gray, Questions for a Dead Man: And completely out of order on this series - this is only the second one I have read. A car bomb kills an MSP – or does it? The plot involves the drug trade from several different angles as Lorimer’s friend Daniel finds to his cost. Unusual for the genre, Gray’s team are all nice, normal people who live fairly ordinary lives and care for each other in uncomplicated ways. It’s a pleasant place to be, despite the murders and drug dealers. One question, though: why would a woman wear fishnets over a corset and skirt?

Kelly Oliver, Mystery in Manhattan: Also  known as Chaos at Carnegie Hall, and either No.1 or  No.4 in the series depending on what series you might think you're reading. I wasn’t really convinced by this. There has been some good research but still plenty of oddities – for one thing, hobble skirts were going out by this time and anyway the things she does manage to do in a hobble skirt would mean they were hardly worthy of the name. Fiona is self-obsessed and thick as mince, and I would not employ her as an office junior, let alone a spy. The book feels much more American than British (probably written for the American market – ‘classified’, for example, is still an American term), and the author seems to be obsessed by the word ‘lav’, using it when she actually means the British term ‘bathroom’ and not just the W.C. She calls the police station ‘the nick’ which is not a term someone of her class would have used, or not consistently, at that time (never mind ‘mate’ and ‘knackered’ – most unseemly, even if she does use the word ‘blimey’). The heroine says her gloves were ruined by ‘fingerprints’ at the police station and is then slightly baffled when her ward mentions fingerprinting. And why are they always tugging at the hems of their jackets?

Ragnar Johansson, Black Out: The three-man police force in northern Siglafjordur has to deal with a murder, which is simultaneously being investigated by a journalist from Reykjavik escaping from the cloud of volcanic ash and with issues of her own to deal with. This is a very good, serious series, translated into English by the inestimable Quentin Bates who writes his own Icelandic crime fiction.

Now, then, updates. The Gowden Wifie, Cattanach 2, is all ready to go except for the cover which has been delayed, as you'll know if you're on the mailing list, by the unpredictable drying time of air-drying clay in a cold house. Once the cover is ready, we're off! In the mean time I am now one day behind schedule on Murray 14, Murder on the King's Jaunt, but it's still going strong and I'm now 2/5 through the first draft. Often by this stage I would have ordered the cover for this one from my cover illustrator (she is not responsible, by the way, for the air-drying clay issues) but I've hit the ground running so quickly on this one that I haven't spoken to her about it yet. I'd better get on with it!

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!