May's reading - just a bit late!

 Quite a few books last month, some good, some less so! We'll start with a couple of good ones, though:

Ross Greenwood, Death in Bacton Wood: Another outing for Ashley who has to deal with some nasty people trafficking and an Italian family with difficulties in this episode of the Norfolk series. This one is particularly gory, but for me gory works when it’s paired with very good character development and real people, which is what happens here. Keep going, Ross – and I’ll keep reading!

Alex Scarrow, A Burning Truth: Lots of team development here, particularly at a barbecue at Boyd’s house! The plot is interesting, too, with a politician intent on spilling some beans and others determined to stop him. My impression is that it ended a bit abruptly, but that may have been me in a hurry. I’m a bit behind on this series so I’m able to carry on soon.

Tormod Cockburn, This Jagged Way: The weird italicisation and bad Latin still annoy me, as well as the odd capitalising of birds’ names – Stormy Petrel, Bonxie, and so on. There’s so much of this that it grates constantly. I mean, if you were using phrases in French you’d check them, wouldn’t you? But this Latin doesn’t even get through Google Translate. Yet I’m enjoying the overall premise, and some of the ways he weaves Scottish legend into Scottish current affairs (and I love the new Perth Museum, so I have an interest there, too). I’ll see if I can contemplate the next one.

Courtney Smyth, The Undetectables: This book is set in a kind of England, I think, where Apparents and Occults (normal humans and the magic world) live side by side. The chance to investigate the magic murder of an Apparent brings together three friends who had drifted apart, and perhaps to resolve the death of their ghostly friend, Theodore. I think I may be too old for this book – on an emotional level it feels quite adolescent. I’m not quite connecting with it and find it hard to distinguish many of the characters (except Theodore, who’s quite distinctive, having died wearing fake cats’ ears that can’t now be removed) and to follow some of the world-building. Still, the writing is good and in the end I enjoyed it, though I might not rush to read the next one.

Rachel Abbott, Whatever it Takes: Our hero Tom is still on ‘leave’ from the police, which is just as well as his brother goes missing and he is determined to find him and his family. The trail leads far from home, and there is plenty of danger for all as they tangle with the Mafia. Much more of a thriller than a whodunit or police procedural, but the usual team is there in the background.

Rhys Dylan, Lines of Inquiry: There are a few thoroughly unlikeable characters in this but our team battles on as ever, while Evan also struggles with some problems in his family life. A thoroughly satisfying read, in the end.

Elly Griffiths, The Frozen People: I was really looking forward to this. I may be spoiled by reading too much Jodi Taylor, but I found this quite a struggle. There’s a hopeless quality to much of it, though of course it’s very well written and the characters are real, and the feeling of how a twenty-first century woman might struggle to fit in in 1850, however well prepared, was very persuasive. I love her Ruth series and her Harbinder one, but I’m not sure I’m going to love this one quite so much. But I’m prepared to try!

Val McDermid, The Grave Tattoo: Of course the writing is excellent and at once you’re drawn into the worlds of a London lecturer, trying to solve a mystery concerning Wordsworth and Fletcher Christian, and her less likeable brother still at home in the Lake District where a body from Wordsworth’s era has just been discovered. Superb.

Val McDermid, A Place of Execution: Set against the context of the Moors Murders, still unsolved as this plays out, this is a deeply atmospheric story of child abuse and abduction in a secluded site in Derbyshire. McDermid portrays a fascinating picture of a village half cut off from the rest of the world, half connected, and the way the police of the time deal with the investigation.

Orjan Karlsson, Into Thin Air: This is a fairly dark one but still enjoyable. The police officer main character is recently widowed, and his sidekick has moved to Bodo in northern Norway for unpleasant personal reasons, but it’s not a miserable read. The plot is not wholly resolved in the end, leaving the way open for an interesting sequel.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby: Though I knew roughly what this was about, I had neither read it nor seen a film version and decided, on the enthusiastic recommendation of a family member who’s not a great reader, to give it a go. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though like the narrator I was glad enough to be out of their superficial, doomed world by the end. I was amused and appalled in equal measure by the drunk driving - good heavens! – and not really surprised by the tragic outcome – as inevitable as Hamlet.

As for my own progress, well, it's not great just now. I've taken a couple of weeks off to get my ducks in a row (or at least in the same duckpond), and when I feel things are a bit better I'll start the next book. Or that's the plan, anyway!