Oh I must post more regularly but, as you know, this last month has been a blur and a write off and sloth has set in. So another catch up and then I will try and get back into the regular habit of posting more often.
Blade of Light and Game of Mirrors by Andrea Camilleri. I adore these books as you all know by now and Inspector Montelbano and all his cohorts in Vigita feel like the family. Catarella is such a gem of a character and I love him. These two titles were published very close together, it seems we are about four behind in the UK, and much though I love these stories I feel that the author may be on auto-pilot now. Hardly surprising as Camilleri is well into his eighties. Also the TV series got ahead of itself so that both these stories have already been dramatised, hence the rush to publish. But no matter. I loved them and laughed at the Inspector and Catarella as always.
Thirteen Guests -J Jefferson Farjeon. Another of the wonderful series of British Library Crime Classics and, as always, beautifully produced with a great eye catching cover. This is another title by the author of Mystery in White which was such a best seller last Christmas. There is a huge appetite for these reprints and rightly so as they are intriguing and tremendous fun. This is a classic setting as well, a house party one weekend at the home of Lord Aveling. A painting is mutilated, a dog stabbed and a man strangled. I do not feel I need write any further. Go buy!
Make me - Lee Child. The latest Jack Reacher and try as I might when reading these, I simply cannot visualise Tom Cruise as our mighty hero. Liam Neeson gets in the way. Same old same old. Reacher arrives in town, something is amiss, he sorts it out, beds a glam female and then wanders off into the distance at the end of the story. BUT slight difference this time in that he does not say farewell to the glam female and there is a hint that she may stay with him for a bit. We shall see.
Agincourt - Anne Curry. Published by OUP and, as always, beautifully produced and presented. I have been fascinated by Agincourt ever since I was taken to see the Olivier Henry V when I was about eleven. A concise and fascinating history of the background to the battle and its political ramifications. I am dipping in and out of this book as it is very scholarly writing and the reader does have to concentrate. I do love books published by OUP. They are such a joy to have.
The Moth Catcher - Ann Cleeves. the latest Vera Stanhope story, the seventh in the series. The owners of a big country house have employed a house sitter to look after their place while they are away. Then the sitter, Patrick, is found dead by the side of the lane into the valley and when DCI Vera Stanhope arrives with her team and checks out the attic room where Patrick was sleeping, discovers yet another body. Only thing they have in common is their fascination with moths.
I only discovered this author in the last year and, naturally, have read all her books in one fell swoop. Well, correction. I have read the Stanhope ones and those set in the Shetlands, which I think I prefer, but some of her earlier books I have tried and found not so good. Ann Cleeves just got better once she found the right characters.
Still more to write about but this is enough for today.
At the moment I am reading two fascinating Austen related books: Jane Austen's Names by Margaret Doody and The Shades of Pemberley, a sequel by D A Bonavia-Hunt and written in the forties. I am enjoying them both very much and will be writing more anon.
Oh and finally, I was sent A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George, the latest Lynley book. I have now officially given up on these as the last one, set in Italy, was just so appallingly awful I could not believe that it had sneaked past her editor. I have never felt the same about her when she wrote a book based on the Jamie Bulgar case which I thought was in ghastly taste and totally unacceptable. I have the feeling that her latest arrives and the publisher publishes it regardless. I have flicked through some of it and decided Yep enough. It is also over 500 pages long.......
Right I feel better now I have caught up a bit. So more soon. Promise.
