After ploughing through A N Wilson's biography of Prince Albert I felt in need of a little light relief so I re-read a couple of Agatha Christie (Five Little Pigs and the Man in the Brown Suit) Enjoyed them all over again. I also read several light romances, none of which I can remember now, which were light and frothy and very relaxing. I do love a romantic novel.
I picked up the latest Harry Hole book The Knife by Jo Nesbo which cannot be categorised as light reading. Throughout this series Harry has lurched from alcoholism to sobriety and back again and in this book we find he is once more hitting the bottle as his wife has slung him out. There is a particular nasty murder very near home which sobers Harry up as he goes in search of the killer - he is pretty sure he knows Who Dun It. A rapist who has recently been released from prison who has a vendetta against Harry and his family. The story of this repugnant man runs alongside the investigtion and Nesbo plays all the tricks in the book to try and make us think they are linked. The plot twists and turns and I can honestly say that when the murderer was revealed I was shocked as that person had never crossed my mind. Absorbing read even if it gets a bit near the knuckle at times in terms of violence.
Many Rivers to Cross - Peter Robinson. The latest Inspector Banks story all of which I have read with gradually decreasing enjoyment. The author likes rock music and music of the sixties and seventies and we are left in no doubt about this as he hauls playlists into every volume. In the earlier tighter and tauter books this was very much on the periphery but in the later books it crept in and seemed to take over to the detriment of the narrative. I got the feeling that it was needed to pad out the story.
The latest starts with an incredibly artificial opening with two characters, one of whom featured in the last story, discussing the UK and Brexit and it is very clear from the discussion that Peter Robinson thinks we are all going to hell in a handcart that the country is racist and divided and an unpleasant place to live. They then get stuck into Trump by which time I was getting very irritated. I am not the slightest bit interested in the author's politics whether they agree with mine or not. When I purchase a detective story I do not expect a current affairs diatribe I want a good story and I want the writer to get on with it. Despite my irritation I did read the book and felt, as I have the last two or three, that it was boring and I found myself skipping chunks to get to the end.
I am not alone most of the reviews on Amazon seem to say the same as me "The constant references to current affairs, most notably Brexit, appeared to be an opportunity for the author to bang a personal, opinionated, drum which I certainly don’t need from pleasure reading".
It is now in the charity shop bin and I do not think I will bother with any more by Mr Robinson.
To the Land of Long Lost Friends - McCall Smith. The latest in the interminable saga of the No 1 Ladies Detectve Agency which have now become pure whimsy and move at the pace of a sloth. I think the kindest word for this is meandering. I shall leave it there.
Anglican Women Novelists - edited by Maltby and Shell. I have mentioned this before and was looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately it suffers from 'academic speak' so dense and long winded that you have to work really hard to work your way through the verbiage. Think Henry James multiplied by twenty and that will give you some idea. The chapter on Noel Streatfield used the words 'nurture and nurturing' thirteen times with a few 'patriarchical' thrown in for good measure. These essays made the subject matter sound dreary and boring and as they were covering Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Goudge and P D James to name a few, that takes some doing. Very disappointing.
I have just started the ghost stories of Edith Wharton. I have read many of these before but this is a lovely new edition from Virago and I will be writing about them nearer Halloween. They are wonderful.
And I raved about Eagle of the Ninth in an earlier post. This garnered lots of comments and one of my readers told me I MUST read Knight's Fee by Sutcliff. Well, I did and it reduced me to floods of tears. It was simply superb,
