Random Jottings

The Finisher - Peter Lovesey

Torpor. What a lovely word. Just saying it makes you feel languid and lazy and idle and can't be bothered.  And that is how I have felt the last week and this afternoon roused myself to start writing about books I have read over the last ten days.  I have read a couple of stinkers, a couple good, and two really excellent ones.

One of the excellent ones and the one I am reviewing today is The Finisher by Peter Lovesey.

Now I posted about Peter a while back on Random, here, after I had come across one of his books,  said blimey I thought he was dead (apologies....) and then discovered that he was in fact alive and kicking and had produced a whole slew of books I had missed entirely. A mistake I was happy to rectify.

Peter very kindly contacted me after my post to reassure me he was alive and well and said that the next Peter Diamond book was nearly finished and here it is.  He has forgiven my mistake re his mortality because I had first read his Sargeant Cribb books back in the sixties and so therefore, naturally, assumed he was no longer with us. I am delighted he is and even more so after reading this one.

A half marathon is taking place in the city of Bath and Diamond and his team are asked to police it and keep an eye on the crowds.  Not something he is particularly keen to do, particularly when he receives a shock when he recognises one of the runners, Tony Pinto, who he had arrested some fifteen years ago. He is now out of jail and taking part in the race.   Pinto had subjected a young woman to a vicious attack and Diamond is not happy when he sees him pestering a young woman runner who is clearly unhappy with his persistent attentions.   He keeps an eye on events and at the end of the race becomes concerned when the woman in question did not appear to have finished the course and has not registered that she has done so. She cannot be traced and two days later there is still no sign of her.

A parrallel story about Spiro, an Albanian illegal immigrant who has made his way to Bath, appears on the face of it to have little to do with the above. He is fleeing from The Finisher a vicious and dangerous traffiker who will have no hesitation in killing him if he catches him.  And it is while watching the half marathon that Spiro sees the man he fears.

OK I am stopping here as I do not wish to give anything away. I merely wish to say that for a large section of this book there is no murder, there is no body. We, the readers, are aware that somebody had met a grisly end but who? I will admit that I guessed but then I have a devious mind and have read too many detective novels.

I love Peter Diamond and his total lack of computer savvy and his grumps and his arguments with the Deputy Chief Constable, Georgina who, like all heirarchy in police detection stories, seems to worry more about appearances and statistics than the actual crime itself.   Peter tests her to the limit and I must admit I feel sorry for her sometimes as he gets away with, dare I say it, murder.

I had a bit of a re-reading binge of the Diamond books after reading this one and thoroughly enjoyed them all over again. And there is one The Tooth Tattoo which features a string quartet where one of its members has mysteriously vanished while on tour.  What I loved about this title was the intricate detail and descriptions pertaining to the Beethoven String quartets. He is my favourite composer but I have yet to tackle these and after reading this book again I ordered a box set of the same. They have arrived and I am looking forward to becoming acquainted with them and will be reading the sections of the Tooth Tattoo which give such wonderful insight and information.

So thank you for that Peter and for another smashing book.

Do keep well.

Do write another one.....

 

Random Video - I talk about Queen Victoria

Miss Mole - E H Young

I am sure those book collectors who love stumbling across a new author and love them for years and feel rather superior because of this, will know the acute irritation one can feel when suddenly that author is “rediscovered” and they become popular again. And yes it is totally petty. Elizabeth von Arnim who I have loved for over forty years was mentioned in an episode of Downton Abbey and, natch, was suddenly all over the place.  The British Library have a wonderful new series Women Writers and one of their title is totally unknown - “Father” by EVA. Bloggers and twitterers getting all excited while I sit here fuming and wanting to yell I have a copy of this book. I had it YEARS ago before you lot even heard of it.

As I said - petty.

Now Miss Mole by E H Young is getting the same treatment and I also read this years ago and found myself among an exclusive group who knew about it and could get all superior and lofty. Ah well....

I went to a book sale here in Colchester way back and came across a little pile of books by E H Young. They were all in the wonderful Virago green cover editions and were being totally ignored in the mad rush to grab the Dan Browns, Danielle Steeles and John Grishams piled up on the trestle tables. This suited me down to the ground as I had spotted these from the far end of the hall as I entered and had made a beeline for them pretty sure nobody else would want them. But you can never tell so I pushed and shoved until I had them safely in my bag. I knew nothing of the author but the fact that they were published by Virago was good enough for me and home they came, and went on my shelves and there they languished.

And then one day surrounded by review and proof copies and unable to choose which one to choose, I decided to read Miss Mole. This happens to me quite often, sometimes a book will just call to me that it is time to be read and when the siren call comes, I don't fight it. And when I had finished it I was annoyed that I had left it so long and denied myself this pleasure. What a simply wonderful book.

Miss Hannah Mole, a farmer's daughter, has for twenty years earned her living as a nursery governess or companion to a succession of difficult old women. She is now forty and has returned to the city of Radstowe where she lived as a child. She faces an uncertain future and has nothing to look forward to but a lonely and poverty stricken old age and at the start of the book is well on the way to losing her latest post. Miss Mole has a sense of the ridiculous and a quick wit which she has to keep well under wraps as employers don't care for this but it breaks out and has lost her countless jobs. "Who would suspect her for a sense of fun and irony, of passionate love for beauty and the power to drag it from its hidden places? Who could imagine that Miss Mole had pictured herself, at different times, as an explorer in strange lands, as a lady wrapped in luxury and delicate garments...?"

Hannah has a rich cousin living in Radstowe who prefers not to acknowledge her as she mistrusts this mischievous streak and is wary of getting involved in case she has to pull her out of a scrape or, worse still, financially support her. On her recommendation Miss Mole becomes housekeeper to a non conformist minister, Reverend Corder, a widower full of pomposity and self satisfaction, whose motherless daughters are sorely in need of care and good food. Also living with the family is the Reverend's nephew, Wilfred, who has no truck with his uncle and goes his own sweet way. He unerringly spots that Miss Mole is concealing her real character and it is with him that sometimes she relaxes and lets her true nature peep through much to his delight. On the odd occasion when she forgets and strikes a note of levity with Reverend Corder she runs perilously close to being asked to leave but manages to keep herself under control, though he views her with a vague mistrust and a feeling that all is not as it should be.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this book. It reminded me very much of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson, published by Persephone. Miss Pettigrew is in the same situation as Miss Mole, at the beck and call of anybody who will employ her and she, too, faces a dreary and lonely future. But as with Miss Mole, Miss Pettigrew has an inner strength which comes to her aid and allows her character to blossom. However, unlike Miss Pettigrew, Miss Mole has had a lover in her past and a secret that she conceals knowing that she will be ruined if the truth is revealed and this becomes very likely when another person from her past turns up in Radstowe. I was entranced by Hannah, her wit and humour and above all, her bravery.

So ignore my flouncing about in the sulks. Do buy this simply lovely book, read and enjoy.   Dean Street Press are high on my list of Publishers I Keep an Eye On as they come up with super titles, those you have been wanting to read for ages and those who you did not know you needed to read but now you do.

If that makes sense.

And of course I love that these authors and title are being republished - it is just that I rather liked being superior and knowing about books that nobody else did.....

'sigh'

A few days away

I am currently sitting on my bed in my lovely hotel room with my feet up and drinking tea.  Grandparents 1 and 2 and family all went from a long walk from Iken Church to the Maltings. Glorious day and here are a few photos of our afternoon. Barbecue tonight.

I am already knackered...