A bleak dreary day today and I am sitting here with a rug over my knees and a hotwater bottle at my back as I ache all over. I always do after a busy time. Christmas was stressful in that right up to the last few minutes of Christmas Eve I did not know whether I was going to see the family or not as they had had Covid and we were taking tests like mad. Finally all negative on the Day so slung everything in the car and off I went.
So now all quiet and a bit of music in the background and musing on my reading year. Not a vintage one as, along with many of you I suspect, life had got in the way and my resding has been of the light variety. Of course you may belong to those who have finally ready Proust, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in lockdown and if you have please don't tell me as it will make me feel inferior...
Glancing at my list it is no surprise that detective stories form the main bulk of my reading. I re-read all of the Bill Slider books by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles and can really recommend them. The mysteries are excellent, the writing witty and funny and the characters are warm, clever and lovable. Best to read in order as there is a story line relating to Slider's private life which develops throughout the series. I love them and looking forward to the next one in 2022.
Kate Rhodes - her Alice Quentin series are my favourites but she also has a new character, Ben Kitto, and these stories are set in the Scilly Isles. Still hoping we will get another Alice novel but these are also immennsely readable and so well written.
I re-read all the Peter Diamond books by Peter Lovesey set in Bath and love them. The main character is lovable though difficult and grumpy and knowing Bath fairly well helps place them. There are over 20 of them so if you want a nice new series then try them. Again, best read in order.
Jane Casey - I have read and loved all her Maeve Kerrigan books and am madly in love with her male protagonist, Josh Derwent, who is all man and simply gorgeous with it and if the author does not get them together soon I shall burst. A new book by this author this year and though not a Kerrigan book "sob" was excellent and exciting. The Killing Kind, a stand alone but oh so looking forward to the next Maeve. If you have not read this series you have a treat instore but do read them in order.
E C R Lorac - a Golden Age crime writer and a new discovery by the excellent British Library Classic Crime series all of which I manage to get my mitts on as the BritLib send them to me. A huge selection of authors, not all of whom I get on with, but most of them are well worth reading. Along with Lorac, who also writes as Carol Carnac, I am working my way through Freeman Wills Croft who I love for his detail and minutaie.
Loads of re-reads this year and one of the best was the series of books about the Carey family by Ronald Welch and published by Slightly Foxed. I have written about them before and simply love them.
I discoverd the Malmo mysteries by Torquil McLeod. Scandi-noir and enjoyable.
I have also been reading a huge amount of chick-lit though I really dislike that description. Romantic fiction would be better. A huge amount of snobbery surrounds this genre and I can never understand why. Yes some of them are a bit meh, but that is not confined to romance alone. Milly Johnson, whose I wish it could be Christmas Every Day I reviewed recently, is lovely and yes sentimental at times, but also funny and witty. Jenny Colgan is my current binge read with a heap of them sitting on my To be Read shelf. I tend to avoid titles such as The Little Beach Tree Bakery and the Christmas Bookshop but one of my regular visitors recommended her and so I tried one and have since been thoroughly enjoying them.
Not a huge amount of non fiction this year but will be writing about those I have enjoyed in the next post.
