OK well I finally have a floor, pipes replaced, working water heater and lagged pipes and all is ok. I have contacted my insurance company and, as yet, no response to letter or emails so I feel another Elaine Special Letter is due to go to the CEO. I am giving them two more days before I get writing.
So it has all been a bit of a pain and then my daughter arrived from Australia (which is NOT a pain) and it has all been a few weeks of rushing around, meeting and greeting and everything went by the board. I am just grateful that the leak etc happened before she landed.
In the meantime I have been lucky as, in consolation for all the havoc, I have had some wonderful publications from some of my favourite authors and have loved them all. Here they are:
Michael Connelly - Nightshade. A new series with a new detective set on Catalina Island. There is another Lincoln Lawyer on its way later this year and I gather from reading an interview with Connelly that Harry Bosch may be bidding us a farewell soon. His daughter Maddy, now in the police force, turns up in the Ballard and Bosch books so the links continue.
Nightshade opens with a body coming to the surface in the
harbour. Weighed down with an anchor it was supposed to totally sink but the incoming tides brought it in. Detective Stilwell is the man in charge. It goes without saying that he has been exiled to Catalina by another detective back in LA after department politics got in the way and it also goes without saying that he has shades of Harry Bosch in his character and decides to track down the case though he is not supposed to.
Not saying any more but it is, as always, tightly plotted and well written and the markers are there for a good long series.
Jane Thynne - The Judgement of Stars. I love all this author's books and while she has been writing others under a different name, and also some stand alone novels, I have been hoping that another Clara Vine book would eventually arrive. I gather I was not the only reader urging the author to give us what we wanted and here it is.
I have reviewed Clara Vine before and the link is here so you will know that Clara is an Anglo-German actress and she meets and knows many of those in charge and is involved in spying for the British government. I have loved all of them and this one was a sit down and read in one sitting story as I was so eager to see what had happened to Clara since the last one. If you are already a fan you will need no urging from me to read it. If you have not read any of them, then please please do so but do start from the beginning.
Marble Hall Murders - Anthony Horowitz. A third book featuring the detective Atticus Punt and, as with the previous titles, we flit backwards and forwards in time, a device which I always enjoy. The BBC have dramatised the previous two titles and I gather this one is in the works. I am not going to give details of the plot as I have no desire to give anything away, but
Horowitz's writing is just soooo good. He wrote the scripts for Foyles War one of my all time favourite TV series (and I still wish they would bring it back) and it is sheer joy to read such elegant and witty writing. Again, you will need no urging from me to read this title if you are a fan and, if you are not,then please get hold of the first two and sit down and binge and enjoy,
OK well I have others to write about but the fingers are getting weary so I will try and do another post with the other books I have loved in the last few weeks,
Currently watching the tennis from Roland Garros so I might be a little bit delayed but I will return and I appreciate you bearing with me.
