Random Jottings

Reading round up

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,

Books Read and Books To be Read

It has taken me a few days to recover from the drive back from Yorkshire so apologies for absence. I love Yorkshire and could visit there all the time, but the journey is now exhausting. Going up over six hours because of road works etc and though coming back was more straightforward, it was still tiring. So going to stay nearer home next summer.

Anyway, back to books. I recently discovered the crime novels of E C R Lorac, thanks to the British Library and reviewed the two they published here, and I liked them so much I have been tracking down others by this author. Luckily my good friend who I was on holiday with is a member of the London Library and managed to get hold of a few for me which went up to Yorkshire. I will be writing about these at a later date. So here are a few others I have recently read:

A Family Recipe - Veronica Henry.  I love this author's books. They are packaged and designed to look very 'chick litty' which always annoys me (as with Erica James, Fanny Blake and others) and this does them a disservice as they are always well written, heart warming and full of insight into human emotions. Laura Griffin finds out in a shocking and upsetting way that her husband is having an affair. Her daughter has just gone to University and she has a double blow to deal with.  Laura turns to her grandmother's recipe box, a treasured collection dating back to the Second world War and inspired by the interest in her pickles and chutneys sends her down a new path. Now, you may think this is all a bit simplistic and yes, she easily achieves success, and in a way, it is. But it is often the smaller things one does in a crisis that get you through. Something you can deal with and manage when chaos is all around you. And I know from personal experience that it works. A lovely book. I had the pleasure of introducing the author and Fanny Blake at a book festival a few years ago and they were both simply delightful. One member of the audience was an ex Mayor of the town and she told me she read all of Veronica Henry's books because 'they make me feel happy'. No finer compliment in my opinion.

Last time I Lied - Riley Sager. This dropped through my letter box yesterday and sounded intriguing. Emma was just a child when she attended a summer camp and three girls disappeared never to be seen again. Now many years later she has returned and, once again, three young girls vanish.  I won't go into the somewhat prepostrous plot but what started out promisingly soon degenerated, in my opinion, into a morass of wild surmises and overwrought writing. The story line was a good one but I do feel a good editor would have reduced some of the hyperbole. But I gather the author's first book was a huge success so what do I know?

I had been reading the Max Tudor books of G M Malliatt and found then witty and great fun and discovered she had written three others featuring DCI Just so I got hold of those as well. I like this author's sarky amusing style and read these pretty quickly. One featured the death of a 'cosy murder' author and the other the death of a 'chick lit' author and, one again, I liked them and did not guess Who Dun It.

Sleeping in the Ground - Peter Robinson. A DCI Banks story and, as always, well written and tightly plotted. A wedding in a village church turns into carnage as a shooter kills the bride and groom and guests. The trail leads to a local member of a shooting club who is found dead having committed suicide. As all experienced thriller readers will know a suicide is ALWAYS a murder and so this proves. Excellent read though I do wish the author would stop rabbiting on about the music he likes. Does it every single book and it does get tedious. But a small winge and I tend to skim over those bits anyway.

Money in the Morgue - Stella Duffy. This is a Roderick Alleyn story from notes left by Ngaio Marsh and, therefore, I was looking forward to it immensely. Sadly, I read it with great disappointment. Perhaps my expectations were too high. The characterisation of Alleyn was spot on and his reactions to murder and his assessment of the suspects, but the story just got bogged down. I found the ending totally ludicrous and wildly improbable. I am a member of a Face Book group which discusses Golden Age of crime and when I gave my opinion I was shot down in flames by one of its members who seemed to think I was dissing the entire Duffy oeuvre. Told him that this was the first I had read by this author so he was totally wrong.  But a bit of a misfire in my opinion.

So a mixed bag of books though I enjoyed nearly all of them and, as you will see from the picture above, I have a load more goodies to come.

 

A Plethora of Detectives (1)

Plethora. Lovely word, rolls off the tongue. I gather it means a large or excessive amount of something and I have certainly been reading loads of detective stories in the last week or so.  Mixed enjoyment. Some irritation. So here are my thoughts.

First up the latest Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson When the Music's Over (please note this is not published until July); I have read all of the Inspector Banks books and, on the whole, find them interesting, well plotted and well written. BUT, and this is a big but, the author will insist on telling us what music Banks is listening to and going into great details about the groups and the singers, to the point of tedium. OK we get it that Peter Robinson likes this stuff and wants us to know but I think we have got the message by now. It has got worse over the last three books and now detracts from what is nearly always a good story. I am surprised that his editor (if he has one) , has not come down hard on this. I would.

A few years ago a writer whose detective I used to follow wrote a book which was clearly based on the James Bulgar case and dwelt on it to the point of being distasteful. I thought it was ill judged and amazed that the publishers allowed it through. When the Music's Over latches onto Operation Yewtree and in the course of verisimilitude names all those involved, what the police have to do to make sure the public don't think they have got it wrong, mistakes made in the past etc etc. Banks has been asked to investigate a case of historic abuse, and at this stage I wondered whether to bother carrying on, but I did. The famous name in the story is clearly based on Stuart Hall even down to his physical characteristics and appearance and I found this usage of a recent case left a nasty taste in my mouth. We also have a case running alongside this which involved a gang of Pakistanis grooming underage girls, again taken from life and again, I was not happy with this at all.

The book reads like a Robinson polemic on Islamophobia, racism and immigration and it seems to me that Inspector Banks has now been hijacked by political correctness and wants to give us, the readers, a lecture. I was not happy with this at all, and yet finished reading it as there is an excellent story in here, with interesting characters and good solid police work. I just wish the author would stick to telling stories and not give us his views on the previously mentioned topics. I can read all about that in the papers.

Love you Dead - Peter James. This is the latest Detective Grace story which are all based in Brighton and my original reason for starting this series as it is a town I love and have happy childhood memories of my holidays there.  I enjoy these books very much though every now and then in the middle of the narrative there is suddenly a chunk of really clunky writing. Never lasts very long and is usually when he is chatting to his mate Branson. Then it vanishes and we pick up again. Happens again this time. I daresay I am the only one who has spotted it or even thought it so fee free to ignore me. (Published 19 May 2016)

This is a great story and really exciting with twists and turns all over the place.  We start with the mysterious death of an elderly financier who happens to be engaged to a very young fiance, Jodie, who seems fairly untroubled by his demise. They are out skiing and he disappears down a slope never to be seen again.  While recovering from her sorrow she has a one night stand with a Russian who she meets in a bar in New York and clocks him over the head when he gets a bit rough. Before she leaves his room she has a quick look around and finds a bag stuffed with cash and a memory stick hidden away. Silly woman decides to take it with her not realising that she will likely end up with the Russian mafia on her trail. She hies it back to Brighton where she is to meet her next husband/victim and off they go on a cruise and, of course, soon meets his death.

Running alongside this investigation we have the follow up and, at long last, resolution of the mystery of Sandy Grace's disappearance which has run through all the books. Very grateful for this as I felt it was getting really annoying and a plot device that had outlived its usefulness. And it ends with a twist in this saga that anybody who has read all of these books (ME!) could see coming a mile off and lines us up nicely for the next one.

Great read and I sat and read it in one sitting.

OK have another two to go but will write about those tomorrow as I gather my thoughts on same.  I have also recently received a heap of Crime Classics from the British Library so many more detectives to come. I am beginning to think I should rename my blog Random Teccery (a phrase used by the wonderful Ngaio Marsh) but will refrain.....

Au reservoir.

Random Crime Reading around the World

Now that the hassle of new laptop and setting it up etc is behind me (well almost, scanner on printer not working yet but I am ignoring it for the moment), I am finally getting down to posting about books.   I mentioned in one of my summing up posts of 2012 that I was seriously wondering whether to rename this blog to Random Crime as I seem to read such a lot of crime fiction. This genre has always fascinated me since my discovery of Dame Agatha Christie at the age of eleven when I was given a very old battered Pan edition of what we now call Ten Little Indians and spent a morning ignoring all school work but totally engrossed in wondering How on Earth this was going to end.   After that I was up and running.  

I love 1930's crimfic and Ngaio Marsh is another of my favourites. Gorgeous detective, Roderick Alleyn and I re-read all of these every year or so.   Dorothy L Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey, well what can one say? Love love love them and only read them for the first time about ten years ago, a treat worth waiting for.

Now I read anything I can get my hands on. Enjoy most crime writers, but there have been failures.  Patricia Cornwall is far to gory for me, she goes into the forensics and anatomical detail with almost too much lip smacking enjoyment and after reading four or five, gave up.   Lisa Jackson, OK, but over written and with lots of inner musings along the line of Come on Get a Grip written in italics and all gets a bit wearying. Have tried Dean Koontz but not for me and have yet to enjoy a Sarah Paretsky book, so my hit rate is not 100%.   BUT I still have discovered a wealth of stonking good reads over the last few years and here are a few of them.

Michael Connelly - the Harry Bosch books.   I read them all out of order and we all know he is that well know character the Maverick Cop which can become tiresome after a while, but great fun and tightly plotted. Set in Los Angeles.   His other hero, Mickey Haller an LA lawyer, I find more enjoyable and the court room scenes are totally gripping and fascinating.

Linda Castillo - all her books have an Amish setting and while I am starting to doubt whether this body count can really be kept up (getting as bad as Midsomer Murders) her main protagonist, Kate Burkholder who is the chief of police in a small town, is immensely likeable. Flawed of course, that goes without saying, but immensely readable.

Tess Gerritsen - wrote a slew of romantic/crime books before she started on her Rizzoli and Isles series set in Boston.   These are much better and very well written.   TV series which I can now see on Sky, dire.

These are just a few of the US writers I have discovered recently.

So we turn to Scandinavian detective fiction which has increased enormously in popularity, mainly due to the Wallender series on BBC4.   Ignore the Ken Branagh version which, though watchable is a bit off the wall, the Swedish version so much better.  I read all the books by Mankel but sadly he has now finished with this detective and there will be no more.  The final one in the series was rather melancholy and sad.    I now realise when writing this that I have an inflated idea of just how much ScandiCrime I have read as all my other expertise in this area comes from watching The Killing Series 1-3 on TV. There has been a 'novelisation' of the first series which I found rather unreadable and hope they do not attempt the others.   Other watching was The Bridge which was pretty stunning.

Camilla Lackberg -  brilliant. Here is the link to a review of one of her books and one of Linda Castillo in the same post

http://randomjottings.typepad.com/random_jottings_of_an_ope/2009/09/icy-murder.html

I am mentioning also Jo Nesbo though I have found his most recent titles rather gory and upsetting. First one of his I read, the Snowman, gave me nightmares for weeks.   I have his latest on the shelf, but finding it difficult to get into so leaving it for a bit.

Quentin Bates has written thrillers set in Iceland which I have read and enjoyed.

http://randomjottings.typepad.com/random_jottings_of_an_ope/2011/02/frozen-out-quentin-bates.html

Now we come to Italy and oh how I love the Montalbano books by Camilleri.  They are set in Sicily and are witty and funny and have reduced me to tears of helpless laughter; they have also reduced me to tears for quite another reason.   Montalbano is a wonderful character, a man of feeling and love and I wish the author a long and happy life so he can continue producing these wonderful books,

I have waiting for me two books by Marco Vichi which are set in Florence. I read and loved the first one, which I reviewed here, and I know this may sound daft, but I am just enjoying having these on my shelves knowing they are there waiting for me.  I am saving them up as a treat, and a treat they will be that I guarantee. Set in Florence in the sixties, before computers and mobile phones, they are engagingly old fashioned in procedure and I found that charming.

Commisioner Alec Blume - set in Rome. Author is Conor Fitzgerald. May not grab you at first but persevere, they are worth reading.

Brunetti books set in Venice and written by Donna Leon. Loved them all, even if Brunetti's smart arse wife who seems to be able to discourse intelligently on Henry James while knocking up spahgetti vongole at the same time, is beginning to get really really boring. But the last one, Beastly Things, was poor and I get the feeling she is tiring of her hero.   A non Brunetti book, published just before Christmas, also pretty poor. Sad.

Then the wonderfully named, Giancarlo Carofiglio.   Superbly written and credit must go to the translater who has done a marvellous job.      Set in Puglia and Involuntary Witness one of the best thrillers I have read in ages and the court room scene totally pinned me to my seat.

Back home and in the last couple of years I have discovered the Roy Grace books of Peter James, set in Brighton, a place I know well, and they are real page turners with a running personal story line in each book which is working up to a climax. Cannot wait for next one in the series.

DCI Banks books by Peter Robinson. Another discovery by me over the last year and gosh they are good. Am now catching up on the TV series which I missed first time around; good as well and sticks to the story lines pretty closely though not sure about the characterisation of Banks.

My latest discovery is Martin O'Brien. I have not reviewed all of his books but click on his name to see a review of my first of his which sent me off in chase of all the others.   They are set in Marseilles and feature a rather gorgeous Daniel Jacquot and they are excellent and totally unputdownable.

There are so many others I have discovered over the last few years, but no room or time to mention them all otherwise I will be hear all night, but as I find new ones (and have just enjoyed a debut thriller set in Maine this week) I will be posting about them. I also realise I have not mentioned PD James, Ruth Rendell and many others but you will have to take it as read that I devoured the lot and loved them.

As a final note, I picked up a battered old Penguin edition of a Simenon Maigret book recently. I have never read any of them and as there seem to be about a hundred or so, I really feel I ought to give them a whirl.  Can I ask any of you out there if you have read them, what you think of them and recommend any titles please?

Merci beaucoup.

 

The Inspector Banks books of Peter Robinson

Only discovered these recently.  Picked up one or two from the library and thought I would give them a whirl and found myself really enjoying them.   Usual scenario of course, divorced detective now living on his own etc etc but this doesn't worry me any more, this marital set up is a given in this genre.

I have now read several of them and have found them well plotted, well written and well characterised. Won't say that I rushed out to read them all in one mad binge as I normally do, but they are ones I now keep an eye out for and was also pleased when the latest one Watching in the Dark was sent to me and very good it was too.  My sister loves these books so when I mentioned in passing that I had the latest Inspector Banks she said oh yes please and it is now residing in her book case.

So as I said good stuff, but not world shattering until I picked up In a Dry Season in a local charity shop, 20p - a bargain I am sure you will agree and sat down with my morning coffee and book. And there I stayed for the next two hours as I read solidly totally unable to put it down so engrossed was I.  It all starts with a young boy exploring an old reservoir under which lurked the remains of a village engulfed in the waters many years ago.  No surprise for readers when he stumbles across a skeleton and as it is buried and covered over with slate it is clear that it was hoped  it would never be found.

Tke skeleton is that of a young woman in her twenties and research indicates she was murdered just after the Second World War.  So Inspector Banks and DC Annie Cabot start tracing her life and who she is and how she met her death.   I am giving nothing away by telling you that her name was Gloria, she was a Land Girl sent to a remote Yorkshire village and there she met and fell in love with Matthew who she married and who then went off to war.

In a Dry Season has one of my favourite forms of narrative, the shifting backwards and forwards in time, between Gloria's life and back to today.   The description of the war time life in a remote village is fascinating and beautifully drawn: "we held the reception in the church hall....we only got two ounces of tea which we had to eke out with some of our own ration to make it drinkable.  Luckily our first American food on lend-lease had just arrived in the shop so we had Spam for sandwiches, and tinned sausage meat, which was wonderful for making sausage rolls because you could also use the fat left in the tin to make the pastry"

It is clear that though Gloria's parents were killed in the Blitz in London and that she is all alone in the world,  she has a secret in her past which she wishes to keep hidden and the reader, beguiled by Gloria's warmth and loving attitude to life, is left wondering if this is all on the surface and will something nastier emerge?   You are never sure and when a band of Americans arrive at the local air base and relationships grow between them and the villagers I found I was wondering all the time what was going to happen next.

I thought this was far and away the best of all the Peter Robinson books that I have read so far.  OK I have about another eight or nine to read but this particular title stood out for me.  As with Reginald Hill whose earlier books I found fairly banal and uninteresting, my first foray into DCI Banks made me feel the same - perhaps this was the book when he hit his stride.  I know that Death's Jest Book by Hill seemed to me to take a gigantic leap forward in terms of narrative and depth and, without wishing to descent into hyperbole, wonder if In a Dry Season fits the same bill.   I have no idea at all, obviously, but it is wonderful when a book really grips you in the way this one has.

Have noted that out of the 36 reviews over on Amazon, 27 of them are five star.  Well deserved say I.