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.
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