Is there anybody out there who likes January?
No, I thought not. It is such a dreary month and I have always found it so and this year of course it is worse than usual. It is a dank drear day today and it is a huge effort to make myself go out for a daily walk but I am making myself do so as I think it is vital to shift myself otherwise I would be languishing on my sofa all day.
So what have I been reading? Not a lot. Last year the number of books I logged as having read dropped by a third which is most unusual for me. It is odd that when I have more time than usual to read I read less. Circumstances in 2020 turned my reading mojo to mush and I am not sure I have it back yet. Still here goes…
The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman. Now lest I be in any doubt about this I am told (on the front cover) that this is a "record breaking Number one bestseller". It is a "beacon of pleasure" "deplorably good" (can something be deplorably good? mmmm) "diabolically clever" and so on and so on and so on. Richard Osman is a Sleb and is on tv and has a high profile and so is able to wheel out the litterati to lavish praise. Being Famous obviously helps if you are writing and have a book to promote.
The premise is that four old biddies get together in a Residential Home to review cold cases (one of them is an ex police detective so has access to the files.Handy) and of course a real life murder happens and they solve it. OK that sounds promising.
After ploughing through pages of turgid prose I gave up and turned to the last page where I discovered who did it and why and was still none the wiser. I very rarely give bad reviews because just because I do not like something does not automatically mean that everyone else will agree with me and rightly so. But as I feel my thought are likely to dent sales in any way I have to say that I think it is over written and I get the impression that Mr Osman polished every sentence and honed it to perfection all the while thinking Oh what a clever boy am I.
Sorry but I thought it was poor stuff. I await the series as I do not think this is a one off and, natch, it is tailor made for a tv adapation.
I mentioned that I had discovered Catherine Aird. Late in the day as she has been writing for yonks but for some reaon unknown to me I have never read any of her books. I was offered one for 99p for my kindle and thought it sounded fun and it was. I then tracked down a load more but many of them seem to be out of print and they were rather expensive for a kindle buy. So l logged onto ebay and a second hand book site and ordered several titles all of which arrived this week. One of them is an omnibus with three stories in, a decent paperback for £4.50 which is a bargain.
They feature DI Sloan and his sidekick, a somewhat grey cell challenged sargeant, Crosby. They are set in the fictional county of Calleshire and so far I am finding them witty, amusing and written with a flow and drive totally lacking in the Osman book.
I rather enjoyed this paragraph which gives you an idea of the author's style:
"Constable Crosby might have fancied his fast driving but it wasn't a patch on that of Dr Dabbe. The consultant pathologist…..was the fastest driver in the county of Calleshire. Strong men had been known to blench when offered a lift by him. Those who incautiously accepted them were rumoured never to be the same afterwards. The Dean of Callliford, a blameless man whose faith was seemingly as firm as that of anyone in the dicocese, had once tried to get out of Dr Dabbe's moving car, wishing he had led a better life the while. The doctor's assistant, Burns, who went with him everywhere, had been shocked into silence by it a long time ago and rarely spoke"
Lovely.
I have also just read the lastest Bill Slider detective story by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles Cruel as the Grave. There are 22 of these and they are so good featuring Detective Bill Slider and his side kick Atherton who I find impossible not 
to picture as Lewis and Hathaway as there are similarities. The plots are excellent, the characters well drawn and they are very funny as well. I really recommend them and, if you do start reading them, try and read in order if possible as the character development and relationships do progress as the series goes on.
I have also read a couple of romances by Catherine George who writes for Mills & Boon and who I think has a fine style and a light touch. She has not written any for some time and on checking her bibliography I think she must be in her eighties now and has probably laid down her pen. I have quite a collection of her titles, some of them are now thirty years old, which is a bit scary when I think about it but I really enjoy them. Perfect comfort reading.
Onwards and upwards Dear Readers and I hope you are all Keeping Calm and Carrying on.
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