RANDOM JOTTINGS

As you all know by now I love a good detective/crime novel and I have been reading a lot recently. One of the results of all that has gone on over the last eighteen months has been the frying of the part of my brain that could read and digest any kind of reading that needed a keen eye and a discerning view point.  (So what is new I hear you cry.. yeh  ok)

I have been doing a lot of rereading and also some new authors and I thought I would write a series of posts regarding all the crime stuff I have read to date and as it has all been UK based I thought I would have a really snappy title like BritTecs.   Cool right?

I will be writing about Peter Lovesey, DS Bruce, R D Wingfield and a few others. No doubt Agatha will creep in somewhere but this is the first one.

Here we go and we start with the Bill Slider books by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. I first discovered this author when I came across her Morland Dynasty historical novels, not sure where, probably a charity shop and once I got stuck in I read the lot. They started up pre-medieval and stopped at around the sinking of the Titanic, ie 1912. Then her publishers decided that they were not selling enough and pulled the plug on the entire series much to my fury and to all the thousands who had read them.  A post regarding this on Random ended up with over 400 comments such was the reaction.

She is now writing another historical series but I am not familiar with those. Good luck to her say I. In the meantime, I discovered she wrote detective novels, for another publisher, and these are pure gold.

Bill Slider, a detective Inspector is the main protagonist with his sidekick Atherton. Now I have a sneaky suspicion that CHE (as I will refer to the author from now on) must have been watching Morse and/or Lewis on the telly when she started writing these, more the latter than the former, as the relationship and character of Bill Sliderand James Atherton mirrors that of Lewis and Hathaway, even down to their physical characteristics.   It means that I cannot read the books without envisaging Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox which can be a bit disconcerting at times.

When the series starts we meet Bill, married with two children. The marriage is not a particularly happy one as his wife resents his work and the time it takes away from home.   He is plodding along when he investigates a murder involving a musician in an orchestra and meets a violinist Joanna.  The mutual attraction is instant.   As the series of books evolves and we see how he and his team solve murders and clear crimes, his personal life runs alongside the narrative and adds to the interest.   Bill is a caring compassionate man and finds it difficult to end his marriage and leave his home. Atherton is the polar opposite. Cuts through woman like a hot knife through butter, no woman is immune to his charm and, it has to be said, his selfishness and absorption with his life.

Alongside the Dynamic Duo is his team and his superior is Superintendent Porson who has a way with words that makes spoonerism look mild.  A supportive and loyal chief, unusual as most superiors portrayed in such books are usually pen pushers, keen on promotion and will sacrifice staff in order to bolster a reputation. Not here. Porson is lovable and his team admire and respect him.

“I hope it turns out to be a suicide after all or some simple mistake.  Maybe he was ampidistrous?”

There was some confusion here over the victim committing suicide with the wrong hand.

“Good enough for an amateur to think it would pass mustard” Porson grunted.

Very difficult to convey just how witty this series is and when I started reading them how unexpected I found it as I had only known CHE by the Morland novels and some very early stand alone novels (which I do not recommend) and I can only say you have to read them to enjoy the style and the imaginative narrative.

“at the station Prentiss had accepted his offer of a cup of coffee but when it was put before him he only looked at it blankly, as if such things had never come his way before.  Well perhaps it hadn’t Slider reflected.  In Prentiss’ world, coffee was probably a delicious aromatic stimulant made from freshly ground roasted arabica beans. Maybe he’d never been presented with a dingy ecru liquid that smelled of rancid laundry and been expected to swallow it”

Great stuff.

There are 22 books in the series so plenty to keep you going. Do try them and though I would not normally bother with reading in order, I think in this case do start from the first one and work through.

I have just reread them all after a long gap and have loved them all over again.  Already looking forward to No 23.