Stefan Szymanski and Tim Wigmore - Crickonomics

 

Rating: 3/5

 

Review:

Interesting but rather hard going 

I have loved cricket all my life and I like a stat (including a bonkers Andy Zaltzman stat) so I expected to love Crickonomics. It is certainly packed with stats and deductions from them, but to be honest I found it rather hard going.

Crickonomics is firmly based on data. As an example, the first section deals with the influence of class in English cricket and why there tend to be more Southern, privately educated batters, but a predominance of Northern, state educated bowlers. It’s an interesting question (as are many of the questions in the book) and the authors produce lots of data to answer it: analyses to check whether it is true and not just a stereotype (it is true) and several tables of data analysing all sorts of things to do with the issue. There is also a decent discussion of the reasons for it, including views from well-informed people in the game. It’s generally well written, too, and other currently important issues get a similar, thoroughly researched, thoughtful treatment, but for me the balance doesn’t quite work, and I found myself rather slogging through data-heavy accounts and trying to remember that this isn’t just a dry statistical exercise, but an important, detailed look at a game I love. I wasn’t always able to remember that, which meant I found the book something of a slog, I’m afraid.

To be fair, this isn’t really a book to be read straight through; taking a section at a time with breaks would probably improve the experience, and it will be of huge interest and help to those analysing the game and proposing to make changes. However, to this general reader and average cricket fan it was less readable and enjoyable than I had hoped.

(My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Alan Bradley - The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

An excellent, touching instalment 

 

I’ve enjoyed all of this series and I think this is my favourite so far. It is rather different in tone from its predecessors, which works very well. (I think you do need to have read at least some of the earlier books to appreciate this one, by the way. Don’t start here.)

The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches revolves around the discovery of Flavia’s mother Harriet’s long-lost body and its return to Buckshaw. This provokes a mystery about her death and another tragedy closer to home, plus a lot of revelations about Harriet, the de Luce family and ultimately Flavia herself.

The mystery, though, is a relatively minor part of the book, with Inspector Hewitt and others playing rather a background role. Flavia’s delightful voice this time is used to explore an eleven-year-old’s response to grief, her relationships with her father and sisters (and Dogger and Mrs. M, of course) and her own awareness of the world. It’s beautifully done, I think; there are fewer of those laugh-out-loud moments although the humorous tone is there to provide just the right balance, and Flavia’s perceptions and responses are often very affecting. She is beginning to grow up and this series is beginning to grow up with her.

Alan Bradley writes beautifully here, I think. He captures the mixture of bewilderment, desperate sadness, anger and love which Flavia experiences, and also the clear-eyed child’s response to the rituals and behaviour of people around death and the bereaved. Somehow, he manages to keep the book from ever becoming either too grim or too flippantly humorous and the balance is a remarkable achievement.

I loved this. I was a little surprised by its tone, but it was a very pleasant surprise and I can recommend it very warmly indeed.

Zoe Sharp - Hard Knocks

 

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

A cracking read 

Hard Knocks is a whole lot of action-packed fun. It’s the third in Zoe Sharp’s Charlie Fox series; it helps to have read the first two in order to understand some of Charlie’s relationships, but it works fine as a stand-alone.

Charlie, ex-army Special Forces is damaged but very much alive. She is reluctantly roped in to finding out how an ex-colleague came to be shot while instructing on a Close Protection course in Germany. Enrolling as a pupil, she begins to uncover all sorts of complex dodgy dealing, while needing all her physical fitness, ingenuity and deadly skills to survive.

It’s great stuff. Books on similar themes are available by the truck load, of course, but Charlie is a very engaging protagonist, having a woman in the action hero role makes this quite special and, most importantly, Zoe Sharp writes extremely well. Her characters are believable, she deals with the sexism very well and she spins a very exciting, involving yarn.

This may not be great literature, but it’s a great read. Warmly recommended.

Helene Hanff - Q's Legacy

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

A very engaging memoir

Q’s Legacy is another very well-written and engaging memoir by Helene Hanff.

The subtitle is a little misleading, I think. Much of the book isn’t about a “lifelong love affair with books” but about the origin and birth of the book 84 Charing Cross Road and its subsequent colossal impact on Helene’s life. That’s just fine by me, and to be fair, her love of books and her debt to Arthur Quiller-Couch in inspiring and guiding that love is evident throughout.

Helene is engaging and honest throughout, for example about how she keeps writing unviable plays and books until realising after many years that she “can only write about what happens to me.” She’s doing that here, and doing it very well. It’s warm, humane, modest and touching in places; her approach to fans is delightful and I found the stories of 84’s publication and subsequent adaptation for TV and the stage quite fascinating.

In short, if you enjoyed 84, Charing Cross Road, you’ll enjoy this. I liked it very much and can recommend it warmly.

Alan Parks - May God Forgive

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Another fine instalment 

This is the fifth book in the Harry McCoy series and it’s another very good addition to the series.

It is now May 1974 and McCoy is back at work even though his stomach ulcer makes him scarcely fit. An arson attack on a hairdresser’s leaves five women and girls dead and the city baying for revenge. The three boys responsible are in custody but are snatched while in transit from court. A complex plot emerges involving possible involvement by two of Glasgow’s underworld bosses and a lot of delving into the nastiest aspects of the city, while Stevie Cooper remains a menacing presence in McCoy’s life and in the investigation.

It’s very well done – and about as noir as it gets. McCoy is ill and disillusioned, it is late May but still raining incessantly, there is a wide range of seedy or ruined characters and some of the violence is truly sickening. Nonetheless, it’s an engrossing story with Alan Parks’s evocation of the Glasgow of the period and its characters being as convincing and fascinating as ever and I was completely engaged. There were strong echoes of William McIlvanney here – which is just fine by me.

Parks is beginning to deserve to be ranked with other contemporary giants of Scottish crime writing like Rankin, Mina and McDermid, I think. This isn’t for the faint-hearted, but if you like crime to be really noir, I can recommend this warmly.

(My thanks to Canongate for an ARC vie NetGalley.)

John Mortimer - Rumpole Of The Bailey

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

Still a delight 

These stories remain a complete delight. Rumpole’s narrative voice, the characters he portrays and the clever conundrums he encounters all make this a hugely enjoyable, engaging read.

Rumpole’s own attitudes are also interesting and rather thoughtfully portrayed amid the humour. He is a crusty, old-school barrister with a healthy scepticism about the traditions and dignitaries of the law, and about the comfortable Old Boy nature of the legal profession. He quotes copiously from The Oxford Book Of English Verse (the Arthur Quiller-Couch edition, of course) but also has a genuine concern for his clients and an understanding of their circumstances which is often lacking in his colleagues who regard court cases rather as they might a game of chess – genuinely trying to beat their opponents, but finding the result of no great consequence either way. Rumpole understands that to the boy going to prison for several years, the result is of very great consequence indeed.

One story here is rather more troubling. In Rumpole And The Honourable Member he defends someone accused of rape, which includes attacking the alleged victim in the witness box. It’s uncomfortable reading, even though it is an accurate portrayal of what did and does happen in such cases. In these #metoo times, Rumpole’s view of the matter looks, shall we say, dated, but it’s a fair example of some of the more serious matters which are considered in these very amusingly told stories.

That said, you can’t go wrong with Rumpole. I’m delighted to have re-visited these stories and can recommend them very warmly.

Cyril Hare - Tragedy At Law

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Very enjoyable 

I thoroughly enjoyed Tragedy At Law. It’s a leisurely paced mystery, but the real pleasure is in the wit of the writing and the excellent portraits of both Hare’s characters and of the legal system of 1939, after the start of World War II but before rationing and serious attacks on Britain.

The plot...well, it’s slow and revolves around a judge on an Assize circuit who receives threats and then becomes involved in a serious legal matter of his own. Oddly, no murder happens until almost the end of the book, but for me the plot was almost a side-issue. Hare writes with such hugely enjoyable wit and humour, plus a deep knowledge of the law combined with a healthy scepticism about some of its more arcane ceremonial aspects, that this, along with some highly engaging and well drawn characters kept me fully engaged.

This is a very enjoyable read and I’ll be trying more Cyril Hare before long. Warmly recommended.