Catherine Aird - The Stately Home Murder

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

An enjoyable, witty mystery 

 

 Catherine Aird’s Sloan and Crosby mysteries have been a joyous discovery for me.  They are clever, witty and a pleasure to read.

This, the third in the series from 1970, is set in a Stately Home, where Aird produces an enjoyable version of the Golden Age Country House Mystery, while also mildly but wittily parodying the genre.  A body is discovered hidden in a suit of armour, and the long-suffering Inspector Sloan and the bemused Constable Crosby investigate.  Possible irregularities in the Earl’s inheritance, elderly and eccentric aunts and a wayward family member are among the immensely enjoyable ingredients of an entertaining plot, but what makes this so enjoyable is Aird’s style, which is quietly erudite, with excellent, readable prose and a vein of dry wit.  

I found it a pleasure from beginning to end.  I can recommend it warmly and I am looking forward to the rest of the series.

Richard Osman - The Bullet That Missed

 

Rating: 5/5

Review:

Another excellent instalment

 

I thoroughly enjoyed The Bullet That Missed, just as I enjoyed its two predecessors. It has the same blend of humour, mystery, rather perceptive character analysis and plain feel-good fun.

The plot? Who cares, really. I mean, it’s a good, well-constructed mystery involving money-laundering and the death of a journalist who was looking into it, but all we really need to know is that the Thursday Murder Club are on excellent form, their personal lives have some interesting developments – some heart-warming, some very sad and poignant – and both the third person narrative voice and Joyce’s contributions are as enjoyable as ever.

Little more need be said, I think. If you liked the first two, you’ll like this and I’m already looking forward to the next one.

Natalie Haynes - Stone Blind

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

An excellent, readable and thoughtful retelling 

 

I thought Stone Blind was excellent. I am not a classicist, but I have read quite lot about Greek myths and this seemed to me a fine, readable and thoughtful retelling of the Medusa myth.

We all know the story, I suspect. Medusa was, of course a monster. She was a Gorgon with snakes for hair whose glance turned any living creature to stone, whom the hero Perseus decapitated with divine aid from Athene and whose head he then used as a terrible weapon to save Andromeda etc. Natalie Haynes is interested in far more than that, and especially in Medusa’s origins and the question “Who decides what is a monster?”

Medusa was originally very beautiful, so much so that Poseidon desired her and, in the way of male gods, overpowered and raped her in a temple to Athene. This made Athene angry, so whom did she punish? The victim, because the perpetrator was too powerful to touch, and Haynes paints Medusa as an ordinary, loving woman who has been made into a monster by people and forces over whom she has no control. It’s a point with strong contemporary resonance which Haynes makes dextrously and wittily, while never diminishing its power. She also considers Perseus’s actions and finds him, rather than heroic, to be vain, reckless, incompetent and “a murderous little thug” who “thinks anyone who is not like him is a monster”. Again, it’s thought provoking and has real contemporary relevance.

This is anything but a stodgily politically correct polemic, though. Haynes writes with wit and zing, using various narrative voices, the most powerful of which is Gorgoneion, Medusa’s severed head which became a symbol of protection in ancient Greece. Haynes brings these ancient, mythical characters to life wonderfully; she spares no-one, male or female, their faults, but has a sympathetic understanding of many of them – especially the Gorgon sisters, whose characters are very far from monstrous.

Although it is very different in tone, for me Stone Blind is up there with Pat Barker’s The Silence Of The Girls as a modern re-telling of the tales of ancient Greece – which is very high praise indeed. I thought it was an excellent read which has left me with much to think about, and I can recommend it very warmly.

(My thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Ianthe Jerrold - The Studio Crime

 

Rating: 2/5

Review:

Stale, flat and unprofitable

 

The Studio Crime has been described as an influential Golden Age classic, but I’m afraid I found it improbable, ponderous and dull. The characters are pretty stereotypical, the dialogue is rather forced, the pace is funereal, the plot is predictable and I spotted the killer early on, just from the way they were presented rather than from any clues. I ended up skimming several sections and didn’t feel I’d missed much.

Others have plainly enjoyed this far more than I did, but although I enjoy a lot of Golden Age detective fiction it really wasn’t for me.

Percival Everett - The Trees

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Brilliant but slightly flawed 

 

 I thought much of The Trees was brilliant, but it was somewhat flawed.

In the small town of Money, Mississippi there are strange goings on. Relatives of now-dead racists who were the instigators of a terrible lynching many years ago are being killed in apparently inexplicable circumstances, possibly by the ghost of the lynched boy, in ways which resemble the lynching. Black detectives come to town to investigate, to find – unsurprisingly – that attitudes and language haven’t changed all that much. As more bodies emerge, things become even more complicated and widespread, and the hideous reality of lynchings becomes more and more apparent.

The real strength of the book is the balance which Percival Everett strikes between humour, satire and horror. It is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny in places and the banter between the two Black detectives (and sometimes with the racist cops and others they meet) is brilliant; natural, biting, funny and a harsh light on sometimes disguised attitudes. Then, around half way through the book, there is a sort of brief interlude in which we see a dossier of a lynching; it is simply horrifying and, after the slightly knockabout feel hitherto, it hits like a hammer blow, as does the list of names of victims of lynchings which follows it. At one point, too, the lyrics of Strange Fruit are quoted in full – another incredibly powerful moment.

I have to say that later in the book, that skilful balance is lost rather. We do get a stark, unspoken, contrast between the panic caused by the murder of a number of White people with the utter indifference to the murders by lynching of black people. However, it takes on some of the character of farce, which for me robs it of some of its power. All the white supremacists are depicted as semi-literate idiots, many have pantomimic names, there is a rather clumsy (if apposite) satire of Donald Trump, and so on. While I agree wholeheartedly with the points Everett is making, this comes over as bitterly sarcastic ranting rather than the careful, poised and powerfully structured narrative of the earlier parts of the book and, for me, it diminished rather than enhanced the power of what was being said.

Reservations aside, this is a very good and extremely readable book which has very important and timely things to say and I can recommend it.

Georges Simenon - The Hatter's Ghosts

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Dark and haunting 

 

The Hatter’s Ghosts an intense psychological study of a murderer, with a rather gripping cat-and-mouse story as its carrier.

Set in La Rochelle, Simenon creates an oppressive, brooding atmosphere as we see a town frightened by a series of murders of elderly women. The whole book is written from the point of view of the respectable hatter Léon Labbé, who from early on is established as the murderer. His motives emerge gradually, as we get a remarkable portrait of a mind at first arrogant and assured but which begins to come apart at the psychological seams. It is a dark and enveloping book; even though I’m not wholly convinced by Simenon’s psychology at times, I found it gripping and involving. As always, he creates an excellent sense of place and character, and introduces real tension as a conflicted Labbé flirts with exposure.

This new translation by Howard Curtis is excellent. Curtis manages to preserve the atmosphere of the original, but introduces the occasional word like “loser” which may not have been in general use as Simenon wrote the book, but whose dismissiveness and modern associations perfectly convey the arrogance of Labbé. I found the prose a pleasure to read.

This is a dark, haunting book. I haven’t always got on well with Simenon’s non-Maigret books, but this was very good and I ca recommend it.

(My thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Cyril Hare - With A Bare Bodkin

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Very enjoyable

I thoroughly enjoyed With A Bare Bodkin. Cyril Hare writes excellently with a rather witty and very readable style and gives us an enjoyable mystery and some nicely drawn characters.

Francis Pettigrew is seconded to the Pin Control, doing vital War Work ensuring that pin production is properly controlled and battling the dangerous black market in pins. A death occurs among his new colleagues and, with the redoubtable Inspector Hackett on hand, Pettigrew becomes involved in the subsequent investigation.

Needless to say, Hare uses this background to gently satirise the bureaucracy of such places during the Second World War, which he does beautifully and without it intruding on the plot. He creates interesting and generally credible characters (I am especially fond of Inspector Hackett) and a rather intricate plot which kept me interested throughout – and largely fooled as to the identity of the villain.

It is, in short, a lot of fun and a very enjoyable read. Recommended.

C.S. Forester - Lord Hornblower

 

Rating: 3/5

Review:

A dip in my enjoyment

I have recently re-read most of this series for the fifth or sixth time with immense pleasure. I’ve read Lord Hornblower fewer times, and this re-read has reminded me why.

It’s still good, as all Foresters books are, but it’s certainly not among my favourite Hornblowers. It begins very well with Commodore Hornblower sent on a very difficult mission to suppress mutiny on a ship threatening to defect to France. There is some thrilling action and the usual ingenuity as he tackles the problem. This then leads to a bold plan to foment insurrection in the dying days of Bonaparte’s reign as Emperor and much of the book then takes place on land as Hornblower acts as official and diplomat in this delicate situation. This, and subsequent events are well enough done, but for me don’t have the dash and thrill of many of the earlier books, while the dealing with Hornblower’s psyche as he wrestles with affaires de coeur is rather more drawn out and clumsy than before.

I still enjoyed the book, but nothing like as much as its predecessors. I have rounded down from 3.5 stars which may be harsh, but reflects the drop in my enjoyment here.