Alan Bradley - Thrice The Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

An excellent instalment 

 

I very much enjoyed Thrice The Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d.  After a slight dip in quality in its predecessor, this is a fine return to form.

Returning from Canada, Flavia finds her father is gravely ill, but then discovers a body in very odd circumstances and, of course, involves herself in a complex investigation.  Old friends like the redoubtable Dogger and Inspector Hewitt are very welcome features of the book, of course, but again it is Flavia’s narrative voice which makes it so special.  Some readers aren’t keen on the rather darker tone in places, but I think it is very successful.  Flavia is developing a keen sense of what is happening in relationships and in the wider world, and that awareness brings with it more of the cares of an adult, along with more sophisticated pleasures and deeper griefs.  In short, Flavia is growing up and the books are growing up with her, but she still retains the charm she has always possessed.

I would recommend reading the series from the beginning.  The books do work as stand-alones but the development of the characters means that they are far better taken in order.  If you have read previous books you will only need me to say that this is one of Flavia’s best and is warmly recommended.

Agatha Christie - The Body In The Library

 

Rating: 4/5

Review: Still very enjoyable

 

 I had forgotten quite how good Agatha Christie is.  It is many, many years since I read any of her classics and enjoyed this one very much.

The plot and mystery are, of course, very well done and somewhat less implausible than I expected, but what I enjoyed most was Christie’s style.  Her prose is excellent and often witty, she has a very neat and penetrating way of painting her characters and the dialogue is, by and large, very natural and convincing.

After all these years, this remains a thoroughly entertaining, enjoyable read which I can recommend warmly.

Catherine Aird - A Late Phoenix

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Very enjoyable 

 

I am thoroughly enjoying this series.  This time, Sloan and Crosby are called to the discovery of a skeleton unearthed on a building site which becomes an investigation involving both past and present skulduggery, with a good deal of Wartime background.

It’s a very decent plot, but it is Catherine Aird’s writing which makes these books so enjoyable.  There is a sly twinkle of wit running throughout, which she somehow manages to maintain even in a post mortem scene containing a lot of very well researched forensic detail, and without ever losing  respect for the situation or the victim.  Sloan and Crosby’s relationship is a constant source of amusement, as is Sloan’s relationship with Superintendent Leyes, and characters are skilfully and beautifully drawn.

I will, of course, be reading on in this series and I can recommend A Late Phoenix very warmly.

Zoe Sharp - First Drop

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Silly but fun 

 

First Drop is a lot of preposterous nonsense really, but it’s great fun.

Charlie is embarking on her close protection career by minding Trey, a rich, obnoxious teenage boy in Florida.  Things become very involved indeed as there is an attempt on the boy’s life, his father’s work seems to be involved somehow and Charlie and Trey end up on the run from almost everyone, including the law.

Frankly, it’s packed with unlikely occurrences, implausible twists and so on, but Zoe Sharp writes well, Charlie is an engaging narrator and if you’re prepared to suspend disbelief from a great height as I was, it’s a lot of rather silly fun.  A fan of the series has told me that this isn’t a favourite and that they get better so I’ll certainly read on, but meanwhile I can recommend this as a good, rather brain-off read.

Cyril Hare - When The Wind Blows

 

Rating: 4/5

Review:

Very enjoyable

 

This is another very enjoyable book from Cyril Hare featuring the engaging Francis Pettigrew.  We are now post-war (but still very much in Rationing) and Pettigrew is living in rural domesticity – and getting roped into community life, including as a member of the committee of the local Music Society.

The plot revolves around a murder at a concert given by the Society and its resolution depends on a fine point of law which Pettigrew, having been reluctantly drawn into the investigation, is the man to spot.  Meanwhile, there are red herrings and a very enjoyable set of character portraits and wry observations on provincial life.  Hare writes with his customary wit and readability, and I found the whole thing very entertaining.  This is a very enjoyable series so far and I will certainly be reading on for the pleasure of it.

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - Roseanna

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

very good early Scandi-crime 

 

I thought Roseanna was very good indeed.  It won’t be everybody’s cup of Aquavit because it is quite slow, methodical and atmospheric and the lead detective, Martin Beck, doesn’t have a Complicated Personal Life and a lot of Inner Demons, but I found it very gripping and involving.

First published in 1965, Roseanna begins with the body of a woman emerging naked from a river bed.  Martin Beck and his team have to find out who she was, deduce how she got there and use all sorts of ingenuity first to identify a suspect and then to incriminate and capture him, all of which takes many months of careful work, frustration and occasional inspiration and success.  It sounds a bit flat, but I thought it was terrific; full of atmosphere, a realistic view of police work and very believable, engaging characters.

The ending was a slight let-down.  There’s a rather overblown action climax and then a somewhat Maigret-esque interview, neither of which quite rang true to me.  Nonetheless, I thought it was very good overall and I’m looking forward to more in the series.

Georges Simenon - The New Investigations of Inspector Maigret

 

Rating: 3/5

Review:

A disappointing collection 

 

I like Maigret very much, but I found this collection rather unsatisfactory.  

For me, Maigret doesn’t lend himself to the short story form.  The novels are commendably brief, but they have the scope for Simenon to do what he does best: to build both an enveloping atmosphere and sense of place, and to paint some shrewd character portraits.  The mysteries themselves are well done, but they aren’t the main point of the novels; in a short story that’s pretty well all we get, of course, and their tricky-puzzle-and-almost-instant-brilliant-solution structure left me rather cold.

These new translations aren’t bad, but they aren’t as lucid as most of those in this series and overall I found the collection disappointing.  I am currently gradually reading the whole Maigret canon from the beginning with great pleasure, but I can’t really recommend this.

Carol O'Connell - Shell Game

 

 Rating: 4/5

Review:

Not one of O'Connell's best

 

 This isn’t among my favourite Mallory books.  I’ve read most of them by now and they are nearly all excellent, but I did struggle with some of with Shell Game.  Many of Carol O’Connell’s trademarks are still here: shrewd and penetrating character studies, fine tension, great atmosphere and sense of place (back in New York this time) and so on.  However, I think her great storytelling gift is a little in abeyance here.

This time, Mallory becomes involved in a case involving four elderly magicians/illusionists.  When a trick goes wrong and someone dies, Mallory suspects that it is not the accident that everyone assumes it to be.  What follows is an extremely convoluted tale of friendship, love and rivalry which extends back to wartime Paris...and frankly, I thought it was too involved for its own good, especially when overlaid with a lot of illusion/reality stuff as the magicians ply their trades in all sorts of contexts.  I got very bogged down in the different characters, timescales and events.  At one point Mallory taunts a suspect with “That’s your style, too complex, too messy…” and I thought it rather apposite for the book as a whole.

Although Mallory was still a sufficiently magnetic character to pull me through, it wasn’t the unalloyed pleasure of most of this series.  It’s still good enough to round 3.5 stars up to four, but it’s not one of O’Connell’s best.

M.R. James - Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

A delight 

 

 I re-read these stories with immense pleasure.  I don’t much like being frightened, but these aren’t so much terrifying as enjoyably unsettling.  They are masterpieces of implication and atmosphere, with the occasional overt shock.

I really like the donnish narrative voice, the wit and erudition and the fact that all the stories are based in scholarly activity of some kind.  James sets a wonderful tone and his character portraits are a delight, with flashes of real wit and insight.  For example, of one minor character he says “...he was then just become a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, I may say, and subsequently brought out a respectable edition of Polyaenus…”  I just love that “respectable” (and, by the way, I hadn’t heard of Polyaenus either).   In another place we get, “…tea was taken to the accompaniment of a discussion which golfing persons can imagine for themselves, but which the conscientious writer has no right to inflict upon any non-golfing persons.”  I find it a delight to read.

These stories are tightly regarded as classics, but they are classics which I read just for the pleasure of it and not, as with a number of other “classics,” because I feel I ought to.  I can recommend them very warmly indeed.

Agatha Christie - Murder Is Easy

 

 Rating: 2/5

Review:

Disappointing

 

It seems a lèse-majesté to give an Agatha Christie book only two stars, but although this started well, I’m afraid I found it pretty poor overall.

Murder Is Easy is effectively a stand-alone mystery.  It is listed as a Superintendent Battle book, but Battle himself appears only as a minor character in the last couple of chapters.  The protagonist is Luke Fitzwilliam, a police officer returning from the Malay Straits, who meets an elderly lady on the train.  She hints at a mass murderer working in the small village of Wychwood under Ashe and Luke ends up going there under cover to try to solve the mystery.

So far, so good, but I found what followed disappointing; unconvincing characters, a wholly chichéd romance and some extremely unlikely events.  These included some convenient and implausible coincidences, Luke’s clumsy investigations, which people responded to with open frankness when they would in reality have clammed up and told him to mind his own business, and some unpleasant attitudes to some of the working people.  For example, a difficult young man has been killed and Luke dismisses the grief of his sneeringly painted, working-class mother by referring to his five siblings with the contemptuous, “I gather she has five blessings left to console her.”

There are some decent red herrings, but there is also an awful lot of ponderous discussion of likelihoods and possibilities and frankly, I got rather fed up with it and skimmed in places.  The denouement is pretty silly and overall I was left wondering why I had bothered.

Agatha Christie wrote some very fine, enjoyable mysteries, but this isn’t one of them, I’m afraid, and I can’t recommend it.

Christopher Fowler - The Memory Of Blood

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review: 

Very enjoyable 

 

The Memory of Blood is very good, but perhaps not one of the best in this series, which is often absolutely brilliant.

Here, Bryant and May and the PCU investigate a horrible murder in which the young son of a wealthy impresario is thrown from the window of a locked room during a part for cast, crew and backers of a play.  A figure of Mr Punch is found by the bed, and as others die a link to the Punch & Judy tradition begins to emerge.

As always, this is very well written, exceptionally well-researched and full of entertaining characters.  It is by turns funny, gripping, touching and exciting.  However, it’s not an absolute favourite of mine, possibly because the background this time isn’t about the arcane history of London but about Punch & Judy.  This is interesting, but doesn’t have quite the same atmospheric appeal as some books.  Arthur is his usual self (“eccentric” doesn’t begin to cover it) but doesn’t consult quite the usual range of misfits, mystics and oddballs.

Nonetheless, this is a very enjoyable read which I can recommend warmly. It will stand on its own, but I think you get a good deal more form the books if you read them in order – and I’m already looking forward to the next.

Simon Brett - Waste Of A Life

 

Rating: 4/5

Review:

Enjoyable, with some real emotional heft

 

I very much enjoyed Waste Of A Life.  This series has a good deal more emotional heft than some of Simon Brett’s other work, which I like very much.

Here, in the third of the series featuring professional declutterer Ellen Curtis, an old and much-liked client dies and the death soon begins to look suspicious.  As Ellen and her close friends and family become involved, the only real solution is for them to try to catch the culprit.

Brett, as always, gives us an interesting cast of very well-drawn characters, and Ellen herself is an engaging narrator and protagonist.  The publishers’ blurb describes this as “a light-hearted mystery,” which I suppose is true of the mystery itself and, to be honest, I found the plot and its denouement a little thin.  However, what does give these books real interest and drive for me is Brett’s treatment of various aspects of trauma and mental health problems in his characters.  He is perceptive and humane, and I have become very invested in the regulars here: Ellen herself, her adult daughter and son Julia and Ben, and her friend and colleague, Dodge.  This may not be to everyone’s taste; the books have all Brett’s usual readability, but slightly less of the light, humorous tone of many of his books.  Personally I like it very much and I’m already looking forward to the next in the series.

(My thanks to Severn House for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Horace McCoy - They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

 

Rating: 5/5

Review:

Brief, bleak and brilliant

 

This is brilliant – but very, very bleak.  First published in 1935, it is the story of two failed Hollywood hopefuls who meet and enter a dance marathon for a prize of $1000 – and also because they will be fed for the duration.  Robert, who narrates the book, is quite an upbeat, hopeful man, while his partner Gloria is embittered, depressed and angry, often expressing suicidal thoughts.  The narrative opens after the marathon with Robert being sentenced for murder, and each chapter closes with another fragment of the Judge’s pronouncement, with chilling effect.

The main narrative is a description of the marathon; it is a frightful, humiliating, exhausting struggle, in which the couples have to dance continuously with just ten minutes rest every two hours, the winners being the last couple left standing – after what is likely to be several weeks.  The organisers are rapacious and exploitative while trumpeting their wonderful treatment of “these marvellous kids” and also organising extra humiliating spectacles to draw in the paying public...and so on.  It’s a scorching look at some horrible, exploitative media practices – which still seem to pertain in some of today’s reality TV shows – and at our attitudes to them.

The impact is all the greater because Robert’s voice is unsensational and usually quite optimistic, but a sense of the nihilism of utter physical and mental exhaustion does grow, especially as Gloria becomes even more bitter and disillusioned.  The climax is desperate, but told in a quiet, matter-of-fact way which I found gave it a visceral punch.

I found the whole thing utterly compelling and exceptionally well done.  This belongs in the same class as noir classics like The Postman Always Rings Twice and The Maltese Falcon, and I can recommend it very warmly.

Margaret Kennedy - The Feast

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

A terrific read 

 

I thought The Feast was excellent.  It was a recommendation about which I was slightly dubious, but I thought it was a delight: witty, perceptive and exceptionally well written.

First published in 1947, it is the story of a disparate group of adults and children who stay at a rather run-down Cornish hotel.  It is principally a novel of character, with seven of the characters representing the Seven Deadly Sins.  This may sound rather clumsy and preachy, but I found it very shrewd and a pleasure to read.  Things happen at a good pace and the people are beautifully portrayed with an exceptional subtlety, clarity and insight.  I found myself wholly immersed in it and was very sorry when it ended.

This really was an enjoyable treat for me and I can recommend it very warmly indeed.

Georges Simenon - The Night At The Crossroads

 

Rating: 3/5

 

Review:

A disappointing Maigret 

 

 I have enjoyed most of these new Penguin translations as I make my way through the series, but I wasn’t so keen on this one.

Partly it’s the original story: Maigret goes to investigate a very curious murder at a crossroads outside Paris where there are only three buildings and a limited number of suspects.  Somehow, the atmosphere which Simenon usually generates wasn’t there for me this time, though, and the structure seemed rather clumsy with a wholly implausible denouement where the criminals confess and rat on each other.  Simenon usually has rather more class and subtlety than this.

This time, the translation really didn’t help.  It seemed rather clunky to me, with some stale usages and infelicities and sometimes almost literal translations of French idioms where an equivalent but different English idiom would be far better.  The criminals often spoke in the sort of corny slang you’d find in a bad 1940s gangster B movie and the whole thing just didn’t gel.

I’m sorry to be critical, but ths was a disappointment for me in a usually excellent series – but I have no doubt that things will look up in the next few books.

A.N. Wilson - Confessions

Rating: 3/5

Review:

Good in parts

 

I found Confessions a real mixed bag of a book.  A.N. Wilson writes extremely well, of course, and there are some nuggets of insight and description, but there is also a lot that I found frankly boring.

The opening of the book, describing Wilson’s first wife’s advancing dementia is gripping, moving and piercingly well described.  However, after this short passage, there is a very lengthy section indeed about his grandfather and father, and their intimate connection to the Wedgwood factory and family.  Even though this is about places very familiar to me from my infancy, I found it far too long and eventually very dull.  Things pick up rather when Andrew goes to school; his descriptions of the schools he attended, his intellectual awakening and some of the abuses there are all fascinating (and sometimes quite horrifying), but again there are considerable longueurs, too.  I found this throughout the book.

Wilson is in some ways frank about his own sometimes extremely bad behaviour, especially in relationships, but only to a very limited extent.  There are a number of references to his marriage “unravelling,” but no real acknowledgement of his own contributions to it.  It reminded me of the self-exculpatory passive used by Lorelei in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes where, having shot someone, she refers to him having “become shot”.  It all felt rather evasive and almost dishonest to me.

There are some good portraits of friends and acquaintances, but also rather a lot of uninteresting stuff.  The same is true of Wilson’s experience as a university lecturer at Oxford and then as a journalist.  The name-dropping is of a truly world-class standard, although I suppose those were the circles he moved in.  When talking about his own intellectual activity and relationship with religion he can be fascinating and manages to stay this side of pretention most of the time – but I did mutter “Oh, for heaven’s sake” (I paraphrase) when told “I still read the New Testament in Greek every year,” for example.

I reached the end of the book (with some judicious skimming) sooner than expected because I hadn’t realised that the last 10% was index – and felt rather relieved.  I had the sense of having waded through more mud than I’d have liked in order to retrieve a few gems.  I can only give Confessions a very qualified recommendation.

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

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.