Patrick O'Brian - The Mauritius Command

Rating: 5/5

Review:
The fourth in a brilliant series

This is now my third time reading through this brilliant series and I am reminded again how beautifully written and how wonderfully, addictively enjoyable they are.

In The Mauritius Command, Jack is finding shore-bound domestic life somewhat less blissful than he had anticipated, but through Steven's machinations is given command of a squadron to fight in the Indian Ocean where French warships are playing havoc with the Company's trade.  As always, there is a gripping, varied narrative  and some thoughtfully drawn characters – especially the capricious and enigmatic Lord Clonfert, whom I found a real source of interest and subtlety in this episode.

Patrick O'Brian is steeped in the period of the early 19th Century and his knowledge of the language, manners, politics, social mores and naval matters of the time is deep and wide. Combined with a magnificent gift for both prose and storytelling, it makes something very special indeed. The books are so perfectly paced, with some calmer, quieter but still engrossing passages and some quite thrilling action sequences. O'Brian's handling of language is masterly, with the dialogue being especially brilliant, but also things like the way his sentences become shorter and more staccato in the action passages, making them heart-poundingly exciting. There are also laugh-out-loud moments and an overall sense of sheer involvement and pleasure in reading.

I cannot recommend these books too highly. They are that rare thing; fine literature which are also books which I can't wait to read more of. Wonderful stuff.

Lynn Truss - A Shot In The Dark

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Rather disappointing

Lynn Truss is an excellent writer with a fine comic sense and I have enjoyed a lot of her work very much, but I'm afraid I was a little disappointed in A Shot In the Dark.

The Book is a "crime mystery" but also essentially a farce.  Set in Brighton in the late 50s, a hopelessly stupid and vain police Inspector turns a blind eye to all crime, completely convinced that he has eradicated it from Brighton.  A brilliant, socially inept new constable arrives and upsets the normal order of things, just as murderous events take place around the opening of a new play by an Angry Young Man, and a comic investigation/imbroglio develops. 

Truss has a lot of fun at the expense of conceited but idiotic policemen, pretentious and narcissistic theatre folk and so on, and I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot.  However, it did begin to pall a bit; the plot moves slowly and rather predictably and the comedy is so broad-brush that it lost its appeal rather.  Inspector Steine's colossal idiocy and vanity became just annoying and the rest of the developments weren't funny enough to maintain the book.  I know that it is intentionally absurdly pantomimic and a parody of old-fashioned police dramas, but even Lynn Truss couldn't keep it going for me.

So, a decent beginning but overall I can't recommend this and I shan't be bothering with any more in what seems to be being set up for a series.

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

Colin Watson - Plaster Sinners

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another Watson gem

Plaster Sinners is another Colin Watson gem.

This time, after Sgt. Sidney Love is slugged at an antiques auction, a rather Golden Age plot emerges (and is slyly winked at by Watson) involving the local "squire" and his family, long-lost jewels, dodgy inheritances and so on.  It's terrifically enjoyable, with Watson's trademark wry humour and penetratingly sharp characterisation.

This is perhaps more of a detective mystery and slightly less of a farcical comedy than some of Watson's others, but it's none the worse for that.  There's an excellent visiting Inspector from London and even the almost total absence of Miss Lucilla Teatime doesn’t dim the book's charm.  There's plenty of barbed social comment under the charm, too, with Watson having some very well-aimed swipes at the attitudes of the arrogant and privileged to others, including the police.

In short, this is a very good Colin Watson book, which is among the highest praise I can offer.  Very warmly recommended.

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

Claire Fuller - Bitter Orange

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Good, but with reservations

I like Claire Fuller's work very much and Bitter Orange is a beautifully written novel of repression, loneliness, guilt and the quest for redemption.  It is good but I did have my reservations.

The book is told in the first person and set mainly in 1969 as an old and dying woman, Frances Jellico, recalls that time.  It is the story of how Frances, newly released from an all-consuming carer's role looking after her cruel and critical mother takes a job cataloguing some of the contents of a derelict country house.  An eccentric and rather bohemian couple are also working there and the stories of the three of them emerge as the summer progresses and Frances begins to experience new aspects of life.

It is very well done.  Fuller writes beautifully and again inhabits the mind of a thoughtfully and richly portrayed female narrator.  She creates a fine atmosphere of decay and a sense of impending catastrophe along with a wholly convincing sense of place, so the whole thing is very readable.  However, I wasn't always convinced by Frances's actions, the "twist" didn't come as much of a surprise and overall I wasn't sure Bitter Orange had said much new to me. 

I did enjoy Bitter Orange, but didn't quite grab me in the same way as the outstanding Our Endless Numbered Days and the very good Swimming Lessons.  Claire Fuller is a very fine writer and I can still recommend this, but with a slight note of reservation.

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

Colin Watson - Blue Murder

Rating: 4/5

Review:Very entertaining

Blue Murder is the tenth of Colin Watson's Flaxborough novels and it's another thoroughly enjoyable read.

This time, a celebrity journalist from a Fleet Street scandal-sheet and his small retinue arrive in Flaxborough intent, it seems, on exposing immoral goings-on in the town.  An almost farcical situation arises involving absurdities including a vindictive police constable, a duel and a dodgy kidnapping; eventually a death brings Inspector Purbright and his redoubtable team onto the scene and darker secrets begin to emerge.

As always, this is a decent mystery but it is Watson's dry, witty style and amusing but penetrating characterisation which provides the real enjoyment.  Just as a small example, as a young woman is trying to charm the editor of the local paper: "Mr Kebble found a chair for her.  She spiralled into it as if sitting down was a notable sensual accomplishment."  If you like that, you'll like the book.

The absence of Miss Lucilla Teatime meant that a little of the real zing of some other Flaxborough books wasn't there, but Blue Murder is still very entertaining and, like all Colin Watson's books, I can warmly recommend it.
 

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

Patrick O'Brian - HMS Surprise

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another brilliant instalment

This is now my third time reading through this brilliant series and I am reminded again how beautifully written and how wonderfully, addictively enjoyable they are.

HMS Surprise sees Jack given command of a small frigate, still evading imprisonment for debt and sent eventually to India and the Far East.  His and Stephen's troubles of the heart continue, but there is some thrilling action and plenty of absorbing other activity.  In other words, it's yet another fine, complex, involving O'Brian novel.

Patrick O'Brian is steeped in the period of the early 19th Century and his knowledge of the language, manners, politics, social mores and naval matters of the time is deep and wide. Combined with a magnificent gift for both prose and storytelling, it makes something very special indeed. The books are so perfectly paced, with some calmer, quieter but still engrossing passages and some quite thrilling action sequences. O'Brian's handling of language is masterly, with the dialogue being especially brilliant, but also things like the way his sentences become shorter and more staccato in the action passages, making them heart-poundingly exciting. There are also laugh-out-loud moments and an overall sense of sheer involvement and pleasure in reading.

I cannot recommend these books too highly. They are that rare thing; fine literature which are also books which I can't wait to read more of. Wonderful stuff.

Patrick O'Brian - Post Captain

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Quite brilliant

This is now my third time reading through this brilliant series and I am reminded again how beautifully written and how wonderfully, addictively enjoyable they are.

Post Captain is the second in the sequence and the book in which O'Brian really hit his stride, I think.  Jack Aubrey is a naval Commander during the Napoleonic Wars, struggling to find a ship, to avoid being arrested for debt and getting into all sorts of tangles with his heart, while his friend Stephen Maturin continues in his eccentric way to pursue his medical and philosophical studies and to work as an intelligence agent, while around them the politics, corruption and patronage of the time have to be negotiated.

Patrick O'Brian is steeped in the period (1803 in Post Captain) and his knowledge of the manners, politics, social mores and naval matters of the time is deep and wide.  Combined with a magnificent gift for both prose and storytelling, it makes something very special indeed.  The books are so perfectly paced, with some calmer, quieter but still engrossing passages and some quite thrilling action sequences.  O'Brian's handling of language is masterly, with the dialogue being especially brilliant, but also things like the way his sentences become shorter and more staccato in the action passages, making them heart-poundingly exciting.  There are also laugh-out-loud moments and an overall sense of sheer involvement and pleasure in reading.

I cannot recommend these books too highly.  They are that rare thing; fine literature which are also books which I can't wait to read more of.  Wonderful stuff.