January and February in books

 I did wonder if I'd skipped a month - there seemed to be a lot of books on my list just for February! So here we go - some crime, some fantasy, some other bits and bobs. There's bound to be something you fancy!

Carmen Radtke, Death at the Dock: It’s been a little too long since I read the previous books in this series, but I was delighted to meet the resourceful Alyssa Chambers again, one of the brides sent off from Australia to meet husbands in the west of America. Alyssa is trying to decide between two appealing men as the book starts, before she and her friend Mrs. Wainwright are summoned to investigate a mysterious disappearance in Portland. Alyssa is clever and sensible but of course has to work within the constrictions of her society and I love the way the author acknowledges that, instead of writing anachronistically. It’s a satisfying mystery in a very interesting setting with just enough period detail and a realistic view of poverty. I hope it won’t be the last Alyssa book!

Foday Mannah, The Search for Othella Savage: This is a murder mystery set mostly amongst the Sierra Leonean community in Edinburgh, where the problems seem to revolve around a wealthy evangelical church that draws in many of the expats whether they want to join or not. Hawa, funding her studies as a hotel maid, is joined by Anaka, an American singer keen to understand her African roots, to help the police in their enquiries when a number of young women are found dead. With nice touches of humour and observation this isn’t as heavy a read as it might sound, but nor is it cosy. My only qualm is that police detectives in this country are not called ‘Detective Smith’ or whatever but ‘Detective Constable Smith’ or whatever their rank is – and that you don’t go ‘up’ to Ayr from Edinburgh!

Cecilia Peartree, The Body on the Hill: The third in this gentle murder mystery series, where Pamela Prendergast and her stepson Andy help the police to solve the murder and any other unpleasant goings-on. Very satisfying.

John D. Burns, Bothy Tales: Generally this is an entertaining and informative catalogue of the author’s experiences in and around various Scottish bothies, and his comments on them. Towards the end it grows more fanciful, imagining a world where we must all be digitally connected and would be arrested if we dared to go into the wilderness without full mobile phone coverage, a future he strenuously resists. Well written and evocative.

Dorothy Dunnett, Tropical Issue: I really struggled with this, and I was the classic Dorothy Dunnett fan of her Lymond series and King Hereafter, and at least the first few Niccolo books. I didn’t really like Rita, the narrator, nor the setting, nor any of the characters. But then we discover the reason for the book’s peculiarities, and gradually some kind of sympathy develops. In the end, through convoluted explanations, it all makes sense and comes together and is very appealing, and I’ll probably read on through the series.

Magnus Mills, The Restraint of Beasts: This is a very odd book, telling the story of a fencing team – no, not swords, but grumpy installers of specialist high-tensile fences for farms – who are involved in a sudden death before departing for England (from Scotland) to fulfil a contract. The inexperienced English foreman who tells the story spends his time in mild despair over his reluctant, recalcitrant crew of drunkards and trying to do deals with the local competition whom he would rather ignore. The book ends so abruptly I flicked back and forth several times to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. It’s sort of fun and sort of weird and sort of depressing all at once.

Samantha Ward Smith, Ravenscourt: This is unfortunately not particularly well written, with grammatical howlers, some anachronisms and inaccuracies which jarred almost from the start. The feel of Venice isn’t badly done, though palazzi would have been better than palazzos (a common enough usage in English). I was struggling by 15% with the trite, soppy love story with the woke sentiments, and bored stiff. It’s all full of modern sensitivities, and Alex is a fool.

Bram Stoker, Dracula: I had never read this but of course knew a good deal of the story, so familiar bits kept appearing. I liked the way we were thrown almost at once into an atmosphere of dread, and very quickly Jonathan Harker was a prisoner in Castle Dracula and it almost looks, so early on, as if there is no hope for him. However, with excellent pacing the book moves on to Whitby and elsewhere, with the striking character of Mina Harkness taking the lead, educated, intelligent and loyal and a good judge of what’s going on. Such a shame that Jonathan Harker is such a numpty.

Aline Templeton, Last Act of All: Another of Templeton’s stand alone works, this time focusing on two actors married and living in a small village, the nature of which in the end poisons their lives. The husband is one of Templeton’s excellently drawn and thoroughly unpleasant characters, but he’s not the nastiest in this place by a long shot, in the end. She excels at these small community settings with deeply drawn characters, and this is as good as any of them.

Liz Hedgecock, The Magical Bookshop: Three books in one here. Jemma is made redundant and on impulse gets a job in a second-hand bookshop, a building that very much controls what goes on inside it. The owner, Raphael, is a touch too laid back to succeed, and the bookshop cat, Folio, has an unreliable temper, but despite them Jemma is determined to make the shop a wonderful success – helped by the discovery of a former cathedral vault under the floor, the assistance of Carl, actor turned barista, and Luke, suspiciously unhappy in daylight.

Rhys Dylan, A Matter of Evidence: Rather a sad plot, involving a man released after being erroneously found guilty of rape, only to be murdered. His mother disappeared under mysterious circumstances while he was in prison. The team as usual are great even though the situation is a tragic one, and a satisfactory conclusion was reached.

Carmen Radtke, The Case of the Christmas Angel: This one involves Uncle Sal rather than Jack and Frances, and film studios in London, and is a nice little tale to round up Christmas!

Carmen Radtke, The Case of the Christmas Bauble: A sweet Christmas story involving Frances and Jack and one of their descendants. Like a good cup of hot chocolate on a winter’s evening.

Ewan Wallace, Death Between the Rivers: This is slightly on the edge of too explicit for me, but I also found there were too many people I was expected to know about, and slightly too much information given on the main character’s personal life and medical history. I usually like fully rounded characters as the main lead, but I felt she became a list of physical conditions and needs. And why on earth would she not want her colleagues to know she was diabetic? Surely that would be something they should be aware of. Also, I have nothing against appropriate use of the passive, but it felt almost defiantly frequent here. However, in the end it was quite a well constructed book with a good, and not over-played, sense of local knowledge. I must read the first in the series which I thought this was.

Alex Walters, Dark Corners: My second book featuring Inspector Murrain with his odd sensitivities over things which might be involved in his investigation, a kind of blurry second sight. This one relates to a child kidnapping and murder, and there seem to be several threads to tie together. It’s a very satisfying plot and played out in a traditional way so that the reader can work it out for themselves.

Alex Walters, Snow Fallen: A great claustrophobic atmosphere in this Kenny Murrain book as the snow rises outside both police headquarters and the house where Kenny and his team are trying to protect several villagers from a violent attacker, knowing that three people are already dead. The events pretty much occur over the course of one night and it’s a wonderfully well handled plot, mystery upon mystery until almost the very end when everything becomes clear. One of his best.

Aline Templeton, Past Praying For: Once again, Templeton starts her book with an almost unbearable situation with nasty people triumphing over nice ones. I’d also like to note her acknowledgement that the hardest people to minister to, in this day and age, are the self-satisfied well-off middle classes, from a church perspective – Sunday mornings are for washing their BMWs, not for going to church. But in the end this is a disturbing tale of the effect a bad incident in childhood can have in adult life, and the tragedies that can ensue.

Forbes Inglis, Phantoms & Fairies – tales of the supernatural in Angus and Dundee: A classic local book written by a local man with a great feel for the place and its stories. This is lightly written but some of the stories are chilling enough for a dark winter’s evening.

T. Kingfisher, Hemlock & Silver: Once again Kingfisher has taken a well-known fairy tale, in this case Snow White, and retold it in her own wonderful style. The main character here is a healer, called in by the King to investigate the suspected ongoing poisoning of his daughter, Snow, after the Queen has killed Snow’s sister, Rose. The healer is a wonderful character, admitting to preferring problems to be solved concerning poison to actually looking after the victims, though she is kinder than she allows herself to seem. And the solution, involving cats and mirrors, is complex and clever and lots of fun.

James Oswald, The Rest is Death: A good plot involving a new laboratory intended to investigate cures perhaps leading to the infinite postponement of death, slightly dodgy eastern European immigrants, and some very mysterious corpses, and it’s another excellent Tony McLean case.

Alex Gray, A Pound of Flesh: I was galloping up a couple of wrong alleys in this plot which winds the murders of Glaswegian prostitutes with a series of murders of the men who use them. I like the main character, Bill Lorimer, and his friends Solly and Rosie, but for some reason I find his loving wife just a touch irritating – but that’s me. I’ve read and enjoyed a few books in this series but never quite find them compelling enough to read them in order, and I’m really not sure why. DC Knox was just stupid, I’m afraid, but heigh ho, people are.

Ross Greenwood, The Book Club Killer: Intermingled with the plot here is the question faced by several of the characters – is it time to retire? The general sense is that this is the last fling for them and they have to solve it to go out on a high. It became quite tangled towards the end but it was still a satisfying plot, sufficiently surprising.

Louise Penny, All the Devils are Here: If you want an example of well-used head switching, here it is, in the conversation between Gamache and Dussaud. They tell you you shouldn’t, and generally they are right, but when you break a rule, do it well and for a reason. The Gamaches are in Paris when Armand’s godfather is almost killed in a hit-and-run and a body is found in his apartment. The Paris police are fairly accommodating to Gamache and Beauvoir, but they need to discover what the godfather was up to, unearthing corruption in Beauvoir’s company or hiding his Nazi past. A grand conspiracy requires the whole family to work as a team, confronting past slights and present jealousies, to defeat the enemy.

David Gatward, How Grimm Saved Christmas: A Christmas novella. Ridiculously sentimental and touching. I cried. And laughed a bit, too. And I’m glad Gordy was back for the big moment.

Fergus Butler-Gallie, A Field Guide to the English Clergy: This very funny, and sometimes slightly alarming, book, brings together brief accounts of the lives of some of the Church of England’s more eccentric and less clerical clergy, along with a useful glossary of church terms which is also very amusing. It ranges from Tudor times to very recent, showing that the grand tradition of pottiness is being faithfully upheld. Another Christmas present, and a very entertaining one.

Dick Francis, 10lb Penalty: I started this, one I hadn’t read years ago, during a visit to a library, and finished it when I came home. Very much the usual formula and done just as well as always – here the specialist subject is British politics with racing on the side, and the plot, apart from attempted murders, concerns the narrator’s reconciliation with a distant father while learning how to grow up. Unusually paced as it starts when the narrator is seventeen and ends when he’s twenty-three, but it’s nonetheless fast-moving for that.

Sarah Sheridan, The Fair Botanists: I promise I didn’t even know this was set at the time of the King’s jaunt until I started reading it! At first of course I was all nitpicking, and there are a few nits to pick, but then I relaxed into an intriguing story of plants and perfumes and the niceties of Edinburgh society at the time. An elegant and enjoyable read, though I find myself hoping for a sequel – what happened to Mhairi, for example? And Edzell? And Inverleith House? (well, I sort of know about that). Couple this with a visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, and you’re all set.

I'm supposed to be writing the second Dr. Robert Wilson book, entitled The Problem at the Hotel-Dieu, but I've been distracted by (a) building issues at the archive stopping me from doing some of the research and (b) the necessity of writing an entirely different book which hopped into my head around Christmas time and is now half-finished. So I've probably almost written enough for one whole book this quarter, or very nearly, which was the plan - it's just not quite all in one book. Not sure what to do about that ...

December's reading

 Some books started in November and finished in December - see if there's anything you fancy! There seems to be a generous helping of paranormal and / or cosy this month - I think it's the reading equivalent of hygge.

Carmen Radtke, Heartbreak and Hexes: This village is thick with magic, so if the paranormal is your thing blended with cosy crime, walk straight in. The wry humour doesn’t go amiss, either, so these are the kind of book it’s easy to curl up with when the world outside is a bit too grim. My favourite line: “The plot has thickened so much, it would stick to the pot if you flipped it over.”

M.C. Mackay, The Ballochbrae Book Club: Quite a few characters to take in over the first few chapters, but they all begin to make sense fairly quickly. This is set around Ballater in the fictional village of Ballochbrae and feels authentic, though occasionally it reads like a guidebook. The characters are more memorable than the plot, but perhaps this new series will find its feet quickly.

Aline Templeton, Night and Silence: Another standalone with the complex, realistic characterisation I’ve come to expect from Aline Templeton. There are quite a few characters in this one, including a number of ex-lovers of the unlikeable victim, Willow, a nurse with a sideline in blackmail. Several others are people one would not wish to spend time with, but Cordiner’s wife and son, as well as Cordiner himself, are a bit more likeable and there is plenty going on to keep our interest and sympathy. This is a tight little community but not close-knit, and the tensions between the various people are brilliantly observed.

Nikki Coplestone, Directions for Murder: The next Jeff Lincoln book with a well-designed plot with lots of intriguing, inter-connected characters in a very realistic setting. A few of them needed their come-uppance and not everyone gets it, but it’s still a very satisfying read and Jeff himself, a realistic and likeable detective, is setting off on the next stage of his life, which is great.

A Case of the Claws: Classic Tales of Feline Crime: A pretty little book containing four crime mysteries for cat lovers, by Catherine Aird, Edmund Crispin, Patricia Highsmith and Ellis Peters. This makes a nice little gift, but also a quick and amusing read. The actual cover is great!

Kura Jane Carpenter, Pride and Prejudice and Mice: This absolutely charming little book is very well grounded in the original Jane Austen novel, but with mice as the main characters, as the delightful illustrations show. I gather there’s a colour version planned, but for now the paperback is a joy, with a wit that I’m sure Austen herself would have relished.

Aline Templeton, Death in the Black Isle: I really struggled with the first part of this, because I didn’t want Oriole so put upon, and I didn’t want Perry to succeed, and I didn’t want the trees cut down, and I found it quite upsetting. And I’m still not sure about Cat. Then the first recognised murder occurred, and we were off. As usual the characters were well drawn and the setting very realistic, and Murray is coming into her own very well.

J.D. Kirk, First Among the Dead: This is a novella set in the early career of Tyler Neish, including his first meeting with Hoon. It’s entertaining, of course, but also touching, and very nicely plotted with all the usual laughs.

Jodi Taylor, Murder at Martingale Manor: A Christie-esque murder mystery novella solved by our time travelling holiday makers, Max and Leon – beautifully done, as ever.

Sarah Beth Durst, The Spell Shop: Not my usual fare, but recommended to me as a feel-good read (and I do seem to be reading a few of those just now!). The main characters are a severely reclusive librarian from a library of magic books, and her sentient and rather independent spider plant, Caz. Fleeing from some uprising in their city, they retreat to her long-abandoned childhood home and try to make a new life for themselves, while struggling to ignore their helpful and hunky new neighbour. The fact that they have smuggled (rescued) a few crates of spell books with them, at a time when magic that has helped the locals survive has been restricted to official city-use only, gives them something to do, even if it results in a singing tree and a frolicking cactus. This is very amusing, with some mild and entertaining peril and a happy ending – great fun.

Sarah Beth Durst, The Enchanted Greenhouse: Well, who doesn’t want an enchanted greenhouse? This spins off with a minor character who was only mentioned in The Spell Shop, a librarian in disgrace for casting the spell that made the spider plant, Caz, sentient. Once again, a feel-good romance with magic and plants, and lots of fun. I think I'd agree with others, though, who say they didn't feel the romantic chemistry quite so much in this one.

Val McDermid, The Mermaids Singing: I read this in a day on a couple of railway journeys and came out of it … pretty disgusted at the torture stuff, but very pleased with the plotting and writing, on the whole, though I had guessed a fair bit of the solution. I prefer McDermid’s Karen Pirie series by some distance, as well as some of her stand-alones. These are too dark for me, really. But I've always loved the poem the title comes from!

And what am I up to? I'm working on a couple of things at the moment, one being one of those projects that looks all bright and shiny but might never see the light of day, and the other being research for the next Dr. Robert Wilson book, the sequel to The Business in Blandyce. I've let myself in for quite a bit of reading for this series as he crosses Europe - this one will be set in Paris, so still within my linguistic abilities. Not sure what I'm going to do further east! There isn't even a working title yet, so watch this (rather blank) space ...

A few books read in November

I'm not sure how I only read these few books in November! It felt like more, but then there was a fair bit of driving done here and there which is an annoying waste of good reading time. Still, here we are: 

A Right Cozy Historical Crime: Obviously I’m in this, but it’s a good read, nevertheless! My particular favourites: Olga Wojtas’ chilling story, Gareth Williams’ clever Cambridge setting, Meg Woodward’s mediaeval tournament, Sheena MacLeod’s Highland big hoose mystery, and Barbara Stevenson’s story from her Stone Age Orkney series (prize at least for the oldest historical setting! These are great young adult books which she writes as B.K. Bruce), as well as Lisa Harkrader’s entertaining tale set round a school play. A lovely variety, and very entertaining. It was fun launching this during Book Week Scotland in a bookshop in Montrose.

J.M. Prior, Tea Time Tales: Not a book, this, but zines – an A3 piece of paper folded to A6 to contain a short story, with artwork, just long enough for a short bus journey or work tea break. The ones I bought from Jane’s beautifully written and well-produced selection were ‘Eradicating Parasites’ (deeply disturbing – that’s going to stay with me!), ‘Liam Patterson’s Cause for Concern’ (spooky but touching), and ‘Starry, Starry Night’ (a slow-build chill with a tragic feel). They would also make lovely stocking-fillers or quick little gifts for a busy book-lover. It’s a clever idea and Jane is so talented – take a look at her website at https://www.miscellanyjane.com/zine-catalogue.

Carmen Radkte, Death under Palm Trees: This is a slightly different setting for this series, with Frances and Jack, and Uncle Sal, all pretending to be someone they are not in a grand Riviera villa in order to root out someone stealing state secrets. When death intervenes it’s hard to know who is on which side, but it’s fun finding out!

Aline Templeton, Death at St. Abb’s Head: Really good local conspiracy which turns out to be a proper whodunnit, with, as always, a great sense of place and interesting characters. I’m not sure how I feel about the Cat business, but it looks as if her mother is the redeeming feature here – let’s see how it goes, but oh! poor Livvy!

Aline Templeton, Shades of Death: One of those useless, unmemorable titles possibly suggested by a publisher. Separate from the Kelso Strang series, this starts with a body in a cave and a woman subjected to coercive control, so if you’re the kind of person who likes trigger warnings, there are two to be getting on with. The quotation, if you know your Flanders & Swan, is from Gerard de Nerval and not Baudelaire, but that’s me being picky (and a show-off!). The mystery is a good one and the ending very satisfying, with the proper consequences.

Rhys Dylan, The Light Remains: A particularly enjoyable episode in this series. I love the dry humour of the ‘stairwell of conversation’ and the organs for transplant box, as well as the close relationships between the team. Two dysfunctional families feature in this one, one of them including the misjudged national rugby hero whose death precipitates the case. Evan also has concerns regarding his colleague Jess and her daughter, which I hope will be resolved in a satisfactory fashion in some following book.

And finally, The Shadowed Blade, Hippolyta 8, is out - out in paperback, and the Kindle version on pre-order. It's taken ages!!

Hope you find some good Christmas reading!

October's book

I find that at the end of October I'm halfway through several books, which will have to wait till next month's blogpost! And I'm afraid there's not a lot of variety here as I continued with a series I had not met until September, and am thoroughly enjoying. Anyway, take a look!

Cecilia Peartree, An Unsweetened Revenge: The twenty-ninth in the Pitkirtly series sneaked out under my radar a few months ago, and once I found it I plunged straight in. Though Christopher is away (we do get some chapters on what he’s up to, poor chap), the gentle council satire is alive and kicking, and I loved ’the computer screen, which currently displayed a West Fife Council screensaver with a carousel of images of recent road-mending projects.’ The plot itself is a little darker than usual, but of course all is well in the end and the people of Pitkirtly can carry on being as quietly mad as ever.

Natalie Jayne Clark, The Malt Whisky Murders: I found the initial premise, that two women would conceal the fact they’d found several bodies in whisky barrels in their newly bought distillery just because it would affect their business launch, very difficult. All right, maybe there are people like that, but I don’t necessarily want to spend time with them. However, the story improved tremendously and there’s a real sense of knowledge of the whisky industry, too, which works well. Eventually I came to see that the way the narrator reacted to the bodies is part of her own character, and by then I was already involved in the investigation. I could see the who, but not necessarily the why, which was presented at the end in a fairly convincing way, in the context, even if it fell a little flat. I’ll be interested to see what she writes next.

T.G. Reid, Bloodwater Falls: a few odd words like kneeled and shined, and a lot of wandering speechmarks, but really I enjoyed this. The tension over his son and ex-wife is a good layer, and though I spotted the killer quite quickly it was an interesting read.

Tormod Cockburn, The Ice Covenant: All gloves are off now and Gill is definitely on a supernatural mission, guarded by an angel-like biker. Nevertheless, he has to get on with his career and though the reader knows a little more about the angel, Gill is still an archaeologist at heart, taking on a rescue dig around Killiecrankie. Meanwhile, on the alarming mountain of Ben Macdui (which I for one never want to climb), there has been a discovery of quantities of human teeth, deposited, or strewn, over several decades. The answer to that mystery is just as disturbing as the discovery.

Aline Templeton, Death in Caithness: Once again, the setting in the Flow Country was very well portrayed and I very much enjoyed the continued relationship between Murray and Strang. The local DI was maybe a little overdone but he was still horribly entertaining and well due his come-uppance, and though I spotted the murderer early on, I still very much enjoyed the read. I’ll certainly carry on with this series for now.

Aline Templeton, Death in the Borders: And again the setting is good and the intrigue of the reclusive writer is well done. I did like ‘The music made satisfying patterns in his head’ – I could relate to that. The weather is a key part in the plot and Murray and Strang continue to bounce off each other. A very satisfying mystery, and I’m afraid I’ve already bought the next one – doesn’t often happen that a series grabs me this way.

Aline Templeton, Death in Inverbeg: All right, yes, another one. Another thing about them is that the characters are very well drawn and layered – I find my sympathies unexpectedly engaged by people I’d previously thought horrible – but again this one has a fine sense of place. What fun to travel around Scotland setting murder mysteries in different places!

And where am I? Not Inverbeg, anyway - I've left Ballater for a week as I finally managed to finish the first draft of The Shadowed Blade! Now I'm taking a break before going back for the first big edit.