Search
Mar 4, 20221 min read
952. Hallie Rubenhold - The Five
The first book group book. About the five victims of Jack the Ripper. Not the sort of thing I would normally read. Written by a feminist...
Feb 12, 20221 min read
945. Peter Robinson - Many Rivers To Cross
Thought this was a new one, but I have read it before. Worth a re-read through as Robinson is one of my favourite writers. His scope is...
Nov 20, 20211 min read
916. Steve Richards - The Prime Ministers
A commentary, by a political journalist, on British prime ministers from Wilson to Johnson, so roughly covering my adult life. Very good,...
Oct 7, 20211 min read
903. William McIlvanney & Ian Rankin - The Dark Remains
The first Laidlaw novel, completed by Rankin following McIvanney’s death in 2015. I found it very hard work and with few characters of...
Sep 17, 20211 min read
895. James Robertson - News Of The Dead
Book of the year, so far. Beautifully written. About a single location – Glen Conach – in the Scottish highlands over several centuries....
Jun 18, 20211 min read
870. Ian Rankin - Westwind
This is rather overblown by the publishers ‘the iconic number one bestseller’, ‘the classic lost thriller’. In point of fact, as Rankin...
Jun 12, 20211 min read
867. Peter Robinson - Many Rivers To Cross
Good, but not one of his best. Murders in N Yorkshire meet sex trafficking and people smuggling from central Europe. Banks apart, the...
Jan 2, 20211 min read
840. Ian Rankin - A Song For The Dark Times
Xmas present from Dan, signed by the author. Parallel plot lines; Clarke in Edinburgh doing conventional police work; Rebus now...
Aug 8, 20201 min read
805. Piers Paul Read - The Junkers
One that I am sure we used to have. An English diplomat in Berlin in the late 1950’s falls in love with a German girl, and needs to trace...
Aug 5, 20201 min read
804. Piers Paul Read - The Upstart
We used to have a few of this guy’s books, but this is the only one left after a purge a few years ago. It is very good as a variant on...
Jul 4, 20201 min read
796. Ian Rankin - Even Dogs In The Wild
This was brilliant. Must have read it before and quite recently as published in 2016, but didn’t remember it at all. Three plot elements...
May 29, 20201 min read
784. Ruth Rendell - Going Wrong
Another thriller for the Tesco queue; I have got quite good at finishing a serious book on a Friday night. But this is the last Ruth...
May 22, 20201 min read
781. Ruth Rendell - A Demon In My View
Another easy read book for the Tesco queue. Not a Wexford book but I thought this was better- Wexford is annoyingly English middle class...
May 15, 20201 min read
777. Ruth Rendell - An Unkindness of Ravens
Another detective novel to start in the Tesco’s coronvirus queue and finish mostly in the garden on a sunny Saturday afternoon. This was...
May 8, 20201 min read
775. Ruth Rendell - A Guilty Thing Surprised
Bingeing on detective novels at present, partly to have a nice easy book to read in the COVID queue at Tesco’s on a Saturday morning. (A...
May 2, 20201 min read
772. Ruth Rendell - The Veiled One
An earlier book, I think, than 769 and 771 above. Plot more compressed which I thought was good, but also very convoluted towards the...
May 1, 20201 min read
771. Ruth Rendell - Road Rage
These books are quite good, and a welcome change. This has a fairly complex plot, about protests against a by- pass, and a series of...
Apr 24, 20201 min read
769. Ruth Rendell - Kissing The Gunner's Daughter
Haven’t read any Ruth Rendell for years. This was good although I found it a bit ponderous for the first 300 pages. But her style at...
Mar 20, 20201 min read
757. Peter Robinson - Careless Love
I have read this before (published 2018) and it is good. The thing that irritates me about the later Banks books is that Banks has turned...
Mar 12, 20201 min read
754. Peter Robinson - Dry Bones That Dream
Felt like a Peter Robinson after all these rather difficult books. He is probably my favourite detective novelist, and the earlier books,...