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Jun 2, 20201 min read
786. Sara Paretsky - Indemnity Only
Haven’t read any of these for years. V.I. Warshawski is a feminist updated Philip Marlow PI, with much of the same personal ambience, run...
May 31, 20201 min read
785. Leonardo Padura - Havana Blue
I do like these books, although they take a bit of getting into, but are easier 2nd time round. This one features the downfall of a top,...
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...
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...
Apr 20, 20201 min read
768. Reginald Hill - Recalled To Life
Completely different in tone from 767, which I enjoyed more. This is a quasi historical detective novel, the historical bit of the plot a...
Apr 17, 20201 min read
767. Reginald Hill - Underworld
Bingeing a bit on R Hill at the moment. This is brilliant. A combination of Lady Chatterley (aka Ellie Pascoe) + a post-miner’s strike...
Apr 13, 20201 min read
765. Mick Herron - Joe Country
Was trying to find a different book, which I think I read from the library so not on my Kindle, it appears. So re-read this instead. I...
Apr 4, 20201 min read
763. Mick Herron - Spook Street
I have read this before, but found it absolutely brilliant 2nd time round. The Slough House characters (and indeed the house itself) are...
Apr 2, 20201 min read
762. Leonardo Padura - Havana Red
Totally different from 760 above, unless I have misunderstood 760. This is quite a serious and challenging book, about a father murdering...
Mar 28, 20201 min read
758. Reginald Hill - Child's Play
Bingeing on detective novels at the moment. Reginald Hill was a great writer, but his novels became more obscure and baroque as his...
Mar 23, 20201 min read
759. Reginald Hill - An Advancement of Learning
I think the 3rd Dalziel and Pascoe and, despite what I said above, this was pretty complex and difficult. Also introduces Frannie Root,...
Mar 23, 20201 min read
757. Dorothy L Sayers - Strong Poison
I am not sure that I have read any before, and am not sure I would read any more. I thought this was pretty trite and trivial in...
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,...
Jan 12, 20201 min read
742. John Le Carré - Smiley's People
This I think is the 3rd book in a trilogy which ends with Smiley trapping Karla’s daughter who has been smuggled into Europe...
Nov 2, 20191 min read
726. Peter James - Dead At First Sight
I heard this guy on the radio and thought ‘Here’s a crime writer I have never heard of’. But a poor writer. The plot theme was...
Oct 14, 20191 min read
722. Ian Rankin - In A House Of Lies
This is a long and quite complex novel; feels valedictory. Rebus has now retired, Siobhan is older, and the plot involves many of the...
Sep 8, 20191 min read
713. Agatha Christie - The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd
Haven’t read any for many years but 707 sparked my interest. This is a good and really brilliantly plotted whodunit – if you haven’t read...
Sep 2, 20191 min read
708. Peter Robinson - Past Reason Hated
I think this is the first Peter Robinson I ever read years ago and had little memory of the plot. I had forgotten about the lesbian...