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Nov 28, 20141 min read
266. Leonardo Padura - Havana Gold
Because I have slipped into arrears with this text and read these books in quick succession, I am struggling to remember plot lines. My...
Nov 26, 20141 min read
265. Leonardo Padura - Havana Red
This guy is a great writer, although annoying at times. This (he acknowledges) owes a big debt to 'The Maltese Falcon' (no.268 below); it...
Nov 18, 20141 min read
262. Leonardo Padura - Havana Blue
I loved this, it is dedicated to ‘Lucia, with love and squalor’. Beautifully written/translated (reads as if written in English), the...
Oct 6, 20141 min read
252. John Harvey - Cold In Hand
Another John Harvey from the library; there are lots. They are well plotted, and one of the interesting aspects is that the narration is...
Oct 2, 20141 min read
251. Håkan Nesser - The Return
Read this intermittently; started it before no.249 and no.250 had the libraries imperative. I enjoy Nesser, but really van Veeteren is...
Sep 18, 20141 min read
247. Henning Mankell - An Event In Autumn
Another very short book, a Wallander novella, previously unpublished in the UK. Poor old Kurt looks at a house to buy but finds a couple...
Aug 17, 20141 min read
209. Graham Greene - The Third Man
Never read this either; written as a film script, (don’t think I have ever seen the film?) it is a brief but well-constructed story. The...
Aug 2, 20141 min read
231. Anne Zouroudi - The Messenger Of Athens
The author was recommended to Paddy by her friend Rod Lee. A detective series set in modern Greece; well this one on a tiny island....
Jul 31, 20141 min read
230. Ian Rankin - Exit Music
The last, I think, or intended last, Rebus. I found this structurally very similar to no.228 initially, with Russian money playing the...
Jul 23, 20141 min read
229. Håkan Nesser - The Mind's Eye
The 2nd Van Veeteren book and better and different from some of the later ones. Here we do have more of a Sherlock Holmes type of mystery...
Jun 24, 20141 min read
224. Håkan Nesser - Woman With Birthmark
Maybe it is an unfortunate coincidence, but this is just too similar to 'Borkmann’s Point'. Again a killer on an apparently random...
Jun 21, 20141 min read
223. Håkan Nesser - Borkmann's Point
The last of the Nesser’s that I had taken on holiday. This one features Van Veetern pre-retirement, although called from holiday to...
Jun 7, 20141 min read
216. Håkan Nesser - The Weeping Girl
Brilliant. Nesser is really good. This story features Eva Moreno, his only female detective, a sexier version of Siobhan Clarke in Rebus,...
Jan 17, 20141 min read
178. Evie Wyld - All The Birds, Singing
Just re-read it; it is a brilliant book, once you can follow the plotting which is alternative chapters, odd numbers set on the island...
Jan 14, 20141 min read
177. Evie Wyld - All The Birds, Singing
Paddy got this from the library; it is written by some bright young thing ex Jesus College, where she used to work. It is very, very...
Jan 10, 20141 min read
175. David Baldacci - King And Maxwell
Complete tat; airport fiction for a poor airport. Get this on Amazon
Sep 17, 20131 min read
144. Henning Mankell - Italian Shoes
Not a Wallander story. About an old man, living alone on an island/archipelago in the north of Sweden whose past life come back to haunt...
Sep 13, 20131 min read
143. Sebastian Faulks - A Week In December
This is good but difficult. I read a lot of it thinking this is really a book to take on holiday and not to try to read during a busy...
Jun 14, 20131 min read
116. R. J. Ellory - The Devil And The River
Great, big book - post Vietnam meets Raymond Chandler (the end is very Chandler-esque - serious wealth and serious corruption). Small...
Jun 12, 20131 min read
116. Leena Lehtolainen - My First Murder
1st book about Maria Kallio. Character of some interest but plot very cliched; could almost be 'My First Barbie Doll'. Get this from...