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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 23, 20141 min read
264. Graham Greene - The Heart Of The Matter
Aeroplane reading en route to Copenhagen. I had thought this was my favourite Greene, but was disappointed this time round. I understood...
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 18, 20141 min read
254. James Ellroy - Perfidia
Another birthday present and a huge book at 700 pages. Quite a strange concept – blending real characters, as he often does, with...
Sep 20, 20141 min read
248. John Harvey - Darkness, Darkness
I think I have read one of the Resnick novels before, without really enjoying it. Jon Harvey is coming to speak at our local library in a...
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Another very short book, a Wallander novella, previously unpublished in the UK.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...
Sep 12, 20141 min read
243. James Ellroy - The Black Dahlia
Haven’t read this, or any other James Ellroy for years, but heard him on the radio. 'The Black Dahlia' is, I think, the first of a...
Jun 12, 20141 min read
218. Peter Robinson - Innocent Graves
Need a quick detective novel after the marathon of no.217... Have read this before but forgotten the middle section where the wrong guy...
Jun 5, 20141 min read
214. Håkan Nesser - The Unlucky Lottery
Inauspicious start, but then read en route to Spain in overnight hotel, then delayed in Gatwick, half asleep on plane and finished in...
Jun 1, 20141 min read
213. Håkan Nesser - The Strangler's Honeymoon
This is the only thing I lost in the crash – a writer I had never heard of before, but branded in some marketing quarters as ‘the...
May 4, 20141 min read
203. Peter May - The Lewis Man
The second of the trilogy, which I have read in order three, one, two. This is pretty good — the central character has Alzheimer's which...
Apr 17, 20141 min read
200. Peter May - The Blackhouse
This is the first of the Lewis trilogy, no.199 above being the third. Again very good, the same central character (Finn) is not yet an...
Apr 14, 20141 min read
199. Peter May - The Chessmen
How nice to find a good writer I had never heard of on what I thought was a rather wasted trip (all 200 yards from the door) to the...
Apr 8, 20141 min read
196. Laurence Gough - Death On A No. 8 Hook
An old detective novel I must have ‘borrowed' from my Dad, as his annotations are evident. Quite well written, but pretty clichéd — a...
Feb 7, 20141 min read
182. Sian Busby - A Commonplace Killing
Bought four books in Waterstones with a token Dan gave me for Xmas. I had never heard of this or the author who turns out to be the wife...
Oct 9, 20131 min read
153. Peter Robinson - Playing With Fire
L was reminded of this when I read 'Strange Affair' (no.148) recently. It was the first in the poorly televised series, but it is not...
Oct 3, 20131 min read
150. Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep
I think this is perhaps the first time I have read this book ‘properly’ if that is an appropriate adverb. General Sternwood has a...
Sep 6, 20131 min read
142. Ross MacDonald - The Ivory Grin
I wanted something cheap and easy to read; never read any Ross MacDonald. It wasn’t bad — he is billed by some people as better than...
Aug 25, 20131 min read
138. Peter Robinson - Children Of The Revolution
The new Inspector Banks, just published. The wonderful opening chapter (for me); Banks' anxiety about retirement plated out against...
Jul 13, 20131 min read
127. Arnaldur Indridason - Voices
Have read this before but wanted to re-read it. It introduces Erlendur and explicates more of his family history than some of the other...