Another year, another list..
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Score (out of 10) |
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First book of the year and also the Christmas Dickens.. huge book, and deals on this occasion with the demerits of the old Chancery court, specifically for this book, the fictional long running, and hugely expensive, case of Jarndyce vs Jarndyce - a case so huge and long running no one knows what it actually arose from (contested wills I think) but which is now some great self feeding monster keeping untold numbers of lawyers in work while not delivering any result.. the heroine of the story is one Esther, the result of a liaison between the tragic Lady Dedlock and Captain Hawdon. Believing him dead in an accident she goes on to marry Sir Leicester and spends most of the book trying to hide the liaison/child from her husband and society, while the truly odious lawyer Tulkinghorn is doing the opposite. In the meanwhile Esther has been bought up by Lady D's sister, and on her death, by one John Jarndyce (one of the plaintiffs). John has two additional wards who also have an interest in the case, but on the opposite side. Cue young ward going off the rails due to an unhealthy and consuming interest in a court case that will never deliver, consumption, illness, disease, poverty and you have another cracking tale by Dickens. Enjoyed it, but it took a while to get going.. my favourite character? Inspector Bucket of the Detective.. superb.. | 8 |
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See blog post [clicky].. | 9 |
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Recommended by a fellow blogger, who had made it sound interesting
enough that I ordered it straight away (99p Kindle bargain!)..
written by an ex-RAF pilot from WW1, the novel is about a Camel
squadron on the Western Front in the period 1917 through '18. It
details in depth the kinds of missions the Camel squadrons performed
(they were apparently the fighter bomber of the time - slower and
lower ceiling than the SE5's and Sopwith Dolphin's), the particular
challenges of flying a Camel that were also it's strengths in a dog
fight, the unreliability of the rotary engine, and the sheer
physicality of flying a 2 or 3 hour mission in one. Along side that we
get a good view of what the German tactics were at the time (they hear
that Richthofen is shot down half way through the book) the shift of
the Germans to the Circus's, and their tendency not to seek out a
fight on the Allied side of the lines, leaving the Camels to go well
into enemy airspace to prosecute the air war.. Squadron life features
alcohol heavily, and by the end of it you worry for the health of
its protagonist, Tom Cundall who must be downing a bottle of whisky a
day as the number of his friends dying grows by the day... it's
a good book, harsh, realistic I suspect given the authors provenance,
and fairly draining... the flying sequences are stunning, the
ground sequences tend to feature occasional long diatribes against the
war, and the bankers and the profiteers.. I enjoyed it, if only
for the fact that I learnt a lot about the Camel that I hadn't
previously known..
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8 |
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Dick/Felix Francis is my guilty pleasure.. very simple books
structurally, but with good story lines, almost always featuring
horses or horse racing, and always very readable.. this one
features a volunteer racing steward who's wife is murdered, and who
battles to clear his name after having first been accused of the
murder, while also finding out the true murderer... lots of
complications, and look out for the twist at the end..
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9 |
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Fairly standard Osprey fare, and absolutely nothing wrong with that,
but Tincey as an author lifts it for sure, and the phased/timed maps
are outstanding.. illustrations, not my cup of tea.. bit
Janet and John'ish if you know what I mean... so, usual format.. background
to the war, the opposing notable commanders and generals, brief run up
to Edgehill, orbat's, run down of the battle, and then
aftermath... good stuff - recommended.
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8 |
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One of the best to date.. a rich man on his second wife, and
with a mistress, is found dead at his desk and a significant amount of
money missing from the unlocked safe he is leaning against...
stunning writing.. you can almost smell the coffee, Gauloise's
and fresh baked bread..
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9 |
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See the
blog review [clicky]..
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7 |
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Have to say I was a little in two minds about this one, but Harris is a consummate story teller, and given I have enjoyed all of his books so far, it seemed foolish not to at least try this one. So we have the story of a priest who has been sent to a remote west country village to officiate over the funeral of their previous priest, and then becomes enmeshed in local events... it is difficult to review this without giving the fundamental and underlying plot away, the clue is in the book title (and that was a new theory to me) and the underlying idea is very clever if not a little freaky... fantastic book, clever plot/premise, fantastic characters, ended WAY too abruptly.. recommended.. | 8 |
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For the first time I we learn something about Maigret's upbringing - a small village where his father was the gamekeeper for a large estate - as Maigret is asked to investigate a possible murder (or was it?), of the current owner of the estate.. | 9 |
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This had been recommended on one of the book forums I follow (Goodreads
perhaps?) so I put it on my list to get at some point in time.. then lo
and behold it arrived under the tree at Christmas..
A good book, perhaps a little long in the middle, dealing with London's
East End at the turn of the 18th Century and specifically the slave
trade.. it's dirty, gritty, muddy and smelly.. the author paints a
very descriptive picture of London in the late 1770's with all it's
vices on show in the dock side area of Deptford home to the slaving
fleet.. harrowing stuff indeed, and a solid detective story featuring a
wounded army officer back from the American war hunting down the killers
of his best friend from university who was a pro-Abolitionist in a town
that owes it's living to slavery.. not long after they start
dropping like flies... a good one..
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8 |
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Thomas Blackstone has been made Edward's (Edward III) Master of War
responsible for keeping the Kings peace in France and ensuring the
French nobles in the newly acquired French lands (see the
Treaty of Bretigny) remain loyal and in line. With a small army of archers and man at
arms, with his son now serving with him, and with his trusty side kick
Kilbere (who I just think is the best character) life is dangerous,
bloody, and never quiet.. in this episode in the series,
he is drawn in to a battle to settle scores between two French baron's
the outcome of which could unsettle the peace, he is hunted down by a
band of Teutonic knights who wrongly believe him to be responsible for
a past murder, and he uncovers a plot to kill the Black Prince..
a cracker, and as good as any in the series, and better I thought than
the previous one..
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8 |
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...an unexpected and delightful addition to the excellent Robin Hood
series... Robin and his men are on their way back from the Holy Land
when their ship is wrecked in a storm.. the local Lord offers them
employment clearing out some local pirates but they offer Robin a
better alternative opportunity.. excellent and set largely in El
Cid era Spain..
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9 |
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I suspect very few people know of this series, but I loved it as a
very much younger Steve the Wargamer, and still love it now as it
has stood the test of time well in my view. This is the first in the
series and introduces the three boys who ar the main
protagonists.. David, Arthur and Peter.. what can I say,
they live in Yorkshire, their lives centre round the local church
where they are in the choir, and in this story they investigate the
secret of the mysterious case clock left by Colonel Sheperton with
David's grandfather many years before and never collected...
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10 |
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Follow up to Colonel Sheperton's Clock and in this book the boys meet and befriend an Admiral who has moved in to a local house, whilst together they make plans to fire one of the Admiral's old cannons, they also rescue an old church from ruin and investigate the disappearance of a statue from their church. Amid all that they then get hit by the worst snow storm in generations... | 10 |
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Next in the series, and the focus of the book is a punt that Peter has managed to find in the local second hand yard... as are all his inventions it is painted yellow (from a stock of paint that his father bought years before) and named Sea Peril - the book is about their adventures in it on the river, the indomitable Lady Bridgbolton, rescues, cricket, and about the fundamental goodness of people... a real tonic in these pandemic times... | 9 |
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Two boys are evacuated to an old mill town at the beginning of WW2, it
is the story of how they adapt from a London East End life to the
country town, and when one of the boys meets a girl from the local
school they are sharing, about what it is like to experience first
love at 17.. and all of this against a background of a growing war,
Dunkirk, air raids, and their looming call ups... (re)loved it..
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9 |
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Always sad when you get to the end of a series and so it was (again) with this one - the three boys are grown - Peter and David have just finished A levels and Arthur is at agricultural college... time for one last adventure though as they are to go on a sailing trip with the Admiral and his side kick Guns.. at the last moment though, an old friend from the admirals past, who happens to be Peter's aunt, turns up, and old WW2 memories are stirred. They decide to visit the site of her wartime pilots husbands death as part of the cruise.. | 9 |
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Philip Turner (the author of the previous books) also wrote under the
pen name Stephen Chance, and this was the first in the Septimus
Treloar series.. Septimus is a retired CID (detective) inspector
who has taken orders and become a vicar of a remote village in the
Fens.. in this first book he has to call on his old skills to
investigate a missing church heirloom, and catch the thieves trying to
make off with it...
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9 |
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When mysterious lights and ghostly organ music are heard in the
cathedral the more gullible are quick to jump to ghostly conclusions.
Septimus is asked by the Dean to investigate and get to the bottom of
what's causing them before the press get involved and embarrass him
and his boss, the Bishop...
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8 |
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Septimus is on holiday in Wales deep in the mountains, where legends and history are closer to the surface than most places. When the local water board announce plan for a new damn that will flood the valley, local feeling begin to run high, and then start turning sinister. Will re-enacting the old sacrificial rites save the valley? Septimus sets out to investigate who's behind it.. | 8 |
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Not as good as the previous books I thought.. this episode is set in the Far East where the Tyger has been assigned to the India squadron under the redoubtable Admiral (and ex-crack frigate captain) Pellew. While on station he is caught up in East India Company politic'ing but then meets Raffles who describes to him his plan to invade and take the Spice Islands that are under Dutch rule, now a French subject country ruled by Bonaparte. An enjoyable enough yarn, but Kydd is a canny lad and yet on two separate occasions in this I was caused to think "why didn't you see the outcome of what you've just done?".. | 8 |
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During the current pandemic Osprey were offering three or four books free a week from their entire catalogue - a fair few of them didn't appeal but I took it as an opportunity to try some books/periods I wouldn't otherwise have tried.. so it was with this one. Quite fascinating.. cataphracts, kontos, armed with the panjagan (a multiple arrow firing device that fire five arrows at once) armed head to toe in chain and lamellar armour .. they were the descendants of the Aechmenid Persians (Darius and Xerxes) but their direct antecedents were the Parthians.. the Sassanian's were perhaps the only empire the Romans never managed to defeat.. | 8 |
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Recommended to me by a mate of mine as a good read.. he was
right, I shall be reading the follow on book in the series.. Sam
Wyndham is a detective inspector from Scotland Yard who following a
traumatic war in the trenches of WW1, and the death of his new wife
from the Spanish flu epidemic after the war, ends up transferring to
the Imperial police in Calcutta. I think it fair to say that he has a
fair share of his own demons (including an addiction that he shares
with Sherlock Holmes) but his arrival in Calcutta is something of a
culture shock. He is thrown immediately into the investigation of the
brutal murder of a senior white member of the local
administration that looks like it was terrorist based.. or is
it... set at the time of the massacre at Amritsar, the period of
time in India's history saw the twilight of Empire, and the surge of
Indian home rule feeling... fascinating book..
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8 |
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Another of the Osprey free "pandemic books"... an ideal opportunity to
read up on the history of something you wouldn't have otherwise
tried.. this one was fascinating. Jagdeschwader 52 was one of
the key squadrons on the Eastern/Russian Front, and despite their
earlier operational history being in the west, it was in Russia that
they forged their reputation as one of the highest scoring squadrons
of all time, and all nations.. some of their aces scored over 300 by
the end of the war, and the book is a concise history of where they
served, the planes and missions they flew, and the key personnel -
this part is heavy on military decorations (Knights Cross, Swords and
Diamonds got harder and harder to win as the scores racked up!) What I
would have liked to have known was why they were able to rack up the
scores - clearly training and planes - but why were the Russians so
awful? A good read that left me with a few more questions...
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8 |
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Bit of a launch into the dark for me with this series, that has repaid
handsomely. I had not heard of Philip Kerr before but was intrigued by
the background enough that when the omnibus of the first three books
came up as a Kindle deal I took the plunge. As I say - glad I did as the
books, background and the hero are fascinating. Set in pre-WW2 Berlin
the hero of the story (Bernie Gunther) is an ex-policeman who has set up
in business as a private detective - this first book is set in 1936 and
concerns the theft of some valuable family jewellery... along the
way Bernie ends up going undercover into Dachau, has dealings with a
number of the Nazi hierarchy, before finally getting a conclusion...
brilliant book... the corruption, and the general air of menace of life
under the Nazi's is compelling... good read! PS. a "march violet" is the nickname for a late comer to the Nazi party - someone who has joined late but then overcompensates to get ahead.. |
9 |
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Two years later (1938) and Bernie has been persuaded to rejoin the police force in order to hunt down a serial killer of young teenage girls... a particularly nasty piece of work, being hunted down in company with a particularly nasty bunch of colleagues, and a particularly nasty suspect - Julian Streicher. Touches on the growing strength of the SS in German socienty at that time, and Himmler's "obsession" with the occult... | 8 |
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Massive leap in time for book number 3 as this one is set in 1947, and in it we find only the briefest mentions of where Bernie had been in the war, and what his war service was. We do learn however that he was a Russian POW long enough to learn Russian, so when an old colleague pays a significant retainer to prove his innocence, Bernie is off to post-war Vienna - "3rd Man" territory (which funnily enough is alluded to). Cue a hunt across Vienna, played by the intelligence services of what seems like all the major powers (except France), before running foul of an organisation of ex-SS senior officers, purportedly working for the Americans, in opposition to the Russians... confusing stuff! | 8 |
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A welcome return to Maigret, and in this book he is asked by a cousin of his wife to help out a friend who's brother has been accused of murdering a girl he was found to be having an affair with, and who was the mother of his child. The accused family are Flemish and live in a village bisected by the Meuse, where half is Flemish and half French, with all the tensions that brings, especially when the murdered girl is French, and he is already engaged to a Flemish girl. A right page turner, atmospheric, fantastic... | 9 |
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Very enjoyable - and the first time I've read/heard of an investigation being conducted completely from a bed. Maigret is shot and wounded while pursuing a man he has grown suspicious of while on a sleeper train - he ends up in a hotel room in Bergerac while convalescing/recovering and recruits the inestimable Madam Maigret and an old retired friend from the police to investigate who is behind the horrific attacks on young girls locally.. another page turner! | 8 |
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One of the best yet I think.. Maigret investigates a mysterious
death of a man who has been previously shot, in a small coastal town (I
suspect it is the same port that the modern day Caen ferries use!).
Atmospheric (as ever) and a gripping read right to the end.. |
9 |
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I guess I must read Herriot every 3 or 4 years, I just find it very
uplifting, funny, and inherently optimistic. For those of you living in
a parallel universe who have never heard of James Herriot, these are the
fictionalised memoirs of his time as a vet working in the Yorkshire
dales from a period just before the second world war, up until his
return to practice after the war.. this omnibus comprises the
first two books, and deals with his arrival in the small market town up
until the point he gets married... just lovely.. |
10 |
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Without a doubt my best book of the year so far so this one warrants a
10+. I've been a fan of this series since book 1, to the point that
(unusually for me) I would pre-order books to get them on release date
(and I haven't done that since Harry Potter!). The books feature the
protagonist Harry Gilmour, a Royal Navy submarine skipper in WW2. The
atmosphere and background is second to none, very realistic (it seems to
me) depictions of what it was like to live and make war in a submarine
of the era. No spoilers, but in this book - which is the final one in
the series - Harry is skipper of a boat that has been transferred to the
Far East Theatre.. brilliant - and I genuinely felt down when I
finished the book... |
10+ |
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I very much enjoyed the first one in this series ("Lancelot" [clicky]) so when I saw this had been published I had to get it... even
more so as it was a stupidly cheap price in Tesco, even more so than the
equivalent Kindle version.. picking up 10 or so years after where
Lancelot ended the book centres around Lancelot's son (Galahad) -
England is in turmoil, Arthur has long since exiled himself to a small
island in the middle of the fens and waterways near present day
Glastonbury, but the Saxon's continue to arrive in large numbers, taking
more and more land from the indigenous people as move further and
further west. collected from the monastery where he was sent a child for
his safety, Galahad is joined with the remnants of Arthur's heavy
cavalry, and an attempt to ally the remaining English kings against the
Saxons.. Merlin re-appears, there are battles, there is that
unique spin Giles Kristian has on what must have been the very narrow
gap between real life, and the Gods and magic, and superstition..
excellent.. |
9 |
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Follow up to the "Rising Man" that I read earlier in the year, and
another view of life in the post WW1 India that was on the cusp of the
break from Empire - in this case the protagonist and his sidekick
"Surrender Not" are on the trail of a murderer, or rather the murderer's
controller since the murderer has killed himself during imminent
capture. The follow the trail to the small Indian state, where the
murderer's victim was a Prince first in line to the throne, and where
the state funeral of said prince is bound to attract the culprit. Very
good.. |
8 |
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Refreshing to have Ben Kane write about period that isn't swords and sandals.. the first of what I hope are a number of books about Richard the Lionheart. This one set in his early life (pre Crusade) and depicts the period where his father Henry was desperately trying to mange four sons (everyone has heard of John, but I wasn't aware there were two other sons as well - both of whom died). The book portrays Richard the future Plantagenet king, tall, fierce, mercurial, a gifted battle commander, through the eyes of one of his squires, an Irishman recently a hostage following campaigns and battles in Ireland. Very good.. | 9 |
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My second "ten plus" of the year - absolutely brilliant analysis of the
Dam Busters raid in terms of the people, the planes, the
bombs/technology, and the costs in terms of both people and damage. The
book is especially good on the outcomes of the raid for the German
civilian population (devastating), and industry (not so much, mostly due
to the organisational ability of Speer). I found the depiction of Gibson
fascinating (what a complicated man, not always likeable, but clearly
very brave, and very driven). Hastings is not a fan of Bomber Harris,
but Barnes Wallis comes across exactly as played by Redgrave in the
film... superb.. |
10+ |
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My second read of this as I had just finished the BBC box set which only
went up to book 3 (and this is book 4) - Galbraith (in reality JK
Rowling) is a consummate story teller and this book has quite possibly
the most complicated plot of all the books.. add in a couple of
very likeable protagonists, what looks like a very likeable new
assistant, and an interesting and ongoing back story, and this is a very
readable addition to the series... book 5 is due out in the next 4
or so weeks |
9 |
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My ongoing adventure through the Maigret series continues with this one,
which I found eminently enjoyable - they're all good, this one was above
par... in this book Maigret is asked to do a low key investigation
of the death on the south coast of France of an emigree Australian
millionaire. Set in Antibes/Nice, the book almost smells of heat and
sun, as Maigret discovers the attraction the Liberty Bar had to the
Australian, and who had cause to stab him in the back....... |
9 |
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One of the joys of the Maigret books is that they unfold over such a
long period of time, and it is only occasionally that Simenon let's slip
a little of the back story - Maigret's earlier life - so in the St.
Fiacre affair (above) we learn about his father, in this one we learn
about his deceased daughter, we also learn that Maigret is retiring
(with the benefit of knowing there are at least another 50 books to come
clearly this isn't as earth shattering as it might have been at the
time!). either way - another return to the canals, but this time in
Paris, and in the ownership of an embittered but quite likeable self
made man... but who tried to kill him, and why? Why did his son commit
suicide, and who hung the lock keeper? Quite a dark, doom laden story
this one.. |
8 |
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Sometimes known as "Maigret Returns", the version I am reading is called
just "Maigret"... Maigret has indeed retired to the country where he is
enjoying a well earned rest, fishing, and sleeping in front of the
stove, but then his nephew, a policeman, is caught up, and implicated,
in an underworld shooting, and Maigret returns to Paris and the
Judiciaire to try and prove his innocence ... good to have Maigret
back in the saddle! Be interesting to see where the next book takes
him... |
9 |
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Second attempt at this - first read it in 2017 where it only merited a
5, but I was chatting with one of my mates and he told me to have
another go at the series... so how did I get on second time round?? It
was better than I remembered but in my view not a patch on
Sansom/Shardlake which is the master class in Elizabethan skulduggery
and conspiracy. Still good though, but I have a problem liking the
eponymous hero of the book as he's a bit of a "snowflake" - what I'm
hoping is that the character will develop with a few more books as they
are worth sticking with. In this one we discover the hero,
Giordano Bruno, former Dominican monk, excommunicated from Italy
for an "interesting" taste in books, and noe living in England
ostensibly as a guest of the French ambassador.. in this book he
is sent to Oxford by Walsingham (Elizabeth's spy master) to uncover a
Catholic plot |
8 |
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Another Catholic plot - this time centred round Mary Stuart, and a supposed Spanish financed invasion.. largely set in London, a major part of the background to the story is the noted Elizabethan astrologist John Dee [clicky] who I'd not heard of before. The plot rumbles on, against a background of religious upset, forecasts of the overthrow of the Queen, and the murders of two of the Queens ladies in waiting in occult circumstances, and Bruno continues his search for the mythical last volume of Hermes Trismegistus. Quite good, and well worth reading further volumes. | 8 |
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I wish Simenon had given more detail on how Maigret finds himself back
in Paris and the Judiciaire at 36 quai des Orfèvres as a chief
inspector, but nonetheless, after his short lived retirement of a couple
of books ago, Maigret and Madam Maigret are back living in Paris, when a
girl is murdered while waiting to see Maigret in the waiting room of the
actual judiciaire! A hunt then ensues to find the murderer(s), and
Maigret is joined for the end of the investigation by an American
researching criminology while in Paris on assignment. Most enjoyable,
and so good to see Maigret on the job again! |
9 |
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One of the most convoluted to date and an absolute joy for the breadth of characters... I was convinced it was the American throughout and lo and behold.. it wasn't... set against the background of the staff areas of a busy luxury Hotel (the Majestic of the name) the story is about the death of the American's wife, and why she came to die.. from the suburbs of Paris to the south of France, Maigret huts down the murderer, and the motive... | 9 |
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A slightly more subdued (and overdue!) outing for Matthew Hervey of the
Light Dragoons this time I thought (?)I mean don't get me wrong
Mallinson is a supreme reader, but the series is getting long in the
tooth now, and I wonder how much time an author can feel that freshness
for a character.. either way, fresh from his campaigns in the
Coorg in the previous book, Hervey again finds himself involved in
affairs of state in Chintal - where the Maharanee seems to have become
despotic against all remembrance of their previous meeting. Set against
a background of Thugee activity, Hervey is again on campaign - can't be
long now before he has to leave his beloved regiment behind for higher
command... |
9 |
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Whilst browsing one of my favourite publishing houses web site the other
month I happened to notice that they were re-printing the Rosemary
Sutlcliff "Eagle of the Ninth" series of books. Most people have heard
of the first book, what's not so well known is that she wrote a series
of loosely linked follow on books - all set in Roman Britain, and
detailing what was basically end of empire in Britain. Very much in the
vein of the Wallace Bream/"Eagle in the Snow" book.. a frontier
fort, manned by mounted auxiliary troops, Roman in name but almost as
barbarian/native, as the people they are there to control. Very, very
good... reminded me very much of the Scarrow book of almost the
same name and made me wonder if he had read this at some time..
read it! |
10 |
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In my humble opinion the darkest of the four "Roman" books - it is set in the period immediately after the Romans quit Britain for the last time and is about a young officer, Aquila, who decides that his loyalties lie with Britain and deserts as his unit is leaving. He eventually joins the forces of the Roman-British leader Ambrosius to fight against the Saxons, but his story is not an easy one.. he is very bitter, probably with reason, and it is not until the end that he finally begin to see reason in the events that have affected his life.. | 9 |
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Much lighter than the Lantern Bearers, and set in a period before it, where the competing "Caesars" were scrabbling for what little remaining power they could grab.. two Roman soldiers (one of them a medic) discover a plot to overthrow the current Emperor. of Britain. Discovered by the leader of the plotters they are posted to Hadrian's Wall before they can warn the Emperor, and he is killed. They go underground and lead a resistance, and when Roman forces under Constantius (re)invade Britain to restore order and the rule of the Emperor in Rome, join them. | 9 |
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A huge book.. knocking on for almost 1000 pages... but what a cracker as Strike and Robin investigate their first ever cold case, while simultaneously running their increasingly successful detective agency and all the myriad of other cases they also have.. gripping, and another one of those books you stat to get a bit depressed about as you get nearer and nearer the end... so, premise of the cold case? A missing doctor, always suspected of having been killed by a psychopath serial killer, but was she??? | 9 |
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See blog post [clicky].. | 8 |
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A curious little book.. the production is gorgeous.. hard
cover, superb illustrations, but I am left wondering why... it is
not a short story*, it's more a 'lost chapter' to be honest...
very short.. I read it twice to see if I was missing anything, and
I wasn't... *foolish me I thought it was the follow on from the "Secret Commonwealth" when I saw it so I ordered in advance... 😄 |
6 |
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Very apt considering the plague like times we live in.. this has to be one of the most depressing books you'll ever likely read, but it is strangely addictive and you have to read to the end.. a post nuclear war world is slowly dying as the radio activity spreads southwards from the scene of the war, to the southern hemisphere where where Australia is the one of the last to be affected.. the book is about how the prospect of imminent death affects a selection of ordinary people, including one who already knows his close family are dead.. sobering indeed.. | 8 |
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Cornwell finally gets to the end of the series... we always knew Uhtred would live so that's not a spoiler (if he'd died who was telling the story in the first person in the previous 12 books!) but what I've liked about the last few books is that imminent sense of old age, and things coming to a close.. Uhtred is getting old, he's past his best, but he has experience on his side, and an analytical brain... so he finds himself caught as the jam in a sandwich between Aethelstan who dreams of a united Englaland, and Constantine of the Scots who opposes him, with Bamburgh right in the middle... cracking story.. one of the best in the series.. | 9 |
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A surprise find on Amazon in one of their daily sales... HE Bates is better known as the author of the 'Darling Buds of May' series, but what I hadn't known was that he was a prolific writer outside of that series.. during the war Bates was in the RAF, but not as a flyer or combatant, his sole job was writing short stories for the war effort.. so this would have been in a similar vein.. published in 1944, the story is about the crew of a crashed bomber in occupied France, and about how they plan to escape, and about the help they are given by the French, and is particularly about the skipper of the crew who is injured badly in the crash, and then falls in love with the daughter on the farm they eventually end up at.. very good.. | 8 |
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I'm fascinated by this series.. set in India at a time of transition -
between the two world wars - Ghandi is beginning to come to prominence,
and his campaign of non-aggression/non-activity is gaining traction.
Against that background Edward (he of Mrs Simpson fame) is paying a
royal visit to Calcutta, and Wyndham and his trusty side kick Sundrenath
are tasked with ensuring the visit passes without problem... throw in a
plot based on the early experiments of Porton Down with Chlorine gas -
and our two hero's are busy.. |
8 |
|
Kindle bargain - Wyndham's opium addiction has got to a point where he
is desperate to address the issue, and is advised by his Indian doctor
of an Ashram in Bengal where he can go to undergo a treatment... while
he is there, and after recovering from a fairly hideous cure, he runs
into an old adversary everyone until then has thought was dead...
very good, as the majority of the book is in the form of a retrospective
on Wyndhams early career in the police in the east end of
London... there are also indications that Surendranath is
becoming a more forthright character.. bit of a watershed
book... |
9 |
|
Maigret is in disgrace (for reasons not explained) and has been assigned
to a regional posting away from his beloved Paris, and his trusted
staff. Instead he is assigned an inspector with a penchant for Brylcream
who he doesn't like much, but is then given information by an
inquisitive old lady of a body she has seen in the retired judges house
next door.. cue an investigation into who the deceased is, why the
body is there, and who did the killing.. excellent! |
8 |
|
Back in Paris again, and Maigret has been tipped off by an informer that
a murder is about to be committed, on a specific date and time...
when the murder is indeed committed, Maigret is then tipped into a
complicated investigation into why the victim (a fortune teller) was
selected, who the scruffy old man discovered at the scene of the crime
is, and who committed the crime... I enjoyed this one - good to
have Maigret back in Paris..! |
9 |
|
Bought in the Osprey sale a while ago, this covers the same kind of
ground as the book by Yves Martin (above), but clearly in nowhere near
the same level of detail.. so a brief potted history, a very brief
description of the organisation and tactics of the French in Egypt, even
less on the Ottomans, and a very brief section on the he British... as
an introduction it's good, and the plates are fine, but for choice I
would go with the Martin book.. |
7 |
|
We have reached a watershed moment in the series as the team that has
been the basis of all previous 18 books comes to an end.. Macro,
the absolute consummate soldier has handed in his papers and retired
from the legions - with his wife he has departed for Britannia and
retirement running a pub in Londinium, leaving Cato to his own devices.
Devices which soon take a turn for the worse when he is accused of
overstepping his orders in Parthia (the previous book), found guilty,
and then stripped of his command in the Praetorian Guard. Desperate for
any service he is put in charge of the rabble garrison of Sardinia which
is beset by rebellion and plague, and told to nip the rebellion in the
bud! Throw in a recently dispossessed Emperor's mistress sent in to
exile on Sardinia and it's a good read... I missed Macro, but his
right hand man in Sicily was a good substitute... |
8 |
|
Rod the Mod slipped me this one in the summer, told me I'd like
it.. he wasn't wrong, but Lord it's a dark and sordid story. Set
in the last days of the whaling industry, the "hero" of the story is a
disgraced army medic who is addicted to opium - having reached rock
bottom he is employed by a scurrilous ship owner as ships doctor on a
whaler heading north.One of the harpooners is a psychopath, the ship
owner has a plan to defraud the insurance company, and then they ship
wreck miles from anywhere at the start of the winter.. very
good.. but very dark! |
8 |
|
I do like Matthew Hawkwood books - it was my dad who introduced me to
the eponymous hero. This is the last in the series (that we have so
far), and Hawkwood (who is ex-95th Rifles and now a Bow Street Runner)
is in pursuit of the killer of a street girl found murdered and
dumped in an a recently prepared grave.. as he says, if he doesn't
investigate, who will...? |
8 |
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After:
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n/a |
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A Boys from Brazil kind of theme going with this one - I'm not going to give it away here, but in essence we have a Cold War thriller, or rather a Cold War thriller set in the immediate period after it really ended. So the background is of a Russia struggling to come to terms with post-Communist life, and yearning for the old days of Stalin (seems unbelievable, but have a read of this [clicky] and you'll find it's not so far fetched). Love Robert Harris books - he's a story teller.. |
8 |
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