Another year, another list.. 😏
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Best of the three so far I thought.. Lieutenant Peter Harding is one of the most successful commanders in the Fleet. But no man’s nerve can last forever – and Harding’s is beginning to crack. But the Admiralty has its own ways of securing Harding's continued service as it has one further task for Trigger and her crew. An allied agent and a brilliant scientist who is vital to the success of the top secret Manhattan Project is on the run in Italy. It's up to Harding to take Trigger deep into enemy waters to ensure the agent’s safety – no matter what the cost... | |
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Not so sure this wasn't a book too far really.. should have ended the series at the end of the previous book.. this one features not so much Peter Harding as his old 1st Lieutenant enjoying his first command and eaten up with envy that the war may end before he can rack up the same successes as his old skipper.. in the meanwhile somewhat improbably, Harding has switched to the Fleet Air Arm... errr...no.. me either.. 😏 | |
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Wallander witnesses, and then has to discover why a teenage girl doused herself in petrol and burned herself to death leaving no clues as to who she was. Shortly after, a former minister of justice is killed in a bizarre murder that proves to be the first by a serial killer who strikes again and again using hand axes. Are the cases linked, and are the victims linked - and Wallander keeps getting sidetracked by different areas of investigation... | |
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Montalbano and his colleagues are stumped when two bombs explode outside empty warehouses - one of which though, is next to the flat of a known big-time drug dealer. Meanwhile, in his personal life Montalbano is a bit preoccupied with an attractive woman supposedly in an open marriage who he realises is trying slightly too hard to seduce him.. why?? In the meanwhile false leads are being planted left right and centre... but when all else fails there's always Adelina's Arancini.. 😁 | |
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Vigàta's elite are targeted in a series of perfectly executed burglaries, and Montalbano reluctantly takes the case. It soon becomes clear however that they all know each other and have been present at each others houses and parties... Montalbano finds himself taken with one of the victims, the beautiful Angelica but as the detective's attraction grows, a series of strange, anonymous letters claiming responsibility for the thefts begin to arrive and challenging him to solve the crime . . . | |
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Best Maigret yet I think (and there have been some crackers!). A wealthy aristocrat is found dead in his home with multiple gun shot wounds, the first of which clearly killed him, and Maigret is called in to investigate. He finds himself in an old fashioned world where everyone he speaks to as part of the investigation, is old school aristocracy either moneyed or not, and where everyone is close lipped to protect each other. After interviewing everyone concerned, the inspector is at a loss to the identity of the perpetrator but as part of the investigation he comes across a series of letters spanning decades between the victim and a widowed woman. As Maigret uncovers the details behind the pair’s relationship, he gets closer to discovering the tragic truth behind the official’s demise. The description of Maigret's navigation of these class divides and his own position in society are brilliant - love the way he dives in to the nearest bar for a beer when ever he leaves one of these interviews! |
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I love procedurals.. books with loads of detail about a specific subject and this is one of them - the story of the build, commissioning, and war service of the imaginary cruiser HMS Antigone. From her build in pre-WW2 Belfast at Harland and Wolf, we meet and get to know the crew, before peace-time cruises to show the flag in Gibraltar, Malta, and then the Caribbean and Latin America, before war breaks out and she goes to the Atlantic to prove that all the training and expense was worth it.. cracking read.. | |
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Nineteenth book in the Inspector Montalbano series. Inspector Montalbano falls for the charms of the beautiful gallery owner Marian, and as a result his long time relationship with Livia comes under threat. Meanwhile, he is troubled by a strange dream as three crimes demand his attention: the robbery and assault of a wealthy merchants young wife, stolen works of art, and a search for arms traffickers that leads him deep into the countryside, where the investigation then takes a hugely tragic turn. | |
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One of the better Wilbur Smith's (and there are a number of them) - a treasure hunt for the cargo of a long lost East Indiaman leads to a reformed n'er do well, now living on a remote tropical island, rubbing up against some of the nastier elements of his old London underworld... deaths soon follow, but also the finding of the treasure, perhaps love, explosions, cyclones, and trouble with the coastal forces of the adjacent African country... very good... | |
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Written after the "Beam of Light" (see above) this is a book of short stories, some detailing Montalbano's earlier career before he arrives in Vigata, and some of them dating from afterwards, some of them are funny, some tragic, and some bonkers, but all of them are entertaining! | |
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A beach read... something that doesn't tax the brain, and found this copy in the hotel library, well thumbed and with half the pages hanging on to the spine by a thread.. Wilbur Smith does mercenaries, a romantically damaged hero, a beautiful girl who rescues him from himself (😝), a diabolical baddy, but you know it's always going to end up OK.. | |
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Better known for his non-fiction work James Holland is one of my favourite military historians (I have Cassino in my sights for a read soon!) but this is a sprawling family saga set at the start of WW2, and detailing the lives, loves, catastrophes, and other events affecting the people living in a small semi remote Wiltshire valley. It was a page turner, depicting the entirely un-dramatic, sometimes exciting, mostly humdrum, lives of a range of people... difficult to believe he won't follow this one up with a further book, as this one ends just after the Battle of Britain.. |
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Another beach read from the hotel library.. slightly brown round the edges and redolent of Hawaiian Tropic, and with grains of sand trapped between the pages you know where this one has been read... excellent story by the way, far better than the convoluted plot they put together for the film. You known the story so I won't repeat it here but elements of it it would have been ahead of its time when it was written in 1956... | |
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See Blog review [clicky].. | 10+ |
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An opportune buy in one of those Amazon flash sales where they offer a book super cheap knowing that it's the first in a series and, if you like it, you'll then pay full price for the rest! 😏So it was with this one.. Bernie samson had a bit of a tortured upbringing in Berlin post WW2 - his father was in Intelligence, and through him he meets a lot of his fathers friends colleagues who, in later years, are sometimes a help and sometimes a hindrance to him.. but as a child his playground was the war bombed streets and buildings of Berlin, and as a result he knows the city better than most in Mi6 who he now works for.. no plot spoilers, but this is the book that introduces you to most of the major characters that feature in the rest of the series... as good as Le Carre any day.. | |
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Following the tumultuous events of the previous book, not surprisingly, Bernie is under something of a cloud of suspicion within the somewhat paranoid department of Mi6 he works for, and so it is that he is charged with ensuring the defection of a Soviet agent runs smoothly and is actually accomplished.. the setting for the negotiations are a hot and sultry Mexico which I was interested to read was as much a neutral ground for the opposing sides of the Cold War as Spain and Portugal would have been in WW2 for the Axis and Allies | |
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Last book in the first trilogy, and the tortuous story continues - seriously good stuff, as Samson really does trust no one, and anyone can be a traitor. In this one Samson suspects that there is a traitor within his department of MI6, but it transpires that it is part of a plot conducted by his wife who defected and is now working for East German intelligence. When Samson's old friend Werner Volkmann is arrested by the East German police Samson organizes an unauthorised exchange of defector Erich Stinnes for him, but the operation ends in a shoot-out on the Berlin S-Bahn. |
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Set three years after the last trilogy. Bernard Samson is still investigating the ramifications of the defection of his wife Fiona to the East, despite all the warnings he has received, both friendly and otherwise. The novel begins with him visiting an old friend and ex-SIS colleague in Washington regarding a substantial amount of missing agency funds. Soon after, the friend is shot six times in an apparent mugging. When he then takes his evidence to the elderly Director General, he orders his arrest, the book ends with him escaping but now faced with the task of proving his innocence. | |
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Third book in the Jack Pembroke series.. needed a break from the spies.. this is a very underrated, but excellent, series. The book tells the story of the South African Navy's participation in WW2 through the eyes of an ex-part British Royal Navy officer albeit in a fictionalised way. The South African Navy's war was one of small ships.. coastal convoy escort and mine sweeping being two of their vital roles.. it's not well known that the South African's also played a significant part in the North Africa campaign, on the sea as mentioned, but also on land and in the air.. very good.. | |
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Written by the same author as the Slow Horses series, and though some of the characters from that series feature this is a stand alone book set a number of years before the series starts, but giving some vital background on the relationship between some of the main players in Slough House and environs. An investigative committee is launched to examine any wrong doings on previous Secret Service actions and receives a file via a non-official route that deals with an operation in Berlin just after the Wall came down. As ever with Herron there are wheels within wheels, and the story is very very clever, but even an old cynic like me finds the never ending and deep rooted cynicism and conspiracy theories a little wearing after a while.. | |
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Montalbano #20 - just what the doctor ordered.. a supermarket manager commits suicide following an attempted robbery of his supermarket - Montalbano and his team are caught up in the accusations that he was driven to it by over eager questioning, but having proved themselves not to be blamed, other witnesses and passers by also start dying.. can it be the Mafia cleaning up? | |
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This was a dark one, and though I started to guess about three chapters from the end it was still a pretty nasty ending.. the death of a very unpleasant, blackmailing, money lender leads Montalbano to a very unpalatable truth.. excellent | |
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A body is found in a partially completed drainage tunnel, on a partially completed but abandoned construction site.. nothing to see but a sea of mud.. then Montalbano discovers other abandoned building projects.. then he discovers that the man's wife has also disappeared, and that he was the accountant for a number of the companies that were doing the building.. then Montalbano discovers that a mysterious man was staying with them.. excellent! | |
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The body of a man is dumped in central Paris - he has been severely beaten before being dumped, and Maigret investigates, almost despite the efforts of the French legal bureaucracy which it is clear has changed significantly since Maigret first started detecting, and in his view not for the best. Turns out the man is a burglar, and as Maigret investigates more he finds him to be curiously likeable.. | |
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The body of the head of a wealthy family is found dead in his study.. murdered... and Maigret cannot find a single person who might have a cause to kill him. The family are clearly covering something up, but he can't uncover it, and why would anyone want to kill the man anyway - both he and his family are very well liked and respectable.. then he discovers a chink in their armour of respectability.. very good! | |
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A man is waiting in the stairwell of Maigret's apartment building and what he has to tell him causes Maigret to start investigating despite no crime having (yet) been committed.. then the man disappears and Maigret now has a crime to investigate - but not the one he originally thought he would be! | |
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Young girls are being abducted, and initially at least, returned unharmed and unmolested the next morning - the only thing they have in common is that they all work as tellers in various local banks. Then it starts to turn nasty and Montalbano feels like he os racing against time to catch a culprit who seems to be escalating the level of violence. | |
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A long time ago, being a bit of a completist, and having deeply liked the photographs that the publisher used on these editions, I set myself the task of collecting the entire series.. little did I know how long it would take.. this is no. 60 in the series (Simenon was hugely prolific - writing on average over a book a year in his lifetime) and deals with the suspicious attempted murder of a tramp living under one of the bridges across the Seine - funnily enough just across the way from where his estranged wife now lives.. | |
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My regular reader will know Dick Francis is my guilty secret.. he is the consummate story teller, and while having no interest in riding a horse, I find the horsey/racing subtext fascinating.. he was also clearly hugely curious as each of his books features a character with a specific or interesting career or interest.. in this one he is an accountant (and an amateur jockey), but he is being targeted by persons unknown, perhaps because of previous financial audits that have turned up wrongdoing??? | |
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Once you start... 😁Read this one before as it turns out but no harm done.. quintessential Francis - in this one the eponymous hero is an action film actor.. in a curious case of role becoming reality he has to escape from a dire situation, while also ensuring the baddy gets his just deserts.. set against a background of apartheid South Africa and gold mines.. horse racing of course also features.. | |
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The first Montalbano book that Camilleri created after he had effectively gone blind due to glaucoma (he dictated the novel to an assistant) this one features two separate strands of story line - one the increasing numbers of refugees arriving in Sicily (they must surely be considered front line along with Greece in the current refugee crisis) but the main story is about the death of a beautiful woman, who happens to be a tailor, and is murdered during the process of making Montalbano a new suit.. | |
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Vigata (Montalbano's home town) is invaded by an Italian Swedish television company making a film and all is in uproar.. Montalbano is reduced to eating in a private room at his favourite restaurant so as to get away from the crowds - Montalbano however is trying to solve two crimes, one concerning a strange set of films made by the local council engineers father, filmed over many years, and of the same piece of wall, and the second concerning the attack on a local school buy two armed and masked men who don't quite seem to know what they're doing.. | |
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The strangled body of a nightclub owner is found dumped on a busy main street in Montmartre, prompting Maigret to go back to the streets where he started his career. He seemingly had no major enemies, though had been in the frame for the shooting of another nightclub owner. | |
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