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Wednesday April 30, 2014
Books in April
- Bryant and May and the White Corridor by Christopher
Fowler
Now working my way back through the series.
The plotting (and writing of course) seemed to really work here. Nice descriptions of the team development back at base, as well as the noble efforts of the elderly gents trying - and succeeding - to survive, having been stranded in their car (van) on an A road in the snow.
I felt a real sense of danger from the inevitable murderer, as well as the weather - and a warning against trying to manipulate others through bogus occult dabblings, even with the best of intentions. [Clearly, real occult dabblings are fine... unless you are a fan of Dennis Wheatley]. - Harbour Street by Anne Cleeves
Very keen to read the latest Vera novel and it lived up to all my expectations. Great plot and great characters.
The new TV series started soon after and opened with this story. I was a bit surprised they changed the murderer (although it still made good sense of the story) and could not see why - however subsequent episodes were "made for TV" and one of those had a rather similar villain so I could understand the decision.
It is a bit of a shame that Vera is not really played as she is in the book, even though Brenda Blethyn has really made her her own woman. TV Vera has fewer layers of complexity - more police drama. I think they had the same problem with Inspector Frost, in that although the TV character was pretty awful, neither he nor the city backdrop were quite as gritty as on the page. Or as I understand it, the author had a problem with it - I was less critical and thought they did real justice to the books by making a single book into multiple episodes, while still managing to make it a series rather than a serial. - Crosssfire by Dick Francis and Felix Francis
This was an exciting enough thriller which I read really quickly - so one might say "un-put-downable" - if you were not Pedanticus writing in the Guardian. This may sound grudging praise from me but it is not. There is some debate about the worthiness of Felix taking on his Father's mantle, but I think if there is anything to be said about it - or if there is no longer quite the massive readership there once was - it's probably because the taste for the Francis brand of novel has gone off the boil, rather than due to any change of authorship.
Anyway - quite as good as any stock Francis thriller in my opinion. -
Bonecrack BBC Radio Play
This is a BBC radio full-cast dramatisation of the Dick Francis novel, starring Francis Matthews, Caroline Blakison and Mark Colleano.
Fresh with the Dick Francis bug, I was attracted to this play as it stars Francis Matthews - and of course the excellent Caroline Blakiston. I have not read the book but the plot seemed a bit thin and the result pretty predictable ("spoilt brat finds Father Figure"). However, there was a real sense of menace, which was so strong that it was hard to see how our hero would manage to extricate himself. [Plot spoiler alert: "But he did"].
Posted by Christina at 11:01 PM. Category: Books of the Month