« Well Manor Farm | Main | Wisteria »
Thursday April 30, 2015
Books in April
- The Innocent by Harlan Coben
I've had this book for a long time - probably on "permanent" loan from Helen - and as I read it I felt some parts were very familiar, but I am certain I never read it to its conclusion in the past.
Anyway - another exciting thriller and makes me want to read more - but I cannot get enthusiastic about his Myron Bolitar series books simply because the hero is a former basket ball player (!). I really should just bite the bullet and read one to overcome my prejudices.
Or alternatively he has many other stand-alone novels I could pick from.....
- Bertie Plays the Blues by Alexander McCall Smith
This is not the first in this "44 Scotland Street" series, but made perfect sense without the other 6.
Bertie is a charming (gifted) little boy of 7 who decides to put himself up for adoption on eBay. [An intellectual version of running away I think, but it remnded me of my Mother (in a less enlightened era perhaps) continually upbraiding my sister by telling her she was lucky to have parents and not be brought up in a "HOME" - and my sister privately thinking that a "HOME" without parents sounded rather nice (not knowing any better one way or the other I hasten to add)]
- A Deep Hole by Ian Rankin [read by Paul Thornley]
A short story beautifully told.
A road digger (Repair Effecter for the council’s Highways Department) is compelled to offer a favour to a local loan shark, who in turn is offering favours to others in the waste disposal business - a business where holes can come in very handy.
Baldi
In this radio series David Threlfall plays Paolo Baldi, a Franciscan priest on sabbatical, lecturing on semiotics at a university in contemporary Dublin. After helping the police as a translator for an Italian witness, he turns sleuth. I listened to a couple of Radio episodes - The Million Dollar Question and A Very Neglected Fish.
And actually David Threlfall is uppermost in my mind as I so impressed by the recent TV drama: Code of a Killer* - I am lost for superlatives at how excellent it was. I remember the real life case being solved, and it seemed to me that the production was very true to the facts - as confirmed by Dr Jeffreys and Detective David Baker (now retired). Yet how tense and interesting it was - no foolish "sexing up" of the plot required - and none added.
[Not to mention the excellent dramatic portrayal of Noah shown over the Easter schedules.]
* <small digression> Maybe it's just because I am a Chemist at heart - I was very disappointed that Magdalen College did not manage to win the Universtiy Challenge final having got there with their two Chemistry students.... Paxman did suggest they did not have "broad enough" subjects and that the questions did not favour them - but Gonville and Caius are more than worthy winners - an astonishing contest this year. <end small digression>
The
Mystery of a Butcher's Shop
Listening to this radio play makes me think that Diana Rigg perhaps gave TV Mrs Bradley an air of gentility and sartorial elegance (not to mention a chauffeur) not present in the original books.
In these radio plays, vibrant character actor Mary Wimbush (known to me as Aunt Dahlia from The Laurie/Fry Bertie Wooster series) voices said lady - giving her a "hearty and disquieting laugh that unsettles suspects and listeners alike". [No really - it was rather weird]
Paul
Temple and the Alex Affair
Yet again the criminal mastermind who seems to sign a set of mysterious murders with his name...
This one is crammed full of suspicious characters and red herrings, though unusually I did guess the identity of the nasty blackmailer before we were formally introduced.
Broadcast in 1968 this was to be the last in the series starring Peter Coke and Marjorie Westbury, displaying their exceptional skills behind the radio mike. [But by Timothy! there seem to be lots more of these "Affairs" and "Mysteries" for me yet to enjoy...]
Posted by Christina at 9:43 PM. Category: Books of the Month
