Sunday July 31, 2016
Books in July
- The Original Inspector George Gently Collection by Alan
Hunter
My colleague Tony recommended I try these and I did find them enjoyable.
Quite different from the TV series - it's hard to imagine book-Gently
as any other than an old man - however I don't think that's actually
true it's just that the era is the 1960s and I was a child then so all
adult detectives were going to be avuncular old men [No Hiding Place
with Raymond Francis etc]. In truth I suppose TV-Gently in the shape
of Martin Shaw* is in fact an old
man - he just doesn't seem to be for one of my age now! This is the
first two stories in one edition Gently Does It and Gently
by the Shore - there is also an omnibus available with the first
4 books. Hunter makes a statement at the start of the book that the
stories are not meant to be "whodunnits" so don't complain....
In fact I found them quite intriguing enough for all that.
* I recently saw Martin Shaw as Dalgliesh in the first of the two PD James stories he recorded around 2003. I thought it was excellent even though I was keen on Roy Marsden in the role. The two stories are connected so it made sense to make them of a piece in this way. [Frustratingly missed the second one - hopefully not too long before another repeat even though they were screened at 2 am.....]. - Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama [translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies]
A totally fascinating book - not only a good thriller with an interesting
and very (I feel) Japanese explanation of the mystery at the end, but
also seemingly a real insight into Japanese life. Throughout, the hero
has a very sad personal situation to deal with and I was sorry that
(like in real life) was not resolved. However, a lot of the story is
very political, and maybe simply a "police procedural" but
it's made so much more interesting to me because it is written by a
Japanese person, not from an outsider's view. I suppose it may not relate
to real policing any more than any other stories I read ("you've
got 24 hours to solve it or you're off the case") but I loved all
the incidental social interactions showing the paramount importance
of manners, respect, and not losing face. I did think that I would have
trouble getting to grips with the different characters - I am a lazy
reader and my eye skates over names; there was a pretty big cast list
with a predominance of names starting with M closely followed by Y -
but in fact I managed quite well.
I was alerted to this book by the iKnit Book Group (first Tuesday of every month) - too late to meet with them by the time I'd read it sadly - and I never seem to have the time to get up there..... maybe one day....
[PS Helen thought the title might be a football score - it isn't] - The Blue Afternoon by William Boyd
This was an impulse purchase ex-Surrey library (3 for 2 - how could
I resist?).
I always like this author and I'm not sure why I don't read more. I guess they are always a little too poignantly sad overall. However, with this one, (as ever), I was totally gripped by the writing and the plot. Even in the opening chapters I was totally heartbroken (or maybe sick with frustration) alongside our heroine - an architect - as a wonderful building is destroyed out of sheer malice and spite. And that's only the set up to the real tale.... - Aftermath by Peter Turnbull [read by ]
OK I may have said before - not my favourite author - so... why? Well,
terrible enough that I read the first one of his books by mistake (Peter
Lovesey/Peter Tremayne) - but I did the same thing AGAIN this time.
More excusable though - I selected two Peter Robinson talking
books to keep me amused on my trip to Cambridge - and in one choice
I was correct but I quickly discerned that this Aftermath was
the right title but not the right author!
Unfortunately I found it as dire as ever and never got as far as listening to the actual DCI Banks story until I got home. [And after all that, the murderers were not brought to justice! How bad is that? really!]. - When the Devil Drives by Christopher Brookmyre [read
by Sarah
Barron]
Finally got round to listening to the 2nd book in this trilogy - the
middle one - I read them out of order. Again another author I really
like, although I think maybe these books about Jasmine Sharp may not
be his dramatically strongest or most side-splittingly funny.
Several days after having listenend to the epilogue - where things were wrapped up - I realised what the last sentence ("she was not her sister") actually meant. I had imagined it meant not the same character as her sister instead of which it was (clearly even if not to me) literal.
Now you will have to read it... 
A Bullet at Balmain's - A Noel Coward Mystery
Marcy Kahan's Noel Coward playing the sleuth in post-Liberation Paris, this time. It's 1948 and Coward is in Paris to play the lead in his own play 'Present Laughter' - in French - which is amusing enugh of itself. Add in haute couture, existentialism, jazz . . .
Stars Malcolm Sinclair as Noel Coward, with Eleanor Bron and Tam Williams as his devoted staff.
Posted by Christina at 11:57 PM. Category: Books of the Month
