Work for Idle Hands: Books in July

Saturday July 31, 2021

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo [read by Seán Barrett]
Harry Hole's third outing where, while he remains in Norway, much of the related plot is set elsewhere both in time as well as place. The telling reminds me somewhat of the way Doyle chooses to expand Sherlock Holmes beyond the short story format, so we have two tales in one. Very interesting historically for those, like me, who know absolutely nothing about Norway's political position in WW2, as well as being very tense and thrilling as usual. [And to make a change - spoiler alert - Harry's love interest does not end up as a murder victim, though a colleague does, and we are treated to a variation on the traditional trope of someone saying "I know who the murderer is" but then not actually revealing it in the same sentence.]

Earthly Remains by Donna Leon [Read by David Rintoul]
Brunetti is stressed to breaking by his work life, where he seems to be constantly battling to get at the truth (which is pretty blatantly obvious in many cases) and to prosecute the guilty (who are not brought to justice through undue influence and money). His wife suggests a holiday away from it all for a couple of weeks, and ships him off to a villa owned by her family.
He spends his time as planned - rowing in the daytime with the caretaker, visiting the latter's beehives, and reading Pliny in the evenings. But a mystery develops, culminating in a death, and Brunetti is inevitably caught up in it.
This tale is really depressingly true to life - a tale of industrial pollution, corruption (at all levels of society), and probable murder - and ultimately, yet again, with the guilty evading any consequences.

The Sea Detective, The Woman Who Walked into the Sea, The Malice of Waves,
and The Driftwood Girls by Mark Douglas-Home
Cal McGill is an Edinburgh-based oceanographer, and environmentalist. He's an interesting take on a private investigator, as he is contracted by various commercial institutions to track down items lost at sea; he uses his own computer based modelling on ocean currents in order to provide information. To me this is a much more plausible way that one might make a living as a niche investigator in the UK (America may be different) than as the conventional private detective of novels. Initially his (paid) work is looking for lost shipping containers and cargo, but as the books progress he is employed by families looking for the remains of lost loved-ones, and then inevitably we find ourselves embroiled in the more conventional murder mystery.

Posted by Christina at 9:18 AM. Category: Books of the Month