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Friday, February 18, 2011

Blood From Stone by Frances Fyfield

I always forget how well Frances Fyfield writes the psychological thriller, my label for the book, until I read her next one and I'm surprised all over again. Nothing is ever as it appears and every outing is just as fresh and frightening as the one before.

In this book, Marianne Shearer, a successful but disliked defense lawyer, dresses up in a kaleidoscopic silk skirt and throws herself out of a sixth-floor hotel window. So the question becomes not who but why. Marianne leaves a wealth of clues but they are well hidden and spread among several people.

The characters have so much depth that you appreciate even the ones you don't care for like the Lover and Thomas. I found the last person she defended, Rick Boyd, so scary that I was hesitant to pick up the book because I was afraid to find out who he was going to torture or kill, only to find he wasn't the worse person involved. Hen(rietta), her parents, and Peter were at the other end of spectrum: ordinary but strong.

It's just a good read with strong characters and a lot of tension. I gave it a 4.5 out of 5.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Bits and Bobs and A Small Death in the Great Glen

It's been so long since I last wrote that I hardly know where to start.  Guess writing about a book I just read is as good a place as any.

I finished A Small Death in the Great Glen, a first novel by A D Scott, set in the Scottish Highlands. For starters the name of the editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper is McAllister which was my grandmother's maiden name. I belong to the McAllister clan which is huge here in the US. That caught my attention right away. The characters and the setting  are very well done. The book is set in the 1950s, so there's not all the modern methods solving crime. It takes more leg work and digging into files. The plot involves a couple of "accidental" deaths and finally a strangling. The local cop is a bully who hates anyone who is a foreigner which leaves the detecting to the newspaper staff.  The ending is a little weak but for a first effort not bad. I really liked it.

Next up is the mess in my house which seems to be getting worse instead of better. So far the painter has done the Great Room, the kitchen and dining area as well as two closets and the halls. He has the stairwell and the pantry left to do this week. I'm not sure if he'll be back after he recovers from an operation or next week to do the bedrooms and the family room. I suppose I should ask him when he returns tomorrow. If he is coming next week, I'll have to quickly decide on some colors for the bedrooms because I want some variety in those room; however, I like my off-white which, I think, has a green tinge that we just used. Not sure anyone would agree with me on the green.

Most of the mess comes from the books that I pulled from the bookcases that I'm trying to organize into two groups of read and unread (these are just the shelves in one room). It takes a long time to dust, check and sort. Then there are the pictures to be rehung and everything to be washed before it's replaced. Darn, I can spend a lot of time doing this.

Can't let it interfere with my reading, working out, and social life so it may be slow going, and to add to those difficulties it's springlike and I want to be outside cleaning up the flower bed and yard. It may be going to rain tonight but at this point, it is a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the snow is melting, and it's warm enough not to need a jacket. Wow! How long can it last?

I got my granddaughter an upgrade on her phone yesterday and now she can't do her email and I have no internet. Guess we're headed back to the A T & T store to get them fixed. It was my upgrade that we used so the guy probably garbled something. Irritating to say the least!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Mutterings about Powerful Books and Endings

When I finished the eleventh adventure of Faraday and Winter, Borrowed Light, by Graham Hurley, I was so distraught that I had to call a friend who had just read the book. It helped calm me down to talk to her (thank you Bobbie) because she felt the same way I did and it was fun to share the book and our feelings. This series and these characters are faves for  both of us.

I would never give away an ending of a book, I hope, so I'll just say that I hadn't seen it coming. I thought the author played fair with me and I wasn't upset with him but the book was so powerful and I was so in tune with these characters that I could not accept the ending. In fact, at that point there was no way I could start to read another book because all I could do was moan and say omg, omg.

Having this experience made me think about authors who have made such an impact on me and so far I've only come up with two others in the past several years. One of those was J K Rowling and one was Louise Penny. I felt the same way when I finished The Brutal Telling as I did with Borrowed Light, and I sobbed my way through Bury Your Dead. I have never for a moment believed that Dumbledore is really dead. I have no answer why these authors impacted me so much except they are powerful writers and their characters are real people to me. If I were the only one who felt this way, I'd feel that I was a little weird writing that but fortunately I"m not the only one.

Needless to say I needed a comfort read after the Hurley discussion and so I chose the latest Ian Rutledge adventure, A Lonely Death, by Charles Todd. I thought this was one of the best in the series and it was a wonderful antidote for my sadness with the Hurley. I wonder if authors like to be considered comfort reads? Next thought to ponder.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Death on the Marais

Death on the Marais by Adrian Magson, 2010, Allison & Busby, 382 pp

Death on the Marais"She was going to die. She could feel it, her life ebbing away as surely as fine sand through fingers." This is the beginning of the first book in a new series written by Adrian Magson. 

As part of a 1963 nationwide initiative, Inspector Lucas Rocco finds himself working in the usually quiet village of Poissons-Les-Marais, Picardie, France under his former army CO now Commissaire Francois Massin. Marais means marshland which can be as dangerous as a murderer, a security force, and a local who deals with left over World War II bombs and grenades.


Lucas, an outspoken cop noted for his single-mindedness and tenacity in solving crimes, is aided by Claude Lamotte, the local cop, who knows the people and his way around the area.  

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On his first day in the village, Lucas finds a dead woman in a wet Gestapo uniform lying in a British military cemetery. When the as yet unidentified woman is removed from the police mortuary by war hero and industrialist Philippe Berbier, the drowned woman is identified as his daughter. The crimes are set in the present but revert back to a resistance cell and a member of the SOE in W W II. 


I liked both the characters and the setting in this book and I   look forward to solving more crimes with Lucas and Claude, and finding out more about their previous lives. The plot has enough twists and red herrings to satisfy.