The White Road

At last I have my first book for Carl's R.I.P. VIII under my belt. I actually had to finish another book before I could start... it was a very good book... but a little frustrating as I wanted to be off and running with R.I.P. Well now I am and my first book for it was The White Road by John Connolly, book four in his very well known 'Charlie Parker' series.



Charlie and his new partner, Rachel, are now expecting a baby. Charlie is understandably uneasy as his former wife and young daughter were brutally murdered. The murderer was caught but Charlie knows full well that there are still people out there who want to get him and would stop at nothing to achieve their aims.

He gets a call from a former colleague now living in South Carolina, Elliot Norton. Norton is a lawyer and has taken on the case of a young black man, Atys Jones, accused of raping and murdering his girlfriend. The case is high profile because the girl is a member of a white, well-to-do family in the Charleston area. Norton is asking Charlie for his help but Charlie is reluctant, partly because of Rachel's pregnancy and not wishing to leave her alone, but also the case is giving him a bad feeling. Faulkner, the religious psychopath who was involved in his last case, is in prison but likely to be bailed by a man also local to Charleston. Is there a connection with all that's going on?

Charlie somehow feels compelled to go to Charleston to help his friend, Norton, out. What he finds there is a tangled web of lies and deceit that go back forty or fifty years to the days of racial segregation, and even beyond. It seems that Atys Jones' mother and sister disappeared in suspicious circumstances. Slowly, Charlie discovers that a group of young white men were involved, who these boys were, and that they are all still alive. His involvement is apparently highly unpopular because of his reputation, but is that all there is to it? And then someone starts to murder the group of men, one by one...

This book is a lot more complicated than I have managed to describe. John Connolly writes fabulously complicated plots and you need to keep your wits about you when you embark on one of them. The background plots are always some kind of grisly murder but never, ever simple. Charlie Parker sees dead people, has done since the death of his wife and daughter. In this book the supernatural element is increased to the point where we begin to wonder what Charlie is. It's partially explained - I'm not saying how, but I have to admit to being somewhat gobsmacked at the ideas behind it all. John Connolly is such a classy horror writer, one of the best and certainly my favourite at the moment.

The other thing I just love about this series is that the author does not treat the reader as an idiot: so we get history and geography lessons. In this we learn a little about the history of slavery, racial segregation, what the area around Charleston, SC, is like, the swamps and so forth. I did not know, for instance, that rice was grown in South Carolina. I thought slavery was based mainly on cotton and sugar... but 'rice'... news to me. Fascinating.

There are now eleven books in this series, plus a novella in the anthology, Nocturnes. The indication seems to be that the novella fits in after The White Road - I haven't read it yet, so will probably read that after my current RIP read. So thrilled that there are still so many Charlie Parker books for me to enjoy. A word of warning - they're probably not for everyone!

An excellent first read for R.I.P. VII. If every book I read is a good as this one I shall be a happy bunny.
~~~oOo~~~

R.I.P. VII

Autumn is very much in the air here in England. (Mind, it has been all summer. ;-)) The nights are drawing in very quickly and it's cool and rainy, although that's not to say it won't suddenly turn around and present us with a dry, warm September. I kind of hope not as I prefer a moody autumn to be honest. But there you go, what I'm actually here to say is that it's that time of year again - time for Carl's creepy books, reading extravaganza - R.I.P. VII.




“Does something amuse you?’ asked Uncle Montague.
‘I was merely reminding myself, Uncle, that I am getting too old to be so easily frightened by stories.’

‘Really?’ said Uncle Montague with a worrying degree of doubt in his voice. ‘You think there is an age at which you might become immune to fear?”
― Chris Priestley, Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror

I do love this quote from Chris Priestley's first 'Tales of Terror' book. (There are three, *all* completely brilliant and well worth reading.)

And what amazing artwork... perfect, imo. It's by Donna at Gothicrow apparently.

Anyway, Carl's post about R.I.P. VII is here, for those that want to check it out and maybe get involved.

Of the various levels of participation I'm going to do Peril the first.




Which is to... 'Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (the very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be King or Conan Doyle, Penny or Poe, Chandler or Collins, Lovecraft or Leroux…or anyone in between.'

The kinds of books that can be read include:

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.
Or anything sufficiently moody that shares a kinship with the above.

I seem to have gathered a substantial pool of books to choose from, not quite sure how that happened, I'm starting to wonder if I do it automatically come mid-August. Sort of a subconscious thing... lol.

Anyway, a few of them are:

Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Fated - Benedict Jacka
Pure - Andrew Miller
Mistletoe and Murder - Carola Dunn
I Shall Wear Midnight Terry Pratchett
The Hound of the Baskervilles According to Spike Milligan (humour)
The House of Silk - Anthony Horowitz
Fallen - Tim Lebbon
Full Dark House - Christopher Fowler

Those I own... but I also have from the library:

The White Road - John Connolly
Dark Matter - Michelle Paver
A Room Full of Bones - Elly Griffiths
The Black Angel - John Connolly
The Unquiet - John Connolly

Other possibles include:

The Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett (a reread)
Carpe Jugulum - Terry Pratchett (also a reread)
The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
Drood - Dan Simmons
A reread of any of Chris Priestley's 'Tales of Terror' books.
Some H.P. Lovecraft.
Some M.R. James.

Quite honestly, it'll just depend where my mood takes me as to which of these I read and for me that's part of the fun. I'm also sure there'll be more books added to this list as I see what others are reading.

Happy creepy reading!
~~~oOo~~~

Not blogging and books

Well, I really haven't done very well at blogging this month. I plead the Olympics, a few days being unwell this past week, and next week I won't be here, I'll be in Cardiff. So it's a quick post today or none until almost the end of the month.

And it isn't even as if I haven't been reading, because I have. Four books this month as a matter of fact. So I thought I'd do a very quick word about each of them to bring me up to date.

The first book of the month was a reread of my favourite Georgette Heyer - Sylvester.

Sylvester, Duke of Salford has decided it's time he married. He's not in love, or of a romantic persuasion so just needs a suitable girl. He goes to check out Phoebe Marlow, the daughter of a late friend of his mother's who lives, not that happily, with her father and step-mother and sisters. Phoebe takes offense at being looked over like a horse and takes flight with a child-hood friend, Tom. Sylvester has already lost interest in the girl and leaves but comes upon the two in an inn after they've crashed their carriage. Thus begin his adventures looking after the two and escorting Phoebe to London, where Phoebe turns out to be not at all biddable and falls into scrape after scrape. I've read this one four or five times now, and it's always fresh and delightful. I have other favourite Heyers, Frederica, Arabella, Venetia, The Black Sheep and so on but Sylvester is the one that keeps asking to be read... and so I do.

Next, Kisscut by Karin Slaughter.

I'm pinching the Amazon synopsis for this as the book went back to the library. When a teenage quarrel in the small town of Heartsdale explodes into a deadly shoot-out, Sara Linton - paediatrician and medical examiner - finds herself entangled in a horrific tragedy. And what seems at first to be a terrible but individual catastrophe proves to have wider implications when the autopsy reveals evidence of long-term abuse and ritualistic self-mutilation. Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver start to investigate, but the children surrounding the victim close ranks. The families turn their backs. Then a young girl is abducted, and it becomes clear that the first death is linked to an even more brutal crime. And unless Sara and Jeffrey can uncover the deadly secrets the children hide, it's going to happen again... Not for the faint-hearted this one. I mean *really* not for the faint-hearted. It involves child-abuse which is something I'm normally not happy reading about but Karin Slaughter's writing tends to carry you through and so it did this time. An excellent read and I'm happy to have book 3 of this Grant County series on my library pile.

Next, The case of the Murdered Muckraker by Carola Dunn.

Daisy is in New York meeting her publisher while husband, Alec, is in Washington advising a gov. dept. She's staying in the Chelsea hotel and soon becomes entangled in the various comings and goings of the other guests. Visiting her publisher, Daisy sees one of the hotel guests is there, a newspaper man, Otis Carmody. Suddenly there is a shot and Otis Carmody plummets to his death down a lift-shaft. Daisy's done it again - fallen over a dead body. Eventually, Alec joins her and the two set about trying to find out which of the hotel guests was the murderer. Another delightful Daisy Dalrymple book. I loved the 1920s American setting, the quirky guests in the hotel - especially the two elderly sisters - and the flight across America that Alec and Daisy end up taking in order to get their man. Huge fun.

Lastly, Snuff by Terry Pratchett.

Sybil has taken her husband, Sam Vimes, Commander of the Anch-Morpok city watch, away for a holiday. This is problematic partly because Sam is addicted to his job, but also the place he's being taken to, Sybil's ancestral home, is in the *country*. Sam is a city boy through and through and wants no truck with the countryside. Young Sam, their son, is in his elememt though as his new obsession is animal poo, of which there is an abundance out in the country. Once there, it doesn't take Sam long to discover that something isn't right. But what? His policeman's nose can sniff a mystery a mile off but first he has to find out what the secret is. It doesn't take him long. Unfortunately it also doesn't take him long to get himself arrested for murder... I think this is book 8 of Terry Pratchett's Sam Vimes books, which is also part of his larger, Discworld series. I've read and loved them all and this one's no exception. In fact, I thought this was the best, although The Fifth Elephant is very close behind. The mix of comic fantasy and mystery is a brilliant one, and Terry does humour better than anyone writing today, in my opinion. It's subtley done and I chuckled my way through the whole thing. Aside from that there is a serious theme to the story... that of how we treat a race of beings we consider to be vermin despite the fact that they have artistic and musical talent and language. Extremely thought-provoking. I wish some of the biggoted idiots we have in the world today could be force-fed Terry's books. Simply wonderful, this book, likely to be in my top ten for 2012.

So that's it from me for a while. RIP might be my next post at the end of the month, or there may be Welsh photos, we'll see.
~~~oOo~~~

A book meme

The Olympics has me in thrall at the moment so I'm not reading as much as I might be. I honestly did not expect to be as hooked as I am but there you go, The Games in your own country is a rare occurance and I suspect I will not see it again, so am making the most of it.

About all I've read this month is a reread - Sylvester by Georgette Heyer, a book I never tire of and must have read four or five times. I'm not sure how it always seems to read as fresh as though I've never read it before...

In the meantime, while there are no actual book posts from me, here's a book meme I nabbed from a friend.

1. Favourite childhood book?
Minnow on the Say by Philippa Pearce (amongst many).

2. What are you reading right now?
Kisscut by Karin Slaughter

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
Just one, Keeping the Dead by Tess Gerritsen

4. Bad book habit?
Buying books and then having them sit on the shelf, unread, for years.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
About 7 books, mainly crime I think - Karin Slaughter, John Connolly, James Lee Burke, a Raffles short story volume by E.W Hornung.

6. Do you have an e-reader?
I do indeed and I love it to bits. It will never replace real books for me but I love to use it as an extra reading tool.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
Mostly just one but if a book is particularly scary then I tend to have something lighter on the go for bedtime reading. And sometimes I'll be reading a non-fiction alongside some fiction.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
Yes. I read a lot of blog reviews and tend to buy recommendations or get them from the library. I'm sure my newish obsession with crime books is down to blogging... in fact I know it is.

9. Least favourite book you read this year (so far)?
Stories edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sorrantonio

10. Favourite book you've read this year?
Hmm. Not sure I can name just one! OK, *one* of the best was Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Probably not as often as I should. I like what I like and tend to stick to it as, for me anyway, reading is for enjoyment.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?
Crime, science fiction, fantasy.

13. Can you read on the bus?
I don't go on the bus any more but when I used to travel by coach occasionally, yes I could read on it.

14. Favourite place to read?
My favourite chair or in the conservatory where the light is excellent.

15. What is your policy on book lending?
I tend to lend to my daughters only, mainly because I don't know any others that read. If I did I think I would be careful as I do like to get my books back eventually.

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
No.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
No.

18. Not even with text books?
I may have when I was at school.

19. What is your favourite language to read in?
English.

20. What makes you love a book?
Imaginative plotting - I like to be taken by surprise. A spot of romance. Good writing.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
Anything but it's a difficult area as you have to consider strongly what the person may or may not like. People's tastes vary enormously.

22. Favourite genre?
Not long ago I would have said fantasy/horror and I still love those but right now I would have to say that I love crime and mystery stories.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did)?
I can't think of an answer to this. I'm an electic reader and will read most genres and do. Maybe westerns?

24. Favourite biography?
Wait For Me by Deborah Devonshire.

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
No. I'm beyond help. ;-)

26. Favourite cookbook?
Anything by Nigel Slater.

27. Most inspirational book you've read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
I'm struggling to define 'inspirational' to be honest. Um... Down Under by Bill Bryson was such a brilliant book about Australia I suppose I could be said to have been inspired by it?

28. Favourite reading snack?
Crisps or peanuts.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
Can't think of one.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
I don't really read things that professional critics review.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
I like to say what I think but hope I'm never cruel. I always stress too that this is only my opinion, others might have a different experience.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
This is pathetic but 'none'.

33. Most intimidating book you've ever read?
I don't tend to be intimidated by books, I tend to hope I'm capable of reading anything I put my mind to.

34. Most intimidating book you're too nervous to begin?
I'm not nervous of books, but a possible answer might be War and Peace *if* I had any interest in reading it, which I don't.

35. Favourite Poet?
I don't have one. Poetry is something I wish I knew more about. I tend to have favourite poems such as The Way Through the Woods by Kipling but I honestly can't say I've read enough of any one poet to have a favourite.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
Anywhere from 3 to 10. I try to restrain myself but rarely have any luck with that.

37. How often have you returned books to the library unread?
Quite lot!

38. Favourite fictional character?
Oh lord. Soooo many. I'll plump for a current favourite - Det. Insp. Alec Fletcher from Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple books. I love how long-suffering and tolerant he is.

39. Favourite fictional villain?
Don't have one - I'm a 'hero' sort of a gal. ;-)

40. Books I'm most likely to bring on vacation?
Just something I know I'm going to love. I usally take several, plus my Kindle.

41. The longest I've gone without reading.
A couple of days.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
Loads. I don't make myself finish books I don't like anymore. I also instantly forget them so I can't remember any titles.

43. What distracts you most when you're reading?
My husband fidgetting. My grandaughter has inherited this gene.

44. Favourite film adaptation of a novel?
The Last of the Mohicans.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
Can't think of one.

46. The most money I've ever spent in the book-store at one time?
No accurate idea but I would tend never to spend more than about £25. Average for me in a bookshop is around £15 to £20.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
I don't.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
I wouldn't get as far as that I think. If I'd managed halfway I'd probably plough on.

49. Do you like to keep your books organised?
Yes. Kind of. I'm a bit random in my organisation though.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you've read them?
It depends on how much I liked the book. If it's a keeper, I keep it, if not it goes to the charity shop generally, or passed on to one of my daughters.

51. Are there any books you've been avoiding?
I don't tend to avoid books. I suppose I'm not planning to read Fifty Shades of Grey but I'm not sure if that qualifies as *avoiding*. I just don't fancy it.

52. Name a book that made you angry.
Can't name a title in particluar but books about the holocaust that I've read in the past.

53. A book you didn't expect to like but did?
Twilight. Although I try not to be prejudiced about books before I start them.

54. A book that you expected to like but didn't?
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

55. Favourite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Er... no guilt here... sorry. It's all guilt-free as far as I'm concerned.

Three more books

I've actually read and finished six books this month, which is the first time I've done that since March, so perhaps I'm almost back to normal with my reading. I still don't want anything too heavy or that needs much concentration, so here I am with three more light reads to review.

First up another Daisy Dalrymple book by Carola Dunn - To Davy Jones Below.

This is probably a bit of a spoiler but anyone who's read any of the previous books in this series will not really be surprised to learn that Alec and Daisy are now newly married. Honeymoon over, they're inveigled into a trip to America so that Alec can help an American police force set up a new department. Daisy will take the opportunity to see her American publishers. They go by sea, and hope the voyage will be a nice relaxing time that they can spend together. They're joined by old friend, industrialist, Caleb Arbuckle, his daughter, Gloria and her new husband, Daisy's friend, Phillip Petrie. Also there is a business acquaintence of Arbuckle's, Jethro Gotobed and his new wife, ex-showgirl, Wanda. A storm hits halfway across the Atlantic and Alec has to take to his bed with sea-sickness. A man goes overboard, is saved, but foul-play is suspected. With Alec incapacitated it's left to Daisy to try and investigate. She finds it impossible to find any believable suspects but realises that Wanda is perhaps not what she seems. She's seen two men hanging around the ex-showgirl and when she discovers they might card-sharps her nose for a mystery is alerted. Eventually, Alec recovers enough to help her and together they set about trying to unravel the confusing facts. And then someone really is murdered...

Book nine of Daisy's adventures solving murders. This was not perhaps the best of the series so far - for me that would be Styx and Stones - but it was an enjoyable romp with a good list of quirky characters. Carola Dunn is very good at quirky characters, in my opinion, and it's one of the things that make her books well worth reading. I liked the fact that Daisy and Alec's relationship has moved on, they were very much the newlyweds in this one and for me that was fun and realistic. As always there was plenty of humour and a bit of realism - Daisy's friend, Lucy, insists she go to the new Marie Stopes contraceptive clinic to get sorted as she doesn't want to get 'preggy' (love that term) straight away. I love little details like that. All in all, another fun instalment of Carola Dunn's delightful series - as Daisy would say, 'Spiffing!'

Next, At Sea by Laurie Graham.

Enid and Bernard Finch have been married for over twenty years. He's an academic, an expert in the classics and together the two of them do cruises, Bernard giving talks on all things classical and Enid supporting him. Bernard sounds very English but is in fact an American. Enid, a minor member of the aristocracy and known as 'Lady' Enid, has had quite a loveless upbringing and gradually we learn that her marriage is more or less the same. Bernard is demanding in that he requires his ego to be constantly stroked but is not demanding emotionally or in the bedroom. One night at the beginning of the cruise one of the passengers claims to know Bernard from when he was a child. He claims Bernard is Willy Fink who lived in a small town in New York state: they were neighbours. Bernard denies any such thing but takes to their cabin at mealtimes and then fakes a throat infection. Enid realises Bernard is avoiding contact with this passenger, and also suspects her husband is not the man she thinks he is. What better tool to use to find out more than the world wide web? Having to fend for herself onboard ship, Enid begins her tranformation from 'innocent' to something else entirely...

I read about this book a week or two ago on Elaine's Random Jotting's post. It struck me that it sounded like a really fun read, I checked my local library and there it was, so I grabbed it. 'Fun' is the right way to describe this book. It does have a serious point to make, that of a woman trapped in a loveless marriage and not realising there's another way until circumstances force her into it. But the point is made with such a light touch you don't really realise you're being told about something that's really quite sad. Bernard is a brilliant creation, a self-centred ego-maniac who's been taking advantage of Enid's good nature for years. Her 'revenge' is wonderful as she discovers how caring ordinary people can be, that being a bit brash does not mean 'unkind', that the web can bring you back into contact with old friends, and that it is possible to discover the joys of sex at 55. I laughed my way through this as Enid so subtley puts Bernard in his place, time after time. Joyous. I shall certainly be picking up other books by this author and many thanks to Elaine for the recommendation.

Lastly, Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter.

Sara Linton is a paediatrician and medical examiner in the town of Heartsdale, Georgia. She's divorced from Jeffrey Tolliver, a local detective, he cheated on her but she still loves him and the feeling is mutual. Lunching with her sister, Tess, in the local diner, Sara goes to the ladies and discovers the brutally mutilated, murdered body of Sibyl Adams. Sibyl is the twin sister of a junior detective, Lena Adams, which further complicates the case for Jeffrey. Lena is awkward and prickly in the extreme, really she shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the case but Lena has other ideas. The investigating detectives have no idea why Sibyl has been the victim of this brutal murder - is it because she's a lesbian in a conservative area? Then a student from the local university campus goes missing. Again Sara discovers the body, pinned to the bonnet of her car. A serial killer is on the loose - who will be his next victim?

Well now, I wonder should I be concerned at my taste for these really quite shocking murder mysteries. This one was very gory, shocking, even sexually explicit. Very much in the vein of Tess Gerritsen and John Connolly to be honest... and I'm actually pleased to have discovered yet another author like them to read! The book was a real page-turner, I devoured it in just over a day, really not wanting to put it down at all. I liked the suspense aspect of course - edge of the seat stuff, especially the final few chapters. But also, I really liked Sara. She's independent, intelligent, not always easy to understand. She has something in her past which affects her badly and this is slowly revealed through the book. I also liked Jeffrey a lot, despite his indescretion. It was clear he was really a decent man, how much he regretted his mistake, and how much he wanted Sara back. Stick a bit of angsty romance in any book and I'm lost and gone forever. LOL. This book, as anyone will judge from what I've said, is NOT for everyone. Many will hate the graphic detail, the blood and the explicitness. If you're okay with that it's a 'must read'. If you're not, don't touch it with ten foot bargepole. Looking forward to reading more and have book 2 on reserve at the library.

~~~oOo~~~

Blog anniversary & a review

Well, it seems today, the 19th. July, is my five year blogging anniversary. Who'd have thought, way back in July 2007, that I'd still be here (more or less) doing my book reviews and chatting away to old friends and new. I took a look to see who was commenting back then and was surprised to see a number of people who are still here with me and that I regard now as friends. Amazing. And wonderful.

Okay. Well, I finished another book (don't faint)... read it rather quickly as a matter of fact as it was one of those page turning stories that gripped you by the throat and wouldn't let go - The Killing Kind by John Connolly. It's book three of his hugely popular 'Charlie Parker' series.



Charlie Parker is of course a private detective in the state of Maine in the USA. Two years before this book takes place his wife and daughter were callously murdered by a psychpath: Charlie tracked him down to Louisiana and killed him. After the events in book two where Charlie tracked down another serial killer, he is now trying to live quietly in Maine, taking only corporate cases that hopefully mean he might live into old age.

Others, unfortunately, have different ideas. US senator, Jack Mercier, wants to hire Charlie to investigate the death of the daughter of an ex-business associate, Grace Peltier. The young woman was shot in the head, in her car, and the death was supposedly suicide. But there are suspicious circumstances, not least of which is that Grace Peltier was investigating a secret religious sect, known as The Fellowship. It's not long before Charlie discovers links with a group of people known as the Aroostock Baptists who set up a small commune in rural Maine in the 1960s, stayed there for six months and promptly disappeared off the face of the earth. Then a mass grave is discovered... Someone leaves a nest of killer spiders in his mailbox... and thus another connection is made with the death, in Minnesota, of an abortionist doctor who was killed in her car by poisonous spiders. Charlie realises he's opened a can of worms... or is that a can of spiders?

It seems that before she died Grace Peltier took something from The Fellowship and they want it back. Charlie has no idea what it is and a prime witness has gone to ground. Charlie is intimidated by the frightening arachnophile, Mr. Pudd. Who is he? He's also haunted by the ghosts of a small boy with a wooden sign around his neck and a woman in a summer dress. Louis and Angel, his genial killer friends, help him unravel this frightening mystery but in doing so they put themselves into extreme danger and, worse for Charlie, the life of Rachel, the new woman in his life, is also threatened. People start to die horribly and Charlie knows it's a race against time to find the missing witness before everyone he loves is wiped out.

Well, I have to say that I wouldn't like to live entirely on a diet of books consisting of just these Charlie Parker stories. LOL. They are intense, frightening, roller-coaster, type reads and at the end of them you need something like a Daisy Dalrymple yarn to bring back some normality. John Connolly writes horror very well indeed. His short story collection, Nocturnes, is one of the best horror collections I've ever read. He brings this startling talent for the macabre to bear in this series. They're unlike anything else I read. The crimes and the killers remind me slightly of Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles books. She pulls no punches when it comes to depicting the sheer horror, sickness and intelligence of the serial killer that can't be caught. But Connolly adds an extra dimension... a supernatural, macabre element which scares the reader witless. I can't read these books in bed at night, I'd never be able to turn out the light. And they are *not* for everyone. Not by a long chalk. I would say, think carefully before you pick one up, be warned! On the other hand if you really like a bit of gritty crime laced with horror, then by all means, 'go for it!' You won't be sorry.

One interesting thing, John Connolly has a new book out next month. It's entitled, Books to Die For and is a book of essays by popular crime writers recommending their favourite crime authors and books. The FantasticFiction link is here. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be wanting that.
~~~oOo~~~

Two book post

Goodness, if the UK weather doesn't change over the next fortnight I wonder how The Olympics will fare. Heaving it down again today. Mid-July and I'm sitting here with two fleeces on. My husband's written off the garden this year. We have a good crop of peas and mange-tout, a decent crop of shallots and the tomatoes in the greenhouse look ok, though not as far advanced as they might be. Everything else has been eaten by a plague of slugs or simply not grown because it's too cold and wet. I rather think we may have had summer in March this year.

Anyway, I seem to be back reading normally again, albeit light, easy reads. But that's fine, sometimes that's all you want and there's nothing at all wrong with that. in my opinion. So, I have two books to do quickish reviews of and the first of these is Wild Designs by Katie Fforde.

Althea is a primary school secretary, about to lose her job when two schools are merged. This is not good under most circumstances but Althea has three teenage children to feed and clothe, one of whom is a Buddhist. Her life is rather complicated. Her husband left her for a younger woman when the children were young and is now living in Hong Kong, but part of the house she lives in is his of course, so he feels he has the right to interfere in her life. Althea decides that maybe she can make a living at garden designing but more bad news comes when she's told that the empty house that houses the greenhouse she's been using illegally, has been sold. The new owner is the very attractive, Patrick Donahugh, an architect, who himself has a younger woman in tow. Althea asks him if she can continue using the greenhouse until she finds somewhere else, and he agress, but finding somewhere is not as easy as it sounds. Then Althea wins a prize of creating a wild garden at The Chelsea Flower show. She has no money and worse still Patrick's girlfriend wants her out of their garden so she can build a swimming pool. Could life get any more complicated? Well yes... her husband, Frederick, could come home from Hong Long hoping to patch things up with Althea...

Like all Katie Fforde books Wild Designs was great fun. Lots of humour, a very pacey plot, very readable. I loved the children... she had the reality of living with teenagers spot on and the Buddhist son was amusing. I loved too all the gardening details, Althea knew her plants and I enjoyed reading about plants I knew and some I didn't. The Chelsea Flower show details were interesting and huge fun. Althea's house too sounded delightful... an old Cotswold house... I could just imagine it to be honest. Is there a 'but'? Yes, I have to admit I did have a 'but'. It's not a terrible whinge... I just didn't care for all those predatory women in this story. I know they're around, in reality, but *so* many in one person's life? Gosh! Practically every woman in the story had her eye on Patrick, poor Althea didn't know where to turn for women throwing themselves at him. Also, certain things connected with Patrick and his younger girlfriend, Topaz, didn't sit well with me. Perhaps I'm old fashioned in that I like my romance books a bit more straightforward than this. But, as I said, I did enjoy the book, Katie Fforde doesn't write bad books, but this is not my favourite - that honour, so far, goes to Living Dangerously.

Book number two is Rattle His Bones by Carola Dunn, book eight in her Daisy Dalrymple series.

Daisy is taking her fiancé's daughter, Belinda, and her sister's son, Derek, to the Natural History museum in Kensington. She plans to let them explore while she gathers information for an article she's writing on the museum for an American magazine. She meets various curators and makes plans to go back with a idea to do a much more in depth article which she might be able to sell elsewhere. It's on one of these return visits that one of the currators is violently murdered with a flint weapon, and Daisy is almost a witness. Her fiancé, Alec, a Scotland Yard detective, is by now resigned to Daisy falling over dead bodies. And if not exactly happy about it, allows Daisy to continue with the interviews for her article and uses any relevent information to help with his enquiries. The big problem really is that there are so many suspects. Not just curators of the museum, but other staff and, weirdly, a dethroned German count wanting to get back a ruby the museum owns, but that he feels is his, so he can raise an army to throw the Russians out of his small country. It's a tangled web and even Daisy's bent for finding things out is put severely to the test.

Another hugely enjoyable instalment of Daisy Dalrymple's adventures with dead bodies. The Natural History museum is a huge presence in this, luckily I've been there so had no trouble picturing it. For those that haven't there are a couple of floor plans at the front of the book. It was fun reading about the competition between the various curators, how they want to pinch artifacts off each other, the petty jealousies. I wouldn't mind betting this is very realistic for museums in general. One thing I did have trouble with was remembering all their names, who was who and what they did, but that's probably my middle-aged brain failing me. Daisy was in fine form as always... talking to people she shouldn't be talking to, but getting things out of them that the police never could. I like the development of her private life, her efforts to form some kind of working relationship with her rather difficult, soon to be mother-in-law for instance, and the way her working life is progressing. I was pleased to read that Alec had no intention of stopping her working when they were married, as I'm certain that did happen back then. All in all another excellent instalment of this series. I have the next three books on my Kindle and look forward hugely to reading them.
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