I thought it was time I did a quick catch-up of the three books I've read this month. It's been a little bit of a busy time, plus last weekend was the first anniversary of my husband, Peter's, passing away. The family came together of course and we quietly celebrated his memory. I don't know where the year went to be honest, but on the other hand it feels like I've been a widow for 'years'. Life is strange.
Anyway. I started the month by finishing A Mudlarking Year by Lara Maiklem.
This is a follow-up book to her Mudlark: In Search of London's Past Along the River Thames, which I reviewed HERE. In many ways this is a continuation of the story but this time she charts a whole year of finds on the Thames' foreshore, in chronological order, starting, of course, in January. It's like spending a year in London, experiencing the weather - it was a heatwave year - the people and the moods of the river itself. Lovers of London will love this. I don't 'love' London but I have a certain fondness for it, my mother was a Londoner so it's probably in my blood, but also Peter and I had many a holiday up there, sometimes alone, other times with American friends who actually knew it better than we did. One of the best points of Lara Maiklem's books, for me, is all of the investigating she does into the backgrounds of her finds and how much knowledge she imparts to the reader. And all in a very readable manner, dry history this is not. Another five star read from her, I do hope she's busy writing more books.
Next, Stone Maidens by Lloyd Devereux Richards.
Christine Prusik is a forensic anthropologist attached to the FBI in Chicago. Teenage girls are disappearing and being discovered murdered in southern Indiana, and in the throat of each victim... a small stone carving. Prusik leads the team investigating the murders but is up against it as the men under her are not fully co-operating. Plus, she has mental issues connected to a visit to Papua New Guinea, where she had previously come across similar stone carvings. A suspect is indentified quite quickly, and everyone is sure he's their man... except Prusik. Ok, so this is a 'love it' or 'hate it' book according to Goodreads. Because I know nothing about the workings of anthropology depts. in the FBI I had no thought that the author might've got procedure wrong. To me it was quite a good, pacey sort of crime yarn, with an outcome I had vaguely considered, but still thought it was well done. I 'did' find it odd that Prusik was popping pills willy-nilly to keep herself stable and that got old quite quickly. Plus, it would be nice to have a female in a lead role where the author does not make her being a female such a problem for the men - to the point of jeopardising the case because they won't listen to her. Perhaps this does happen in real life, I don't know, but I find it over-used in crime fiction. Four stars because it is a well written and very pacey story and overall I did enjoy it.
Fancying something completely different next, I moved on to a reread of a Regency romance and that was Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer.
Annis Wychwood is 29 and considers herself, if not an old maid then certainly 'on the shelf'. She has gone to great pains to create an independent life for herself in Bath but it's not easy to persuade her family to let her lead said independent life: her brother in particular is interfering. She becomes embroiled in the problems of a runaway, Lucilla Carleton, an orphan, but from a wealthy family who are suffocating her. This brings her into contact with Lucilla's uncle, Oliver Carleton, who has the reputation of being the rudest man in London. The family are not happy and Annis's life becomes difficult and complicated but she's certainly not bored any more! So of course, as with most of Heyer's Regencies, it's pretty obvious where this is heading but that's what us fans read her for. The writing is exquisite in all her books, she was funny and entertaining and, although there a few good writers of Regencies around these days (I'm told, I haven't tried many... but Sophie Irwin is quite good) no one compares to her, unless you count Jane Austen. Highly recommend for a romantic wallow. Five stars on Goodreads.
I'm now at that stage where I need to choose a new book but haven't a clue what I fancy. I'm 12 pages from the end of this:
Virgil's The Aeneid has been interesting but not what you would call a pageturner. A bit too battley for me, who came, how they were slaughtered, who their fathers were... Gods quite often it seemed to me... I couldn't keep track. But I'm pleased to actually get to the end! I'm going to try Ovid next and also go from Rome back to Greece and read one of the modern retold Greek myths written from the woman's point of view. I have a few collected on my Kindle.
Enjoy spring or autumn, depending on where you are and I hope you're well and finding lots of good books to read.
