Well, here we are, a week from the end one of my favourite reading months, October, and I've read just three books. Why? Well, I finished two novels and then started sampling spooky short stories from various supernatural anthologies and thus no complete books finished.
Anyway, I started the month with Down Among the Dead, the 10th. book in Damien Boyd's 'Nick Dixon' crime series set in Somerset.
So this instalment of the series is based around the site of the battle of Sedgemoor. This took place in 1685, in Somerset, over on the Somerset levels, and was part of The Monmouth Rebellion. We've passed the site a few times on the way to somewhere or other. An archaeological dig unveils what turns out to be a newly dead corpse, not one from the 17th. century. Whoever it was, was killed by a curved blade which was how a certain serial killer was operating fifteen years ago, but he's locked up in prison with an appeal pending. He has always maintained his innocence. A superior officer, who had been involved in the arrest, insists that Dixon undertake the investigation. Why? So this was one of the best of the series so far. I love any mystery than involves archaeology, so it was onto a winner before it started, but also the 'setting'. That area has a certain atmosphere, lonely, unsettling, wild, and the author got that very precisely. I enjoyed the historial elements about the battle too and the investigation, as always, kept me guessing. Damien Boyd writes superb crime fiction and I can't think for the life of me why he's not more well known. Is Nick not enough of a tormented soul... his home life too normal? Is Somerset not as interesting as, say, London or Glasgow? Possibly, but if so it's a real injustice as these books are top-notch.
Next up, a spooky read by Michele Paver, Wakenhyrst.
This book actually starts in 1966 with a journalist trying to interview the now elderly and eccentric, Maud Stearne, who has lived in an old house, Wake's End, all her life. The house is in The Fens area of Suffolk on the east coast of the UK. It's a wild, untamed area, full of superstition and tales of the supernatural... or it was at the beginning of the 20th. century when the real story began. 'Maman', Maud's mother was alive then and producing far too many babies who did not survive. Too young to understand anything, Maud prays for the babies to stop coming. When her mother dies in distressing circumstances, her daughter's life changes completely and suddenly she's at the mercy of a father, Edmund, who, discovering a macabre painting in the churchyard begins to descend into madness. There's a lot, lot more to this book than this brief description can convey. The sense of place was superb, the isolation of the fens in those times, the wild beauty that Maud loves and her father hates, is beautifully depicted. Maud herself is wonderful. She tries so hard to gain her father's trust and love but he has no time for a daughter, only in so far as she can be useful, typing out his historical notes, and when she finally realises this the reader thinks, 'At last!' What this book reminded me of is some of the weird stories from the British Library collections, but developed into a proper novel. It's very satisfyingly done by a very competent author. Beautifully written, very atmospheric, every character very real. I've read one other book by Michele Paver, Dark Matter, that too was excellent, I'd also like to read Thin Air and Rainforest and will line them up for 2027.
So, after I'd read various short stories (one of those books is still ongoing) I wanted a full-length book so plumped for Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham , book 2 in her Albert Campion series, published in 1930.
Oddly, this took me right back to Suffolk and another isolated house in a quiet village. Albert Campion is asked to help an American judge and his family: Judge Crowdy Lobbett is on the run from a sinister New York gang who want him dead. Their leader is a very mysterious 'super criminal' type whose identity is unknown and thus Campion's task is made more difficult. He takes the family - the judge and his two grown up children - to the Suffolk village of Mystery Mile where he has friends, young siblings, Biddy and Giles, in order to hide them away. It doesn't work of course, and absolute mayhem ensues. I loved this to bits. Well written, an excellent sense of place be it the marshes of Suffolk, the city of London or a liner in the middle of the Atlantic, and I love the craziness... Albert is mad as a hatter and Lugg is a fantastic character. Back in August I read The Case of the Late Pig which I also liked but I thought this one was better. I foresee many more Campion books in 2027 and already have several of the cheaper ones on my Kindle.
So, October has been a good, albeit slower, reading month for me. But that's fine. The fact that they were all, for me, 5 star reads says I lot and I'm quite happy.
I hope you're having a good reading month and keeping well. Autumn storms have started here in the UK so stay safe!
2 comments:
You have had some fine reads, Cath! I do love a strong sense of place in a novel, and it sounds as though the suspense comes as much from the place as it does from anything else in these books. I like the idea of reading short stories, too; sometimes they're as 'filling' as a novel would be!
Thank you for the book recommendations. I am currently reading a book by M L Stedman —A Far Flung Life set in Australia. I love the image you have as your blog header —-is it from a poster? Thank you, Jean in Winnipeg.
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