May 2020 has been and gone, and despite half term and basically being locked in the house, I’ve only got through ten books. Apparently this is a lot, according to some other bloggers I could mention, but it didn’t seem a lot to me. Maybe there’s something wrong with my eyes – I know, I’ll go and drive to Barnard Castle and back again to check. That makes sense.
I’ll be honest, I’ve been distracted this month – I’m busy trying to write introductions for you-know-what, I’ve been making plans for teaching remotely, I’ve been inwardly seething about the hypocrisy, spinelessness and utter uselessness of our government – and to be honest, my reading material has contained a few clunkers (and one outstanding exception). Except I read that last month, but I’ve been saving it for nearer release date. So what were these titles?
- The Case Of The Flowery Corpse by Christopher Bush – a solid entry in this series of reprints. Enjoyable, but not his very best work.
- Shroud Of Darkness by E C R Lorac – I’m appreciating Lorac more and more and this is a pretty decent effort from her. I’d recommend it if it was remotely available…
- The Seventh Sign by Brian Flynn – a tense exciting serial killer tale, let down somewhat by the killer’s calling card…
- Murder On The Downs by Julie Wassmer – another charming outing for the Pearl Nolan Detective Agency.
- The Nightingale Galley by Paul Doherty – an outstanding historical mystery, but I knew that, I’d read it before.
- As If By Magic by Dolores Gordon-Smith – the third Jack Haldean mystery, very entertaining, let down a bit for me by an overuse of a certain plot device.
- The Curator by M W Craven – simply the best mystery/thriller writer out there at the moment. There’s such a quality here, you can easily overlook the villain’s somewhat convoluted master-plan…
- The Obituary Club by Hugh Pentecost – possibly the winner for stupidest condition ever in a will.
- Down Among The Dead Men by Peter Lovesey – too many apparently disparate threads leading to a lack of focus that undermines the quality writing.
I was kind of determined not to give it to The Curator but the only book of the same quality is The Nightingale Gallery, and that was a re-read. The Curator is another outstanding thriller – three for three for the Washington Poe/Tilly Bradshaw (and two for two for the Avison Fluke books, recently re-released). The Curator is out on June 4th – and, just so you can sort out your diaries, Dead Ground, Book 4, is out on June 3rd 2021. Because I, for one, am already waiting for it…
I’ve already cleared my diary for the end of the week. It just has Tilly written across Thursday, Friday and Saturday – although I doubt it will take that long.
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Definitely not… just try and put it down.
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