Back to Work and another book read

I went back to work yesterday - what a shock to the system! Everyone seemed just as fed up as when I was last in the office. Loads more work coming my way because we keep losing people left right and centre from various bits of the organisation. As I said to the boss today - 'I can only do what I can do.' Felt like saying I'm not paid to worry about the backlog building up, but decided I'd start off polite. When I can't see my desk that'll be the time to get out the bad language. I felt marginally less fed up today, but relieved to get home.

I've finished reading Martin Edwards' 'The Cipher Garden' which I thoroughly enjoyed - even better than 'The Coffin Trail' which is the first in his Lake District series. Hannah Scarlett of the cold case review unit is investigating the murder of Warren Howe, a landscape gardener and ladies' man. There were plenty of suspects at the time of the murder but not enough evidence to charge any of them. Her own private life is full of tension and she finds herself looking forward more than she should to her meetings with Daniel Kind - exiled Oxford don and son of her old boss. Daniel himself is trying to work out the hidden cipher in his overgrown cottage garden - which includes some of my favourite trees - monkey puzzles. He is distracted by hearing about the murder and sets out to try and find what he can about it. The fast paced plot soon throws up many possible suspects with many and various motives, and the reader is kept guessing until the violent ending. The characters are well drawn and complex and Daniel's growing relationship with Hannah is subtly drawn. I'm looking forward to reading the third in the series - 'The Arsenic Labyrinth.'