Where has spring gone and books

I did think after such a pleasant day yesterday - apart from the cold start - that spring just might be in the air but today it's cold and blowy and wet. Come back spring, all is forgiven.

I finished reading M R Hall's The Coroner - a tense crime story, featuring as might be expected, the work of a coroner. I found it interesting as it features corruption in various places and it has a good old dig at the idea of privately run prisons. I think the only aspect for which I would criticise it is that Jenny - the Coroner of the title - had some anxiety problems which she found difficult to deal with and was constantly popping pills. I wasn't wholly convinced by this and was unsurprised to read - after I'd finished it - that the author is male and I don't think he's wholly got inside this female character.

It didn't spoil the book for me as the plot was excellent and the other characters convincing. It is made clear in the story that there is something in Jenny's past which caused her mental problems but what exactly is not revealed. I'm assuming there will be others in the series and hopefully all will become clear. I would still recommend the book especially for its different background from the usual.

I'm currently reading The Music Room by William Fiennes, an interesting memoir of his childhood growing up in a moated castle somewhere near Warwickshire. His portrait of his brother who suffered from a severe form of epilepsy and how it affected the whole family is poignant but accepting. Memoir is interspersed with excursions into various theories of the mechanics of epilepsy. The writing is of excellent quality with evocative descriptions of the countryside, his home and the various flora and fauna. Worth reading.

Books

Current books on the go: Elizabeth Aston - The Darcy Connection - another Jane Austen spin off; Julia Williams - Strictly Love - chick lit with a ballroom dancing background; M R Hall - The Coroner - very good psychological crime about cover ups on a grand scale.

I've just finished L C Tyler's The Herring Seller's Apprentice which was very Golden Age of detective fiction even though it's set in the present. Two narrators - novelist Ethelred Tressider and his agent Elsie Thirkettle. Elsie reminded me of Agatha Raisin with her robust physique and terrier-like qualities. The plot is excellent and I would defy anyone to work out what actually happened. Ethelred's ex-wife is found murdered and the police suspect Ethelred for a while as well as Rupert the man she left Ethelred for. Elsie at first thinks her client is innocent but starts to wonder about his apparently unbreakable alibi. I shall definitely look out for more by this author.