I have been making a start on the decorating as well as doing other boring mundane chores which practically drive me demented but need to be done if we're not to live in a mess. I have practically finished the dining room/kitchen thanks to a very useful gadget - a Dulux Paint Pod. It is basically an electrified roller system. Much quicker than using a roller normally as you don't have to stop and re-load the roller - you just press a button.
I'm the world's messiest decorator so anything that promises no mess is a bonus for me. It really is no mess as well. It also cleans itself - fill a chamber with warm water and switch on. Empty the chamber at the opposite end of the machine when done and everything is clean and just needs drying - including the roller itself. I'm far from being a gadget freak but I just love this. I wonder when they'll bring one out that works with gloss paint? In the meantime I'm tempted to emulsion everything!
Books:
The Devil's Sonata by Elizabeth Aston - very good - supernatural influences in a co-ed boarding school which occupies a former monastery. A violin which seriously affects the girl who plays it and an American researcher studying a grimoire in the library.
Anna, where are you? Catherine Wheel, The Case of William Smith all three by Patricia Wentworth and all are among her best work for sheer complexity of plot and character analysis. I only have about six more to read by this author.
The Merchant's House and Armada Boy by Kate Ellis - archaeology and modern crime - fascinating. All the police characters get on as well which makes a change from many police procedurals.
The Hanging Wood by Martin Edwards - another episode in the Lake District series of mysteries. A very enjoyable crime story with a truly horrific ending. I love the concept of a residential library - now that is my idea of heaven! I thought the characters were well drawn and I like the way the relationship between Daniel Kind and Hannah Scarlett is being developed slowly and sensitively.
The Secrets of Pain by Phil Rickman - thanks to a mix up over publication dates I have the ebook version of this which is not actually published until September. I think by the time Amazon realised their mistake my copy had already been downloaded and they haven't asked for it back! It is the latest in the Merrily Watkins series and very good it is too. Not so much about the exorcism side of Merrily's job but enthralling just the same.
The SAS feature in the form of Syd Spicer - the vicar who was in The Remains of an Altar - currently temporary chaplain to the SAS, his old regiment. He is trying to deal with something unpleasant which would be better left to Merrily but for reasons of secrecy he has to keep it to himself. Hereford police - in the form of Frannie Bliss and Annie Howe have their own problems with the murder of a farmer and the murder of two girls. The book kept me reading late into the night when I got to the last third of it as I had to know how it all worked out. At least with ebooks it is more difficult to flick to the end and make sure all your favourite characters escape unscathed!
Showing posts with label Patricia Wentworth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Patricia Wentworth. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 August 2011
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Books read and reading
Rattle his Bones by Carola Dunn - one of her Daisy Dalrymple series. Daisy is researching a series of articles about the Natural History Museum and is inadvertently one of the first people of the scene when one of the curators is murdered. The professional rivalries are extremely well done in my opinion. This series is growing on me.
Flights of Angels by Victoria Connelly - chick lit with angels - which could have been twee and sickly and is actually really well done. First published in German and made into a film in Germany and only recently available in English thanks to the e-book revolution which enables authors themselves to produce their own ebooks.
Death of a Sweep by M C Beaton - latest in the Hamish Macbeth series. Milly Davenport comes home from a shopping trip to find her husband dead and stuffed up the chimney and the sweep missing. Hamish eventually gets to the bottom of the mystery.
Ivory Dagger and The Brading Collection - both by Patricia Wentworth. Cosy mysteries in the classic detective story mould with Miss Silver imperturbably knitting, watching and listening.
How to Leave Twitter by Grace Dent. I thought it might enlighten me about why people join Twitter in the first place. Seems the reason is because everyone else has joined. I can see that people can like watching it - in a sort of car crash fascination way but apart from that it really isn't something I actually want to take part in. I might change my mind - but not yet.
Currently reading
Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell by M C Beaton. Agatha is married to James Lacey but things aren't as blissful as she had hoped.
The Devil's Sonata by Elizabeth Edmondson (AKA Elizabeth Aston and Elizabeth Pewsey) This is a story set in a Yorkshire girls' school located in a former abbey. Zuleika has come over from the USA to study a Grimoire discovered hidden in a pillar in the cloisters but she is unhappy about the atmosphere.
Mountjoy fans will be pleased to know that the rest of Elizabeth Pewsey's Mountjoy series will all be available in e-book format by the end of this month.
Flights of Angels by Victoria Connelly - chick lit with angels - which could have been twee and sickly and is actually really well done. First published in German and made into a film in Germany and only recently available in English thanks to the e-book revolution which enables authors themselves to produce their own ebooks.
Death of a Sweep by M C Beaton - latest in the Hamish Macbeth series. Milly Davenport comes home from a shopping trip to find her husband dead and stuffed up the chimney and the sweep missing. Hamish eventually gets to the bottom of the mystery.
Ivory Dagger and The Brading Collection - both by Patricia Wentworth. Cosy mysteries in the classic detective story mould with Miss Silver imperturbably knitting, watching and listening.
How to Leave Twitter by Grace Dent. I thought it might enlighten me about why people join Twitter in the first place. Seems the reason is because everyone else has joined. I can see that people can like watching it - in a sort of car crash fascination way but apart from that it really isn't something I actually want to take part in. I might change my mind - but not yet.
Currently reading
Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell by M C Beaton. Agatha is married to James Lacey but things aren't as blissful as she had hoped.
The Devil's Sonata by Elizabeth Edmondson (AKA Elizabeth Aston and Elizabeth Pewsey) This is a story set in a Yorkshire girls' school located in a former abbey. Zuleika has come over from the USA to study a Grimoire discovered hidden in a pillar in the cloisters but she is unhappy about the atmosphere.
Mountjoy fans will be pleased to know that the rest of Elizabeth Pewsey's Mountjoy series will all be available in e-book format by the end of this month.
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Yet more books and matters medical
Books first: I'm still enjoying Lindsey Davis's Falco series. Last night I finished listening to an audio book of Saturnalia - which is one of the later books in the series. This sees Falco - married to Helena Justina and with two small daughters - trying to wend his way through the Roman celebrations of the feast of Saturnalia keep a clear head, solve a murder and find the missing Barbarian Priestess Veleda as well as rescuing his brother -in-law Justinus. I've also read Venus in Copper - which is number three in the series and have just started number four - The Iron Hand of Mars.
In between forays into ancient Rome I've been reading some more of Patricia Wentworth's excellent crime novels featuring Miss Maud Silver, who knits imperturbably through all her cases and still manages to unravel the mystery by staying, unnoticed in the background. The two books I've read in the last few days are Latter End and Eternity Ring - both excellent mysteries which kept me guessing until pretty nearly the end.
I am currently reading Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen about Lady Georgiana - 34th in line to the British throne - who has a Bavarian princess billeted on her by order of the Queen. Princess Hannelore is the 'pain' of the title. The book is set in the 1930s and is quite amusing and well written. I should have started with the first one but as this one was only 0.99 in an Amazon ebook sale I thought I'd try this one first. I am enjoying it and I think I shall probably go on to read the rest in the series.
Matters medical
My OH - MJR - has a chronic lung condition, lung fibrosis, for which there is no known cure apart from a transplant and for which the only treatment is oxygen. He has been on oxygen at night for the last 6 years and it was increased from 11 hours to 15 hours in every 24 late last year. He also has a portable cylinder for use when he is out of the house.
Every so often he has to wear a machine which measures his oxygen levels and pulse rate overnight and whose results can be downloaded to a computer and analysed. He had one of these machines in March. Yesterday he received a letter saying he could stop using his oxygen because the results of his test in March were good.
My immediate reaction was what??!!!! accompanied by one or two rather stronger words than that. In May he had an operation and it was touch and go whether that went ahead because his oxygen levels were so low before the operation. All the time he was in there they were giving him oxygen - every time he took his mask off to drink the alarms went off. We think on reflection that they may have thought that the machine he wore in March was while he was not on oxygen when in fact it was while he was on oxygen - or that they've got him mixed up with someone else.
He has a pulse-oximeter himself and wore it last night to see what the results were without oxygen and is currently downloading them to a computer ready to print out and send to the hospital with a fairly strongly worded letter. When he was wearing the machine yesterday and just lying in bed his oxygen levels were 88% - a normal healthy person would have oxygen levels in the high 90s. I know when he was first put on oxygen our GP said if it went down to 85% regularly during the day he would have to be on oxygen 24 hours a day.
I'm usually very complimentary of the NHS especially in this area but now I'm getting annoyed with them. In January MJR ended up in hospital because he'd been given too high a dose of Warfarin to prevent blood clots and was bleeding from his kidneys. Once again the GP has done the same thing and given him too high a dose for too long and his INR is dangerously high which means if he has an accident he could bleed to death. I'm keeping him away from anything sharp.
He has avoided hospital this time only because he isn't bleeding from anywhere - well as far as we know he isn't - and he has stopped taking Warfarin for a few days and is due to have it checked again tomorrow. So this is the second time in just over six months that he's been give the wrong dose for a sustained period of time. They use a computer programme to assess the dose but clearly there is something wrong with it as they were getting on better deciding on the dose themselves as it was almost always stable and needed little variation in the number of tablets he took.
We are not happy bunnies.
In between forays into ancient Rome I've been reading some more of Patricia Wentworth's excellent crime novels featuring Miss Maud Silver, who knits imperturbably through all her cases and still manages to unravel the mystery by staying, unnoticed in the background. The two books I've read in the last few days are Latter End and Eternity Ring - both excellent mysteries which kept me guessing until pretty nearly the end.
I am currently reading Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen about Lady Georgiana - 34th in line to the British throne - who has a Bavarian princess billeted on her by order of the Queen. Princess Hannelore is the 'pain' of the title. The book is set in the 1930s and is quite amusing and well written. I should have started with the first one but as this one was only 0.99 in an Amazon ebook sale I thought I'd try this one first. I am enjoying it and I think I shall probably go on to read the rest in the series.
Matters medical
My OH - MJR - has a chronic lung condition, lung fibrosis, for which there is no known cure apart from a transplant and for which the only treatment is oxygen. He has been on oxygen at night for the last 6 years and it was increased from 11 hours to 15 hours in every 24 late last year. He also has a portable cylinder for use when he is out of the house.
Every so often he has to wear a machine which measures his oxygen levels and pulse rate overnight and whose results can be downloaded to a computer and analysed. He had one of these machines in March. Yesterday he received a letter saying he could stop using his oxygen because the results of his test in March were good.
My immediate reaction was what??!!!! accompanied by one or two rather stronger words than that. In May he had an operation and it was touch and go whether that went ahead because his oxygen levels were so low before the operation. All the time he was in there they were giving him oxygen - every time he took his mask off to drink the alarms went off. We think on reflection that they may have thought that the machine he wore in March was while he was not on oxygen when in fact it was while he was on oxygen - or that they've got him mixed up with someone else.
He has a pulse-oximeter himself and wore it last night to see what the results were without oxygen and is currently downloading them to a computer ready to print out and send to the hospital with a fairly strongly worded letter. When he was wearing the machine yesterday and just lying in bed his oxygen levels were 88% - a normal healthy person would have oxygen levels in the high 90s. I know when he was first put on oxygen our GP said if it went down to 85% regularly during the day he would have to be on oxygen 24 hours a day.
I'm usually very complimentary of the NHS especially in this area but now I'm getting annoyed with them. In January MJR ended up in hospital because he'd been given too high a dose of Warfarin to prevent blood clots and was bleeding from his kidneys. Once again the GP has done the same thing and given him too high a dose for too long and his INR is dangerously high which means if he has an accident he could bleed to death. I'm keeping him away from anything sharp.
He has avoided hospital this time only because he isn't bleeding from anywhere - well as far as we know he isn't - and he has stopped taking Warfarin for a few days and is due to have it checked again tomorrow. So this is the second time in just over six months that he's been give the wrong dose for a sustained period of time. They use a computer programme to assess the dose but clearly there is something wrong with it as they were getting on better deciding on the dose themselves as it was almost always stable and needed little variation in the number of tablets he took.
We are not happy bunnies.
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Books read
The first few in the Agatha Raisin series by M C Beaton: Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death; Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet; Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener; Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley. I like Agatha Raisin because she is not the conventional heroine. She is outspoken and a good organiser and she she is insecure about her ability to attract men. She does her best in any situation but her attempts at detection do not always go to plan. These books are a light and amusing read but well written. I have read all three before but they will bear re-reading.
Carmen Reid - New York Valentine - the latest in the How Not to Shop series. Chick lit at its best with Annie Valentine wading in where angels fear to tread to sort out clothes shopping nightmares.
Patricia Wentworth - The Lonesome Road; The Chinese Shawl; Miss Silver Comes to Stay. All three are excellent examples of Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver books.
Elizabeth Edmondson - The Villa in Italy. Set in the late 1950s. Four people unknown to one another arrive at the Villa Dante in accordance with a will. They have to find a codicil which is hidden somewhere in the Villa and they have thirty three days in which to find it or all the money will go to charity. The plot may seem a bit of a cliche but everything is in the writing and the writing of this novel is excellent. The characters are interesting and I wanted them to sort out their problems with or without the money. I felt quite sad when I read the last page.
Gladys Mitchell - The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop. A body of an unpopular man is found neatly jointed in a butcher's shop - but the head is missing. Another case for the inimitable Mrs Bradley.
Theodore Dalrymple - Second Opinion. A collection of short pieces about the flotsam and jetsam of society as represented by inner city dwellers and prisoners. Ascerbic and judgemental - Theodore Dalrymple will either delight or horrify you and may completely destroy your faith in the basic goodness of the human animal.
Carmen Reid - New York Valentine - the latest in the How Not to Shop series. Chick lit at its best with Annie Valentine wading in where angels fear to tread to sort out clothes shopping nightmares.
Patricia Wentworth - The Lonesome Road; The Chinese Shawl; Miss Silver Comes to Stay. All three are excellent examples of Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver books.
Elizabeth Edmondson - The Villa in Italy. Set in the late 1950s. Four people unknown to one another arrive at the Villa Dante in accordance with a will. They have to find a codicil which is hidden somewhere in the Villa and they have thirty three days in which to find it or all the money will go to charity. The plot may seem a bit of a cliche but everything is in the writing and the writing of this novel is excellent. The characters are interesting and I wanted them to sort out their problems with or without the money. I felt quite sad when I read the last page.
Gladys Mitchell - The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop. A body of an unpopular man is found neatly jointed in a butcher's shop - but the head is missing. Another case for the inimitable Mrs Bradley.
Theodore Dalrymple - Second Opinion. A collection of short pieces about the flotsam and jetsam of society as represented by inner city dwellers and prisoners. Ascerbic and judgemental - Theodore Dalrymple will either delight or horrify you and may completely destroy your faith in the basic goodness of the human animal.
Saturday, 22 January 2011
My madeleine moment . . .
I bought a Marks & Spencer's coffee Swiss roll the other day and I decided a few minutes ago to have a piece of it - together with a cup of coffee. When I took the first bite I was immediately transported to evenings in the early 1970s. Once again I was sitting talking to my fellow blogger - Norn - and drinking coffee and eating coffee Swiss roll. I was also reminded of watching the BBC's adaptation of Anthony Trollope's Palliser novels with Susan Hampshire as Glencora Palliser and Philip Latham as Plantagenet Palliser. Of such moments are memories made.
Books
Several Patricia Wentworth crime novels - The Watersplash, Grey Mask, Vanishing Point all featuring the inimitable Miss Maud Silver.
Gone Away by Hazel Holt - the first of her Mrs Malory crime series
A Paramedic's Diary by Stuart Grey - his experiences on the streets of London among the drunks the drug addicts, the genuinely ill and the time wasters. Fascinating reading if you like that sort of thing.
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande - how he helped to introduce checklists to the medical world and how they are used in other professions. A fascinating look at how simple things can simplify the most complex processes and help prevent mistakes happening.
Cruise Ship SOS by Ben Macfarlane - about his experiences as a doctor on a cruise ship. The book should come with a health - or wealth - warning - as I now quite fancy going on a cruise - something I've never really considered before.
Currently reading
Patricia Wentworth - Lonesome Road - I've only just started this so can't really say much about it yet.
M C Beaton - Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death - the first in the Agatha Raisin series. I've read it before but enjoy re-reading these stories.
John Galsworthy - I'm still reading The Forsyte Saga - nearly at the end of the third volume - To Let - with everyone trying to keep the details of the Irene/Soames scandal from the ears of his daughter, Fleur.
I'm also dipping into Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time.
Books
Several Patricia Wentworth crime novels - The Watersplash, Grey Mask, Vanishing Point all featuring the inimitable Miss Maud Silver.
Gone Away by Hazel Holt - the first of her Mrs Malory crime series
A Paramedic's Diary by Stuart Grey - his experiences on the streets of London among the drunks the drug addicts, the genuinely ill and the time wasters. Fascinating reading if you like that sort of thing.
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande - how he helped to introduce checklists to the medical world and how they are used in other professions. A fascinating look at how simple things can simplify the most complex processes and help prevent mistakes happening.
Cruise Ship SOS by Ben Macfarlane - about his experiences as a doctor on a cruise ship. The book should come with a health - or wealth - warning - as I now quite fancy going on a cruise - something I've never really considered before.
Currently reading
Patricia Wentworth - Lonesome Road - I've only just started this so can't really say much about it yet.
M C Beaton - Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death - the first in the Agatha Raisin series. I've read it before but enjoy re-reading these stories.
John Galsworthy - I'm still reading The Forsyte Saga - nearly at the end of the third volume - To Let - with everyone trying to keep the details of the Irene/Soames scandal from the ears of his daughter, Fleur.
I'm also dipping into Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time.
Friday, 14 January 2011
Good start to the New Year - I don't think!
My other half - MJR - has been in hospital for the last four days though he is home now thanks to a break down in communication between the hospital, the consultant and our health insurance company. He would have been out today or tomorrow anyway. He is on Warfarin and his INR - the clotting factor in his blood - went way too high because he's been on too high a dose for too long.
Fortunately the antidote - Vitamin K - works almost straightaway but has to be administered in hospital in case the INR goes too far the other way. He has to go to our GP today to have his INR tested and it depends on the results (obtained instantly like blood glucose machines) of that as to what dosage he's on. Clearly for someone who has had two previous pulmonary embolisms it is essential that his blood does not clot too easily. But on the other hand you don't want to imitate someone with haemophilia.
So - not a good start to the New Year. He has a consultant's appointment on Monday which may lead to another operation so it looks as though this year is going to feature hospitals prominently.
The good thing about the last few days is that it has shown me I'm getting more things done than I thought I did because trying to fit everything in that I normally do has proved impossible.
I have never seen our local hospital as busy as it has been the last few days with everyone rushing around all the time and ambulances queuing to unload patients four or five deep at times. Clearly winter is taking its toll on people round here.
Books
I took my Kindle with me when I went visiting and when MJR fell asleep one day I decided to buy a book - just for the hell of it! That's the first time I've used it outside the house and it worked! Funny how little things amuse me. I downloaded a book called The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande - which is about making sure the right things are done at the right time in hospital - which I thought quite appropriate.
I am still reading John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga - on the third book at the moment - To Let. I'm also still reading my way through Patricia Wentworth's crime novels.
Fortunately the antidote - Vitamin K - works almost straightaway but has to be administered in hospital in case the INR goes too far the other way. He has to go to our GP today to have his INR tested and it depends on the results (obtained instantly like blood glucose machines) of that as to what dosage he's on. Clearly for someone who has had two previous pulmonary embolisms it is essential that his blood does not clot too easily. But on the other hand you don't want to imitate someone with haemophilia.
So - not a good start to the New Year. He has a consultant's appointment on Monday which may lead to another operation so it looks as though this year is going to feature hospitals prominently.
The good thing about the last few days is that it has shown me I'm getting more things done than I thought I did because trying to fit everything in that I normally do has proved impossible.
I have never seen our local hospital as busy as it has been the last few days with everyone rushing around all the time and ambulances queuing to unload patients four or five deep at times. Clearly winter is taking its toll on people round here.
Books
I took my Kindle with me when I went visiting and when MJR fell asleep one day I decided to buy a book - just for the hell of it! That's the first time I've used it outside the house and it worked! Funny how little things amuse me. I downloaded a book called The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande - which is about making sure the right things are done at the right time in hospital - which I thought quite appropriate.
I am still reading John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga - on the third book at the moment - To Let. I'm also still reading my way through Patricia Wentworth's crime novels.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Happy New Year
A Happy New Year to everyone who reads Jillysheep regularly and of course to those who just happen to stumble upon it.
Read recently:
Patricia Wentworth - The Key - murder of a scientist in World War II in a small English village church. Suicide or murder? Miss Silver needs to find out. The war time background in interesting - especially telephones which are connected to party lines. Does anyone under 50 remember these? I wonder how younger readers think of them?
Patricia Wentworth - The Clock Strikes Twelve - did he fall or was he pushed? James Paradine is found dead on New Year's Day after a somewhat fraught family party. Can Miss Silver work out who did it?
Currently reading:
John Galsworthy - The Forsyte Saga - I'm on volume two - In Chancery. Soames after twelve years of separation from Irene has decided he wants a divorce.
Christina Hopkinson - The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs - the heroine is fed up of doing everything around the house and starts to keep a list of all the ways her husband annoys her - the reverse of the star chart she keeps for her small sons.
Read recently:
Patricia Wentworth - The Key - murder of a scientist in World War II in a small English village church. Suicide or murder? Miss Silver needs to find out. The war time background in interesting - especially telephones which are connected to party lines. Does anyone under 50 remember these? I wonder how younger readers think of them?
Patricia Wentworth - The Clock Strikes Twelve - did he fall or was he pushed? James Paradine is found dead on New Year's Day after a somewhat fraught family party. Can Miss Silver work out who did it?
Currently reading:
John Galsworthy - The Forsyte Saga - I'm on volume two - In Chancery. Soames after twelve years of separation from Irene has decided he wants a divorce.
Christina Hopkinson - The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs - the heroine is fed up of doing everything around the house and starts to keep a list of all the ways her husband annoys her - the reverse of the star chart she keeps for her small sons.
Monday, 27 December 2010
With Christmas out of the way . . .
. . . it's back to the reading.
John Galsworthy - The Forsyte Saga - all nine volumes of it. I haven't read it since the BBC dramatised the books back in the 1960s with Nyree Dawn Porter and Irene and Kenneth More as young Jolyon. I find I am still seeing all those famous faces as I read!
Patricia Wentworth - The Gazebo - I do love these Golden Age detective story writers and it's great - form my point of view - that some at least are available as e-books.
Books read:
David Austin - Delivered Unto Lions - not my usual sort of book but I found it compelling reading. Daniel is 12 when he is sent to Oakdale - a psychiatric children's unit in the 1970s. It is written in the first person in a matter of fact style which makes it all the more effective. He is suffering from depression and the regime at Oakdale would be more likely to give anyone depression than cure it. Daniel is kept in the dark about just about everything and punished if he asks questions. I really hope children - or adults for that matter - are not treated like this now.
Ngaio Marsh - Final Curtain - Troy is commissioned to paint the portrait of an ageing Shakespearean actor dressed as Macbeth. Naturally he ends up dead which provides another case for Troy's husband Roderick Alleyn.
Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time is starting to appear in e-book format.
John Galsworthy - The Forsyte Saga - all nine volumes of it. I haven't read it since the BBC dramatised the books back in the 1960s with Nyree Dawn Porter and Irene and Kenneth More as young Jolyon. I find I am still seeing all those famous faces as I read!
Patricia Wentworth - The Gazebo - I do love these Golden Age detective story writers and it's great - form my point of view - that some at least are available as e-books.
Books read:
David Austin - Delivered Unto Lions - not my usual sort of book but I found it compelling reading. Daniel is 12 when he is sent to Oakdale - a psychiatric children's unit in the 1970s. It is written in the first person in a matter of fact style which makes it all the more effective. He is suffering from depression and the regime at Oakdale would be more likely to give anyone depression than cure it. Daniel is kept in the dark about just about everything and punished if he asks questions. I really hope children - or adults for that matter - are not treated like this now.
Ngaio Marsh - Final Curtain - Troy is commissioned to paint the portrait of an ageing Shakespearean actor dressed as Macbeth. Naturally he ends up dead which provides another case for Troy's husband Roderick Alleyn.
Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time is starting to appear in e-book format.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
More books read and in progress
Dawn French's A Tiny Bit Marvellous - about the Battle family - Mo - nearly 50 - mother, wife,child psychologist - writing a book about teenagers. Dora - 18 year old daughter - full of angst. Son Peter - channelling Oscar Wilde so prefers to be called Oscar and dresses accordingly. Father - who is just always there in the background and turns up trumps in the end. The book is narrated in alternate chapters by Mo, Oscar and Dora. It reads a bit like a sit com but something kept me reading it.
Barbara Erskine's Whispers in the Sand - time-slip novel about Anna who goes on a Nile cruise to get over her divorce and gets involved in some unfinished business from thousands of years ago. I stopped reading this half way through when it first came out but decided to give it another go. I found it totally absorbing the second time round.
Ruth Newman's Twisted Wing - serial killer in Cambridge college. More violence than I usually like and some of the characters were perhaps a little cardboard cut out but I found myself totally gripped by it. The psychological aspects of it make it worthwhile. I found I had to keep reading the second half and stayed up way past my usual bed time to find out who the killer actually was.
Currently reading . . .
Barbara Erskine's The Sands of Time - short story collection which includes two stories which follow on from Whispers in the Sand.
Patricia Wentworth's The Fingerprint - A Miss Silver mystery. Golden Age type detective story - several suspects in a country house.
Barbara Erskine's Whispers in the Sand - time-slip novel about Anna who goes on a Nile cruise to get over her divorce and gets involved in some unfinished business from thousands of years ago. I stopped reading this half way through when it first came out but decided to give it another go. I found it totally absorbing the second time round.
Ruth Newman's Twisted Wing - serial killer in Cambridge college. More violence than I usually like and some of the characters were perhaps a little cardboard cut out but I found myself totally gripped by it. The psychological aspects of it make it worthwhile. I found I had to keep reading the second half and stayed up way past my usual bed time to find out who the killer actually was.
Currently reading . . .
Barbara Erskine's The Sands of Time - short story collection which includes two stories which follow on from Whispers in the Sand.
Patricia Wentworth's The Fingerprint - A Miss Silver mystery. Golden Age type detective story - several suspects in a country house.
Friday, 26 February 2010
Patricia Wentworth
I have never read any of Patricia Wentworth's crime novels. She writes about Miss Maud Silver - a private detective from much the same stable as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Miss Silver, though, is a private detective and runs her own business. I've just read The Silent Pool which falls into the sub genre of country house mystery. Miss Silver is consulted by Adriana Ford - a retired actress - who thinks someone may be trying to murder her. Having unburdened herself to Miss Silver about certain worrying incidents she feels better and decides not to call in Miss Silver professionally - until a guest in her home is murdered. Then Miss Silver pays a visit.
I thoroughly enjoyed this low key mystery with its interesting characters and intriguing plot - and I liked Miss Silver herself. I think I shall be reading more by this author and I wonder why I have never read any before?
I thoroughly enjoyed this low key mystery with its interesting characters and intriguing plot - and I liked Miss Silver herself. I think I shall be reading more by this author and I wonder why I have never read any before?
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