The Shadows in the Street

I've spent the last two evenings reading The Shadows in the Street by Susan Hill which is the latest in her Simon Serrailler series. There were many people who criticised the previous book - The Vows of Silence - for concentrating on the less inspiring aspects of Simon's character. To a certain extent I could see the point of the criticisms though it was still a good book. The same criticism cannot be levelled at this latest one.

Simon is recalled from a holiday on a Scottish Island because of the murder of a prostitute. But this is not the end of the problems in Lafferton. The Cathedral Close is in uproar because of a modernising Dean and his interfering wife - shades of Trollope here! When Ruth Webber, the Dean's wife, disappears and the Dean himself appears to have something to hide the stakes suddenly become higher. The reader gets to know some of the prostitutes - Abi and Hayley and their children. I thought their lives were well done showing their struggle against poverty and the authorities while they try to do the best for their children.

The suspects are many and varied and when another prostitute is murdered the investigation becomes more complex. Cat - Simon's sister - becomes involved because she is the GP of many of the people mixed up in the police investigations. The book follows the people affected by the crimes and involved in the police investigation. Simon is calmer and more stable in this book and Cat is gradually coming to terms with being a widow. I found the book gripping reading and read nearly 200 pages of it last night alone. The style is as ever understated and low key, the characters well drawn and believable.

If you were slightly put off this series by the last book - try this one - you will not be disappointed.

Another Bibliomemoir

Having read Susan Hill's Howard's End is on the Landing it seemed only fair to read Rick Gekoski's Outside of a Dog. The author is an American who has spent much of his adult life in England. He studied for his Doctorate at Oxford and went on to lecture at Warwick in English literature. The book is about the books he read and how they affected him. It is also about his marriage to Barbara - which ended after 30 years - and his two children Anna and Bertie. He worries he introduced Anna to the wrong books when as an adult she writes a book about serial killers.

He is unblushingly honest about his faults and failings. He tries writing a novel and fails dismally and admits he never has anything original to say. He leaves his secure job at Warwick to build up his rare book business and sets out to read himself back to normality by reading thrillers. University life has turned him into someone he does not like or recognise.

As a rare book dealer he meets many famous people - Kim Philby's widow in Moscow and Graham Green in Antibes and makes a better living than he did as a university lecturer. He writes a book about football which he thoroughly enjoys doing and is thrilled when it is published, though he spends years failing to write a book about D H Lawrence.

I enjoyed the book and loved the author's style of writing and I was left wondering why I have never come across him before. I recommend it to anyone who loves books and reading.

Howard's End is on the Landing

Susan Hill's Howard's End is on the Landing is an enthralling read for anyone who loves books. I've read about 50 pages so far and I'm finding I want to ration my reading of it so that it lasts longer. It is one of those hard to classify books which would probably not have been published if the author wasn't relatively well known. It is not just about what she read during the year when she decided not to buy anything new but also about how books have influenced her life and about authors she has known. Not just a list of books but an inspiration to try other authors. I'm not at all sure I agree with her about Charles Dickens - maybe I need to give him another chance. But agree or disagree this is a fascinating book.

Currently reading

A biography of Arthur Ransome - The Last Englishman: the Double Life of Arthur Ransome by Roland Chambers. Even though I haven't read Swallows and Amazons I'm still finding it interesting. For some reason I always think of famous children's authors as perfect people - and yet they are far from perfect. As a child and young man Arthur Ransome comes over as unbearably self centred and demanding - writing to his mother to tell her to send him a particular book -'I want it'. No please or thank you. You never know whether it could have been a family joke but it certainly comes over as demanding. I get the impression the author doesn't particularly like him either.

Also re-reading Rumpole on Trial by John Mortimer - for the umpteenth time.

Then there's Kate Harrison's The Secret Shopper Unwrapped. It is a sequel to The Secret Shopper's Revenge and I'm not finding it as good. Sometimes sequels shouldn't be written and this is one of those cases I think.

I have just received a book by Susan Hill called Howard's End is on the Landing. She realised she had a great many unread books and books she wanted to re-read so she decided not to buy any books for a year and just read what she already owned. Hummm - maybe I ought to do the same thing?

The Vows of Silence

No - I haven't taken a vow of silence - heaven forbid! I finished reading Susan Hill's latest Simon Serrailler offering 'The Vows of Silence'. I'm starting to find Simon himself slightly annoying. He resents his father's lady friend Judith for taking his mother's place and makes it clear in a very childish way that he does. Even Cat, his sister takes him to task over it. He can't seem to make up his mind whether he wants to be single and celibate for the rest of his life and objects to his sister talking about it. He nearly fails to catch the criminal because he lets his own prejudices get in his way. However I'm sure it makes for a more interesting story to have a fallible detective. I went from wanting to shake some sense into him to crying for him.

This story is a tear jerker in any case. Simon's brother-in-law Chris is seriously ill and Cat must combine the skills of mother, doctor and wife. The gunman who is terrorising Lafferton is killing newly married women for no apparent reason. There is about to be a society wedding to which Royal visitors are expected - a security nightmare for the police including Simon - especially as the gunman has killed once as a newly married couple leave the church. There are many minor sub plots as well to hold the reader's interest and an insight into the mind of the gunman. Definitely gripping stuff though I did work out who the gunman was before the end.

I had a good example yesterday of why I do most of my food shopping - and everything else come to think of it - online. I called in at Tesco because I wanted a particular type of Hovis bread and some cash back. They hadn't got the bread so I went to look for a couple of other things I wanted - they only had one of them. The place was packed. On a Monday morning? I had to queue to be served and was tempted by their latest 'green' hessian bag - because it's got ladybirds on it.

I was standing idly in the queue watching everyone else and noticing how everyone had brought their bags with them so that they didn't need many carrier bags. What a lot of sheep I thought all brainwashed by this rubbish about climate change. So I deliberately took a couple of carrier bags - one of which I used to put my new 'green' bag in! Childish I agree. I have used a Marks & Spencer's black fabric bag for ages to put my sandwiches etc in when I go to work and that's what I shall use the ladybird one for.

I just found the whole experience so irritating and frustratingly slow - in fact it probably took me as long as it would have done to do the shopping online!

We then had to go and get some oil to top up the car. It's a Mitsubishi Outlander and the handbook says it needs to have VW oil in it because it's a VW engine. So we trot along to a VW dealer because it's nearer than going to a Mitsubishi dealer - and they wouldn't sell us any. Words failed both of us, so we trotted off to the Mitsubishi dealer where the car came from - who kindly put the oil in for us.

We then went to another branch of Tesco and managed to get the bread we wanted - and rather too many things we actually didn't need but just fancied. This is why I save money by shopping online I thought. But this experience was better as they weren't so crowded. We also - from B&Q - got some ant killer and a leaflet about this new Dulux painting system - Paint Pod - which does everything but make you a cup of coffee. I may invest in one since it looks easy and much less messy - trouble is they cost nearly £70. But we do have a personal recommendation from someone who hates decorating who says it makes the whole process much quicker with no mess. Of course £70 is cheaper than paying a decorator. Now we just need a similar system for gloss painting and I'll be the first in the queue to buy that.!

I now need to potter about and do some housework and surf the newspapers for what's going on in the world and then it will be time to work out what to have to eat this evening. I could definitely get used to this life though I suspect I wouldn't get enough exercise unless I made an effort and went out for a walk regularly.

No more ants and Veronica Heley

They do seem to have gone - but I shall be buying the chemical means of killing them as well tomorrow to ensure they don't come back.

I finished reading Veronica Heley's latest - 'False Picture' last night. This is the second in the Abbot Agency series in which widowed Bea Abbot takes on problems which are better solved without reference to the police. In this one her friend Velma wants Bea to track down her missing step son. The resulting mayhem includes a trip to Bruges and various people turning out to be not what they seem. Bea sticks up for herself and discovers she can rise to a challenge and think on her feet. Her assistants Maggie and Oliver develop as characters and there are an assortment of murders. Well written and just that little bit different - very enjoyable.

Next on the pile are Martin Edwards' 'The Cipher Garden' - the second of his Lake District series, and Susan Hill's 'Vows of Silence which by all accounts is something of a tear jerker.