Finished Sacrifice

I finally finished Sacrifice by S J Bolton and it was absolutely excellent. At times the suspense is just too painful and I found I had to have a break from it. Some reviewers have said they felt the plot was too far fetched to be credible. I don't agree. I thought it was eminently believable.

The Shetland Islands and its history and legends are cleverly woven into the convoluted plot giving an almost supernatural dimension to the story. The runes carved into the skin of the corpse which Tora uncovers at the start of the book are a masterly touch. Tora herself is a down to earth no nonsense hospital obstetrician who does not believe anything without evidence, but soon she is wondering who she can trust in the closed society she lives in. Everyone knows everyone else and is probably related to them. Even her husband and her boss belong to it whilst she feels herself to be an outsider asking awkward questions. She isn't even sure she can trust the police who appear to want to forget about the body on her land.

I felt I almost wanted to read the last few chapter with my fingers over my eyes - like you do as a child when there's something scary on television. It is one of the best books I've read for a long time and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

More books

The tension in Sacrifice was just too much for me so I put it down and read Catherine Alliott's The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton. Very good - full of adult characters, crisp realistic dialogue and very funny incidents and some very sad ones. By adult I mean people who actually think about their problems and understand their own behaviour. The only thing I can say about the plot is that Evie's life is about to be turned upside down by something which even in her worst nightmares she could not possibly have imagined. Well worth a read.

I'm off to finish Sacrifice - have a good weekend everyone

Still reading . . .

Sorry I don't think anyone is going to get much sense out of me until I've finished reading Sacrifice. Usually I have different books on the go on the bus and at home but this one I'm carrying around with me, reading it on the bus, in bed at night and in my lunch hour. Nothing else is getting a look in at the moment.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible . . . .

A better day and a brilliant book

Nothing happened today of any note so it was nice and peaceful.

The book is S J Bolton's Sacrifice. A crime/psychological thriller set in the Shetland Isles. Narrator digs up a body wrapped in linen and with its heart missing when she is digging a hole to bury her dead horse - don't ask! I'm about half way through and at this rate I shall be staying up till heaven knows what time tonight reading it. It is excellent with touches of humour which are just right. I almost can't say any more about it without spoiling the story. I feel as though I want to go around waving it in people's faces and shouting 'You must read this!!'

Have to stop now to go and carry on reading.

An annoying day

We were asked to give personal contact details - home and mobile - to other members of staff who we hardly know - i.e. not my colleagues in my own office. I'm not happy about it and have argued we don't need to as has one of my colleagues.

The information is going to be printed out and laminated and all the members of the team will be given a copy - which will apparently not be locked up and will be available for anyone to look at.

This is not necessary in my opinion - our manager as well as HR etc have access to this information.

I'm in charge of our office in the event of something going wrong - fire, flood etc - and I have a contact list for all staff who work in our building. This has to be kept under lock and key at all times - and it is. So where's the difference?

I have yet to receive a satisfactory answer to the question.

One Fifth Avenue

I finally finished One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell. It wasn't at all what I expected it to be but it was good. It's about the owners of apartments in One Fifth Avenue and what happens when Paul and Annalisa Rice buy the biggest apartment following the death of Mrs Houghton. Their advent is the catalyst which causes many people's lives to unravel.

Mindy and James Gooch and their teenage son Sam live in what were the luggage rooms when the building was a hotel. James is a relatively unknown writer - though his latest work is about to take the city by storm. Mindy is the head of the committe which runs the building and she also works on a magazine. She starts writing a blog which soon becomes popular. Enid is a gossip columnist and lives next door to her nephew Philip Oakland - a novelist and screenwriter. At the same time as Paul and Annalisa move in, actress Schiffer Diamond moves back into her apartment. Philip takes on an assistant - Lola - who gradually worms her way into his life, just when he is wondering whether to resume his love affair with Schiffer.

Living outside the building but playing a big part in the story are Billie Lichfield - man about town and Connie and Sandy Brewer - Paul Rice's friends and business associates. All the characters are believable and the way they attempt to maintain their positions in society makes fascinating reading. The author seems to be saying that in trying to keep up with everyone, do the right things, say the right things and buy the right things many are in danger of losing their souls.

I expected a light read but instead I got a story which is told with almost forensic attention to detail and some profound thoughts on the state of New York high society. Definitely different.

Bus journeys

I was reminded today by a passenger I quite often talk to on the way home of a bus journey at the beginning of this week. There was an elderly couple on the bus - I've seen them before - and the man is always really nasty to his wife. The topic of conversation was at first what might have happened to their house keys. The wife fished in her bag for them and produced them and remarked perfectly calmly that she'd got them because she'd locked the door on their way out. He then started on at her saying she should shut up talking nonsense because she was really winding him up and he kept on repeating this phrase.

The rest of the passengers were sitting there with bated breath. Then he said had she noticed the price of onions on the market that day. To which she replied no she hadn't. Someone else on the bus called out the price to her and she repeated it to him. Whereupon he started on at her again how she shouldn't go on like that and everyone was laughing at her for being so stupid. It was all totally unnecessary abuse. The lady I was talking to commented that she wondered what would happen if the wife suddenly turned on him and strangled him - as that was what she felt like doing and she didn't even know him.

I suggested that maybe if the chap's wife did we'd all be interviewed by the police as witnesses and of course we'd all be saying 'no comment' and 'I didn't see anything' to protect her. We were saying today that we could just imagine the headlines - police interview 20 bus passengers who didn't see anything when a murder was committed in front of them. Police do not expect to make an early arrest.

This could make a brilliant crime story - perhaps this is my task for this weekend . . . .