Reviews

‘I opened this book with high expectations. They have been admirably fulfilled.  Here we have a stand alone thriller about two lonely people who pursue a relationship of monthly weekends together in remote spots.  Suddenly one of these two fails to get to the rendezvous-vous and the other realises how very limited her knowledge of her  companion is . . . Gradually the reader pieces together some of the facts as an atmosphere of rising tension envelops everything. The intelligent way Jay, Lisa and others plan their actions is enjoyable and the suspense of the tale is palpable.’

- MYSTERY PEOPLE

The Rector’s Daughter

Posted on Jun 28, 2010 in F. M. Mayor, Iris Murdoch, The Rector's Daughter | No Comments

This 1924 novel by F. M. Mayor was chosen by listeners to Radio 4 as a neglected classic in response to an appeal by OPEN BOOK and it is currently being serialized as A Book at Bed-Time. This got me thinking and I got my paperback copy – a Penguin Modern Classic – down from […]

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Wallander and film noir

Posted on Jun 21, 2010 in film noir, Henning Mankell, Humphrey Bogart, Wallander | 4 Comments

This blog is mostly about reading, and sometimes about writing, but I do watch DVDS and TV as well. I have tended though to watch less and less TV over the years. There is hardly anything I like these days, not even dramatizations of the classics. I prefer to hang on to my own idea […]

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Bodies in the Bookshop

Posted on Jun 14, 2010 in Bodies in the Bookshop, Don Bartlett, Galloway and Porter, Heffer's, Janet Neel, Jo Nesbo, L. C. Tyler, Murder is Academic, Sheila Quigley, Sophie Hannah, Veronica Heley | No Comments

More about that in a moment, but first I want to lament the passing of an old friend. Over the years I must have bought dozens of books from Galloway and Porter. They stocked remaindered books and were especially strong – from my point of view – on fiction, art history, cookery and guide books. […]

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Paradise

Posted on Jun 7, 2010 in A Kind of Loving. London Library, crime novels. libraries, Jorge Luis Borges, Stan Barstow | 2 Comments

‘I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library’ wrote Jorge Luis Borges. Me, too. A week or two ago I was in the London Library and it occurred to me that this is very nearly my favorite place on earth. Libraries have always been very special places to me. I wrote […]

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CADS

Posted on Jun 1, 2010 in Anthony Gilbert, CADS, Georgette Heyers, Hilda Lawrence, Sherlock Holmes | 4 Comments

CADS stands for a periodical called Crime and Detective Stories, ‘an irregular magazine of comment and criticism about crime and detective stories,’ to use the editor’s own words. It arrives through my letter-box around twice a year and and as I never know when it is going to appear, it always comes as a pleasant […]

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