Death of a Village & The Skeleton in the Closet

 

M.C. Beaton (read by Graeme Malcom & Clive Anderson, respectively)

 

 

       

Necessary roughage

M.C Beaton was a prolific writer who cranked out short, light-hearted novels like sausages that I am now gobbling up like candy.  Well not like candy because if I were I would have read them all already. She is great to read when I'm in a slump or to clear the cobwebs after too much heavy reading.

However, I have reached the point where I just don't want  to write a review about each and everyone that I read because how many times and in how many different ways can I say how much I enjoy the Haimish MacBeth stories and that next I will work my way through Agatha Raisin? 

So unless I come across a Beaton story that is out of the ordinary, this is my last word on the subject.

Filched from Facebook

 

 

2021 Reading List: April

 

BY THE NUMBERS

YTD:  50 Books Read, 672 Hours Spent

Goal: 100 books and 1500 hours

MTD: 15 Books Read.   152 Hours Spent.  

 

 

 

1.  The Key -- Patricia Wentworth -- NEW38
2.  In the Wet -- Nevil Shute -- Re-read
3.  Landfall -- Nevil Shute -- Re-read
4.  Lonely Road -- Nevil Shute -- Re-read
5.  The Crow Trap -- Ann Cleeves -- NEW39
6.  John Adams Under Fire -- Dan Abrams -- NEW40
7.  The Big Four -- Agatha Christie --  Re-read
8.  The Key -- Patricia Wentworth -- Re-read
9.  Lowcountry Boil -- Susan M. Boyer -- NEW41
10.  Moon Over Soho -- Ben Aaronovitch -- NEW42
11.  The Philosophy Book -- D-K -- NEW43 -- DNF
12.  Busman's Honeymoon -- Dorothy L. Sayers -- NEW43
13.  The Siamese Twin -- Mystery Ellery Queen -- NEW44
14.  Longshot -- Dick Francis -- Re-read
15.  Before the Coffee Gets Cold -- Toshikazu Kawaguchi -- NEW45

Lonely Road

 

By Nevil Shute (read by Laurence Kennedy)

 

 

An early Nevil Shute

Set between the World Wars, Commander Stevenson's quiet and lonely existence falls apart when he meets a a girl from a dance hall and then gets involved in foiling a bit of political intrigue that her brother is involved in.  It is not a long story, but it is gripping.

Neville Shute is a superb story teller -- you will hear me say it over and over again. His characters are simple yet delightfully deep and complex people. They are people most readers can identify with.

Odds Against

 

Dick Francis (read by Tony Britton)

published 1965

In which we meet Sid Halley

When an illegal takeover of a race-course is suspected, ex-jump-jockey Sid Halley investigates. It is his first  case and he is up to his eyebrows. But after three years hanging around the office of Hunt Radnor Associates, Halley has learned a lot about investigating and eventually figures it all out.

This is the first of 5 Sid Halley stories. The first three were written by Dick Francis (with 30 years between the first and the third).  The fourth by an aging Dick Francis in collaboration with his son Felix and the fifth by Felix Francis after his father's death (and it was terrible).  Odds Against was Dick Francis's fourth mystery novel and his first Edgar award nomination.  He would go on to become the only three time Edgar winner (two of which were for Sid Halley sequels).

I always read the Sid Halley stories with mixed emotions. While these are all very well-written and Sid Halley is one of the toughest characters in the Francis pantheon, there are sections that I skip because the malevolence and utter sadistic brutality portrayed is more than I want to read. If all his books were this way, I would have long since stopped reading anything by Francis.

 

Four stars

 

 

A Fearsome Doubt

By Charles Todd (read by Sam Gilles)

Inspector Ian Rutledge, Book 6

I never met an Inspector Rutledge that I didn't like...

Until this one.  There was just something off about this one. Not the mystery part of the story, which kept me guessing until the very end, but what was going on inside of Rutledge's head. Maybe it was because there was way too much of it. In any case, this is not going to stop me from reading the rest of the series.

 

The Nonesuch

 

Georgette Heyer (read by Eve Matheson)

 

 

 

There is no one like him

This is one of those love stories that turns on a misunderstanding. The already rich and famous, though self-effacing Sir Waldo Hawkridge, The Nonesuch, has inherited a wreck of a mansion and has come to the country to inspect it. The love interest is the chaperone to a young termagant of an heiress. They meet, they get to know one another, he falls head over heels for the chaperone who slowly realizes she is in love with him. There is a misunderstanding just to spice things up and in the end they live happily ever after -- without the heiress, who is sent back to her guardian.

Folks, this is a four star Georgette Heyer -- delightful, enjoyable, fun to read, fun cast of characters thrown into all sorts of scrapes and folly.

How Iceland Changed the World

 

by Egill Bjarnason  (read by Einar Gunn)

 

 

 

 

Going to Iceland? Read this before you go. Not going? Read it anyway. It is not full of boring historical details but paints a vivid picture of this island on the crossroads and its history-making roll over the last millenium. Best of all, with the audio version, you get to hear how all the names and places are pronounced.

Four stars -- for making history enjoyable