if you only have a hammer everything looks like a nail
I really have three main things that I use the blog for posting some of my photos, writing about woodworking and recording the books that I read. I also add some things about the site and technology.
I have for some time been using a plugin called Now Reading its been great and there is a widget that shows what I have read plan to read and so on. However the plugin hasn’t been updated since WordPress version 2.7. The developer has also lost interest. Continue reading “Book Reading”
This is the first overseas visit by the new president in the land of her forebears. The story unfolds with a mysteries puppeteer who is pulling the strings from afar. The plot moves along at an easy but interesting pace. The resolution is a once surprising and a little disappointing. However unlike the great tradition of American films there is little scope for a sequel.
This is first and foremost a political thriller but there are elements of a detective story embedded within it. In the end I am keen to read more by this author.
The first thing about this excellent Swedish thriller is that there are two authors, Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom. This I find interesting and how they work to construct plots and characters. Despite this there is no sense that are two authors. Not like the Lennon and McCartney song writing partnership where parts can be attributed to writer or the other. Some of this may be ironed out by the book being translated into English.
The plot is clever and as is de regur for thrillers is convoluted and complex. The main characters are well developed. The story of drugs and corruption is plausible and at the edges of believability. But as the old saying goes truth is stranger than fiction. It’s difficult to describe the story without giving it away. It does however explore the push of criminals out of the old Soviet regime and into affluent Northern Europe. The setting is the murky world of police undercover work and the dance of law enforcement and organised crime.
This is a cracking yarn that is fast paced and weaving until the very surprising end.
This is the 4th novel in the Sophie Anderson series by Australian author P D Martin. The central character is an Australian working as an FBI profiler. The story moves along well and seems to give an insight into the law enforcement and gang culture of LA.
Being the fourth in the series there is previous history which dealt with well enough without re telling the previous books. However I did find the style hard going. There was in my opinion too much description which was superfluous. Detail of desk and the cut of clothes and so on, perhaps I me getting old and grumpy.
The central character has visions that relate to the people involved in the case. Pulling up a sort rewind that is always incomplete and not really helpful.
However I picked the book cheap and it made sense in the end. Not sure if will hunt down the rest haven’t had a vision about that yet.
This Alan Furst novel has a decidedly nautical favour and gives a Dutch flavour to the war in Europe. The story is set largely at sea and follows the intrigue of ports across the Mediterranean and northern Europe. As would be expected on a merchant ship there are a variety of characters from all over the place.
The central character DeHaan is a resourceful old salt who is master of his own world. A great yarn with a great finish. Predictably the infamous Brassiere Heininger is featured but in a very unusual way.
This turned out much to my surprise a two part story. I read the first book The World at Night and when I started the next novel Red Gold I was confused. I know that there is very little cross over in characters in the Furst novels. It took a few pages to realise that Red Gold is a continuation of The World at Night.
The World at Night follows a reasonably well to do movie producer and his comfortable life as the Germans are rolling across Europe. The central character Jean Casson fortunes slowly slide downwards as he becomes drawn into the conflict. Almost inevitably he falls foul of the new authorities as they assert their control over his beloved Paris.
As with all the novels the Brassiere Heininger with its infamous table with a bullet hole in the wall. This is the connector in all the novels. Makes you wonder if they all see each other. The hero of the piece is put in a position where he is played off between the various secret service and resistance groups.
The story ends quite soddenly.
Luckily Red Gold comes along and as the name suggests this has a Russian flavour as Jean becomes more entangled with communists.
On the run and down on his luck he can only watch his old life from a distance. He lives in the shadows of his own city. Always looking for his past. These stories evoke a sense of being there. There is much made of the deprivation suffered by the occupied people.
This tale by Alan Furst, Dark Star, follows a high-profile Russian reporter. He is a foreign correspondent who enjoys a degree of
luxury and privilege in the dark days of Stalin’s purges. He becomes drawn into the world of espionage by his masters, a matter of survival as anything else. The is a real sense that he does not have any way out, whatever he does “they” know and will find him. The story is set to the backdrop of moving through occupied countries and into Germany. There are lots of historical references and the Russo-German non-aggression pact is central to the story.
As is custom with these novels there is the obligatory visit to the famous brassiere in Paris and that bullet hole in the wall. The main character in these books is Europe and the turmoil of the nineteen thirties and the inevitable march towards war.
The book is a satisfying read with great characters and particularly enjoyable for those who revel in this period of history. Dark Star does evoke a sense of being there.
This is the third of the Alan Furst novels that I have read , Spies of the Balkans. This is as intriguing as the previous ones with a flavour of the intrigue that is the essence of WWII spy novels. This one is set in Salonika and has as its backdrop the imminent invasion of Greece by the German army. The central character a policeman becomes embroiled with spies form both sides of the conflict. He moves between theses competing interests with some degree of flexibility which is afforded to him by his unique position in the police department.
Ultimately he becomes entangled with moving persecuted Jews from Germany, a sort of hidden escape path. Like the previous novels there is the obligatory path into Paris and the brassiere that features in all of the novels. I look forward to reading more of this.
I have read what must be the most bloodthirsty book that I have ever read. I was attracted to reading this after tackling Cormac McCarthy’s novel “No Country for Old Men’ which in itself was a violent novel. I am not that squeamish and do read a large amount of crime fiction but this was something else.
The story concerns itself with a group of misfits who seem to make their living from killing “injuns” and them scalping them to collect bounties. The landscape is bleak and harsh. This novel makes the old west appear to be almost like some post apocalyptic world with little or law and misery in spades.
The novel is mostly written from the perspective of a “The Kid” he seems a spectator as much as anything. The group is has another member referred to as the judge who appears as quasi scientist come philosopher when he is not committing heinous acts of violence.
The group is ultimately doomed and one by one they die. The conclusion of the story is somewhat confusing and unclear. I am not sure if I have the energy to read this bloody tale again.
This story is set in the German city of Breslau in the late 1920s. It is somewhat reminiscent of Agatha Christie‘s famous ?
Hercule Poirot. In that the central character in this book is a somewhat pompous and self assured detective. Unlike Hercule Poirot Eberhard Mock is not a free agent but rather an employee of the local police department. His juggling several balls what appears to be some kind of serial killer, the bureaucracy of his own department and his marriage to a much younger woman.
The setting almost has the tail end of an Edwardian mystery in that people are still getting dressed up rather formally and moving about the cold in horse-drawn vehicles. But the world is changing and motor vehicles and new kinds of technology appear in the book. Breslau is an interesting city over the centuries it has had various rulers as it sits between what is now Poland and Germany. In the past this city has been part of Silesia and Prussia. The unfolding crimes in this story relate the history of the city and point to the coming of the end of days.
Eberhard Mock it would appear is a man means lives well enjoys having his own personal staff and to all those around he is difficult. He pushes and prods his way through the story struggling to solve the case and is often the scenario in such stories those to whom he answers are less than happy with him. In the end the crime is solved that it’s a bittersweet victory for the central character Eberhard Mock.
The author is Polish and this city is now a Polish city that still owes much to its German heritage, at the time of the story it is part of Germany. It’s worth finding out a little about Breslau as it has an interesting and varied history and explains something of the period which this book is written. The author Marek Krajewski was a lecturer in classical studies at the University of Breslau book is translated into English by Danusia Stok.
