julesjones

Just to clear it out of the way, the bare list of December's books. Enjoyed all of these. The review of the LTER ARC will follow later, as will the full 2012 list.

December 2012

100) Beyond Grimm -- edited by Deborah J Ross and Phyllis Irene Radford
ARC received through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Of more interest on the bias front is that I know several of the contributors (I didn't know this when I requested the book). Nevertheless, I think it's a good anthology of re-imagined fairy tales, and would have been happy to pay full price for it. Full review still to be written (apologies for the delay, Deborah).
http://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/book/beyond-grimm/

101) Nightshade -- Mark Gatiss
Enjoyable Doctor Who New Adventures novel with Seven and Ace.

102) Alan Hunter -- Gently Floating
Inspector George Gently novel, this one dealing with the leisure boat industry.

103) Galactic Derelict -- Andre Norton
Second of the Time Traders series. This is the original 1959 edition complete with Cold War paranoia as the background plot. available from Feedbooks.

And some more minimalist book log, this time for October.

89) Christopher Isherwood -- Goodbye to Berlin
LibraryThing entry

90) James Goss -- Ghost Train
Re-listen of the Torchwood audiobook, previously reviewed here: http://www.librarything.com/review/72306373

90) Christopher Isherwood -- A Single Man
LibraryThing entry

91) Dick Francis -- Field of 13
Collection of short stories from the master of race-horsing thrillers.
LibraryThing entry

92) Gladys Mitchell -- Death at the opera
Fifth Mrs Bradley mystery, and one of those adapted for the BBC series. Good fun, although be aware that the tv episode made significant changes.
LibraryThing entry

93) Ellis Peters -- The Virgin in the Ice [audio book]
BBC Radio 4 full cast dramatisation starring Philip Madoc as Brother Cadfael, in five episodes on two CDs. This is an excellent adaptation of the sixth novel in the Brother Cadfael series, and I think would work well even for those not already familiar with the novel.
LibraryThing entry

94) Agatha Christie-- Death by Drowning, & other stories [audio book]
Four short stories taken from the Miss Marple collection The Tuesday Night Club, and read by Joan Hickson on two CDs. The stories in this set are The Herb of Death, The Affair at the Bungalow, The Thumb Mark of St Peter, and Death by Drowning. Four excellent short stories, beautifully read by Hickson. If you're a fan of Christie, this set and the other two CD sets which together comprise the audiobook of The Tuesday Night Club are well worth getting.
LibraryThing entry

1965 thriller, the first of four featuring private eye Rex Carver. Carver accepts what is presented as a straightforward job of tracing a young woman, and ends up chasing around Europe in a murky plot where he's working for at least three different masters who may or may not be on different sides, and include at least one official intelligence organisation. Definitely a product of its time, in more ways than one, but good fun and well worth a read.

LibraryThing entry

Second of the long-running Mrs Bradley mystery series, and the first I've read. I bought a set of nine of the novels recently re-published by Vintage (Random House) because I adored the BBC adaptation starring Diana Rigg and Neil Dudgeon. Unsurprisingly, the books differ significantly from the tv series, but are equally enjoyable. And I think the tv adaptation is faithful to the tone of the novels; even if Diana Rigg is far too elegant and glamorous to be the physical Mrs Bradley of the books, she's got the personality right.

Mrs Bradley is elderly, wealthy, eccentric, and a talented and experienced psychologist who uses her skills to solve crimes. As other reviewers have noted, there's a distinct resemblance to what you'd get if you turned Miss Marple into a wealthy woman who has married and divorced three times, and divorced at least one of those husbands for being boring. The ones I've read so far are enormous fun.

The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop is fairly gruesome, in that the body of one Rupert Sethleigh is found neatly butchered and laid out as cuts of meat in the local butcher's shop. Sethleigh will not be missed by Wandle Parva, and there is a large and varied selection of people with motives to do away with him. Adding to the fun and games, many of those people have reason to protect each other, and their attempts to do so only confuse the issues. General silliness ensues as Mrs Bradley disentangles methods, motives and opportunity, frequently by deliberately poking the suspects to see what they will do.

LibraryThing entry

Reread of the second book in the Adam Dalgliesh series, previously reviewed here.

First of the Nicholas Bracewell mystery series, set in a theatrical company in Elizabethan London. Bracewell is the bookholder for Lord Westfield's Men, a responsible position in its own right even without the additional tasks taken on by Bracewell. Bracewell finds himself with an unexpected task of the worst kind when his friend and colleague, actor Will Fowler, is called in a tavern brawl. Bracewell is determined to find the killer, but has other equally urgent matters to deal with, not least of which is ensuring nothing goes wrong with the performance of a new play before the Queen herself. Jealous rivalries both within the company and with another company aren't helping matters...

It's an entertaining romp, but unusually for Marston, there were a couple of elements that could be problematic for many readers. They're historically accurate, but nevertheless they need flagging up. One is the portrayal of one of the senior actors as having a taste for pretty boys, and this being tolerated as long as he leaves the company's apprentices alone - which he doesn't. Given other things he's written I don't think Marston intended this, but it does come over as equating "homosexual" with "pedarest". The other is that the book does get into the head of characters with the strong anti-Catholic prejudices one might expect in this time period.

http://www.librarything.com/work/201577

Jockey Philip Nore isn't too impressed when a young solicitor turns up at the weighing room, asking him to go and see his estranged grandmother. They're estranged because his grandmother threw his mother out of the house when she became pregnant. Nore doesn't know who his father is, hasn't seen his mother in years and has good reason to believe that she's dead, and was brought up by a succession of his mother's friends who were asked to look after him for a few days that turned into a few months. He lost the one set of involuntary foster parents who wanted to keep him. So he's more than a little bitter on the subject of family. Only being told that his grandmother is dying persuades him to go and see her -- only to find that she isn't dying just yet, and that she wants him to find a sister he never knew he had.

Another mystery drops into his lap when one of his friends suffers a series of misfortunes. Steve's father dies in a car accident, his mother is burgled and then attacked. George Millace was a professional sports photographer, and it becomes clear to Nore that Millace had photographed more than horses. Nore's haphazard upbringing has equipped him to dig up the dirt someone thought they'd buried along with Millace, because Nore's best loved foster parents were also professional photographers, and Nore knows darkroom techniques inside out.

Nore slowly works his way through George Millace's legacy, uncovering a network of corruption and blackmail -- and getting too close to the final truth for somebody's comfort.

It's a beautifully constructed thriller, with the first strand intertwining with the second to provide the final resolution, even though there's no direct link between them. And as ever with Francis's novels, it's an enthralling story of a man discovering himself and what he wants to do with the rest of his life.

http://www.librarything.com/work/42926

67) Francis Durbridge -- Tim Frazer Gets The Message [audiobook]

Abridged on 2 CDs and read by Anthony Head. Another case for engineer turned spy Tim Frazer. British intelligence agent Miss Thackery was last heard of in Asia, so why has she turned up dead in the Welsh countryside? And is her murder linked with the disappearance of a German scientist who was working at the British government? Another enjoyable 1960s espionage novel, splendidly read by Anthony Head.

http://www.librarything.com/work/12339476

68) Mary Stewart -- The Moonspinners

1960s romantic suspense. A young woman working at the British Embassy goes to Crete for an Easter break with her cousin, and walks into a cover-up of a murder and a witness in hiding. The mystery is not in whodunnit, but why. An excellent romantic suspense with a vivid sense of place.

http://www.librarything.com/work/26721/

69) Dick Francis -- Flying Finish

Lord Henry Grey holds down an ordinary office job, to the horror of his family who think that he should solve the family financial problems by the traditional method of marrying an heiress in search of a title -- or as he calls it, prostituting himself. He hasn't told his family about his other activities -- amateur jockey, and semi-amateur pilot. When he shifts jobs into working for a bloodstock shipping agent, nobody thinks he'll stick to it. But Grey not only sticks with the job, he inconveniences other people by doing so, and by being bright enough to notice that there's something very odd going on.

Another solid suspense novel from Francis, as ever tied into the world of horse-racing, and with a good romance sub-plot.

http://www.librarything.com/work/71205

69) Paul Doherty -- Corpse Candle

Thirteenth of the medieval mystery series starring Sir Hugh Corbett, Keeper of the King's Seal. I'm not familiar with the series and this one's a long way into the run, but I found that Doherty does a good job of introducing his characters to new readers. Corbett is sent by the King to investigate the death of Abbot Stephen of St Martin's-in-the-fields, an abbey in a remote area plagued by bandits. It's a locked room murder mystery that leaves Corbett initially baffled, but then he finds himself with more murders to investigate, providing both more clues and an incentive to find the killer fast. Very enjoyable, and I'd like to read more of the series.

http://www.librarything.com/work/532013

70) PD James -- Cover Her Face [audiobook]

Full cast dramatisation from BBc Radio 4 of the first Adam Dalgliesh mystery, on two CDs. Very well done, and with the original novel being fairly short, this one doesn't have to leave out large chunks of the book, even if if it is still abridged.

http://www.librarything.com/work/14341

71) Mary Stewart -- This Rough Magic

Another romantic suspense from Stewart, this one set on Corfu and themed around Shakespeare's Tempest. I enjoyed it a lot, but felt that the heroine was rather more blatantly collecting plot coupons than in some of Stewart's books.

http://www.librarything.com/work/25998

65) PD James -- A Taste for Death [audio book]

BBC Radio 4 full cast dramatisation of the novel, presented on 2 CDs. Two men are discovered with their throats cut in the vestry of St Matthews Church. One is a local tramp, the other a former government minister. The political implications make the murder investigation a job for Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team.

It's a good adaptation played by an excellent cast, and I enjoyed listening to it. But squeezing a long book down into 2 hours 20 minutes means that a lot of material has had to be cut, and I think the adaptation does suffer for it. It's still very enjoyable, but I think might feel a bit thin to someone who wasn't already familiar with the book.

http://www.librarything.com/work/14156

Abridged on 3 CDs and read by Philip Franks. Albert Campion makes the casual acquaintance of an American judge on board a trans-Atlantic liner, by waffling his way into saving the judge from an unfortunate accident. It's only the latest of a string of attempts on the judge's life, and Campion is recruited to help the judge in his quest to stay alive long enough to identify the mastermind behind a ruthless and effective criminal gang. Campion parks Judge Lobbett at a country house, but even that isn't sufficiently remote to keep the judge safe.

It's an entertaining enough listen, but the who is so clearly telegraphed that I thought it was a red herring. At the same time, the how is obscured to the point of being irritating. It's really more of a suspense novel than a mystery. Nevertheless, there are some nice set pieces in this novel, and the final confrontation between Campion and the villain is very atmospheric.

http://www.librarything.com/work/113274