Books to go

Having another weed of the bookshelves, on the grounds that I am not allowed to buy more bookshelves to put new books on... These will be going to Oxfam next weekend if nobody wants them enought o pay postage.

From a previous batch where I was waiting to see if someone else wanted it first:
Ruthi, do you still want "A Wrinkle in Time" and "Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder"?

James Anderson --
The Affair of the Bloodstained egg cosy
The affair of the mutilated mink
the affair of the thirtynine cufflinks

Lillian Stewart Carl -- Ashes to Ashes
http://www.librarything.com/work/1420585/book/49944676

New stuff:

Frank Kelly Freas -- as he sees it
http://www.librarything.com/work/120615/book/27422681

Andre Norton - Key out of time
http://www.librarything.com/work/59989/book/49885643

Lillian Stewart Carl -- Ashes to Ashes
http://www.librarything.com/work/1420585/book/49944676

Miss Read: Village School

The 4 Hamish Macbeth books will probably go as soon as I've read the other two.

Book log: Reginald Hill -- Midnight Fugue

Book 66

The 24th book in the Dalziel and Pascoe. Hill is once again playing entertaining literary games; this time around he's using the format of timed chapters giving overlapping strands of a story that plays out in just 24 hours, and playing on the musical theme of a fugue, with a book that's all about what happens as a man emerges from a fugue in the psychiatric sense. You don't need to understand exactly what he's doing to enjoy this story, but the techniques add depth to an entertaining police procedural.

The Fat Man has just returned to work after being nearly killed in a bomb blast two books back, but he's still not fully recovered, and the world has moved on in his absence. Thus when he gets a call for help, he's inclined to treat it as personal hobby rather than official case until he's sure what he's dealing with. But the case all too quickly snowballs, as a racketeer-turned-respectable sends in a team to ensure that the dead past stays dead.

There's ongoing development of the continuing characters, some beautifully drawn new characters, a lot of (often very dark) humour, and a brilliant twist at the very end. Not quite my favourite of the series (that's still Dialogues of the Dead/Death's Jestbook), but well up there.

LibraryThing entry

Book log: Georgette Heyer -- A Blunt Instrument

Book 67

The fourth Superintendent Hannasyde book. Earnest Fletcher is found dead in his study, with a large dent in his head from a blunt instrument. On the surface he's a well-liked and respected man, but it soon becomes apparent that his nephew and heir is not the only one with a possible motive for killing him. Unfortunately for Hannasyde, some of the people with motives are also his best witnesses, and some of them also have good reason to try to protect some of the other people with motives. He has a number of precise statements of the time of various events in the half hour leading up to the murder, most of which are not compatible and some of which are almost certainly true. It's only after a second murder that he begins to suspect the truth...

I actually spotted the murderer straight off, which bothered me not at all, as part of the fun was trying to work out whether I was right. The story itself is great fun, with Heyer's usual collection of sharply drawn characters, and her usual odd couple romance in the background.

LibraryThing entry