Lockdown: Some Books Wot I have Read (2) Crime

Crime fiction has for so long been my non-study staple that I am rather dismayed to find that so much of what I have read in this genre recently has proved a disappointment.

Luckily The Long Call by Ann Cleeves was an exception to the disappointment rule. I opened this with some trepidation. Cleeves has two long standing series; one is set in the north east of England and features a detective called Vera Stanhope, and generally speaking I don't enjoy them much. The other is set in Shetland and features a detective with the unlikely name of Jimmy Perez and generally those I do enjoy. So she and I were playing a score draw when up she came with a new series set in Devon and I didn't know whether it would be a hit or a miss. In the event it was a hit. This opener for the series was clever, involving, and had a sympathetic lead detective, back in Devon after some time away. I was listening to something yesterday where someone said 'All fictional detectives have to have a thing don't they?', and the main character here has two things; he is gay, and he has been ostracised from the extreme Christian sect in which he was bought up. The ostracism stems from his loudly proclaimed loss of faith, which is what came first, but I daresay he would have been ostracised for being gay as well. Unless they had tried to 'cure him', which I understand is favoured in some quarters. Anyway I am looking forward to the next in the series and hoping that I will enjoy that just as much. 

I read Kate Atkinson's Case Histories years ago and was left feeling fairly 'meh' about it, but have since heard people rave so much about Jackson Brodie novels, that I took the opportunity of having it available from our library on Borrowbox to re read it, having convinced myself in the interim that I must be missing something. Well if so, I still am. So many loose ends, so many unpleasant people. Not my cup of tea. In fact I don't think I have enjoyed anything of Atkinson's since Behind the Scenes at The Museum, but as I have read very few that's not intended as a ringing dismissal. 

Finally The Girl in the Woods by Patricia MacDonald is the current Saturday Slaughters choice and we are, much excitement, going to try out a virtual meeting via Skype to discuss it in a week's time. This got off to a very very slow start and I almost gave up on it, but I persevered and in the end quite enjoyed it. About two thirds of the way through the plot took a rather sudden swerve and I was sitting there saying 'What? Where did that come from?' but in fact it was very neatly tied in to what had seemed to be the main plot and I was impressed. MacDonald is no great writer, stylistically, but I have encountered a lot worse recently, and at least she reads as though English is her first language. I don't know that I would rush to read anything else by her, but if I were marooned somewhere and the choice was another book by her or say, a copy of Tatler I'd go with the book.