Two Books

I just want to blog about these two books now because I'm about to given them away and if I don't do it before that then I'll never remember their names.

I picked these up in a charity shop in Ilkley for reading on the bus (and no the journey isn't that long but I was a bit concerned that I might have read one of them already, and anyway the hotel, for obvious reasons, no longer had a shelf full of books left behind by previous guests for current ones to read).

Anyway there was a hit and a miss, and so that I can end on a positive note I'll do the miss first. 

This was Messenger of Truth by Jaqueline Winspear, number a trillion and three (actually fourteen) in her Maisie Dobbs series. If you haven't come across these, Maisie Dobbs was a 'domestic', then a nurse in World War 1 and when she came back from the war she set herself up as a private investigator. I read the first one many years ago and wasn't impressed, but often series improve over time as the writer gets better or more comfortable with the characters so I thought I would give this a go. I regretted it. There was nothing major wrong with the plot, and it's quite well written, but the character of Maisie is very unsympathetic; hard, self absorbed, and arrogant. I really don't want to spend any more time with her. 

The second one was Peter Robinson's Careless Love. I was very uncomplimentary when I last reviewed a Peter Robinson so I was a bit wary of this, but in fact I really enjoyed it. Intriguing, quite tense in places and with a slightly unexpected twist at the end. Robinson back on form is what I would say about this one. 

As for why I was in Ilkley, well that's a story for another day.