'Tecs - The Short and the Long

 I may have left Saturday Slaughters but I'm still reading/listening to crime fiction. here's a round up of some recent ones. 

In Her Blood by Caro Ramsay.  I saw this in the library as I was passing the recently returned shelf and thought - 'oh we read one of hers in Saturday Slaughters and I enjoyed it'. Which was as good a reason as any to pick it up and take it home. Turned out it was No 2 in a series of which I had not, naturally enough, encountered No 1 (sigh)and there was a lot going on that reading No 1 first would have helped with, I got the feeling  that this one had been written in a bit of a hurry, as there were some places where I felt things didn't quite add up, or that some information which was fairly vital had somehow got lost in an edit, but that said, it was an enjoyable read. Well plotted, with a good twist at the end (which I felt I should have seen but hadn't - always the best sort - and some interesting characters. If the library have it I'll get hold of the first one at some stage and do a 'catch up'. 

The Twyford Code by Laura Hallett. I have seen Laura Hallett lauded up hill and down dale recently and described as a great story teller, master of the unexpected twist, etc etc so I downloaded this from my libraries Borrowbox service. I finished it but I didn't enjoy it. I certainly saw the twist at the end of this one, and basically it's one long (over) extended gimmick, that gets very old very quickly. If you're looking for something a bit different give it a go, but don't come whining back to me if you don't like it, because I warned you. 

So both the forgoing are a reasonable length which cannot be said of Robert Galbraith's (aka J K Rowling) latest Strike novel, The Running Grave. I used wasted an Audible credit on this. You sort of can't say you're not getting value for money if you judge a book by length, since it is over 30 hours of listening. JKR has obviously now reached that level of popularity where her publishers either don't bother to edit, or she doesn't let them, because this is far too long and would have benefitted from a massive cut - say 30%? The plot, which involves Strikes partner Robin going undercover to investigate a cult is good; and the sections dealing with her struggle to maintain her identity while bombarded with all of a cult's pressures to conform are so convincingly written they are difficult to listen to. I found them almost unbearable. I also think JKR may have fashioned something of a rod for her own back here as the psychological fall out from this experience would be huge and long lasting and that's a lot of baggage to saddle a recurring character with, if you're going to keep on writing about them and, moreover, writing them into dangerous situations. However that's JKR's problem, not the readers. So not a bad book, and I found myself mentally cheering at the loss of one recurring character, just far too long. Also I do not like Robert Glenister's way of narrating these books, and not just because one of his characters has an accent that wavers uncertainly between Glasgow and Belfast; it's too aggressive and shouty. I'd probably have enjoyed the book more if had read it rather than listened to it. That would also have meant I could have ignored the irritating quotations from the I Ching which head up every one of the book's 136 chapters, with bonus ones thrown in at the beginning of each of the book's parts. I would feel bad about saying all these harsh things if I hadn't read a shedload of Audible reviews (after I had done my own) that agreed with me. 

Since I can't grab a photo of the covers of any of these books off the web here is a photo of The Cat Lorenzo, now well on his way to recovery, although he is currently showing a weird preference for being out of the house in the wind and the rain rather than in it in the dry and the warm. Possibly he is attempting to avoid being 'dosed'. 

Tomorrow we may discuss A Surfeit of Advents.