So we might as well start with the DNF which was The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse. The blurb sounded promising - an old sanatorium in the Swiss Alps (possibly the French Alps actually, but definitely the Alps anyway) has been turned into a luxury wellness retreat type thing by an award winning architect and people gather for the grand opening only for them to disappear one by one, and then turn up dead. Sort of And then There Were None, but abroad. I borrowed this from my library's borrow box program and I did really reallly try but honestly it was about as interesting as watching paint dry. I couldn't keep in my mind who half the people were, and most of the ones that made an impression made a bad one by being either unpleasant ( the men) or feeble ( the women). Possibly it's better if you read it rather than having it read to you; at least that way you can go back and check who all people are - if you find yourself caring enough. Pearse has since written two follow ups featuring the same detective so obviously someone out there likes them. That someone is not me.
At the same time as I downloaded The Sanatorium I also got The Silent House of Sleep by Allan Gaw. This sounded very promising as it was the first one in a series, so if I liked it, lots more to read, It features a young forensic pathologist at almost the start of the development of the discipline and that could be a really interesting way to approach the detective genre but oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. The method of murder was just ridiculous and the motivation for it non-existent. What a let down. Also to be honest the main protagonist is a total misery guts and the police he works for/with are unsympathetic in the extreme. A C+ for the ideas and an E for execution. I won't be reading any more.
With attempts to find new authors so unsuccessful, is it any wonder that I fell back on some old favourites. My falling asleep to book was The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie, a set of short stories which feature the first appearance of one Miss Jane Marple. When you've been reading Christie as long as I have there aren't many surprises to be had, but the plots are competent, the writing is fine without being fancy and the motivations for murder are all credible. 'nuff said.
I listened to Karin Slaughter's Indelible and in a way this was disappointing because I thought it was the book in which she killed off a recurring character who I dislike very much. Imagine my disappointment at the end of the book when it turned out they had survived. (Spoiler, they don't survive the next one ...) Meanwhile I enjoyed this one, and certainly didn't see how it would end or how the past and the present would all tie in together. One of her best I think.
I knocked off a couple of J D Kirks; One for the Ages and City of Scars. I must surely be running out of the library stocks of this man, but as long as I keep finding ones on the shelves that I haven't read, I'll keep reading them.
Staying with the detective novels I also read a couple by J M Dalglish who tends to turn up on line attached to messages like 'If you liked J D Kirk, you might also like J M Dalglish'. On the grounds that I do like J D Kirk I followed up last month's not entirely successful experience of reading one of JMD's books set on Skye with several of his Hidden Norfolk series. When I say several, this was courtesy of them being bundled together in sets of three on Audible which sounds like a bargain and I'm a great one for trying to get the best value possible for my Audible subscription. So in March I listened to One Lost Soul and Bury Your Past. I'm not sure if its the writing or the reading but Gordon Bennett these books are pedestrian. This they then did, squared. Great if you like your books to have chapters that usually open with a weather report though. And the lead detective to be half heartedly dating the most passive aggressive girlfriend ever.
In search of some light relief I got Jodi Taylor's Lights, Camera, Mayhem which didn't supply many laughs to be honest. I think I've got a bit tired of these characters and their recurring behavioural and conversational tics. It all gets a bit monotonous.
Next up was a fantasy novel called Immortal by Sue Linn Tan. Can't remember now why I bought it, possibly I was looking for something to read that wasn't a detective novel and picked this up at Waterstones from a Book of the Month table? I knew it had been well reviewed, and initially I enjoyed it. The setting is oriental-ish and there were some interesting concepts. However it went on a bit too long and there was a not very well revealed 'reveal' about 5/6ths of the way through, for winch nothing had prepared the reader ( unless possibly an acquaintance with Chinese mythology that I don't have? ) I did at least finish it, but I was bored with the characters long before the end. I would say 'at least they weren't riding dragons', somethign for which I no longer have any patience at all, but at one point the heroine does ride something else, possibly a thing called a 'quilip', which, while it isn't a dragon, does fly and have hissy fits if the wrong person wants to get on its back.
And so finally to Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones. It's not her best, but it's a long way from being her worst and it's a personal favourite. It's not particularly deep or subtle, since it is after all a children's book, but it has charm, real danger, and a satisfying denouement. It also features one of her signature hapless academic males, who are great fun on the page but who would be really really annoying in real life. And there's an understated message about the importance of tolerance and how a life full of love is infinitely preferable to a life full of money or power.
No judgement if you DNF-ed this post as it's rather long. Suspect April's will be longer, unless I content myself with just a list!
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