Books......

I promised a post about books as I had been slacking in that department recently, so here you are.

I finished The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin. I really liked it. The last few Rebus books had, I felt, been a little off the boil, but this one was right back on form. Rebus being his usual recalcitrant self and Siobhan showing all the signs of going the same way. I was amazed too that I managed not to picture Rebus as Ken Stott. While I thought the casting of the wonderful Stott as Rebus was spot on, I did not like the scripting of this series of Rebus. I thought that the John Hannah series was more faithful to the books, although the casting of Hannah as Rebus was not right. Anyway, my reading of the book seems to have remained uncontiminated by the TV series, which is a good thing. I shall look forward to the next Rebus in the hope that it's as good as this one was. Rebus's retirement is beginning to loom large over the series though and it will be interesting to see that Rankin does.

Talking of Ian Rankin, there is an interesting article by him in today's Guardian about Robert Louis Stevenson. They're giving away 25,000 copies of Kidnapped on the streets of Edinburgh to celebrate the city's literary heritage. Anyway it suggests that we could all read, or re-read Kidnapped so I am putting it on my list of books I will try and read this year - one of the non-crime books I said I was going to try and read more of. I can't remember if I read Kidnapped when I was a child or not. I remember Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but I can't be sure about Kidnapped. Anyway one of my favourite poems is by RLS - I Will Make You Brooches.

I have a heavy schedule of reading ahead this month. I'm currently reading this -

I'm enjoying it but I can't help thinking that if Adamsberg is typical of French detectives, then I pity the poor French. Interesting as he is, I'm not at all convinced about his abilities as a policeman - but then this is the first Fred Vargas I've read, and I'm only just over halfway through, so I may be maligning his detecting skills.

When I'm finished that I have 2 books for Reading Group. This month's theme is "Dagger Winners" so I have chosen these two -


The Ann Cleeves comes highly recommended and is set in Shetland. It has the added bonus that it's large print, so I can read this while knitting! The Jim Kelly is one which was also recommended to me, but by a different person, but anyway it was on my list for this year. I'm resisting the urge to start either of these before finishing the Vargas.



After that I have 2 books to review for Eurocrime -

I've never read any Robert Goddard, and this one also has a Scottish connection so I'm looking forward to that. The other is a writer I'd never heard of - He's British but it looks like a very American book - set in Nevada and involving role-playing computer games and a psychopathic killer - right up my street.

I have just one further thing to say today - why does England fall apart every time there's a little weather. You'd think we would be used to it by now - we get enough of it, but no! Two inches of snow and the entire Midlands grinds to a halt. Yesterday it took me over 2 hours to get home from work - a journey of approx 2 miles. And when the Evilpixie tried to get home a little later all the buses were cancelled and she had to walk - it only took her a hour to walk the same route that it took me 2 hours to drive, but now she has a cold and is feeling miserable. I rather suspect you people in colder climes are laughing heartily at our ineptitude.