Jan. 25th, 2016

smallhobbit: (Cat)
Mostly quick reads this time.

The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay

This was part of my Christmas present from SM.  It's a traditional 1930s country house detective story.  It was very much a Christmas read, both in subject matter, and as a slobbing on the settee, doing not a lot, Christmas activity.  I enjoyed it for what it was, although the solution was disappointing (of the 'oh really' kind).  The country house is somewhere in the Gloucestershire countryside, so that was a bonus.


Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

The second in the Temeraire series, and just as enjoyable.  I am extremely fond of both Laurence and Temeraire and very much enjoyed their trip to China.  As with the last book, I got to a point where I had a break of a couple of days, not being sure how much I wanted to continue, being slightly concerned at the direction I thought it was going in, only to find it went somewhere totally different.  Book three is already sitting on my shelf waiting for me.


Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J K Rowling

Strangely enough I've never read any of the Harry Potter books.  They first came out when the son was at the right age to read them.  I bought him the first book, and, as I often did, dipped into it, but never read it all.  I think he read the first four, but then essentially grew out of them.  I couple of years later I bought him some Sherlock Holmes stories, which he didn't grow out of.  The daughter didn't read unless she had to, so the books passed me by.  I'm now putting this to rights.  It's an entertaining read, but I had to remind myself at times this was a children's book.


The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid

This was recommended by [livejournal.com profile] draycevixen and although a good book, wasn't my thing.  I skipped the graphic torture descriptions (perfectly possible to do and still keep track of what was happening).  I also didn't care for either of the main protagonists, Carol Jordan and Tony Hill, mainly because I wasn't interested in the problems they had with their love/sex lives.  At first I wasn't happy with the solution, but as I read on I thought it was very clever.  Unfortunately, it left me even less impressed with Hill, the criminal psychologist.  Not my sort of book, but if you like psychological thrillers, worth reading.

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