This is a continuation of the blog posted on 12th January 2010.
Photo: Kate Atkinson. See below.
The Brass Verdict (2008) by Michael Connelly
See the review in my blog of 24th June 2009.
Aimez-Vous Brahms… (1959) by Françoise Sagan
I came across this book whilst clearing out my mother’s house. Françoise Sagan was a popular French novelist who died in 2004. This was her fourth novel and is only 129 pages long. It is about a middle-aged woman in a long-standing affair who becomes involved with a much younger man. Even though it is so short, I still found it tedious. This was the first book by the author that I have read and it is likely to be the last.
The Shape of Water (1994) by Andrea Camilleri
This is the first in a popular series of novels, translated from Italian, featuring a Sicilian detective, Inspector Salvo Montalban. It is an enjoyable mystery, written in a low key, and I may well read another in the series.
The Interpretation of Murder (2006) by Jed Rubenfield
The author is an academic lawyer at Yale University and this is his first novel. It is set in the USA in 1909 and is a mixture of fact and fiction. The factual context is the visit to that country at that time of Sigmund Freud, accompanied by Carl Jung, to give a series of lectures on psychoanalysis. The fiction is the former’s involvement in solving a murder and an associated mystery. It received very good reviews and was one of the UK’s best-selling novels in 2007. Whilst it is cleverly plotted and carefully researched, the central conceit did not really work for me.
The Mission Song (2006) by John le Carré
Anyone who is familiar with this website will know that I am a huge admirer of John le Carré. This story of an interpreter out of his depth in murky African politics did not disappoint. It is written with a lighter touch than some of his work.
Case Histories (2004) by Kate Atkinson
This is the second novel by Kate Atkinson that I have read. The first was Behind the Scenes at the Museum which was the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year, an impressive feat for a first novel. I thoroughly enjoyed both books. She has an original style and is able to blend tragedy with dark humour. Unlike the earlier book, Case Histories is a detective story but it is quite different from the norm. The central character, Jackson Brodie, a private detective, is very likeable and features in two further novels. I look forward to reading them.
The House of the Spirits (1982) by Isabel Allende
We had had this book at home for several years but it did not appeal to me. I only decided to read it after seeing that The Times had included it in its list of the 60 greatest books of the past 60 years. The author is Chilean and is related to the former president of that country, Salvador Allende, who was deposed in the 1973 coup led by General Pinochet. This was her first novel and is set in a South American country which, although unnamed, is identifiable as Chile. It is a family saga, covering three generations. It is a magnificent work and deserves the recognition it has received.
Russian Hide-and-Seek (1980) by Kingsley Amis
This was another book that belonged to my mother. It is set in England fifty years after the country has been colonized by the Russians and concerns a plot to bring down the government. I have read and enjoyed several of Amis’s novels but this was not one of them. I found it neither amusing nor interesting.
Click on book titles for Amazon product links.
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