THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN - Paul Scott

 

This is a tremendous book.  Its the basically the same trope as A Passage To India, Anglo-Indian relationships, but this just flows beautifully.

There is an immense amount of detail but the story flows along so well you don't even notice time.  Its told from the point of view of several of the characters so it time shifts but all the dots are connected by the end.

This is the first of what's known as The Raj Quartet and I'm looking forwarded to reading the remaining three volumes.

Burmese Days, A Passage To India and A Jewel in The Crown all books showing fourth rate Englishmen lording it over the "natives', behaving as they imagined the landed gentry would behave.  

INSPECTOR FRENCH, MAN OVERBOARD - Freeman Wills Crofts

A supposed thief disappears off the ferry between  Belfast and Bristol.  The initial verdict is suicide but his employer gets the police to re-open the case.

The nicest thing I say about Crofts is he is without a doubt the most tedious mystery writer to ever draw breath.

This was the second of his I've read just to check that the previous experience wasn't an aberration. I can now say honestly it wasn't. Give him a wide berth.

Its that bad that the blurb on the back cover is obviously written by someone who didn't even read the book as it is completely wrong.

 

 

THE MAIDS VERSION - Daniel Woodrell

 

A mystery told in backstory regarding an explosion at a dance hall in 1929 in which 42 people die.

It lost its way a bit for me and tried to be too clever.  Woodrell is a very good writer but this one missed for me.  I'll read it again in a few years and see what I missed but didn't strike me like his earlier work.