Wednesday, July 21, 2021

THE PRISONER OF ZENDA - Anthony Hope


 










A romance / adventure where a rather lazy young Englishman finds himself first impersonating the King of Ruritania and then leading the mission to rescue this King.

Published in 1894 this style of story has been copied by many down through the years, Dornford Yates in the first instance.  It is a swashbuckling adventure where good and decency wins the day.

A nice easy read and one to be ticked off the list.



I,THE JURY - Mickey Spillane












 Finally got around to reading this.  Its a decent bit of entertainment.  Not a great mystery, the writings clunky as you'd expect with a first effort &  I suppose it was blatant regarding sex and violence when it was first published.

Hammer is a C grade Lew Archer in the hard boiled PI stakes.  











THE HANGED MAN OF SAINT- PHOLIEN - Georges Simenon


 










Always readable.











THE CLUE OF THE NEW SHOE - Arthur Upfield


 










A body is found stuffed into a locker inside a automatic Light house on Australia's southern coast.

Bony is brought in to solve the murder.  Again , a good solid mystery











THE SAILOR RENDEZ-VOUS - Georges Simenon


 










After returning from a three months fishing trip to the Grand Banks the Captain is found strangled on the anchor chain.

Maigret is approached by the girlfriend of the suspect who has been arrested fto prove he wasn't responsible.

Always solid writing .

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

THE WITCH OF THE LOW TIDE - John Dickson Carr












 A woman is found strangled in a bathing shed setting off an investigation involving Harley Street doctors and Scotland Yard Detectives.

This is one of the best Carr's I've read.  His mysteries are generally of a 'locked room' variety but this has several very unlikeable characters as well and actually keeps you guessing to the end.  An excellent read


WHEN THE LIGHT GOES - Larry McMurty


 










I've been reading about Duane since The Last Picture Show and books featuring hiom have been entertaining me for a long time.

Duane is now a 64 year old widower who has just returned from a holiday in Egypt and is having trouble settling back into his small town. 

There is his therapist who wont sleep with him and a new employee who gives every indication that she will and all this confuses Duane.

As always this is very human and hilarious in parts.  The last part of the book is Duane having sex which gets a bit tedious but like all McMurty's writing its very ,very enjoyable.













THE SHOT - Philip Kerr


 










Tom Jefferson is a professional killer who takes a contract from the Mafia & the CIA to kill Castro.  Things are running to plan until a corrupt FBI agent exposes Tom to information that changes his target.

This appears to be a " run of the mill we know how this will play out"  but it has a great twist over the last third of the book and it surprises.

A good political thriller.











Thursday, July 8, 2021

THE VERONICA DEAN CASE - Hillary Waugh











This is a contemporary thriller (early 80's) written in a Sam Spade hard boiled style rather than Waugh's normal police procedural style.  

I would classify this as a parody of Hammett's writing but lacking the depth.

The story is very silly, the PI Simon Kaye gets involved in the hunt for a treasure map with lots of violence.  

I'd buy more with this character solely because Waugh is fairly difficult to find. Don't go out of your way to read this.









 

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

THE PRIVATE WOUND - Nicholas Blake


 










A 30 year old writer settles in a Irish village and soon begins an intense affair with the local squires wife.  Soon there's a murder.

This is more a romance than a murder/ mystery not the usual Blake fare but a good read without his usual humour.










Monday, July 5, 2021

THE ZEBRA STRIPED HEARSE- Ross MacDonald


 










Lew Archer is hired to find the dirt on young painter who is engaged to a wealthy mans daughter.  As normal you hire Archer he keeps digging and the truth isn't what you want sometimes.

MacDonalds writing is much more than the lurid paperback cover suggests.  These are novels about the human condition, greed, lust, jealousy and he writes about these things better than many more celebrated novelist's.

I rate him higher than Chandler.

Friday, July 2, 2021

THE BATTLING PROPHET - Arthur Upfield


 










A famous meteorologist die after a three week drinking bout.  The doctor certifies that his death was caused by heart failure due to alcohol poisoning ,but was it?

This is a very silly Bony, we have security services, foreign powers, not the best in the series.











Thursday, July 1, 2021

SCANDAL AT HIGH CHIMINEYS -John Dickson Carr


 










A Victorian variation on the locked room mystery.  Not up to Carr's usual standard but entertaining.

Carr is always worth reading, it is just story quality varies from book to book quite markedly.