AFTER THE FUNERAL - Agatha Christie

 

Even for a Christie cheat this is an abomination, worse it was a nearly 400 page abomination.

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED - Evelyn Waugh

 

And still my favourite book, 13th or 14th reading.  It never gets old

READING JAZZ- Edited by Robert Gottlieb

 

A beautiful collection covering all the greats from 1919 until 1996. A big collection clocking in at over  1000 pages.

Philip Larkin is terribly harsh on Thelonious Monk. 

Stanley Crouch rips into the later Miles Davis as well, not a word held back.

My favourite piece,  "The Poet: Bill Evans by Gene Lees.  Evans is always the favourite.

THE CASE OF THE SECOND CHANCE - Christopher Bush

 

Very slow to get going and the resolution is very contrived.  C+

THE JEWEL THAT WAS OURS - Colin Dexter

 

This story misses the banter and humour that others in the series have. Dexter can be very funny but this lacks the laughs, the mystery is ordinary

ADVENTURE STORIES FROM THE STRAND - Various

A  book of short stories taken from the pages of the Strand Magazine.  All the usual culprits found, Conan Doyle, Kipling ,Greene, Wallace, Maugham et al.

The story I enjoyed the most was "The Adventure of the Cantankerous Old Lady" by Grant Allen published in 1898.

This is a Folio Society edition so the stories are of a consistent quality
 

VENUS WITH PISTOL - Gavin Lyall

 

The normal wise cracking hero adventure from Lyall.  Nothing highbrow but entertaining as always

THE CLOCK STRIKES 12 - Patricia Wentworth

 

Average country house murder mystery, not a jot on Christie.