Review: CURTAIN: POIROT'S LAST CASE, Agatha Christie

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 926 KB
• Print Length: 228 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0425173747
• Publisher: HarperCollins; TV tie-in ed edition (October 14, 2010)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0046A9MUY

Synopsis (Amazon)

A wheelchair-bound Poirot returns to Styles, the venue of his first investigation (THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES published in 1920 , where he knows another murder is going to take place…

The house guests at Styles seemed perfectly pleasant to Captain Hastings; there was his own daughter Judith, an inoffensive ornithologist called Norton, dashing Mr Allerton, brittle Miss Cole, Doctor Franklin and his fragile wife Barbara , Nurse Craven, Colonel Luttrell and his charming wife, Daisy, and the charismatic Boyd-Carrington.

So Hastings was shocked to learn from Hercule Poirot’s declaration that one of them was a five-times murderer. True, the ageing detective was crippled with arthritis, but had his deductive instincts finally deserted him?…

My Take

Published in 1975, and supposedly written about 35 years earlier, which puts it at the beginning of World War II, apparently during the blitz.

Hastings, as narrator, makes his first appearance since DUMB WITNESS. In fact he has married, brought up four children, and then buried his wife. The timeline of Hastings' life doesn't quite fit real time so it is one of those things we don't look at too closely. His daughter Judith is one of the characters in the story, and seems to be in her early twenties.

Poirot, crippled with arthritis, a shadow of his former self, and confined to a wheel chair, brings Hastings to Styles to assist in the apprehension of X who has already been involved in five murders. He hopes they will be able to prevent another murder. 

Poirot constantly tells Hastings that his mind, his little grey cells, is not impaired, just his body, and he needs Hastings to be the mobile one. However he refuses to tell Hastings who he has identified as X, and this puts him at quite a disadvantage. Poirot finds Hastings as frustrating to work with as he always has, and they do not manage to prevent more murders occurring. It is not for four months after the last murder that Hastings finds out the truth.

Even without the title the reader knows this is the final curtain for Poirot.

I don't actually think that I have read CURTAIN before and so the ending comes as a real surprise. I am not sure it fits with the Poirot I know from books that were written after this one. In many ways CURTAIN is a very black pessimistic book, fitting with the mood of the world when it was written.

The novel is relatively short, similar to earlier novels.

At the end of the Kindle version there is an interesting essay by Sir Charles Osborne in which he discusses the decision taken to finally publish the novel, and the impact that it had on the Christie reading public.

My rating: 4.6

I have been reading this as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, and this is the penultimate title.

Review: THE CRITIC, Peter May - audio book

• series: The Enzo Files, Book #2
  
• available from Audible.com
• Narrated by: James Adams
• Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins 
• Unabridged Audiobook
• originally published 2007 
• source: I bought it

 Synopsis (Audible.com)

Gil Petty, the world's number-one wine critic, is found dead and strung on a cross in the vineyards of France.

Enzo Macleod, Scots exile and former forensics expert, finds that the genteel world of winemakers hides a business driven by greed, envy, and desperation, with no shortage of possible killers.

My Take

I think it probably helped to have read the first in the series, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE, which gave biographical background to Enzo McLeod, how a Scotsman comes to be in France, lecturing at a university in biology when he is in fact a forensics expert (although essential details emerge in the narrative).

The first in the series also gives the background to Enzo's quest to solve some unusual cold cases.

I haven't read many crime fiction titles set in the wine industry and thought that would be interesting too.

Before long Enzo finds out that there are a number of people who are not keen on him solving this particular cold case and attempts are made on his life.

For those who know little about the wine industry, the author has done plenty of research and I think you will learn quite a lot.

A good read.

My rating: 4.5

I've already reviewed
THE RUNNER
VIRTUALLY DEAD
FREEZE FRAME
4.7, THE BLACKHOUSE
5.0, THE LEWIS MAN
4.5, EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE (#1 in the Enzo McLeod series)

Review: POSTERN OF FATE, Agatha Christie

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 595 KB
• Print Length: 256 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (October 14, 2010)
• first published 1973
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0046H95MW
• Tommy & Tuppence #5

Synopsis (Amazon)

A poisoning many years ago may not have been accidental after all…

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford have just become the proud owners of an old house in an English village. Along with the property, they have inherited some worthless bric-a-brac, including a collection of antique books. While rustling through a copy of The Black Arrow, Tuppence comes upon a series of apparently random underlinings.

However, when she writes down the letters, they spell out a very disturbing message:
M a r y – J o r d a n – d i d – n o t – d i e – n a t u r a l l y…

And sixty years after their first murder, Mary Jordan's enemies are still ready to kill…

My Take

This is the last novel that Agatha Christie ever wrote. In previous titles, NEMESIS and ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER she had brought the careers of her other sleuths to a close, although the final novels published relating to Hercule Poirot (CURTAIN) and Miss Marple (SLEEPING MURDER) were both written in about 1940).

Tommy and Tuppence appear together in four full-length novels and one collection of short stories. The collection of short stories is Partners in Crime, (1929), the four novels are THE SECRET ADVERSARY (1922), N or M? (1941), BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS (1968); and POSTERN OF FATE (1973).

Unlike Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple the Beresfords actually age in real time, beginning in their early 20s in 1922 and in POSTERN OF FATE they are in their 70s.

Rather appropriately the mystery in this story begins with a code which Tuppence breaks with ease. While Tommy was the one who worked in Intelligence and then as a private detective, and Tuppence was the one who raised the children and kept the home fires burning, it always seemed to be it was Tuppence whom Christie favored.

This novel is also about memory. The house that the Beresfords have bought has changed hands many times since Mary Jordan died and, as in ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER, most of the knowledge about the "Frowline" is mixture of hearsay and innuendo. But the discovery of a gravestone in the local churchyard sets both Beresfords off on a hunt for the truth. Tuppence explores what elderly villagers remember while Tommy goes through more official channels. This is rather evocative of the strategy adopted by Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver in ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER. I think it is also Christie exploring how her own memory works.

It turns out that the house that the Beresfords have bought has been "of interest" to British intelligence for decades as a possible hiding place for documents that the government would rather not see made publicly available.

In ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER there were references to cases that Poirot had solved, and there are similar passing references here to the previous novels in which the Beresfords featured.

Those who are looking in this novel for signs that Agatha Christie was "past it" or had Alzheimer's won't find it here. The novel is carefully plotted by a writer who still has something to say. However I think some of the episodes of dialogue between the Beresfords is a bit limp, nothing that I could imagine a husband and wife, even after about fifty years of married life, saying to each other. 

In addition some of the plot strands get confusing with informants not clearly explaining the information they are passing on.

I think the novel is also a little outdated in its writing style although it may not have been at time of publication. It reflects a belief Christie held for all her life: that there are some persistent forces of evil that regenerate from one generation to the next. Sometimes they are not at first seen for the malignancies that they are.

My rating:  3.8

I've read this as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, and now I have just two titles to go.

• 1975, CURTAIN (Poirot's last case, written about 35 years earlier)
• 1976, SLEEPING MURDER (Miss Marple's last case, written about 35 years earlier)

Review: ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER, Agatha Christie

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 723 KB
• Print Length: 243 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0062074032
• Publisher: HarperCollins; Masterpiece ed edition (October 14, 2010)
  originally published in 1972
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 000712080X
• ISBN-13: 978-0007120802
• ASIN: B0046A9MWC

Synopsis (Amazon)

Hercule Poirot is determined to solve an old husband and wife double murder that is still an open verdict…

Hercule Poirot stood on the cliff-top. Here, many years earlier, there had been a tragic accident. This was followed by the grisly discovery of two more bodies – a husband and wife – shot dead.

But who had killed whom? Was it a suicide pact? A crime of passion? Or cold-blooded murder? Poirot delves back into the past and discovers that ‘old sin leave long shadows’.

My Take

The story begins with Hercule Poirot's writer-friend, Ariadne Oliver, attending a literary luncheon.  A woman approaches Mrs Oliver to ask her about the parents of Ariadne's god-daughter Celia Ravenscroft. She wants to know which of Celia's parents killed the other.

Ariadne Oliver takes the problem to her old friend Hercule Poirot who ferrets out the answer.
He thinks it is a problem worth solving and so they both begin their own line of enquiry. Mrs Oliver tracks down old friends who might remember the incident at the time, and Poirot consults some professionals, in particular ex-Superintendent Spence and Mr Goby.

The novel explores the nature of collective memory, particularly when some people are under the impression they've learnt facts, but in actual fact what they "know" is hearsay, second hand information. And little by little Poirot uncovers what actually happened.

I don't really think I have read this novel before, but I actually managed to solve the puzzle a little ahead of Poirot. It is a mystery tinged with romance, a teasing out of the nature of love. I think Christie was desperate to get some ideas across, like whether a woman was likely to kill her husband and then kill herself.

In terms of her writing life, this is the second last novel that Christie ever wrote. I was particularly interested to find out whether she still had her writing powers. Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976) was after all 82 years old when this was published. It is the last Poirot she wrote (although not the last published).

For the most part the novel is well plotted and the characters are interestingly drawn. But the ending is a bit flat, almost like an amateur theatrical performance where the actors wave their goodbyes. 

My rating:  4.3

I've read this as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge. I now have 3 novels to go.

• 1973, POSTERN OF FATE (Last novel Christie ever wrote) - Tommy and Tuppence
• 1975, CURTAIN (Poirot's last case, written about 35 years earlier)
• 1976, SLEEPING MURDER (Miss Marple's last case, written about 35 years earlier)

Travelling again - postings will be intermittent

No deserts this time.

Today we go across to Melbourne where we had hoped the footy team would be in the grand final. However that is not to be and so we will have a couple of days to relax in Melbourne, which will be in the grip of "footy fever".

Then on Sunday we fly out for LA and then Indianapolis for the arrival of grandson #3.
This will be our last trip to Indy as at the end of October the family are moving to Florida.

So if postings on this blog are intermittent this month you wil understand why.

Sustaining a challenge for six years

A post by Margaret over at BooksPlease is a timely reminder that we have been about the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge for 6 years now, having begun it in September 2008.

Margaret has 12 titles to go, while I have just 4. I've begun ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER and should finish it in the next day or so.

Others who began the challenge with us have fallen by the wayside but there are still plenty more who have joined and are reading along at their own pace.

Every month we put up a Blog Carnival so that people can post their reviews and give us an update.

I've listed the 62 titles read so far under Agatha Christie Novels. I've been reading and recording short stories too but it is getting harder to locate what I haven't read. I am using the list at Wikipedia of novels and collections of short stories.

My original intent was a better appreciation of Agatha Christie as a writer, and I certainly think I have gained that.  I have learnt to see her not just as a mystery writer, but as a keen observer of people, and a social commentator, particularly of the changing nature of British society as it was affected by the two world wars, and the speed of change after 1945.

Review: CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?, Caroline Overington

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 463 KB
• Print Length: 288 pages
• Publisher: Random House Australia (August 27, 2014)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00JP1AOZ6
• Source: NetGalley

Synopsis (NetGalley)

How well do you really know the one you love?

With her customary page-turning style and potent themes, this is Caroline Overington at her thought-provoking best.

'Why do some people decide to get married when everyone around them would seem to agree that marriage, at least for the two people in question, is a terrifically bad idea?'
The year is 1999, and Lachlan Colbert - Colby - has the world at his feet. He's got a big job on Wall Street and a sleek bachelor pad in the heart of Manhattan. With money no object, he and his friends take a trip to Australia to see in the new millennium.

And it's there, on a hired yacht sailing the Whitsundays, that he meets Caitlin. Caitlin Hourigan has got wild hair and torn shorts - and has barely ever left the small patch of Queensland where she grew up. But Colby is smitten and for Caitlin, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, a blissful future awaits - marriage, a big house, a beautiful little boy. But nothing is ever as perfect as it seems. And for Lachlan and Caitlin the nightmare is only just beginning.

My Take

I thought this started off a little slowly and tentatively, but it gathers pace to become a story of surprising twists and depths.

It is one of those novels that is hard to review because I don't want to reveal too much of the story simply because the synopsis doesn't, and I don't want to spoil it for you.

On one level it is the story of Caitlin's life after she sees the building next to Colby's apartment block in Manhattan, the World Trade Centre, crumble when a plane flies into it on 9/11. Like many others, Caitlin finds herself unable to board a plane, and so she doesn't return to Australia, and marries Colby instead. But that is only the beginning of the impact on Caitlin's psyche.

So I'm sorry, you are going to have to read it for yourself, to learn the story.

I'm fascinated by the way Caroline Overington takes one simple idea or event and merges it so seamlessly with other ideas.

My rating: 4.5

I've also reviewed
4.4, SISTERS OF MERCY
4.5, NO PLACE LIKE HOME
4.7, I CAME TO SAY GOODBYE

Milestones

It always gives me a little frisson when I reach 100 books for the year.

I seem to have been reading even more slowly this month so it seems to mean even more.

This is what my "reading challenges update" says I have been reading this year. (Some of my challenges have slipped off the radar). My preference for British, Australian, and e-books dominates.

• Outdo yourself reading challenge 2014: aiming for 145, currently: 100 (137 in 2013)
• Agatha Christie Reading Challenge  currently 8/12 - aiming to complete 12
• 2014 Global Reading Challenge currently 18/21
• USA Fiction Challenge So far 16/51
• 2014 Aussie Author reading challenge aiming for 20. Currently 24
• 2014 Australian Women Writers Challenge aiming for 20. Currently 14/20
• British Books Challenge 2014 hosted by Feeling Fictional currently 45
• Vintage Mystery BINGO 2014: Silver & Gold Edition currently 22/12
• 2014 Ebook Reading Challenge  currently 46
• New to me authors - a personal challenge currently 27
• Not crime fiction - a personal challenge currently 2
• Nordic reading challenge - a personal challenge unless I find an "official" one, currently 6
• New Zealand reading challenge - again a personal challenge unless I can find someone hosting an "official" one. currently 2
• Translated crime fiction - a personal challenge that will overlap with many of the other reading challenges that I have undertaken. currently 11
• 2014 Mystery Author Challenge A-Z  currently 22/26

Review: ALREADY DEAD, Jaye Ford

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• source: Net Galley
• publisher: Random House Australia
• published September 2014

Synopsis (Net Galley)

Already Dead is another heart-stopping ride of sheer suspense from the author of the bestselling BEYOND FEAR.

Miranda shrank away from him, arm pressed to the driver's door. 'What's your name?''
'I'm already dead. That's my name now. That's what they called me. I'm Already Dead.'

Journalist Miranda Jack is finally attempting to move on from the death of her husband by relocating up the coast with her young daughter, Zoe. Then a single event changes everything.
On a Monday afternoon as she waits at traffic lights, a stranger jumps into her car and points a gun at her chest. Forced to drive at high speed up the motorway, Miranda listens to the frantic, paranoid rants of Brendan Walsh, a man who claims he's being chased and that they're both now running for their lives.

Two hours later her ordeal is over in the most shocking fashion. Miranda is safe but she can't simply walk away - not without knowing the truth about that terrifying drive. As a journalist Miranda has always asked questions. But this time the questions are dangerous - and the answers might get her killed . . . 

My Take

Miranda Jack and her friends have at times discussed what they would do if someone carjacked them. But Jax does none of those things.

Once again Jaye Ford has written a gripping tale, based on something that conceivably could happen to anyone of us. But we probably wouldn't be carrying the baggage that Miranda Jack is. But we probably wouldn't have her personal skills and determination either.

An excellent read, by an Aussie author you should watch.

My rating: 4.7

I've also reviewed
4.4, BEYOND FEAR
4.5, SCARED YET?
4.5, BLOOD SECRET

Review: THE SILKWORM, Robert Galbraith

• published in 2014 by Speher
• ISBN 978-1-4087-0403-5
• #2 in the Cormoran Strike series
• 455 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (author website)

A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, The Silkworm is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant Robin Ellacott.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he has gone off by himself for a few days – as he has done before – and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine’s disappearance than his wife realises. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were published it would ruin lives – so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him.

And when Quine is found brutally murdered in bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any he has encountered before…

My Take

I have previously read the first in this series, THE CUCKOO'S CALLING, and thoroughly enjoyed it. An ex-soldier, Cormoran Strike is a different sort of sleuth and he and his secretary/assistant Robin Ellacott make a good pair. Many of the themes/bylines that began in the first novel are continued and it will probably help a bit if you read them in order.

But to be honest I am a bit disappointed with THE SILKWORM. I thought it was a bit long and unnecessarily complex, particularly in the final explanations, almost as if the author wanted to keep the readers puzzled until the very end, and to be able to say with a flourish "There! You didn't guess that! Did you?"

Mind you, it is still a good read for the most part and you may not get as impatient as me for the ending to come.

My rating: 4.5

Read an extract on the novelist's website.

Review: QUICK, Steve Worland

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 1041 KB
• Print Length: 340 pages
• Publisher: e-penguin (August 27, 2014)
• Sold by: Penguin Group (USA) LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00L4T1UHS
• source: publisher review copy at NetGalley

Synopsis (NetGalley)

Strap in for a breathtaking, tyre-peeling, high-octane adventure ride by the rising star of action thrillers.

Melbourne, Australia: Round one of the Formula One World Championship. Billy Hotchkiss no longer races a V8 Supercar, but that doesn't mean he's lost the need for speed. When the young cop uncovers a diamond heist in progress he leaps into action and almost captures the thieves single-handedly.

Lyon, France: Interpol are convinced the criminals are somehow connected to Formula One. And they think this Australian ex-race driver is just the guy to stop them.
Sent undercover with an unwilling French partner, Billy is thrust into the glamorous world of international motor racing. But as the duo closes in on the thieves they soon expose a far more sinister threat.

With the fate of a city and the lives of one hundred thousand people in the balance, Billy must drive like never before to stop the worst act of terror since 9/11.

My Take

When the author contacted me about reviewing this title he didn't know that I am an addicted Formula One couch potato. I was interested to see what sort of crime fiction novel you could set in the Formula One world.

The answer is a fast-paced sizzling thriller, with lots of mind blowing stunts, and a seemingly indestructible and multi-talented protagonist.

I guess being familiar with the names of drivers, the location of tracks etc. really fuelled my enjoyment but I also enjoyed seeing the F1 world from the inside, and I learnt a few things too.

The novel really zips along and stretches the bounds of credibility. But who cares? The pure escapism had me snickering at times. And there's mystery too as you try to work the identity of the Three Champions that Billy Hotchkiss is tracking, as well as what they will ultimately aim to do, and why they are doing it.

My rating: 4.5

About the author

Steve Worland has worked extensively in film and television in Australia and the USA. He has written scripts for Working Title and Icon Productions, worked in script development for James Cameron's Lightstorm and wrote Fox Searchlight's 'Bootmen', which won five Australian Film Institute awards.

Steve also wrote the action-comedy telemovie 'Hard Knox', the bible and episodes of the television series 'Big Sky' and the Saturn award-winning 'Farscape'. The family film 'Paper Planes', which he co-wrote, will be released worldwide in 2015. His novelisation of the screenplay will be released at the same time.

He is the author of the action-adventure novels 'Velocity', 'Combustion' and 'Quick' and is currently writing his fourth book.

Summary of Agatha Christie Blog Carnival for August

There were only 5 postings in the ACRC Carnival last month but all worth checking out.

1. THE ABC Murders (Sergio@ Tipping My Fedora) 2. Chris and Christie - reading Agatha Christie's books in order 3. Margot Kinberg takes a look at Miss Marple 4. Desyat Negrityat 1987- review @ noirencyclopedia 5. Review @ MiP - NEMESIS

The September ACRC Carnival is now open for your contributions.

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Review: THE MURDER BAG, Tony Parsons - audio book

• format: audio book from Audible.com
• Narrated by: Colin Mace
• Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins 
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Published by Whole Book 2014

Synopsis (Publisher)

Twenty years ago seven students became friends at their exclusive private school, Potter's Field. Now they have started dying in the most violent way imaginable.

Detective Max Wolfe follows the bloody trail from the backstreets and bright lights of the city, to the darkest corners of the corridors of power. As the bodies pile up, Max finds he is fighting not only for justice, but for his own life.... 

My Take

The publisher's blurb says this is the first in a new crime series. In fact Fantastic Fiction tells me the title for the second in the Max Wolfe series to be published in 2015 is THE SLAUGHTER MAN.

Detective Max Wolfe has recently arrived in the Homicide division of London's West End Central, 27 Savile Row, and he is a bit of a loose cannon. As far as Max is concerned his colleagues and superior officers are too easily distracted from the scent, too easily deterred from following a lead.

Max is a single father of a little girl, and somehow Scout makes him understand that he has to do his job thoroughly to protect people just like his daughter.

For most of the novel the reader knows what connects the ex private school students who are being killed one by one, but not who the person killing them is. Four are dead and someone is imprisoned for their murder but Max is convinced it is not over yet. And of course Max is right.

In some ways the elements of this story are predictable but there is enough mystery to keep you going. The narration by Colin Mace is superb.

My rating: 4.6

Review: THE WALLS OF JERICHO, Jack Bunyan

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 1852 KB
• Print Length: 334 pages
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00DG0JYL2
• published December 2013

Synopsis (Amazon)

A classic murder mystery set in the competitive world of brass banding. Gerald Martin, a respected  figure in the brass band world, collapses from a gas attack in the adjudicator's booth in the middle of a competition taking place in the Midlands.

Maggie Sparrow is a player at the competition who witnesses the incident. She is also a police detective and finds herself in charge of the case. A confident and capable chief inspector, even Maggie is unprepared for the unexpected direction the investigation takes towards its dramatic resolution.

My Take

Once the police investigation into the murder of Gerald Martin really gets underway, it becomes obvious that he had many enemies, many fingers in many pies, and many who were glad to see him gone. Altogether he was a pretty nasty character.

I found this debut novel quite an enjoyable read. I have lurked on the fringes of Australian brass banding for over three decades and this is the first novel I have ever read set in a brass band competition. I'm sure there will be an eager audience amongst people like me.

On the surface THE WALLS OF JERICHO is a well constructed police procedural, with plenty of red herrings, and some interesting sub-plots.

However this novel has a few editing problems

• The author has a lot he wants to tell us about brass banding in Britain, and in some senses he hasn't known when to stop. There is a lot of background material about competitions, adjudication and so on, and I'm not sure we needed to know it all.
• I had the feeling that the author had a lot that he wanted to say in relation to how brass banding works and that he had been waiting a long time to get it off his chest.
• I think there was a similar lack of editing problem with character construction. This novel actually has a considerable cast of characters, but the author has decided to flesh them all out in some detail, including a lot of biographical detail.
• There is also a timeline problem. New plot strands appear out of sequence. It is always difficult to know how to introduce new sequences but it is not really helpful if they are plucked from well behind the timeline of the police investigation, particularly not when the murder victim has been dead for some days, and this sequence of action begins some days prior.

All of the above looks like a wad of major criticism but in fact are just pointers to how the length of the novel might have been managed better, and how the underlying structure could have been made tighter.

In the long run there proved to be too many sub-plots, too much interweaving, too many back-stories. The author created problems for himself here because these sub-plots required resolution, and in some cases he took the path of disposing of the character.

My rating: 3.9

About the author

What I read in August 2014

Another varied reading month, some excellent ones.

1. 4.4, DOG WILL HAVE HIS DAY, Fred Vargas - translated- most peculiar story.
2. 4.2, THE CINDERELLA KILLER, Simon Brett - British cozy
3. 5.0, SWIMMING IN THE DARK, Paddy Richardson- New Zealand author 
4. 4.4, BUNDORI, Laura Joh Rowland - historical Japan 
5. 4.4, DANGEROUS LIAISON, Vicki Tyley - Aussie author, audio book
6. 4.5, CHRISTINE FALLS, Benjamin Black - #1 in the Quirke series
7. 4.9, IN THE MORNING I'LL BE GONE, Adrian McKinty - Aussie author 
8. 4.9, HARBOUR STREET, Ann Cleeves - British author, audio book 
9. 4.4, NEMESIS, Agatha Christie  - Agatha Christie Reading Challenge
10. 3.8, A BLUNT INSTRUMENT, Georgette Heyer - Vintage Mystery challenge 

My Pick of the Month was SWIMMING IN THE DARK by Paddy Richardson but you can see from the list that there were a couple of close seconds.

If you've never read anything by Paddy Richardson, this is a good one to start with, and you'll be looking for more.

See what others have chosen this month

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month August 2014

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month 2014

Many crime fiction bloggers write a summary post at the end of each month listing what they've read, and some, like me, even go as far as naming their pick of the month.

This meme is an attempt to aggregate those summary posts.
It is an invitation to you to write your own summary post for August 2014, identify your crime fiction best read of the month, and add your post's URL to the Mr Linky below.
If Mr Linky does not appear for you, leave the URL in a comment and I will add it myself.

You can list all the books you've read in the past month on your post, even if some of them are not crime fiction, but I'd like you to nominate your crime fiction pick of the month.

That will be what you will list in Mr Linky too -
e.g.
ROSEANNA, Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - MiP (or Kerrie)

You are welcome to use the image on your post and it would be great if you could link your post back to this post on MYSTERIES in PARADISE.

---