Read this!

Haven't had much time to read things of any particular interest recently, but I did manage to get hold of 'The Gone-Away World' by Nick Harkaway. Go and find a copy and read it now. When I've finished reading through a second time, I'll write more.

The Duke & I by Julia Quinn

What the cover says:
"After enduring two seasons in London, Daphne Bridgerton is no longer naive enough to believe that she will be able to marry for love. But is it really too much to hope for a husband for whom she at least has some affection?
Her brother's old school friend Simon Bassett - the new Duke of Hastings - has no intention of ever marrying. However, newly returned to England, he finds himself the target of the many marriage-minded society mothers who remain convinced that reformed rakes make the best husbands.
To deflect their attention, the handsome hell-raiser proposes to Daphne that they pretend an attachment. In return, his interest in Daphne will ensure that she becomes the belle of London society with suitors beating a path to her door...
There's just one problem, Daphne is now in danger of falling for a man who has no intention of making their charade a reality..."

From the beginning of this novel, you know exactly what the ending is going to be as it follows a tried and trusted formula. However the journey from start to finish is delightful, with little twists and turns along the way, but never leaving you doubting too much that things will turn out for the best.

9/10

Samantha Smythe's Modern Family Journal by Lucy Cavendish

What the cover says:
"Very few women think they have the 'perfect' 21st-century family, and Samantha Smythe i no exception. Most of the time she takes that in her stride - unfazed by the amount of time Edward, 8 spends drawing pictures on his willy, Bennie, 2 avoiding a potty and baby Jamie refusing to eat anything but butternut squash. Samantha and her husband, John, are holding it together and embracing the chaos. But sometimes she does wonder: is it possible, when your first son's father is entirely absent, and you are now the mother of two more boys by your second husband, to have a real family? The one you always dreamed you'd have?
And then the absent ex-husband makes a dramatic reappearance and somehow ends up borrowing the spare room. This, of course, is enough to throw the family dynamic entirely off-course. With sanity, and capacity for rational thought in short supply, can Samantha protect everything she hold dear, without disappearing out of sight herself...?"

The 'aside' parts of this book that deal with life with children are sadly more interesting than the main story. The characters of the boys are probably the most realistic; but I found Samantha to be neurotic and irritating, John 2 to be far too patient and too good to be true, and all the other characters just too one-dimensional and contrived. Ok, but not a must-read.

7/10

The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry

What the cover says:
"Ted Wallace is an old, sour, womanising, cantankerous, whisky-sodden beast of a failed poet and drama critic, but he has his faults too.
Fired from his newspaper, months behind on his alimony payments and disgusted with a world that undervalues him, Ted seeks a few months' repose and free drink at Swafford Hall, the country mansion of his old friend Lord Logan.
But strange things have been going on at Swafford. Miracles. Healings. Phenomena beyond the comprehension of a mud-caked hippopotamus like Ted..."

I really really wanted to love this book as much as I love Stephen Fry, but I found it quite tricky. Didn't get into it until past half way through, and found it quite meandering up to that point. From there on in it slowly gripped me and I loved the last 2 or 3 chapters. I could have done without the detailed boy/horse encounter though. Beautiful use of language throughout of course, as one would expect from Mr.Fry.

7/10

The Iron Horse by Edward Marston

What the cover says:
"Derby Day at Epsom Downs. A multitude of people crows to watch the races: dukes and dustmen, bishops and beggars, privileged ladies and prostitutes. The gamut of Victorian society and a hotbed for crime abd crooks of all kinds.
With the country a-flutter in the run-up to this national occasion, events reach a fever pitch when a disembodied head is discovered on a passenger train at Crewe; the first in a murky course of events that takes in murder, fraud and race-fixing. Detective Inspector Colbeck and his assistant are assigned to the case and are soon snarled up in a web of skulduggery stretching across the country. Soon, they are forced to ask themselves: just how much is someone prepared to hazard in order to win?"

I've written before about the style of The Railway Detective books, and this is no different. An intriguing storyline - I thought I'd guessed the identity of the criminal but was only half correct, and had to wait to the very end to find out. Splendid stuff from Marston once again.

9/10

The Death of Dalziel by Reginald Hill

What the cover says:
"Can it be true? Has the Fat Man really sung?
Caught in a huge Semtex explosion, it seems the only thing preventing Superintendent Andy Dalziel from stepping through Death's door is his size - and sheer bloody-mindedness.
An injured DCI Pascoe works to uncover what he feels sure is a conspiracy - despite the security services believing the blast was an accident in which the terrorists blew themselves up.
Who, then, are the mysterious Knights Templar, bringing the war in Iraq back home with their gruesome acts of vengeance? What have they got to do with a hit-and-run on Yorkshire CID's most inept officer? And, most importantly, will Dalziel ever wake up to hear the truth...?"

I've always loved the tv adaptations of the Dalziel and Pascoe books, and I think Warren Clarke is an inspired choice to play the Fat Man. The books are different, but just as good if not better. This is a fascinating tale as for the first time Dalziel takes a major backseat, and Pascoe comes into his own - but not in the way that he would ever have imagined. A clever tale with everything you could ever want from a crime thriller, and gripping from start to finish. The only bit I didn't like was the very last page, but that's more to do with my (slightly irrational) dislike for one particular character as much as anything.

9/10

Blood Hunt by Ian Rankin

What the cover says:
"Gordon Reeve has a funeral to go to. His journalist brother has been found dead in a car, a presumed suicide. Not a nice reason to be flying the Atlantic.
And when he gets there it seems that nobody wants to answer his questions - why was the car in which his brother's body was found locked from the outside? Why does the local cop act like his shadow and prevent him talking to the friend who saw Jim last? Why does he have the sinking feeling that it wasn't a ghost he saw parked outside the crematorium?
Ex-SAS, a professional killer with an anger management problem, it's not in Reeve's nature to let such questions go unanswered, particularly when the murderers come knocking on his own front door."

I'm a big Rebus fan, and didn't really twig that this was one of Rankin's forays outside of Edinburgh until I started reading it. It's a slow-burner and took me a little while to get into, but then I began to be gripped, particularly towards the end. The scientific bits that are dropped in there did confuse me a little, but it didn't matter too much. Dark as any Rebus novel, but just as delicious.

8/10