Keeping Track of my Reads

The latest book I've read was, Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanagh. It was a whodunnit mostly based around a court case, on the style of a John Grisham. I'm, a fan of books based on court cases. This was good it was about 2 sisters who don't like each other, accusing each other as being the murderer of their father. The killings in the book were a bit gruesome. But the story was a bit different. You didn't know 'til they end who had done it. Their father was very wealthy and an ex Mayor of New York so whoever was acquitted would get the inheritance so there was a lot at stake. I haven't read this writer before, he's from Northern Ireland and was a lawyer before he gave it up to concentrate on writing books. I must keep an eye out for his earlier books.

My latest read was, Trust by Chris Hammer. Never read this author before. He’s Australian and this book was set in Sydney. I like reading books set in countries other than Ireland, in fact I rarely read books by Irish authors, I read for escapism and so I read books set “somewhere else”. I enjoyed this, it was about money laundering and corruption in politics, the police and the judiciary. It was a good yarn. I’ve seen a few more of his books in the library, I must try another one.

My latest read was Summerwater by Sarah Moss. It was one of those books where nothing much happens, just a study of a group of people thrown together somehow. In this instance it is a chalet park in Scotland. A group of people are on holidays during summer but it hasn’t stopped raining and there is nothing to do. It wasn’t a very cheerful read. I couldn’t relate to any of the characters and nobody was happy in the book, a miserable lot. That said it was well written, but didn’t particularly enjoy it.

Have just finished The Cut by Chris Brookmyre. It was about a woman just released after 25 years for killing her boyfriend, but she was innocent and with the help of a young student sets out to prove it. It is set in Glasgow but the action then moves to Paris and Rome. It is set in the world of cinema, specifically low budget horror films that were being made in Italy. I enjoyed it overall, but thought it could have been a bit shorter. Also the references to the various horror films was lost on me as I was never a fan, but if you were, it would add to the enjoyment of the book. The student is studying film so he has that connection to the woman, who worked as a special effects make-up artist in the films. You had to suspend your disbelief in sections, but that's OK, it is fiction!

Have finished Just Like You by Nick Hornsby. Have read a few of his earlier books and like his writing. This was very good, an easy read. It was about an older woman (42) falling for a younger man (22). She’s a teacher and he works at various part time jobs, one being babysitting. She asks him to babysit and it goes from there. She’s white, middle class and he’s black working class. Their relationship carries on during the Brexit debates and votes. It was really about saying you can fall in love with anyone not someone “just like you”. It was very funny in parts. Would recommend.

Finally got round to reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Enjoyed it. Reminded me of an Agatha Christie crossed with Midsomer Murders. It was an easy read. Would recommend.

My latest read was The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths. This was about the murder of an elderly lady in sheltered accommodation. She was found dead by here carer who suspected that she hadn't died of natural causes. (The carer was from Ukraine, Donesk, and had left there after the Russians moved in in 2014). The old lady, Peggy, called herself a Murder Consultant. She was an avid reader of crime thrillers and helped the authors out with new ways of killing off the characters in their novels.

It was a good read, funny in places, the characters in it were likeable. It reminded me of the Thursday Murder Club, one of the friends of Peggy was elderly and was delighted to be included in the adventure. These type of novels, like the Thursday Murder club, i.e. elderly residents of a care home/sheltered accommodation solving murder mysteries are called "cosy crimes" in the book.

Would recommend as an easy and enjoyable read.

My last read was The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse. I was a bit disappointed with it. I was looking forward to reading a good mystery thriller, but I found it a bit formulaic and not very interesting. Perhaps I've read too many of these sort of books. The heroine in the book was very bland and boring, to my mind anyway. There was a background story about a younger brother who had died that was mentioned repeatedly but it was a non-story when it was revealed. She was going around this supposedly very creepy hotel/former sanatorium hunting for a killer, by herself! When she asked herself (this was another annoying thing, there were a lot of "asides", i.e. questioning herself and other etc. printed in italics), she said to herself, in italics, maybe this is dangerous? Maybe I should get Will (the long suffering boyfriend) to come with me? But you just knew the answer was no. I finished it and the end was very tame, still isn't clear why the victims were murdered. I'd give it 5 out of 10.

My last read was Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins. I enjoyed it. It was about a woman employed as a nanny in Oxford by a series of visiting Professors. She gets a job with a new Master of a College who is married with a child on the way and a daughter from his previous marriage who is selectivity mute, i.e. she will only speak to her father. Then she disappears...... It was partly a mystery/ghost story/psychological thriller. Worth a read.

Irish connection: None.

Have finished The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck. It was a book spanning the early 20th century up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It took me a while to get into it, but when I did I enjoyed it. It was the story of a woman spread over the time period, but, each Chapter had her life going another way, i.e. in the beginning a baby dies, but in the next chapter, did she die? What if she hadn't died.... What would her life had been? It was set in Vienna, Germany and Russia and translated from German. As I was reading it, parts of it was familiar to me, I hadn't read it before so I was wondering was it made into a film or TV series, but I cannot recall. Would recommend, it was an interesting read.

My last read was A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion/ I really enjoyed this book. It was about a family in Pennsylvania, 4 girls and a boy, their father was dead and their Mother seemed to be missing most of the time. Their father had died a year and a half before and it was about how they coped with it. The mother and father had divorced before he died and he had moved to New York. It started with one of the daughters being told to get out of the car by her mother because she answered her back and was being cheeky, the other children thought she wouldn't follow through, but she did, drove off and left her on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. What happened next affected the whole family. It was a sad book in parts, but also funny. It was narrated by one of the daughters, Libby, who was 15. It was fast moving and gave a great insight into life in a small town in America in the '80's. Parts of it were very poignant. It was written by an American now living in Sligo. The father in the novel was Irish, their name was Gallagher so there were plenty of Irish references and mentions in the book. Well worth a read IMO.

Have finished 2 books on holiday, it wasn't a beach holiday or I would have read a lot more. They were - Children of the Lost Archive by Valereia Luiselli. It was similar to the book American Dirt I read a couple of months ago about children crossing from Mexico into America. It was about a couple who met while doing a project recording voices and languages in New York. They worked as Documentary makers. They had 1 child each when they met. They went on a road trip down to the border. The husband wanted to research and get content for a documentary on the American Indians, particularly Geronimo, and the wife wanted to research the children crossing the border. It was a bit difficult to follow sometimes and I didn't get a real feel for the characters. It was an interesting read anyway.

The second book was a real holiday read, a thriller, Geiger by Gustaf Skordeman, it was very relevant to what's happening in Ukraine and Russia at the moment, though it was written in 2020. It's translated from the Swedish. It's about Sleeper Spies from East Germany and Russia selling codes for nuclear bombs hidden in Germany to terrorists, to start a war in Europe and break up the EU. It also touched on Sweden's approach to NATO. It was a good book to read on holiday it kept you turning the page.

I've now finished The Survivors by Jane Harper. She's an Australian writer. Her books are normally set in the Australian outback, and can be very atmospheric, this one was set on Tasmania and was about secrets kept and the problems that causes. There had been a freak storm and a shipwreck as a result where 2 men died, one the elder brother of the main character. He moved to Sydney but has returned to the island to help his mother who has to move his father into a nursing home as he as early onset dementia. Then another girl is murdered which awakens bad memories and secrets from the past. I enjoyed it, but when the "secret" was revealed (what had happened to a missing girl), I thought it was a bit underwhelming. But it was a good read, I enjoyed it.

Just finished Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford. The premise of this story is, what happens to the lives of 5 children who, instead of dying during the blitz, they went on to live their lives.

It was a good story which brought you through their lives and how the events of the times affected them. In the acknowledgements at the end of the story he mentions it was based on a real event during the blitz and a plague that had the names of those that were killed in the bombing, including children and that gave him the idea for a book. I thought this should have been at the front of the book. The first chapter dealt with the bomb strike but I felt this was disconnected to the stories that followed. I enjoyed it and found their lives and what happened to them was interesting and kept your attention.

Have finished The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen. It was translated from Finnish. It was a black comedy about an actuary who is sacked from his job but fortunately at the same time he inherits an adventure park when his brother dies, but, unfortunately there’s a big hole in the accounts, where did all the money go? A different kind of Scandi noir.

I enjoyed this and will try to find more of his books.