Death Comes To Pemberley - P.D. James

It was pretty much a given that as soon as I saw this book at the shops over the weekend that it was coming home with me - I was looking for something light and comforting in the reading department and my Jane Austen obsession hadn't been fed in quite a while.
Death Comes To Pemberley is set in 1803, six years after the end of Pride and Prejudice and the double wedding of Darcy and Elizabeth and Jane and Bingley. The two couples live not far from each other in their rambling, magnificent estates and when the book starts preparations are under way for the annual ball at Pemberley. The book scans the main characters that are well know to Austen's readers and introduces a few new ones who will become more prominent in this sequel.
In her author's note at the start of the book P.D. James writes:

I owe an apology to the shade of Jane Austen for involving her beloved Elizabeth in the trauma of a murder investigation....

No doubt she would have replied to my apology by saying that, had she wished to dwell on such odious subjects, she would have written this story herself, and done it better.

After finishing the book there is no doubt in my mind that Austen herself would have done a far better job - but I wonder if she would have wanted to attempt it? I have not read any of P.D.James's non-Austen related crime novels so I admit I have nothing to really compare her work to - as I don't think it is fair to compare her to Austen herself.

The story starts well enough, the scene is set, the tension is built and the crime occurs. For me there was never really any element of mystery to the plot - I had taken a pretty good guess at what was going on in the story very early on and as it turns out I was spot on in my guesses. The development of Austen's original characters was threadbare and one dimensional - I never really thought I was reading about Austen's characters, their names were merely being used. All in all this book was a little disappointing - and a reminder that only Austen can truly pull off an Austen story.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest - Stieg Larsson

I read the final book in the Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest while on my reading binge in Thailand - and I have to say that I think Thailand saved this book for me in some way - given that if I had been reading it at home I don't think I would have finished it.
I was really disappointed in this final book in the series - I guess I should have probably known this was coming from my less than enthusiastic response to the book before but that book ended with a bang for me and I was really keen to read the last one.
I felt the third book really just went over and over territory and material already covered extensively in the first two books. I didn't feel as though the last book progressed the characters in anyway for me - sure, Lisbeth became a little more personable and we got some "resolution" (however unrealistic and Hollywoodised that may have been) but by that stage I just didn't care. I kept reading away hoping that something new and exciting would happen as it did in the first two books - but it just never happened.
I have heard some people say that this was their favourite book of the series but for me the fun ended with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and after that all that was really needed was a really good editing.
I did get to read the book in this setting though so I guess it wasn't all bad!

The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson

I had read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo last year and had mixed reactions as you can see here. However, I was still keen to read the rest of the series - I just needed a little break from the violence for a while! I ended up taking the second book in the series, The Girl Who Played With Fire with me on our recent holiday to Thailand - what better place than a tropical island paradise to read about death, murder and violence in Sweden??!!!
I was gobsmacked by how many people at our resort were reading the books from this series - I swear nearly every second person had one in their hands - in every language - it even inspired people to come up to me when I was reading by the pool to share their thoughts and to see how I was liking it. Whatever you think of the books themselves I think you have to stand in awe of the reaction they have elicited from readers (and probably a lot of non-readers) from around the world.
It took me a while to get into The Girl Who Played With Fire - I read past my normal test of 100 pages in the hope that I would get inspired - I eventually did but it took a rather brutal murder to get me interested which is a bit of a worry! I found that the first section of the book took a lot of time (way too much in my opinion) to set the scene and go over information again, and again and again - I was getting bored. Once the action took place though the pace picked up and I was hooked until the end - even chasing down a copy of the third book in a rare English language book shop in Koh Samui so I could read the conclusion to the series.
What did I think of the third and final book? Stay tuned...

Death at La Fenice - Donna Leon

Death at La Fenice is my first Donna Leon book - and I understand this book to be the first in her Commissario Guido Brunetti series following the Venice Detective in his work?

I do not read a lot of crime/mystery novels for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I work in this area and so I find myself either critiquing the novels from a professional perspective or feeling like I haven't really left work even though I am at home supposedly relaxing by engaging in my favourite hobby.

The other reason I do not often pick up this genre of books is that I tend not to like how they are written. I find that crime/mystery authors seem to use the "tell" not "show" version of writing which I find really annoying and a little patronising. I realise I am not very well read in this genre so I would love to hear from people who have read great crime/mystery authors that they would recommend.

In Death at La Fenice Commissario Brunetti is attempting to solve the murder of a famous conductor who is found poisoned in his dressing room backstage at the Venice Opera House. Brunetti systematically works his way through interviewing possible suspects and relevant people in the conductor's life and along the way we also see glimpses into Brunetti's own personal life as Leon sets up future novels in the series.

I did enjoy reading about the setting of Venice - and for me the city was my favourite character in this book. Brunetti was engaging - but in a distant, stereotypical police officer way - you wanted him to "catch his man" so to speak but other than that I didn't feel all that connected to him - not enough to make me want to read further into the series.

This was definitely a quick, light read (despite the content) and I did feel some satisfaction at the end having worked out the mystery for myself - something I am usually never able to do!

Affinity - Sarah Waters

See - I promised I was reading books by authors other than Alexander McCall Smith! And Affinity by Sarah Waters is probably as far as I could have got from McCall Smith in many ways!

I first read about this book over at A Work In Progress - Danielle's review made the book sound very enticing so I collected it soon after reading her review from my local library. I have read The Night Watch by the same author when it was first released some time ago and I absolutely loved it so I had no hesitation in going back to her work - even though Affinity sounded like a very different novel.

Affinity is set during the 1870's in London - the book alternates between scenes in upper class houses of the time and the Millbank prison for women.

Margaret Prior, an upper middle class unmarried lady begins to visit the female inmates of the prison after a suicide attempt following the death of her beloved father. Margaret struggles with the confronting nature of the visits at first but soon begins to see some similarities between herself and the prisoners - even though they would first appear to come from worlds away from one another. Margaret begins to develop a close relationship with one of the prisoners, Selina Dawes, a young spiritualist who has been imprisoned for assault and fraud after a seance sitting she was facilitating ended in the death of one woman and the "deep disturbance" of another.

The book alternates between the voices of Margaret and Selina where they give accounts of the events currently taking place as well as the events leading up to Selina being arrested, tried and sent to prison.

While the book focuses on Margaret and Selina I also felt it was saying a lot about the lives of women in general in the time in which it was set. At one stage Margaret makes the comment; "Why do gentlemen's voices carry so clearly, when women's are so easily stifled?".

The writing is evocative and enticing - I felt like I was walking through Victorian London, particularly the scenes set in the prison which felt disturbingly real at times. The story was teased out with just the right pacing I felt - I didn't want to put the book down but at the same time I didn't want it to end.

The ending of the book was fantastic - I did not see it coming at all!

I am looking out for other books by Sarah Waters now and am keen to pick up another book like Affinity so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith

After reading and loving 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith A Devoted Reader recommended another series by the same author, starting with The Sunday Philosophy Club. So, in keeping with my current McCall Smith marathon I picked The Sunday Philosophy Club up the other day and finished it in less than 24 hours.

I am not usually into reading murder mysteries - not really sure why - just not a genre I have ever really branched into, I might have to change that now I think.

The Sunday Philosophy Club centres around the character of Isabel Dalhousie, a single woman in her mid 40's living quite comfortably in Edinburgh. The story starts with Isabel witnessing the tragic, and presumably accidental, death of a young man at the Edinburgh Concert Hall. Of course, Isabel being who she is she finds she needs to explore the story further to get to the truth of the matter.

I found the writing and characterisation in this book very similar to the style of the 44 Scotland Street series so that made me feel quite at home. I thought there were quite a few convenient coincidences that helped the plot along but I was prepared to ignore these because I was enjoying the ride along with the characters so much. I'll definitely be reading the rest of this series to see what happens to Isabel and the rest of the crew.

I am also really keen to pick up some other mystery novels in a similar style so if anyone has any other suggestions I would love to hear about them.

One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson

After finishing Case Histories I was very keen to read more of Kate Atkinson's books - and other people were also recommending this plan. One Good Turn was not a disappointment. I don't know what it is about this author's writing but she seems to be able to take the most mundane circumstances, events or even people and make them seem extremely interesting!

I'm not usually a murder-mystery reader but I loved this story of inter-woven plots and characters. A blurb from the author's website:

It is summer, it is the Edinburgh Festival. People queuing for a lunchtime show witness a road-rage incident — a near-homicidal attack which changes the lives of everyone involved: the wife of an unscrupulous property developer, a crime writer, a washed-up comedian. Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police, ex-private detective, is also an innocent bystander — until he becomes a murder suspect.

One Good Turn sees the return of Jackson Brodie, the character we first meet in Case Histories. I have to say I didn't bond with Jackson as a character quite as well in this book - he seemed to just be in the way a lot of the time, but the new characters more than make up for this. I highly recommend these books - especially this one for the twist at the end which I did not see coming at all.