The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves is the first book in her Vera Stanhope series. I’ve been thinking (and writing) about my difficulties in reading books where I think the detail and description swamp the characters and plot, but I had absolutely no problems with that in The Crow Trap – I think Ann Cleeves has got the balance just right.

It begins with chapters about three of the female characters, Rachael, Anne and Grace all staying at Baikie’s an isolated cottage on the North Pennines whilst they carry out an environmental survey. When Rachael arrives at the cottage she is confronted by the body of her friend Bella Furness, who it appears has committed suicide. I was so drawn in by the character portraits and the vivid descriptions of the setting, that I almost forgot that this is a murder mystery. Then Grace is found dead and the mystery really begins.

There is a full cast of characters, all clearly distinct, and a very intricate and clever plot, with plenty of red herrings subtly masking the important clues. Vera is a great character and even though I do like Brenda Blethyn’s portrayal of her in the TV series, I prefer her as she is in the books –  a woman in her fifties, who looks like a bag lady. Here’s a description of her when she first interviews Rachael and Anne:

She was a large woman – big bones, amply covered, a bulbous nose, man-sized feet. Her legs were bare and she wore leather sandals. Her square toes were covered in mud. Her face was blotched and pitted so Rachael thought she must suffer from some skin complaint or allergy. Over her clothes she wore a transparent plastic mac and she stood there, the rain dripping from it onto the floor, grey hair sleeked dark to her forehead, like a middle-aged tripper caught in a sudden storm on Blackpool prom. (page 230)

And this description too:

Vera was wearing a dress of the sort of material turned into stretch settee covers and advertised in the Sunday papers. (page 406)

The identity of the killer foxed me. I kept changing my mind about who I thought it was and when it was revealed I was surprised, because although I’d worked out the motive, I’d got the circumstances completely wrong!

The My Kind of Mystery theme began on 1 February and this book really is ‘my kind of mystery’. A most satisfying book.

Reading Non-Fiction in 2014

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Most of my reading is fiction, but I do like to read non-fiction too. Last year I read 9 non-fiction books and would like to read more this year, maybe 12 which would average out at one a month. I’ve decided that I won’t join any of the non-fiction reading challenges run by other bloggers but I’m going to record what I’ve read on my own personal non-fiction project for 2014 on this page – Reading Non-Fiction in 2014.

Non Fiction books

The photo above shows a small selection of my non-fiction books. I’ve got plenty more to choose from in different categories including Autobiographies, Biographies, Diaries, Letters, History, Philosophy, Religion, Writing, and Nature. I hope by the end of the year I’ll have read at least one book from each category.

At present I’m reading a history book – Steel Bonnets: the Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers by George MacDonald Fraser. I’m planning on reading one non-fiction book alongside any novels I’m reading, but apart from that I’m leaving my options open and shall see where my fancy takes me.

First Chapter First Paragraph

Published on by Margaret15 Comments

First chapterEvery Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where you can share the first paragraph, or a few, of a book you are reading or thinking about reading soon.

Today’s pick is a book that I’m currently reading from my TBR books, Playing With Fire by Peter Robinson, a DCI Banks book (incidentally a new series of DCI Banks started last night on ITV1 – I haven’t watched it yet).

Chapter 1 begins:

‘The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne, burn’d on the water,’ Banks whispered. As he spoke, his breath formed plumes of mist in the chill January air.

Detective Inspector Annie Cabot, standing beside him, must have heard because she said, ‘You what? Come again.’

‘A quotation,’ said Banks. ‘From Anthony and Cleopatra.’

‘You don’t usually go around quoting Shakespeare like a copper in a book,’ Annie commented.

Banks and Annie are watching as two narrow boats are burning on a dead-end stretch of the Eastvale canal – inside they find the remains of two dead bodies. Was this an accident or murder?

The Classics Club Spin

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

The Classics ClubIt’s time for another Classics Spin. To take part in the Spin you:

  • List any twenty books you have left to read from your Classics Club list.
  • Number them from 1 to 20.
  • Next Monday the Classics Club will announce a number.
  • This is the book you need to read during February and March!

Here’s my list chosen by using a random number generator:

  1. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
  2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  3. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
  4. The Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett
  5. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
  6. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
  7. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
  8. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
  9. The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
  10. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
  11. Parade’s End by Ford Maddox Ford
  12. Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor by R D Blackmore
  13. Notre-Dame of Paris by Victor Hugo
  14. No Name by Wilkie Collins
  15. The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
  16. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E M Forster
  17. Out of Africa by Karen Blixen
  18. Walden by Henry James Thoreau
  19. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
  20. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

I don’t really mind which one comes up in this Spin, although there are some I’d prefer over others. What would you chose off this list?

2014 Sci-Fi Experience Wrap-Up

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

Carl’s Science-Fiction Experience came to an end on 31 January. I enjoyed it much more that I anticipated and whilst I’d thought I’d give it a go, reading one book, I ended up Sci-Fi Experiencereading four:

  1. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham €“ review 3 December 2013
  2. Stowaway to Mars by John Wyndham €“ review 16 December 2013
  3. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell €“ review 7 January 2014
  4. The Uncertain Midnight by Edmund Cooper €“ review 11 January 2014

I used to read a lot of science fiction many years ago but hadn’t read much recently. I began by reading The Midwich Cuckoos, first published in 1957, and then remembered that we had some old sci-fi books in a box up in the loft, none of which I’d read, so I had several more books to chose from.

Apart from Cloud Atlas, these are all old books, and very different from Cloud Atlas. My favourite is Stowaway to Mars, even though it’s so very dated – it was first published in 1936. I enjoyed it immensely. Another plus is that all four books are ones I’ve owned for years and thus have reduced my huge TBR Mountain!

My thanks to Carl, for hosting this Experience, which has encouraged me to go back to reading science fiction!

 

Book Selection

Published on by Margaret13 Comments

Sometimes it’s hard to find the right novel to read and recently I have started several, only to put them back on the shelves after reading a few pages. It’s not that the books aren’t good, it’s just that they haven’t been the right books for me at that moment. I haven’t abandoned these books, as I’m sure at another time they could be the right books.

The books I’ve started include these (and there were several others too):

  • The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood, described on the back cover as seething ‘with imagination, inventiveness and intelligence’ (Sunday Times). That’s as may be, but it’s written in the present tense, which I’m not keen on – another time and I may not even notice, after all I like other books by her that I’ve read.
  • The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I’ve read more than a few pages of this, 87 to be precise, but it has nearly 800 pages. I thought when I started it that it was going to be one I could get really engrossed in, but then the story seemed to get swamped in too much detail, too much description and I wanted it to get a move on. So, I stopped reading.
  • The Snow Geese by William Fiennes – a book about natural history, poetically written about leaving and homing, belonging and wandering. But again the detail was just too much for me – I needed something with more bite, more action, more cohesion.  Another time I can tell this book could be the one for me, but the time and my mood weren’t right.

I like to read more than one book at a time but sometimes one book will grab me more than others and I leave them to finish it. That happened last week. I was reading and enjoying The Joyous Invasions by Theodore Sturgeon, three science fiction stories from the 1950s. The first story is To Marry Medusa, in which a down-and-out is taken over by a seeding of the Medusa, from outer space. But I was also reading The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves and had got to the point where I just had to know what happened next and who the murderer was, so The Joyous Invasions had to go on the back burner for a while.

This is why I can’t plan what I’m going to read and why I’m finding it difficult to stick to reading just from my own unread books. I think I’m going to stop doing the Triple Dog Dare Challenge mainly because I’ve borrowed some books from the library this week that I really want to start soon. I ‘have’ to borrow library books to make sure that the library service keeps the mobile library running! If there aren’t enough borrowers it will be cut.