User Profile

Paul Oldham

TallPaul@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 1 year, 11 months ago

This link opens in a pop-up window

Paul Oldham's books

Currently Reading

Stopped Reading

2024 Reading Goal

78% complete! Paul Oldham has read 41 of 52 books.

reviewed The spellman files by Lisa Lutz (Izzy Spellman Mysteries)

Lisa Lutz: The spellman files (2007, Pocket Books) 4 stars

Izzy Spellman works for Spellman Investigations, a family-run private detective agency. When Izzy's parents hire …

Just a pleasure from end to end

4 stars

I re-read this book today, not for the first time, and it was a joy. Again. Easy to read, with an enjoyable cast of characters led by a feisty first person heroine, lots of laughs, several mysteries, and overall just good. It's the first of a series, all of which I enjoyed the first time around.

Gregory Mcdonald: Fletch (1976, Avon) 3 stars

FletchHe's an investigative reporter whose methods are a little unorthodox. Currently he's living on the …

This hasn't aged well

1 star

I vaguely remember this as being a watchable movie starring Chevy Chase as Fletch. This is the book on which the film was based and I didn't finish it. I had two problems with it. Firstly it was dialogue rich without occasional reminders of which character was speaking but the main problems was that the author makes no attempt to give you any idea what Fletch is thinking and you're left with a thin character and, and this is important, an amoral one.

Fletch is a reporter posing as a drug addict for a story he's researching and he's sleeping with a young woman who really is a junkie and is making money by doing tricks ... and she's 15. At no point is there any suggestion that Fletch feels any need to do anything to resolve this: it's just colour.

The book was written in 1974 and it's out …

reviewed The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (Thursday Next, #1)

Jasper Fforde: The Eyre Affair (Paperback, 2001, New English Library) 4 stars

The Eyre Affair

Great Britain circa 1985: time travel is routine, cloning is a reality …

Make sure you read chapter 13

4 stars

Content warning Lots of hints at spoilers. Possibly you should read the review after the book.

Nita Prose: Mystery Guest (2023, Random House Publishing Group) 5 stars

A fine follow up to "The Maid"

5 stars

"The Maid" was one of my two favourite books of 2023 and so I was worried how this would compare but it's a fine follow up with a more coherent plot, an excellent back story, and some nice touches. It also signals a possible way forward for Molly in another book if Nita Prose wants to take her that way.

Janet Evanovich: Metro girl (2004, Harpercollins) 3 stars

Alexandra (Barney) Barnaby roars onto the Miami Beach scene in hot pursuit of her missing …

Makes Stephanie Plum seem plausible

2 stars

Alex (Barney) Barnaby was a little Evanovich side project around the time Stephanie Plum reached book ten, and it's understandable that she wanted another heroine but this one is ... a bit thin to be honest. The NASCAR theme gets boring fast, there's little made made of Barney's motor skills, and the plot is flaky ... even compared to a Stephanie Plum. There was a second novel, and two graphic novels, but it ran out of steam and I'm not surprised.

John Banville: Snow (2020, Harlequin Enterprises, Limited) 5 stars

Dark murder mystery which is more about the place and time than the crime

5 stars

Despite being "A Strafford and Quirke Murder" the latter is conspicuous by his absence but this strange and haunting book is really rather fine. A plot very much of its time and place, with a lot left unsaid, and it is very dark but it's well written (and I polished it off in only two days, which is a bit of a giveaway).

Terry Pratchett: A Stroke of the Pen (Hardcover, 2023, Harper) 4 stars

These rediscovered tales were written by Terry Pratchett under a pseudonym for British newspapers during …

Entertaining early Pratchett

3 stars

A collection of serialised short stories written by pTerry in the early 70s, mainly in the 'Western Daily Press' and mainly using the name Patrick Kearns. You can see how his style is developing towards the early Discworld novels and they're an amusing read.

Molly MacRae: Last Wool And Testament (2012, Signet Book) 1 star

I'm sure there's a decent plot here struggling to get out ...

1 star

... but I struggled to find this. I got 288 pages (out of 470) into this book and finally gave up. The thing that finally put me over the edge was that the author seemed to forget one of the plot elements, without any explanation, but I was already losing interest in it. Our hero seems ... well, just unlikely. She's not thrown by things which should throw her, she accepts things at face value when she shouldn't. And this against a background cast of characters which seemed equally unlikely.

Curtis Sittenfeld: Romantic Comedy (2023, Random House Publishing Group, Random House) 3 stars

A book in three parts ...

3 stars

... quite literally. Chapter 1 is essentially "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" but viewed from a member of the writers' room and I enjoyed that. A lot. Chapter 2 is an exchange of emails and that's a writing style I've always struggled with, but at least it's fairly short. Chapter 3 is, in truth, predictable but fine.

It's chick lit, but there's nothing wrong with that from where I'm reading, it's also set, in its second and third chapters, against the background of full on Covid and it's the first book I've read where it is a vital plot point. It's also, in truth, a bit predictable but it was fun, and it was easy to read, but I can't imagine me ever reading it again.

Cedric John Foley: Mailed Fist (2022, Imperial War Museum) 4 stars

Taking Churchill tanks through Europe

4 stars

A fictionalised memoir of a troop commander of three Churchill tanks describing their exploits in the run up to D-Day through to VE day.

It's well written and it's undramatic, but you're left with a clear impression of what it was like for the soldiers of Five Troop with, like all proper war memoirs, a lot of sitting about and only the odd skirmish.

Well worth a read.

Al Murray: Command (2023, Headline Publishing Group) 3 stars

Good in its anecdotes but all too brief

3 stars

On the cover it claims to be about "How the Allies Learned to Win the Second World War" but it's really not that.

What actually happens is that Murray picks a selection of officers, mainly pretty senior and all army, and spends a chapter on each.

Out of that comes a lot of interesting stories. For example Monty on VD is a fascinating interlude but you actually learn little about Monty in general. And that's often the way. Murray is having to pick little episodes out of each officer's life and run with that and I didn't really feel he came to any real conclusion.

But overall it works pretty well, and it certainly left me wanting to know more about some of the characters and also more about the subjects that the book wander into. So a worthwhile read.

reviewed The Picture House Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith (The Miss Clara Vale Mysteries, #1)

Fiona Veitch Smith: The Picture House Murders (Paperback, 2023, Embla Books) 3 stars

1929: Miss Clara Vale is a woman ahead of her time. Rather than attending Oxford …

An easy to read period piece

3 stars

First of a series of books introducing us to Miss Clara Vale, a very modern young woman who in 1929 is finding her way through the social morays of the era while discovering a new life as a private detective in Newcastle.

A pleasant read with a likeable central character and a good supporting cast. It's all a bit superficial, but it was enjoyable and provided an easy start to 2024.