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80% complete! Paul Oldham has read 42 of 52 books.
This is the third of the DI Clare Mackay books and it's a fine and easy read. My only reservation is that the central plot behind it is ... implausible, both in execution and final outcome. But it's nicely woven together all the same.
A mystery set in the quiet and respectable market town of Flaxborough and featuring the …
Book 5 of the Flaxborough chronicles and we're now into the late 60s and so there's even the mention of a computer. Watson was really getting into his stride by this book with a pleasing plot and some engaging characters.
From Maurice Prior's review in The Spectator, 17 March 1967:
"A fine example of an …
In book 4 of the Flaxborough novels the foil to Purbright finally arrives and it's an enjoyable read as a result.
This one shows its age a bit: references to WWII, Philby and the cold war, a woman described as a nymphomaniac (a term I've not heard in a long while); but it's an entertaining plot with a neat twist in the end. And Colin Watson books are just an easy and entertaining read - I read this one completely today.
Although a Flaxborough novel this one isn't set in Flaxborough but a nearby town so our hero, Purbright, doesn't turn up until about a third of the way through. But it's an amusing read, with a nice cast of characters.
I've been a fan of Colin Watson's Flaxborough novels since I was first introduced to them via the dramatisation of a couple of them on BBC Radio 4. This is the first, where we meet Purbright and Love for the first time and get to know the fictitious Lincolnshire town.
Lucilla Teatime, perhaps my favourite character, comes later in the series but it's still a good read.
The Ankh-Morpork Post Office is running like . . . well, not at all like …
An enjoyable second romp with Moist von Lipwig. I'm still not completely convinced about the golum parts but it's still good value.
... so you can't say I didn't try, but a vast array of cardboard cut out characters with a lot of back story pasted into an implausible plot really didn't do it for me. This is book 7 in the series so they're obviously rocking some people's boats. Not mine though.
Suddenly, condemned arch-swindler Moist von Lipwig found himself with a noose around his neck and …
I confess that 'Going Postal' was never one of my favourite of the Discworld novels but re-reading it for the first time (I think) since I first bought it revealed some nice bits of Pratchett humour which I'd forgotten. The passing references to the gods particularly amused me. I'm still not convinced that Moist von Lipwig is one of his best heroes but I do have 'Making Money' to hand, which also features him, so I'll give that a go and see if Terry can convince me.
The battle between Mapp and Lucia continues through this final novel by EF Benson (there are many more by later authors) and it's an enjoyable yarn with the main difference being that Lucia struggles rather more to keep herself at the top of the social pyramid of Tilling.
This is touted as a whodunnit but to be honest, although it is, it's much more about the style of it. It's written in the first person and our hero is ... special ... as becomes increasingly clear as the book progresses and you grow to love her, despite her weirdness.
If I had a criticism, although it's only a small one, there's a final twist in the tail which I didn't think really fitted well with the rest of the narrative and it wasn't really needed, but this shouldn't distract you from what is a very fine, if rather different, novel.
I'm always suspicious of celeb authors ... but then of course there's Richard Osman.
As for Mortimer he does an OK job to be honest. There's a slightly unlikely hero, a plausible plot, a twist which in truth I did see coming, and it all works out all right in the end so that's no bad thing. So yeah, worth a read.
This is the third book in the series starring the Bodger and to my mind the best. He's lost the serious elements, which he didn't handle well in 'We Joined The Navy' and toned down the sexism too. It's still very much a period read but it's a lot better and more enjoyable.
Also book 26 of 52 and we're not yet at the end of June so that's good news.
... then you'll probably like it rather more than I did. Easy reading but just not funny which, given it's meant to be "a work of comic genius" is a bit of a disappointment.
On the plus side it did only cost me £1 from a second hand bookshop in Ballater. On the down side I did buy two more of his books at the same time ...
