From the inside flappydoodle: Commander Adam Dalgliesh and his team are confronted with a puzzle of baffling complexity. A murder has taken place in the offices of the Peverell Press, a venerable London publishing house located in a dramatic mock-Venetian palace on the Thames. The victim is Gerard Etienne, the brilliant but ruthless new managing director, who had vowed to … [Read more...] about Original Sin by P. D. James: B+
Books
Ship of the Line by C. S. Forester: A-
From the back cover: His Majesty's Ship Sutherland—of two decks and seventy-four guns—is a humdrum ship of the line. But in command is none other than the heroic Captain Horatio Hornblower and, with his crew from the Lydia, look set (sic) to take on commando raids, hurricanes at sea and the glowering menace of Napoleon's onshore gun batteries—which Hornblower must deal with … [Read more...] about Ship of the Line by C. S. Forester: A-
A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh: B
From the back cover: When Sir Hubert Handesley invited his well-to-do friends to his country estate for an amusing weekend, no one suspected it would turn into a deadly ordeal. But one of the participants in the supposedly playful Murder Game turns up dead... and Scotland Yard's inimitable Roderick Alleyn must find out who spoiled the fun. Review: I've seen Ngaio Marsh … [Read more...] about A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh: B
Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe: A-
From the back cover: With wonderful delicacy and subtle insight and intimation, McCabe creates Mr. Patrick "Puss" Braden, the enduringly and endearingly hopeful hero(ine) whose gutsy survival and yearning quest for love resonate in and drive the glimmering, agonizing narrative in which the Troubles are a distant and immediate echo and refrain. Twenty years ago, her ladyship … [Read more...] about Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe: A-
Beat to Quarters by C. S. Forester: A
From the back cover: In Beat to Quarters, it's June 1808 and a still young Hornblower is captain of the 36-gun frigate Lydia. He sets his course for Spain and Nicaragua in his ongoing quest to cut Napoleon's lines wherever he crosses them. Review: There are two ways one might choose to read the Hornblower series. The first is to read them in order of publication, in which … [Read more...] about Beat to Quarters by C. S. Forester: A