I
read five books in March. It was a funny old month for me – I had two medical
procedures, one on each hand, and I was selected for jury duty. So most of the
time I wanted to read books that were a happy distraction from these unpleasant
things. (Hands all better and mole-free now, thank you for asking.)
Asta’s Book by Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell)
I’ve read this before but not for many
years. I remembered what a good puzzle it was, this mystery within a mystery,
even though I couldn’t recall the solution.
‘It
is 1905. Asta and her husband Rasmus have come to East London from Denmark with
their two little boys. With Rasmus constantly away on business, Asta keeps
loneliness and isolation at bay by writing a diary. These diaries, published
over seventy years later, reveal themselves to be more than a mere journal. For
they seem to hold the key to an unsolved murder and to the mystery of a missing
child. It falls to Asta's granddaughter Ann to unearth the buried secrets of
nearly a century before.’
And, as always with Ruth Rendell books,
London is as much a character as the people.
Snowdrift and other stories by Georgette Heyer
A friend lent me this collection and I was
entranced by it. One of my favourites concerned two young lads who believe
themselves in love with the same girl and almost come to fighting a duel over
her. When at the last moment they discover that she is engaged to someone else,
each of them is considerably relieved and off they go on a fishing trip, the
best of friends again. In other stories the endings are more romantic – but all
her main characters are unsentimental and a breath of fresh air.
My mum used to love Georgette Heyer. I
don’t know where all her copies went but I only seem to have two of them so I
read those (and must look for others in the forthcoming Christian Aid
booksale).
Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer
Amanda is a sixteen-year-old, very detemined runaway who is
rescued by Sir Gareth Ludlow because she will be ‘ruined’ if she is found to be
stravaiging about the countryside on her own. But Sir G cannot return Amanda to
her family because Amanda flatly refuses to tell him who they are … and he has
his other problem, namely his proposal to Hester (a spinster of 30 – gasp),
which he fully expected to have had accepted, has been turned down. Adventures
and misunderstandings abound. Delightful. And so well written – I reckon GH is
almost up there with Jane Austen.
Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
Adventure! Excitement! Romance! It does
what it says on the tin. And what more could anyone want??
Handle
with Care & other stories by Anne MacLaren
A great collection of stories of which my
favourites were Nice Work which
highlighted two careers (possibly … ) you may not have thought of; and Trout in which Adam, trying to distract himself while he lies unhappily in a flotation tank, comes up with an
ingenious musical idea. Entertaining and thoughtful – recommended.
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