I just finished
The Murder Room,
PD James' latest Dalgliesh mystery, and was frankly underwhelmed. The reviews I'd seen made it sound like she was back in top form, but I don't agree. Or perhaps she is and I'm just not enjoying these books as much anymore.
Her younger characters are not particularly believable in how they talk or think. And the
sooper sekrit sex club
plot element made me yawn. How many times have I seen that in mysteries?
But, as usual, her settings are marvelous - London and the (fictional) Dupayne Museum are beautifully done. And the tidbits of information about famous murder cases of the 30's made me want to go out and read more about those.
Oh, while I'm at it, one more gripe. In this book Adam Dalgliesh is all gooey over
a professor named Emma
whom he met in the last book,
Death in Holy Orders.
What I want to know is whatever happened to Cordelia, the female PI she wrote a few books about? I loved that character & there were hints that she & Dalgliesh were attracted to each other... but she seems to have disappeared completely. Humph.
I found
The Godfather
in our work lunchroom/library so I picked it up. I'm actually quite engrossed in it. And it's quite porny, right at the beginning!
And it's quite porny, right at the beginning!
I read it in jr. high. And learned quite a bit. There's also a passage in the middle that's very -- educational.
I've never seen the movie version of
The Godfather.
Is it as porny?
Not as I recall. There is violence-porn, i.e. gratuitous and excessively arty, but I don't remember very much in the way of sex.
No, but I still love it. "Never ask me about my business, Kay. This one time you can ask me about my affairs."(Weird...second time I quoted that this week...freaky even for me.)
I read another Kate Shugak mystery this past week and Crusie's Crazy For You.
I feel I am doomed to not love any more of the Crusie books. I think my favourites (Welcome to Temptation, Faking It, and Fast Women) were my early reads.
I have now picked up Alice Hoffman's Local Girls, but am not really in it yet.
msbelle, I saw (far) upthread that you picked up some Carolyn Wells' Patty books - I vaguely remember those from childhood! I think I read one or two - possibly Patty's Motor Car - I distinctly remember a circus, and a house down the shore with a front yard of pebbles. How's that for odd memories?
Although I was very into books from the 1900-1910s, (Maida books were my utter favorites) I don't remember Patty particularly well. From looking up the text online, I suspect that she was a little too old for me (a teenager!) at the time (I was probably 9 or 10). That motor car book made an impression, though - all the characters seemed so
busy
all the time! (Again, probably my childhood interpretation of turn-of-the-century teenagers :) )
cereal...
By the way, speaking of Cruisie, read her
Crazy for You
and was surprised
by how dark the whole ex-boyfriend stalker plot got. Not what I expected from the description on the back cover! But pretty good stuff
.
I've been looking to pick up another Cruisie, but have been surprised that my local Borders (easily accessible at lunchtime!) has NO Cruisie books. How odd! I did read the Nora Roberts "Key" trilogy (am just finishing the last one now) and feel fairly satisfied with it, although hopefully the ending won't disappoint. :)
