Heywood Gould. One Dead Debutante (1975)

     Heywood Gould. One Dead Debutante (1975) The tough guy hero-narrator (Josh Krales) is a journalist. A hit that kills five people (including the title character) leads him on a twisting and turning chase that ends, more or less, in a tobacco field in Carolina. Political and other kinds of corruption abound. The story telling is generally fast paced, but the blurbs promise more than Gould delivers. For one thing, it’s not nearly as funny as the review snippets claim. *½ (2004)

Simon Brett. Death on the Downs (2001)

     Simon Brett. Death on the Downs (2001) “A Fethering Mystery.” Brett has invented a pair of middle aged women sleuths living on the Sussex coast and entirely too curious for their own good. The back story is that both are divorced, and both have love troubles, but Brett keeps these firmly in the background. Pity; if he wants readers to buy more books, he should make the characters more interesting. Sheltering from the rain in an old barn, Carole Seddon finds some human bones neatly packaged in blue plastic fertiliser bags. Discovering their identity and the reason for the odd hiding place takes up some 330-odd pages of pleasantly written and imagined story. The resolution resolves an ancient grudge going back to childhood cruelty and causing a third murder. Brett has written witty and sometimes macabre short stories, as well as scripts for the Holmes series, and so on, so he knows his metier, and does a craftsmanlike job. This book is number two in a projected series; I’ll look for the other numbers, but won’t cry if I don’t find them **½ (2004)

Marion Elliot. Paper Making (1994)

     Marion Elliot. Paper Making (1994) A brief history of paper making, emphasising the handicraft aspects of the technology, introduces this well put together and instructive book. Artistically not very inspired, but technically very sound. Makes you want to build a mould and deckle, and start making paper. *** (2004)

Russell Myers. Sneaky Volcanoes (1982)

     Russell Myers. Sneaky Volcanoes (1982) Collection of Broomhilda cartoons. For addicts only. Broomhilda was a one-note strip, rarely rising above the obvious joke, and even more rarely showing the edge that one would expect from a 1000-year-old green witch. * (2004)

Rosamund Pilcher. The Blue Bedroom (1985)

     Rosamund Pilcher. The Blue Bedroom (1985) Reissue of short story collection to take advantage of the success of The Shellseekers. Pilcher wrote for Woman’s Weekly and it shows: the stories are inoffensive, cliché-ridden, pay too much attention to clothes, use a resolutely fixed viewpoint, have neatly turned plots, and deal exclusively with relationships. But while most WW fiction sticks to the romantic mode, these have more variety. Pilcher may use the WW style and form but she deals with real dilemmas, and gently leads the reader through everything from children recognising the finality of death to a housewife managing to impress unexpected guests (her husband’s boss and his wife). She’s one of those writers who have a clear eye and an unsentimental understanding of the human heart, and so her stories rise above the limitations of style and form. But I found myself reading the next story hoping it would be better than the last one; like eating potato chips. **½ (2004)

James Arnold. All Made by Hand (1970)

     James Arnold. All Made by Hand (1970) A pleasant survey of crafts still practised in some parts of Britain when Arnold wrote the book. Decorated with his drawings, which are well done, but too crowded to be read easily. His explanations are sometimes perfunctory, the proofreading is bad, and Arnold suffers from romantic nostalgia for handicrafts, so that what could have been a very good book is merely an adequate one. * (2004)

Ellis Peters. Never Pick up Hitchhikers (1976)

     Ellis Peters. Never Pick up Hitchhikers (1976) A very naive young man on the lam from his overbearing mother finds himself entangled in a plot that begins with a fire that is intended to create the impression that a bank robber has died. A girl he meets by chance has all the right instincts, which account for his escape from a gruesome grilling.

Lovely twists and turns of plot, competently managed multiple viewpoints, well-sketched characters, sly and not so sly comedy at the expense of crooks and young lovers, and a satisfying happy ending in which the mouse turns out to be a lion. The usual Peters romance is better integrated than in some of the Cadfael books, but her lovers here are just the same mix of fecklessness, shrewdness, and sweet purity of heart as in those stories. This is a pre-Cadfael story, but all the Peters hallmarks are evident. The humour has an edge that she later too often blunted. A very pleasant entertainment. *** (2004)