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Bettie's Books
A Stuga On the Cusp of the Orust Riviera, tucked away next to a hobbit hole in the woods.
The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah
bookshelves: hardback, paper-read, one-penny-wonder, adventurous-april-2016, lit-richer, mauritius, madagascar, migrant-experience, wwii, jewish, spring-2016
Recommended to Bettie☯ by: Wanda
Read from January 31 to March 30, 2016
Description: In the remote forests of Madagascar, young Raj is almost oblivious of the Second World War raging beyond his tiny exotic island. With only his mother for company while his father works as a prison guard, solitary ever since his brothers died years ago, Raj thinks only of making friends. One day, the far-away world comes to Madagascar, and Raj meets David, a Jew exiled from his home in Europe and imprisoned in the camp where Raj's father works. David becomes the friend that he has always longed for, a brother to replace those he has lost. Raj knows that he must help David to escape. As they flee through sub-tropical landscapes and devastating storms, the boys battle hunger and malaria - and forge a friendship only death can destroy. The Last Brother is a powerful, poetic novel that sheds new light on a little-explored aspect of 20th-century history.
Opening: I SAW DAVID AGAIN YESTERDAY. I WAS LYING IN bed, my mind a blank, my body light, there was just a faint pressure between my eye.
Uh-oh! First person alert. The beginning was contrived which took some stern resolve to wade through; from that moment on Raj was slotted into dodgy narrator pigeon-hole. A quick read that had its moments, yet not to be recommended.
Re the cover, as lovely as it is at first glance, the trees are blown from left to right, the flag right to left.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathacha Devi Pathareddy Appanah is a Mauritian-French author. She comes from a traditional Indian family. She spent most of her teenage years in Mauritius and also worked as a journalist/columnist at Le Mauricien and Week-End Scope before emigrating to France.
Le Mauricien
Opening: I SAW DAVID AGAIN YESTERDAY. I WAS LYING IN bed, my mind a blank, my body light, there was just a faint pressure between my eye.
Uh-oh! First person alert. The beginning was contrived which took some stern resolve to wade through; from that moment on Raj was slotted into dodgy narrator pigeon-hole. A quick read that had its moments, yet not to be recommended.Re the cover, as lovely as it is at first glance, the trees are blown from left to right, the flag right to left.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nathacha Devi Pathareddy Appanah is a Mauritian-French author. She comes from a traditional Indian family. She spent most of her teenage years in Mauritius and also worked as a journalist/columnist at Le Mauricien and Week-End Scope before emigrating to France.
Le Mauricien
5
The News from Home by Nick Dear
bookshelves: published-2016, radio-3, play-dramatisation, britain-ireland, spring-2016
Recommended to Bettie☯ by: Laura
Recommended for: BBC Radio Listeners
Read on March 29, 2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b074z976Description: The News from Home, a new play by Nick Dear written for the centenary of the Easter Rising in Dublin.
The play views the events of Easter Week 1916 and its aftermath through the eyes of Kitty and Nora, maidservants of an English country house, tucked away in the New Forest. Kitty and Nora come from Roscrea, Tipperary, and have always thought of themselves as British citizens, but their views change as they learn that there has been an armed insurrection in their homeland, and for a few days, as news trickles in, it seems just possible that the nascent Irish Republic may succeed. Overnight the girls become thought of as Irish, not British, and potentially in league with the German enemy.
Kitty ..... Clare Dunne
Nora ..... Charlene McKenna
Ilsa ..... Geraldine Somerville
Blanche ..... Nelly Harker
Scammell ..... Sam Dale
Cook ..... Serena Evans
Archie ..... Sam Troughton
Ken ..... Ferdinand Kingsley
3
The Night Manager by John le Carré
bookshelves: tv, winter-20152016, published-1993, spies, mystery-thriller, adventure, filthy-lucre, kidnap, weapon-evolution, spring-2016, moidah, moidahrous-march-2016
Recommended for: Laura, Wanda et al
Read from February 18 to March 27, 2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03g14d5Description: In the shadowy recesses of Whitehall and Washington an unholy alliance operates between the intelligence community and the secret arms trade. Jonathan Pine is ready to stand up and be counted in the fight against this ultimate heart of darkness. His mission takes him from the cliffs of west Cornwall, via northern Quebec and the Caribbean, to the jungles of post-Noriega Panama. His quarry is the worst man in the world.
John le Carré on The Night Manager on TV: they’ve totally changed my book – but it works
1/6: Hotel night manager Jonathan Pine receives a plea for help from a well-connected guest. His actions draw him into the world of Richard Roper, a businessman and arms dealer.Even though this was written in 1993 and this BBC rendition encompasses the Egyptian spring more than a decade later, all I can say is...
I loved episode one. 
2/6: On the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, Roper's life of luxury and calm is shattered. Six months earlier, Burr continues her recruitment of Pine, sending him to Devon to build his cover story.
3/6: While he continues to recuperate in Roper's villa, Pine starts to dig up secrets about the other members of the household. Meanwhile, Burr and Steadman seize on an opportunity to recruit a new asset.
4/6: Roper welcomes Pine into his inner circle, leaving Corky out in the cold. Meanwhile, Burr has concerns for the safety of her source when she suspects key information has been leaked to the River House.
5/6: A suspicious Roper gathers his entourage around him in an attempt to root out the traitor, forcing Pine to play a dangerous game. In London, Burr and Steadman face mounting opposition from Whitehall.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0756bgp
6/6: Roper and his team return to Cairo for the deal, reuniting Pine with an old enemy. Pine risks it all to put his plan in motion. A discredited Burr makes one last stand. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0761pkzJonathan Pine Tom Hiddleston
Richard Roper Hugh Laurie
Angela Burr Olivia Colman
Lance Corkoran Tom Hollander
Jed Marshall Elizabeth Debicki
Rex Mayhew Douglas Hodge
Juan Apostol Antonio de la Torre
Rob Singhal Adeel Akhtar
Sophie Alekan Aure Atika
Tabby Hovik Keuchkerian
Caroline Langbourne Natasha Little
Frisky Michael Nardone
Sandy Langbourne Alistair Petrie
Simon Ogilvey Russell Tovey
3
But You Did Not Come Back by Marceline Loridan-Ivens, Sandra Smith (Translation)
bookshelves: spring-2016, autobiography-memoir, radio-4, epistolatory-diary-blog, published-2008
Recommended for: BBC Radio Listeners
Read from March 18 to 28, 2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0741kpbDescription: Marceline Loridan-Ivens searingly honest memoir is written as an intimate letter to her lost father. In 1944 and aged just fifteen she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau along with her father. While she survived the horror he never came back. Here she tells the man she would never know as an adult about the terrible events that continue to haunt her, and she also reveals the profound sense of loss that his death brought her.
Auschwitz-Birkenau The Return The Final Days Living with the PastThe actress, screenwriter and director Marceline Loridan-Ivens was born in 1928 and lives in Paris.
Read by Sara Kestelman
Translated by Sandra Smith
Abridged by Penny Leicester
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
Blood Sympathy: A Joe Sixsmith Novel by Reginald Hill
bookshelves: under-500-ratings, series, tbr-busting-2016, published-1993, mystery-thriller, moidahrous-march-2016, pee-eyes, britain-england, eng-bedfordshire-luton
Read from March 22 to 24, 2016
Read by Simon Williamson: 8 Hours Description: PI can mean many things, but can it really mean a balding, middle-agd redundant lathe operator from a high rise in Luton, Beds? Joe Sixsmith thinks it can. His Aunt Mirabelle thinks you'd have to be crazy to hire him, and Joe's current clients certainly fit the bill. One seems to be confessing to the brutal murder of his whole family; another thinks she's a witch. Alongside them, the two heavies who believe Joe is hiding their illicit drugs seem almost normal.
This is a step up from recent encounters with Spillane and Cleeves. I immediately liked Sixsmith, a middle-aged, balding British born man of colour with the cat who has a white eye-patch. Luton as setting was also a plus. I have more of this series hanging about and look forward to them.3* A Clubbable Woman (Dalziel & Pascoe, #1)
3* Ruling Passion (Dalziel & Pascoe, #3)
3* A Killing Kindness (Dalziel & Pascoe, #6)
3* Bones and Silence (Dalziel & Pascoe, #11)
3* The Woodcutter
3* Blood Sympathy (Joe Sixsmith, #1)
2
The Corners of the Globe (The Wide World - James Maxted, #2) by Robert Goddard
bookshelves: published-2014, series, spies, paper-read, one-penny-wonder, autumn-2015, britain-scotland, scotland-orkney, spring-2016, moidahrous-march-2016, tbr-busting-2016
Read from September 27, 2015 to March 25, 2016
Description: Spring, 1919. James ‘Max’ Maxted, former Great War flying ace, returns to the trail of murder, treachery and half-buried secrets he set out on in The Ways of the World. He left Paris after avenging the murder of his father, Sir Henry Maxted, a senior member of the British delegation to the post-war peace conference. But he was convinced there was more – much more – to be discovered about what Sir Henry had been trying to accomplish. And he suspected elusive German spymaster Fritz Lemmer knew the truth of it.
Now, enlisted under false colours in Lemmer’s service but with his loyalty pledged to the British Secret Service, Max sets out on his first – and possibly last – mission for Lemmer. It takes him to the far north of Scotland – to the Orkney Isles, where the German High Seas Fleet has been impounded in Scapa Flow, its fate to be decided at the conference-table in Paris. Max has been sent to recover a document held aboard one of the German ships. What that document contains forces him to break cover sooner than he would have wished and to embark on a desperate race south, towards London, with information that could destroy Lemmer – if Max, as seems unlikely, lives to deliver it...
Opening: MAX COULD ONLY WISH HE HAD MADE THE CROSSING FROM Scotland in such weather: calm, cool and benign, the sea sparkled, the sky blue, with puffs of cloud herded at the horizon like well-behaved sheep. He stepped out of the Ayre Hotel into the peace of early morning, lit a cigarette and gazed around him.
Only marked the first Maxted as 3* yet I think about it often. Goddard gets under the skin doesn't he! This is a series that must be read in sequence and the main theme is Paris as Peace Treaty hosts after WWI, complete with the contentious issue of the Shandong Penninsula.
He did his best not to flinch as Tomura cast him a raking, contemptuous glance in which several generations of arrogance had been distilled to a poisonous essence.' - p.289
Cliff-hangar ending
5* In Pale Battalions
3* Into the Blue
5* Past Caring
4* Caught In The Light
4* Long Time Coming
3* Never Go Back
3* Sight Unseen
TR Beyond Recall
3* Borrowed Time
3* Hand in Glove
WL Fault Line
4* Set In Stone
1* Found Wanting
2* Name To A Face
4* Painting The Darkness
1* Dying To Tell
3* Play to the End
3* Out of the Sun
3* Days Without Number
4* Take No Farewell
2* Closed Circle
TR Blood Count
3* Sea Change
3* The Ways of the World (The Wide World Trilogy #1)
4* The Corners of the Globe (The Wide World - James Maxted, #2)
TR The Ends of the Earth (The Wide World Trilogy, #3)
Now, enlisted under false colours in Lemmer’s service but with his loyalty pledged to the British Secret Service, Max sets out on his first – and possibly last – mission for Lemmer. It takes him to the far north of Scotland – to the Orkney Isles, where the German High Seas Fleet has been impounded in Scapa Flow, its fate to be decided at the conference-table in Paris. Max has been sent to recover a document held aboard one of the German ships. What that document contains forces him to break cover sooner than he would have wished and to embark on a desperate race south, towards London, with information that could destroy Lemmer – if Max, as seems unlikely, lives to deliver it...
Opening: MAX COULD ONLY WISH HE HAD MADE THE CROSSING FROM Scotland in such weather: calm, cool and benign, the sea sparkled, the sky blue, with puffs of cloud herded at the horizon like well-behaved sheep. He stepped out of the Ayre Hotel into the peace of early morning, lit a cigarette and gazed around him.
Only marked the first Maxted as 3* yet I think about it often. Goddard gets under the skin doesn't he! This is a series that must be read in sequence and the main theme is Paris as Peace Treaty hosts after WWI, complete with the contentious issue of the Shandong Penninsula.He did his best not to flinch as Tomura cast him a raking, contemptuous glance in which several generations of arrogance had been distilled to a poisonous essence.' - p.289Cliff-hangar ending5* In Pale Battalions
3* Into the Blue
5* Past Caring
4* Caught In The Light
4* Long Time Coming
3* Never Go Back
3* Sight Unseen
TR Beyond Recall
3* Borrowed Time
3* Hand in Glove
WL Fault Line
4* Set In Stone
1* Found Wanting
2* Name To A Face
4* Painting The Darkness
1* Dying To Tell
3* Play to the End
3* Out of the Sun
3* Days Without Number
4* Take No Farewell
2* Closed Circle
TR Blood Count
3* Sea Change
3* The Ways of the World (The Wide World Trilogy #1)
4* The Corners of the Globe (The Wide World - James Maxted, #2)
TR The Ends of the Earth (The Wide World Trilogy, #3)
1
Scales of Justice by Ngaio Marsh
bookshelves: moidahrous-march-2016, spring-2016, published-1953, series, film-only
Read from March 14 to 26, 2016
Description: The quiet village of Swevenings seemed an English pastoral paradise, until the savagely beaten body of Colonel Cartarette was found near a tranquil stream. Suddenly, the playground of British blue bloods has been soiled by murder and the lowest sort of intrigue. But if anyone can clean it up, it's the famous Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFXr0...
Sometimes a Golden Age whodunnit is my only weakness.
3* A Man Lay Dead (Roderick Alleyn, #1)
2* Enter a Murderer (Roderick Alleyn, #2)
3* The Nursing Home Murder (Roderick Alleyn, #3)
WL Death in Ecstasy (Roderick Alleyn, #4)
WL Vintage Murder (Roderick Alleyn, #5)
WL Artists in Crime (Roderick Alleyn, #6)
3* Death in a White Tie (Roderick Alleyn, #7)
4* Overture to Death (Roderick Alleyn, #8)
3* Death at the Bar (Roderick Alleyn, #9)
4* Death of a Peer (Roderick Alleyn, #10)
WL Death and the Dancing Footman (Roderick Alleyn, #11)
WL Colour Scheme (Roderick Alleyn, #12)
WL Died in the Wool (Roderick Alleyn, #13)
2* Final Curtain (Roderick Alleyn, #14)
WL A Wreath for Rivera (Roderick Alleyn, #15)
3* Night at the Vulcan (Roderick Alleyn, #16)
WL Spinsters in Jeopardy (Roderick Alleyn, #17)
3* Scales of Justice (Roderick Alleyn, #18)
3* Hand in Glove (Roderick Alleyn, #22)
3* Dead Water (Roderick Alleyn, #23)
3* When in Rome (Roderick Alleyn, #26)
3* A Grave Mistake (Roderick Alleyn, #30)
WL Clutch of Constables (Roderick Alleyn, #25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFXr0...Sometimes a Golden Age whodunnit is my only weakness.3* A Man Lay Dead (Roderick Alleyn, #1)
2* Enter a Murderer (Roderick Alleyn, #2)
3* The Nursing Home Murder (Roderick Alleyn, #3)
WL Death in Ecstasy (Roderick Alleyn, #4)
WL Vintage Murder (Roderick Alleyn, #5)
WL Artists in Crime (Roderick Alleyn, #6)
3* Death in a White Tie (Roderick Alleyn, #7)
4* Overture to Death (Roderick Alleyn, #8)
3* Death at the Bar (Roderick Alleyn, #9)
4* Death of a Peer (Roderick Alleyn, #10)
WL Death and the Dancing Footman (Roderick Alleyn, #11)
WL Colour Scheme (Roderick Alleyn, #12)
WL Died in the Wool (Roderick Alleyn, #13)
2* Final Curtain (Roderick Alleyn, #14)
WL A Wreath for Rivera (Roderick Alleyn, #15)
3* Night at the Vulcan (Roderick Alleyn, #16)
WL Spinsters in Jeopardy (Roderick Alleyn, #17)
3* Scales of Justice (Roderick Alleyn, #18)
3* Hand in Glove (Roderick Alleyn, #22)
3* Dead Water (Roderick Alleyn, #23)
3* When in Rome (Roderick Alleyn, #26)
3* A Grave Mistake (Roderick Alleyn, #30)
WL Clutch of Constables (Roderick Alleyn, #25)
The Mill On The Shore by Ann Cleeves
bookshelves: summer-2015, under-50-ratings, series, britain-england, published-1994, mystery-thriller, spring-2016, moidahrous-march-2016, tbr-busting-2016
Read from February 25, 2012 to March 21, 2016
Read by.............. Stephen Thorne
Total Runtime......... 7 Hours 37 Mins
Description: When Jimmy Morrissey, England's celebrated conservation conscience, kills himself with an overdose of antidepressants, the whole country mourns with his grieving widow. But private investigators Molly and George Palmer-Jones are convinced that what looks like suicide is really murder. After all, Jimmy made a lot of enemies while crusading as an environmental activist. Could one of them have been his wife? (British mystery featuring bird-watcher and crime solver George Palmer-Jones)
This didn't capture my imagination nor keep my attention, a latent susurration in the background.3* Raven Black (Shetland, #1)
2* White Nights (Shetland, #2)
3* Red Bones (Shetland, #3)
3* Blue Lightning (Shetland, #4)
3* The Crow Trap (Vera Stanhope, #1)
3* Telling Tales (Vera Stanhope, #2)
3* Hidden Depths (Vera Stanhope, #3)
3* Silent Voices (Vera Stanhope, #4)
3* The Glass Room (Vera Stanhope, #5)
3* Harbour Street (Vera Stanhope, #6)
3* Sea Fever (George & Molly Palmer-Jones, #5)
2* Another Man's Poison (George & Molly Palmer-Jones, #6)
4
The Oblong Box by Edgar Allan Poe
bookshelves: spring-2016, radio-4x, shortstory-shortstories-novellas, re-visit-2016
Read on March 21, 2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03bv...Description: A passenger on a summer voyage to New York is curious about an artist, his new wife and his luggage. Read by James Aubrey.
5
The Skriker by Caryl Churchill
bookshelves: spring-2016, play-dramatisation, radio-3, fairy-tales, published-1994, mental-health, boo-scary
Recommended to Bettie☯ by: Laura
Recommended for: BBC Radio Listeners
Read from March 18 to 21, 2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07454g5Description: 'Long before that, long before England was an idea, a country of snow and wolves where trees sang and birds talked and people knew we mattered...'
In a broken world, two sisters Lily and Josie meet an extraordinary creature. The Skriker is a shapeshifter, an ancient fairy. She can be an old woman, a child, a man, a death portent. She has come from the Underworld to pursue seduce and entrap them, through time and space, through this world and her own.
Whilst speaking English in its human incarnations, the Skriker's own language consists of broken and fragmented word play. Blending naturalism, horror and magical realism, it is a story of love, loss and revenge.
This extraordinary play by one of Britain's leading playwrights combines English folk tales with modern urban life. In terms of its language alone, it is as exciting and challenging on the page as on the stage. The play follows the Skriker, 'a shapeshifter and death portent, ancient and damaged,' in its search for love and revenge as it pursues two young women to London, changing its shape at every new encounter. Along with the Skriker come Rawheadandbloodybones, the Kelpie, the Green Lady, Black Dog and more, till the whole country is swarming with enticing and angry creatures that have burst from the underworld.
Choir Master ..... Stuart Overington
The Hag ..... Jessica Walker
Choir ..... Alaka Prodhan, Charlie Green, Charlotte Beale, Elizabeth Barry, Joanne Griffiths, Justina Aina, Olivia Avouris and Rebekah Davies
If you like word-plays intertwined with nursery-rhymes, book titles that result in an adult fairytale, this is for you.The Skriker by Caryl Churchill was produced by The Royal Exchange Theatre as part of the 2015 Manchester International Festival, directed by Sarah Frankcom. It was adapted for radio by Caryl Churchill, directed by Sarah Frankcom and produced by Sue Roberts.
10
Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard
bookshelves: spring-2016, moidahrous-march-2016, mystery-thriller, published-2009, wwii, historical-fiction, art-forms, eire-dublin, diamonds-are-a-girls-best-friend, britain-ireland, the-troubles, kleptomania, nazi-related
Read from July 16, 2011 to March 19, 2016
Read by David Rintoul. 11 Hrs 3 MinsDescription: Eldritch Swan is a dead man. Or at least that is what his nephew Stephen has always been told. Until one day Eldritch walks back into his life after 36 years in an Irish prison. He won't reveal any of the details of his incarceration, insisting only that he is innocent of any crime. His return should be of interest to no-one. But the visit of a solicitor with a mysterious request will take Eldritch and his sceptical nephew from sleepy seaside Paignton to London, where an exhibition of Picasso paintings from the prestigious Brownlow collection proves to be the starting point on a journey that will transport them back to the Second World War and the mystery behind Eldritch's imprisonment.
Dual timeline where both strands are good. Churchill and the IRA, Picassos and diamonds, love and war, all couched in Goddard's fab writing. Recommended, yet a little slow to get going.5* Past Caring (1986)
5* In Pale Battalions (1988)
3* Play to the End (1988)
4* Painting The Darkness (1989)
4* Take No Farewell (1991)
3* Hand in Glove (1992)
2* Closed Circle (1993)
3* Borrowed Time (1995)
TR Beyond Recall (1997)
4* Caught In The Light (1998)
4* Set In Stone (1999)
3* Sea Change (2000)
1* Dying To Tell (2001)
3* Days Without Number (2003)
3* Sight Unseen (2005)
2* Name To A Face (2007)
1* Found Wanting (2008)
3* Long Time Coming (2009)
TR Blood Count (2010)
WL Fault Line (2012)
Max Masted:
3* The Ways of the World (The Wide World Trilogy #1) (2013)
CR The Corners of the Globe (The Wide World - James Maxted, #2) (2014)
WL The Ends of the Earth (The Wide World Trilogy, #3) (2015)
Harry Barnett Trilogy:
4* Into the Blue (1990)
4* Out of the Sun (1996)
4* Never Go Back (2006)
Quicksand by Henning Mankell, Laurie Thompson (Translator)
bookshelves: spring-2016, author-in-the-mirror, autobiography-memoir, nonfiction, published-2014, translation, under-500-ratings, sweden, essays, radio-4
Recommended to Bettie☯ by: Laura
Recommended for: BBC Radio Listeners
Read from February 11 to March 18, 2016
BOTWhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0736pkfhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2016...
Description: Henning Mankell was creator of Wallander, the fictional detective. His posthumous essays, translated by Laurie Thompson with Marlaine Delargy, and abridged by Katrin Williams, refer to his illness and explore much more besides.
1/5: An unexpected car accident, diagnosis, then rich recollections of his school-days, which includes a life-changing revelation..2/5: One day at school, struggling with Latin, he decides to up sticks and make for Paris. With no French, no money and a vague address to head for. But it's certainly an adventure..3/5: The author is travelling through Spain and stops off in Salamanca. Eating alone at a restaurant, he witnesses the strange and spontaneous behaviour of a waiter. It's food for thought..4/5: The author explains his long-standing interest in cave paintings and what they tell us now. He also witnesses a search for fresh water within saltwater - which again, tells us something new..5/5: He was a novelist, who also ran a theatre in Maputo, Mozambique. One of his 'happiest times' was staging a Greek drama, performed by local people. It all began in October 1992..Reader Tim Pigott-Smith
9
Death in a White Tie (Roderick Alleyn #7) by Ngaio Marsh
bookshelves: moidahrous-march-2016, spring-2016, film-only, mystery-thriller, published-1938
Read from March 14 to 16, 2016
Description: The season had begun. Debutantes and chaperones were planning their luncheons, teas and balls. And the blackmailer was planning his strategies, stalking his next victim. But Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn knew that something was up."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raP7U...
Sometimes a Golden Age whodunnit is my only weakness.3* A Man Lay Dead (Roderick Alleyn, #1)
2* Enter a Murderer (Roderick Alleyn, #2)
3* The Nursing Home Murder (Roderick Alleyn, #3)
WL Death in Ecstasy (Roderick Alleyn, #4)
WL Vintage Murder (Roderick Alleyn, #5)
WL Artists in Crime (Roderick Alleyn, #6)
3* Death in a White Tie (Roderick Alleyn, #7)
4* Overture to Death (Roderick Alleyn, #8)
3* Death at the Bar (Roderick Alleyn, #9)
4* Death of a Peer (Roderick Alleyn, #10)
WL Death and the Dancing Footman (Roderick Alleyn, #11)
WL Colour Scheme (Roderick Alleyn, #12)
WL Died in the Wool (Roderick Alleyn, #13)
2* Final Curtain (Roderick Alleyn, #14)
WL A Wreath for Rivera (Roderick Alleyn, #15)
3* Night at the Vulcan (Roderick Alleyn, #16)
WL Spinsters in Jeopardy (Roderick Alleyn, #17)
TR Scales of Justice (Roderick Alleyn, #18)
3* Hand in Glove (Roderick Alleyn, #22)
3* Dead Water (Roderick Alleyn, #23)
3* When in Rome (Roderick Alleyn, #26)
3* A Grave Mistake (Roderick Alleyn, #30)
WL Clutch of Constables (Roderick Alleyn, #25)
9
Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin
bookshelves: published-2015, spring-2016, moidahrous-march-2016, tbr-busting-2016, series, dog-steals-the-show, paedophile, scotland-glasgow, scotland-edinburgh, mystery-thriller, gangsters, britain-scotland, e-book
Read from December 27, 2015 to March 12, 2016
Description: Even Dogs in the Wild brings back Ian Rankin's greatest characters in a novel that explores the darkest corners of our instincts and desires.
Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke is investigating the death of a senior lawyer during a robbery. The case becomes more complex when a note is discovered, indicating that this may have been no random attack. When local gangster Big Ger Cafferty receives an identical message, Clarke decides that the recently retired John Rebus may be able to help. Together the two old adversaries might just stand a chance of saving Cafferty's skin.
But a notorious family tailed by a team of undercover detectives has also arrived in Edinburgh. There's something they want, and they'll stop at nothing to get it. As the cases collide, it's a game of dog eat dog--in the city as in the wild.
Opening: Malcolm Fox woke from another of his bad dreams. He reckoned he knew why he’d started having them – uncertainty about his job. He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted it any more, and feared he was surplus to requirements anyway. Yesterday, he’d been told he had to travel to Dundee to fill a vacant post for a couple of shifts. When he asked why, he was told the officer he’d be replacing had been ordered to cover for someone else in Glasgow.
‘Isn’t it easier just to send me to Glasgow, then?’ Fox had enquired.
Ian Rankin discusses Even Dogs In The Wild
Soundtrack to the book, which is a paltry affair this time:
Bruce Hornsby & the Range - The Way It Is
Quicksilver Girl- Steve Miller Band
Even dogs in the wild - The Associates
3* Knots and Crosses (Inspector Rebus, #1)
3* Hide and Seek (Inspector Rebus, #2)
4* Tooth and Nail (Inspector Rebus, #3)
3* Strip Jack (Inspector Rebus, #4)
3* The Black Book (Inspector Rebus, #5)
3* Mortal Causes (Inspector Rebus, #6)
3* Let It Bleed (Inspector Rebus, #7)
3* Black and Blue (Inspector Rebus, #8)
3* The Hanging Garden (Inspector Rebus, #9)
3* Dead Souls (Inspector Rebus, #10)
2* Death Is Not the End (Inspector Rebus, #10.5)
3* Set in Darkness (Inspector Rebus, #11)
4* The Falls (Inspector Rebus, #12)
4* Resurrection Men (Inspector Rebus, #13)
4* A Question of Blood (Inspector Rebus, #14)
4* Fleshmarket Close (Inspector Rebus, #15)
4* The Naming of the Dead (Inspector Rebus, #16)
4* Exit Music (Inspector Rebus, #17)
5* Standing in Another Man's Grave (Inspector Rebus, #18)
4* Saints of the Shadow Bible (Inspector Rebus, #19)
4* Even Dogs in the Wild (Inspector Rebus, #20)
3* In the Nick of Time: John Rebus vs. Roy Grace
4* A Good Hanging: Short Stories
2* Beggars Banquet
4* The Complaints
4* The Impossible Dead
Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke is investigating the death of a senior lawyer during a robbery. The case becomes more complex when a note is discovered, indicating that this may have been no random attack. When local gangster Big Ger Cafferty receives an identical message, Clarke decides that the recently retired John Rebus may be able to help. Together the two old adversaries might just stand a chance of saving Cafferty's skin.
But a notorious family tailed by a team of undercover detectives has also arrived in Edinburgh. There's something they want, and they'll stop at nothing to get it. As the cases collide, it's a game of dog eat dog--in the city as in the wild.
Opening: Malcolm Fox woke from another of his bad dreams. He reckoned he knew why he’d started having them – uncertainty about his job. He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted it any more, and feared he was surplus to requirements anyway. Yesterday, he’d been told he had to travel to Dundee to fill a vacant post for a couple of shifts. When he asked why, he was told the officer he’d be replacing had been ordered to cover for someone else in Glasgow.
‘Isn’t it easier just to send me to Glasgow, then?’ Fox had enquired.
Ian Rankin discusses Even Dogs In The Wild
‘He said, changing the subject. It’s Kate Atkinson.’
‘Any good?’
‘Someone keeps coming back from the dead.’
‘Not a bad fit for this evening, then.
Soundtrack to the book, which is a paltry affair this time:
Bruce Hornsby & the Range - The Way It Is
Quicksilver Girl- Steve Miller Band
Even dogs in the wild - The Associates
Somewhere deep in the night
There's a child on his own
And his pulse isn't there
And the house is aglow
With the light from outside
Well the house is aglow
There's a mattress downstairs
Full of brown peppered holes
And the hoarse hair is coarse
Not as coarse and as rough
As the rash thoughts that never heal sores
3* Knots and Crosses (Inspector Rebus, #1)
3* Hide and Seek (Inspector Rebus, #2)
4* Tooth and Nail (Inspector Rebus, #3)
3* Strip Jack (Inspector Rebus, #4)
3* The Black Book (Inspector Rebus, #5)
3* Mortal Causes (Inspector Rebus, #6)
3* Let It Bleed (Inspector Rebus, #7)
3* Black and Blue (Inspector Rebus, #8)
3* The Hanging Garden (Inspector Rebus, #9)
3* Dead Souls (Inspector Rebus, #10)
2* Death Is Not the End (Inspector Rebus, #10.5)
3* Set in Darkness (Inspector Rebus, #11)
4* The Falls (Inspector Rebus, #12)
4* Resurrection Men (Inspector Rebus, #13)
4* A Question of Blood (Inspector Rebus, #14)
4* Fleshmarket Close (Inspector Rebus, #15)
4* The Naming of the Dead (Inspector Rebus, #16)
4* Exit Music (Inspector Rebus, #17)
5* Standing in Another Man's Grave (Inspector Rebus, #18)
4* Saints of the Shadow Bible (Inspector Rebus, #19)
4* Even Dogs in the Wild (Inspector Rebus, #20)
3* In the Nick of Time: John Rebus vs. Roy Grace
4* A Good Hanging: Short Stories
2* Beggars Banquet
4* The Complaints
4* The Impossible Dead
6