quick holiday crime catch up

i've not been reading much of late, and especially not much crime fiction. but a holiday in the beautiful castle north wales coastal town of harlech has revived my reading AND crime fiction love. and here's what i've been reading...

firstly - "a respectable woman" by david fletcher. right... so there's this middle aged detective. he's failed a bit in life and especially love. he has something of a pathetic boy-crush crossed with tinges of lust for a suspect. he has a bit of a drinking problem and gets grumpy far too easily. there's some sexual shenanigans of the more outre variety involving the gentry. and the whole thing is solved via the detective's knowledge of opera. and this isn't an inspector morse mystery. i do suspect colin dexter may have read this though and thought "this is rubbish. i can do better crime fiction than this". pretty much anyone can actually. if it wasn't for the fact that it's just generally stunningly obvious who the criminal is as soon as they turn up, you could also work out the solution because of the ham fisted way fletcher writes the book. fletcher is *not* a bad writer. he's just a clumsy, heavy handed writer. and the sort of evidence that leads me to this conclusion? well, if you do read the book you will notice fletcher likes to indulge himself in heavy handed pieces describing the thought processes of characters. well most characters. in fact pretty much every character. apart from the murderer. just think two thirds through the book who HASN'T had a heavy handed thought piece and... yes, that's the criminal

not very good quite frankly

on the other hand there's "appleby's other story" by michael innes. this is very much typical of late period innes - a master of his craft, not so much caring about writing a masterpiece but enjoying stretching his writing muscles and setting a fiendish puzzle. "appleby's other story" is no classic like "appleby's end", although it is delightfully witty and as light as a souffle. but it is... well... how do i put this? okay... the solution is perhaps the most stunningly cheeky bit of crime writing i have ever read. seriously, only a truly brilliant writer, fully aware of their own skills could bring off a bit of... well, sheer gall like the end of this book. it's astonishing. once i'd realised what innes had done i basically sat and shook with laughter and admiration that anyone could get away with it. i can't tell you anymore, but when you've finished it hopefully you'll see what i mean. cheeky sod!



finally, it's not really a crime novel per se but has a heavy link with both my holiday and crime fiction. "the earth hums in b flat" by mari strachan is pretty much set in harlech, from the detective work me and wife did during the last week (some of the locations match completely and the whole post office selling signed copies with the subtitle "local author" pretty much gave it away), and is that rare thing: a coming of age book that WORKS. the heroine is a slightly dreamy 13 year old girl, not really able to connect with her parents and peers, a bit lonely and a bit special. but she's also tremendously likeable as a heroine and a joy as a central character. she's also a bit of a crime fiction addict, with her eccentric aunt forever dropping off campion novels which gwenni in turn lends to the local police officer. there's a sort of crime at the heart of the book, with a brilliant, cunning solution (cunning especially in it's neat simplicity), an event whose repurcussions are felt throughout. so although it's not a crime novel as such, there's a lot that the average crime fiction fan will find very appealing. irrespective of that, it's also quite utterly the best book i've read all year and doubt that anything else will come near it. a beautifully written, loving, witty, moving and joyful book. the best way to describe it is sort of "the wasp factory" but without the slightly adolescent obsessions that hampers that book. a stunning thing to treasure. highly recommended