While I picked out the correct candidate for murderer readily enough at the first clear clue/herring, the story’s well enough written that it doesn’t matter. There’s still plenty of suspense in whether the characters will recognise the right pattern in time. The book has some engaging lead characters in a strongly drawn setting, and some genuinely chilling scenes. A particular highlight for me was the chase in the fog towards the end of the book. One with re-read potential even after you know the solution.

http://www.librarything.com/work/26796

Book log 2011

January
1) Dorothy L Sayers — Whose Body
LibraryThing entry

2) Agatha christie – At Bertam’s Hotel [audiobook]
LibraryThing entry

3) Edited by Josie Brown, Rose Mambert, and Bill Racicot — Elf Love
LibraryThing entry.

4) Sam Storyteller – Condition of Release
Re-read of a Torchwood fanfic novel, because I felt like reading it again and looked up and found I’d finished it and it was past my bedtime…

5) Iain M Banks — Surface Detail
LibraryThing entry

6) PD James – The Lighthouse
LibraryThing entry

7) Agatha Christie — The Moving Finger
LibraryThing entry

8) Agatha Christie — They Do It With Mirrors
LibraryThing entry

9) Agatha Christie – Nemesis
LibraryThing entry

10) E.C. Tubb — The Luck Machine
LibraryThing entry

February

11) Jonathan Gash — The Rich and the Profane
LibraryThing entry

12) E.E “Doc” Smith – The Vortex Blaster
LibraryThing entry

13) E.M. Forster – A Room With a View
LibraryThing entry

14) PG Wodehouse — Right Ho, Jeeves
LibraryThing entry

15) Agatha Christie — The Complete Miss Marple Stories
LibraryThing entry

16) Justin Richards — Doctor Who: The Clockwise Man
LibraryThing entry

17) Georgette Heyer – Detection unlimited
LibraryThing entry

18) Dorothy L Sayers — The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
LibraryThing entry

March

19) Edgar Allan Poe — The Fall of the House of Usher
Short story downloaded from FeedBooks, logged with notes 20 March 2011.
LibraryThing entry

20) Jules Verne – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
This is an old translation now in the public domain and available from FeedBooks. Logged with notes 20 March 2011
LibraryThing entry

21) James Stephens – Irish Fairy Tales
Part-read, logged 20 March 2011.
LibraryThing entry

22) Carola Dunn — Rattle His Bones
Eighth in the Daisy Dalrymple series about a young aristocrat who writes for a living and has a bad habit of stumbling into murder mysteries. Logged with notes 20 March 2011.
LibraryThing entry

23) Vonda N McIntyre — The Starfarers Quartet: Starfarers
24) Vonda N McIntyre — The Starfarers Quartet: Transition
In progress review posted 22 March, full review of the quartet posted 26 April 2011.
LibraryThing entry

25) Aoike Yasuko — From Eroica With Love 1
Re-read, previously reviewed at LibraryThing
LibraryThing entry

26) Aoike Yasuko — From Eroica With Love 2
Re-read, previously reviewed at LibraryThing
LibraryThing entry

27) Aoike Yasuko — From Eroica With Love 3
Re-read, previously reviewed at LibraryThing
LibraryThing entry

28) Vonda N McIntyre — The Starfarers Quartet: Metaphase
29) Vonda N McIntyre — The Starfarers Quartet: Nautilus
Full review of the quartet posted 26 April 2011.
LibraryThing entry

April

30) Reginald Hill — There are no ghosts in the Soviet Union, and other stories
Collection of half a dozen crime stories first published in 1987, which has some bearing on the tone of some of them. The collection is laced with a biting humour, and some superb if sardonic observations of human nature. Logged with notes 28 April 2011.
LibraryThing entry

31) Stephen Cole — Doctor Who: The Monsters Inside
Second of the tie-ins published for the new series. It’s a Who tie-in novel, with nothing much to either recommend or disrecommend it. Not one I’m inclined to give permanent shelfspace. Logged with notes 30 April 2011.
LibraryThing entry

32) Agatha Christie — The Body in the Library
Miss Marple novel with, yes, a body in the library. The library in question belongs to an old friend of Miss Marple, but the dead blonde doesn’t. A week or so after reading the book, I listened to the abridged audiobook from Macmillan Digital Audio, read by Ian Masters. It’s a good abridgment on 3 CDs which manages to retain the necessary plot elements without signalling them too broadly. Logged with notes 1 May 2011.
LibraryThing entry

33) Inspector Singh Investigates: A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree
The fourth of the series about the portly chain-smoking Inspector from Singapore’s police service. This time Singh has been volunteered to hold a watching brief on behalf of ASEAN at the Cambodian war crimes tribunal. This is a powerful story, with characters who make you care about their fate. A worthy addition to the Inspector Singh series. Reviewed 2 May 2011.
LibraryThing entry

34) James Herriot – If only they could talk [audiobook]
First of the memoir/novels by James Herriot about life in a rural veterinary practice, abridged to 3 CD length. It’s read by Christopher Timothy, who played Herriot in the 1970s/80s tv adaptation All Creatures Great and Small, and it’s read very well. Logged with notes 2 May 2011.
LibraryThing entry

35) James Goss — Torchwood: Ghost Train [audiobook]
2 CD Torchwood story written for audio, and set between second and third series. It’s read by actor Kai Owen, for the very good reason that it’s a first person narrative from one Rhys Williams, haulage manager. What we get is not just “actor reads book”, but “actor in character tells us a story about what happened when he got mixed up in an alien invasion last week”. A great story with plenty of re-listen potential. Brief review 2 May 2011.
LibraryThing entry

36) Reginald Hill — A Clubbable Woman [audiobook]
Abridged audio adaptation of the first book in the Dalziel & Pascoe series (which I’ve previously reviewed), on 3 CDs. It’s read by Warren Clarke, who played Dalziell in the tv adaptation. This is a good abridgement, which from following along in places on the printed edition I thought cut about half the text while retaining everything needed for the plot, plus a good chunk of the characterisations. Clarke does an excellent job of reading. Logged with notes 2 May 2011.
LibraryThing entry

37) Agatha Christie — The body in the library [audiobook]
Audiobook abridged on 3 cds, reviewed as part of the review of the print edition.

38) Hyouta Fujiyama — Freefall Romance
Yaoi manga, and a Did Not Finish for me, mostly because I was half way through when I found some torn pages with large sections of the page missing, and I wasn’t sufficiently interested in finishing it to request a replacement copy. Logged with brief notes 3 May 2011.
LibraryThing entry

39) Bob Shaw — Shadow of Heaven
[NEL abridged edition]
Short novel set in a future where an act of terrorism has rendered much of the world’s arable land unusable without reducing the population. Logged with notes 16 May 2011.
LibraryThing entry

40) Jacqueline Rayner – Doctor Who: Winner Takes All
Third in the New Who novel line. The plot’s interesting and the characterisations for Nine and Rose are good. But where the story really shines for me is in one of the one-off characters. Enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours. This one I’ll probably re-read. Logged with notes 16 May 2011.
LibraryThing entry

41) Ursula Vernon — Digger [graphic novel]
And this is what ate my Good Friday in 2011, courtesy of a link at Making Light — the webcomic “Digger”. Logged with notes 16 May 2011.

http://www.diggercomic.com/

LibraryThing entry

42) Agatha Christie — A Murder Is Announced
Miss Marple novel. Beautifully constructed mystery, with the clues all there but skillfully disguised, in a lovely study of English village life soon after the end of the Second World War. Logged with notes 17 May 2011.
LibraryThing entry

43) Alexander McCall Smith — The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
The first of a series about Precious Ramotswe, the Botswanan woman who sets up a detective agency. Logged with notes 22 May 2011.
LibraryThing entry

44) Gary Russell — Torchwood: The Twilight Streets
Sixth of the Torchwood tie-in novels, set late in second season and with a lot of canon references. And my most favourite of all the canon references is the return of Idris Hopper, the Mayor’s secretary from the Doctor Who episode Boom Town. :-) Logged with notes 22 May 2011.
LibraryThing entry

45) Georgette Heyer – Footsteps in the Dark
One of Heyer’s mysteries, this one a stand-alone rather than part of a series. Logged with notes 22 May 2011.
LibraryThing entry

May

46) Alex Epstein — The Circle Cast: The Lost Years of Morgan Le Fay
Young adult novel about what happened to the sorceress Morgan le Fay between the point in her childhood when her father was murdered by Uther Pendragon, and her return as an adult to trouble her half-brother King Arthur. Reviewed May 29.
LibraryThing entry

47) Agatha Christie – A pocket full of rye
City businessman Rex Fortescue has a nice cup of tea at the office, and dies of poisoning. The peculiar points to this are the poison used, and the fact that the dead man’s pocket had grains of rye amongst the contents. Reviewed May 29.
LibraryThing entry

48) Justin Richards — Doctor Who: The Deviant Strain
Fourth of the new series tie-in novels. This one has Rose and Captain Jack as the companions, in a story set in a remote Soviet naval base abandoned after the end of the Cold War. Reviewed May 29.
LibraryThing entry

49) Agatha Christie – The mirror crack’d from side to side
Hollywood actress Marina Gregg intends to take part in village life, and this includes hosting a public fund-raising event in the grounds for charity, and inviting various village notables to a private reception to view the refurbishments. As the former owner of the house, Miss Marple’s old friend Mrs Bantry is an honoured guest — which puts her in a prime position to view events at the reception that in hindsight were a prelude to a murder. Reviewed May 30.
LibraryThing entry

50) Leslie Charteris – Enter the Saint
Second book in the Saint series, a trio of novelettes/novellas rather than a novel. Logged with brief notes May 30.
LibraryThing entry

51) Edward Marston — Railway to the grave

Seventh in the Railway Detective series, about a Victorian detective inspector specialising in railway crime in the early days of the railways. Reviewed May 30.
LibraryThing entry

52) John Carnell, editor — New Writings in SF 20
One of the 1972 editions of the long-running science fiction anthology series. Reviewed
LibraryThing entry

53) Agatha Christie — A Caribbean Mystery
Miss Marple’s nephew has paid for her to have a holiday in the Caribbean as part of her convalescence after a bad bout of pneumonia. The setting is very different to St Mary Mead, but the behaviours on display amongst the ex-pats are only too familiar. Reviewed May 30.
LibraryThing entry

54) Elisabeth Beresford — The Wombles
First in what became a series of over 20 books about the creatures living in a large burrow underneath Wimbledon Common, who make a living by collecting and re-using the rubbish left behind by careless humans.
LibraryThing entry.

55) Una McCormack — Doctor Who: The Way Through the Woods
I bought this one because I’ve known the writer for years and have admired her writing since back when she was writing fanfic in My One True Fandom. It should be assumed that I am not capable of giving an unbiased opinion, but this book is full of squee for me.
LibraryThing entry

56) Frank Herbert – The Eyes Of Heisenberg
Short sf novel from 1966 about a far distant future where genetic engineering has brought longer lives for all and immortality for a minority.
LibraryThing entry

57) Reginald Hill — An Advancement of Learning
Re-read of the second Dalziel and Pascoe novel.
LibraryThing entry

June

58) Jonathan Swift — Gulliver’s Travels
Or to give it its full and proper title, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. Logged June 11.
LibraryThing entry
Free public domain ebook at Feedbooks

59) Christopher Wakling — The Devil’s Mask
Note – I received a free review copy through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme.
A page-turner that brings to life the physical and moral price paid for the profits of the slave trade, even after abolition. Reviewed June 12.
LibraryThing entry
hardcover at Amazon UK
Kindle at Amazon UK
paperback at Amazon UK (release date March 2012)

60) Alexander McCall Smith — The Tears of the Giraffe
Second of the series about Precious Ramotswe, the No.1 and indeed only lady detective in Botswana. A gentle, heartwarming book that blends entertaining detective stories with wonderful characterisation and sense of place. Logged July 9.
LibraryThing entry

61) Ben Macallan — Desdaemona
A welcome return to dark urban fantasy for Chaz Brenchley, writing under the name of Ben Macallan. It’s often very funny, and sometimes terrifying, and occasionally heartbreaking; all the more so because it shows how the monsters can be only too human. Reviewed July 10.
ISBN: 978-1-907519-62-8
First chapter as free sample at Book View Cafe
LibraryThing entry
Desdaemona paperback at Amazon UK
Desdaemona Kindle edition at Amazon UK

62) Reginald Hill — Ruling Passion
Third of the Dalziel and Pascoe books. This is a superb study of a policeman struggling and frequently failing to retain his professional detachment in the face of a crime that strikes only too close to home. Logged July 16.
LibraryThing entry

63) Gareth Roberts — Doctor Who: Only HUman
Fifth of the New Who novels, with Nine, Rose, and Captain Jack. A Neanderthal turns up in 21st century Bromley, and the Tardis crew turn up to investigate why someone is using a particularly primitive, and stupid, method of time travel in the area. Logged July 16.
LibraryThing entry

64) WJ Burley — Wycliffe: Death In A Salubrious Place [audiobook]
Abridged audiobook on 3 CDs of the fourth book in the Wycliffe series. Logged July 12.
LibraryThing entry

65) Ian Rankin — Watchman
An early one from Rankin, a standalone spy novel written between writing the first and second Rebus novels. Probably not a keeper for me, but I’m glad to have read it. Logged July 12.
LibraryThing entry

July

66) Reginald Hill — An April Shroud
Fourth in the Dalziel and Pascoe series. Logged 7 August.
LibraryThing entry

67) Margery Allingham — My Friend Mr Campion and other mysteries
Collection containing the novella The Case of the Late Pig, four short stories, and a short essay excerpted from a radio broadcast by Allingham. Logged 7 August.
LibraryThing entry

68) Alan Hunter — Landed Gently
Fourth in the Inspector George Gently series, and the first that I’ve read. Logged 7 August.
LibraryThing entry

69) Agatha Christie — “How does your garden grow?” and other stories [audiobook]
Five short stories taken from the collection “Poirot’s Early Cases”, read on 3 CDs by the man who plays him so perfectly on tv, David Suchet. Logged 14 August.
LibraryThing entry

70) Edward Marston — The Amorous Nightingale
Second in the Christopher Redmayne historical mystery series, set in London just after the Great Fire of 1666. Logged 20 August.
LibraryThing entry

71) Barry Perowne — Raffles of the M.C.C.
Not the original Raffles stories, but one of the pastiche collections.
LibraryThing entry

72) Steve Lyons — Doctor Who: The Stealers of Dreams
Sixth of the tie-in novels for New Who, and the last to feature the Ninth Doctor (and thus also pre-immortality Jack).
LibraryThing entry

73) James Goss — Torchwood: Department X [audiobook]
One of the audio-only tie-in novels, read by Kai Owen on 2 CDs, and set between series 2 and 3.
LibraryThing entry

August

74) Alexander McCall Smith — Corduroy Mansions
Good-natured and enjoyable, but about two-thirds of the way through I found that it simply wasn’t holding my interest any longer. Logged 28 August.
LibraryThing entry

75) Reginald Hill — A Pinch of Snuff
Previously reviewed when I read it in 2006, at LiveJournal and at LibraryThing
LibraryThing entry

76) Colin Kapp — Patterns of Chaos
This is a solid piece of 1970s space opera, with a plot on the grand scale combined with some fascinating details to flesh out the universe, and some well-realised characters. Logged 3 September.
LibraryThing entry

77) Bernard Knight — the Witch Hunter
The eighth in a crime fiction series set in the twelfth century, following the cases of Crowner John, a knight who has been appointed as the first coroner of Devon by Richard the Lionheart. This was the first I’d read, and will be the last even though I have another in the TBR pile, because it was a Did Not Finish for me. Logged 3 September.
LibraryThing entry

78) Jacqueline Rayner — Doctor Who: The Stone Rose
Seventh of the tie-in novels to go with New Who, and the first featuring the Tenth Doctor. Logged 11 September.
LibraryThing entry

79) Pati Nagle – Pet Noir
Short fix-up novel about a genetically engineered cat whose creation is commissioned by the security chief of a large space station. The chief wants an undercover agent who’ll be overlooked by criminals who might be suspicious of humanoids. Reviewed for LibraryThing Early Reviewers on September 11.
LibraryThing entry

September

80) H.P. Lovecraft — The Call of Cthulhu
Feedbooks download
LibraryThing entry

81) EF Benson — Mapp and Lucia [audiobook]
LibraryThing entry

82) Stephen Cole – Doctor Who: The Feast Of the Drowned
LibraryThing entry

83) Alan Hunter — Gently Through the Mill
LibraryThing entry

84) Ruth Rendell — From Doon with Death (Inspector Wexford 1)
LibraryThing entry

85) Roger Bax — Blueprint for Murder
http://www.librarything.com/work/11449785/

86) Ruth Rendell — Wolf to the Slaughter (Inspector Wexford 2)
LibraryThing entry

87) James Goss: Torchwood: First Born
LibraryThing entry

88) Agatha Christie — The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side [audiobook]
http://www.librarything.com/work/15575/

89) Lois McMaster Bujold — Cryoburn
LibraryThing entry

90) Michael Swanwick — Stations of the Tide
LibraryThing entry

91) Alan Hunter — Gently in the Sun
LibraryThing entry

October

92) Agatha Christie — The 4:50 From Paddington [audiobook]

93) Joseph Lidster — Torchwood: In the Shadows [audiobook]

http://www.librarything.com/work/4708716

94) Michael Kring — The Space Mavericks

http://www.librarything.com/work/1214740/

95) Michael Kring — Children of the Night

http://www.librarything.com/work/614337

96) August Derleth — The Casebook of Solar Pons

http://www.librarything.com/work/439855

97) Sarah Pinborough — Torchwood: Long Time Dead

http://http://www.librarything.com/work/11526105

98) Daniel Fox — Hidden Cities

http://www.librarything.com/work/10300793

99) Ruth Rendell — A New Lease of Death

http://www.librarything.com/work/292941/

100) Terry Pratchett — Wyrd sisters [audiobook]

http://www.librarything.com/work/1044878/61742418

101) Guy Adams — Torchwood: The Men Who Sold the World

http://www.librarything.com/work/11526108

November

102) Edward Gorey — The Lost Lions

http://www.librarything.com/work/10399990

103) Alexander McCall Smith – Morality For Beautiful Girls

http://www.librarything.com/work/4425

104)Alexander McCall Smith – The Kalahari Typing School For Men

http://www.librarything.com/work/20135

105) Leslie Charteris — The Saint closes the case

http://www.librarything.com/work/539892/

106) Ruth Rendell — The Best Man to Die

http://www.librarything.com/work/176217

107) Ruth Rendell — A Guilty Thing Surprised

http://www.librarything.com/work/170890

108) Ruth Rendell — No More Dying Then

http://www.librarything.com/work/176936

109) Alan Hunter — Gently to the summit

http://www.librarything.com/work/2625859/

110) Alan Hunter — Gently with the painters

http://www.librarything.com/work/2004443

111) Lucia’s Progress [audiobook]

http://www.librarything.com/work/313309

December

112) John Barrowman — I am what I am

http://www.librarything.com/work/8980550

113) Alan Hunter — Gently go Man

http://www.librarything.com/work/1774111

114) Diane Purkis — Fairies and Fairy Stories: A History

http://www.librarything.com/work/45521

115) Ruth Rendell — Murder being Once Done

http://www.librarything.com/work/292592

116) Mary Stewart — Madam, will you talk?

http://www.librarything.com/work/96869

117) Carola Dunn — Death at Wentworth Court

http://www.librarything.com/work/39646

112) John Barrowman — I am what I am
Second volume of Barrowman’s memoirs, written with his sister Carole Barrowman. While the first volume was a largely chronological memoir of his life so far, this volume is a selection of stories arranged more by theme than by time, and including a lot of material in direct response to questions he was asked after the first volume was published. As with any good actor biography, part of the appeal of this book is a more general look at the side of showbusiness that the public don’t see for themselves, including the amount of work needed to put a show on, whether on stage or tv. Well written, and very entertaining if this sort of book is your sort of thing.

http://www.librarything.com/work/8980550

113) Alan Hunter — Gently go Man
Ninth of the Inspector Gently books. I mostly haven’t been commenting on these, but have been enjoying them and intend to read more of them.

http://www.librarything.com/work/1774111

114) Diane Purkiss — Fairies and Fairy Stories: A History
New edition of a book previously published as “Troublesome Things: A History of Fairies and Fairy Stories”, and under at least one other title. I really need to write a proper review of this book, but right now I’m down with a viral infection and not up to the necessary thinking.

http://www.librarything.com/work/45521

115) Ruth Rendell — Murder being Once Done
Seventh Inspector Wexford book.

http://www.librarything.com/work/292592

116) Mary Stewart — Madam, will you talk?
Stewart’s first novel, published in 1955, and the first one I’ve read. Contemporary (for the time it was written) suspense with a strong romantic element. Enjoyed this a lot.

http://www.librarything.com/work/96869

117) Carola Dunn — Death at Wentworth Court
First of the Daisy Dalrymple series of 1920s country house cosies. I read this after reading several of the later books, so enjoyed seeing where it started. Great fun, and one for the re-read shelf.

http://www.librarything.com/work/39646

102) Edward Gorey — The Lost Lions

Note: I received a review copy of this through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme.

Pomegranate provides a treat for Gorey fans with this new edition of a title from 1973 which has been long out of print as a standalone book, although it was available in omnibus format. Hamish, a beautiful young man who likes being outdoors, opens the wrong envelope one day, and finds himself on a path to fame and fortune in films. He finds this to be less appealing than one might imagine, and prefers to raise lions… The story is told in a bare 14 pen-and-ink illustrations with one sentence per illustration, and can be skimmed in a few minutes, but Gorey does a great deal with those 14 illustrations. It’s not as blatantly macabre as some of Gorey’s work, but still has that eerie, off-kilter humour that was his trademark. And the book might take only a few minutes to read the first time, but you could lose yourself for hours looking at the detail in the drawings and thinking about the things implied therein.

There are other books which are more accessible to new readers and I’m not sure this one would be ideal as someone’s first introduction to Gorey, but you don’t need much familiarity with his body of work to appreciate the faintly sinister whimsy of The Lost Lions.

At US$13, this edition isn’t cheap, but you do get what you pay for. Pomegranate have a done a superb job on the physical production side. The book is a small hardback with high quality paper in sewn signatures, and crisp reproduction of the pen-and-ink illustrations. It’s laid out with one sentence and illustration facing each other per page spread, on a 6 inch square page size that makes it easy to take in the whole illustration at once while still being large enough to see the fine detail. The cover illustration is in colour, but the interior illustrations are in the original black and white. If all you want is access to the story, there are other options, but Pomegranate’s new edition is a gorgeous presentation that’s a joy to handle. This is a perfect “indulgent treat” for anyone who loves both beautiful books and Edward Gorey.

My review copy came packed with two Pomegranate catalogues, and one of their Edward Gorey bookmarks, which was a nice item in its own right, and I think well worth the $2 catalogue price if you like nice bookmarks. It’s crisply printed on heavy stock, and comes in a heavy plastic protective sleeve, from which it can be easily removed if you prefer to use it without the sleeve.

Hardcover smyth-sewn casebound book, with jacket. 32 pages, 6½ x 6 inches.

ISBN 9780764959578

Edward Gorey — The Lost Lions at the publisher’s website.

Librarything entry, with more reviews.

103) Alexander McCall Smith – Morality For Beautiful Girls

Third in the “No.1 Ladies Detective Agency” series. Mma Ramotswe makes the decision to share offices with her fiance Mr J.B.L. Matekoni at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. This is for prudent financial reasons to do with the Agency’s low income, but turns out to be a useful thing for Speedy Motors as well, when Mr Matekoni is unwell and Mma Makutsi takes over the management of the garage. Another enjoyable tale of life in Botswana.

http://www.librarything.com/work/4425

104)Alexander McCall Smith – The Kalahari Typing School For Men

Fourth in the “No.1 Ladies Detective Agency” series. Mr J.B.L. Matekoni has recovered and returned to Speedy Motors, and so Acting Manager Mma Makutsi has the time and the incentive to look for another business opportunity. Her solution is to set up the titular Kalahari Typing School For Men, which runs alongside her work for Mma Precious Ramotswe’s detective agency. But the two ladies have a rival, in the form of newly arrived Sephas Buthelezi and his Satisfaction Guaranteed Detective Agency.

One of the joys of this series is that each book works as a standalone novel, but that as you read the series you see the slow buildup of a long term story for the continuing characters, and the developments in their lives. There’s no feeling of lack of closure at the end of any particular book, but the story does move on in the next.

http://www.librarything.com/work/20135

102) Edward Gorey — The Lost Lions

Note: I received a review copy of this through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme.

Pomegranate provides a treat for Gorey fans with this new edition of a title from 1973 which has been long out of print as a standalone book, although it was available in omnibus format. Hamish, a beautiful young man who likes being outdoors, opens the wrong envelope one day, and finds himself on a path to fame and fortune in films. He finds this to be less appealing than one might imagine, and prefers to raise lions… The story is told in a bare 14 pen-and-ink illustrations with one sentence per illustration, and can be skimmed in a few minutes, but Gorey does a great deal with those 14 illustrations. It’s not as blatantly macabre as some of Gorey’s work, but still has that eerie, off-kilter humour that was his trademark. And the book might take only a few minutes to read the first time, but you could lose yourself for hours looking at the detail in the drawings and thinking about the things implied therein.

There are other books which are more accessible to new readers and I’m not sure this one would be ideal as someone’s first introduction to Gorey, but you don’t need much familiarity with his body of work to appreciate the faintly sinister whimsy of The Lost Lions.

At US$13, this edition isn’t cheap, but you do get what you pay for. Pomegranate have a done a superb job on the physical production side. The book is a small hardback with high quality paper in sewn signatures, and crisp reproduction of the pen-and-ink illustrations. It’s laid out with one sentence and illustration facing each other per page spread, on a 6 inch square page size that makes it easy to take in the whole illustration at once while still being large enough to see the fine detail. The cover illustration is in colour, but the interior illustrations are in the original black and white. If all you want is access to the story, there are other options, but Pomegranate’s new edition is a gorgeous presentation that’s a joy to handle. This is a perfect “indulgent treat” for anyone who loves both beautiful books and Edward Gorey.

My review copy came packed with two Pomegranate catalogues, and one of their Edward Gorey bookmarks, which was a nice item in its own right, and I think well worth the $2 catalogue price if you like nice bookmarks. It’s crisply printed on heavy stock, and comes in a heavy plastic protective sleeve, from which it can be easily removed if you prefer to use it without the sleeve.

Hardcover smyth-sewn casebound book, with jacket. 32 pages, 6½ x 6 inches.

ISBN 9780764959578

Edward Gorey — The Lost Lions at the publisher’s website.

Librarything entry, with more reviews.

92) Agatha Christie — The 4:50 From Paddington [audiobook]

Read by Joanna David and abridged on 3 CDs. An enjoyable audio abridgement of this Miss Marple story, and one that works well to present the salient elements of the plot. The characterisations do suffer a little from the abridgement, as one might expect, but Lucy Eyelesbarrow, who acts as Miss Marple’s sidekick in this novel, comes across fairly well anyway.

http://www.librarything.com/work/15489/summary/66958663

93) Joseph Lidster — Torchwood: In the Shadows [audiobook]

Audiobook-only Torchwood novel on 2 CDs, read by Eve Myles, and set during and after second season. This is a creepy and very Torchwood tale of a strange taxi driver who sends his passengers to a hell dimension to be punished for their perceived sins. They return as corpses, having lived out the remainder of their lives in a personally-tailored Hell while only a few hours have passed on Earth. Torchwood takes an interest in one of the missing person cases, and Jack finds himself on a trip to a Hell where death is the only release — and temporary death doesn’t count. A well-crafted horror story with good characterisation, and some interesting development of the relationship between Jack and Ianto. Eve Myles isn’t quite as good a narrator as the others I’ve listened to, but still does an adequate job. I’d note that the plot driver is yet another religious fanatic — they seem to be more common in the audiobooks than in the tv episodes.

http://www.librarything.com/work/4708716

94) Michael Kring — The Space Mavericks

First in an early 1980s space opera series which was never completed. Trading ships are divided into those belonging to the big conglomerates, and independents known as mavericks, with no love lost between the two groups. Enough mavericks have been beaten or even killed that maverick pilot Fripp Enos has had himself modified — an alien medical procedure that enhances the body’s natural defences in some startling ways. Few people had the procedure done even before it was outlawed, so Fripp can usually win a fight against even an armed opponent. Which is useful, because even though Fripp doesn’t look for trouble, trouble inevitably finds him.

Fripp rescues a teenage girl from a gang, and takes her to the police, only to find himself caught up in a government-sponsored kidnap plot. He and his partner rescue the girl again, and in the course of escaping and getting her back to her father, Fripp encounters a set of ancient ruins with active alien technology — including a ring with strange powers. The novel wraps up the action-adventure plot involving the girl, but sets Fripp and Kohn on a course of trying to find out more about the source of the ring.

It’s written in very purple prose, and it supplied more than its fair share of dubious gems for Thog’s Masterclass in Ansible. It’s also enormous fun, and not just in a “fun to poke holes in” way. The modification technology is well thought through with a believable downside to balance the advantages it gives Fripp, the book has an interesting take on the “ancient alien technology” theme, and it has my all time favourite description of hyperspace travel, with the concept of touching Spheres (actually of different shapes, not just spheres) which can only safely be crossed from one to another at the contact points, but where the foolhardy or desperate can slip along the interface to enter a new Sphere where they choose. And rather than being just the FTL needed to make interstellar travel feasible, the properties of Warp have a direct bearing on the plot. A happy teenage memory that’s still fun to read, even if I recognise its flaws.

http://www.librarything.com/work/1214740/

95) Michael Kring — Children of the Night

Second of the space opera series which began with The Space Mavericks, and alas the last one to actually be published. This one has a plot which stands as a good single episode in its own right, but leaves the arc story about the source of Fripp’s alien tech ring at the point where Fripp and Kohn are merely one step closer to finding the answer. The series was clearly intended to include at least one more book to finish it off, but the third was never published.

In this book Fripp and Kohn get drawn into a revolution by a group of genetically engineered miners, and learn a little more about the ancient culture that created the ring. It’s just as much purple prose fun as the first book, and I for one would have loved to have the chance to read the next one.

http://www.librarything.com/work/614337

96) August Derleth — The Casebook of Solar Pons

Collection of Sherlock Holmes pastiche short stories. Well-written and enjoyable, even if the Watson avatar shows more than a little USian influence in his language.

http://www.librarything.com/work/439855

97) Sarah Pinborough — Torchwood: Long Time Dead

Second of the three Miracle Day prequel novels. Torchwood is dead or scattered after the events of Children of Earth. The Hub is a wreck being excavated by the Department in search of artifacts to scavange. But one member of Torchwood just won’t stay dead. The morgue drawers have burst open in the aftermath of the explosion, Suzie Costello is back, and she’s brought company.

This is a well-crafted horror novel that builds on the existing features of the Torchwood universe to create a very nasty fate indeed for some of Cardiff’s citizens, one that could spread to the whole world. While it’s set in the immediate aftermath of Children of Earth, it ties into season one in a way that will add richness for existing fans while giving some Torchwood backstory for new fans. And Sarah Pinborough has done a great job of expanding on the character of Suzi Costello. There aren’t many hard facts added, but we see more of her motivations and how she ended up as a killer.

An excellent look at what Torchwood, and its loss, mean to the people of Cardiff — even if they can’t remember their encounters with the team. Once again the Torchwood novels demonstrate just how good tie-in fiction can be.

http://www.librarything.com/work/11526105

98) Daniel Fox — Hidden Cities

Third part of the medieval China-inspired fantasy by Chaz Brenchley writing under his Daniel Fox pen name. And make no mistake, this is the third and final part of a single story which began with Dragon in Chains, rather than the third of three novels. You’ll need to have read the first two parts to get the most out of this book. Fortunately, that’s no hardship. This is a complex story that needs the space to do justice to the lives of its characters.

At the end of the second part (Jade Man’s Skin), the young Emperor had control of the island of Taishu, source of the jade that underpins imperial power, and was about to lose the city of Santung across the strait to the general who was attempting to overthrow him — until the no-longer-chained dragon disrupted the petty wars of humans. In this volume the characters have to deal with the consequences — the dragon will not permit boats to cross the strait unless they are protected by the presence of the Li-goddess of the sea, in the form of one of the children the goddess has taken for her use as a human avatar. As the humans play out their struggles for power, so do the dragon and the goddess, in a complex tales with many strands. It does not end in the boy Emperor winning back his entire empire, but that would not be the right end for this story, and it ends well enough.

As with the first two parts, this offers a thoughtful look at war and its aftermath, written in stunning prose. The trilogy is a long read, but well worth the time.

http://www.librarything.com/work/10300793

99) Ruth Rendell — A New Lease of Death

Third of the Inspector Wexford series.

http://www.librarything.com/work/292941/

100) Terry Pratchett — Wyrd sisters [audiobook]

Abridged audiobook on 3 CDs, read by Tony Robinson. Although it’s abridged, it does a good job of presenting Pratchett’s plot and characters, not least because Robinson is stunningly good at reading it.

http://www.librarything.com/work/1044878/61742418

101) Guy Adams — Torchwood: The Men Who Sold the World

Third of the Miracle Day prequel novels. A CIA team goes rogue with a cargo of exotic weapons they were supposed to be escorting after transfer from the Department in the UK to the CIA. A cargo marked Torchwood… This one looks at CIA Rex Matheson, one of the new characters introduced for Miracle Day. And that’s where it falls down for me, partly because I’m not that enamoured of Rex as a character — although oddly, I like him better in this book than I did on screen. This is backstory for Rex, showing how he first got involved with weird tech operations shortly before the events of Miracle Day, and I think is likely to work better for new fans rather than those who’ve watched the show from the beginning. It’s a competently written CIA agent thriller, but it doesn’t resonate for me the way the prequels about the original team members did.

http://www.librarything.com/work/11526108

This novelette permeates science fiction culture. It’s there as part of the background, taken as given. I knew more or less what’s in it, because it’s nodded to by so many later writers, but I’d never actually read it, or anything else by Lovecraft as far as I can recall. Last month I decided that it was time to change that. There’s not really a lot I can say, other than there is bad purple prose and there is good purple prose, and this piece is very fine purple prose indeed. Now I know why it has such a grip on the fannish imagination. And I need to download a few more Lovecraft pieces.

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81) EF Benson — Mapp and Lucia [audiobook]

Abridged audiobook of the novel, read by Miriam Margoyles on 3 CDs. My first encounter with Benson’s Mapp and Lucia characters, but assuredly not my last. Hysterically funny comedy of manners following the battle of wits and garden parties between two snobs, each intent on ruling local society in a small seaside town in the early 1930s. Margoyles does a superb job of reading, bringing the various characters to vivid life.

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82) Stephen Cole – Doctor Who: The Feast Of the Drowned

Book eight in the New Series Adventures. Competent tie-in with Ten and Rose, set in present-day London. When the wreck of a British Navy vessel is recovered and brought back to a secret dock off the Thames for study, there are more than corpses aboard. The ghosts of the sailors start visiting their friends and loved ones, talking about the feast of the drowned and asking for help from the living. And the living will do anything to reach their loved ones to help them, including throwing themselves into the Thames. Ten and Rose would investigate anyway, but it becomes all too personal for Rose when she discovers that one of the ghosts is someone she knows. Competently written, but not one of my favourites of the new series tie-ins.

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83) Alan Hunter — Gently Through the Mill

Fifth in the George Gently police procedural series, set in the 1950s. A corpse is found in a flour hopper in a village bakery. Such accidents aren’t unknown, but this one isn’t an accident, and the corpse isn’t local. Gently is sent to investigate what small time gambler and crook Steinie Taylor was doing out of his ususal haunts, and why someone killed him. The local police are only too willing to tag it as a crime just passing through, but as Gently’s team starts digging, they find far too many locals with secrets to hide. Taylor and two friends had been splashing money around, but where did the money come from? Taylor’s friends might know, but one of them turns up dead. The other might have the only evidence that could convict a killer — if Gently can get to him before the killer does.

Enjoyable period police procedural with some nice observation of character. There’s a particularly poignant passage in which Gently acknowledges the pathos inherent in a dead petty crook whose biggest dream was to have a legitimate bank account.

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84) Ruth Rendell — From Doon with Death (Inspector Wexford 1)

First of the Inspector Wexford novels, first published in 1964, and very much of its time. Inspector Burden’s neighbour asks for some unofficial help when he comes home to find his wife missing. Burden’s more interested in escaping to his planned trip to the cinema, assuming that the woman has simply had an assignation and missed her bus or train home. But when Margaret Parsons is found murdered in nearby woods, Burden and Wexford have a mystery on their hands. Who would want to kill a quiet, nondescript housewife who seemed devoted to her husband? There are few clues, until they discover the dead woman had a collection of expensive books, inscribed from “Doon”. An old lover, perhaps, one who hadn’t accepted that she had moved on and married elsewhere. But finding the pseudonymous Doon is another matter.

It’s fairly well constructed and written, and while the lead characters aren’t that well developed, they do come across as distinct personalities even in this short novel. There’s a strong focus on psychological study of the various suspects and witnesses, and Wexford is shown as a broad-minded man whose uncensorious attitude to human frailities can be an asset in his job. But I found the general shape of the solution far too obvious from the very beginning of the book, and was disappointed to find that I was right.

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85) Roger Bax — Blueprint for Murder

Post-war crime novel, in which a wealthy man is found murdered shortly after his son and nephew have returned from service at the end of World War 2. The two young men are the obvious and only reasonable suspects, but one of them has the perfect alibi. So perfect that Inspector James is suspicious… This isn’t a whodunnit, because the book opens with the nephew’s flight from a German prison camp and his progress across Europe towards England — and the psychological damage he’s taken over the years of war. He’s determined to live the good life when he finally gets home, and that means planning the perfect murder in order to get his share of his uncle’s estate, and enough money to clear out to a new life in South America. The first few chapters cover how he perfects and practices his plans, with a very ingenious method of creating an unbreakable alibi. The plot then shifts to the police investigation of the murder, with the painstaking attention to detail needed to investigate the crime, and finally to the killer’s discovery that someone could expose him after all, and his hasty attempts to cover up and then escape. Well-plotted and well-paced, with a rising thread of tension as it becomes apparent that Arthur will have to kill again to escape the hangman’s noose. Bax has done a good job in creating a killer who has been hardened by his experiences and understands his own capacity for violence only too well.

http://www.librarything.com/work/11449785/

86) Ruth Rendell — Wolf to the Slaughter (Inspector Wexford 2)

The second Inspector Wexford novel, and as with the first, very much a 1960s novel. It gave me even more of a sense of “the past is a foreign country” than the first one, because a major plot thread involves one of the characters renting out rooms in her house by the evening, for students to use for studying in private, nudge nudge, wink, wink, and this activity gets her threatened with being charged with the offence of keeping a disorderly house. Because in this time period, unmarried couples found it difficult to find somewhere to have sex, and renting rooms to them for such a purpose was conduct liable to outrage public decency, and thus could be a criminal offence…

An eccentric artist reports his sister Anita as missing. Since his problem appears to be largely that he’s too away with the fairies to cope without her for even a night, Burden doesn’t take it seriously, until Wexford connects it with an anonymous letter stating that a girl called Ann has been murdered. There’s no concrete evidence of murder, but the artist is adamant that his sister would have left him a note if she’d gone away for a few days, and there are other odd things about her absence that lead Wexford to dig deeper. Anita was well known to have a large selection of men friends, and it’s entirely possible that one of them has killed her out of jealousy. But even when he finds evidence that blood has indeed been shed, Wexford has trouble putting together the pieces to make a coherent picture. Too many alibis that may or may not be false, too many dangling loose ends, too many people holding clues who are frightened to tell the truth. And no corpse…

It’s a good read, with a lot of twists packed into a short novel, and a good eye for character detail. But I thought it perhaps a little too choppy as a result. And I did find the period mores oddly jarring, more so than with period mysteries from some other writers.

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87) James Goss: Torchwood: First Born

First of the trilogy of Miracle Day prequel novels, and set between Children of Earth and Miracle Day. Gwen and Rhys have taken to the hills after the birth of baby Anwen, using a selection of Torchwood safe houses to hide from people who are much too interested in the last surviving piece of Torchwood. The latest one is a caravan park in a remote village — and as they wryly note at one point, there had to be a reason why Ianto’s keyring collection included the key for a caravan in the middle of nowhere.

It’s just Gwen and Rhys in this one, but it’s still a solid Torchwood story about the use and misuse of alien technology that has fallen into human hands. As usual Goss does an excellent job with writing Rhys, and I enjoyed this one a lot.

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88) Agatha Christie — The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side [audiobook]

Audiobook abridged on 3 CDs, read by Frances Jeater. I read and reviewed the novel earlier this year, so was familiar with the plot, but I thought this abridgement would work well even for someone coming to the story afresh. It does lose some of the characterisation, particularly the minor characters, but retains all the detail needed to support whodunnit. I think where it might suffer a little is in the emotional impact when you first start to understand what the motive for the murder was.

Jeater does a reasonable job of reading, but I think I prefer other readers I’ve listened to in this series of audio abridgements.

http://www.librarything.com/work/15575/

89) Lois McMaster Bujold — Cryoburn

Fifteenth book in the Vorkosigan series, and mostly, but not entirely, “Miles happens to people”. I don’t think this book would do much for people who aren’t already familiar with the series, even though I think it’s a wonderful book for existing fans. it’s a competent enough caper novel, but if you come to it new to the series, it’s going to feel as if it’s not fleshed out. The richness comes from reader familiarity with the character of Miles, and what it’s taken him to get to this point in his life — he’s 39, 8 years on from the previous novel, married with children and getting tired of of being called away from home on the Emperor’s business for weeks at a time. While there’s still some action, the ostensible focus of this book is on economic shenanigans, of a sort Miles is well fitted to investigate because he’s a natural scam artist himself.

The real emotional punch comes in the last few pages. I knew what was coming, because I’d heard Bujold talking about it at a con a few years ago, before she’d started writing the book — but it still got me. The final 100 words made me tear up, and probably always will do when I read them again. And that is something that simply will not have the same effect on a new reader. This is not the book to start reading the Vorkosiverse with, but the one to come to after you’ve watched Miles grow to this point.

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90) Michael Swanwick — Stations of the Tide

Nicking the plot description from Wikipedia: the story of a bureaucrat with the Department of Technology Transfer who must descend to the surface of Miranda to hunt a magician who has smuggled proscribed technology past the orbital embargo, and bring him to justice before the world is transformed by the flood of the Jubilee Tides.

This won the Nebula in 1991, and I can see why. I’m sure if I’d read it in 1991 I would have thoroughly enjoyed it. But reading it for the first time in 2011, I find the psychedelic scene jumps merely irritating and tedious. I admire the world-building, which is painted in light strokes that don’t succumb to the temptation to explain all, and I liked the characterisation. But reading it was more work than I really cared for, for the amount of payoff I got.

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91) Alan Hunter — Gently in the Sun

Sixth in the Inspector George Gently series, and first published in 1959. An attractive young woman is found dead on the beach in the fishing village where she has being staying with her boss. The boss is one obvious suspect, particularly as he already has a criminal record. A young artist who had a crush on her is another. But Gently is disinclined to take the first obvious suspect without looking any further, even if both men are obviously lying. He needs to break both stories, not least to clear them if they’re lying out of fear about something else. His instincts are proven right when another, much older, murder is unearthed. Are the two killings related, and if so, how?

A solid mid-list mystery with some interesting characters, although Gently himself seems thinly drawn in this one.

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74) Alexander McCall Smith — Corduroy Mansions
Good-natured and enjoyable, but about two-thirds of the way through I found that it simply wasn’t holding my interest any longer. Logged 28 August.
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75) Reginald Hill — A Pinch of Snuff
Previously reviewed when I read it in 2006, at LiveJournal and at LibraryThing
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76) Colin Kapp — Patterns of Chaos
This is a solid piece of 1970s space opera, with a plot on the grand scale combined with some fascinating details to flesh out the universe, and some well-realised characters. Logged 3 September.
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77) Bernard Knight — the Witch Hunter
The eighth in a crime fiction series set in the twelfth century, following the cases of Crowner John, a knight who has been appointed as the first coroner of Devon by Richard the Lionheart. This was the first I’d read, and will be the last even though I have another in the TBR pile, because it was a Did Not Finish for me. Logged 3 September.
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78) Jacqueline Rayner — Doctor Who: The Stone Rose
Seventh of the tie-in novels to go with New Who, and the first featuring the Tenth Doctor. Logged 11 September.
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79) Pati Nagle – Pet Noir
Short fix-up novel about a genetically engineered cat whose creation is commissioned by the security chief of a large space station. The chief wants an undercover agent who’ll be overlooked by criminals who might be suspicious of humanoids. Reviewed for LibraryThing Early Reviewers on September 11.
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