Beowulf

 Beowulf
Author Unknown
Pages: 213
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I first read Beowulf in college using a side by side translation of the Old English. This modern translation tells the story well, but a touch of the poetic cadence is lost. Still, it is always a pleasure to read this epic tale of Grendel, his mother and the knight, Beowulf.

A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller

A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a charming YA historical novel, set in London, 1909. It has an attention-grabbing first chapter and is full of old-fashioned British rebelliousness. The story focuses on the suffragettes who fought for women’s rights.

Today, we still talk about inequality for women. This novel puts it into perspective how far we have come, while reminding us that we still haven’t arrived, and people have to continue to fight for the things they believe in, even at the risk of being disliked, disrespected, or misunderstood.

Pages: 448

The woman from Paris, a novel by Santa Montefiore

I picked up this book solely because it had Paris in the title and had a blurb on the cover by the creator of Downtown Abbey!  It's a light bit of fluff that has nothing to do with Paris. Instead it's about a British country estate and its family. The book opens with the funeral of the current Lord Frampton. He died unexpectedly while skiing in Switzerland and the family is struggling to come to terms with his early death. His illegitimate daughter crashes the funeral and shakes the family out of their grief.  Is she really his daughter or just plotting to get her hands on a piece of the estate? Total escape reading. 392 pages.

Gone to Ground by John Harvey

A clever murder mystery built around two possible premises:  Was Stephen Bryan, a gay academic, murdered in some lover's quarrel, or was it somehow connected to the book Bryan was researching about a movie starlet who died in a car accident that some think may have been suicide?  The two detectives handling the case, Will Grayson and his partner, Helen Walker, make a believable, interesting pair.  Sometimes the threads of the story seem a bit disjointed, but it does all come together in the end. The story is convincingly set in a small city in England. A good read. 387 pages.

Darkness & Light by John Harvey

This mystery novel is part of Frank Elder series, set in modern day England.  This is the first one I've read, but several have preceded this one.  In this story, Frank, now retired, is called on by his ex-wife to help look into the disappearance of a friend's sister.  Of course, it turns out to be murder, and with connections to an unsolved case from Frank's past.  Stylishly written, there are enough plot twists to keep it moving briskly along, but the conclusion is not all that surprising.  The parts about Frank coming to terms with reconnecting with his family are less successful, but I think I'll try to find some of the earlier books in the series. 350 pages

Standing In Another Man's Grave / Ian Rankin

John Rebus is back, this time in a civilian capacity assigned to the cold case unit.  He happens to catch a cold case inquiry from a woman whose daughter went missing years before, and who now feels other missing person cases are related.  Rebus doggedly pursues leads in his usual fashion of using official and unofficial channels, and once again gets results.  It is hard to describe how compelling Rankin makes his protagonist, suffice it to say shouts of delight arose worldwide when Rebus came out of retirement.  Highly recommended - start with earlier work for the best background.  388. p.

Skeleton Hill / Peter Lovesey

Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond is back, this time piecing together the murders of two people, decades apart.  A human bone is unearthed by reenactors of a Civil War on a large public green outside of Bath, England.  They rebury the bone, but one goes back later to investigate the find and ultimately pays with his life for his actions.  Are the two deaths linked somehow? A varied, and very British, cast of characters leads DS Diamond down a couple of different paths before the clues click in to place.  Very satisfying mystery, and for once, DS Diamond gets his reward. 326 p.

Death of Kings, by Bernard Cornwell

I've enjoyed following this series that tells the tale of the beginnings of Saxon England through the eyes of Lord Uhtred, a Viking warrior who comes to serve King Alfred the Great.  This story, the sixth in the series, begins in 899 A.D., the year of Alfred's death. King Alfred's death takes place at the beginning of this story, and so we follow Lord Uhtred, now a middle-aged warrior, as he defends the fledgling England from invading Danes and other rivals for the throne, which has been awarded to Alfred's son, Edward. Uhtred is a fun character, all man and thoroughly pagan, which makes his devotion to Alfred, the Christian, very unusual.  The stories are filled with lots of gritty battles, but are also solidly steeped in the political intrigues of the day.  Uhtred, the Danish pagan, also allows Cornwell to show the contrast between the beliefs of the Danes and the Christian views, at times to humorous effect.  Cornwell is a very convincing writer, and brings this period to life.  320 pages

In the Mayor's Parlour by J.S. Fletcher

As I have long enjoyed the British mystery genre, I find my Kindle a marvelous tool for freely procuring many books from the Golden Age of detective fiction through sources like Project Gutenberg.  In the Mayor's Parlour by J.S. Fletcher was published prior to 1923 and is thus solidly in the public domain.  Set in the imaginary ancient English village of Hathelsborough, I found it a delightful and easy read.  The main character, known only to us as 'Mr. Brent' comes to the village to meet his uncle only to find that he has just been murdered in his office.  Brent sets to trying to find his uncle's killer and ends up buying a home in the village, falling in love with the niece of the shadowy and powerful Simon Crood, and running for town council.  The plot twists and turns were many, but also quite well thought out.  The two main points of complaint were the not entirely clear motives of the person who was ultimately revealed to be the murderer and that much of the investigative action happened outside of the purview of our main character.  We instead, gain second hand knowledge of the police superintendent's long and thorough investigations during several inquests and conversations with Mr. Brent.  All in all, a satisfying read, perhaps because I loved the setting so much.
291 p.