It’s been a busy couple of weeks but I finally caught up with the thread – hence the review dump.
18) Educated – Tara Westover
I’m late to the party as always, as this memoir has been much reviewed here. It recounts the childhood into early adulthood of Tara, growing up in a large Mormon family in rural Idaho. It’s very matter of fact about the consequences of a dangerous combination of extreme religious beliefs, the rural landscape, and her father’s state of mind that put Tara and her siblings into constant danger, and the impact this had on her family, her elder brother in particular. Her education pulled her out of the cycle but was a hard-won victory with the deeply-sown beliefs hard to discard. Not an easy read, but a powerful story.
19) Desperate Undertaking – Lindsey Davis
A RWYO, ninth in the series of the Flavia Albia whodunnits set in ancient Rome. Someone bears a grudge against the theatrical community and determines to get their revenge by a series of publicly-discovered murders, each themed around a Greek or Roman tragedy. Albia is asked to investigate by an old friend of her father’s, but is her own family on the killers’ list to suffer a gruesome stage death?
The world of Falco/Flavia Albia is my happy place, though the murders were some of the most disturbing in the series. For long-term Falco readers it was rewarding to meet with old (and some very early) characters again, some in tragic circumstances, others in more upbeat encounters, and the set pieces were as enjoyable as ever.
20) Expert Witness – Dr HJ Walls
Another RWYO, this describes the early career of the author at Hendon and Bristol Laboratories in the fledging days of forensic science, from the late 1930s onwards. Published in 1971, this was surprisingly readable, apart from the chapter on the author’s visit to South America to investigate a case of arson, which made for uncomfortable reading – not the case itself, but his personal views. Overall though, it was an interesting insight into the early development of forensic science, and the final chapter on his thoughts of what the ‘future’ may hold for the discipline was fascinating and in some ways quite prescient.
Inspired by @PermanentTemporary ’s recent (perhaps not so recent, sorry!) insightful review of Erotic Vagrancy I have started on The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, which I was going to tackle last year in honour of his centenary. This is no small undertaking – the introduction alone is 30 pages of small print in a large hardback – so I’ll look to divide it up through the year interspersed with other books. However, I’ve been well and truly sucked in by what I’ve read so far, and I need to be careful not to get fully submerged into Sellers’ world, not a place I’d be comfortable spending much time by all accounts.