11. Elly Griffiths, The Dark Angel - in which Ruth and Kate go to Italy on a flimsy work pretext and Nelson and Cathbad follow them on an even flimsier earthquake-related pretext. There's pretty much no mystery in this at all - it's all gone a bit soapy and soppy, with much agonising about relationships and impending babies and adultery, and not a lot of archaeology going on. The denouement (in which we say goodbye to one of the recurring characters) manages to be both shocking and ridiculous. The bits in Italy were evocative, however, and the well drawn characters continue to be the best thing about this series.
12. Sally Rooney, Normal People. I know this has been much reviewed on here, and has been quite divisive. I can see why some people felt that it was just millennials moaning and not doing anything in particular, but I personally found it rather sweet and touching, and I ended up genuinely caring about Marianne and Connell. It reminded me of what it was like to be that age (and so callow and self-absorbed), and also what it was like to be an unsophisticated, provincial schoolgirl at Oxbridge (I didn't realise that Trinity College Dublin was so posh, but it was painfully familiar to me!). Not much happens, but that's not really the point - it's not so much a novel about plot as it is about relationships and interior life. It took me a while to get used to the rather flat, artless prose and the way that every look, gesture or action is described in minute detail - but when I did, I found the effect stunning, like a kind of heightened awareness that intensified the emotional impact of the writing.
Although the setting is millennial, I found the themes pretty universal: it's about how Connell and Marianne negotiate the boundaries between late teens and adulthood and between friendship and love; it's about how you find your authentic self, even when you suspect that you are a dislikeable weirdo and not a "normal" person, and how you can remain a "good" person despite this; and it's about the evergreen young adult themes of popularity, respect, abuse and belonging. I think that, because it is ostensibly such a simple novel, plainly written and with not much significant action, it leaves space to read into it whatever you want. It's not the greatest novel I've read, but it was both more accomplished and more touching than I'd expected.
13. Elly Griffiths, The Stone Circle - in which Ruth investigates a stone circle containing both a bronze age body and a skeleton that may or may not be the remains of a girl who went missing 35 years earlier. I felt this was a return to form - more archaeology, a more focused "mystery" and even a hint that the everlasting emotional turmoil for Ruth and Nelson and Michelle might be reaching some sort of resolution. I've probably been a bit harsh on these books (which are still very enjoyable) because I have dashed through the most recent five within a month, in order to catch up before I go to an author event with Elly Griffiths (which is tomorrow!). If I'd been reading one every 6 months, I'd probably have a lot more patience for the things that annoyed me. I do feel that Elly Griffiths' strength is in her drawing of characters (who are really nuanced and convincing), and wonder whether she's basically Joanna Trollope trying to do detective fiction?!
14. L C Tyler, The Herring Seller's Apprentice
I found this on my library app when I was looking for a quick, easy read - the cover and the names of other books in the series (all of which reference golden age crime classics, but with "herring" in the title) appealed . I assumed it would be a rather lightweight, undemanding "cosy" along the lines of Agatha Raisin or the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency or Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple books. I was delighted to be proved wrong! The book is short, but it manages to pack several red herrings, some enjoyable misdirection and much enjoyably tart narration into its pages, along with some fun (and rather meta) nods towards the conventions of crime writing. Ethelred Tressider (!) is a donnish, moderately successful author (under various pseudonyms, he writes the "Inspector Fairfax" crime series, historical crime novels set in the late 14th century, and romantic fiction set in the world of oral and maxillofacial surgery). Elsie Thirkettle (! again) is his bracingly forthright, chocolate-addicted literary agent, who "could calculate 12.5 per cent of any figure in nanoseconds", who gets embroiled in Ethelred's private life when his ex-wife Geraldine is found dead almost on his doorstep. Elsie in particular is a hugely enjoyable character, who reminds me a bit of Ruth Dudley Edwards' Baroness "Jack" Troutbeck (L C Tyler and RDE were both former civil servants, and I wonder if that gives you the acute powers of observation, attention to detail and jaundiced view of humanity that both authors share). There isn't a lot of sex or gore (or even action), but the narrative voices and characterisations are a delight, and I will definitely read more in this series.