Updating my recent quick reads after the mastodontic Wolf Hall.
8 No More Dying Then Ruth Rendell.
Very very dated and of its time, (unlike PD James's of the same era, which somehow tap more into the timelessless of human folly) I finished it last week and already can't remember the ending. Wexford himself was quite peripheral. The whole thing really centred on the (in this book) utterly loathsome Burden and his dead wife necessitating obviously that her sister move in to look after the kids and cook his dinners. She's portrayed as a total drip (seeming to presume that as he's taken her on as his skivvy he's going to marry her) and made me crosser than a cross thing. The whole thing was more reminiscent of relationships in the 40s and 50s instead of the early 70s. One of the other female characters is a hippy (per-lease) and therefore obviously a trollop, and Burden obviously wants to fuck her (what with his wife barely being cold in the grave and him being a man) and at the same time loathing himself because she's a trollop.
The ending, which I can't remember, was "rushed and improbable" according to my notes.
Disclaimer: I love Ruth Rendell, I love Wexford, I love Barbara Vine, I love the 70s. I love police procedurals. This was, however, atrociously bad.
9 Snow John Banville.
Rural Ireland. Country houses. Paedo priests. What's not to like. Late to this writer, will definitely read more as it's so much more than a police procedural. The James Joyce influence is evident. (In a "the Dead" way not in a wtf Molly Bloom kind of way. )
10 Career of Evil Robert Galbraith.
Well. As I said upthread, I went back after swearing never to after Silkworm. This was better. It was still a quick (despite the lack of editing) easy read. I'll say it again: great storyteller ( if we're talking HP) but a very very mediocre writer. And there is a difference. And that's OK. The hill I'll die on is that if we didn't know who Robert Galbraith was then Strike would be just another murder series. My complaints:
The stereotyping:
women aged 60 have "tightly permed hair", "pinched faces" wear "pinnies"and are afraid to open their doors (Mumsnetters clearly then) It was like tumbling back into Ruth Rendell c1971. I'm 58 this year and just bought some Skagen earrings, IT CC cream and use Tret. I have long blonde hair and am currently listening to my spotify playlist.
an elderly couple on the train "dither" and block Strike's way. (I presume they're in their 50s) Obviously, as they're so "elderly" they are also "chattering" inanely. In Barrow the "nosy" woman has a tartan shopping trolley and grey hair. Of course she does.
A family from "the West Country" (JK helps us out here by making them talk like Hagrid and Long John Silver's lovechildren- oooh arrrrrrr m'luvver) are so thrilled, yet bewildered at finding themselves in London they have to stare obsessively at everything and everybody. She describes them as "meerkats" who are "terrified of missing their tube station" (Again, I repeat: she can't write accents, and she should stop trying. At best she's ridiculous, at worst, offensive)
The moment you realise she has no editor, and doesn't even seem to plan before she writes came when Robin a propos of absolutely fuck all says to Strike "ooooh, what if the murderer has had a sex change" (or words to that effect) Oh! thinks I, so this is the one that caused all the kerfuffle from the TRA! But no! She was obviously thinking about it, especially as one of the cardboard cut out women characters was from a distance mistaken for a man and (obviously) had meaty tattooed forearms.
The characters.
Strike is loathsome. Awful man. Spoiled, precious. No sympathy whatsoever. Is twat. I don't care he had a difficult upbringing (his upbringing is one of the most unrealistic upbringings ever written IMO) He's just too much. The rock star family, the war hero amputation thing, the living in poverty now.
Robin's family. Phew! At least they're posh northerners so we aren't treated to ferrets and flat caps and Robin's Mum talking like Annie Sugden.
The Plot.
Nothing new under the sun- prostitutes, paedophiles, so far so Prime Suspect. Where I went "oh per-lease" is the likelihood of Strike immediately coming up with 3 possible perps, ALL OF WHOM by the end have been thoroughly investigated and sorted out by R&C for many and varied horrific crimes.
The Language
I said upthread, she likes the word "whom" like that dreadful May woman likes "liminal". We get it Jo, you taught English, you know what "whom" is. It just jars when it's coming 10 times a page and in the same sentence as the "oooo arrrr " thick people from the south -west etc.
And breathe.....all of this being said, I raced through it. I've spotted I've got the next one already on Kindle 99ps and almost started it straightaway. Dunno. It's a bit like having to eat the whole box of milk tray and then hating yourself.
Am now on Hamnet (late to every party, and proudly so)