What I've been reading

Pigeon Pie
by Nancy Mitford

narrated by Rosalind Ayres

"When the highly imaginative Lady Sophia Garfield discovers a nest of very real German spies in her home, nobody believes her. With her maid murdered and her beloved bulldog held hostage, she sets out alone to gain proof and, with time out for tea at the Ritz, save Britain."

An early work, and it shows, but still pleasant enough and written at a time like no other - war has been declared and the nation is bracing itself, but nothing much has happened yet. Actually, now that I think about it, perhaps there are comparisons to be drawn with other times...

Whose Body
by Dorothy L. Sayers

narrated by B. J. Harrison

"Lord Peter Wimsey investigates the sudden appearance of a naked body in the bath of an architect at the same time a noted financier goes missing under strange circumstances. As the case progresses it becomes clear that the two events are linked in some way."

I know the story quite well, which is useful in spotting the clues leading to the murderer left along the way. I'm not sure whether the repeated allusions to the missing financier being a Jew is just a feature of the story or casual anti-Semitism. Times and attitudes have changed within my lifetime, let alone the hundred years since this was published.

A Woman of No Importance
by Sonia Purnell

narrated by Juliet Stevenson

"The remarkable double life of an American-turned-British spy, Virginia Hall, a woman from Maryland who, determined to overcome a physical disability that threatened to define her life, successfully infiltrated Vichy France, providing crucial intelligence and logistics for the mounting French Resistance and, later, Allied troops."

I wasn't aware of this formidable woman who had lost most of a leg in her twenties when she tripped and accidentally shot herself while out hunting. Using a prosthetic leg and reserves of strength that are hard to imagine, she achieved astonishing results working with the French Resistance while continually facing discrimination at almost every level of command. I kept expecting things to go wrong and was always anticipating the betrayal that led to capture, torture and death, but she survived the war and returned to the USA. She was recruited by the newly formed CIA, only to face further discrimination at work after the war.

The Beast Must Die
by Nicholas Blake

narrated by Kris Dyer

"Respected crime writer Frank Cairns plots the perfect murder - a murder that he himself will commit. Cairns intends to murder the hit-and-run driver who killed his young son, but when his intended victim is found dead and Cairns becomes the prime suspect, the author insists that he has been framed."

Truly appalling narration - he seems to be trying to portray the protagonist as some sort of James Bond villain played by Gyles Brandreth, with a high nasal voice and ominous pauses... before... the end... of sentences. It's a great shame, because at last I've found an author who writes detective fiction that I can follow - not too many people, each easily distinguished and with realistic characteristics, and an outcome where enough clues were left that the astute reader could work some of them out before the end. Nicholas Blake is the pen name for Cecil Day-Lewis, ex-Poet Laureate, so there's some pedigree there. But his other books on Audible are all narrated by the same person, so I'll have to give them a miss.

Quicksilver
by Neal Stephensen

"A novel of history, adventure, science, invention, sex, absurdity, piracy, madness, death and alchemy that sweeps across continents and decades, upending kings, armies, religious beliefs and all expectations. It brings a remarkable age and its momentous events to vivid life in an historical epic populated by Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton, William of Orange, Benjamin Franklin and King Louis XIV."

The friend who lent me this book interestingly mentioned that he read it as a historian but expected that I would read it as a scientist, which turned out to be quite true. It is very long indeed and not very exciting at all, but written well enough to keep me reading. It does give some sense of the potential of science (Natural Philosophy) at a time when there were so many things observed but not understood in astronomy, chemistry, biology, physics, optics... Even so, I don't think I can be bothered to attempt the other two of the trilogy. Too long, not enough action.

Blue Shoes and Happiness
by Alexander McCall Smith

"A new and rather too brusque advice columnist is appearing in the local paper. Then, a cobra is found in the offices of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Recently, the Mokolodi Game Preserve manager feels an infectious fear spreading among his workers, and a local doctor may be falsifying blood pressure readings."

Least satisfying so far, perhaps he'd been churning out the little books for a bit too long. Still very evocative of the place, and probably romanticises Botswana beyond what is reasonable, but I suddenly found myself imagining the characters on television. That's probably what he was aiming for, and this is the last of the series that I actually bought.