Yes, it is a Wednesday reading post

Currently on the go

J D Robb, Celebrity in Death (2012) is at the top of the heap of things I am, more or less, currently reading. I haven't got much forrader with the sex and Anglicans book simply because I haven't had any of the time that I use for that sort of 'srs-book-to-review' reading.

As ongoing e-read, I've picked up And All The Stars again, and getting much more into it, because I was just being so brought down by the fact that I am really not that far into Battle to the Weak, things have already gone wrong quite a lot, and there is a general 'this is not going to end well' vibe - Our Hero has emigrated to Canada after quarreling with his family, including the childless uncle who was very likely going to make him his heir, over his loved one, the daughter of their bitterly hated enemy/neighbour. We do not feel that he is going to return very shortly having made a fortune in the Gold Rush. Plus, the flakiness of the well-meaning but fairly dim and gullible other neighbour who is acting as the lovers' mail-drop is surely going to lead to all sorts of Hardy-esque complications. At least in Here Are Lovers there was a subsidiary romance plot that actually went well.

Just Read

It's been pretty much murder, murder all the way: Marcia Muller's City of Whispers, not, I thought, the strongest of the McCones. Two of Susan Dunlap's Darcy Lott mysteries: A Single Eye (2008) and Hungry Ghosts (2009) - some while ago I'd been reading some non-fiction about shenanigans in US Buddhist groups, and asked whether anyone had ever set a mystery among Buddhists. Well, Dunlap has, and the first one is very much about intra-Buddhist goings on at a meditation retreat, although the second just has a body found in the temple and the priest under suspicion. So far they are a bit denser and less pacey than her earlier work though I thought Hungry Ghosts picked up speed a bit more. Also one of Elaine Viets' 'Dead End Job' mysteries: Killer Cuts (2010).

Oh yes, and I finished Smile or Die, which was probably best read in the snippets I did, rather than straight through.

What next

Well, I now have a plethora of mysteries, having got in some cases several books behind, and have a tbr stack of Margaret Maron, (more) Elaine Viets, Dana Stabenow, another Susan Dunlap, a Hazel Holt, and a Monica Ferris. Not sure exactly where I shall plunge in next.

100 London things: 97

Another bit of Hampstead Heath I haven't yet done, and I was in two minds about this, because it's currently closed for refurbishment, but I thought I'd flag it up nonetheless. Also, the cafe is still open should you wish for refreshment before or after or while contemplating committing adultery somewhere in the vicinity.

The beautifully sited Kenwood House.

The glorious gardens, designed by Repton and a considerable contrast to the rest of the Heath, are still open to the visitor, but the house itself, with its spectacular art collections, not until the autumn.

Word on Wikipedia is that the summer open-air concerts, which were stopped due to neighbour protests, were going to be resumed, but as the link about this 404s, not sure that they have actually been revivied