Wednesday saw dragonflies again

[oursin]

What I read

Well, there was a continuation of the slight Sayers binge with In the Teeth of the Evidence (1939) and The Nine Tailors (1934) (which somehow was omitted from recent re-reads of the novels - Wimsey off his usual patch and without most of his posse except for Bunter). I suppose it does rather fit with the short stories as those lean rather heavily into Unusual Methods and Strange Crimes*, so Death by [Massive Spoiler] isn't much of an outlier.

*(Also at least she got the 'hawkshaw fakes their own death for investigational purposes' over with in a short rather than giving us a whole bloody novel.)

I then had a bit of a 'what do tiggers eat' phase and a spot of sortes-ereader, and started Micaiah Johnson, The Space Between Worlds (2020), which I'm not sure when and how I acquired - did somebody recommend it? - anyway, kept me reading, pretty good even if I had some questions. I see that there is in fact a sequel that came out recently - has anyone read it?

What I'm reading

Well, I did read on a bit further in They Winter Abroad but it's not exactly compelling, and I am somebody who is not averse to This Kind of Thing in general principle, I feel White is just not quite hitting the mark. Query: was he, before he finally hit his mark, trying out various modes - the mystery/thriller in Darkness at Pemberley, the Huxleyesque novel of conversation/manners here - without actually getting them quite right?

Currently on the go is Sherry Thomas, A Ruse of Shadows (Lady Sherlock, #8) and it begins by doing a lot of things that are not total turnoffs for me but not on my Most Favourite Thing list. Quite apart from the immense amount of accumulated Back Story, we have at least two ongoing antagonists, and I realise I do not really care for that thing where our series protag/s have recurring antagonist, who really has to be supervillain material in order to manage to evade our Hero/ine. I will give leeway for spy thrillers because e.g. Feramontov in Cory's Fedora series has a whole organisation behind him. But I really mark down the 87th Precinct episodes that feature The Deaf Man, ditto I went rather cold on Julie Smith's Skip Langdon mysteries when she acquired A Nemesis. And in general, I do not ever think it is a good sign in a mystery when I find myself muttering 'the chalice from the palace holds the pellet with the poison -- no no, the flagon with the dragon holds the pellet with the poison'....

Up Next

Well, happy day, there is a new Vivien Shaw Greta von Helsing novella, calloo-callay, and I have various other things I have lately taken a punt on. Also I see that Julie Smith has lately returned to writing mysteries after a hiatus...

Comments

[bibliofile]

I read the Micaiah Johnson when it came out, and liked it. Pretty good first novel. I think I even persuaded a book group to discuss it. I haven't got to the new one, yet. (I think Johnson may be on Bsky? which reminded me of those books recently.)

I've asked that the library system acquire the new Vivian Shaw novella, but the city is having a budget crunch and I don't know if the library will go for something that's only in ebook. (See also greater expense for ebooks sold to libraries.)

Yeah, supervillain nemeses seem awfully implausible. And I'm more wary of spy-fantasy since learning that some people take that shit seriously (omg wtf no). Nemesis done right: Rebus's frenemy Ger the gangster.

[antisoppist]

The vessel with the pestle holds the pellet with the poison!
(Just because no-one ever shows it any more so my children don't know what I'm on about when I say this)

[jesuswasbatman]

I didn't mind the recurring villain in the Skip novels, because he seemed depressingly plausible to me (and given more recent events, even more so). I was glad to see Smith was writing again, because I'd had a feeling that she'd stopped writing out of trauma over Hurricane Katrina.