The one about murder and the lavatory attendant

If you can cope with the setting being a book pulping facility - alternating with a public lavatory - then you will love this book, The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent (*****). Translated from French this novella left me smiling - and wanting to read more. That's the only problem - well, apart from the book pulping - it ends just when you want it to go on and on.

About the power of words.

Thus Was Adonis Murdered, by Sarah Caudwell, (***) was first published in 1981 but it doesn't feel dated. Maybe that's due to the unusual style in which it's written where the action is relayed via letters and solved at a distance by logic.

It took me a while to get into the style but I did enjoy it and came nowhere near resolving it so it's a good job the woman accused wasn't relying on me to come to her rescue.

And it's not at all nasty as some murders are I believe. (I should perhaps say some murder stories.)


I also read Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson (***) and the very seasonal The Christmas Train by David Baldacci (****). The latter Husband had borrowed from the library and when he finished it suggested I might enjoy it. I've not read any of Baldacci's novels before and, apparently, this is not a typical, but it was very enjoyable and quick to read.