OVERVIEW: Easterish reading

[feather_ghyll]

Or books I wanted to mention, but didn't want to write a full review about.



Rattle His Bones by Carola Dunn is the latest Daisy Dalrymple mystery, as I am reading them in order. Daisy is writing an article about the Natural History Museum, which of course means a murder takes place there and she’s in the thick of things, to Alec’s chagrin. I wasn’t too interested in the setting, although Dunn has fun with it. She also has fun with the reader knowing more than Daisy and Alec, and the two characters finding different things out. The preparations for their future life together develop as the question of when they’ll progress from an engagement to a marriage presses. It was fine, but not my favourite of the series.

The Changeling of Monte Lucio by Violet Needham is a sequel, of sorts, to The Winds of Windri – the main child characters are the great grandchildren of Black Sigismund and Phillippa of Windri. After his mother’s death, Phillip, the count of Monte Lucio is in a difficult position. He’s under age, his uncle, who is now in charge is a weak man, Phillip is not popular in the court or among the populace, and there’s a (not entirely convincing) conspiracy against him. Phillip, the changeling of the title, is a difficult character to like – the most interesting thing about him is his spiritual struggle over what to do next. The book is an odd one, borrowing from chivalry and adult historical adventures but having children act it out. The distaff side plays a glancing role. Although it’s loosely set when the Protestant Reformation was hitting Europe, it’s obviously located in made-up lands, which adds another layer of strangeness. (I think the shine is wearing off with Needham for me.)

I’m grumpy, because I definitely paid too much for my copy of The Girls of Mackland Court by May Wynne. Two new girls, Bunty and Ninette, arrive at the school and the question of who their friends will be is a big one, because although they all break bounds, their motives for doing so mean the mistresses must handle them differently. Ninette is a wilful character, behaving horribly to Bunty and mainly motivated by sheer perversity, a state echoed by a local girl called Pandie that Bunty and her ‘comrades’ keep coming across. Pandie has been abused and neglected by her family, and won’t let anyone help her until the entirely predictable ending, when Bunty’s father’s financial woes are cleared up, two mistresses get engaged and Ninette becomes Bunty’s friend.

Wynne overuses the ellipsis as a punctuation mark, which helped to make it feel like a breathless read – that and the fact that she left out quite basic, but useful information, about the set-up of the school to orient the reader.