OVERVIEW: Christmas reading

[feather_ghyll]

Shirley Flight in the Rajah’s Daughter: Judith Dale

Said Rajah is an evil hypocritical bully, so the author is allowed to call his beliefs backward without tackling the fact that some of them were based on religion (I’m not saying I agree with them) or that the UK’s history with the country might be complicated. It was mentioned in passing, in that one character pointed out that the West’s progress didn’t mean that it hadn’t lost some valuable things, but, really, there was no time for developing that in an adventure story in an exotic location for the British equivalent of Vicki Barr for young girls to drool over in the middle of the twentieth century. If I felt that even Bessie Marchant would have wrung more out of certain set ups, that was also beside the point. What is of note is that Shirley was working with her chum Wnedy Moreland - who came across as a paradoxical collection of traits - apparently the duo don’t work together often in the series. I assume that because it was pointed out in the book. I wouldn’t know as I manage to buy doublers of Shirley Flight books, because they erase themselves from my brain as soon as I read them (and no, I don’t watch Pan Am).


Spotlight: Patricia Wentworth

For me, the trick to enjoying Patricia Wentworth is to leave a good while between books, because there is so much similarity between them. Here a good-hearted ingénue is brought face to face with a sinister figure from her past. He is currently a blackmailer, and when he is murdered at his country home, Miss Silver, Frank Abbott and Chief Superintendant Lamb have a surfeit of suspects. When one of them decides to blackmail a murderer (SHORTLY AFTER THEY COMMITED MURDER!) the case blows wide open. I particularly enjoyed the romantic hero in this book - he was a bit Heyerish, although Wentworth doesn’t have Heyer’s sharp wit and isn’t as interested in characters who use distancing techniques from the unpleasantness of murder. Despite the title, theatricality isn’t a big part of the story.


(Thunderbirds)Lady Penelope: The Albanian Affair: John Theydon

Reading the 1960s guess at the twenty-first century in the twenty-first century is fun! I enjoyed rereading this far more than I thought I would – I was surprised to discover it while rummaging a collection of my books – perhaps because of Lady Penelope and Parker’s sang-froid. Despite all her gadgets, she is NOT to be confused with Batman, you understand.

I also read The School on the Loch by Angela Brazil, Class by Jane Beaton and Skate School – Ice Princess by Kay Woodward. Fuller reviews of those books will follow soonish.