His Bloody Project: Documents relating to the case of Roderick Macrae by Graeme Macrae Burnet

 
I really enjoyed this gripping account of notorious Victorian murders pieced together by the accused's descendant.
It had very strong characters, a great narrative, plus an intriguing why-done-it - which still having finished it makes me think! 
I liked how each section of the novel is presented as a nonfictional document (i.e., memoir, testimony, a report on trial proceedings, etc.) - this makes it seem
convincing. The place it is set in is definitely real. James Bruce Thomson, one of the characters, is real. The writing is convincingly real. I'm pretty sure it is a fabrication, but the writing is good enough to leave a lingering doubt!
I enjoyed the element of unreliability that the reader must always bear in mind while developing his or her ideas and conclusions about the narrative and the characters.

The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot Series Book 2) by Agatha Christie

A delightful period mystery. Lots of red herrings. All the clues right there before the reader. Twists and double-twists and even, can it be, a third twist right at the end.
However, I didn't enjoy it as much as others I read by her - but this is only the third book she wrote so she may have still be finding her style! 

The Third Man and The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene

 

This book contains 2 stories: The first is about a Brit who is invited to post-war Vienna by a friend, only to discover that said friend is dead and may have been involved in a rather nasty racket. The Third Man is unlike other Greene books. As Greene himself points out in the preface, 'it was never written to be read but only to be seen', meaning that while it's not exactly a film script, The Third Man was written to be turned into one, and it shows - the story is light on characterisation and heavy on descriptions of actions and situations.

The second, much shorter story in the book, 'The Fallen Idol', this is a tragedy about an innocent child who gets caught up in the nasty games adults play and ends up accidentally handing his best friend over to the police. It has great characters, some menace, several 'Oh, no!' moments and an abrupt but effective ending.

Both stories are beautifully written with not a word wasted, and both are very bleak in different ways

Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene

I really enjoyed this comic story which is the only book that Greene ever wrote for the fun of it. It tells the story of a middle aged man and his aunt's travels and the various places they pass through. It's not a travelogue, so there are no tourist brochure style descriptions – instead, it's a vague, impressionistic picture of the process of travelling and the places passed by as seen through Henry's untutored, and often uninterested, eye.  

I loved the aunt's character because she was brass, quite coarse, a bit vulgar and rather naughty! "I was very fond of Wordsworth while he lasted, but my emotions are not as strong as they once were. I can support his absence, though I may regret him for a while tonight. His knackers were superb."

He covers a lot of serious  topics with this  book - prostitution, the Nazi regime and how WWII changed the world, the plight of third world countries and even manages to swing in some commentary on the apartheid in South Africa along with how the pill had, rightly or wrongly, changed women’s sexual awakening and responsibility as well as Catholicism. However, at times this left story feeling sluggish.

 

Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec

 

The book is set in an apartment block in the XVIIth arrondissement of Paris where, chapter by chapter, room by room, an extraordinary rich cast of characters is revealed in a series of tales that are bizarre, unlikely, moving, funny, or (sometimes) quite ordinary stories based on the people, objects or paintings in the room. . 11 rue Simon-Crubellier has been frozen at the instant in time when Bartlebooth dies where people are frozen in different apartments, on the stairs, and in the cellars, some rooms are vacant. Each chapter is set in each room (thus, the more rooms an apartment has the more chapters are devoted to it). In each room we learn about the residents of the room, or the past residents of the room, or about someone they have come into contact with. The idea of failure is a common theme.


 

Different Class by Joanne Harris

This is a a crime novel that is refreshingly original. I didn't get the who-did-it right!

It is set in an old private boys school, St Oswald's in North Yorkshire, and written from the two main characters perspectives, from around 1981 to 2005, the strangely odd but kind Latin Master and a disturbed 14 year old boy writing in his diary to his invisible friend, Mousey. There is also a collection of intriguing characters.

The story is told by Roy and another narrator and seamlessly switches between the present and the past.

Joanne Harris had written another novel set at St Oswalds - Gentlemen and Player, so I have added that to my wishlist.

The Story of the Lost Child (Neapolitan Novel book 4) by Elena Ferrante.

I read this, the fourth story of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet, in 2 days because I couldn't wait to find out what had happened to all the characters.It is quite a sad book without moving you to tears. It leaves a lot for you to think about after.

I loved the way the character'slives are so well-drawn, their emotions and experiences are so real, and the history and neighborhoods of Italy are so well-described that this book feels more like an autobiography than a novel

It feels almost Tolstion in the number of characters who keep cropping up.


Each of the four volumes has an established theme: the development of resentment and friendship in childhood, the limitations of social boundaries, the compromises and confinements of marriage, and the establishment of regrets in old age. 

I would like to read another by her.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

This is the story of a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

I liked the beautiful imagery. Both in the literal sense - the physical world of 1940s Paris/Germany - and the metaphorical. It's woven with scientific and philosophical references to light, to seeing and not seeing, and the differences between the hearing sense and the seeing sense.


I did find the flipping back and forth between different time periods a little confusing.

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Neapolitan Novels Book 3) by Elena Ferrante

 

This is the third book in the series... it felt like the middle, not a stand alone book.

I enjoyed reading about feminism and politics, through the story, we get a course in the riots and protests that occurred in the 1960s and '70s as communists fought fascists.

I liked the way the plot referenced incidents that had happened in the previous book.

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

This has been recently dramatised on the BEEB - I didn't really enjoy the TV adaptation, I much preferred the book (although it is not my favourite Christie!)


IT is not a usual Christie mystery, more a John Buchan style ripping yarn with light-weight espionage and a heavy emphasis on adventure. I suppose a grown up famous 5.

There are many twists and turns. The start is a bit slow but I did enjoy the end!