Rushing Through the Month and Through Three Books

 Two thirds of January gone already and I'm very much enjoying the hibernation. I've either been at home or walking in the village and have only left home by car for the exercise group, shopping and then swimming.

Finally, after 3 months, I got back to the swimming pool. They'd reintroduced a public swimming session time that was available this time last year but not in the Autumn term and was OK for me - not too early, not to late and not when I want to be eating my lunch! I managed 30 minutes  slow swimming with only a few stops to get my breath. Not too bad, considering. Freezing cold going out of the pool building though - on a minus degree morning.

I started reading the first new library book on Thursday evening and by Monday evening I'd finished three...............one was a novella but even so that's a bit speedy and means I'll run out of library books way before February's van visit.

First to be finished was 'The Port of London Murders' by Josephine Bell. This is a British Library Crime Classic first published in 1938. Unusually for 'Golden Age' crime this isn't set in a locked room in a posh country house with an amateur detective but in the slums of London's Dockland and as such it is real social history document.

The story starts with the late arrival to the docks of the San Angelo a British owned boat with a mixed cargo from the East and the discussion of the worried shipping agent on the phone . Then we are taken to a party of bright young things drinking and dancing late into the night and it starts to feel a bit complicated because the next chapter is about some of the boatmen and an accident to one of the young boys living by the river and then to the people living in one of the slum houses waiting to be demolished.

I was beginning to feel a bit lost with all the different parts to the story that didn't seem to link together but persevered as it is very well written.

As the story moves on it gradually ties together all the different people and the reasons for some very strange things that had been washed overboard and ends up being a very clever story.

Second book was this quick read, because it goes at such a fast pace it has to be read quickly to keep up!

I'd read a couple of books in this series before and there are many, many more but I'd forgotten they are a bit too unbelievable and very violent.

This story has forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod travelling to the Isle of Skye after the discovery of a decomposing foot, caught in a fisherman's net. But straight away the Ministry of Defence want the find kept secret.

I've reserved another to try but they are not my favourite sort of crime stories and it might be my last.

And finally the novella. This must have been the last book Anne Perry wrote before she died in 2023. She had been writing these Christmas novellas for many years and they are usually a good short read. They are all set in the Victorian period and often feature characters from her other Victorian series.

When Mariah Ellison arrives to visit her friend Sadie Alsop for Christmas- she has been invited and even sent the train time - she finds Sadie has disappeared and her husband doesn't seem bothered and refuses to let Mariah stay. She eventually finds another friend to stay with and then starts searching. But it seems Sadie has lots of secrets and so do many of the other people in the village.

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If you've been watching Vera on TV the last two Sundays make the most of tomorrows episode as according to the Radio Times it might be the last. Brenda Blethyn is 77 and has said she may not make anymore. Although who knows. They carried on making Taggert after Marc McManus died, and Morse turned into Lewis after John Thaw retired, so anything's possible.

And mentioning the Radio Times, the new edition has 50 questions taken from University Challenge, Mastermind, Only Connect and QI. I'll be having a go at them during the week - wonder how many I'll answer - probably not a lot!

Have a good weekend

I'll be back Monday

Sue