Every now and then I seem to have the need to read a detective novel, and Michael Connelly often hits the spot. This book has its hero, retired detective Harry Bosch, as its narrator. This slightly hard-boiled character finds an old unsolved case has got under his skin, but in post 9/11 America, he finds himself in serious conflict with the FBI who warn him off in no uncertain terms. By the end, so many disparate threads had been introduced I had a job keeping up, and it seemd to have as many special effects as a James Bond movie. A good enough read, but a book I was happy enough to come to the end of.
I normally enjoy a good PG Wodehouse, especially if Bertie Wooster and Jeeves are involved. Blandings Castle and That Pig don't get me so involved. And so it proved this time. I got thoroughly muddled with all the characters coming and going, and by the end, dodn't much care. I'll always enjoy a Wodehouse turn of phrase, but this time, it simply wasn't enough.
This is an exploration of McGahern's childhood in rural Ireland in the 1940's and 50's. He deeply loved his mother who died of cancer when he was still very young. Sent with his siblings to live with his authoritative father in police barracks (his father and mother rarely lived together) the children learn to endure cruelty and unpredictabilty and to rely entirely on each other for their emotional development. McGahern discovered books through the libarary of a sympathetic local priest, and through his education, gradually breaks free of the extraordinary volatile father who endeavours to control his life and that of his sisters and brother. I've not yet read any other books by McGahern. I will, to experience again his heartfelt, compelling, evocative writing.
Set in Amsterdam, the story involves 'a looted painting, a secret code, a deadly pursuit....'. The 17th century painting which exerts such a hold over the two principal protagonists, a young art researcher Ruth, and Lydia, an extremely elderly claimant of the picture, turns out to have a value beyond its qualities as a somewhat mediocre painting, and so a racy mystery story unfolds.
Lydia is not the only one to want the painting. We time-travel from 17th century Amsterdam, through the Nazi-occupied town, to the modern city as the plot develops. Often complicated, sometimes baffling, the plot was less important to me than the evocations of Amsterdam itself in its various guises. I enjoyed the descriptions of the city and those who lived there and contributed to the story: Ruth and Lydia in particular, but also some of the 'bit parts' - Ruth's colleague Myles, her father, even the cat, Principessa. The plotting at the end of the story seems somewhat sensationalist and rushed, but I was happy to keep reading for the pleasure of continuing to get to know Amsterdam itself. The book was in any case, quite a page-turner.
I've read all the Matthew Shardlake books now: all in the wrong order, but it doesn't matter. I feel as if I know my way round Tudor London, and have a bit of a feel for the sounds and smells of the streets, and the religious and political turmoil that was a part of everyday life then.
This is a complex two-pronged tale, beginning with a young girl falsely accused of murder, and soon involving Shardlake in another apparently unrelated all-but impossible mission to uncover the secret behind the mysterious Greek Fire, at the behest of Thomas Cromwell.
This is the book where we meet Barak, the coarse yet astute and intelligent young man whom Cromwell provides as his assistant: herbalist Guy, an ex-monk whom we met in the first book has more than a bit-part to play, and is in many ways the voice of Shardlake's conscience. Fast paced, intelligently and intricately plotted, this is a novel that is impossible to put down.
