What I'm reading

I have started When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson. I was in need of something light, but non-trivial and thought that this would fit the bill. I have read the other 3 in the series, so I look forward to this one. Here is the blurb:

In rural Devon, six-year-old Joanna Mason witnesses an appalling crime. Thirty years later the man convicted of the crime is released from prison. In Edinburgh, sixteen-year-old Reggie works as a nanny for a G.P. But Dr Hunter has gone missing and Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried.Across town, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is also looking for a missing person, unaware that hurtling towards her is an old friend -- Jackson Brodie -- himself on a journey that becomes fatally interrupted.

Empty Cradles - by Margaret Humphreys

A challenge, when talking about a book like this, is to separate my emotional reaction to the matters described from the quality of the writing used to describe them. By any measure, the mass, involuntary migration of children from the UK to Australia and other countries was a travesty - it should never have happened. The stories of the damage done to these children will stay with me for a long time to come.

I guess I answered my own question about the quality of writing. It it were not good, the story would not have stimulated an emotional reaction. But it did. The story was also quite well paced and it kept me turning the pages. There are a few unanswered questions and, if I want to be critical, I would say that the ending is a little weak - anticlimactic anyway.

Now I have to decide whether to get the DVD of the film Oranges and Sunshine...

What I'm reading

I have started Empty Cradles by Margaret Humphreys. This is my next book club book. It is one that I would have been unlikely to find by myself, but two other members proposed it - part of the value of participating in a book club. Here's the blurb:

In 1986 Margaret Humphreys, a Nottingham social worker, investigated a woman’s claim that, aged four, she had been put on a boat to Australia by the British government. At first incredulous, Margaret discovered that this was just the tip of an enormous iceberg. Up to 150,000 children, some as young as three years old, had been deported from children’s homes in Britain and shipped off to a ‘new life’ in distant parts of the Empire, right up until as recently as 1970.Many were told that their parents were dead, and parents were told that their children had been adopted. In fact, for many children it was to be a life of horrendous physical and sexual abuse far away from everything they knew. Margaret and her team reunited thousands of families before it was too late, brought authorities to account, and worldwide attention to an outrageous miscarriage of justice.

Borkmann's Point - by Håkan Nesser

Overall a good story. I felt quite involved with the characters and wanted to know "who done it?" right up until the end, where there is a nice twist. There is some complexity, but it is not confusing. Likewise the foreign [Dutch?] names are not too hard to internalize. As the book was written in the early 1990s, the world described seems a little old-fashioned, but that is not a criticism. It is much less "gritty" than Larsson or Nesbo, which I am sure many readers would welcome. I think I will probably investigate other books by this author.

What I'm reading

I have started Borkmann's Point by Håkan Nesser. I stumbled on this book, which is another Nordic crime story. After enjoying Steig Larsson and (to some extent) Jo Nesbo, I thought it worth a try. Here is the blurb:

Borkmann’s rule was hardly a rule; in fact, it was more of a comment, a landmark for tricky cases . . . In every investigation, he maintained, there comes a point beyond which we don’t really need any more information. When we reach that point, we already know enough to solve the case by means of nothing more than some decent thinking. A seedy ex-con and a wealthy real-estate mogul are brutally murdered with an axe in the quiet coastal town of Kaalbringen. Chief Inspector van Veeteren, bored of his holiday nearby, is summoned to assist the local authorities. But there seems to be nothing to link the victims. Another body is discovered, again with no obvious connection, and the pressure mounts. The local police chief, just days away from retirement, is determined to wrap things up before he goes. Then there’s a fourth murder, and a brilliant young female detective goes missing – perhaps she has reached Borkmann’s Point before anyone else . . . This riveting novel, full of fascinating, quirky characters and vivid settings, introduces the chess-playing Inspector van Veeteren – a detective already beloved by his European readership – and marks the UK debut of Håkan Nesser, a chilling new voice in crime fiction. 'On this showing, Inspector Van Veeteren seems destined for a place amongst the great European detectives' Colin Dexter, creator of Inspector Morse.

Mockingjay - by Suzanne Collins

So, I have finished the trilogy! I felt that this last book kept up the pace of the first two very well. I did not feel that I knew the ending half way through. Actually there is at least one significant twist that I could not have foreseen. I was pleased that the boom did have an ending, instead of just leaving the reader hanging, and I cannot see any obvious possibilities for a sequel. It is quite a big book, bit I didn't notce, which is a good sign. I will certainly be investigating other work by this author and look forward to the next 2 movies.