I've been a little busier than usual, so this Monday brings only a light dusting of fictional murder.

I've just started The Fashion in Shrouds, and it is pretty delightful, even if Margery Allingham seems to have dialed up her tendency to make random sexist asides along with improving her writing. Maybe it's just the high-fashion setting? There ( Read more... )

The Floating Admiral lags and wanders a lot in the middle, but what can you expect? It's still better plotted and more engaging than some single-author books I can think of. The wrap-up by Berkeley was funny and fairly smart, and it was a lot of fun to read the solutions that had been posted along with each chapter and to see what got picked up on ( Read more... )

The Incredulity of Father Brown gave me some trouble. I still liked it intermittently, but Father Brown's homilies are overcrowding his otherwise likeable personality and Flambeau was nowhere to be found. I caught myself skimming a lot.

( All criminals believe in karma )

What I've Just Finished Reading

A Wreath for Rivera, by Ngaio Marsh. I ended up liking it pretty well, though only about a tenth as well as Died in the Wool. This one takes a long, slow time to set up before the murder, but picks up immediately once the investigation begins. There's a middle-aged Upper Class Twit who buys his way into a swing band ( Read more... )