Books read in March
Sir Robert Carey series, books 7 and 8, by PF Chisholm (Patricia Finney)
A Chorus of Innocents
A Clash of Spheres
The final two books of the Robert Carey series, thus far. I wrote about these with much enthusiasm last month, and enjoyed these two just as much. Book 8 ends on a cliffhanger, but not in a way that caused me much outrage or caused me to feel any regret at all about reading it before the next book was out.
Firedrake's Eye by Patricia Finney
Unicorn's Blood by Patricia Finney
Gloriana's Torch by Patricia Finney
Elizabethan espionage adventures set in the 1580s, in which Simon Ames, a Jewish scholarly type employed by Francis Walsingham, and David Becket, a soldier and swordsmaster, attempt to thwart a series of Spanish-sponsored plots against the queen. I hadn't intended to read these immediately after the Carey series, but then an interesting character popped up in the last two books of that series, with "character from another book by the same author" written all over them, so I felt the urge to read on.
These three are darker than the Carey series, with little or no humour, and more violence and torture - although not particularly graphically described. Although Ames and Becket are the main characters of the trilogy, each book has a different narrator, in a way that introduces a slight fantasy element, if you want to see it that way. For example, the first book is told by "Tom o'Bedlam," who, in his lucid periods, observes and participates in the events first hand. However, in his "mad" phases, he believes that he sees angels who show him events happening elsewhere, and the internal thoughts of the participants. This sounds strange, but, really, for the vast majority of the novel, it just reads like a conventional narrative from a variety of viewpoints, just with occasional commentaries upon it by a self-professed madman.
I wasn't entirely sure about the first book, although it grew on me as I went through it. The second book I liked more, but I really liked the final book - the longest one, and entirely taken up with the Spanish Armada.
I, Jack by Patricia Finney
Jack and Police Dog Rebel
Jack and the Ghosts
When looking up books by Patricia Finney, I was reminded that she'd written I, Jack, a children's book narrated a dog, which I greatly enjoyed many years ago. For a while, it added phrases to our vocabulary, such as "I will make you into MEAT!" as a dreadful threat, and the use of "bad dog" as an adjective. I was delighted to see that there were two sequels, so I happily read those, too. These are very much children's books - although it seems that adult owners of enthusiastic but dim labradors also enjoy them quite a lot.
Thomas Berrington historical mysteries by David Penney
The Red Hill
Breaker of Bones
The Sin Eater
The Incubus (not yet finished)
Historical mysteries set in the 1480s in the last years of Moorish Spain. Thomas Berrington is a surgeon in Granada. Although originally from England, he has spent 3 decades in Granada and is thoroughly at home there. The first book deals with murders in the harem of the Alhambra, with other books dealing with murders in various other places in Moorish Spain, as well as in cities such as Cordoba, now a Spanish possesssion.
I'm only reading these because we're off to Seville on Saturday for a week, and I wanted historical novels set in the area. The main character is rather emotionally detached - something remarked upon within the narrative - which doesn't help me warm to him or to the events he's describing. I would probably have given up during part 1 had I not been about to visit the area and aware that Seville wouldn't appear until book 5. Plus, it was pretty cheap to buy the whole lot as a job lot on Kindle. I'm doing a certain amount of skimming.