Pre-holiday reading
I've just had a week's holiday (with my parents, without Ben and the girls) in Kobe, visiting relatives. Before I left on May 1, I finished Barry Maitland's The Chalon Heads, his second Brock and Kolla mystery. It is a rather convoluted story (perhaps this is because I'm always half-asleep when I have time to read) about a former gangster, Sammy Sparrow, who reports his much-younger wife missing. The ransom demands for her return are sent accompanied by extremely valuable rare stamps, which have been damaged. Sammy is a keen collector of Chalon Heads, a series of stamps featuring a portrait of the young Queen Victoria. He has to buy at auction an envelope with one of these stamps, to exchange it for his wife's safe return. The exchange goes badly, Sammy disappears and Brock and Kolla find that the kidnapping wasn't as straight forward as it initially seemed.
While away, I read (on the iPad - how freeing not to have to take actual books!) The Boy in the Suitcase, by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis. Nina Borg, a nurse, is asked by her estranged friend Karin, to pick something up from a railway locker. She finds a suitcase, containing a young boy, naked and drugged. Before she can get any answers from Karin, Nina finds Karin murdered. Nina risks her life, her family and her marriage in her attempt to protect the boy and discover his identity.
I also borrowed from our library the e-book version of Alexander McCall's Precious and the Monkeys, which details the first ever case of the famous No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency's Precious Ramotswe. It's aimed at children but it certainly was a fun read for a fan.
When I got back, I finally finished the first Cairo Jim book, On the trail to Cha Cha Muchos. Legend tells that somewhere in Peru, at the peak of a towering, jungle-covered mountain, stand the ruins of ChaCha Muchos, the Lost City of Dancers. What happened there nearly 500 years ago remains a mystery but Cairo Jim is determined to find the city and discover why the village of compulsive dancers died out. However, Captain Neptune Bone has plans of his own as usual, and the two parties make their separate ways to the mountain top, Captain Bone hoping to further his fortune and Cairo Jim hoping to increase his knowledge of the world.
While away, I read (on the iPad - how freeing not to have to take actual books!) The Boy in the Suitcase, by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis. Nina Borg, a nurse, is asked by her estranged friend Karin, to pick something up from a railway locker. She finds a suitcase, containing a young boy, naked and drugged. Before she can get any answers from Karin, Nina finds Karin murdered. Nina risks her life, her family and her marriage in her attempt to protect the boy and discover his identity.
I also borrowed from our library the e-book version of Alexander McCall's Precious and the Monkeys, which details the first ever case of the famous No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency's Precious Ramotswe. It's aimed at children but it certainly was a fun read for a fan.
When I got back, I finally finished the first Cairo Jim book, On the trail to Cha Cha Muchos. Legend tells that somewhere in Peru, at the peak of a towering, jungle-covered mountain, stand the ruins of ChaCha Muchos, the Lost City of Dancers. What happened there nearly 500 years ago remains a mystery but Cairo Jim is determined to find the city and discover why the village of compulsive dancers died out. However, Captain Neptune Bone has plans of his own as usual, and the two parties make their separate ways to the mountain top, Captain Bone hoping to further his fortune and Cairo Jim hoping to increase his knowledge of the world.