Bred Any Good Rooks Lately?

Grant87

I read Joe Hill's new story The Pram today. I liked it quite a bit. Joe doesn't miss for me. The sense of dread builds and builds throughout the story, and it took a turn or two I didn't expect. Not my favorite short story of his, but still quite good and worth a read.

Kurben

Read The Secret Place by Tana French. Real good It was, to be honest, a reread but i felt like it and i think French is the ruling crimequeen at the moment. She is proof you dont need guns or serialkillers. It is actually possible to write excellent crimestories anyway.

Kurben

Reading The Hollow Crown by Dan Jones. Its an excellent narrative history if whats often called in history The War of the Roses. The battle for the english crown between Lancaster and York. It is a very complicated story and diring the time it was never called that, that is an after construction by Tudor historians and playwrights (Shakespeare mostly but others too). It is actually one of the most clear cases of the winner writing the history in all of english history. Both Henry VII and Henry VIII, the two first Tudor kings understood how to make propaganda really effective. It was a must for them because their claim was really extremely weak and the rose story arose as a way to show how they united a divided country. To show how they were the good guys. They even let that times most learned man Sir Thomas more write a biography of Richard III (the last York king) that is full of falsehoods and outright lies. Jones navigates this complexity well and makes a wise decision in starting his story with England at its peak, before the division that lead to the civil wars occurred. He starts with Henry V massive victory over the french army in 1415 at Agincourt when everybody thought it was just a matter of time before Henry would be king over both England and France. He manages to keep the narrative flowing while painting portraits of the characters we meet along the way. That was not to be. When he dies young the origin of division starts brewing. He has an infant son, he has a queen and he has two brothers plus a lot of nobles, many interests that needs to be satisfied but none has the charisma , the martial and the political skill that Henry had. Sadly his son, Henry VI, does not grow up to be like him at all. He grew up to be kind, generous, pious, a good husband to his wife and interested in education but he was a total failure as a king. England started to fall apart and soon divided in several fractions which the council tried to hold together, the never really cared even as a grown up. Up steps Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Edward, Duke of Somerset and Richard, Duke of York. All of these people recognize that England needs to be ruled and if the king cant someone else must. All of these people see themselfes as loyal to the country and the king and they never wanted to depose him but the problems both abroad and domestic needed to be dealt with. Its an interesting story thats far from black and white, Some of the conclusions that jones draw i dont agree with but as a narrative history over a very complicated time its hard to beat.

Kurben

Reading Edward IV: Glorious son of York by Jeffrey James. An interesting story about a king that tried to bring an end to the wars of roses. He was an excellent military talent even as teen but he was also a bit naive when it came to hoe to rule (he had never had any training in kingship and became king young so he tried to learn on the job so to speak. He only really had one person he know he could trust around him, his younger brother Richard (later Richard III), and tried to make england whole again after the split that the completely inept kingship of the in some way mentally sick Henry VI (for a period of 18 months he just sat still stang out in space not reacting to his nobles, his wife and and they had to clean up after him and feed him, at other times he was aware but just did what the person closest to him said whether it was a noble or his wife or someone else) lead to. After winning several extremely bloody battles to secure the crown he tried to heal the wounds by marrying inside the country (something unheard of for about 400 years, royal brides were meant to build foreign alliances in those days) and selected Elisabeth Woodwille, a minor relative to the former Henry Vi,s side but because he came with it as a surprise his closest allies were offended that he had kept them in the dark. It was wellmeant but naive acting on his side. Marry her if you want but as an english king you cant send your most trusted allies to foreign courts to negotiate for a bride and then, when they are done, say surprise i already married in secret! But thats just what Edward did. One of the main problems with Edward as a king was his unsatiable lust for women. He had many mistresses and exactly what the details were around how he and elisabeth got married and decided to keep it secret is now lost but i wouldn't be surprised that the decision on his part was taken with his cock, not his brain. He was young and inexperienced at the time but from this stems most of the trouble he had during his reign. His brother stayed loyal but many others started to steer away from him because of it. They thought that we helped put him on the throne and we can help put him off of it too. An English king must rule in accordance with Magna Charta and if he loses the nobles support he may also lose his throne. Thats just a fact of english kingship and it was stupid of him not to consider that. All in all though a much better king than Henry VI. He had high military talent, he had charm put was occasionally extremely naive in politics. He made quite a few mistakes that would make his brothers reign short and painful. But he ended a period of extreme misrule that not only lead to civil war but to a crashed economi and losing englands land possessions in France. So for me he balances in on the good side all things considered.

Hedda Gabler

And a 😄

Kurben

Reading Paris by Edward Rutherfurd. He writes historical novels not about people or era but about places. I've read some of his before, like London and Sarum (Roman name for Salisbury) and decided to try this one. He has written one about Dublin too, perhaps thats next. But in my experience there need to be some time between reading one of his books until you read the next one.

Kurben

Read The Daughter Of Time by Josephine Tey. One of the Golden age Crime Queens. It was Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Josephine Tey. Teys The Daughter of Time was in 2015 voted as the best mystery ever written. She is not as consistent or as productive as Christie (but who is) but her tops were high!

Kurben

Read A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey. This was a new one to me. Daughter Of Time i've read before but its always a pleasure to read it. This is part of a christmas gift i bought for myself. Three Josephine Tey books i havent read before. It was good if not as good (which i did not expect). A mystery with a twist. Some purist might consider the ending a kind of cheating but i'm OK with it. I now move on to To Love and Be Wise, also by Tey.

(i got a book about the templars by my uncle but to be honest i did not like it very much, had difficulty separating templars and the crusades and also tending to judge on our, newly accomplished morals instead of the times morals, in spite of warning for it. Reads to me like the author hasn't decided what book to write. He is clearly learned but the writing is unfocused. Decide what story you wanna tell, then tell that story without too many tangents. Also in parts it feels more like propaganda than History. Yes, i know that every writer of history has a bias of some sort, mild or strong but this, to me, cross the line from acceptable to unacceptable and i am usually rather forgiving when it comes to such things. I have three or four books on the crusades and i think 2 on the templars and this isn't really close to their standard.)

Neesy

Wow @Kurben you read a lot! Good for you

I read a book recently called Cuckoos Calling by Robert Galbraith (it took me a little while to look at the back inside cover to realize it was really J.K. Rowling)

 - a woman at the library who works there and runs our Baking Book Club recommended it and ordered it for me. It's the first in a series and not too bad so I guess I will order the next one.

Kurben

Finished To Love And Be Wise. Really good. Wonder if this is the first time in crime writing history that kind of trick has been used? This was written in 1936. This finishes my christmas gifts to myself. All read now. Josephine Tey was really good at writing dialogue and her characters come through life through the talking and thoughts of the character we see the story through at the moment which is not always the same one. You can tell that she was also a very good playwright that wrote 19 successful plays for the London theatres plus a lot of radio scripts. This is one of these mysteries where you spend the first 70 pages in the company of the living victim so he is much more than just a body. He is a character. What shall i read now?? I find something.

Kurben

I read and finished The End Of An Era by Robert J. Sawyer. A fun very entertaining timetravel adventure with some more serious questions showing up now and then. I like sawyer in this mood, he can go a bit too hardcore science in some books but mostly he is ok. After the disintegration of Kim Stanley Robinsons writing i dont know if he can still be trusted. Robinson started so well with The Year of Rice And Salt which was very good but the latest i read of him was his climate trilogy Forty Signs Of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below and Sixty Days And Counting which was, to be honest, boring. I know he cares about the climate and is worried about it (I am too) and i know his science basically is correct but do try to make the story and your characters interesting. Havent dared read since then and that is about 10 years ago. He has written a lot since then but.......

Grant87

Finished Five Decembers by James Kestrel last night. Published by Hard Case Crime. It won the Edgar Award in 2022 for Best Novel, and it deserved it. This was a truly epic crime novel, spanning the entirety of World War II. It's a great noir crime novel, but it's so much more than that too. If I hadn't read Swan Song in 2023, Five Decembers might have been my Book of the Year. Highly recommended.

Started The Dark Tower today. I'm not ready for this journey to end. I don't want to lose any of these characters. (I've already lost one). I loved books I-IV, was pretty mixed on Wolves of the Calla, and I'm still trying to figure out what he was doing with Song of Susannah. Hopefully The Dark Tower is more like the first four books.

GNTLGNT

....due to life stuff, I JUST "devoured"(ooough)Holly on the last two days of my vacation which ended yesterday....really appreciated her continuing evolution and how once again, Steve brings a world to life.....

Hedda Gabler

I received my signed copy of Tabitha King’s book Caretakers from CD. I can’t say if I’ve read this or not but it’s in my tbr pile. Absolutely love the Caniglia art. Gorgeous. 

Also finally received my signed Anne Rice — Interview with a Vampire.  I was sad this one wouldn’t happen. This, as I’ve written before, is a special story connection to my granddad.  So grateful she was able to see this through. RIP. Also another fabulous cover by Caniglia. 

I’m watching some youtube interviews with her right now on writing. Very interesting. 

Neesy

Reading a book by Arnie (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

Just started a few days ago and I read a few pages every night before bed

Kurben

Reading Act Of Oblivion by Robert Harris. He is Very good at historical drama/thrillers with characters taken from real life and has a knack of blowing life into a historical figure and still tries very hard to be historically correct. He, so to say, fills out the picture where the historical sources leae a blank space and makes a thrilling novel out of it.  Most famous earlier examples probably his trilogy about Cicero (Imperium, Lustrum and Dictator) and the excellent An Officer And A Spy about the Dreyfus-affair. This is about the killers of Charles I and the hunt to avenge his father that Charles II started when he regained the throne almost 20 years later in 1660. He has invented one major character, the man who lead the manhunt. His name (or names because it went on for nearly two decades) are lost in historys well but for there to be a manhunt there must be a manhunter. The King had other things to occupy him in his recently aqquired kingdom. I think it is a reasonable assumption. Other than that all major characters are historical. So far, very good. I'm 180 pages in.

Kurben

Finished Illegal Alien by Robert J. Sawyer. A very entertaiing mix of Aliens arrive to earth story and a courtroom drama (with an alien as the accused) that somehow works. But everything is not as it seems.....

Kurben

Soon finished The Second Sleep by Robert Harris. Quite good. Here its not a historical thriller, here we are in the future, 700 years or so after some kind of worldwide disaster in 2025. Science is considered heretic, including history. But what if the answer to a suspicious death lies in the past?  A young priest is suddenly torn by questions he thought was simple but turns out to ne very complex while while his natural curiousity make him ask questions about a fellow priest's death. 

Kurben

They Walked Like Men by Clifford Simak, one of the old grandmasters of SF. About a vily alien invasion but not really through violence but through commercialism. They buy up, through fake names, stores and apartment and then close them, eject the leaseholders and leave humanity without a bed to rest in or a store to shop in. AND that would be a catastrophy, right? Quite enjoyable.

Kurben

Reading here in the winter darkness The Complete History Of Jack The Ripper by Philip Sugden. One of the best, perhaps even the best book on the subject i read. One thing i like a lot is that he doesn't claim to have a solution. He presents all the facts, Autopsy protocols, Witness statements, inquest protocols, police rapports and so on for every canonical murder plus a few extra that he considers possibles. He discusses the witness statements and what they say, their strengrhs and weaknesses. He is not a fan of newspaper articles as sources because what are fact and fiction in them are impossible to say. A course that i find reasonable. When he does mention them he is very careful. He goes through what some major policemen later written about the case in letters and memoirs and pointing out where they simply remember wrong or has mixed up different cases (can easily happen when you write about 25-30 years after the actual events and are getting old and has to rely mainly on memory). He also goes through a host of suspects and says why they were suspects (mostly they looked suspicious which isn't the most firm ground for an accusation which the police recogniced. He also goes through what i call the usual suspects (like Druitt, Chapman, Ostrog, Klosowski, Leather Apron and so on) and its amazing how little proof, if any, there is against them. He does have a favourite but thats more of a gut feeling, nothing that can be called final and no court of law would convict on existing proof which he says. He also, which i like because i like an author that can speak his mind, slaughters some books on the subject like Stephen Knights Jack The Ripper: The Final Solution which he says should belong in the fiction section of a bookstore because there are so many made up facts and and total ignorance of other facts. Sugden is proud to be a ripperologist and thinks to many authors sully that name by producing sloppily researched books supporting a thesis they dreamed up that isn't supported by actual facts. I kind of agree with him on that. I have read some extremely silly things on the subject.

FlakeNoir

Kurben said:

Reading here in the winter darkness The Complete History Of Jack The Ripper by Philip Sugden. One of the best, perhaps even the best book on the subject i read. One thing i like a lot is that he doesn't claim to have a solution. He presents all the facts, Autopsy protocols, Witness statements, inquest protocols, police rapports and so on for every canonical murder plus a few extra that he considers possibles. He discusses the witness statements and what they say, their strengrhs and weaknesses. He is not a fan of newspaper articles as sources because what are fact and fiction in them are impossible to say. A course that i find reasonable. When he does mention them he is very careful. He goes through what some major policemen later written about the case in letters and memoirs and pointing out where they simply remember wrong or has mixed up different cases (can easily happen when you write about 25-30 years after the actual events and are getting old and has to rely mainly on memory). He also goes through a host of suspects and says why they were suspects (mostly they looked suspicious which isn't the most firm ground for an accusation which the police recogniced. He also goes through what i call the usual suspects (like Druitt, Chapman, Ostrog, Klosowski, Leather Apron and so on) and its amazing how little proof, if any, there is against them. He does have a favourite but thats more of a gut feeling, nothing that can be called final and no court of law would convict on existing proof which he says. He also, which i like because i like an author that can speak his mind, slaughters some books on the subject like Stephen Knights Jack The Ripper: The Final Solution which he says should belong in the fiction section of a bookstore because there are so many made up facts and and total ignorance of other facts. Sugden is proud to be a ripperologist and thinks to many authors sully that name by producing sloppily researched books supporting a thesis they dreamed up that isn't supported by actual facts. I kind of agree with him on that. I have read some extremely silly things on the subject.

I've just now purchased this on your recommendation, thanks Kurben. 😊

Hedda Gabler

Yes. Sounds very good. 

GNTLGNT

....yes, a ripping good read.....

Kurben

GNTLGNT said:

....yes, a ripping good read.....

Yeah, I slashed right through it.....

FlakeNoir

Not to Jack the thread... but, you guys slay me.