Do thieves commit depredations?
Jun. 30th, 2019 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyMy mother said to me, "You like small things, look what I found in the park," and handed me a tiny R2-D2 on a plinth. He now lives on my Shelf of Small Found Things with a tiny jar of Vegemite and a Lego man with brick head.
Weekly knitting photo
June books read
* The Catalyst Killing - Hans Olav Lahlum (2012) (trans. Kari Dickson, 2015) ★ ★
Oslo, 1970: Inspector Kolbjørn Kristiansen has to solve the murder of a young woman at a train station, which sets off a chain of events leading to the attempted assassination of a senior politician. This is the third in a series, and I felt I would have benefitted from reading the first two. Kristiansen has a young friend, Patricia, to whom he reports all his findings and who tells him what to do next; I didn't understand their relationship at all and suspect it's all laid out in the earlier books. Anyway, Kristiansen is so dense he doesn't realise that something is clearly up with Patricia; and she won't tell him even though she knows he's an idiot. I found them both tiresome.
* My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★
Nigeria, present day: Korede is a nurse and her sister Ayoola is a fashion designer... and serial killer. When she kills, she calls Korede to clean up the mess. This isn't a thriller; there's never any doubt about the murders, and never any real sense that they'll be caught. It's more about family: the past that made them like this and the bonds that keep them tied together.
* Himself - Jess Kidd (2016) ★ ★ ★
In 1950, in a remote village in the west of Ireland, a young woman is brutally murdered. Twenty-six years later, her son returns to find out what happened to her in a sort of magic realism mystery story. This is lyrically written and the language is a joy to read, but for me the story needed a bit more meat on its bones and a more interesting protagonist. The murderer was who I thought it was; the priest was unctuous; the old biddy was an old biddy; and they all wore out their welcome by the end.
And that's the end of my daily posts in June. I might try for every second day in July. We'll see how my busy week next week pans out.
Weekly knitting photo
June books read
* The Catalyst Killing - Hans Olav Lahlum (2012) (trans. Kari Dickson, 2015) ★ ★
Oslo, 1970: Inspector Kolbjørn Kristiansen has to solve the murder of a young woman at a train station, which sets off a chain of events leading to the attempted assassination of a senior politician. This is the third in a series, and I felt I would have benefitted from reading the first two. Kristiansen has a young friend, Patricia, to whom he reports all his findings and who tells him what to do next; I didn't understand their relationship at all and suspect it's all laid out in the earlier books. Anyway, Kristiansen is so dense he doesn't realise that something is clearly up with Patricia; and she won't tell him even though she knows he's an idiot. I found them both tiresome.
* My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★
Nigeria, present day: Korede is a nurse and her sister Ayoola is a fashion designer... and serial killer. When she kills, she calls Korede to clean up the mess. This isn't a thriller; there's never any doubt about the murders, and never any real sense that they'll be caught. It's more about family: the past that made them like this and the bonds that keep them tied together.
* Himself - Jess Kidd (2016) ★ ★ ★
In 1950, in a remote village in the west of Ireland, a young woman is brutally murdered. Twenty-six years later, her son returns to find out what happened to her in a sort of magic realism mystery story. This is lyrically written and the language is a joy to read, but for me the story needed a bit more meat on its bones and a more interesting protagonist. The murderer was who I thought it was; the priest was unctuous; the old biddy was an old biddy; and they all wore out their welcome by the end.
And that's the end of my daily posts in June. I might try for every second day in July. We'll see how my busy week next week pans out.