(no subject)

[desayunoencama]

I am quite vexed since the last two times I've tried to go to the local second-hand English-language bookshop, it's been closed, despite being their stated hours, and with no sign saying "we're on vacation" or "personal emergency" or anything like that. Bother.

I read Peter Dickinson's THE LIVELY DEAD yesterday.

I am a bit confused about Dickinson. I quite liked his THE SEVENTH RAVEN, which I read last year. And then I read DEATH OF A UNICORN which I thought was just brilliant. But then I found three Dickinson books in a row that I couldn't make more than a few chapters' headway into--WALKING DEAD, HINDSIGHT, and THE YELLOW ROOM CONSIPRACY. I'd read some of his YA fantasies, which were perfectly readable (if somewhat predictable, the ones I tried at any rate).

I'm beginning to feel he's a bit like Robert Barnard, in how uneven I react to his work, although when he's good he's MUCH better than Barnard. (Although I did recently read Barnard's CORPSE IN A GILDED CAGE, which I enjoyed; I tend to like his humorous mysteries more reliably than some of the others.)

But if anyone has any recs for the top-rate Dickinson, I'd be interested to know.

(DEATH OF A UNICORN had a sort of I CAPTURE THE CASTLE feel to it, for the first part, although the ending is a bit more Rosamunde Pilcher when she's at her best--something like THE SHELL SEEKERS.)

Meanwhile, I want to recommend NO TRACE, a mystery by a UK author now living in Austrlia, Barry Maitland. It's very Ruth Rendell-ish in tone, with shades of P.D. James as well (in the personal lives of her two detectives). I haven't read any of the earlier volumes but I now want to. The book was rather dark, but very well done, full ofplenty of twists and human texture, and this one is all about the philosophy of contemporary conceptual art (in addition to the mystery element, I mean).

Has anyone else read this or the rest of the series?

Comments

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Re Dickinson, you might try looking at King and Joker (has a sequel, Skeleton in Waiting), mysteries about the Royal Family set in an AU in which Prince Eddy didn't die, married May of Teck and reformed, in the 1970s or 80s. Of his YAs, I'd particularly recommend The Blue Hawk, Tulku and The Dancing Bear. I have a weakness for The Devil's Children (middle vol of the early trilogy whose overall title escapes me at the moment - 'The Changes'?) simply because it was, I think, the first Dickinson I ever read.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs! I don't have any of those yet.

I have the Changes trilogy but have not yet read it.

Have you read the Maitlands, by the way? It was something I thought of setting aside for you, once Sara (and perhaps the boyfriend, too) have had a chance to read it.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I did a whole bunch of Dickinson reviews a few years ago; I haven't tagged the entries yet, but all of them are linked from the final set (http://coffeeandink.livejournal.com/206477.html), with papersky and truepenny contributing comments. Of the ones not covered, I really like King and Joker and its sequel, Skeleton-in-Waiting, and was impressed by The Last Houseparty. Tears of the Salamander has a great idea but a disappointing execution.

(Unrelated: I picked up the first Alan Gordon at my library and will report on it once it's read. :)

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Dickinson recs--not to mention the reviews. I hadn't realized there were quite so many I don't yet have...

I'd forgotten that I'd also quite liked THE POISON ORACLE.

Will have to look for THE LAST HOUSEPARTY, and the duo KING AND JOKER and SKELETON-IN-WAITING.

I did read TEARS OF THE SALAMANDER, and agree on it being disappointingly...flat.

I hope you like the Alan Gordon. The series really picks up from volume 2, for reasons I can't mention until you've read book 1... A new book in the series is forthcoming in May, at long last.