User Profile

I have enjoyed several of the Falco series, and this tale of his adopted daughter, Flavia Albia. also has a good blend of insight into Roman life and a mystery written in a light humorous style. Due to the large number of related characters and extensive use of the tria nomnia this book would have been better as holiday reading than fitting in reading chapters interspersed with other activities. I am still inclined to read more in this series

Dead Man's Hand by E. R. Punshon

Clever measures to avoid being seen in the snow lead to the murderer's downfall in this short story.from 1950

Person or Persons Unknown by Carter Dickson

Although written and set in 1938 (in a country house), the story tells of events and murders in 1663 and 1667, the time of the Restoration, giving another viewpoint to that of The Ashes of London etc set in that period.

Kevin Mitchell, author of Free Agents has a series of Blog posts written as responses to Determined, starting with Undetermined - a response to Robert Sapolsky. Part 1 - a tale of two neuroscientists and they too make interesting reading.

The in-depth sections on neurobiology - particularly the Neurobiology 101 are very informative, as is the reminder of how rapid progress is in this area. The scope of coverage of subjects is similar, but more recent, than The Emperor's New Mind. Although I believe strongly in the importance and power of individual decisions, so disagree on a fundamental level, he puts a strong case.

To save money Thomas Shield, the fictional central character, walks from London to Stoke Newington, then a village several miles away, and meets the Reverend Bransby, who runs a school, and Edgar Allan, a pupil at the school. Interesting for me as several people in my family tree were born, lived, married or died in Stoke Newington.

Tim Marshall was on the ground as a reporter for much of the Yugoslav wars, and he tells the story as told to him, not only from armed forces on all sides, but some of the civilians, and reporters, in the war zone.

He tells of cities being bombed from afar with high technology weaponry, having much great impact on the civilian population than the military assets they were supposed to be targeting.

The large scale march to the capital after the Yugoslav election in 2000 has some resonances with the 2021 Capitol Riot - both fuelled by suspicion of a rigged election, but differ that history showed the Yugoslav one was, and the US one was not. Tim's reflections on the the current and future pressures in the region make interesting reading.

I enjoyed the bits of Italian and the Bologna setting. Another multi-threaded thriller.

Death on the air - Ngaio Marsh

Written in 1937 - still in an era where the characters are divided into the occupants of the house and the staff, while Inspector Alleyn and the family doctor are gentlemen.

I find Tim Marshall's books on geopolitics are always interesting. This one tells of the Balkan Crisis of the 1990s as someone who was there on the ground.

The police raid the brothel run by the villain, rounding up the illegally trafficked girls - but the villains solicitor produces 'proper papers and valid passports' which he claimed to have been holding for the girls, which show that they are from Bulgaria. As an EU country (as Britain was then) they are released, even though the police know (via their Bulgarian cleaner - who tried to speak to the girls), that they are not Bulgarian (they are from Dagestan). I would expect an opportunity to jail or disbar a rouge lawyer in the act would spark is own criminal investigation, but they just give up and move on.

I like the Liz Carlyle books, which are more realistic and plausible than some espionage thrillers.

(if someone has the skills, for example, to do nuclear physics, why are they being wasted working for MI6 ? - not referring to any specific fictional secret agent!)