I’ve read several of his, including The Escape. It’s a good title, as it is great escapist reading. Clint Eastwood made a movie from his novel Absolute Power.
2 Likes
Read the first chapter three times to get all the Indian names and family members in place.
Two mysteries to be solved and the revelation of how an Indian homicide detective becomes a curry house waiter in London.
I stumbled at the start but motoring along nicely now.
1 Like
Read Crispin’s The Moving Toyshop. Another one that would make good TV.
steve
On another forum, someone told me that it had been adapted for TV (British) in the 1960s. Given the enormous number of detective series that have been converted to TV, I’m surprised the Fen books have been overlooked.
Although it seems that adaptations of early mystery fiction are less common than they used to be.
1 Like
Thanks for these, Dave. I’ve added them to my reading list. I’ve been enjoying Christopher Brookmyre lately; his regular theme about Glasgow-based newspapers rings many bells for me. I left Maryhill when very, very young. My ma was a Maryhill girl (she was born in the same bed in Doncaster Street where I was born 20 years later), but my old man was an RAF officer from Hackney. We moved all over the place when I was a lad, so I was in Glasgow only when visiting my grandparents. I moved back in 1985 to work on the Evening Times, and left for the States seven years later. I still return to see old pals whenever I can.
2 Likes
I’ve read, and re-read all of Christopher Brookmyre’s books at least twice … … … they’re each a top story, and very evocative for anyone “of a certain age” who grew up in Glasgow.
I left Glasgow and moved with work to The Lake District for two or three years, but packed in my office job and trained as a commercial diver up in Fort William, moving to the fair city of York at the same time.
Retired now, I shifted a few miles up the road to a wee market town in North Yorks, where, as they say, life is grand.
4 Likes
A bit before your time, but as an ex Evening Times man, you will no doubt be familiar with my avatar. 
6 Likes
Indeed I am. That’s Lobey Dosser.
Naw it’s no, ya eejit, yon’s Rank Badjin … … … get a grip!
Of course! What a bampot!
1 Like
Something non-fiction, for a change, for me anyway!
Bodies Life and Death in Music, Ian Winwood
“Money, freedom, adoring fans: professional musicians seem to have it all. But beneath the surface lies a frightening truth: for years the music industry has tolerated death, addiction and exploitation in the name of entertainment.
In Bodies, Ian Winwood explores the industry’s reluctance to confront its many failures in a far-reaching story which features first-hand access to artists such as Foo Fighters, Green Day, Trent Reznor, Biffy Clyro, Kings of Leon, Chris Cornell, Mark Lanegan, Pearl Jam. Much more than a touchline reporter, Winwood also tells the tale of his own mental-health collapse following the shocking death of his father. Written with warmth, humour and bracing honesty, Bodies is a deeply personal story and essential reading for musicians and fans alike.”
1 Like
Restarted the Night’s Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamiton. Starting with The Reality Dysfunction.
Last read this series 20 years ago… realising I should read more of his books - a bit out of touch.
As one if the reviewers puts it: “This was an awesome mix of space action, hard sci-fi, bad boy/good boy space captains, space zombies, super ships, weaponry, and cyborg like humans.”
1 Like
Alan Garner, Treacle Walker, an unexpected late pleasure. Audiobook read by Robert Powell. At one level this is about the relationship between a young boy and a rag-and-bone man, but like all Garner it is an investigation of imagination and the nature of reality. The boy has the glamourie, he can see what isn’t literally there. He can converse with a bog-body who has awakened from the Neolithic and enter the world of his comic ‘Knockout’. The language is spare, riddling and gnomic. Rag bone, old iron, donkey stone! Recommended for anyone who read the Owl Service or other Garner classics. I started with Elidor at primary school, but the books are deeper for an adult reader. This is in many senses an old man’s book about the power of the imagination.
2 Likes
A fascinating, if rather chilling read given the events happening out East.
2 Likes
