by William Boyd
A second novel fearuring Gabriel Dax, a travel writer who inadvertently ends up working for MI6 and the KGB (and subcontracting to the CIA!).
This novel is set largely in Sussex and Guatemala and Berlin. The year is 1963 and JFK is big news. This is probably best described as a spy caper but is a very enjoyable read. Along the way, Gabriel's love life gets more complicated! 8/10
by Georges Simenon
A man turns up at Maigret's house and claims he is planning to kill his wife and her lover who have gradually taken over his house and painting and decorating business. Then he disappears and Maigret senses something is not right. A sad story with an interesting ending 8/10
by Salman Rushdie
A collection of short five short stories, two of which have been published before in the New Yorker, They all deal with ageing and the passage of time in some form or other. My favourite by far was a ghost story called Late. It deals with an author who has been made an honorary fellow of some oxbridge college who wakes up dead one morning. The others were all enjoyable with characteristic humour and satire. I was not so keen on the last story which was about the importance and changing of language. Having just read Julian Barnes it is difficult not to wonder whether this is Rushdie's last book. 7/10
by Julian Barnes
His final book-or so he tells us at the start, but can you trust a novelist?
This book seems part novel, part memoir and reflections on the end of life or at least it's later years, Where one begins and the other ends is hard to tell but this makes it no less enjoyable. His observations are sometimes very funny, other times moving but always(or nearly always) interesting. It was a good read 9/10
by Daniel Defoe
A difficult read in many ways with its racist approach to the depiction of Friday and it's over the top preaching of the protestant world view, not to mention the depiction of slavery, but I was glad to read it. I wouldn't call it a great novel-but seven hundred editions and numerous spin offs would suggest I am wrong-but it was full of adventure. Crusoe is not that likeable but you are desperate to know how he gets out of the hole he has largely dug for himself. An interesting reflection of it's time. 5/10
by Georges Simenon
An unusual murder in a family of "good" people gets Maigret frustrated and having to dig into the family history to understand the case. 7/10
by Jonathan Coe
A very enjoyable read part murder mystery, part piss take of the conservative party and far right as they went through the Liz Truss fiasco. A good holiday read 7/10
