Snowdrift - Georgette Heyer

I've read this collection of short stories many times before, both in its original form of Pistols For Two and this expanded version, including some rediscovered short stories that were released in 2016 with a Christmas theme. The lovely Georgette Heyer readalong I'm in online chose to read the Pistols for Two collection a story a week with a couple of breaks as a sort of Christmas treat and I'm finally getting round to writing about it.

It turns out that a story a week with a group that know each other and Heyer's ouvre well is an absolute delight. I think it probably surprised most of us how well these fairly slight stories stood up to close reading. They show Heyer trying things out, which will become whole books further down the line, recycling bits of plot, dabbling in different genres, and overall showing what a very good writer she could be.

It might help that we were all familiar with her books, you could argue that for fans there's a sort of shorthand that means we understand much of what's intended from indicators that new readers might not pick up on. Look out for grey eyes - often an indicator that you've met a romantic lead... 

Another advantage to choosing a short story collection was that different people could lead the discussion each week which really took the pressure off one person at a busy time of year - we normally do 3 chapters a week and discuss for an hour, even spread out it's a lot of work, after sharing Pistols For Two, our next book is going to have multiple hosts too. 

It was also a chance to read 'To Have The Honour' which Sophie Irwin has re-worked into Henrietta, to be published later this year. I have mixed feelings about this. Irwin's own Regency romances are fine, but not for me, and I would have liked to see a more offbeat, adventurous choice to bring her to a new audience. I (we, in fact) also all thought this was an odd choice of story to use as a base. 

To Have The Honour is already complete in and of itself, it doesn't leave any loose ends, and it doesn't need building on. If you wanted that you could go and read A Civil Contract which clearly shares the same roots but does something much more interesting with its characters. There are other, better candidates to build on, stories that leave plenty of room for speculation and cry out for backstory.

I haven't decided if I'll read Henrietta or not yet. My current feeling is that, however good it is, it'll annoy me because whatever Irwin does with it, it's not going to match my personal expectations for that story. Great cover art though.

Nine Goblins - T Kingfisher

An oddity this one. An early T Kingfisher that was self-published back in 2013 and has had a new release now with Titan, it's more or less novella length at 148 pages and a self-proclaimed (accurately) homage to Terry Pratchett and James Herriot - the mash-up no one knew they needed. 

Herriot would probably have been deeply confused by it all (or not, I wonder if he was a Tolkien fan?) Pratchett, I'm sure would have been delighted. This was also T Kingfisher's first book aimed at an adult audience, whilst primarily publishing for children, and that may add to the general oddness of it.

I liked this little book, it's funny and warm, with a twist at the end that gives it a serious edge, especially at a time of global uncertainty, but it's also unevenly paced and took me an extraordinarily long time to read. The first half tells two back stories quite slowly in a way that makes it hard to guess where things are going, and then a lot happens very quickly. 

I'm not sure how much I took to Sings-To-Trees who is the Herriot inspired elf stuck with tending a range of creatures as ungrateful as they are mythical. He's fine, but he doesn't have a patch on the goblins in all their disgusting glory, and like Pratchett this also falls somewhere between writing for adults and writing for children. 

I know that both are technically adult books, but once upon a time, Pratchett was what a certain sort of younger teenager read (teenagers like me) when they hit 13 or 14, had grown out of children's books, and YA didn't exist as a category the way we know it now. Nine Goblins is funny and politically aware/angry in the same way that Pratchett was. They're not exactly jokes that a reader grows out of, but much like the music I loved in my teens, it's fun if something turns up on the radio from time to time but I no longer listen to it on repeat. 

Altogether a solid 3 star book - an enjoyable way to spend a lazy afternoon, an indication of the exciting writer that Kingfisher has become, and an obvious recommendation for fans of Pratchett or Douglas Adams but not a keeper for me.

Sky High - Michael Gilbert

My job has changed somewhat and I'm spending a lot more time on a laptop at work which is making it less appealing to come home and get online, or possibly I'm just forgetting after a day talking about books, ordering books, and putting books on shelves that I haven't been here to talk about the books. Happily, after a really nasty bout of peri menopausal nonsense that blighted most of January and February, March has been a bit easier and I'm getting some energy back.

I haven't been as doing as much of anything as I'd like, including reading, but a new Michael Gilbert from the British Library crime classics series is too much of a treat to put off. Sky High is excellent; a high stakes murder mystery with a fabulous cast of characters including, Liz, a motorbike-riding widow in  charge of the local choir, connected to everyone, and more than capable of solving a murder, and a retired General who must have been a lion amongst donkeys.

When the choir's lead tenor is blown up in his house, Liz, the General, and her ex-commando son take up the investigation. Gilbert has the gift of knowing exactly how to mix genuine humour with genuine tension. The stakes feel high, there's a connection that isn't quite clear at first as to how Liz lost her husband, a murderer who doesn't in the least mind dirty tricks, the long shadow of the second world war hanging over them all, and the need for Brimberley's choir to put rival villiage, Bramshott's efforts to shame at the harvest festival. 

I've read a chunk of Gilbert now, and I mostly adore him - the spy stories should be approached with a bit of caution if you're squeamish. There's some casual but extreme violence and old-fashioned attitudes that don't read particularly well now. I don't mind this, the stories reflect the time they were written, but I wouldn't re read all of them and am wary of recommending. It makes me appreciate the choice for the British Library collection all the more - these also reflect the time they were written but in a much less challanging way. 

Gilbert is a genuine rediscovery and a complete gem, his work deserves a much wider appreciation, it's some of the finest vintage crime around.