Conjugal Rites

I picked up Conjugal Rites by Paul Majrs (pronounced Mars) mainly because Russell T Davies, the man mainly responsible for the resurrection of Dr Who, had proclaimed Majrs "a great novellist". I hate to disagree with Mr Davies, of whose Dr Who programmes I am a fan, but such a designation is ludicrous. Conjugal Rites is entertaining if one likes that sort of thing and I am sure that it will go down well among students at minor universities to whom "different" equals "talent" but for mainstream readers like myself "way out" equals "early exit". This is another volume that I failed to read all the way through.

The Key

Although first published in nineteen forty six The Key by Patricia Wentworth is set at some indeterminate time during the Second World War. An emigre scientist, Michael Harsch, has for years been working on a new super explosive at a laboratory in the small village of Bourne in the rural Home Counties. He completes his final experiment and phones his government contact to report success but that night he commits suicide. Or does he? There are, of course, a multiplicity of suspects but on to the scene comes Miss Silver to point Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Lamb and Detective Sergeant Abbott on to the right conclusion once again. I have yet to read a book by Miss Wentworth that fails to satisfy me. A comfy armchair and a quiet afternoon or evening is all one needs to be transported to a time when the English language was still in common use and characters could express themselves without resorting to obscenities.

The Last Testament

The Last Testament by Sam Bourne is advertised as in the style of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code but as with so many imitators it falls short of the original. If one is into this kind of thing it will pass a pleasing few hours but I admit that I read only the first two hundred pages. Until now I have refrained from writing anything about a book that I did not like or did not finish reading but of late I feel that I owe it to my readers (if any) to say what I feel about any volume that falls into my hands. If anyone feels that I am being unfair to the writers concerned by doing this please leave a comment.

The Siege of Khartoum

The Siege of Khartoum by John Wilcox takes that famous episode and provides another adventure for his hero Simon Fonthill and his companion 352 Jenkins. One of Victorian England's most popular soldiers, General Gordon, is sent by the British Government to organise the evacuation of Khartoum which is threatened by the forces of The Mahdi. Whether by accident or design Gordon finds himself organising not an evacuation but a defence and as the Mahdi and his forces close in the pressure is on the British Government to send a rescue mission. The Prime Minister William Gladstone is reluctant to engage in the Sudan and constantly frustrates General Wolseley in his attempts to progress down the Nile towards Khartoum. Wolseley is also frustrated by the conflicting messages he receives from Gordon and so sends Fonthill and Jenkins to penetrate Khartoum and return with an appraisal of the situation. They manage to infiltrate the city through the lines of the beseigers but are captured on the way back and after surviving brutal treatment that would have left this writer a gibbering wreck return to British lines too late to save Gordon. This is the sixth Fonthill adventure and the fourth that I have read. I shall most certainly endevour to read the other two.

Ship of Rome

Ship of Rome is the first in a series by new writer John Stack and if this is any indication a first class series it will be! The story is set at the beginning of the Punic Wars, that epic conflict between the newly emerging power of Rome and the established mercantile empire of Carthage. After a series of wars with other city states Rome has become the dominant power on the mainland of Italy and now looks to the island of Sicily on which Carthage already has several bases. The Carthaginians had been defeated at the Battle of Agrigentum confirming the superiority of the Roman Legions in land battles but the Roman forces needed constant re-supply from the mainland and this was their weakness as Carthage was as dominant on the seas as Rome on land. How Rome built a navy from scratch and defeated the blockading Carthaginians is the story that Ship of Rome tells in a narrative that propels the reader onwards like a galley at ramming speed. This kind of book would never be reviewed by the Times Lit Sup and would be greeted with utter disdain by the literati but for those of us who like a rollicking good story straightforwardly told this is about as good as it gets.

Silent in the Sanctuary

Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn is a very entertaining Victorian murder mystery and is the second outing for her heroine Lady Julia Grey and the enigmatic Nicholas Brisbane. Lady Julia is recalled from Italy by her father the Earl March (I wonder what the Duke of Richmond's heir thinks of that?) to spend Christmas at the familly home Bellmont Abbey. One of the guests is Julian Snow the local Curate, who appears to live well above his income, and Nicholas Brisbane accompanied by a widow who he introduces as his fiancee. One of the guests is murdered in the chapel, another makes an hysterical confession of guilt and claims sanctuary (hence the title) and yet another turns out to be a professional jewel thief. Mis Raybourn's narrative is very entertaining but the book cover description of "wickedly witty" is going it a bit. The ending was rather spoiled for me when Lady Julia takes a priceless set of pearls given to her by her late husband and gives them to a gypsy. As one does!!! Surely if she did not want the pearls they should have been returned to the Grey familly where they had been kept for generations or perhaps to one of her sisters. I do not know why writers feel compelled to make their leading characters indulge in quite ridiculous acts of altruistic generosity. It does not happen in real life and often spoils the atmosphere of the book which it has taken the writer hundreds of pages to establish.