We've had our fun this summer, and now it's time to slap masks on. The resurrected State Fair, attended by two million people, has spread Covid and case numbers are up, but hey, why cancel when you can make money? "I'm loving it," the governor said. And I'm sure that deep-fried chicken egg salad sandwich was worth it.
Actually, I was ill this week myself, and I wondered, Is it Delta? If only it were the Nile Delta instead. We were supposed to be on vacation.
While I was sick I read Elly Griffiths's smart new mystery, The Night Hawks. Earlier this year I had devoured her charming novel, The Postscript Murders, which centers on the murder of a mystery writer.
The Night Hawks is the 13th in her Ruth Galloway series, and it is a police procedural. You needn't start with the first book: Griffiths explicates Ruth's personal and professional background inthe first chapter of the convoluted narrative. Ruth is a forensic archaeologist who is also the new chairman of the archaeology department at the University of North Norfolk. And she is a consultant to the police, specifically DCI Nelson, her married former lover and the father of their daughter, Kate.
I love reading novels about work, and the development of complicated professional relationships. Ruth must contend with a prickly male colleague who seems threatened by her, and also with a group of amateur archaeologists, the Night Hawks, who putter around at night with metal detectors and are lucky enough to discover a site with a Bronze Age corpse. On that same night the Night Hawks find the dead body of a young man on the beach. Ruth is called in to help with the murder case, and also must supervise the dig. More murders are committed, each discovered by one or more members of the Night Hawks.
And then near the end it turned into a psychological drama, which I found disappointing and not quite believable. But it is possible that I don't read enough police procedurals.
Happy Weekend Reading! And what are you reading, by the way?
Sounds like an interesting mystery, despite the (slight?) disappointment at the end. I don't read that many police procedurals myself, although I do love mysteries. It may sound a little pessimistic, but I mostly expect to be slightly disappointment at my more popular reads. This doesn't stop me from enjoying them, however.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to know you can pick this one up in the middle of the series. With these long-running series, knowing where to start can be a problem.
Isn't it an awful sign of the times we live in, when your first thought with a minor illness is whether it's Covid, Delta style? Been there myself!
Perhaps the early Ruth Galloway books are better - that is possible - but she is quite good. and I do like reading series books. I was laid low, but hank God I'm better, whether Covid, flu, or other unknown bug!
DeleteBy the way . . . regarding your query, I literally just finished Elif Shafak's 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World, on my TBR list since publication and an impulse choice (there are lots of things on my TBR list). Last week I also read two short (novellas, really) but dense works, Clarice Lispector's Hour of the Star & Nona Fernández's Space Invaders. Obviously I'm on a "Women in Translation" kick with the last two! All very interesting works but I'll probably be too lazy to post anything on them.
ReplyDeleteOh my God, Women in Translation month! I'd forgotten. Or rather I noted it at the beginning of the month and then started reading other books. I may have that same Clarice Lispecter. As to Fernandez, that name is new to me.
DeleteCheers!
Just now reading many books but the one at midnight is David Nicolls' One Day. Better than it seems on the surface at first, much better The same holds true for his Us. If you are looking for something deeply humane and curiously strengthening because of the sense of humor running through them.
ReplyDeleteI remember other literary bloggers' enjoying One Day. I say, Viva la Light Reading!
Deletei'm glad you recovered okay... this sounds like kind of a multi-tasking effort, with perhaps too many intentions lumped together?
ReplyDelete