Listen, do you want to know a secret?

Just finished The House at Riverton ready for Reading Group on Friday night. A delicious family saga which opens up like a Terry's chocolate orange at the end. Some of the 'secrets' contained in the plot are not so subtle, more like lumbering great elephants hurtling towards you over the hill, but that is OK, it helps the poor reader to think, "oh I saw that one coming." Reading the opening 30 or 40 pages I thought I had picked up Atonement again...set in a large country house, with a lake, in the early 20th century, a group of children rehearsing a play, a visitor who becomes pivotal to the story...heigh ho, the story soon picked up pace and overall was a pleasure to read.

Chocolate for the mind

Work is just crazy at the moment, as fast as I cross something off my 'to do' list, something else is added on to the bottom. That being the case I need a little bit of the chocolate for the mind. Something straightforward and soothing. The first of my little comfort books was strangely a murder mystery, the first in the Rebus series. 'Knots and Crosses' by Ian Rankin. I love murder mysterys especially TV ones, though I had never watched many Rebus. This was fairly straightforward and really picked up pace as the book went on. Rankin has made Rebus a complex enough character for there to be plenty of threads to unravel in later books.

The second book I've picked up is an Agatha Raisin. I'm so glad I found this series. They are just ripping good yarns that take a couple of hours to read. The heroine Agatha Raisin is acerbic but flawed and therefore likeable. Love 'em.