In June/July I visited Scotland, including Inverness, the Highlands and Edinburgh. When I traveled up to the lake at the end of July I brought along a number of books that had been on my (virtual) shelf for a long time, all set in Scotland, because it seemed the right time to read them. So this month is heavy on Scotland. And I must admit that, at the end of the month, I was working on the last "Scottish" book on my virtual shelf but didn't finish it , so it will be in next month's summary.
- Murder in Piccadilly by Charles Kingston. This 1936 mystery was re-published in 2015 as part of the British Library Crime Classics series. A few years ago I bought my mom a set of 12 British Library Crime Classics, but I don't think she had read any of them when she passed away. This is the second one I've tried and I was unimpressed. This is a murder mystery where the murder doesn't appear until halfway through the book. The first part of the book sets up all the reasons why the wealthy but unlikeable victim would be murdered by any number of people (all of whom are stereotypes and almost all of whom are awful). The second part of the book is the detective trying to solve the murder and he's not very likeable either. On the whole - not recommended.
- The Bookseller of Inverness by S.G. MacLean. Iain MacGillivray survived the Battle of Culloden and transportation to the colonies and now, six years later, he is back in his hometown of Inverness running a bookshop and keeping his head down. But then his father Hector, an agent of the exiled King and a wanted man, turns up in town and Iain finds a murdered man in his bookshop with the Jacobite symbol of the white cockade on the hilt of the dagger that killed him. This novel had a very good sense of place (I enjoyed recognizing many of the places I visited) and interesting characters. The mystery was a little far-fetched for my taste but it did move along. My attitude to the Jacobites and their cause in the aftermath of Culloden was, perhaps, influenced by the attitude of one of my tour guides in Scotland who spent a great deal of time trying to convince us that the Battle of Culloden/Bonnie Prince Charlie and the King over the Water was little more than a fight among rich people for power and that the "little people" were used in their fight. Which may be true, but this novel did show what the "little people" were up against as Redcoats patrolled the streets of Inverness in the aftermath and a way of life was disappearing. On the other hand, the characterizations in this novel are very shaded and even some of the Redcoats turned out to be ok. On the whole I enjoyed this.
- Rose Nicolson by Andrew Greig. Another Scottish book but in a later time period - the fifteenth century. Mary Queen of Scots has fled to England and King James VI is but a boy. The main character, William Fowler, the son of money-lenders (although they aren't called that) has grown up in Edinburgh amongst the conflicts and now he is off to St. Andrews for University. There he makes friends with another student, a local boy named Tom Nicolson, and Tom's sister Rose. Many of the characters in this novel were real people and I didn't realize until the end that William Fowler himself was a real person - a poet very much a part of the court of James VI/I. The novel is written as a memoir by the much older Fowler looking back on his young self. I feel certain there will be a sequel because this memoir ends when Fowler is only a few years out of University. I enjoyed this novel and do recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction.
- Queen Hereafter by Susan Fraser King. Another Scottish book. This is the story of Queen Margaret of Scotland, she of sainted name. I knew little about her before this novel except that she was Anglo-Saxon, married Malcom (who killed MacBeth) and was a saint. Even after reading this novel I didn't find her a very interesting character - all that fasting and religiousness didn't appeal to me. The real main character is Eva, who is the daughter of the deceased King Lulach (MacBeth's stepson also killed by Malcom ), living as a hostage at the court of Malcom and Margaret. She makes friends with Margaret but is torn between her loyalty to Margaret and loyalty to her grandmother Gruoch (the widow of MacBeth and still a power in the north). Despite all this history this is a very light read and it mostly left me unsatisfied. I like my historical fiction to be dense and leave me wanting more.
- Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. This was a complete change of pace. A novel set in the distant past, the recent past and the future, it revolves around an ancient manuscript describing a silly young man's desire to go to "Cloud Cuckoo Land". One part of the story contains the fall of Constantinople and the saving of the manuscript (although greatly damaged). Another part of the novel is about a man in 20th century Idaho who translates the manuscript and works with a group of children to dramatize it. The other part takes place at some point in the future where a girl who appears to be on a spaceship bound for another planet becomes somewhat obsessed with the manuscript. I found this novel hard going. Doerr not only shifts between stories, he goes backwards and forwards in time within each story. The chapters are short, which for me meant that I never really was invested in any of the stories until the book was half over. Given that the hardback version I was reading was 622 pages, it took 300 pages for me to even begin to care about the characters. Full disclosure, I was not someone who loved Doerr's well loved novel "All the Light we Cannot See". I thought he relied too much on tropes and was bent on telling a "feel good" story no matter how dark the time was. I felt much the same in this novel. When I began, I was hoping it would compare well to one of my favorite novels - "Dream of Scipio" by Iain Pears. That novel is also about a manuscript that ties together three stories taking place in three different time periods. But they don't really compare. Pears' novel really made me think long and hard about what "civilization" meant and how people respond when they see their civilization threatened. I understood the "why" of the novel. Doerr sets his stories amongs war, domestic terrorism and climate change, and almost as importantly the threat of losing culture's stories. And yet ... he resolves all of his stories on a positive note. I couldn't find the "why" of the novel. At best he seems to be saying that bad times happen in every generation and what is necessary is to have a positive attitude ... and take reading seriously. On the whole, I didn't care for this novel. It was a lot of work and not enough payoff.
- Wild Fire by Ann Cleves. The last novel in the Shetland Series. Apparently Ann Cleves' husband died just as she was finishing this novel. They had originally met in Shetland on Fair Isle. She feels it would be too painful to continue the series. She doesn't really wrap up Jimmy Alvarez' story completely but also doesn't end it on a complete cliff hanger. The mystery was fine. Mostly I liked these novels for their sense of place, which is always good.
