I’ve just returned from a week up in Far North Queensland to gale-force winds, rain and grey skies. And it’s Spring! In like a lion, out like a lamb is the old saying. In between tottering out for swims, beach walks, coffees and gelato, I lounged about and read.
My holiday reading was not very diverse. Murder seems to go with relaxation, somehow.
I borrowed this battered and well-read omnibus from the ‘crime room’ at the Maldon Athenaeum.
Dorothy Simpson is a new writer to me. Her detective, Inspector Thanet, works in a small English city and is – for a change – happily married with no drug or alcohol problems. Almost boringly well balanced. The 3 books I read were Midsomer without the bizarre elements; classic English village and small town characters, and the crimes all satisfyingly rooted in the past. The sensitive Thanet and his more stolid sergeant Mike Lineham snuffle like hounds through the lives of victims and suspects. What fun. Simpson wrote 15 Thanet novels in the 1980’s so I can work my way happily through all of them as the need arises.
My other crime spree was with a Brother Cadfael omnibus, this time on Kindle.
They’re set 
in and around the city of Shrewsbury in Shropshire at the time, in the 12th century, when a civil war, known as ‘the Anarchy’ was raging between supporters of the two claimants to the throne, King Stephen and the Empress Maud. Brother Cadfael is a Welsh Benedictine monk, a herbalist, healer and very excellent detective. Ellis Peters wrote 21 Brother Cadfael mysteries (I’ll bet there are plenty at the Athenaeum) and there was also a TV series starring Derek Jacobi.
Cadfael is an older man, kindly, wise, experienced and well-travelled (once a crusader) but now happily tending his herb garden and making up medicines in the Abbey in between crimes. The mysteries are middling but the historical background is fascinating. ‘The Anarchy’. Empress Maud. Who knew? Not me.
When I think about it, much of my knowledge of history comes from novels. I first fell in love with historical fiction when as a 14-year-old I read a big fat novel called Katherine by Anya Seton, and soon I was working my way through the Plantagenets and Tudors and Stuarts in fiction and in fact. I think this is where my interest in the history of fashion comes from, too. When I read about characters wearing kirtles and wimples and parti-coloured hose, I just had to look them up. Now, I’m wondering if Katherine is at the Athenaeum. I hope it has the 1970’s cover, which is the one I remember.
Ha ha, the first thing I did on starting to read your post was look up Dorothy Simpson at the Ath — bingo, there are no less than FIVE omnibuses of Inspector Thanet! Guess what I’m going to borrow next visit…
I’ve read one Cadfael mystery but it was years ago and deep into the series so I remember feeling slightly lost. Maybe time for a revisit.
I’ve never read Katherine (as a kid I would have made a beeline for it because it was my name). Do I have bandwidth for a big fat historical novel? I’m not sure, but the fact that it’s never been out of print augurs well 🙂
It all sounds like perfect holiday reading, and perfect guilt-free weather for indulging in a binge, too. I hope you came back well rested.
Don’t expect too much from these books, Kate! But I found them good for mindless, soothing, recreational English town-and-village comfort reading. Funny how a cosy murder can be soothing, but it is. Lots of other people seem to think so too, so unless we are all evil sociopaths, it’s just one of those things.