Adam Creed - Willing Flesh, John Malcolm - Circles and Squares, Michael Jecks - The Traitor of St Giles

I am somewhat behind on blogging the books, largely due to some rather shocking news I received last week, increasing the apathy, but I know me, the blog will just enter the twilight zone until I don't want to bother with it all.

All the same, I can't be bothered to do the usual format of posts, so I'm going to summarise them all in one go.



What was this about again?  Oh yeah, murdered prostitute, then another murdered prostitute and one had a pimp who was a Turk, the other a Russian, and a cop has to sort it all out, but it is oh so political and he also has problems of his own with his own doomed relationship.  Erm...zzzzzzzzzzz.  It didn't suffer the ignominy of not being finished, I stuck with it, but sorry, I literally lost the plot with this one, as it got far too convoluted...for no reason.  Oh, I'm meant to be reviewing this for SHOTS.  Oops.  My rating: 5/10.



Tim Simpson is a sorta cross between Lovejoy and a bank clerk, he finds artwork for investment.  He plans to take a risk with a rather lesser known painter who is an acquired taste.  However, it seems that someone has got in ahead of him, and he doesn't like that.  I once read a Booker prize nominee, or at least started to read it, and had the horrible thought that Malcolm's would also descend into the terrible farce the BP nominee was, as that was also based around a missing painting.  It didn't, and it was a surprisingly enjoyable read, although at times he didn't know whether to make it darkly comic or semi-serious.  My rating: 7/10.



A young man is forced to abjure the realm after confessing to the murder of his fiancee.  The family of the murdered girl are unhappy with the decision and seek justice of their own.  The morning after the man leaves, and a knight is found dead beside the headless corpse of the man, along with his two dogs, one also dead.  The Coroner is convinced that the felon killed the knight and was later lawfully executed, as he did not follow the highway.  Sir Baldwin and Simon Puttock have other ideas, and their investigation puts them in danger.  Jecks has become another firm favourite of mine, this is a cracking read.  Jecks reveals the nasty and smelly side of medieval life, and yeah, you can literally smell it at times.  Excellent characterisation, which I also love, along with the historical references from an era which I find fascinating.  My rating: 8/10.

Next: Not something I would normally read, but last time I went to the library, two of the books were completely random; one was the Malcolm, the other WEB Griffin - Double Agents.