My final four books of the year:
"An Autobiography" by Agatha Christie.
A fascinating, although certainly "selective", account of Christie's life. She certainly led an interesting life - eg after reading in the newspaper an account of Leonard Woolley's excavations at Ur in the late 1920s, she travelled on her own overland to Iraq to see the site for herself, which was a very unusual thing for a single woman to do at the time. Fascinating reading. Highly recommended.
"Keeper of the King" by Nigel Bennett and P.N. Elrod. The first book in the "Ethical Vampires" series. Originally bought from Baen probably around 2000-ish, but seems no longer to be available from them, although later books in the series are.
Quote:
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Forces greater than even the magic of Merlin granted him his dark immortality. Over a thousand years ago he was Richard d'Orleans, undefeated champion of Normandy, then he was Lancelot du Lac, Arthur's greatest knight. Now he is Richard Dun, security specialist in modern Toronto, but still he hears the irresistible summons of the old ways and...answers them. To save the woman he loves above all else, he must do the impossible. Once more, the last defender of Camelot must begin anew his quest for the grail...and this time to succeed - or die forever.
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I don't normally go in for vampire stories, but I really enjoyed this one. An excellent romp involving searching for the Holy Grail. Again highly recommended, but I don't know if or where it can still be bought.
"Fer-de-Lance" by Rex Stout.
The first book in the "Nero Wolfe" series. This is my first encounter with this author (and series), and I really didn't know what to expect, since I am mainly a lover of classic British detective fiction, in which the clues are laid out, and it's the reader's task to try to solve the crime along with the detective. This isn't like that at all. In case anyone else hasn't read it, Nero Wolfe is an "armchair detective" - an enormously fat man private investigator who never leaves his New York home, but has a team of helpers, primarily Archie Goodwin (the narrator of the book) who does his "legwork" for him.
In this story, Wolfe is commissioned to try to track down Carlo Maffei, an Italian immigrant who is the brother of the wife of one of Wolfe's associates. Carlo turns up dead, and Wolfe is embroiled in a case involving the death of a high-profile university president and booby-trapped golf clubs.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and look forward to reading the rest of the series.
"His Father's Son" by Nigel Bennett and P.N. Elrod.
The second book in the "Ethical Vampires" series, which I bought from Baen in May 2001. Unlike the first book in the series, this one is still available.
Quote:
He was once called Lancelot, King Arthur's greatest knight. She was once called Sabra of the Lake, high priestess to the hidden goddess. Now ... they are vampires, united by unbreakable ties of blood and sworn to protect the weak no matter the cost to themselves.
And at the dawn of the new millennium, Lord Richard still stalks, still fights ... still kills.
In the dead of night, a desperate plea for help calls him to the rescue of a woman he had loved and lost. Reality and dream merge in a macabre dance of death as Richard seeks to save those few fragile human lives he has sworn a blood-oath to protect. Haunted by the anguish and raptures of his ancient past and locked in a lethal struggle to survive in the present, Richard must reconcile the two if he is ever to find eternal peace.
But the price that the Dark Fates demand of him is very high. For over a thousand years he has served them well, yet now they want all he has left: his battered and tarnished soul....
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Again, very enjoyable.