[gmw]

Since my last post...

The Crossing Places and The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths (aka Domenica de Rosa). These are the first two in the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries series. They're both good fun. An interesting blend: more serious than cozy murder mysteries but rather more personal and domestic than many police or forensic procedural stories. The characters and their interactions are what give these stories their spark, and have you looking to get to the next book. A comfortable 4/5 for both these, and I will be reading more from the series, just not straight away.

The 1,000-Year-Old Boy by Ross Welford. A middle-grade children's story. I liked the story idea but ended up finding the execution quite annoying: alternating first person perspectives but the voices are not distinct enough; many short chapters each with crude cliff-hanger sentences "if only I had known what was to happen"; and I felt it was a condescendingly simple treatment of the subject even for middle-grade. I give it a fence-sitting 2.5/5.


Now I'm reading The Octopus and I by Erin Hortle. At 40% in I'm pretty sure I will finish it but it's ... odd. Far from subtle, especially in how Australian it is, it's also intriguing and different, and I like different.