Book Reviews and #TackleTBR update day 6

This is my second update for my Tackle TBR challenge, and I thought I might as well give you some mini-reviews as well.  This is a bit scary, because usually I do my review posts well in advance, then I don’t have to worry about getting the post up to date before it comes out overnight.

Week 1
What I read Friday: The King’s Sword
Number of pages read: c. 185 (59%)
Thursday’s finished books: The House at Sea’s End by Elly Griffiths (Ruth Galloway #3)
Total number of finished books: 3
Reviews of finished books:

The House at Sea’s End by Elly Griffiths

This got promoted in my list of reading matter because I’m going to see the author tomorrow at the Noirwich crime festival – more news on Monday.  Like all the Ruth Galloway murder mysteries this is set in Norfolk (tick Local Heroes Challenge box), and involves the discovery of bones that requires the archaeologist to get involved with the DCI in charge of the case, Harry Nelson.  I really like this series, although I wonder if the tension between Ruth and Nelson (the father of her child but a married man) will overwhelm future episodes.  Worry about the safety of the baby, Kate, infiltrated even my stony heart during this exciting episode, but I wouldn’t want that to feature too much in future stories.  While I was reading, two questions occurred to me that I’d love to ask Ms Griffiths tomorrow – I hope I can remember them.  One was about writing the details of a palaeontologist’s description of the bones – how much technical background did she have before she wrote the books?  The other was when did she decide to include Kate, the baby, in the series plot – or did it just emerge from the characters own actions in the first book?  The House at Sea’s End is excellent, as usual!  See my reviews of The Crossing Places and The Janus Stone.

Jungle Land by R M DuChene

This fell into the category of books I put on my Kindle in Jan 2014, when I got it, and I’d had this for around six months before that, I suspect as a free book.  The first half of the tale of two brothers as they grow up in impoverished circumstance in the 1980s is gripping, but I felt the tension drift as they expanded their circle a little.  If it hadn’t been for the curious circumstances at the start, I could have given up on it, but it revived after another quarter of the book to a very bloodthirsty climax and somewhat tame ending.  Worth keeping going with it.  I hope I had an early copy and some further editing has taken place since.  Note: I checked but haven’t been able to find this for sale anywhere; Goodreads lists it as a Smashwords edition, but I can’t find it there or in my Smashwords library..

Rounding the Mark (Montalbano #7) by Andréa Camilleri

If you haven’t seen the tv series or read earlier books in the series, then you need to start at the beginning, since Inspector Montalbano’s disgust at Sicilian politics and their effect on policing get him very depressed in this episode.  In fact, it one of the darkest ones, since the crimes he sets out to solve are also more depressing than usual.  Again the author has just the right touch of police procedural, comic turns, beautiful description and favourite characters to keep the reader hooked.  This is one of his best.  Check out some of my earlier reviews of this series.