Another month has whizzed by and there has been quite a lot of crime reading going on, with a few unexpecteds cropping up on my planned list. 13 books, 6 of them by women writers, 6 of them crime, 5 of them foreign language books. All in all, 11 countries were visited in the course of the reading (if we consider Wales a separate country). Only one that I regretted spending time on and one DNF, but since the latter was short stories, I didn’t feel guilty about it at all.
Stuart Turton: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – ambitious, mind-boggling, unexpected
Stuart Evans: The Caves of Alienation – interesting concept, perhaps a bit long in execution, but enjoyable
Katy Mahood: Entanglement – what-if novel, love story over the years, not my cup of tea
Tom Hanks: Uncommon Type – writes better than I expected (better than Sean Penn, for sure), but the stories are slight and feel like ‘so what’. DNF
Dan Lungu: I am an old Communist Biddy – thoughtful humorous appraisal of post-Communist life, wish I could have translated it
Victor del Arbol: A Million Drops – moving saga of idealogy, betrayals and survival, set in Spain and Soviet Russia. To be reviewed on Necessary Fiction asap.
Ödön von Horváth: Tales from the Vienna Woods – anything but pretty story of 1920s Vienna, will be taking a closer look at translation on my lbog
Spike Milligan: Puckoon – farce which nowadays doesn’t seem quite so funny (and probably even less so in the 1980s).
Margot Kinberg: Downfall – for fans of academic environments and less violent crime, a rather sad story of young people being let down by private interests
Karin Brynard: Weeping Waters – review coming up on Crime Fiction Lover, but an excellent new series about South Africa, which does not shy away from controversial topics such as race and land ownership
Rebecca Bradley: Fighting Monsters – Hannah is back on form, trying to cope with new boss, new team member and a potential harmful leak within the police force
Iona Whishaw: It Begins in Betrayal – attractive feisty heroine is a retired WW2 spy, with wholesome Canadian characters and unsavoury European ones – great period piece and fun. Review to come on Crime Fiction Lover.
Hanne Ørstavik: Love – excellent build-up of emotion and dread
So, how has your reading been in March, and what are you looking forward to reading in April?
findingtimetowrite 
Thank you for the kind mention, Marina Sofia! I appreciate the support. You’ve got quite a variety here of different stories. And I always love those reading months where you don’t feel as though you’ve wasted too much time on books you don’t like. Glad this was a good month for you.
It included a nice mix of challenging and comforting reads, which is rare when it happens!
I’m tempted by Entanglement which sounds as if it sits in the Maggie O’Farrell/ Versions of Us arena to me but now I’m not so sure.
I was just not the right audience for it. I know too much about physics and am not a huge fan of love stories.
Some good ones there, MS, but, according to my count, that’s 12 books rather than 13. Did you miss one?
Duh! I forgot the Asymptote Book Club one – Love by Hanne Ørstavik. I’ve just amended, thanks for drawing my attention to it!
Oh, and I was a bit bemused by your reference to Sean Penn. At least, that was so until, later in the day, a friend sent me a link to this review — which commentary I thought might amuse you.
All of the reviews are funny, some of them ruder than others. But really, quotes from the book do their job for them!
My thoughts exactly on The Seven Deaths. It was… different.