Audiobook Head. Thanks, Jeff!

Don't forget the marzipan! There was plenty of that over Christmas.

I had the opposite experience recently - I read an Anglicized version of an American YA novel. It was... strange. I knew perfectly well that an American teenager wouldn't be talking about (for example) knickers, so it jarred. But I was quite grateful for the parenthetical explanation of what corn dogs were (deep fried battered hot dogs, if you're interested) - it wasn't a major plot point, but I did wonder.

If it helps, the university IT department I work for has just had to upgrade all its computers because of the impending lack of support for Windows XP, and after looking at the options, they've chosen to go for Windows 7 rather than Windows 8. I haven't used Windows 8 much myself, but from what I hear on the grapevine, it does seem to be heading in the direction of being the new Vista.

Ah - a kindred spirit! According to a philosopher called John Perry, the problem is that we are horizontal organizers living in a world set up for vertical organizers. If you have a spare moment and want a giggle, I highly recommend his essay on this: http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/organization_port.php

You always get tea in your stocking!

Thanks, Roy. Most of the Golden Age fiction that gets adapted into classic mystery dramas falls squarely into the malice domestic category - and I suspect that's a big part of why it's still so popular today!

Apparently they're filming a new series of Endeavour, the Morse-as-a-young-copper series. So Oxford will still have an above average murder count, but only in the past, so I shan't lose too much sleep over it. There's a nice bit somewhere in C. S. Lewis where he says that humans are beings who live poised between time and eternity, and that as a result we crave both novelty and constancy. Something like the cycle of the seasons meets both these needs rather well: we have the same pattern of spring, summer, autumn, winter every year, but at the same time, this year's spring is not quite like last year's, so we don't get bored. For me, series are a bit like that. When I pick up a Julia Spencer-Fleming or a Jacqueline Winspear or a Jeff Cohen, in broad terms, I know what to expect: there's a central character, a writing style, and a general feel to the books that I've encountered before and know I can get along with. It reduces the element of risk: I'm fairly sure I'm not going to invest several hours of my life in reading something that will ultimately be disappointing. But at the same time, it's a whole new book, with new twists and turns to keep me guessing. So it can be a safe choice, and at the same time exciting.

I'd agree entirely that it's not a crime novel. But I'm more willing to call it a mystery, though admittedly of an unusual sort - it still revolves around the protagonist gradually gathering information and putting together the pieces of a puzzle, even if the puzzle is more 'Who am I?' than 'Whodunit?' So... maybe it's a literary mystery? Or a literary thriller? For me, it had all the qualities I want in a thriller (suspense, tension, ability to keep me glued to the page until the small hours) without all the stuff that other people apparently like, but which tends to bore me silly (violence, car chases - everything that comes under the broad heading of 'action'). The part of the book that I liked least was the end - which was the part that was most like a conventional thriller. The book needed some sort of dramatic climax along those lines, and it was handled perfectly well - but my reaction was still 'Yes, yes - can we get this out of the way so we can get back to the actual plot?' But that's probably just me!

I guess so! :-) I hadn't actually thought of tracking the reviews of particular Amazon reviewers - perhaps I'll have to try that. Though it feels like finding people whose opinion I trust and who happen to have reviewed the books I'm interested in would be a bit hit and miss...

Hi Pam, I think I might have to look out for books by Anne Perry - I recognize the name, but don't think I've actually read anything of hers. Thanks for the recommendation! I concealed the name of the author because I was being so unremittingly negative about the book - focusing entirely on the things that annoyed me, rather than attempting to give a balanced review. But as you're curious, I've sent you a message via your FB profile!

Hi Adele, That's a very good point - I've certainly had the experience of feeling I've learnt something new and surprising while reading historical fiction. Though as you probably gathered, this author unfortunately didn't inspire that sort of confidence in me. There's a section in HRF Keating's 'Writing Crime Fiction' where he says that a sense of a historical setting is often best given by use of small unexpected details - if I remember rightly, the example he gives is a reference to roast mutton being served as part of breakfast. That sort of thing works well: it's subtle enough not to be distracting, but still unusual enough to provoke the 'Hmm, I never knew that' reaction.

Thanks, Jeff! I think being taken out of the story is a key thing here. With this particular book, that happened for me both with the mistakes, and with something (the use of 'Wow!') that turned out to be correct. I think the author could have handled the latter in a way that wouldn't have been problematic (say if the boy's mother had commented on his use of new-fangled slang), but that wasn't the case here. So to avoid distracting readers, perhaps authors sometimes also need to avoid things that aren't actually wrong, but which might be perceived as being so!

There's always the Dorothy L. Sayers approach - when she got tired of writing Lord Peter Wimsey novels, she decided to end the series by marrying him off. ... Of course, it didn't quite work out the way she planned. By the time she got towards the end of Strong Poison, she realized that there was no way the character she'd created would accept Lord Peter's proposal under the circumstances, and it took her several more books to bring them together (and even then, the detection didn't stop). But it did give the world Have His Carcase and Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon, so I for one am certainly not complaining!

They weren't particularly star-crossed, but the 60s sit-com 'Bewitched' revolved around a witch who married a mortal. Also, to switch genres somewhat, the title character in Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta Iolanthe is a fairy who marries a mortal and gets banished for it. Being an immortal, she looks younger than her own son, which causes all sorts of plot confusion when the son's fiancee sees them together and concludes that he's cheating on her...

Thanks!

Hi, Alison! I've been trying to remember if I've ever read a manuscript and thought it needed more background detail at the start. If I have, I can't call it to mind. :-)

I'm amazed you haven't mentioned Julia Spencer-Fleming! I've been thinking that this would be the perfect weather in which to curl up with one of hers, if only the new one were out... In terms of classic crime, Agatha Christie's The Sittaford Mystery also relies on heavy snow as a key plot device.