Sunday 22 December 2019

Pre-Christmas post...

I’ve been baking up a storm of gluten-free gingerbread cookies this morning (from a mix, but made with beans!), so I’m feeling tired out and not really in the mood to blog, but I have too much to do in the next couple of days in preparation for Christmas to put it off for another day.  So, fortified with a delicious cup of steeped chai tea, a yummy date bar, and a few gingerbread cookies, I’m all set to write a quick post, with the promise of a more lengthy, well-written and comprehensive post next week.
After reading Big Brother, I was in the mood for a good mystery so I pulled a paperback off my shelf and began reading The Red Room by Nicci French.  I have listened to other mysteries by this British husband-and-wife writing team, and I remember that they were a bit quirky but pretty engaging, and this book lived up to my expectations.  Kit Quinn is a criminal psychologist who works with many unsavoury characters as part of her job. This novel opens with her interview of Michael Doll, a suspicious character who has been loitering outside a schoolyard.  During the interview, he attacks her and slashes her face with a broken coffee mug. Three months later, she is back on the job after recovering from her injuries, although she is still plagued by nightmares of being trapped in a red room (hence the title).  She is called in by the police to assess Doll in relation to the murder of a young woman near the canal. During her investigation, she considers other crimes that have recently been committed in and around the area and suspects that they may be linked. The detectives on the case don’t necessarily agree with her, and are not always supportive, and the remainder of the novel shifts between Quinn acting on her own and the police following her advice.  While this novel didn’t “wow” me, the plot, characters, and conclusion were complex and satisfying enough to keep me reading to the very last page.  
Now I have a dilemma.  I am not interested in reading the book I have from the library, so I have to find something else to keep me busy over the holidays.  I’m not sure what kind of reading mood I’m in, but I want to pick something soon so I don’t waste too much of the glorious reading time I have, since I am off work for the next two weeks.
That’s all for today.  Have a Merry Christmas!  I hope you all get at least one good book as a gift!
Bye for now…
Julie

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