Annie W

Misguided Apprentices, Nasty Baddies, and a Touch of Mysticism, 21 May 2013

This sequel to 'Blue Fire and Ice' is a much deeper and slightly darker tale than the former. There's an intriguing wisp of mystic power flowing through the story - and not just with regard to the two new baddies and their spoorhounds. The strangeness of the Muddles and their 'mix' doesn't intrude, but has become merely an accepted nuisance, as has their unfailing ability to make career choices for which they are really not suited, yet, in this book, those weaknesses are things to be overcome, rather than a point of silliness, as they were before.

There are hidden and not so hidden messages in this book, from the two young apprentices so desperate to find fame, through the value… Read more

Very short short stories - and some a little chilling!, 13 May 2013

These are extremely short short-stories, and tightly-written. The bulk of them involve either Gervase Fen or Inspector Humbleby, but there are others, written from less conventional points of view, and some of these can leave a nasty chill...

Many of the puzzles are solved from the armchair, and fit Sherlock Holmes' complaint that, once they're explained, the solution is so simple - although no one else seems to have come up with an answer!

'Fen Country' is a most enjoyable read, with a clever mix of tales, addictive, and worth considerably more than the 99p price.

An exceptionally erudite Whitehall farce!, 13 May 2013

The overall story is quite bucolic, with pubs, village fetes, eccentric rectors, retired majors, hunts and their saboteurs, some very peculiar characters, a piglet - and a pig's head in a bag. Then there are the murders, however, and severed body parts. There are also incidents which are pure farce. In the midst of all of this is Gervase Fen, trying, rather half-heartedly, to write a publisher-commissioned book on modern novelists ( with some very interesting and astute observations on the authors).

It took some time to determine whether the book was to be taken seriously, or regarded as a comedy, and, in the end I just enjoyed it as a romp, from beginning to end. I worried about… Read more