FLYING TOO HIGH: KERRY GREENWOOD

Walking the wings of a Tiger Moth plane in full flight would be more than enough excitement for most people, but not for Phryne-amateur detective and woman of mystery, as delectable as the finest chocolate and as sharp as razor blades. Here the 1920s' most talented and glamorous detective flies even higher, handling a murder, a kidnapping, and the usual array of beautiful young men with style and consummate ease-and all before it's time to adjourn to the Queenscliff Hotel for breakfast. Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series was called "the best Australian import since Nicole Kidman" in Booklist's starred review of Away With the Fairies. Kerry Greenwood is the author of 38 novels and six non-fiction books.

Perfect reading for a hot summer day. I'll be checking out more of her adventures and hopefully finally figure out how to pronounce her first name.


IN SEARCH OF ENGLAND: H.V. MORTON .. non-fiction

From the travel writer whom Jan Morris has called "the much-loved master of the genre, often imitated but never matched." H. V. Morton peerlessly evokes the sights, the splendors, and the drama of history for tourists and armchair travelers alike.

Currently in its 40th printing with its original publisher in the UK, this is the book that one British newspaper has called "travel writing at its best. Bill Bryson must weep when he reads it." Whether describing ruined gothic arches at Glastonbury or hilarious encounters with the inhabitants of Norfolk, Morton recalls a way of life far from gone even at the beginning of a new century.
First published in 1927 this book is like a time machine. I had a great fun looking up terms and words and I checked websites to see how things compared today. My library doesn't have all his books but I will be reading as many as I can find. Great fun!




THE CROSSING PLACES: ELLY GRIFFITHS

Dr Ruth Galloway is in her late 30s. When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, she lectures at a university in Norfolk. She lives, alone but happily so, in a bleak, marshy area called Saltmarsh overlooking the sea and Norfolk's vast skies with her cats and Radio 4 for company. She's a salty character - quirky.
When a child's bones are found in the marshes, near a dig that Ruth and her former boyfriend Peter worked on ten years before, Ruth is called upon to date them. They turn out to be bronze-age bones and DCI Harry Nelson, who called on Ruth for help, is disappointed. He had hoped they would be the bones of a child called Lucy who's been missing, presumed dead, for ten years. He has been getting letters about her ever since - odd letters with references to ritual and sacrifice, and including quotes from the Bible and Shakespeare. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson gets another letter - like the ones about Lucy. Is it the same killer? Is it a ritual murder, linked in some way to the site near Ruth's remote home? Then one of Ruth's cats is killed and clearly she's in danger from a killer who knows that her expert knowledge is being used to help the police with their enquiries -

Another one of those lucky finds that was worth opening the cover. I'm going to be waiting for the next one.

.................................
3 books
month end: 8
to date: 65

June DVD:
Music and Lyrics
The Reader
Ghost Town
He's Just Not That Into You
No Reservations
Changeling
Revolutionary Road
Defiance
Bolt
Gran Torino
Owning Mahoney
Bottle Shock
Inkheart

Terminator Salvation..theatre