February Books

I only read a paltry seven books in February.  I had too many things on my mind and couldn't settle or concentrate.  I have started a bunch of books, but we'll see how I do finishing them.  Here are the ones I finished:

     The Rogue Not Taken  -  MacLean
   
     The Road to Little Dribbling  -  Bryson

     A Faint Cold Fear  -  Slaughter

     Forty Plus and Fancy Free  -  Kimbrough

     Growing Up  -  Thirkell

     Murder by the Book  -  Brown

     Boundary Waters  -  Krueger

I hope to read more in March.  Spring is coming, isn't it?  Today is windy and much colder than yesterday.  Maybe the seasons are going backward.

Murder by the Book - Eric Brown

Donald Langham is a mystery writer and ex-private detective.  When his long time agent and friend, Charles Elder is blackmailed over a homosexual indiscretion (this is 1955 London, when homosexuality was a punishable crime), Donald agrees to try to find the blackmailer.  

Things turn nasty right away, when Donald makes the payment drop instead of Charles and is almost killed.

Then Donald notices that an awful lot of fellow mystery writers are meeting untimely and unnatural deaths.  He investigates and realizes that the dead men are being killed as in the books of a certain author.  He teams up with the police to find the killer, almost losing his life in the process.

Donald has admired Charles' secretary, Maria, a beautiful, wealthy French woman for a long time.  They work together to find the blackmailer and to find the killer.  They discover that they work  -  and play  -  together well.

This was a fun book.