Book Review: Margaret Murphy – Now You See Me

The library has placed ‘Cri’ on the spine of this book, and it’s justified!

The story starts with Megan Ward going missing and being reported by her landlady as a missing person.

Then the landlady turns up dead.

This is an intriguing story about computer hacking and shady people who operate outside the law but manage to remain squeaky clean; and one hacker’s mission to bring them to justice.

I enjoyed it and will keep my eye out for more work by Margaret Murphy.

Book Review: Nora Roberts writing as J.D.Robb – Seduction in Death

I enjoy Nora Roberts’ romantic fiction, and decided to give her crime writing a try.

There are a whole series of these crime novels, which are set a little into the future in New York City, and this book is not the first in the series, so I may have missed out on some development of the character of Lieutenant Eve Dallas which occurred in previous books.

This story was about a series of killings of young women who had been drugged with powerful date-rape drugs, and it dipped into Eve’s background as an abused youngster.

One of the nice things about setting your stories in the future is that you can use things that don’t currently exist to help your plots along, including easy-to-apply disguises, medicines to cure 24-hour bugs, and cars which you can program with a destination and just switch to ‘auto’ so that they drive themselves.

I enjoyed the book and might dip into some more J.D.Robb later on.

Book Review: Tamara McKinley – Dreamscapes

I’m not having much luck with the way the library categorises books at present. This one has ‘Cri’ on its spine, and yes, a crime is committed in the book (several in fact) but I wouldn’t describe this as crime fiction.

The story follows the life of Catriona Summers, who is born to travelling music hall performers and from those humble beginnings, rises to be an opera star. The inside of the book jacket summarises the book as being about how scandalous secrets associated with her early years are threatening to come out in later life, which is probably where the library got the idea that this is a crime novel.

The book spends a lot of time on Catriona’s early years, right up to and past the time when the crimes were committed, following Catriona’s progress from living in a travelling wagon in Outback Australia through to her studying in Sydney, and her marriage to her agent. After that, the book rather glosses over her performing career and picks up again when Catriona is nearing the end of her career as a singer, by which time she is making her home in Outback Australia.

The crimes do come to light towards the end of the novel, which completes a parallel thread in the book following three generations of policemen, and how the revelations are handled occupies the end of the novel, which has a surprisingly happy ending, considering some of the events which took place earlier in the book.

Entry for November 17, 2007 – Reliant

Stephen drives a Reliant Rialto. Or I should say, Stephen would drive his Reliant Rialto if only the clutch wasn’t broken! Here it is on the driveway with chocks in front of all three wheels to stop it from rolling down the driveway, which is steep, and which it can’t otherwise be prevented from rolling down when it can’t be left in gear.

It’s been in this sorry state for over a month now. It broke down just before we went on holiday, so Stephen didn’t do anything about it until we came back, and now he’s worried about the cost of the repair, so he’s been putting it off.

It really will have to be repaired though, because it’s difficult to get to Stephen’s Mum’s place without a vehicle, so I’ve been taking Stephen to see her. And to do her shopping. We can often combine it with our own shopping, but it’s still an extra responsibility in my life, which is already busy enough.

I did get to have a nice cuddle with Molly the cat while we were at Stephen’s Mum’s place today. I communed with Sam as well, but he’s not a lap-cat. It’s nice to see Stephen’s Mum, too – it would just be nicer if I didn’t have to do it.

Website update: Chislehurst Rotary Fireworks 2007

I’ve got my Guy Fawkes Night pictures for 2007 online.

They can be found here.

The Pentax K10D li-ion battery definitely lasts better than the rechargeable AA batteries that the *ist DS uses. I did the bonfire and the fireworks on one battery, and it still had some go left in it when I’d finished.

Entry for November 07, 2007 – Autumn Colour

We’ve got autumn colour! It’s been with us for a week now, and there’s no way of knowing how long it will last. It would have been good to take a day off and go up to Kew and catch the autumn foliage there, but it might not happen as work’s been rather busy, and by the time I manage to find a day I’m allowed to take off, either the weather will be wrong or the leaves will be all gone.

It’s been interesting watching the changes in our back garden. Stephen planted a passion flower along the back fence and it’s climbed into the pear tree. The leaves of the passion flower and the pear tree have been changing colour at different rates. I’ll have to check, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are even still some flowers left on the passion flower. It does surprisingly well.

I went to the chirporactor for some maintenance on my back today, and there are an increasing number of leaves on the ground along the route I took. It doesn’t bode well for a day of autumn foliage photography next week, but if we don’t get wind and rain, who knows, maybe there will still be something to photograph.

Anyway, before we know it, there are going to be Christmas decorations to photograph… 🙂

Entry for November 06, 2007 – Guy Fawkes Night

I’m a couple of days late posting this. Guy Fawkes Night was actually last night, but the majority of the bonfires and fireworks displays were last Saturday evening.

Our local one, which is staged by the Chislehurst Rotary Club, was last Saturday.

Stephen and I took loads of pictures of the bonfire, the fireworks, and everything else that was going on.

The picture shows some fireworks exploding in the night sky and lighting up the school playground where they were set off from. The crowd viewed the fireworks from the Recreation Ground on the other side of the chain link fence and well back from where the display was being set off from.

When I get my pictures (and maybe some of Stephen’s too) onto our website, I’ll post a link.