Book 42 of 2022

I just finished Castle Skull by John Dickson Carr, originally published in 1931. This is a golden age crime novel with occult overtones, set in an atmospheric spooky castle above the Rhine. The central mystery is a good idea, but I found there were too many characters introduced, which ended up as a large bunch of red herrings. The key detective was also puzzlingly non participatory (but present) in several key scenes. And the ending was unlikely. So overall not a hit for me, though I will probably try his Paris waxworks whodunnit sometime. Rating 2/5.

Current reading (novels)

Here’s a collage of the novels I’ve been reading very recently. Just finished Castle Skull (1931) by John Dickson Carr. Still reading the forgotten fantasy Lud In The Mist (1926) by Hope Mirrlees. Newly reading book 4 of the Wheel of Time, The Shadow Rising (1992) by Robert Jordan.

The first of these I discovered by chance while browsing the British Library fiction reprints, and immediately bought for my Kindle and started reading the same night. Lud In The Mist has been on my radar for years, having heard Neil Gaiman praise it in person several times. Finally got to it! And well, yes, more Wheel of Time. Worryingly my Kindle estimates it will take me 22 hours to read that latest one!