I Love Reading

Written for https://pcguyiv.wordpress.com/2024/06/18/truthful-tuesday-june-18th-2024/

Would you consider yourself a reader? Who are some of your favorite authors? Do you prefer more intricate prose, similar to that of Regency and Victorian era English literature, such as the works of Jane Austen, or do you prefer the tighter and more direct offerings of early to mid-20th century American authors, such as Hemmingway? Or maybe something else? What authors best represent the style of writing you prefer?

I enjoy reading (I cannot remember learning) and my primary book was ‘‘Janet and John’’ phonic books. We learnt, I suspect, by repetition. Janet helped Mummy clean house, and John assisted Daddy in fixing the car.

They weren’t the best role models.

I perused my proper paperback when I was five. Katie, quickly followed by What Katie Did Next. I adored the Twins of St Claires, The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, and Enid Blyton’s other novels.

As an adult, I like a lot of women’s fiction.

Most of the stories are set in the second and first world war. My favourite is by Fiona McIntosh. The Lavender Keeper and The French Promise, follows Luc and Lissette. She is a British Spy, and he is in the French Resistance. Their affair continues after the violence has finished. Luc, an adopted German, brought up in a Jewish family, loses his sisters to the concentration camps. Lisette has another relationship with a German officer, and revisits him when her son dies in a tragic accident.

I shifted into thrillers when I wrote In The Dark. (A work in progress) It is about Sarah, a reporter investigating the movement of drugs from one area to another, crossing county lines and using teenagers to do it. Her brother committed suicide when he was sixteen because he was involved. Twenty years later her husband is killed after picking her up from a meeting with an informant.

The author, N V Peacock, who leads my writing group, has her own books. They do not link in a series. In Order of publication, Little Bones, The Brother, and The Thirteenth Girl. In her subsequent writing, she wrote from two perspectives; the murderer and his biological sister. Through a DNA sample, the female lead, uncovers her roots after a genealogy test reveals her adoption. All she knows is one of her four brothers is a serial killer, but doesn’t know which.

This author has recently launched a podcast ‘‘Down The Red Rabbit Hole’’ on Apple Podcasts, and it is a mix of true crime and the inspiration for fictional novels.

Jane Isaac is another author, and I love her phycological thrillers; A Deathly Silence and An Unfamiliar Murder. All have the same protagonist, DCI Helen Lavery. A mother with a hectic home life, and a job to locate a murderer.

My latest is where the character, Jane Tennison, is a police detective, working in the nineties. I started it in May and still only a third of the way through. Nothing to do with the quality, just my lack of hours.

If I try to engage before I go to sleep, I am so tired; it isn’t worth picking it up.

I wish I could read more, and have in the past, but in the last six months I am finding it difficult to find time. An excuse? Probably. But when I work, edit a novel, and write on a blog it is difficult. Our school holidays are in the middle of July, so the hope is, I will.

Have you got any you would recommend?