Over the festive season it was a relief not to hear anything about the current UK political situation because I had become thoroughly depressed. I found that even reading anything serious during my usual hibernation period was not sufficient relaxation, and so I turned to my tried and tested means of escape: detective novels.
This time, however, there is a twist. I had only just found out that Susan Hill had written a series of crime novels, and decided to get the first one for my Kindle. Well, I enjoyed that - it did the trick of distracting me - and so I went on to the second, ... .
Now I am on the 7th, and intend to go right up to her current latest one before I emerge. It is rather like reading a doorstop saga of engaging quality, and is helping me to put news and commentary programmes into a small box.
I’m not surprised. She is addictive!
ReplyDeleteYes, Margaret, I'm on her current title now, and am somewhat dreading having to surface soon!
DeleteI have not read any Susan Hill novels, so thanks for posting this - I will rectify, once back in the UK.
ReplyDeleteThis series - or, serial as I have treated the nine novels - is not at all like the first books by Susan Hill which I read many years ago. Her first few novels were dark and psychologically mysterious - I'm the King of the Castle, and Bird of Night especially. The latter was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1972. There was a great gap of, well, decades when she did not produce anything which drew my attention, and so I was delighted to find the Simon Serrailler titles just when I needed them. But they served as comfort blankets, which the early books were not.
DeleteI really do enjoy reading that way. I guess it is the old-fashioned way of the current craze of television series binging. I've done it a lot the last year or two, discovering an author in his or her continuing series and deciding to go back to book one and read forward in order. Since I often have trouble remembering storylines and characters in series books if having to wait for the next one to appear, this solves that problem!
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