metalman

Dreadful news. Great band and they were obviously good mates too because not many bands keep the same line up for 50 years. RIP Dusty.

Here's my last month's reading. Simon Brett - Blood at the bookies. More cosy crime on the Sussex coast: when a Polish immigrant is stabbed outside said establishment, middle-aged sleuths Carole & Jude investigate. Simon Brett - The poisoning in the pub. A deliberate outbreak of food poisoning is part of an orchestrated campaign against the local. Simon Brett - The shooting in the shop. A gift shop burns down, and in the ruins is a body with gunshot wounds. Simon Brett - Bones under the beach hut. Carole rents a beach hut in a neighbouring village for the summer, but it comes complete with some added human remains. Somewhat darker than usual for this series. I thought I'd finish these four off because they're the last ones of the series I've got; I think Pan stopped publishing them in paperback after this one. As a whole, they're OK to while away a few hours - there's no real detection in that Carole & Jude seem to get results simply by pestering people until they let something slip, but the two lead characters are relatable enough and there's usually enough to keep you guessing until the end. Janwillem van de Wetering - Seesaw millions. Van de Wetering wrote a series of excellent crime novels featuring Amsterdam cops Grijpstra and de Gier but this isn't one of them. Instead this is the tale of what happens when old Mr. Sobryne dies and divides his fortune between his three sons and his young mistress and how they contrive to lose it all. Written in his usual idiosyncratic style and still very entertaining. Dominic Devine - Three green bottles. The murder of a schoolgirl is followed by the apparent suicide of a young doctor and people draw their own conclusions; the doctor's brother isn't convinced however. I've enthused about Dominic Devine (aka D.M. Devine) before, and this is another superlative effort, best read of the month probably. Time someone reprinted his entire oeuvre. E. & M.A. Radford - Murder jigsaw. Retired colonel on fishing trip is found drowned in Devon river. Inspector Manson, a somewhat Thorndyke-like scientific detective, is on the case. Not bad. Magnus Mills - The restraint of beasts. Two Scottish fencing labourers and their supervisor go to England for a job. Chaos ensues. As surreal and entertaining as all his books. Ruth Rendell - Put on by cunning. Famous flautist falls through ice in lake... but was he pushed? Inspector Wexford smells a rat when his estranged daughter turns up to claim his fortune. Doug Lansky - Ultimate signspotting. Photos of daft signs from around the world. An amusing half hour spent. Fougasse - Drawing the line somewhere. Cartoon book from 1937; maybe our sense of humour has changed a bit because I didn't find it as amusing as the one above. P. G. Wodehouse - Ring for Jeeves. Jeeves but no Wooster in this one but still very good. Michael Bond - Paddington on top. More bear-related mayhem. Now reading: Dell Shannon - Coffin corner. Another Mendoza police procedural from the late 1960s as the squad investigate the murder of a junk shop owner and a possible suicide in a hotel.

Graves Park (which is about 3 or 4 times as big as Hillsborough Park)? Millhouses Park? Plenty of places really.

At least for the last 16 months that hasn't been a problem. But before that the closure of Leppings Lane for the entire afternoon and the closure of Penistone Road after the match was a real pain as well, if you must know. Wednesday's poor performances in recent years have meant that parking hasn't been too much of a problem, and with them getting relegated this time I can't see crowds picking up much. Two wrongs don't make a right. Tramlines was OK when it was a free event in the middle of town and didn't inconvenience anybody but now it's been commercialised and dumped on the people of Hillsborough, it's just a nuisance - park boarded up and off limits for a fortnight or more, roads closed, noise nuisance, tons of litter to clear up afterwards and so on.

Of course they don't care about local residents. Several of the roads that we routinely use to get home (such as Dixon Road, Far Lane etc.) are being cordoned off as residents only access because of Tramlines, so we'll be forced to either go a much longer way round or stay at home for the weekend. It's bad enough with the council making us drive miles out of our way without this lot at it as well. Hillsborough Park is simply the wrong place for this festival of has-beens and nonentities, and I'd have thought last year's cancellation would have been an ideal opportunity to discontinue it for good, but I dare say somebody makes lots of money out of it so it will carry on being a complete nuisance for years to come.

While driving past the Thorpe Hesley cricket ground up towards the M1 at Chapeltown, I noticed they'd had a car boot on 11th of July. Their Facebook page says that the next dates are 1st August, 29th August and 19th September.

Just out of interest, which supermarkets have second hand books reappeared in? Certainly the book table at Sainsbury's at Wadsley Bridge hasn't come back yet. Credit though to the Co-op at Stocksbridge who have kept theirs going throughout.

Here's what I've read lately, not so many as usual but a couple of them were quite long. Robert B. Parker - Shrink rap. Sunny Randall investigates a psychiatrist who seduces his patients. Robert B. Parker - Melancholy baby. Randall tries to find the birth parents of a girl who thinks she's adopted. One of things I like about Parker's books is that they're all set in the Boston area, so characters from the Spenser series (or indeed the Jesse Stone series) make appearances in the Sunny Randall books too. James Lee Burke - Neon rain. New Orleans homicide cop Dave Robicheaux stirs up a whole load of trouble when he pulls a dead girl from a lake. As hardboiled as they come. Anthony Horowitz - Moonflower murders. Retired publisher Susan Ryeland tries to solve a nine-year-old murder using the clues hidden in a detective novel she published. The sequel to Magpie Murders, and just as good. Simon Brett - Death under the drier. A strangled hairdresser leads to more Sussex sleuthing for Carole and Jude. Essentially the same as all the others but still a decent read. H.R.F. Keating - A rush on the ultimate. Schoolmaster malleted to death during a croquet tournament; young Aussie master investigates the mostly dotty participants. One of Keating's earlier efforts, before he invented Inspector Ghote. Good fun. Peter Haining - A slip of the pen. Collection of mistakes, gaffes etc. made by writers. Amusing enough, but spoilt by having all the quotes set in almost unreadable fonts. Why oh why etc. Frank Parrish - Snare in the dark. Poacher Dan Mallett becomes prime suspect when a gamekeeper is crossbowed to death in front of him. Parrish was one of several pen-names used by Roger Longrigg, and this whole series of 8 books, published mainly in the 1980s, was a delight. Gene Wolfe - On Blue's waters. The first part of the trilogy called the Book of the Short Sun, which followed the tetralogies Book of the Long Sun and Book of the New Sun. If you haven't read Long Sun in particular, you won't understand most of what's going on here as it follows on quite closely with many of the same characters. In Long Sun they were reaching the end of their voyage on a generation starship, but now they have dispersed to two planets, called Blue and Green. Surprisingly this last trilogy was never published in the UK so it's quite hard to get hold of a copy. Leland Gregory - Cruel & unusual idiots. Collection of press reports of people doing very stupid things. Amusingly diverting for a couple of hours. Now I'm half way through Death by inches by Dell Shannon, another mid-1960s case for LA cop Luis Mendoza. This series is definitely recommended for police procedural fans.

Really? The A629 is already 30 or 40 all the way along from the M1 into Rotherham, what more can they do to it? 10mph limit?

Advanced Technology by Empirion. Can't believe it's 25 years since this classic techno/industrial album was released. It contains the much-played single Narcotic Influence (the one that has that sample of a woman saying "drugs taking their lives away").

Here's this month's reading, a bit more varied than usual. Commander R.T. Gould - Enigmas. Interesting essays on unexplained events and phenomena. Gould was a multi-talented polymath: for example, he restored John Harrison's original marine chronometer and appeared on the radio programme The Brains Trust. Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Why did you lie? Excellent thriller in which three different story strands come together very effectively. One of the best I've read for ages. Michael Bond - Paddington at large Michael Bond - Paddington abroad Michael Bond - Paddington takes the air Michael Bond - More about Paddington Michael Bond - Paddington marches on. Nothing wrong with regressing to childhood for a few days! Good fun still. Julia Chapman - Date with mystery. Samson & Delilah look for the death certificate of a girl who died in a car crash ten years ago, but uncover some family secrets instead. Another good instalment in this series. John Rhode - The fourth bomb. Four bombs fall on a village during an air raid and a dead body is found by the crater made by the last one. But when it turns out to be the local diamond merchant and some stones are missing, Inspector Waghorn takes up the case. Enjoyable wartime mystery. John Thomas - Obstruction - Danger. Readable account of various railway accidents and disasters, published in 1937. A good read if you find this sort of thing interesting. The later Red for Danger by L.T.C. Rolt covered similar ground. M. W. Craven - Born in a burial gown. This is Craven's other series, featuring DI Avison Fluke investigating a murdered woman dumped on a building site. Very good again though perhaps not quite as good as the Poe/Bradshaw series; the main characters are almost interchangeable anyway. M.W. Craven - Body breaker. The second in the series has Fluke investigating the death of an old colleague in the Marines who was mixed up with a group of new age eco-warriors. Better than the first one, I thought. Simon Brett - The stabbing in the stables. Cosy sleuths Jude & Carole investigate the murder of a stable owner. I found this one better than the last couple of his that I'd read. John Crowley - Novelty. Four long fantasy/SF stories, including Great Work of Time, which won the World Fantasy Award. Excellent, but then Crowley has been one of my favourite writers for a long time.

Anybody know whether this shop is ever going to open again?

Division 3 in old money.

So all on the last game then!

Derby leading. I can hear the bums squeaking all around Hillsborough.

Nearly at the end of April so here's what I've got through this month. Not quite as many thanks to shops reopening and so on. Robert B. Parker - Small vices. Spenser tries to correct a miscarriage of justice after a petty criminal is convicted of murder, and almost gets killed as a result. Good as always. Sadly I think I've now read all of the Spenser series, though I've still got a few of the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall series to go. Julia Chapman - Date with malice. Samson & Delilah (see post above) investigate some sheep-rustling and a possible murder in a retirement complex. As enjoyable as the first one was. Dell Shannon - The death-bringers. Another Mendoza case from the early 60s. Here he's on the trail of a serial bank robber who shoots one of his colleagues. R. M. Meluch - The Myriad. An uneasy alliance of the United Staes and the Roman Empire (don't ask) is fighting a war against the ravenous insectoid hordes of the Hive when they chance upon the Myriad star cluster. Good military SF all the way, and then right at the end Meluch does something completely unexpected. Jack Crossley - You couldn't make it up. One of those books of amusing occurrences culled from the local and national press. A reasonably entertaining quick read. Dorothy L. Sayers - Clouds of witness. Lord Peter Wimsey's brother is accused of murdering their sister's fiance. M. W. Craven - The puppet show. A serial killer incinerating victims in Cumbria's stone circles... a maverick cop constantly in conflict with his superiors, with an autistic genius sidekick... you might think this has all the elements to make me put it back on the shelf, but the difference is that Craven is one of crime fiction's new stars and actually this is a cracker, providing you can suspend disbelief long enough. M. W. Craven - Black summer. This time Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw try to work out how a girl supposedly murdered six years ago has apparently turned up alive. Another cracking read. M. W. Craven - The curator. The latest (until June) Poe & Bradshaw case has them on the track of a serial killer who leaves his victims' severed fingers in unexpected places. As good as the previous two, and that's saying something. Taxman & Feargal should certainly go out and buy them all!

Aphrodite's Child's 666 could be pretty spectacular too.

Are they still charging people £1 to just walk in? I stopped going when they started doing that on the grounds that I considered it sheer greed.

Only managed a few minutes of All that Glitters, the jewellery making contest on BBC2, before turning it off. Just cannot stick Katherine Ryan.

Couldn't believe the number of cars that ignored the signage, went up Bradfield Road, then found they couldn't go any further and had to turn round in the garage.

My round-up of March's reading. All crime again, and still getting through them in about 2 days. Robert B. Parker - Hugger Mugger. Spenser is hired to protect the prize racehorse of the title from a potential attack, but then investigates when its owner is murdered. As good as ever. Wade Miller - Shoot to kill. Private eye Max Thursday is on the trail of a serial strangler. OK. Dell Shannon - Death of a busybody. In this early Luis Mendoza case, he investigates the murder of a woman who can't keep her nose out of other people's business. Good police procedural. Charlotte Macleod - Wrack and rune. The discovery of a Viking artefact on a farm at Lumpkin's Corner leads to murder. Peter Shandy, professor at the local agricultural college and developer of an improved root crop, investigates. Her books are usually full of odd characters with curious names and this is no exception. Quite entertaining though. John Bude - The Cornish coast murder John Bude - The Lake District murder John Bude - The Sussex Downs murder. These three all date from the mid-1930s and have been reprinted in the British Library crime classics series over the last few years. In the first one the detecting is done by the local vicar, but in the second and third series sleuth Inspector Meredith takes over. I really enjoyed these: Meredith has the same persistent, meticulous approach as Freeman Wills Crofts Inspector French, so if you like his books, you'll like these too. John Rhode - Murder at Lilac Cottage. Mysterious Mr. Derrington, tenant of said cottage, is shot outside the door one evening. Inspector Waghorn investigates and as usual is put on the right track by Dr. Priestley. Good even though you can spot the murderer a mile off. Dorothy L. Sayers - Whose body? Much to my shame, I've never read any of Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books, but I'm glad I'm starting to put that right. In this one the appearance of an unidentified body in a bath is accompanied by the disappearance of Sir Reuben Levy. Are the two connected? Excellent. Donald E. Westlake - Killy. Union organiser Walter Killy and his placement student sidekick are framed for murder in small town America. Before Westlake turned to more caper-like books, he was a good hardboiled crime novelist, and this is one of those books where nobody comes out of it well at the end. Julia Chapman - Date with death. In Yorkshire, Samson, proprietor of the Dales Detective Agency, and contrivedly-named Delilah, proprietor of the Dales Dating Agency, join forces to solve a series of murders. As cosy as a roaring log fire and a mug of Horlicks, but actually pretty good. Simenon - The train. Fleeing from invading forces and separated from his family on a train in France in 1940, Marcel falls for mysterious refugee Anna. You know it won't end well. Excellent as usual. Simenon - The widower. Artist Bernard Jeantet comes home to find his wife gone and gradually uncovers more about the life she led behind his back. Ruth Rendell - No more dying then. A mid-70s case of child abduction for Inspector Wexford. As good as the rest of the series, if a bit dated and a bit coincidental at the end.

How many times have you watched a film and said, It wasn't as good as the book? Will we never learn?

Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime would be ideal. As would The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis and 2112 by Rush.

I've lost track a bit - has he actually gone or not? Doesn't dragging it out like this make the club look a bit unprofessional?

February's round up. Still nothing else to do so I've got through a book every couple of days again, mainly the usual mixture of crime and SF except for the second one. Dell Shannon - Knave of hearts. Lt. Luis Mendoza tracks down a serial killer in this early instalment of the series from 1962. Good. Fred Kitchen - Brother to the ox. The autobiography of a farm worker in the South Yorkshire coalfield in the early part of the last century. Excellent. Robert B. Parker - Rough weather. Spenser comes up against an old enemy when a society heiress is kidnapped from her wedding. The usual fast-moving, streetwise mixture. Sylvain Neuvel - Sleeping giants Sylvain Neuvel - Waking gods Sylvain Neuvel - Only human. In this SF trilogy, parts of a giant alien robot that have been buried for thousands of years are dug up and assembled, but this attracts the attention of the device's originators. Told in the form of interviews, reports, journals etc. which sometimes made it seem too much like a film script, but I found the whole thing reasonably entertaining. Volumes 1 and 2 were better than the last one however. Hillary Waugh - Last seen wearing. Another top class police procedural as police chief Fred Ford hunts the killer of a female college student. Philip Macdonald - The link. Col. Anthony Gethryn investigates the shooting of Sir Charles Grenville, where the main suspects are his wife and the vet who's in love with her. OK. John Rhode - Mystery at Greycombe Farm. When Farmer Jim's cider store is destroyed by fire, a body is found inside. Dr. Priestley investigates who it was and how he got there. Very good, though as usual you wonder if it was worth the murderer's effort to go to all that trouble. A. A. Fair - Bachelors get lonely. Private eyes Donald Lam and Bertha Cool investigate murder at a motel. Fair was a pen-name of Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason, and the Lam/Cool books share the same pacy, convoluted plots. Excellent. Georges Simenon - Account unsettled. Penniless Polish student Elie resents the arrival of rich Rumanian Michel, especially after he seduces the landlady's daughter, and decides he must be punished. Not a Maigret book, but a typical Simenon, full of atmosphere and sense of place. Annie Haynes - The crime at Tattenham Corner. Racehorse owner Sir John Burslem is shot after going to see his prize horse the day before it runs in the Derby. Inspector Stoddart is on the case. Good, and reprinted a couple of years ago by Dean Street Press, so not completely impossible to get hold of. Roy Vickers - The whispering death. London is stricken by a series of kidnappings carried out by master criminal The Whisperer. A fast moving thriller from the early 1930s rather than an actual detective story. Now reading: Magnus Mills - All quiet on the Orient Express. A man stays on at a campsite after the end of the tourist season. Mills, like Dan Rhodes, writes about completely unexciting situations and characters in a slightly surreal way, so although nothing really happens, the result is strangely gripping.