Bye, bye Tracy, Stephen & Val

I'm sure - I think, I hope? - that I'm not the only one who perhaps read one book by an author, maybe the first one they've written. I find it rather appealing, I then buy the next one, it's sort of ok, the third one might be a bit better than the second one, but the fourth one basically sucks...

I've actually no idea why I bought and read that third one since the second one wasn't particularly good, and to buy a fourth or perhaps up to five books of the same author that I'm not very impressed - to say the least - by is a total mystery!

Perhaps I live in hope, the hope that they might pick up and return to what made the first book quite a good bedcompanion? Or is it just routine, I know what I get even if it isn't very good reading, at least I can just relax, read and don't have to bother with thinking?

But the thinking I of course do, I'm constantly thinking about what a lousy read it is, badly written, a more than strained plot, why do I value my time and money as low as to buy and read that less than worthy to read literature?

So I now make my official goodbye to three writers that I've bought too many books of, spent too many hours reading. Here comes the threesome, the books I have, the books I've read and my witty (weeell...) comments last.

• Tracy Chevalier: Girl with a pearl earring since the book was so, so, by all means go see the movie instead. Time spent with Colin Firth on the screen is never a waste of time in my world. Or perhaps, if we're not talking about horrific exceptions like "Hope springs" and the low-water mark "Trauma". Falling angels, equally so-so. The lady and the unicorn, the best in the bunch, but since the rest isn't much to say hooray about... And then we've reached the worse of the bad, The Virgin blue... Think a not very talented high school essay with a historical twist and a stupid lovestory. It actually took be over two years to get through it - and since I'm sometimes too stubborn for my own peace of mind I just had to get through it. I actually think I deserve a prize for that!
• Val McDermid: The Mermaids singing this book was quite chilling reading and the plot was a pretty unique and good one. I thought. At first. Having read some of McDermid's other crime novels in the series of Jordan-Hill after that - The wire in the blood, The last temptation - I've come to re-evaluate it. Not very well written, the relationship between the two main characters are completely frustrating and the author's fascination for really over-the-top-horrific-ways to kill and mutilate just gets... too much. Same goes for Killing the shadows. Sometimes there's an exception to the rule and, even if it's some time now since I read "A place of execution" I think it was a rather good suspense novel and not as "gooey" as the others.
• Stephen Booth: now we've reach an author whose kind of crime novels should appeal to me (the publishing company is Minotaur, fantastic covers and, above all, they take place in the English countryside) and apparently I've convinced myself they have. For about five books. The Black dog, Dancing with the virgins, Blood on the tongue, Blind to the bone and One last breath. But enough is enough. I'm just more than annoyed about the relationship between the two main characters (have you heard that before?), it's not the least bit charming, intellectual and witty like Reginald Hill's pair-horses Dalziel and Pascoe. Just tiresome, immature and incomprehensible. And the unravelling of the plot mostly leaves me with an "so? Was that all there was?". So, bye bye Stephen!

That's it. I've wiped my book-plate clean of those three. This evening I'll hopefully discover a, for me, completely new favourite-to-be writer instead of ravel in the past. One that's more than well-worth her pocket-book-price. Review will come later.

Today's picture shows some of the tulips with friends in my garden. I've inherited most of them from the previous owner, yellow really isn't my colour. Not to sound ungrateful, and of course I'm happy I have flowers that seem to take pleasure in sticking their tender noses up in my garden every, but I really must get down to planting some new bulbs this Autumn. That'll grow up to be beautiful pink, pink and more pink tulips next Spring...