New year, new books to read! I started out with a bit of light reading with Christina James' second novel about DI Yates, Almost Love. This is a far better book than the first one. The story is more solid and engages the reader early on. I was hooked after a few pages at least. I don't read a lot of crime, mostly because so many of them are horribly violent. That's why I prefer the more 'cosy' stories of Agatha Christie for instance. Almost love steers far away from the typical crime novel cliches and gives us a truly good and original story, involving archeologists and links to far right extremist movements in Norway. I was so fascinated by the story that I spoke to a few colleagues about it, and was told that there actually used to be links between archeology and far rigth-thinking. Not very PC these days, of course, but this was pre WW2.
An old lady, a well-known veteran archeologist, disappears from her home, and DI Yates tries to find out what happened to her. At the time of her disappearance, The Spalding Archaeological Society is holding their annual conference nearby, organised by their secretary Alex Tarrant, one of the main charachters. It seems obvious that one or more of the participants might be involved. Other suspects are the old woman's newphew Guy Maichment (Have no idea how to pronounce his name! This troubles me!) and her help and companion, Jane Halliwell. There are a couple of 'side-stories' which are all woven togehter in the end, for instance Mrs. Tarrant's affair with one of the archeologists, and her husband's work with juvenile crime offenders.
The only criticism I have is about the ending. It was too long, and not as strong as the rest of the book. The excitement reaches its climax with a kidnapping incident and an attempt to set fire to a childrens' home. But after this is prevented, there's still 10 % of the book left, used to summing up and gathering all the different threads.
Still, a book to be recommended! I promise you a good read!
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