Snow Drops

I think this author could have written a much better book with a Muscovite background.  Miller demonstrates an ability to see and take his readers into a city that they may never visit for themselves.  I particularly enjoyed his references to the changing of the seasons which happens so very differently in Moscow than in the UK.

Had he placed a more interesting plot and/or more convincing characters agains that backdrop then this would have been a winner.  As it is I thought it a bit flat.  The baddies were so thoroughly bad they were unidimensional and there don't seem to be any goodies, just fools.

We know nothing about her but I think Nicholas must be marrying a very boring girl who is probably the wrong side of 35 and desperate - who else would marry him?  I hope she takes the opportunity to escape when she reads this.

Bloodstream by Tess Gerritsen

Gerritsen reminds me of Frances Fyfield with this book and probably because I am English I find the latter more to my taste.   Fyfield's colours are not quite so bright and the reader is introduced to more of her character's history and personality.  The overt medical knowledge in Bloodstream is no doubt factually accurate and a delight to medical readers but I found it slightly intrusive and distracting from the story.

This book is a good holiday read and I think I would have enjoyed it more if I'd been able to read it on one sitting (preferably on a sun bed beside a pool under a hot sun) but I preferred Harvest which I found a real page turner with an intriguing plot that resolved satisfactorily.   Bloodstream leaves me wondering about the connection to 100 years earlier and whether the shiny worms in the water were the same ones in the cave and how that seems a very strange variety of worm.   I think this would probably make a very good drama and I will try another book by the same author.

Better get back to my tidying up before returning to work next week now.  Or perhaps I'll just finish the book I'm currently reading instead.

2012 gets off to a good start

It's early days I know but my training is on schedule for 19 Feb (Brighton Half Marathon) with a run home from the garage this morning.  The training plan dictated 5 mins easy, 20 mins tempo run (I'm not completely sure either but I think its just a bit faster than comfortable), 5 mins easy.   On a treadmill that's quite achievable.  But there are too many other things to think about on the road, especially when there's no pavement for part of the way and it really is on the road,  23mph wind and intermittent rain.  The hills are not conveniently positioned and my left shoelace unravelled twice!

I made it through the run and just had the car repair bill to get through.

Warning lights are very handy but telling me one of the bulbs is about to blow, but keeping the specifics a secret is not very helpful.  I can either pay for someone to test each individual bulb to see which one is about to blow, or wait until it does and then replace it.  You can probably guess which option I've taken.  The tyre scare seems to be just that and all four have been given a reprieve for another 0.8mm so I might be able to look forward to a set of tyres for my birthday (lucky me I can hear you say).  And the windscreen washer which I thought would be a new motor job turns out to need a simple flush.  However, to get to the bit that needs to be flushed it's necessary to take the wheel arch off!  They must have put the apprentice on that bit of the design working group.  Anyway I've just been told its ready now and isn't going to cost very much.  It was an inspired plan to go to Tanbury Motors rather than Vines I think, especially as the temptation to trade in for the new 3 Series has been successfully avoided.

I wonder what it is about cars that makes them so alluring.  I don't need a new car, I don't even like driving very much and avoid it whenever I can but the new BMW and the Guilietta are vying for attention in my heart and I'm finding both difficult to resist.