The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith

This is a follow up to his phenomenally brilliant first novel, Child 44. This time Leo and his wife Raisa are trying their best to be good parents to their two adopted daughters who are not cooperating. And then Leo's past comes up to bite them...

Monsieur Pamplemousse by Michael Bond

Yes, that Michael Bond. Of Paddington Bear fame.



The first of a series about Monsieur Pamplemousse - late of the Paris sureté - and his side-kick, Pommes Frites - ex-police bloodhound. M. Pamplemousse now works for France's premier culinary review, like the Gault Milleau, and is inspecting a restaurant to determine if it will keep its two "stock pots" or, indeed, be awarded another.

But instead of getting the chef's signature dish, M. Pamplemousse is served up with what appears at first glance to be a man's head. Much hilarity and ridiculousness follows until the case is solved.

A most excellent start to a series.

Broken by Karin Slaughter

This one is marked as read but I stopped very soon after starting it. I didn't enjoy the writing and I didn't like any of the characters who seemed very two dimensional.

I was quite proud of myself for actually putting this one aside and not continuing with something that I didn't like and wasn't enjoying. Reading is for pleasure and now I've started my OU course in earnest I have to be more selective with my fun reading, and ready to cast a book aside even if I haven't read it to the bitter end.



The 13th Hour by Richard Doetsch

So this is described (on the jacket) as "a mesmerising thriller - told in reverse!". Stete Berry - a New York Times bestselling author, no less - said "brilliantly conceived, perfectly executed. Fresh, Exciting, bristling with originality."

On goodreads the author mantions that it's been described as a cross between The Bourne Identity and The Time Traveller's Wife.

Wallanders Erster Fall (Wallander's First Case) von Henning Mankell

(Don't worry - the review isn't in my excrable written German...)

I've seen Wallander on German TV and on English TV - with Kenneth Brannagh in the title role in the English language version, and with subtitles in the Swedish version which meant that I missed all the action. Coming in, fashionably late as usual, to the trend for Swedish "krimis" (as the Germans call detective stories) I decided to give the novels a whirl.

The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith

I read the first five of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency in quick succession and then decided not to bother with any more because they were getting a bit "samey". But actually I was doing them a disservice - they are most excellent but better read, I now feel, spaced out over a longer period of time.