Ten already!

I finished three more Dalziel and Pascoe books- Midnight Fugue, Arms and the Women, and On Beulah Height. Midnight is the first one I didn't like much- there were too many stories going on, and they didn't really connect until the last chapter.

Beulah was one of the best, though it's terribly sad- 15 years ago, three little girls go missing, and Dalziel couldn't solve the case. Now, another little girl vanishes under similar circumstances, and the cold case is reopened. Meanwhile, Pascoe's daughter becomes ill and nearly dies (and her friend does die). Sick, dying, or dead kids always make good drama, even if it's hard to read. Another part of the story that works so well is a young singer (a survivor of the earlier attacks) using Mahler's Songs for Dead Children as a clue to where the girls' bodies are.

Arms and the Women picks up after Beulah- little Rosie is recovering, and Pascoe's wife Ellie is nearly kidnapped and her friend assaulted. Dalziel realizes that the attacks have to do with something from Ellie's past involvement with left-wing groups, including one about women political prisioners. This one was a bit hard to get into, but was pretty exciting towards the end. It's nice to see the ladies in these books get to do things.

I'm still reading them out of order. The next one will be Dialogues of the Dead.

I had to take a break from D and P because M.C. Beaton's newest Hamish Macbeth story came in. I had to read it right away! Death of a Valentine has a murdered beauty queen who had dirty little secrets (don't they all) and a bunch of suspects. Meanwhile, Hamish has to fend off the advances of his obsessed female PC...the story begins with their wedding day! Very entertaining, though the killer was no big surprise. Hamish is once again injured in the line of duty. And that PC was a psycho! Fortunately for Hamish, Elsbeth comes back into his life long enough to help him out.

So that's ten for 2010! Next up, eight more Reginald Hill D and P stories, a short collection of Jane Austen's minor and unfinished works, and A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood. I've been waiting for that one! I can't wait to see the movie. So by Easter, I will have read twenty books. Much better than I did last year at this time.