Cromford & High Peak

A slightly different Middleton Press volume in their Country Railway Routes series. It covers railways which only normally carried freight up in the Derbyshire Peak district, supporting the Cromford Canal and the many mines and industries in the region. 

Many of the railways were cable hauled due to the steep inclines, including at High Peak Junction where a wharf for transfer between canal and railway and the railway's workshops can be visited as part of the many visitor attractions in this beautiful part of the world.

Thus, this is pretty different from the usual Middleton Press volume, as there arn't any stations which you can take trains to today and you can compare the past pictures against. Instead, it is a fascinating look at industrial railways and how they coped with often very difficult terrain and circumstances.

Enter the Dragon

Enter the Dragon, the classic Bruce Lee kung-fu epic is one of my favourite films, can the martial art skills of Bruce translate into prose? Well yes, the author (Mike Roote) does an unexpectedly good job. As the film is one of my favourites i have seen it many times of course, so that makes a tie-in novel in this case an interesting experience. Will the book stay true to the original screenplay? Will it add anything new?

Well yes to both really. The novel is fairly true to the film. There are a few differences in structure, for example the flashbacks near the start of the film are presented in the book in linear fashion at the start but that's fine as this probably works better in print. The overall plot and feel of the film is adhered to with some differences in detail (but this may have been changed from the screenplay the author worked to anyway).

Does the novel add anything new? Well amazingly yes, it helped clarify some parts of the plot which perhaps were not that clearly laid out on screen. So overall a hit. The cover artwork is basic but effective, a classic still of Bruce in his epic fight with Han. No bullshit.

Becoming organised

My best Christmas present was arguably this whiteboard! For some time i have wanted one to help me organise my railway trips and my future book projects too. Although i can, and do, use electronic methods to plan both, often i find being able to write and view things on a physical format more helpful. I am sure i will find this board highly useful.

The Mystery of the Great Pyramid Part 1

This is an opulent book, beautiful rich artwork telling a wonderfully retro and exciting adventure involving sinister criminals and the mysterious powers of the occult. Blake & Mortimer stories so often have the air of a 1930s adventure serial and transport you to that wonderful noir world of detectives and cult dabblings, probably none more so than this volume which is the first part of a 2 part story set in Egypt (natch).

Professor Mortimer is in Egypt studying ancient papyri but a shadowy group led by Mortimer's arch nemesis Olrik (who else?!) is also there and also eager to discover what secrets the papyri hold, as they are the key to understanding the secret of the Great Pyramid and the riches that are supposed to lie within...

A terrific plot, though as with most Blake & Mortimer books sometimes the plot does get a little too intricate and everything is accompanied by masses of text! You certainly get your money's worth with Blake & Mortimer words wise. I like the denseness of the story personally though if you are used to the more fluid plot of, say, Tintin then it can take some getting used to. 

Highly recommended, this really is a high point of the original Edgar P. Jacobs Blake & Mortimer series but you will desperately want to read part 2 as soon as you finish this!

Foreign Bodies

Collections of Golden Age crime short stories are not that rare, but this one features stories by non-Anglosphere writers and, while a mixed bag, is overall pretty good indeed. 

Oddly enough the worst story here is by arguably the most famous author. I found Anton Chekhov's story a bit impenetrable.

Highlights of the collection include Koga Saburo's fun but bizarre story about a rotating spider lab which is probably the best story in the collection.

Also involving spiders is a good story by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. Another highlight is Maria Elvira Bermudez's tale of murder and family secrets. A great and varied collection of stories.

Murder in Advent

Well i have read crime novels where the amateur detective is a retired academic, antique investment fund manager, and even an estranged couple. But in the case of this book by David Williams, the detective is an investment banker who is involved with the church, the superbly named Mark Treasure.

A cathedral which is short of cash is looking to sell it's copy of the Magna Carta. As Treasure is involved with the decision making he heads down to the cathedral town. However, when he gets there he finds there has been a terrible accident. A fire in the library has killed the old verger and destroyed the Magna Carta...

Or is it an accident? Treasure begins to unravel a complicated plot involving forgeries, theft and even incest. The story doesn't really have anything to do with Christmas despite the title, though this is just as well considering the dark crimes that have been committed.

A good read with a plot full of threads. The only thing i didn't like is that not all of the threads were tied up at the end. Some of the characters maybe needed a bit more building up because at times they merged into one and it could get a bit confusing. But otherwise well written.