Just a couple of books to tell you about today – September was very much a month of series reading and some/many/a selection of those will feature elsewhere!
Hitchcock’s Blondes by Laurence Leamer
Leamer’s previous book Capote’s Women was a Book of the Week right back at the start of the year (side note: the mini series based on that one still hasn’t appeared on TV here which is annoying) and this one tackles another group linked by a man. Alfred Hitchcock was a great director, but not necessarily a great person as this book will hammer home. I think I would have appreciated a bit more a clarity about why he picked the women that he did – no Doris Day here for example and she was definitely blonde – but it’s an interesting read and there’s some good Classic Hollywood insider info in here too.
The Red House Murder by A A Milne*
I filled in a gap in my crime-fiction history knowledge by reading this, the only mystery novel by the author of (among many other things) Winnie the Pooh. It’s a locked room-type mystery and it’s hard to tell at this distance – and having read so many similar plots – how revolutionary this might have seen at the time. That said, it’s a really good example of the genre, with the long lost brother of the host of a house party found shot through the head shortly after arriving from Australia. I figured out part of the solution, but not the hows and whys of it – and enjoyed reading how it had all been done. Worth reading if you’re a fan of classic mysteries.
Worrals goes East by W E Johns
This is the latest in an occasional series of reviews of genuinely terrible Girls Own (or Girls Own-adjacent) books. Worrals was the female version of Biggles, in a very literal sense, and gets up to all sorts of adventures as a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. The last one of these I read, you could probably have swapped Worrals and Frecks names for Biggles and Ginger and it would have still made sense (or as much sense as these make) and as that one was set in occupied France, there was just the usual anti Nazi stuff rather than actual racism. You know where I’m going with this don’t you? This one at least has a plot that could only be carried out by women, but that’s because it’s set in Syria and Iraq and, yeah. I suggest you don’t read it!
That’s your lot this month – happy Humpday!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 