A January Trio — Mystery and Literary Fiction Mixing It Up .. .

The third book I read this year was Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister the Serial Killer. Braithwaite is a Nigerian writer who has spent considerable time in England (primary school, boarding school, and then her degrees in Law and Creative Writing), so I’m three for three on reading books by women writing in English but from mixed cultural heritage.  Each of them excellent!

Here’s what I wrote in my Reading Journal about this “serial killer thriller”. . . .

If you’d like to know more about Braithwaite and her debut novel, here’s the link to an interview Richard Lea conducted with her for The Guardian last year.

I bought My Sister the Serial Killer new at Powell’s Books in Portland earlier this month. My Powell’s bag also brought home this copy (used — I love that Powell’s mixes used and new books together) of Melissa Harrison’s Clay. I added it to my purchases because I so enjoyed Harrison’s All Among the Barley, #72 on last year’s List of Books Read.

Besides writing a few thoughts about this deceptively slight novel in my Reading Journal (the entry is continued below), I sketched the bookcover in my watercolour journal and added some quotations that incorporated words I hadn’t known, at least not as used here. Words whose provenance testifies to a closer relationship with Nature than we currently have — words that made me think of that gorgeous book The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, whichI’ve posted about on IG, but not here yet. . .

“bletted,” “ammil,” and “lagged” — as the latter is used here, in the sense of wrapping or enveloping. Were you already familiar with these words? I’m guessing the Brits among my readers are more likely to have used or read or heard these. . . .

The last book in this trio — Kate Hamer’s The Doll Funeral also came home with me from Powell’s and was also bought used. I found it good enough as a quick read, not as much what I like to read as I’d thought, but with some effective nature writing. If you like your mysteries with a touch of the supernatural, this will keep you turning pages and it’s neatly resolved with interesting twists along the way.

Time to stop writing now and to get back to my reading. I do still need to tell you about Tessa Hadley’s Late in the Day, but I’m down to the last 75 pages of Val McDermid’s ever-so-satisfying latest novel in her Carol Jordan/Tony Hill series, so that will have to wait.

Until then, Happy Reading, and if you have a minute, leave me a comment about what book’s pages you’re currently turning . . . and/or share your thoughts on any of these titles you’ve read.