Reading only “chewing gum” type books for a while is not a bad thing, I tell myself.  Nothing wrong with a well-written fast read with appealing characters and a good plot.  So I enjoyed popular novels by some old and new favorite authors over the holidays, and now I’m ready to get back to a mixed diet of solid non-fiction and more challenging novels, with some fun skim-through-the-middle stuff on the side. 

I read my last library book, The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer, and enjoyed it very much.  This is the second Milo Weaver book, and is even better than The Tourist.  Good backstory about meeting his wife years before, and a well worked out plot.  I usually don’t like flashback books that much, but these flashbacks are really well done and serve the story.  I’ll try some of Steinhauer’s East European novels next.

Christmas Stalkings was a seasonal selection, a good anthology of new (in 1991) and classic mystery stories, all set around Christmas.  This is my book, and I’ve read it before, but it was in storage for several years and the stories seemed fresh, as well as very good fun.

I also skimmed through Bloody Kin, by Margaret Maron.  This is the first book she wrote with the Colleton County NC setting; Deborah Knott, who later got her own excellent series, is a secondary character in this book.  Deborah’s brother-in-law. his wife Kate and her extended family are the main characters in Bloody Kin, and their family has an important role in the latest Deborah Knot mystery, The Buzzard Table.  It has been a very long time since I’ve read Bloody Kin and I wanted to refresh my memory of these characters’ story.  Good book, worth digging it out of my paperback stacks.  It also inspired a fit of nostalgia about two other favorite writers, Dorothy Gilman and Helen MacInnes.

Dorothy Gilman wrote some good stand-alone novels, but she is best known for the Mrs. Pollifax books, another favorite series of mine.  Mrs. Pollifax is an elderly lady who spies for the CIA from time to time: feisty, open-minded, not as twee as she sounds.  Gilman does a credible job of researching the people, geography and current political issues of the times and countries where Mrs. Pollifax has her adventures, which makes them informative as well as fun.  Although the author and her character have both sometimes been gushily positive over foreign political movements that look less attractive in retrospect, Mrs. Pollifax is an endearing, honest and moral character and I always enjoy spending time with her.  Amazon had the last three Pollifax books – Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled (set in Syria); Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist (Jordan); and Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer (the imaginary but credible African country of Ubangiba) - in inexpensive paperback editions, so I bought them to complete my Mrs. Pollifax series.  I also bought the second Madame Karitska book, Kaleidoscope, for my Kindle, reasonably priced and the only version currently available in print.  Kaleidoscope, and the first book, The Clairvoyant Countess, are episodic novels that are almost like individual short stories, so great for picking up, putting down and picking up again later.  I have read all of the new purchases except Lion Killer; I got sidetracked by one of my old Pollifax books, Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief (set in Sicily). 

All of Helen MacInnes’ books are currently out of print, and the library doesn’t have them, so I bought North from Rome (1958) and The Venetian Affair (1963) from two of Amazon’s used booksellers – one even had free shipping through Amazon Prime.  Both are in good condition considering their very reasonable prices; I’ve had good luck so far in all my Amazon used bookseller purchases.  The books are two of MacInnes’ best Cold War thrillers; rather earnest and prim, which I suppose fits the time in which they were written, but good, exciting, well-written novels.  A publisher will start issuing reprints of the MacInnes books in both paperback and Kindle editions starting with Above Suspicion and Pray for a Brave Heart at the end of January, with more following every four to six weeks.  Very glad to see this author’s books on the market again and available to new readers.   

I also bought a used copy of Crime through Time II through Amazon – the book cost 1 cent, and 3.99 for shipping, which is a pretty good deal for a paperback in good condition.  The book’s short stories are a mixed lot as far as quality, and too many are set in Ancient Times, the most boring and un-credible settings for me.

Last, I read two books from the monthly senior lunch book swap:  Lie Down with Lions, by Ken Follett, and The Jackal’s Head, by Elizabeth Peters.  I have never enjoyed any of Follett’s books as much as I did The Eye of the Needle and The Key to Rebecca, and I’m no more enthusiastic about Lie Down with Lions.  The setting in Afghanistan during the Soviet Russian occupation is interesting, but the characters and plot are clunky and over familiar.  I know Follett wrote a lot of books, so I’ll keep trying, as long as I don’t have to pay any money for them (keep checking the library).  The Jackal’s Head has Peters’ (too) familiar Egyptian archaeology setting, but in modern times for this one.  Libraries always seem to have lots of Elizabeth Peters’ books, and they turn up often in book swaps, so I can easily indulge this guilty pleasure (they are fun), and then take the books back where they came from, or pass them on to another book swap.