Joined the local Mystery Book Club through the local library. We met last Sunday and it was fun chatting about the latest book. They will be hosting a lunch for Catriana McPherson and Simon Wood, both new writers, who will tell us good things about their books.

Read Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood’s – ‘Spartan Gold’ book for the club. Read about 3/4 of the book and then put it down. I was a little disappointed. Either Cussler is getting more formula with every book or else I am just noticing it. The characters in the book, a married couple are too good, too perfect, hardly ever fight, always have the best clothes, shoes, watches, boats, equipment, cocktails, etc. To say they are a little two-dimensional hardly covers it. Also, the scrapes that they get themselves into really defy rational thought. I understand this ain’t great literature and it’s only meant to be entertaining; but really, they volunteer to go into a huge compound of the worst criminal bad guy ever to retrieve a bottle of wine ‘to complete the puzzle’? Who would do that? For me anyway, it just stretches the fabric of credibility. Anyway, I will probably still get his next book because I think I am a little hooked on the adventure parts of the stories.

Getting out on my bike almost everyday and it really helps in keeping the weight down and controlling joint pain. I can almost tell the difference in as little as one day.
Reading a new author: Catriona McPherson and her Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Blood Stains. The book is entertaining and I do think I will ‘go the distance’ with this one. However; I have problems with her transitions from one scene to another. I am frequently confused about what it is that just happened. Too much of a jump. She is clearly writing in the M.C. Beaton style with books very like Beaton’s entire Regency period series. All the books in that series are good and Beaton is top notch! I am going to hang in here and see if it is worth reading another one of McPherson’s mysteries.