Mystery lovers: sorry if you've returned to this blog lately and been disappointed with the lack of new reviews. I promise they'll start again very soon.
Here's my excuse: Once a year, I try to read a non-mystery, just because I feel like I ought to. This year's choice is Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. It's the story of Henry VIII's dumping his first wife in order to marry Anne Boleyn. I'm finding it really slow going. Mantel uses far too many pronouns, when a proper noun or two would make her story clearer. Her text is so dense that I find it hard to wade through. Often, she'll have a long paragraph about the weather or scenery, and end with a sentence that is crucial to the plot. Mystery writers know how to showcase those important sentences so that we rarely miss them.
I feel very self-righteous for reading it, and that's worth a lot! But it's slow going, and is keeping me from blogging. I generally knock off a mystery in about three days, while Mantel's historical novel has taken me over two weeks. What this annual exercise always shows me is how much I love mysteries. I never tire of them.
But I'm almost done, and then it's back to the good stuff! Thanks for sticking with me. I'll be back soon.
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