Read in June 2013
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle, by Fiona, Countess of Carnarvon
Three Stars
A must-read for Downton Abbey fans, this history lays out the story of Lady Almina, the acknowledged daughter of a Rothschild mistress who overcame the infamy of her birth to marry the aristocrat who opened King Tut’s tomb. Written by the current countess, Almina’s history appears to have been plundered by the TV writers for several important plot points, most notably the impact of the World War I on those living above and below stairs and also the conversion of the house to a hospital. The book doesn’t whitewash the past, acknowledging the unfortunate circumstances of Almina’s birth, her estrangement from her eldest child, her impatience with her brother-in-law’s radical response to the first world war. All in all, an interesting read that moves along briskly.
The Drop, by Michael Connolly
Two Stars
Wow — this book was a surprise but not in a good way. When I stopped writing the Lauren Maxwell mysteries in 1996 and returned to newspapering, I gave up reading genre mysteries and crime fiction. Connelly was an up-and-comer back then, having introduced his LA detective Harry Bosch with a couple of excellent novels, including the last one I read: The Last Coyote. There is nothing excellent about his 2011 novel, The Drop — the characters are uninteresting, the dialogue is wooden, and the writing is charmless. Although the criminal procedure depicted in two unrelated cases seems solid, the crimes are solved easily and predictably, and the novel is completely lacking in suspense. Connelly is now a brand-name author, cashing in at the bank but checking out as a writer. Give this book a pass.