A magnificent history of the Caesars. Very timely reminder of the dangers of supreme power. Thoroughly readable and wonderfully told. From Julius to Nero.

Madame Maigret poisoned on holiday mussels. Inside a Nun run hospital. A young woman dies. Nun slips him a note. Who dunnit? Bored Maigret moves in.

Fairly sure I read this before. But it still gripped me. His sense of locale, the details of sea and tide and fog are superb, with Maigret groping around in the dark as usual.

This is Lynda La Plante at her very best. From 1993. With Jane Tennison, by now inseparable from Helen Mirren, this is what she does best; revealing the sexism and the racism in the police and the general hatred of the easily misled public for them, manipulated by both Press and Politicians. Short, sharp sentences, mainly action and dialogue, she tells the tale with great skill. Highly readable.

Nice airplane reading. She is good, although this one is fairly ambitious and contains enough material for two thrillers, especially as her female detective goes off half way through on an FBI course to the States, where another case is solved. I did enjoy it though.

It seems weird to me that when I was born there were still two years of Nazi Concentration Camp horrors to go. It is particularly enjoyable to read of the purple-faced fury of Hitler in the final few days of the war as the Russians entered Berlin. Each of the Nazis had an escape plan except him! This other Adolf deviant managed to evade capture for many years after the war and escaped with the help of the Catholic Church and the Red Cross to Argentina. Unfortunately for him not all Germans had forgotten the Nazis, although at least one was now in a high position of power in West Germany. Realising that Germany had lost its drive to capture Nazis Herr Brandt leaned on the at-first-doubtful Israelis to say he did indeed know the whereabouts of the by now sad little arrogant fucker called Eichmann. The book tells of the verifying of the identity and the capture of the man who went to the gallows unrepentant and unconvinced he had done anything wrong. Just obeying orders. I love these books.

I really like Alison Lurie and this is a particularly fine book from 1988. She is quite critical of her lesbian friend, who is revealed as utterly selfish. A fine read.