Absolution by Murder - Peter Tremayne

664AD has to be the earliest-set detective story I’ve read so far. Absolution by Murder is set during the Synod of Whitby, where religious delegates from the rival Christian factions of Rome and Iona met to decide the future of the kingdom of Northumbria. When a visiting Irish abbess is discovered in her room with her throat cut, Sister Fidelma, an Irish religieuse qualified to investigate legal matters in her own country, is asked to find the killer. Alongside a Saxon Brother, Eadulf, she races to uncover the murderer before rumours between the two factions spark a civil war.

Initially I found this novel difficult to get into, as the beginning is extremely heavy on early medieval religious history and politics, and the unfamiliar Saxon names also made it easy for me to mix up some of the characters. Once the action had really started, however, it became much more enjoyable.

Sister Fidelma is a refreshingly strong, forthright female detective, not taking sidekick position to her male counterpart, and refusing to defer to the expectations of the men she interacts with. Apparently this sexual equality is historically accurate, which makes a pleasant change to modern values being copied and pasted onto historical situations.

Overall, rather a slow start, but bear with it and it’s definitely worth it – enjoyable and intriguing reading, with plenty of historical ambiance.

Next up: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

I saw the film adaptation almost 10 years ago (wow, now I feel old), so while I had a general idea of what to expect from this novel, my expectations were pretty vague.

Randle McMurphy is a new patient in a somewhat old-fashioned psychiatric ward, taking what he thinks will be the easy way out of a prison sentence. His bravado and stubbornness bring a sense of optimism to the inmates, and, not used to having his freedom restricted, McMurphy engages in an unwise power struggle with the glacial head nurse.

For me the book was more effective than the film, partly because so much takes place within the minds of the characters, and that’s very difficult to portray when all you can see is external action. Also, the film focuses almost exclusively on Jack Nicholson’s character, McMurphy, while the novel is seen through the eyes of the ‘deaf and dumb’ Chief Bromden. As well as McMurphy’s central plotline, we come to understand Bromden’s own past and psychoses, and having the world filtered through his eyes adds another dimension to the story. That said, what I remember of the film was very good indeed, it’s just that I feel this is one of those novels where so much is internal rather than external that much is lost in a film adaptation.

I get the feeling with this one that, if I was studying the novel rather than reading it recreationally, there’s a lot of symbolism and subtext going on – if they’d let us study this during American Literature at university rather than forcing us to read the entire speech made on the Mayflower crossing, I’d have enjoyed the module much more. Even on a surface reading, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a powerful, frustrating and touching story that keeps you thinking long after it’s finished.

Next up: Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne