SOLSTICEPOINT
| TOP 10 BOOKS TO READ |
|
Books chosen for their staying power. Read any of these and you may think about them for weeks, months or even years afterwards. The TOP TEN BOOKS include non-fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery genres. The Stranger House by Reginald Hill (April 3, 1936 –January 12, 2012) Classification: Fiction, mystery, suspense, history, shades of Gothic Reginald Hill grows on you. When he can’t find a word to mean what he wants to say he simply creates a word. And that word is delectable and accurate even though it isn't found in any dictionary. There was actually a website devoted to his inventive words by his worldwide fans. The plot: Samantha is a young Australian mathematician on her way to Cambridge who takes a detour to research family roots and to trace a grandmother who left Cumbria during the Child Migrant Scheme forty years earlier. Miguel is a British/Spanish historian on leave from a seminary who wants to know more about a 400 year old mystery in his own family that extends back to the persecution of the Catholics. They both arrive at a bed and breakfast called the Stranger House installed in the remnants of the Illthwaite Priory. Miguel sees ghosts. Sam is a girl who just wants to have fun. They have little in common except they both want to explore their ancestral past. The odd and eccentric villagers in dark and gloomy Illthwaite however are decidedly uncooperative and would rather keep the past buried. There is a mystery for each character to pursue which is compounded as this pair of unevenly matched investigators stumble upon several murders in the distant and not-so-distant past. In the meantime the author keeps readers on their toes with witty remarks, some serious history, exquisite plotting and a few interestingly original words. Reginald Hill is most well-known for his books featuring fictional Yorkshire detectives Dalziel and Pascoe which was made into a British TV series. He received Britain's most coveted mystery writer’s award, the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, as well as the Golden Dagger for his Dalziel/Pascoe books. You can start the intelligent and action packed police procedural by reading the very first in the series: A Clubbable Woman: Dalziel & Pascoe #1 or follow through and read his award winning standalone novel: The Woodcutter.
|