Robbo's Reads.

As you know I live to read books. I meant to write love instead of live but perhaps that is nearer the mark. I always go to the crime section of the library/book shop first. I find that a lot of non genre books deal with middle class issues and as a working class gal I can't really relate to it. I'll give you an example:I was reading a Joanna Trollope book and the heroine had fallen on hard times and got a job as a school secretary. The heroine viewed it a come down and her friends felt sorry for her. I think being a school secretary is a good job, so I couldn't relate to her predicament. The exception to the rule for me is Jilly Cooper but that may be because she writes about upper class people and she is a very funny writer. As I can't have children books with babies are a no no as well, they upset me - so the whole Yummy Mummy books are off limits.

Crime is such a wide genre from the explicit violence to a cozy. All that they have got in common is a dead body. Writers can have a lot of fun twisting expectations, as Agatha Christie did making her "Watson" the killer. Ruth Rendell's "The Water's lovely" is a stark reminder that life is not fair and good things happen to bad people. I've just discovered G A McKevett's Savannah Reid series and am gorging on them just as Savannah gorges on her favourite truffles. I get a big thrill when I discover a series I love, I've got a feeling I'll be going on Amazon later.