Too quiet

I haven't touched a computer since last Wednesday because my lovely doctor (who must be a bigger hypochondriac than I am), told me, when I showed up with what I thought was a comparatively minor ailment, to stay in bed for a few days. Hurrah! I don't need to be told twice. Time to wade through the last 200 pages of Power without Glory and then the next book on the pile and ... when I realised that all the books I wanted to read next were either at work or still in shops where I couldn't go. Darn and blast compulsory bedrest when there's nothing bearable to watch on television and it's far too complicated to get the computer to work in bed.

So, much to my anoyance, I found myself reading another Henning Menkell book called The Return of the Dancing Master. I actually really enjoyed this one. It didn't have any of the plot holes that bothered me about the last one of these I read. The characters made a bit more sense. It wasn't THAT violent. And it make Sweden sound like a really beautiful place to visit in summer. This had a lot to do with the central character being quite likeable. He did behave quite oddly but this was because he had just been diagnosed with cancer and was on sick leave waiting for treatment when he decided to help solve a murder at the other end of the country. So yes, cocmpletely credible.

Power without Glory became quite tedious. Um, apparently money can't buy happiness and money got the wrong way can't buy lasting political influence. Poor John West. I had to laugh at a bit of socialist romanticism where John West's daughter became a communist and fell in love with a handsome young worker and they were blissfully happy in their struggle for the revolution until he decided he had to go to Spain to fight the fascists and of course he died. It was the only purple bit. Frank Hardy seemed to know more about the sporting side of Wren's career than the politics. He'd explain various political shenanigans and then step back and talk about trotting or boxing instead. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting bit of social history but not that good that book.