IM IN UR CRIB WATCHING UR BABY

Be good if I could get a camera in my hand when my Geriatric and Fat Indoor Cat (GAFIC) jumps into the storage basket under Winnie's crib. So cute! So kittenish! Such an attention-seeking beast now there's a new member of the family who has all this STUFF in spaces where he used to laze about. Poor cat.

Over the past few days, in between laughing at GAFIC and feeding, cleaning and playing with the baby, I read In the Woods by Tana French. I bought it because I loved the cover and the way the edges of the pages are black. The photo doesn't show this or the lovely dual textures of the cover. It looks so SPOOKY and interesting that I didn't even mind paying full price (or not much anyway). It's a beautifully designed book.

For once, the inside didn't disappoint. This is really well executed police procedural set in contemporary Dublin. The thirty-something Detective Ryan is investigating the murder of a twelve-year-old girl in the same suburban remnant wood where two of his friends disappeared at the same age more than two decades earlier. He was with them but was left behind for some reason and he has no memory of what happened. He's convinced the crimes are connected and turns his world upside down trying to recover his memory and prove this.

What makes this book so good is the way French evokes the thoughtless animal joy of childhood and the atmosphere of suburban Dublin. The contemporary scenes are scattered with enough pop cultural references (Scissor Sisters, South Park etc) to make it seem part of the real world too - unlike many in this genre. I can only assume the stuff about how the police operate is true too. Ryan's central relationship is with his partner and this is really beautifully realised as the emotional and professional core of his life.

This is the sort of book where I have to put it down and do something else to avoid rushing through to the end pell mell and I was sad to reach the last page.