jiml@uwmacc.UUCP (Jim Leinweber) (09/26/84)
[yumm!]
Over the summer I read Dunnett's Lymond of Crawford series, with
great delight. It is quite long, consisting of six fat novels
totalling over 1.2 megawords, but totally enchanting. They are set in
16-th century Scotland, France, Malta, Turkey, Russia, and England,
especially France, with considerable historical accuracy. But the
reason to read them is the incredible dialogue, strange plot twists,
gradual revelation of character, and good writing.
The six books are "The Game of Kings", "Queens' Play", "The
Disorderly Knights", "Pawn in Frankincense", "The Ringed Castle", and
"Checkmate". Good libraries should have them; they are also currently
available in paperback from Warner Books.
I can also recommend the rest of her ouevre; in addition to
historical fiction she writes murder mysteries. Another historical
novel is a rehabilitition of Macbeth, "King Herafter". Her murder
mysteries are screamingly funny, with USA titles of the form "Dolly and
the XXX Bird", where XXX takes on "Cookie", "Singing", "Doctor",
"Nanny", etc. They are told from the point of view of the Bird
(Heroine), and inevitably involve the British portrait painter and
undercover agent Johnson Johnson, and his boat Dolly. The murder,
mayhem, painting, and sailing should please the most demanding mystery
fans.
Jim Leinweber ...{seismo,harvard,...}!uwvax!uwmacc!jimltovah@sytek.UUCP (Tovah Hollander) (10/04/84)
[Languish Locked in L] It was delightful to find another Dunnett fan on the net. I first read the Crawford of Lymond series about 7 years ago and they are still the very best historical novels (in fact, you can just about ignore the adjective) I've ever read. The problem is, they tend to spoil one for any other book! The best thing about all her books (including the mysteries!) is that they get better each time you read them; there's that much detail, not to mention involved plot. (One minor correction about the mysteries: the "Dolly and the ... Bird" titles are the original British titles and the current U.S. titles; the first four were also published in the U.S. with other, more "typical" mystery-type titles (like "Murder in Focus" and "Murder in the Round"). The latest mystery came out recently; it's called "Dolly and the Bird of Paradise" and it's definitely up to standard. There's a Dunnett fanzine that Jim and any other Dunnett fans out there might be interested in. It's called MARZIPAN & KISSES, comes out every other month and cost $2/issue. Send checks to: Bound in Leather Press c/o Karen Brandle 555 Thornhill #210 Carol Stream, IL 60188