Two novels

It's the time of the year when I add quite a few books to my collection. Some were presents from Mrs F&W and some bought with book tokens.

One I've already read is A Walk in the Dark by Italian author Gianrico Carofiglio whom I had heard speak at the Book Festival (scroll down) back in the summer. I hadn't realised that Bari, where the novels are set, is actually quite a large city and it is interesting to read a novel that gives a flavour of a part of Italy that is unknown to me.

From an Amazon review:

When Guido (NOT Mr Fawkes!) agrees to represent Martina, a young woman from a refuge centre who accuses her husband of brutal violence against her, he knows that the case could bring his career to a premature end. For the husband in question is the son of a powerful, influential local judge. No witnesses will testify in her favour, one lawyer after another refuses to represent her, and many of his friends tell Guido how hopeless the case is, how foolish he for taking it. But he cannot resists a hopeless, and just, cause.

It's quite safe to read Carofiglio's novels before going to sleep but that may be less advisable with my next book. The world of Glasgow based forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is rather more gory and I'll probably read Lin Anderson's latest during daylight hours. Incidentally, Ms Anderson lives in Merchiston in Edinburgh near Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith and JK Rowling. Rankin calls this neighbourhood the "Writers' Block"...

I've already enjoyed the two previous Lin Anderson books - Driftnet (after reading a favourable review by David McLetchie, the former Scottish Tory leader) and Torch in which the Glasgow scientist spends an amount of time in Edinburgh that would have horrified Jim Taggart.