Time to play catch up…
I have been reading constantly for the last few months despite the lack of posting here, so let’s pick things up with a quick look at The Judas Pair by Jonathan Gash.
This is the first book to feature the roguish antique dealer, Lovejoy. It’s an enjoyable romp despite being very much of its time regarding certain social attitudes, i.e. the late seventies.
After some humming and hawing, Lovejoy accepts the job of tracking down a legendary pair of flintlock pistols despite doubts that they even exist. He soon discovers that two people associated with the pistols are dead and this is enough to convince him the weapons are less legendary than they seem. Armed with a bit of ingenuity and bundles of charm he devises a plan to track down the pistols and apprehend the murderer.
The Judas Pair is a fairly short novel of just over 200 pages and as such didn’t take long to read. It has enough plot twists and turns to keep you guessing and the pages turning and I enjoyed the book enough that I can see myself working through the series in times to come.
It’s worth mentioning that, having been a fan of the BBC tv series, I kept comparing the story with my memories of the antics of Ian McShane, Phyllis Logan, Dudley Sutton and co. There are similarities between the two but the differences are enough to give the books a life of their own – pretty much what you would expect with any work that has been adapted for film, tv or stage.
Find out more over at Goodreads.
The cover image photo for this post is by Paul Lichtblau on Unsplash