2011 Project365 (day172)

Date: 21 June 2011 21:31:35

This evening I met up with friends for book group. We always meet in Beanscene (a Scottish coffee bar chain), this giant photo was above our sofa. This month we were discussing The Sixth Lamentation by William Brodrick. As usual I hadn't finished it, but the rest of the group were very good about not giving away spoilers as I do intend to finish it. It is a sort of detectivey thrillery sort of thing, the detective being a monk called Father Anselm who was a lawyer before becoming a monk. It is the story of a suspected Nazi war criminal who turns up at Anselm's monastery claiming sanctuary, and of the relatives of people affected by his alleged actions during the war. Add in a dash of intrigue (he and another man pitched up at a monastery in France at the end of the war and were given safe passage from there to England and new identities; could the church be involved in a cover-up?) and strains in family relationships, and that's pretty much it. When I started it I thought I was going to not like it very much, I thought it was going to be a bit too like Dan Brown. Actually it is pretty light reading but I have found myself drawn in and wanting to know what happens. I had some hunches about a couple of the characters, and asked the other girls in the group - my hunches were wrong, but along the right lines apparently, so that has made me curious as to what I got right and where I've missed something. I also assumed a couple of peripheral characters would be elaborated on later in the book, but I'm told they're not (meaning that one in particular is a red herring that really doesn't work, in my view). I'm about half way through, but I reckon I should have it finished in an afternoon. Overall, I don't think I'd rush to re-read it, and I'm glad I didn't pay very much for it, but it is an OK holiday read and far from the worst thing we've ever read in book group!