Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage - M C Beaton

Affluenza - Oliver James

The History of England/Lesley Castle - Jane Austen

The Road Home - Rose Tremain

Now Rose Tremain is a good writer - and I've enjoyed her books in the past - and there were many things about this book that I found engaging. It is the tale of Lev, an Eastern European of indeterminate country, who comes to London (like so many others) and discovers that not all his hopes are fulfilled, not all his ambitions realised and it is far from easy to turn up, friendless and alone in a foreign country and expect to succeed immediately. So many cultural differences, so much strangeness - and language is the first hurdle to be surmounted. My enjoyment was somewhat blunted by the constant and relentless use of what can only be termed obscenities. I suppose this is realistic, but it is also distracting and off putting, and this combined with vivid sexual descriptions spoilt my enjoyment of this otherwise uplifting volume. I did find the ease with which Lev overcomes his difficulties a touch far fetched too, and the obsession with food (almost turning some sections into recipes - am I alone in not caring about what I eat or the current addiction to cookery programmes?) was just too much at times. Ms Tremain also seemed to be determined to bring in every possible experience of a recent immigrant - the black economy, the low level badly paid jobs encountered by most new arrivals, the stereotypical conditions in the home country, the isolation. Interesting nevertheless - but I am going to have to take 2 points off for the language! Rating 6/10

Enigma - Robert Harris

This is the first Robert Harris book I've read - and I was extremely impressed - it is a book full of suspense and the kind of plot driven narrative that I enjoy. He's extremely good on constructing believable characters - and their emotions and motivations are well described. This is the story of Tom Jericho a brilliant mathematician, undergraduate at Cambridge recruited at the start of the War for secret work - the cracking of the German Naval communication codes known as Enigma. This isn't really the tale of Enigma and Bletchley Park (the Government's Communication and Code Breaking HQ) more a good old-fashioned thriller,almost a detective story. Tom's ex-girlfriend disappears and Tom uncovers a very murky world of deception and intrigue, and finds that the secrecy of the work at Bletchley Park may well have been compromised, possibly endangering the lives of thousands - the sailors in the ships of the North Atlantic convoys, and possibly the opening of the new front proposed on D-Day. Harris describes the intricacies of code breaking expertly, and without being patronising. Although some of what is discovered is not a true revelation (because with the benefit of hisory these horrors are now in the public domain) the journey towards the conclusion is exciting enough. Rating - a deserved 8/10