Book Beginnings: Oranges and Lemons

Bryant & May: Oranges and Lemons

by Christopher Fowler

Random House Ballantine / Bantam, 2021

Opening Lines

Chapter 1: Old White Males

‘Everything I tell you is a lie.’

About the Book

On a spring morning in London's Strand, the Speaker of the House of Commons is accidentally killed by a van unloading oranges and lemons for the annual St. Clement Danes festival. It's an absurd way to die, but the government is more interested in investigating the Speaker's state of mind just prior to his accident.

The task is given to the Peculiar Crimes Unit—the only problem being that the unit no longer exists. Its Chief, Raymond Land, is tending his daffodils on the Isle of Wight and senior detectives Arthur Bryant and John May are out of commission; May is undergoing surgery for a bullet wound and Bryant has been missing for a month. What's more, the old unit in King's Cross is being turned into a vegetarian tapas bar.

Against impossible odds, the team is reassembled and once again what should have been a simple case becomes a lunatic farrago involving arson, suicide, magicians, academics and a race to catch a killer with a master plan involving London churches. (Description from GoodReads)

Initial Thoughts

 

Yet again, I'm starting a long-running series without reading even one of the earlier books. Even though I've actually got a copy of the first book in the series. Dumb, right? But this one sounded so good, I just couldn't resist requesting it when I saw it at NetGalley. I was thrilled to get it. (I'm always thrilled whenever someone gives me a book!) I'm a little late in getting it read, but so far, I'm loving it. Can't wait to finish it so I can start reading the series from the very beginning. Don't you love when that happens?

Have a good weekend, everyone.
Stay safe. Stay calm. And happy reading!

Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Friday As she says, the idea is to post the first sentence (or so) of the book you're currently reading, along with any first impressions or thoughts you have about the book, the author, etc.  It's a wonderful way of adding new books to your must-read list, and a chance to connect with other readers and bloggers.

 

Back to the Classics Challenge 2021

Click HERE for guidelines and sign-ups.

Host: Karen K. @ Books and Chocolate

Dates: January 1 - December 31, 2021

The goal of this challenge is (pretty obviously): read classic literature. To qualify for the challenge, a book must have been published at least 50 years ago (so, no later than 1971). There are twelve categories for the challenge, and three different levels for reading (you can read books from six, nine, or all twelve categories). See the challenge announcement page for more info. 

I will probably go for the first level ("complete six categories"). I don't yet have a set list of books I might want to read, but I never managed to finish Jane Eyre last year, so I should probably lead off with that. I've started it several times over a period of about forty years! It would be nice to actually finish it at last. 

I'm very late signing up for this — the deadline for sign-ups is March 31. I actually thought I'd already signed up. Yeah, the brain is getting softer all the time. Anyway, during the year I'll be tracking my progress and keeping all my reading lists over on my challenge blog (HERE).