Books - Review

The story of a Brit lawyer's mid-life crisis in Moscow. Girls, Cossacks, strip-clubs, bodies and scams abound.

Good story. In fact the author does a great job of engendering plenty of sympathy for the main character, in spite of the outcome. Another Christmas pressie from La.

A young engineer in 1700s rural France thinks he has got his lucky break when he is selected to go to Paris to oversee a new project. However his task is to remove all the bodies from the Les Innocents graveyard at Les Halles, demolish the tombs and the church. Off he goes, deals with the nasty stench, gets on with the job, and meets some fun people.

Pretty good. I liked the historical details, all seemed very real. All the supporting characters seemed excessively weird, although maybe living in the smell of decomposing bodies caused that.

Set in a small village near Bristol, Eric (doctor) and Irene (his pregnant wife) and Bill (aspiring farmer) and Rita (his pregnant wife) are neighbours.It's 1962 and during a harsh winter the couples meet and the women quickly make friends, but both marriages are under strain...

This was pretty good, very nicely written, but somehow I feel it is only worth a 7.5. Towards the end the story seemed to stagnate a bit and I lost interest in what happened. Still, you know. I liked all the Bristol references, at one point they even go shopping in Broadmead.