Week 29: Nothing to Envy and Duplicate Death

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Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick


Demick profiles six people who lived under the North Korean regime in this description of ordinary life in the most closed society on earth. It covers a good bit of history before getting detailed during the famines of the 1990's. It's a good book worth reading, but not exactly cheerful--if you're looking for information about North Korea it's a good overview.



Duplicate Death, by Georgette Heyer

I always enjoy Heyer's historical fiction, and have been wanting to read some of her detective novels, so I was happy to run across this. It's very much in the mold of the Christie/Marsh/Sayers tradition. Heyer puts in lots of her trademark slangy dialogue and the story is reasonably well-written, but the plot has an unfortunate minor sideline about homosexuality that modern readers won't care for. So perhaps a different title would be a better choice if you're looking to read a Georgette Heyer mystery, but if you like this style of mystery story, she's worth picking up.

Comments

  1. Robin MJuly 25, 2010 at 5:15 PM

    I'll have to check out the Georgette Heyer book. Looks interesting.

    ReplyDelete

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