Paton Walsh

(written at a previous date)

    Dear Harriet Walter,

    An innocent friend of mine who knows I love Dorothy Sayers has gotten me A Presumption of Death for Christmas, along with another couple books.

    I probably could have been a little bit more gracious about it. My brain just snapped into "hrrrrrmmmm" mode.

    Hrrrrrmmmmm.

    She meant well. I know those books get good reviews a lot of the time. From the professionals. I've never met any fans who actually like the things. Actually I've seen some pretty strong dislike coming from fans.

    Lack of fan enthusiasm is actually the reason I haven't read any of Jill Paton Walsh's attempted Lord Peter books yet, that and picking Thrones, Dominations up off a library shelf, reading a couple pages in the middle and getting extremely bad vibes. Something is wrong here, I thought to myself. Subtly but seriously, seriously wrong.

    I s'pose I'll try the book. I didn't have to pay for it and I don't have any library deadlines, at least. I know it's terribly bad form to trash a book or series of books without giving them a chance.

    But still. Hrrrrmmmm.