BREAKING POINTS

I have recently been dipping into a non-fiction book with the title The Breaking Point which could apply appropriately to a lot of situations. At various times over the past few weeks I have shared the house with Mrs Crime Scraps, her granddaughter, her daughter and her 97 year old mother so my copy of The Breaking Point is definitely not about the female midlife crisis. 

Perhaps I should write about the male mid terrace crisis, that difficult 'breaking point' when you realise you need a bigger house.

I have finished reading a book set in Cadiz during 1944 that seemed to be a 'literary' spy thriller. 'Literary' means you don't enjoy reading it. 

The main protagonist indulges in a lot of meaningless conversation but otherwise does very little except vomit, have sex, and murder someone. 

Anyway my disenchanted review, I had reached my 'breaking point', will possibly appear on Euro Crime closer to the publication date.

I found my copy of The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos and the Murder of Jose Robles by Stephen Koch in the excellent Harlequin Bookshop in Totnes. 

This non-fiction story has more excitement, more tension and of course more great characters than the aforementioned 'spy thriller' even in just its first thirty pages.

After Robles was taken away, they -whoever "they" were- held him briefly in Valencia.

And then for reasons that even now remain totally obscure, and always working in complete secrecy, this squad without a name took Jose Robles Pazos to some unknown place , where, acting without any inquiry or any trial or any legal proceedings whatsoever, they blew out his brains. 

I have also started reading the superb The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison as my designated reading for the Beijing Olympics. More on that later......