Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site uwmacc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!hao!seismo!uwvax!uwmacc!jiml From: jiml@uwmacc.UUCP (Jim Leinweber) Newsgroups: net.books Subject: Dorothy Dunnett Message-ID: <339@uwmacc.UUCP> Date: Wed, 26-Sep-84 10:29:51 EDT Article-I.D.: uwmacc.339 Posted: Wed Sep 26 10:29:51 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 28-Sep-84 06:59:56 EDT Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center Lines: 27 [yumm!] Over the summer I read Dunnett's Lymond of Crawford series, with great delight. It is quite long, consisting of six fat novels totalling over 1.2 megawords, but totally enchanting. They are set in 16-th century Scotland, France, Malta, Turkey, Russia, and England, especially France, with considerable historical accuracy. But the reason to read them is the incredible dialogue, strange plot twists, gradual revelation of character, and good writing. The six books are "The Game of Kings", "Queens' Play", "The Disorderly Knights", "Pawn in Frankincense", "The Ringed Castle", and "Checkmate". Good libraries should have them; they are also currently available in paperback from Warner Books. I can also recommend the rest of her ouevre; in addition to historical fiction she writes murder mysteries. Another historical novel is a rehabilitition of Macbeth, "King Herafter". Her murder mysteries are screamingly funny, with USA titles of the form "Dolly and the XXX Bird", where XXX takes on "Cookie", "Singing", "Doctor", "Nanny", etc. They are told from the point of view of the Bird (Heroine), and inevitably involve the British portrait painter and undercover agent Johnson Johnson, and his boat Dolly. The murder, mayhem, painting, and sailing should please the most demanding mystery fans. Jim Leinweber ...{seismo,harvard,...}!uwvax!uwmacc!jiml