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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