Rob Kitchin's Blog, page 33

Lazy Sunday Service

In the day job we've been experimenting with 3D printed models of Dublin at 1:2000 scale and map projecting OpenStreetMap onto them. Just at the initial stage, but the material used makes a big difference to the quality of projection. Waiting on 1:1000 test tiles. Plan is project all kinds of data onto them, including real-time transport and environment data. Okay for first passes but a long way to go yet. In terms of reading, I've been making very slow progress in the last two weeks. Too much else going on.




My posts this week
Review of The Horseman’s Song by Ben Pastor
I want more before I die

I want more before I die

‘Where’re you going?’

‘Away.’

‘John, wait.’ Katie hurried after her brother.

‘Just leave me be.’

‘You can’t leave. What will we do without you?’

‘You’ll manage just fine.’

‘You know that’s not true.’

‘I don’t want to be a farmer, Katie.’

‘It was good enough for daddy.’

‘And look where it got him. He spent his life working the land to then die face down in it.’

‘John!’

‘He was fifty two and he’d seen nothing of the world.’

‘He had everything here.’

‘No, he had us and the land.’

‘That is everything.’

‘Well, I want more before I die.’



A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words

I want more before I did

‘Where’re you going?’

‘Away.’

‘John, wait.’ Katie hurried after her brother.

‘Just leave me be.’

‘You can’t leave. What will we do without you?’

‘You’ll manage just fine.’

‘You know that’s not true.’

‘I don’t want to be a farmer, Katie.’

‘It was good enough for daddy.’

‘And look where it got him. He spent his life working the land to then die face down in it.’

‘John!’

‘He was fifty two and he’d seen nothing of the world.’

‘He had everything here.’

‘No, he had us and the land.’

‘That is everything.’

‘Well, I want more before I die.’



A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words

Review of The Horseman’s Song by Ben Pastor (2019, Bitter Lemon Press; 2003 Italian)

Spain, summer 1937. Martin Bora is twenty three, a lieutenant in the Spanish Foreign Legion sided with Generalissimo Franco’s nationalists, and a member of German intelligence. He’s based on the sierras of Aragon in a quiet sector, facing the republicans across a dry valley. Each day Bora wakes early and sneaks down to the river in the valley floor to wash. One morning he discovers the body of a man, shot in the back of the head. He’s curious as to the identity of the man and who murdered him. More so when it turns out to be Federico Garcia Lorca, a famous poet and playwright. On the opposite side of the valley, Philip Walton an American member of the international brigades is also curious about his friend’s death. Two outsiders, Bora and Walton circle each other trying to determine the truth, while negotiating simmering tensions of the civil war and sharing a lover.

The Horseman’s Song is the sixth book of the Martin Bora series to be translated into English (and the fourth in the original Italian series). It is the earliest in time, set in 1937 during the Spanish civil war. A young member of German intelligence, Bora has joined the Spanish Foreign Legion and after training in Morocco has been posted to the sierras of Aragon. There he takes command of a nationalist outpost on a quiet sector of the front, where a handful of men oppose each other across a valley. When Bora finds the body of a famous poet, Federico Garcia Lorca (who did disappear during the war) he decides to investigate, ruffling the feathers of his Spanish commander. An American member of the international brigade, and a friend of Lorca, is suspicious of Bora’s motives. The two men enter a battle of wits in the heat of the Spanish summer and civil war. It’s a slow moving affair (perhaps too slow at times), written in nice prose, with Pastor charting the lives of Bora and Walton, their politics and motivations, their relationships with their men, and with women, and Bora’s inquiry as he starts to come of age as an army officer and investigator. There’s strong character development and well developed sense of place and history. The plot is understated and realistic, avoiding melodrama and plot devices designed to create pace and tension. The result is a literary, atmospheric mystery.

Lazy Sunday Service

I discovered last week that there's a Wikipedia entry about me. Not sure what I think about that to be honest. Baffled probably best summarises it. The creator - someone I don't know - says they concentrate on adding "relatively minor people, who have gone 'under the radar' on Wikipedia." They must be down to very minor if they've got to me. I'd quite like to edit it, but the politics of editing your own entry seems a bit fraught!

My posts this week
Review of Murder at the Savoy by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
It won’t bring him back

It won’t bring him back

‘I don’t know whether to be happy or pissed off.’

Michael sat on the courtroom steps.

‘He was exonerated, that was the main thing,’ David replied.

‘Five years and a lifetime late. How’s Marie?’

‘Angry. Exhausted. She’s gone for a walk.’

‘It was so bloody senseless. A schoolyard rumour.’

‘It was more than a rumour. It was a whispering campaign.’

‘I hope the police go after the bastards.’

‘It won’t bring him back.’

‘I’ll never forget finding him. He was innocent, but couldn’t live with accusations. He deserves justice.’

‘He just got it.’

‘No, all he got was the truth.’




A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.

Review of Murder at the Savoy by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo (1970, Harper)

Viktor Palmgren, a rich industrialist, is having dinner with a small group of colleagues and their partners at the Savoy Hotel in Malmo when a man enters the restaurant, shoots him in the head, climbs out of a window, and disappears. The police are slow to react and by the time they arrive the man is long gone. Given Palmgren’s standing and overseas connections, political pressure is applied to the police for a quick resolution. With no result in sight, the national police chief turns to Martin Beck, head of the homicide division in Stockholm. Beck heads to Malmo, but there are few leads to follow. With little other option he starts to place pressure on Palmgren’s dinner guests in the hope that they can remember anything that might help, or better still make themselves into a viable suspect.

Murder at the Savoy is the sixth book in the Martin Beck series set in Sweden in the 1960s/70s. In this outing Beck is called in to help investigate the assassination of a high profile industrialist, killed while he is eating dinner at the Savoy Hotel in Malmo. The industrialist has no shortage of potential enemies given his various business enterprises and ruthless pursuit of profit. However, Beck and his colleagues have few clues to pursue and struggle to make headway. The attraction of the Beck series is its subtle social commentary on the Sweden’s social project and the realism of the characters and procedural elements. Beck and his colleagues are very ordinary people, and there is no melodrama, no plot devices, and no larger-than-life characters to ‘lift’ the story or add tension. Instead, the tales are told in an under-stated way focusing on how the police go about their business (and make mistakes, sometimes get lucky), the interactions between them, and how the crime sits in the context of Swedish society. This gives the story a humdrum, everyday feel, and this I think is the beauty of the series. The resolution to this outing is nicely satisfying, in the main because it is so straightforward, unadorned and arrived at via persistence, luck and muddling through.

Ten year anniversary

It completely passed me by that July 12th was the 10th anniversary of the blog. I started it not long after moving into a house that was painted blue, hence the name. I was hesitant about initiating it as I knew it would be a commitment to keep adding content, but it's actually been a pleasure to write a review or post an observation a couple of times a week.

Over the past decade, I've published 2,690 posts, 412 of which were drabbles and 1,031 book reviews, which is quite a few more than I was anticipating! Part of the reason for this is that the blog led to interactions with other crime fiction bloggers and their recommendations significantly improved my reading experience by pointing me to books that I was likely to enjoy. The more you enjoy something, the more you're likely to do it. Ergo ...

My first review was Stuart Neville's The Twelve and it's been a real pleasure to support Irish writing, so far reviewing 132 books published by Irish authors. I try to support writers in general, while sticking to the principle of reading the books I want to rather than out of obligation, hence why I've purchased nearly every book reviewed.

My style of blogging tends to be as a broadcaster, rather than someone who channels conversation, but I'm always grateful for those who leave comments. Many thanks to anybody who has stopped by to take a read. I'm not sure if I'll make it twenty years, but I've no plans to stop blogging just yet.

Lazy Sunday Service

I've a few books on the TBR, but in the interests of making sure I have a nice selection to choose from I put in another order with local bookshop. Hopefully, new reads from John Lawton, Amer Anwar, Kate Atkinson, William Boyle, Sujata Massey, Fred Vargas, David Peace, James Sallis and others will turn up shortly to mix into the pile.

My posts this week
Review of An Empty Death by Laura Wilson
July reviews
Review of The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean
Disease without a cure

Disease without a cure

Matt threw back the damp sheet. ‘Fuck.’
‘Again?’ Lily laughed, wiping the sweat from her brow.
‘You’ll have to give me at least ten minutes. Shit.’
‘God, you’re insatiable.’
‘It’s not my fault. You’re like a disease that hasn’t a cure.’
‘Lovely, I’m a disease!’
‘Without a cure.’
‘And you can’t get a vaccine.’
‘Wouldn’t want one. Who would? You’re every boy’s wet dream.’
‘Charming. Actually, what a horrid thought.’
‘I save all my best compliments for you.’
‘And who gets your weaker ones?’
‘Also, you. You ready for round five?’
‘Jesus, Matt. We both need to find a cure!’


A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.