I’ve just finished one library book (The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths) and now I’m on to another, this one by Martha Grimes. As I plod on, writing the seventh chapter of my own book, passages like the following stop me in my tracks.
From The Lamorna Wink:
(Melrose Plant, one of the main characters, is staying at an inn in Cornwall, inhabited by an assortment of dogs – a yellow Lab, a German Shepherd, a sheepdog, and two huskies.)
Throughout these warm and pleasant ruminations before the fire, where licks of flame were turning the gray logs black, the Pfinn dogs had now come to join not Melrose but themselves, one by one to flop down on the hearth like big beanbags, snoring or whinnying in the grip of some dream. Why was it that dogs could fall asleep in five seconds? Mr. Pfinn could start a kennel. Another husky or two and there’d be enough of them to run the Iditarod. He enjoyed that image, picturing himself in a fur-line hooded parka, yelling “mush” as the dogsled knifed its way across some frozen tundra.
That woman can write. Have you ever halted your reading to just admire what someone has done with words?
Yes! It's the main reason I stop, when I'm in the presence of a great passage. Repeatedly in the case of Kate Atkinson.
ReplyDeleteI often stop to appreciate and admire someone's mastery with words. I enjoy Elly Griffiths and can see I will have to track down Martha Grimes.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorites. I think I've read up all that my library has to offer of her.
ReplyDeleteIt has been some time since I read Grimes and the Jury novels. She’s a bit of an oddball. Is that dog (Mungo?) still around?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't seem to be in this one, although there are plenty of other dogs. I've noticed there's usually a child and a dog in every book that figure into the plot somehow.
DeleteI will have to check out this author. I also appreciate hearing about new (to me) writers who have something to say. Thanks for the lead! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's winter here in Australia, no snow covered Tundra, but I'm picturing myself in a fur lined parka just to keep warm.
ReplyDeleteI very often stop reading and back track over passages that are so well written I can picture the scene.
I tend toward fantasy, and Pratchett is the master of that. And indeed I have his books grouped as to themes--standalones, the Sam Vimes books, the witches. They almost all have something interesting and quotable to say in any direction you care to go.
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