Stuart MacBride: Blind Eye Review

I will say at the outset that Blind Eye isn't one for the squeamish. If you prefer people's eyeballs to stay in their sockets, look away now.

On the other hand, if you like a fast romp through the underbelly of society - and the underbelly of the Aberdeen police - this is another goodie from Stuart MacBride. It's the fifth of the Logan McCrae series. Still a DS, still battling idiots, villains and colleagues, Logan is on the trail of, well, he's not sure at first what he's on the trail of.

I'm running the village now, part 5

As you know, when I graciously agreed to run our lovely little village, I took on captaincy of the Chipping Norton Cricket Club. I've been looking at the finances and there's one payment that stands out - our annual dues to the EEC (Eton and Expats Cricket). It's quite a significant sum so I propose that we refuse to pay it.

This does mean that we'll not be able to play anybody in the league and will probably have to disband our own club, but that's the price to pay for principles (main principle being getting me re-elected).

On a personal note, we'll be having our monthly poker game next week. I'll be bluffing on hands 4, 11 and 23.

Ross Thomas Chinaman's Chance Review

There's always a welter of newspaper articles about best book of the year around now - for me the best new book I've read is Ami McKay's Virgin Cure but there has been a huge amount of dross. Unless you like heaving bosoms and badly written mild porn (50 Shades Of Cliché), pickings have been poor.

So then, let's return to an old master, Ross Thomas. I've recently reread a few of his, including Chinaman's Chance.