Peter Moore (11)

Peter Moore's "Damn His Blood" checks all the boxes for a small English murder village and it's great!

Picture it. Oddingley, 1806. France is knocking on Britain's door, farms are being sold off and prices are skyrocketing. Financial stress is felt all over the countryside. Then enters Parker. He was the new pastor in town, keen on enforcing the tithe collection, and had no qualms with taking neighbors to court if they threatened resistance. He was too ambitious for his own good. Some got along with him just fine, but obviously most didn't. Eventually there's a conspiracy afoot to take the Reverend down a peg, in an incredibly violent way. The trouble is, once the deed is done, everyone has a devil of a time narrowing down and catching the suspect. This is a time before any sort of organized police force or proper detectives. A posse is rounded up to cut off the prime suspect before he reaches the train station, but he manages to slip away...or does he?

This one was better than it had any right to be. The only flaw is that Moore introduced too many characters all at once in the beginning, so I wasn't sure who to follow until about halfway in. But I stuck with it because the narration otherwise was so smooth. And there's a twist! You can definitely tell it was written for radio, but that definitely a plus. For the English lit nerds, Moore also makes a few literary references here and there that you'll love.… (mer)

After reading Moore's excellent 'Weather Experiment', I fancied seeing what his first book was like, even though the subject matter - true crime - isn't really my thing. A well researched convincing exploration into Georgian village life, and Moore is a good companion to tread the country roads with. It's strange subject matter, but it began life as Moore's Masters at City, so no weirder than my jazz funding thesis I suppose. (I reckon my characters were more fun to hang out with than this bunch of fellas who all deserve one another!) You have to approach these books with a magnifying glass, though, because there's a tendency to include tiny maps, which are pretty useless at such small scale. .… (mer)

One of the best books I've read in ages. I'm a bit of a sucker for natural science stories, and human fallacy all bound up in the advancement of our understanding. Up there with 'The Wisdom of Birds' by Tim Birkhead for me.

Although it's bursting with familiar characters: Fitzroy of course, generations of Darwins (including the difficult Glaston), Charles Wheatstone, Morse, Mary Somerville, Babbington, Constable and new heroes for me, Glaisher (dew AND balloons!), Reid and Urbain Le Verrier etc etc, Moore holds your hand through their interweaving stories so you never feel lost. Their stories are interspersed with historical events, such as the Royal Charter Gale and the invention of the telegraph, and also with snippets from Emily Dickinson, Bacon, DIckens and Conrad, immersing you in the surge of creativity in 19th century Britain.

Moore neatly brings the Met Office work up to date with a concluding section on the role of scientists and prediction relating to climate change, but not before taking you on a brisk tour through its earliest observations.

In a way, it's a superb and moving testament to Fitzroy, this book - another one, really - but it's so much more, a thoroughly enjoyable romp through 80 years or so of trial and error, friendships and enmities, discoveries and people's struggles with their Christian belief. Glaston running calculations on whether prayer works is a hilarious highlight that comes towards the end, and yet it's one that follows a feast of great stories and moments that take you from the windmills of Suffolk to the Straits of Magellan via Barbados and more.

It's now a birthday present and a Christmas present to at least two other people,and for me it's also a happy souvenir of an Offa's Dyke walk in September because it's a book I picked up in Hay-on-Wye on one of those happy whims.… (mer)