Welsh humour

The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still is packed full of humour. A typical example.

'I'm applying for the human cannonball, I hear there's a vacancy.' He opened his fist and revealed a crumpled newspaper advert, roughly torn out. 'It's for the election, Ercwleff is looking for ... for ...'

I peered at the advert. 'A surrogate?'

'Yes, I could do that.'

'What happened to the other guy?'

'He hit a wall.'

'Doesn't that put you off?'

'I'm ready for it. Marathon runners get the same problem, don't they? Something to do with carbohydrates. You have to eat spaghetti. I love spaghetti hoops.'

Lazy Sunday Service

I don't usually comment on covers, but every time I look at the one for Malcolm Pryce's The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still the same thought runs through my head - this looks like a children's book. The cover imitates the 1940s and 50s hardboiled PI pulps, but seems a watered down version and its five elements (Louie, Miaow, the Buick, the UFO and the pier) just seemed randomly dropped on the page. I know this is a matter of taste, but I think something more like Megan Abbott's covers or those produced by Hard Case Crime, which are similar in style but with more coherent scenes and a bit more realism in the art work would work better. The material between the covers draws a rich, vivid picture, with some real philosophical depth in the narrative which is a long way beyond a childish pastiche.

My posts this week
Kinky philosophy
October reviews
If you're going to make an error, might as well make it a big one
One book, two book, three book, four ... and five ...
Review of Greenwich Killing Time by Kinky Friedman
In harm's way

Nice things in the post

The postman bought a nice offering this week - Louie Knight's latest case in Malcolm Pryce's The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still.

From the backcover:

It is May in Aberystwyth, and the mayoral election campaign - culminating in the traditional boxing match between candidates - is underway. Sospan the ice-cream seller waits in his hut for souls brave enough to try his latest mind-expanding new flavour, and Louie Knight, Aberystwyth's only Private Detective, receives a visit from a mysterious stranger called Raspiwtin asking him to track down a dead man. Twenty-five years ago Iestyn Probert was hanged for his part in the notorious raid on the Coliseum cinema, but shortly afterwards he was seen, apparently alive and well, boarding a bus to Aberaeron. Did he miraculously evade the hangman's noose? Or could there really be substance to the rumours that he was resuscitated by aliens? Now, as strange lights are spotted in the sky above Aberystwyth and a farmer claims to have had a close encounter with a lustful extraterrestrial, Iestyn Probert has been sighted once again. But what does Raspiwtin want with him? And why does Louie's investigation arouse unwelcome interest from a shadowy government body and a dark-suited man in a black 1947 Buick?

Sounds like a cracker.