It’s grey and dripping outside and it’s been this way pretty much the whole day. What a contrast to the warm and sunny weekend we had in Pismo Beach with wee reader and his grandparents.

Unfortunately we had forgotten that it was spring break/Easter weekend and the place we stayed at was pretty packed with youthful patrons. Which meant people moving around throughout the night and in our case, a little fella not adjusting well to his new environment and decidedly not sleeping through the night. I felt like I needed a holiday from this holiday! But it wasn’t just about the sleep (or not-sleep), we explored the coastal towns of Pismo Beach and Morro Bay, and had plenty of great seafood.

And of course I got to do some reading!

I started and finished The Devotion of Suspect X, which was a fast, interesting read. The plot (saying anymore would probably ruin it for you, but as you can guess, there’s a dead person and it’s a who-dunnit) and the intellectual skirmishes between mathematics genius Ishigami and his university schoolmate Yukawa are engaging. The climax is quite gasp-worthy as is the character of Ishigami. But I have to say that the writing is nothing much to shout about – I keep comparing it to Natsuo Kirino’s Out (the only other Japanese crime novel I’ve read so far) and just felt I got so much more out of that one, a greater sense of character and place, for starters. There is such a coldness about The Devotion of Suspect X. Everything seemed so sterile and it just seemed like it needed a bit more meat. Still it was a fun read (if you find it fun to read about murders and cover-ups).