This week’s update is of a crossword commemorating Eric Chalkley’s APEX series, so I’ve slotted it into the APEX section. I had entirely forgotten setting it until I was looking through the 1991 file, and it hasn’t, I think, had much wider circulation. So I’m pleased to be able to put it up here for people to find. I hope you enjoy.
I must be brief this week, as there’s a pile of stuff to do, not least the clues for the Beelzebub Christmas puzzle (these things have to be planned for, you know). But I’m also finding time to keep forging through Eleanor Catton’s new novel The Luminaries. It’s quite the most engrossing read I’ve had in several years (Cloud Atlas was probably the last to pip it) with what feels like enough plot for the rest of the Booker list combined. And it is beautifully structured as a narrative – since it is at heart a murder mystery, structuring the plot’s twists and turns is crucial, and there have been times when I’ve laid it aside simply to ponder that aspect. For anyone daunted by the size of the thing (and it isn’t even the longest on the Booker longlist!), there is an e-book forthcoming.
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