Lunchtime read: The Steppe and Other Stories

In a rush leaving the house this morning it was hard to quickly make decisions about what to read today and for the next few days. The lunchtime read was dictated by what ever looked like a short story collection and the main read was ideally going to be developing on a Swedish nautical theme. All I could manage in a rush was a nautical theme but it is hardly in keeping with following Roseanna, which is about murder. Still bear with me while I get my bearings and work out what the next direction will be. Hopefully a trip to the library tomorrow will help.

In the meantime here is the choice for the lunchtime read some more Chekhov and tonight there is Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. But for now on with the Chekhov:

Highlights from The Swedish Match
It appears as if a man has been murdered and a sleuth in the Sherlock Holmes mode decides he can solve the crime based on some of the same principles of observation. He manages to identify who he thinks is the murderer based on her use of Swedish matches, which are rarely used by the general population. But when he turns up, along with a reluctant magistrate to quiz the woman he has worked out is the killer it turns out she is hiding the man in her bathhouse and it is nothing more innocent than an affair leaving the sleuth with plenty of egg on his face.

Highlights from Easter Eve
A man visiting a monastery is taken over on a ferry by Jerome a layman who has just experienced the loss of his best friend who was one of the few monks who could read and write but he is kept away from the Easter celebrations because no one relives him on the boat and on the return journey he stares at a woman’s face reminding him of the friend he has lost

More to come soon…