Paul Temple and Steve are asked to perform a favour for a friend and deliver a pair of glasses that were left behind to their rightful owner in Tunis. Somehow this leads to murder and other crimes that Paul and Steve get to investigate.

To cut it short, this story was not great. It was really slow-moving and much of it just made no sense. 

Part of the charm of the Paul Temple stories is that they are all rather similar and all follow the same formula. So, in East of Algiers we get the usual plot, too. Paul Temple stories always require the suspension of disbelief. 

What I found absolutely ludicrous in this story was the way Durbridge wrote about the investigations in Paris and Tunis. 

While in Paris, they collaborate with the local police in the investigation.

However, when they get to Tunis, they somehow seem to bypass the local police and the investigation seems to be led by their friend Sir Graham Forbes of Scotland Yard.

While Sir Graham does make mention of his being asked to work on the case by Interpol, the lack of local police involvement made it look like it was perfectly fine for foreign authorities to take control of matters that really would be outside of their jurisdiction. 

The sense of Imperialism at work here spoiled some of the book for me.

To be fair, tho, the story was not exactly interesting otherwise either, but Anthony Head's narration saved the book for me. 

Oh, and why call the story East of Algiers, when the story is set in Tunis? Algeria or any other part of Algeria don't feature. I mean, sure, Tunisia is east of Algiers. That is true. But why not make reference in the title to something that actually has some relevance to the story?

These questions are entirely rhetorical, of course. I'm moving on to the next book.

The Sheltering Sky was not good. Not good at all. So now I need something entertaining and light and most of all ... delightful. 

Bring on a Paul Temple story read by Anthony Head...and set in Algiers, I assume.

After spending much of this afternoon and evening reading non-fiction about various crimes against humanity, and given that watching the news at the moment is equally depressing, I'm in need of another bit of comforting distraction: I have turned to Wallace and Sayers over the last week, so just for a change, I'll throw in some Durbridge. 

I came across these fabulous compilations of the old BBC Radio productions. I finished the first installment (The Early Years) last year and enjoyed it very much. These collections come with some additional material - material that is no longer viable to publish/release because the quality has deteriorated or it is incomplete, etc. 

It's probably material that only appeals to fans of the series, rather than new listeners, but I appreciated it. 

This second installment in the collection turns to the 1950s and contains five complete radio dramas:

- 'The Gilbert Case' (1954)

- 'The Lawrence Affair' (1956)

- 'The Spencer Affair' (1957)

- 'The Vandyke Affair' (the 1959 remake), and

- 'The Conrad Case' (1959)

I won't listen to them all back-to-back so this will be a longer-term project, but I love that these radio productions are available again. 

If anything has been a measure of my inability to focus this week, it has been my bedtime "reading". 

I specifically picked a Paul Temple audiobook because it is so undemanding - and yet tremendous fun. 

Still, I managed to get to the 50% and retain some sort of memory of what is going on in the story only because I must have listened to the first half of the book 3 times all in all. 

I cannot wait for the "weekend". 

Loving the audiobook, tho. It's a fun story. Bonkers, but fun.

I've been dithering all evening what to pick up next. Do I want Farjeon? Do I want Wimsey? Do I want comedy? Or Non-fiction?

I don't know. 

But I do know that a Paul Temple audiobook might just be the thing right now.

It's pure comfort reading.