We have a Half-Price Books about 5 miles from our home. According to their website, Half-Price Books started in a converted laundromat in Dallas, Texas. Engineer Husband and I first discovered this fantastic used bookstore when we lived in Austin, Texas. The company, by the way, is not paying me anything for this advertisement, and if you don’t live near a Half-Price Books, you should visit one when you travel sometime.
We went to Half-Price Books about a week ago, and I managed to restrain myself and only buy two paperbacks: Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie and The Children of Men by P.D. James. I read Ordeal by Innocence last week. I’d read it before, but it was one of the few Dame Agathas I don’t own. Vintage Agatha, the innocent must be freed from the shadow of suspicion by exposure of the guilty. No Poirot or Miss Marple in this one. There’s something very satisfying about a murder mystery where the innocent are exonerated, the guilty are punished, and justice is served. If only reality always worked so well.
I haven’t read the P.D. James book yet, but I’ve wanted to read it for some time. It’s not a mystery, but rather a sort of futuristic science fiction story about a dystopia. (I learned that word not too long ago, opposite of a utopia.)