The irony

Four months ago, I wrote¹: there is a huge discrepancy in the way that USA President Trump is regarded in his own country and how he is regarded in Israel. For many Israelis, he is extremely popular ... [whereas] his US popularity has declined to about 40% (may be lower) which is very low for an incumbent president.

Now, after a war with Iran that Trump claims that he won although as far as most Israelis are concerned, he lost, the world sees Trump in a much better light whereas 72% of Israelis who were polled in the past few days see Trump as a negative influence.

Everything that he promised back in February did not happen. I sympathise with the Iranian opposition who were promised help in overthrowing a draconian regime but whose situation remains unchanged, if not worsened.

Internal links
[1] 2080

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This day in blog history:

Blog #	Date	Title	Tags
369	19/06/2011	Herpes simplex	Health
487	19/06/2012	Down to Montenegro (Dubrovnik log 4)	Holiday, Dubrovnik
488	19/06/2012	ERP beats Excel at CRM/2	ERP
489	19/06/2012	Taking things easy (Dubrovnik log 5)	Holiday, Dubrovnik
602	19/06/2013	Edinburgh log (6): Graduation ceremony	Holiday, MBA, Edinburgh
724	19/06/2014	Modes of transport (Sorrento log 7C)	Holiday, Sorrento, Italy
1150	19/06/2018	New arrangement for song	MIDI, Song writing
1631	19/06/2023	Two books by Daniel Lieberman	Health, Psychology, Non-fiction books

DCI Evan Warlow

Over the past week I've been bingeing on the books written by Rhys Dylan about his fictional creation, DCI Evan Warlow. As one might imagine, the author is Welsh and all his books take place in mid-Wales. One does get a smattering of Welsh from some of the characters but it's not overdone.

The books are quite well written with plenty of clues and red herrings scattered about; I don't feel that my time has been wasted, altough of course had the first book not been good then I probably wouldn't have bothered with the rest. 

Now for some observations regarding the books from a critical point of view

• Dylan has been churning out these books - there were four or five published in 2022 and a similar number in 2023. The quantity has not been affecting their quality.
• That said, there is room for improvement - two parallel story lines makes for more interesting books. Although Warlow's team is fairly small, DS Alan Banks managed two cases with an even smaller team.
• A map in each book would not go amiss. I've discovered that the author's website purports to have an interactive map showing the location of each book's activity, but the page doesn't load for me.
• I could have done with a little less levity in the books. I agree that some of it is witty but it's too much. In a similar vein, there is a DC whose naivety is unbelievable. I don't see how someone could have reached that rank without becoming more worldly wise.
• When looking at the books from a distance, a common structure becomes apparent. The first chapter generally contains two characters who discover a body; these characters disappear afterwards having served their dramatic purpose. The murderer (or antagonist) is someone to whom we have been introduced towards the beginning of the books and generally has impeccable credentials, so is never suspected until it is almost too late.
• There is a superintendent - not the normal superior of Warlow - who is generally considered to be not very capable at coal face policing. It makes one wonder how she achieved that rank. Whenever she has introduced a new member to the team, that member has proved to be corrupt. I had my suspicions about a character matching this type throughout the ninth book and they were proved to be true.
• Dare I say it - there appears to be a small amout of shipping between Warlow and his inspector. Time will tell.

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This day in blog history:

Blog #	Date	Title	Tags
483	14/06/2012	Dubrovnik log (0)	Holiday, Dubrovnik
596	14/06/2013	Edinburgh log (1): Touring the city	Holiday, Edinburgh
718	14/06/2014	Pompeii (Sorrento log 3)	Holiday, Sorrento, Italy
864	14/06/2015	Vinyl log 14 - 14 June	Sandy Denny, Van der Graaf Generator, 1975, Vinyl log, Fairport Convention, The Band
1779	14/06/2024	Master of research (3)	DBA