book round-ups, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Halloween 2026

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It’s Halloween on Saturday so for this week’s Recommendsday I’ve got some spooky season reading for you. As ever, I had a whole list of books I was planning to read for this, and managed to only read a few of them, but a few is better than none right?

A Murder at Midnight by Ellie Alexander*

Halloween is coming in Redwood Grove and along with the rest of the town Annie and Fletcher are preparing for spooky happenings. When they get a phone call from a TV company looking to film an episode of their ghost hunting show in the bookshop it seems like great publicity – they get the Haunted Bookshop on TV on a show with a big fan base. But when a member of the crew dies, it seems like the only publicity they’ll be getting is bad, unless they can figure out who did it. This is the fourth in the Novel Detectives series but can absolutely be read standalone because there’s very little of any of the ongoing story lines in this, it’s mostly the mystery of the week. And it’s a fun set up – if you remember the Most Haunted TV show of the early 2000s this TV show will feel familiar to you and the crew working on it have plenty of tensions and rivalries to provide a motive for murderer. My favourite in this series in a while – more of this please and less of the running background stories!

Ghost Business by Jen DeLuca

This was Jen DeLuca’s new book for 2025 – the second in the Boneyard Key series. This features Sophie the ghost tour guide from Haunted Ever After and Tristan a newcomer who runs a ghost tour business and is there to open a new franchise. He’s surprised to find there’s already a ghost tour and she’s horrified that his ghost stories are made up. Then they go viral when their two tours run into each other, but both of them are actually fighting their attraction to each other. This is actually pretty gentle for a book that features an actual hurricane, and I enjoyed it although there was a bit of a case of just have a proper conversation going on at a few points in the plot, and Tristan needs to just grow a bit of a backbone! I don’t think this is the pairing that people were expecting for Sophie from book one but it did work, so I look forward to seeing what DeLuca comes up with for the next book in the series.

Scared Off by Barbara Ross

This is a novella length story that fits into the Maine Clambake series between Shucked Apart and Muddled through and sees Julia trying to solve a murder when a Halloween party her niece is at is gatecrashed by local high schoolers. If you’re following the series and haven’t read as far as Shucked Apart yet, this will give away a big plot development, so bear that in mind, but if you are (relatively) up to date, this is a nice addition to the series. The mystery is complicated enough that you don’t find the solution too fast, but not so complicated that the story feels rushed, and that’s not something that you can say about all novellas. Worth a look if you only want something short.

Happy Humpday!

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: Apparently Sir Cameron Needs to Die

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It’s Tuesday and whilst this isn’t a book with ghosts and ghouls, it does have dragons and elves, which I think makes it Halloween-y enough to be on theme for this week. And it was definitely the book that I have the most to say about of the ones that I read last week!

Sir Cameron is *technically* a knight, but he’s spent his whole career turning up just after the battle has happened and avoiding any chance that he might get killed, after all he’s just too handsome to die right? The battle against the mad sorcerer Merulo has been going on for years but a new prophecy has just been handed down by the church and it’s bad news for Sir Cameron: the only way to defeat Merulo is for Cameron to die. He’s (understandably) not keen on that idea, so runs away to throw himself on the mercy of the only person who doesn’t want him dead: Merulo. Merulo is less than pleased with this development: Cameron is vain, spoilt and attention seeking, but turning him into a vulture is entertaining. This is just the start of a voyage of discovery for Cameron but will he make it through alive? And will Merulo – because Cameron is getting strangely invested in the sorcerer’s survival…

I cannot adequately describe how bonkers this book is. Cameron getting turned into a vulture is only a small portion of the madness. It is totally, totally ridiculous and isn’t taking itself too seriously. It opens really strongly, and although I don’t think it quite carries through that promise, it’s still a fun read. It’s got a concussed elf as a (vengeful) side character and it keeps adding new twists and turns. And I think that’s where the problem is: it’s trying to do too much – the Amazon blurb includes the phrase “genre-bending” which doesn’t even begin to cover it really and it means it doesn’t quite do everything (anything?) as satisfyingly as you would like. I wasn’t sure how it was going to manage to resolve everything satisfactorily and I definitely didn’t expect how it did end, but it was a page turning way to pass some time on a wet and windy weekend.

I bought this one at Mr B’s Emporium so it is in some shops at least (and hasn’t spent too long on the pile in the grand scheme of things) but it’s also on Kindle and Kobo although I would wait for a price drop given the issues that I mention above – and the fact that is has really quite mixed reviews on Goodreads which suggest that other people had a bit less tolerance for it than I did! It has got a great cover though.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: October 19 – October 25

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We are now in Peak Halloween season, so I’ve got a week of appropriate content lined up for you. But before we get to that, here’s the list from this week, and you may notice that I’ve finally given up on the third Simon Snow book. I’ve tried, and I’ve tried, but I can’t get into it, it’s feeling like a chore to try and read it and I’ve been trying for so long with so little success that it’s making me feel bad about myself. Maybe I’ll come back around to it, maybe I won’t but for now it’s off the list and gone. The rest of the list is a bit audiobook heavy – lots of wandering around listening to audiobooks last weeks – combined with the PHP outage which seemed to slow down the flow of podcasts for a few days. I’ve got three theatre trips this week (!), so we’ll see what that does to the reading…

Read:

Murder at the Ritz by Jim Eldridge

Ruddy Gore by Kerry Greenwood

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L Sayers

The Long Game by Rachel Reid

Away with the Fairies by Kerry Greenwood

An Inkling of Death by Anna Beer*

The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters

Apparently Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers

Started:

The Murders of Richard III by Elizabeth Peters

Murder on Royal Crescent by Harriet F Townson*

Still reading:

N/a

Two books and one ebook

Bonus picture: Halloween cakes spotted out and about in Soho

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Heated Rivalry (The Parody Musical)

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Back with some theatre this week – this time Off-West End again with my first trip to the Underbelly Boulelvard Soho!

The full title here is Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody and it’s arrived in Soho after a run at the Edinburgh Fringe and is also running off Broadway in New York. It’s based on series one Heated Rivalry, which is in itself an adaptation of the book by Rachel Reid. If you’ve managed to miss this phenomenon so far the short hand is “canadian gay hockey romance” and the longer version is that Shane Hollander and Ilya Rosanov are both star hockey players and professional rivals as they play for different teams (and are from different countries) but who secretly in a relationship.This is parodying the tv series and and retelling it through the eyes of a “wine mom”.

Now this is the point where I admit that at the point where I saw the show (despite all my best intentions) I’ve only seen the clips and memes of the TV show, although I have read the book that it’s based on. But I don’t think that held me back because I still laughed a lot. The framing is really fun and the cast is great. Aside from the actors playing Shane and Ilya there are three other cast members who take on all the other roles and they’re doing a great job. I don’t think I’d seen any of them in anything before, but they were doing a great job and getting the absolute most out of everything. I was disappointed that some of the backdrop elements of the set look to be made using AI – once I’d spotted that on the menu for the juice bar it made me give everything else in the set design a closer look and a bit of side eye, which is a shame. But the songs are great and there is a cast recording of the Off Broadway cast out now if you want to have a listen.

This is at the Underbelly Boulevard in Soho until November 1 – it was packed the night that I was there and seems to be selling well, so if you want to go and see it you’ve still got time if you’re quick

Have a great Sunday!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Airport autumn 2026 edition

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Slightly belatedly as we’ve been back a few weeks now, but for this Saturday’s post I’ve got my thoughts on the bookshop selection at Birmingham airport.

I’m going to start with a disclosure: I was disappointed with the selection this time. I think that’s partly because I’ve actually done quite a good job of getting (and reading) advance copies of some of the autumn releases this year, but I think there was actually quite a lot of repetition in what was here and not as much variety. This is the top of the airport fiction chart and I’ve already read the Lucy Foley Miss Marple, I’m pretty convinced that Yesteryear and Taipei Story will have big Kindle price drops at some point and I don’t want to read them enough to pay these prices and then we have a lot of thrillers that aren’t really my thing.

In the bottom half of the chart you can see some of the stuff from the top half filling some gaps (or is it vice versa?) and then the Hawthorne and Horowitz that I read back when it came out in the spring, and the Mel Giedroyc (twice!) which I read and (surprisingly) really, really loathed. The Kathryn Stockett has had mixed reviews and is really long so I skipped on that, and I’ve actually already got the Richard Osman so I was pretty short on choices for the traditional holiday Buy-one-half-price.

Moving to the airport non-fiction, we have my two purchases (as you know) Regime Change and The Cauldron, but I’ve already read the Kennedys and the Windsors thanks to a Kindle offer, I still haven’t read the Miriam Margolyes book I already own, Journey across Japan is actually a follow up and the Patrick Radden Keffe is about the death of a child and although the other books of his that I’ve read have been really good, I know that I’m not in the headspace to read about that. I was tempted by the Lucy Worsley, but I wasn’t sure how much new stuff would be in there, and I was also tempted by The Beckhams, which is by Alexander Larman who has written some books on the Royals that I’ve read – but it was really skinny and the print was large so I didn’t think it was worth it!

Swan Song by Charles Spencer was the big release at that point – and I don’t know if you can tell but that’s in actual hardback format, not airport paperback, which is why I’m including this one. I’m not bothering with anyt of the other paperback-paperback photos, because it really was the usual suspects – Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and other Taylor Jenkins Reid books, lots of Colleen Hoover, Frieda McFadde etc and also quite a bit of Alexandra Potter. I had been hoping for the latest Three Dahlias or the new John Green Hollywood Ending in Airport format but no such joy.

Hey ho – if you’re going through an airport soon, may your bookshop visit be more satisfying!

series

Series Redux: Philippa Gregory

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Covers of The Constant Princess, The Boleyn Inheritance, The Queen's Fool and The Virgin's Lover

Philippa Gregory has a new book out this week, so I’m taking the opportunity to point you back at my post about her Tudor series that I wrote (gosh) four years ago. Her new one this week is called Royal Witch and is set in 1420 and is once again a fictionalised version of a historical person – this time Eleanor Cobham, who was a lady-in-waiting to Jacqueline of Hainault at the court of Henry V. The blurb suggests that this is one of her more magic-is-real novels – but as ever the line here is very blurry and Goodreads has this listed as the (new) first book in the linked series of Plantagenet and Tudor novels which ends up in the Tudor Court books that I was writing about in that original post.

And since that post back on Platinum Jubilee weekend (what a long time ago that seems now) there is a new Tudor book too – The Boleyn Traitor about Jane Boleyn, who has figured in earlier books in the series (and not in a postive light!) as she is the wife of Anne Boleyn’s brother George. The Boleyn Traitor came out in hardback last year and paperback over the summer, and won fiction book of the year at the British Book Awards in May. Of the two, I’m more likely to read The Boleyn Traitor than Royal Witch on account of my spotty relationship with books with magic, but I’m so far behind on these at this point – and the to-read pile is so huge there’s no chance of it happening for quite some time!

Have a great weekend!

Book previews

Out Today: Legends and Lattes Graphic novel

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The graphic novel version of Legends and Lattes is out in the UK today. I will admit that I didn’t know that this was a think until the start of the month, but now I know it is – I want it! I’m not always the most visual reader (if that makes sense) so I’m excited to see what it looks like in this format. I’ve really enjoyed the Legends and Lattes books as you may remember and this is actually the second Travis Baldree release in as many weeks – last week we had Tales from the Territory, which is a collection of five short stories in the world and which I also need to get my hands on, but as it’s hardcover only at the moment that may not be as soon as I can get my hands on the graphic novel.

books

Recommendsday: South Korean books

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This month it is a year since Baek Se-hee, the author of I Want To Die but I want to eat Tteokbokki died, at the age of just 34. It spawned an outpouring of love for her and for her work and so today I have for you a few South Korean books in translation. Her writing was a memoir, and I don’t really have anything else similar to that, but I do have some fiction – and if you liked any of the Japanese books in translation I recommended a few weeks back, then there are some that have a similar feel here.

Soyangri Book Kitchen by Kim Jee Hye*

Yoojin is the proprietor of the Book Kitchen which is cafe-bookshop and a retreat. Across the course of the book we meet the people who come to visit over its first year and see how their trip changes them and their lives. It’s described as for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, but I actually think it is closer in many ways to What You Are Looking for is in the Library. It’s quite low key and definitely fairly low peril but I really like the variety of people who come through to visit and the insight into life and culture of South Korea. I read it in an evening without really moving from my reading spot.

DallerGut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee

Copy of DallerGut Dream Department Store

Penny is a new employee at a department store selling dreams. It’s her big chance and a huge opportunity for her and across the book we follow her as she learns how the job works, gets to know the other employees and the people behind the dreams that they are selling. This was everywhere about two years ago – I picked up a copy soon after it came out, started reading it and then promptly left it at a friend’s house and didn’t get it back for a year. And then when I did it went back on to the pile and I forgot about it. It had been so long since I started it that I did start again when I finally sat down to read it. This is also low peril, but has more focus on Penny and her life than it does on the dream customers and how their lives are changed (compared to the Book Kitchen I mean). It’s quirky, magical and escapist. There is a sequel now – it’s described as a duology and I can’t quite work out if I liked it enough to read it.

Baekjo laundry Has a Neat Answer to All Your Problems by Lee Jae-in*

Eunjo has been forced to move back to the coastal town she grew up in after the university she was attending was closed down before she could graduate from her fashion design course. Without a degree, there is no one who wants to hire her so when her parents decide to retire, she takes over (with no enthusiasm) their laundry shop. It’s sandwiched between a newly renovated apartment complex and one still awaiting work and he has a lot of baggage about growing up there. But she starts to notice mysterious things happening around the complex and decides to try and figure out what is happening. I think this has a great premise, but I think it’s let down by the translation. It switches from first person to third person at times for no real reason and there are jumps backwards and forwards that are never really explained, and plot developments that occur with no explanation. At first I thought it was a style thing, but as it went on and it got more confusing I put it down the translation. Which is a shame because I think it might have been trying to be a sort of low stakes mystery type of thing but just not pulling it off. Hey Ho.

That’s your lot today, please take care of yourself and if you’re struggling with your mental health, you are not alone and there are organisations who can help you.

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: The Seventh Sinner

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Here we are with another book on the week – and it’s yet another mystery novel!

This time it’s the first book in an Elizabeth Peter series that I haven’t previously read – The Seventh Sinner is the first to feature librarian Jacqueline Kirby. Written in the 1970s, this is set in Rome and our main character is Jean, a student in the city on a fellowship and along with her friends waiting to see if their work has been enough to secure a further year’s funding. She’s been having a great time in Italy – right up until the point where she finds one of the members of her group bleeding to death in a catacomb. And then the accidents start – or is someone actually trying to kill Jean. With the help of Jacqueline, can she stay alive to finish her studies?

This is quite of its time, but it’s an atmospheric mystery in a great setting with a some of the humour that you might expect if you’ve read the Vicky Bliss which started at a similar time or her historical Amelia Peabody books. If you’ve read or are used to reading books from the seventies it’ll probably work for you. I really enjoyed it and as you know from Books Incoming I’ve got the next two to read in the series already

Happy Reading!

books, stats, week in books, The pile

The Week in Books: October 12 – October 18

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Happy Monday everyone. Back to earth with a bump and a much shorter list this week. And I’ve got a busy week coming so no guarantee that I’ll be able to do any different this week. Hey ho.

Read:

The Shippers by Katherine Center

Three of Hearts by Katie Cotugno

Back to You by Ann Liang

Death of an Englishman by Anna Beer

Take a Chance, Sasha Sinclair by Ashley Herring Blake

Seventh Sinner by Elizabeth Peters

Started:

Murder at the Ritz by Jim Eldridge

Still reading:

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell

One book and one ebook

Bonus picture: I was going to post another picture of my view from the commute which is now pitch black but luckily I have something more cheerful…

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.