The Pre-order list

Ok, so I realised that I’ve mentioned preordering stuff fairly regularly in book of the eeek, but not actually told you what I’ve ordered, so I thought I should change that. You may not be massively surprised by this though…

So in no particular order, let me start with the next Rivers of London book – Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch. You all know how much I love this series, and I can’t wait to see what Peter has to deal with this time – and whether he gets it dealt with before the twins arrive! Luckily I only have to wait until early April. And since I last told you how excited I was about it (in the anticipated books post) I’ve ordered myself a nice signed hardback copy from my old friends Big Green Books. And that’s not the only signed copy I’ve ordered from them – I’ll have to wait until the start of June, but I’m I’m really looking forward to Richard Cole’s detective novel Murder Before Evensong dropping through the letterbox. Who doesn’t want to read a murder mystery about a crime solving vicar, written by everyone’s favourite former popstar turned reverend? Exactly.

Arriving rather sooner will be Martha Wainwright’s memoir, Things I Might Regret Telling You. I first heard Martha singing on Simon Mayo’s afternoon show back when I lived in Southend – she was promoting her Piaf record, so it must have been 2009 and I remember parking the car on the drive as i got home from work and staying sitting in it until her section was done. Her albums have been on high rotation in my various vehicles CD players and on music services ever since, and I’ve seen her live in concert too. In fact I’ve collected a set of Wainwrights, as I’ve also seen Rufus more than once – and on one occasion he was supported by Lucy Wainwright Roche. Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading about her life – especially what is was like growing up as the daughter of the folk musicians Kate McGarrigale and Loudon Wainwright II. After all, her breakthrough song was about her father and called Bloody Motherf**king Asshole, so we know there are some issues there – even if you didn’t know that her brother’s song Dinner at Eight is also about the fractious relationship that he has with their dad.

Far, far into the future is Lucy Worsley’s Agatha Christie biography, which is subtitled “A Very Elusive Woman” and doesn’t come out until September. Which is annoying, but hey, I may have forgotten I preordered it by then and when it arrives it will be a delightful surprise. Anyway, there’s a spate of Christie-related books at the moment – after all it’s only a few weeks since I reviewed The Christie Affair – and that’s not even the only novel about her disappearance that’s come out in the last six months, because there’s also The Mystery of Mrs Christie by Marie Benedict which came out in October. Anyway, having read a lot of her books and some of the fiction about her I want to read something proper about the reality.

And I think that’s about it, because you already know that I’ve preordered the next Vinyl Detective and all of the other books I mentioned as having preordered in the that post have already come out! I’m sure that state of affairs won’t last though – as I think the supply chain issues that have been messing with book release dates may be finally starting to clear, and surely then a whole wealth of books I can’t wait to read will come tumbling out…