Month: February 2025

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: Murder in the Afternoon

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Breaking all my own rules this week with the only Kate Shackleton mystery I haven’t read yet, which I’ve read extremely out of order which is not the best idea but which has a very good murder plot.

Kate is called in to investigate a death at a quarry in a Yorkshire village. Two children went to get their dad after a days work and the elder finds him dead and they run for help. But when they return the body is missing and the local police are more inclined to believe that Ethan has left his wife Mary Jane after an argument. But Mary Jane believes her daughter Harriet and pleads for Kate’s help and Kate is unable to resist. What happened to Ethan – who was a union organiser and had also fallen out with his best friend who was about to sell his farm and move away.

This is the third in the series and as well as having a good and twisty mystery also sets up some of the running plot strands in later books which I had sort of wondered about but would have wondered more if I had realised how many books I had (or hadn’t) read in the series. Like Dandy Gilver these are historical mysteries that have darker solutions than you might expect from the covers – and I sort of like them more for that because of the variety and inventiveness of them – and because Agatha Christie and the actual golden age books are sometimes darker than you remember them being – Sleeping Murder, Artists in Crime, Nemesis – they all have grim bits in them.

Anyway – these are easy to get hold of, I don’t think the series is over so there may be ebook offers next time a book comes out whenever that may be. Any bookshop with a reasonable crime section will have them – I think that’s where I got this one.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: February 10 – February 16

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Yeah, so the reading list is being held up by the audiobooks and I’m not really sure why, because it felt like an ok week in reading. The Kings Loot is nearly finished though, and I’m not making bad progress on the Holly Stars. But that still reading list is looking a little long, so I need to do a bit of work on that front this week, or at least try to.

Read:

Death and the Dancing Footman by Ngaio Marsh

Poppy Harmon and the Pillow Talk Killer by Lee Hollis

Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh

Metropolitan Murders edited by Martin Edwards

Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh

Murder in the Afternoon by Frances Brody

Started:

The Kings Loot by Richard Wallace

Still reading:

Murder in the Dressing Room by Holly Stars*

The Favourites by Layne Fargo*

A Traveller in Time by Alison Utley

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

No books bought, which is probably a good thing really things considered.

Bonus picture: Filming in Fitzroy Square on Friday

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

books

Not a Book: Ludwig

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Happy Sunday everyone and hilariously this post was mostly written before I realised that in order to compare something to Jonathan Creek, I probably needed to explain what Jonathan Creek was and why I love it because it is somewhat vintage these days and I am old. So now I’ve done that, my review of Ludwig will make more sense…

Ludwig is a six-part detective drama-comedy series starring David Mitchell as John, an anti-social puzzle designer and Anna Maxwell Martin as his sister-in-law Lucy. In the first episode Lucy sends for John to help as her husband, his identical twin brother James has gone missing. James is a police detective and has left her a letter of resignation as well as some instructions. Lucy says that James has changed over recent months and rather than submit his resignation or report him missing she wants John to pretend to be James and infiltrate the police. Thus starts the running plot of the series alongside a murder of the week each episode.

I described this series to one of my work colleagues as Jonathan Creek but with puzzles instead of magic and a running plot beyond Creek’s will they or won’t they in the Maddie years. I struggled whether to call it a drama or a dramedy or a drama comedy in the description at the top because there is humour but it’s not laugh-track sitcom funny (or at least what sitcoms are aiming for) and if the comedy to drama scale has Brooklyn 99 at the comedy end and something really bleak at the other, this one falls somewhere closer to the halfway point than to the Brooklyn 99 end. It’s got less jokes than Deadloch but it’s also nowhere near as bleak as the final episode of that gets (which was nearly too far for me).

I really enjoyed the murder of the week element, but I did worry how they were going to resolve the fact that John was pretending to be a police officer – and what might happen to those cases that he had solved. But actually it sorted that pretty neatly in the end. And it’s got a lot of familiar faces to me in the various murder cases – mostly people who I’ve seen in the theatre more than on TV – like Hammed Animashaun who was one of the scene stealing thugs in the Kiss Me, Kate I loved so much last summer.

This has already been commissioned for a second series, which is good news for a number of reasons. If you haven’t watched it yet, it’s on the iPlayer now in the UK, but I’m not sure what the international streaming situation is – BritBox US’s website doesn’t work properly for me because I’m in the UK and I can’t face setting up a VPN just to find that out!

Have a great Sunday everyone!

The pile

Books Incoming: Mid-February 2025

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For once I have already read half of these. So they’re not going into the pile – but straight onto the shelves – or in some case to the parents for them to read. Who knew I could do that. Actually it’s probably one of the most me things ever – the mood reader buys books and immediately reads them instead of everything waiting on the shelf. Anyway: the ones I’ve read are the Richard Coles, the Nev Fountain and the second Vicki Delany. The Elly Griffiths is the next for me in the series after I remembered about them when mum’s book club read the first one. And then the other two are cozy crimes I had a read of when I was in Waterstones Picadilly and Gower Street and liked the look of. So not adding too much to the pile but not exactly restrained either!

romance, series, Series I love

Romance series: Lucky Harbor

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Jill Shalvis – 12 books have read them all

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone and how could I do any thing other than a romance series for my post today?

Our setting is a small coastal town in Washington state, and our romances are standalone but interconnected. So you can read them in any order you like, but in some cases you’ll get the best pay off from having read in order (Forever and a Day I’m talking about you). Lots of my reviews for these on good reads use the phrase “fun and flirty” which I think is fair – there are challenges in the lives of lots of the characters, but never in a bleak and hopeless way that takes away their agency in finding a happily ever after. Peril is low, but satisfying resolutions are guaranteed.

On occasion there are issues that could have been solved with a simple conversation – but I forgive them because the accidental pregnancy trip crops up very rarely here, and we all know that’s one of my least favourites!

I thought I had read all of these – but it turns out I may not have. I blame the fact that I read some in omnibus form and that makes it easier to lose track of things. But on the brightside that means I may still have a couple of treats in store when I need them.

These should be pretty easy to get hold of – the three book omnibuses are actually better value on kindle – and if you’re not sure and want to try I find the samples on omnibuses are actually pretty good because they’re often a longer length because there are so many pages the percentage adds up a fair representation

Have a great Valentines everyone whatever you’re doing and a lovely weekend!

Book previews

Out this Week: New B K Borison

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This week I wanted to mention that we have a new book from B K Borison this month – and it’s got Sleepless in Seattle vibes. Borison is the author of the very popular Lovelight Farms books, which I’ve read one of, but have been all over all the bookshops in the last year. First Time Caller is the first in a new series called Heartstrings. That name seems to come from the Baltimore radio show hosted by the hero of the book, Aiden who despite the fact that it’s a romance hotline is over love. Our heroine is Lucie, whose daughter calls in to Aidens show for some dating advice for her mum. I am a big Nora Ephron fan and really like Sleepless in Seattle, for all that it has some slightly stalkery vibes at times, so I’m looking forward to seeing how Borison has taken inspiration from the movie and updated it for the 2020s

books on offer, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: February Kindle Offers

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It’s the second Wednesday of the month, so it’s time for some more Kindle offers. And I’m not going to lie, given that it’s Valentine’s Day this month, I was expecting more romances on offer than I actually found. But hey, maybe this is counter programming?

Lets star with the romances I did find though. There’s an older Katie Fforde Living Dangerously, Casey McQuiston’s Red, White and Royal Blue, Kirsty Greenwood’s The Love of My Afterlife, How to End a Love Story (which I had some reservations about), recent release (and even more recently mentioned) Not in My Book and one of the Christina Laurens I haven’t read – Love and Other Words.

There are a few intriguing looking new releases on offer – like Frances White’s Voyage of the Damned, which claims “if Agatha Christie wrote fantasy, this would be it” which is quite the claim and almost enough to get me to buy it without reading a sample for 99p. But not quite enough because I’m working on that impulse control, so I have the sample on the Kindle now.

If you want to start the Rivers of London series ahead of the next book this summer, the first book is 99p this month. There are a couple of Agatha Christies on offer too – Sparkling Cyanide and Nemesis. Also in old favourites there’s Memoirs of a Geisha, which I first read at uni and is way better than the movie of it is.

In stuff I have but haven’t read yet, there’s T J Klune’s retelling of Pinoccio In the Lives of Puppets and Stephanie Garber’s Caravel.

Two Discworld books to flag this month – I Shall Wear Midnight from the Tiffany Aching middle grade series is 99p and Feet of Clay from the Watch sequence is £1.99. There’s a Georgette Heyer murder mystery, Death in the Stocks, on offer at 99p as well as a few romances including one of my all time favourites in Devil’s Cub and short story collection Pistols for Two at £1.99.

Happy Humpday!

Book of the Week, mystery, new releases

Book of the Week: Death Upon a Star

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Happy Tuesday everyone, this week I’ve got a review of one of last week’s new releases for you – so points to me for being timely for once!

It’s 1939, and Evelyn Galloway is a script supervisor who has just arrived in Hollywood. She’s a script supervisor and she’s got a job working on Alfred Hitchcock’s new movie, Rebecca. Soon she’s on the film lot and mixing with the stars and crew. When she meets one of her favourite actors, she’s delighted to find that he’s actually a nice person and they arrange to meet for lunch. Except that he never turns up – and is then found murdered. When the stories in the papers don’t match up with what she know, Evelyn decides to start looking into the murder herself.

This is the first in a series – and there’s a bit of mysterious backstory going on here as well as the mystery plot. This is right in a part of history when I think mystery stories really work and Hollywood is a fun setting for something like this. There are some real people in this in minor roles, and there are some bits that are inspired by real people or stories that you can spot too if you’ve read a bit about golden age Hollywood. It’s not ground breaking, but it is a nice easy and relaxing read that is a fun way of spending a few hours. I would happily read the next one in the series if it passed my way.

My copy came from NetGalley, but it came out last week and it’s available now in Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: February 3 – February 9

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Well it all went a bit downhill this week after Ballet Shoes – work was insanely busy and I had a cold. And I didn’t even stay up for the start of the Super Bowl – which tells you something about how tired and grotty I was feeling! Fingers crossed for a better week this week…

Read:

A Victim at Valentines by Ellie Alexander*

A Surfeit of Lampreys by Ngaio Marsh

Indignant in Indiana by Patti Benning

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

Fatally Flaky by Diane Mott Davidson

Charred to Handle by Patti Benning

Death Upon a Star by Amy Patricia Meade*

Started:

Murder in the Dressing Room by Holly Stars*

Metropolitan Murders edited by Martin Edwards

Poppy Harmon and the Pillow Talk Killer by Lee Hollis

Still reading:

The Favourites by Layne Fargo*

A Traveller in Time by Alison Utley

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

One book bought. That’s it. Restrained.

Bonus picture: the National Theatre and South Bank complex looking over towards St Paul’s after Ballet Shoes

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

book adjacent, theatre

Book Adjacent: Ballet Shoes

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Ballet Shoes is a new adaptation of the beloved children’s novel (and one of my favourites) by Noel Streatfeild. The book tells the story of three sisters – Pauline, Petrova and Posy – who are adopted by an eccentric traveller who brings them home to his great niece Sylvia and her former Nanny, Nana. They live in Gum’s (Great Uncle Matthew) house in London while he is away, but after he fails to return from an expedition, their money starts to run out and the household starts to take in boarders to make ends meet. These include (fortuitously) a pair of tutors who take over the girls education when Sylvia can’t afford the school fees anymore, and a dance teacher who arranges for the girls to take classes at a theatre school. And thus begins the girls theatrical careers and another vitally needed income stream for the family.

This has been lightly modernised and a few bits of the plot have been simplified – for example the two tutors are down to one, it’s a single man with a car not a married couple and there are less plays that the girls are in – but it’s still very much the same story. Financial troubles and orphans are a staple of books from this era – for adults and children (see Miss Buncle and all the parentless girls at the Chalet School) but it’s also a found family with a sprinkling of showbiz glamour which is one of the reasons why the book still works today – and why it translates so well to the stage. There is comedy and tension and plenty of excuses for dancing and fun. It’s full of excellent performances, the set is beautiful and time just flew by. And the changes worked so well I found myself re-reading the original book this week to check that I wasn’t misremembering that it wasn’t always like that!

It’s only on for another two weeks – so if you’re in London and have a free evening it’s really worth trying to see it. I saw an understudy playing Sylvia – who was wonderful but I would happily use that as an excuse to go again and see Pearl Mackie play her, but I’m not sure I have an evening that works for it.

Ballet Shoes is at the Olivier at the National Theatre until February 22.