Month: April 2025

Book previews

Out Today: New Magpie Murders

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Honestly. I’m so excited about this. I’ve been saying in my reviews of Anthony Horowitz’s Hawthorn and Horowitz books that I hoped that there would be another Magpie Murders book and today is the day: the third Susan Ryeland mystery book is out. This has a continuation to the Atticus Pund series being written by the grandson of a beloved children’s author who, coincidentally thinks his grandmother was murdered. The reason why I wasn’t sure if there would be another in this series is because how many murders could be tied into the Atticus Pund series. So I’m incredibly excited to see what Horowitz has come up with – and it’s already been bought up for a third series of the TV adaptation. I can’t wait!

books on offer, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: April Kindle Offers

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It may only be the 9th, but it’s already the second Wednesday of April and so it’s Kindle Offers o’clock again.

Lets start with a couple of books that I really enjoyed. Firstly there’s Elissa Sussman‘s former BotW Funny You Should Ask which is 99p, as is Jen DeLuca’s Well Played, the first in her Renaissance Faire series, and Christina Lauren’s In a Holidaze which is completely out of season at the moment, but is great. Early Morning Riser from Katherine Heiney is 99p and former BotW Standard Deviation is in Kindle Unlimited – I’m hoping we’ll get news on something new from her soon too. Rachel Lynn Solomon‘s The Ex Talk is 99p – it’s not my favourite of hers, because I had an issue with the journalistic ethics in it, but I know others didn’t have the same problem.

I’ve been on a massive Elly Griffiths binge over the last month and a half so it would be remiss of me not to mention that her latest book The Frozen People is 99p at the moment. It only came out a the end of February and it is the first in a new series featuring cold cases and what the blurb would suggest is time travel – and so of course I bought it while writing this post! In other murder mysteries, former BotW The Darkest Sin is 99p, as is the second Three Dahlias A Very Lively Mystery, and the second in the Rivers of London series, Moon over Soho.

In Golden Age crime writers, Josephine Tey’s Brat Farrar is 99p, Georges Simenon’s The Hanging Man of Saint-Pholien. As a side note: more and more classic crime novels are now getting lots and lots of very cheap kindle editions, where it’s hard to know if they are any good or not. So it’s not exactly 99p, but all the “proper” Harper Collins kindle editions of the Miss Marple series are £2.99 at the moment. They’ve also got relatively new audiobook readings with narrators like Richard E Grant, Stephanie Cole and Emilia Fox, which are the ones that I’m listening too at the moment. And as E C R Lorac’s books perform well in their BLCC editions, there are more of her books popping up in other Kindle editions too – lots of which are 99p, although as ever I can’t vouch for the quality of all of them, although the ones that I have read have been ok.

In other authors I like, Anthony Horowitz’s With a Mind to a Kill, which is one of his James Bond novel is on offer for 99p, as is PG Woodhouse’s Summer Lightning which is one of the Blandings series,

And finally, in things I own but haven’t read yet and are now 99p: The Divorcees, Why Shoot a Butler by Georgette Heyer and Assistant to the Villain – which I’ve been waiting to drop in price for a while and which I bought while writing this post!

Happy Humpday everyone

tribute

Kerry Greenwood

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Normal service is somewhat suspended today, because yesterday morning I woke up to see the news that Kerry Greenwood has died.

I first read her Phryne Fisher series more than a decade ago now – in the days before the blog and the early days of Kindle ownership and before the TV series appeared on UK screens. Since then I’ve been back to them more times than I can count – as ebooks and audiobooks. And I’ve read new additions to the series as soon as I could get my hands on them. Only a couple of months back I posted about how excited I was that there is a new Phryne coming this year. And now Murder in the Cathedral will be the last.

Seventy is no age at all really, but I hope she knew how much joy her creations – Phryne and the gang and her modern day detective Corinna Chaoman – have brought people. And judging by the obituaries, she made a real difference to people’s actual lives as a legal aid solicitor as well. Thank you and rest well.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 31 – April 6

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So, I’m down to the final book in the Ruth Galloway binge, and I paced myself and only let myself start it at the weekend – and didn’t let myself finish it. Whatever will I do when I’ve finished them? Well the answer should be read the April books from NetGalley, but we all know that what should happen and what actually happens can be radically different things when it comes to me! Ahem

Read:

Gemma by Noel Streatfeild

A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie

The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths

They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths

The Fixer Upper by Lauren Forsythe

The Long Divorce by Edmund Crispin

Dimsie Grows Up by Dorita Fairlie Bruce

Started:

The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths

The Edinburgh Murders by Catriona McPherson*

Still reading:

The Oscar Wars by Michael Schulman

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Three books bought at the National Trust second hand bookshop on Sunday.

Bonus picture: genuinely starting to feel like winter might be over now. This was Sunday afternoon and it was glorious.

*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: Operation Mincemeat

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It’s Olivier Award Sunday everyone and although I have everything crossed for Simon Lipkin in the Best Actor in a Musical category for his turn as Fagin in Oliver and for Ballet Shoes in some of the other categories, I thought today was a great opportunity for me to talk about last year’s Best New Musical winner Operation Mincemeat, which I saw in the West End in mid-March.

Operation Mincemeat is a comedy musical devised by the group Split Lip, based on a deception operation carried out by British intelligence during World War Two. The Allies want to invade Sicily, but the island is swarming with Nazi troops. So they need to come up with a plan to disguise the invasion plans. There is a five person cast who all play multiple roles across the course of the show, with quick changes coming out of your ears.

This got total rave reviews when it opened – but I’ll admit that their Olivier Award performance left me more confused than enthused. Add in a complicated ticketing policy and it’s taken me a while to get around to it which is a bit of a more fool me situation because it’s so good. It’s funny and clever and it’s going to point out a few issues going on with the plan as well as highlighting some of the people that tend to get forgotten about in the history books.

I saw the new cast – because the original team have just opened the show on Broadway (press night was actually the same week that I went to see it in London) and they’re all giving cracking performances in what must be quite indimisating circumstances- given that the original cast was the four creators and the winner of the Olivier award for best supporting actor for his role in the show.

This has just extended again in London – so there’s plenty of time to go and see it – and as I said they run a range of schemes for tickets. Find the details here.

Operation Mincemeat is at the Fortune Theatre in London

Side note: I thought that this was the only West Emd Theatre I hadn’t been inside – it was previously the home to The Woman in Black for about 30 years and I don’t do horror – but then I realised that I haven’t been to the new Soho Place theatre yet so I haven’t actually completed my set yet. Still at least it’s an excuse to go and see something else…

books, stats

March Stats

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Books read this month: 33*

New books: 24

Re-reads: 9 (9 audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 17

NetGalley books read: 2

Kindle Unlimited read: 3

Ebooks: 1

Audiobooks: 9

Non-fiction books: 0

Favourite book: I mean one of the Ruth Galloways, I just don’t know which one…

Most read author: Elly Griffiths – 12 Ruth Galloway books…

Books bought: still too many

Books read in 2025: 94

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 780

A pretty good month in reading all in, although it has presented a problem or two. A massive, massive binge like I’ve been on with the Ruth Galloway series reduces the options for Books of the Week – because of my rules about repeat authors and later books in series – and that in its turn presents issues for the Quick Reviews, as you could see on Wednesday. But given that I’ve very nearly finished the series now, April should be better on that front. I might even finish a non-fiction book…

Bonus picture: Progress on this year’s Beat the to-read Pile bookshelf – we are ahead of schedule! Reader, it will not last. It never lasts! Also: boy oh boy can’t you see the Ruth Galloway binge impact – in volume and colours.

*includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – including 2 this month!

bingeable series, series, Series I love

Mystery series: Fetherings

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The twenty-second book in Simon Brett’s Fetherings series came out this week – and I am nearly up to date with the series at this point, so it seemed like a good point to revisit them.

Our detective duo in this series are Carole and Jude, next door neighbours, very different personalities but unlikely friends. I really love the groups of characters that Brett creates – whether it’s Charles Paris, his bottle of Bells and on off relationship with his wife, or Mrs Pargiter pretending she doesn’t know about her late husband’s criminal activities. In the case of Carole and Jude, it’s the friction between the incredibly uptight Carole – who would secretly love to be less repressed if only she could figure out how – and the much more chilled Jude who has a more open minded attitude towards life but who has people floating in and out of her life but never really staying.

And the small town life of Fetherings means there are plenty of different locations for murders without it seeming repetitive. We’ve had museums, cafes, stables, tennis clubs, boat clubs and when needed nearby towns too. Accoding to the blurb, In Death in the Dressing Room the murder happens on stage during a stage version of a popular sitcom. Given Brett’s knowledge of the workings of TV and Radio I think that this has potential to be a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to reading it when it’s at a sensible price.

If you haven’t read any of these yet, the first six are in Kindle Unlimited at the moment which would give you a good sense of the series – and the next six are all under £3. You can find them on Amazon here.

Have a great weekend

book round-ups, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: March Quick Reviews

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So the problem with a massive binge on one author – and one series – is that it doesn’t leave a lot of other things to write about. And so here we are, with a two book children’s book review special for the quick reviews this month. Which makes it three classic middle grade books in just over a week after Juliet Overseas the other week!

Gemma by Noel Streatfeild

This was a Carlisle acquisition and is a later Streatfeild talented children story. And I love this sort of thing. There is ballet in this – but it’s not the key focus. The Gemma of the title is the daughter of an actress, who has herself been a child star. But she’s reached the awkward age and the parts have dried up. Her mother however has been offered a part in a tv series and sends Gemma to stay with her sister and her husband and their children. Gemma has never lived a normal life – but her cousins are not what she expects – they musical in various ways and are quite happy to add Gemma to their lives and try and help her adjust. It’s charming.

A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley

This is one of my Bristol purchases from last summer after the talk about time travel and time slip stories for children. I read Alison Utley’s Little Grey Rabbit books as a child, but never this. Traveller in Time is set in the 1930s when a group of children visit their aunt at her farm in Derbyshire and one of them, Penelope finds herself slipping back in time to the sixteenth century when the house was owned by Francis Babbington, who is at the centre of a plot to try to free Mary Queen of Scots. It’s quite a quiet novel in terms of action but it’s very evocative of the the two time periods – and you know your history, you will feel sympathy for Pen as she knows what is to come.

And that’s your lot this month. The good news is I only have a couple of Ruth Galloway books to go, so next month I should have more choices…

Happy Humpday!

books

Book of the Week: The Rest of Our Lives

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Pinch, punch, first day of the month etc to you all – and watch out for April Fool’s jokes today. I used to enjoy going through the newspapers on April first to try and spot the joke stories and adverts. I have a long ago memory of one for a car company (BMW I think) boasting about a new feature on their cars that would turn the oven on from the car to help you with the dinner prep when you got home. I remember how outlandish it seemed at the time – and now here we are in the smart home era with devices of all sorts controllable from your phone – should you want to. Anyway, to today’s book…

The Rest of Our Lives on a book display in Foyles

The Rest of Our Lives follows Tom, who drives his 18-year-old daughter to college in Pittsburgh – and then keeps driving. Various aspects of his life are not going to plan and he drifts himself into a road trip to try and escape. Years earlier when his wife had an affair, Tom had decided that when their youngest child left for college he would leave the marriage – and that moment has now arrived. But it’s also arrived at a moment when he’s just been suspended from his job after his students complained about the politics of his law class, and he’s got a health issue that he’s busy ignoring but from the descriptions you get of it, he really shouldn’t be.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this from the blurb – it could have been a Rich People Problems novel but it’s actually more of a mid life crisis novel. Tom’s in denial about his health, doesn’t want to tell his wife about his work situation or to deal with the underlying issue in their relationship so he finds an excuse to up and run. He doesn’t seem to have anyone in his life that he can talk to properly about things, so you see him find excuses for what he’s doing to the people he meets – right up until the point that he can’t any more. It’s not a long book, but it’s got a lot going on and leaves you with some things to think about as it deals with male loneliness, morality and mortality. It doesn’t have the level of resolution that I get from my regular reads of mystery and romance – but I enjoyed it never the less and it’s a thought provoking read that I think would work really well for book clubs and people who like to read book-club type books.

The Rest of Our Lives came out last week. My copy came via NetGalley, but as you can see I’ve already seen it in the shops, so you should be able to get hold of it ok. And of course it’s also in Kindle and Kobo for £3.99 at time of posting, which is pretty good for a new release hardback.

Happy reading!