I was wandering slightly closer to the river this week and so have been into one of my lesser frequented Waterstones branches in Central London – Trafalgar Square,
Lets start with the main window – we’ve got some of the same suspects as last week’s post here but the prominene is different. The Heated Rivalry and Half His Age are right up the top, with the new George Sanders and the literary fiction selection below. Then at eye level we’ve got a new paperback release form last week and Waterstone’s Thriller of the Month for February (and book that’s definitely too scary for Verity) Wasp Trap and slightly below that we’ve got a good mix of popular fiction, crime and romantasy. I think it’s a bit too much something for everyone and I’d prefer something a bit more focussed/themed, but what do I know.
More new releases here – the one I picked up was Greedy (can you tell from the messy pile?) which is another too scary for me, because it’s a psychological thriller about a chef who’s in trouble with the Yakuza and takes a job as private chef for a reclusive billionaire. Slightly more in my wheelhouse is Wreck, which is comped by Marian Keyes, and is about a year in the life of a normal family. One of the reviews calls it “Ephron-esque” which is very much my thing.
I’m always looking at the paperback crime table – mostly to see how much of it I’ve read! And on this occasion, not a huge amount. The Sally Smith you know I love, I’ve also done the Marlow Murder Club, The Richard Osman, Death and Croissants and the Anthony Horowitz. I have Tim Sullivan on my list of things I should try, The Bells of Westminster and the Tom Hindle are on the pile waiting for me to get to them.
And finally, on the new hardback crime shelves. The trend for older main characters seems to be continuing -along with the new HM the Queen book, there’s also Too Old For This, which is about an elderly woman who is startled when a journalist turns up to ask questions about her connection to a number of unsolved murders. It’s nice to see Miss Winter in the Library With the Knife still getting some shelf space after Christmas. And I keep seeing A Taste for Murder, which is an Italian-set mystery where a British police detective gets caught up in a murder investigation while on holiday with his teenage daughter.
And that’s the lot today – I’m off to watch the Olympics!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 