Author: veritywilde

Journalist, armchair sports fan, book worm and show fiend. There's a sentence you don't hear too often.
Book of the Week, detective, first in series, Forgotten books

Book of the Week: Death in High Heels

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You know I seriously picking Romantic Comedy as BotW again – but I decided that that would be too cheaty even for me. But I did listen to Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel about a writer on a show that’s definitely not Saturday Night Live on audiobook last week and it’s still a delight, even if I didn’t love the way the narrator did the male voices. But it remains my favourite novel that includes the pandemic in it and I thoroughly recommend it. But like I say, I didn’t pick it again. I just put all the links in…

Instead I have a pretty newly released British Library Crime Classic, and another Christianna Brand murder mystery – this time it’s her debut, Death in High Heels. This features a murder at Christopher et Cie, a dress shop of the most superior kind, where the murderer must be one of five young women who work there. Our detective is a young and somewhat susceptible Inspector Charlesworth, who is trying to untangle the murder.

I do like a workplace mystery, especially where you learn something about how things used to be done. Murder Must Advertise where Wimsey is employed at an advertising agency is brilliant for this – with print blocks, art studios and runners, and Death in High Heels also has vanished details about how clothing shops used to be done – with things like women employed as mannequins to demonstrate how the outfits look to clients, and a staff lunch service. The introduction to this BLCC edition says that (like Dorothy L Sayers and her time in advertising) Brand took inspiration from her own spell working in a shop selling cookers to write this. As I said, this is Brand’s debut, and it’s not as good as Green for Danger or Tour de Force but it still makes for an interesting read, even if Charlesworth goes off down a lot of wrong paths and seems to stumble upon the solution.

This is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment, so if you’re a subscriber to that, it’s definitely worth it. That also means that it’s not on Kobo at the moment. But if you want it in paperback, the British Library’s shop are doing three for two on their fiction at the moment, and I’ve recommended enough previous BLCC books that hopefully you can find two more to make the three – I’ve linked to various others I’ve written about throughout this, but some others that were BotWs are: Not to Be Taken, Tea on Sunday, The Ten Teacups, The Man Who Didn’t Fly, The Theft of the Iron Dogs and The Belting Inheritance.

Happy Reading

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: November 17 – November 23

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Another week, another four states ticked of the 50 states list. It’s almost looking doable now, but I’m not relaxing too fast because that’s what gets me into trouble. That’s especially true as it’s starting to get proper busy in the run-up to Christmas now, which usually means less free time for reading because I’m out and about having fun – or doing Christmas shopping!

Read:

Savage Run by C J Box

Calling All Blessings by Beverly Jenkins

Animal Attraction by Jill Shalvis

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Stranger Danger by Patti Benning

Strawberried Alive by Jenn McKinlay

Death in High Heels by Christianna Brand

Started:

Halloween Hijinks by Kathi Daley

Still reading:

You Had to Be There by Jodie Harsh*

Ritual of Fire by D V Bishop

Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath

One ebook and two book-books bought. Restrained… ish.

Bonus picture: last week’s theatre trip was out to Wembley to see Starlight Express which is a whole experience!

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

Exhibitions, not a book

Not a Book: Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World

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Happy Sunday everyone, I had a really good time out at a gallery on Friday and given that the exhibition is only on until early January, I thought i ought to write about it sooner rather than later.

Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World at the National Portrait Gallery is an examination of the photographer’s work in Fashion and Portrait photography. It takes you through from his early days and Bright Young Things of the 1920s to the My Fair Lady era in the 1960s. Along side the photographs there are also things like his first camera, which he used all the way through til after he first started at Vogue, and one of the dresses he designed for Julie Andrews to wear as Eliza Doolittle in the West End production of My Fair Lady in the late 19050s.

I didn’t get to see the last Cecil Beaton exhibition at the NPG – because it opened just a few days before Covid shut the world down in 2020 and never reopened. I have the exhibition poster from that on the wall of my house and the exhibition book as well, and that one focused on his work in the 1920s and 1930s with the Bright Young Things. This does have some of that, but is much broader in its scope. Yes the famous Stephen Tennant picture is here, but so also are the royal portraits and Hollywood royalty – like Marlon Brando, Katherine Hepburn and a young Yul Brynner with hair!

I really enjoyed myself – it’s in the same space that The Culture Shift exhibition was in earlier in the year which is big enough that you feel that there is plenty to see and that everything has space to breathe but not so big that you get overwhelmed by it all and start to lose focus.

Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World is on at the National Portrait Gallery until January 11, and I would book your ticket in advance, especially if you’re planning on going at a weekend.

books I want

Buy me a book for Christmas 2025

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For the second year in a row, I’m posting my personal Christmas book wishlist the second last weekend of November. A saturnalia miracle indeed. So hi mum! (!) here’s what I’m hoping might appear under the tree this year!

Cover of Making Mary Poppins

I’m going to start with two books from my autumn preview post which I have managed to resist so far. I’ve picked up and put down Tim Curry’s Vagabond at least three times now – on one occasion reading the introduction and then forcing myself to walk away – telling myself that I don’t need more books, and that I didn’t have space in my bag for a hardback. But I really want to read it. I also really want to read Making Mary Poppins but I haven’t seen that one in the stores so it’s been easier to resist on that front. But Christmas is the season to watch Mary Poppins, and I think knowing more about the behind the scenes will only enhance the experience!

Right, now the new release non-fiction is done, I’ve been to check out the wishlist I keep of books I can’t justify buying for myself to come up with the rest of this year’s list. Options at all price points people, never fear – some of them have been on the list so long that they’re now in paperback.

One in that category is the Willig-White-Williams murder mystery The Author’s Guide to Murders which was on last autumn’s new fiction preview and consequently is in paperback now. I haven’t seen this in any of the many bookstores I’ve been in this last year – or I think I would have bought it. So either I’ve been looking in the wrong sections of the shop or it’s harder to find than it should be. I read Patrick Gleason’s Hattie Steals the Show a couple of months back, and I really want to read the first one Hattie Brings Down the House before the third one comes out next year (which I know about thanks to the author popping up in the comments on that last post, which was really exciting). Still in murder mysteries, I would like to read Murder at Gull’s Nest – the algorithm keeps suggesting me the sequel even though I haven’t read the first one yet, and you know what I’m like about reading in order!

On to non mysteries – I really want to read Alexa Martin’s new book How to Sell a Romance, which is set in and around an MLM and sounds like it might involve taking it down and so I think my sister would probably like to read it too, which makes it an ideal candidate for this list. Also in things I think my sister would like to read as well as me is The Influencers by Anne-Marie McLemore, which is about a fire and a murder at the house of a social media influencer who has been writing about her five daughters and their lives for 25 years. I would also like Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, which is about a hotel in the Catskills that has been run by the same two families for more than 60 years, but has reached a crossroads.

I think that’s probably enough for people to go on – for now at least! Have a great Saturday everyone.

historical, mystery, series

Mystery Series: County Guides

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Happy Friday everyone, it’s very, very cold where I am in the UK* and I’m seriously starting to think about starting Christmas shopping. I know. It’s still November. Anyway, after a romance series last week, here is a murder mystery one for you.

It’s the 1930s and the County Guides books follow “the People’s Professor” Swanton Morley around the UK as he writes a series of guidebooks. It is seem from the point of view of his newly recruited (at the start of book one) secretary Stephen Sefton, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War who has a slightly shady past. Also travelling with them is Morley’s daughter Miriam. Everywhere they they stumble across a body and this – and Morley’s attitude – makes them unpopular with locals and the authorities alike.

As you know I really like a historical mystery series and the 1930s are one of my real sweet spots for that. And the fact that each book moves to a different part of the country makes for a good way of varying the setting and giving opportunities for new characters to be introduced each book without expanding the core group and leaving hanging threads for the next book.

These are very much in the books where I love the premise but sometimes find the reality disappointing. This is mostly because Morley is set up as deeply irritating and at times Stephen can be too and that leaves you with no one to really root for – you share the exasperation of the locals with these annoying people who are telling them how to solve a murder! But that said, I liked them enough that I followed them through all five books in the series – even though it has taken me a while and they got harder to find.

I got the first few of these from NetGalley, a couple from the library and then bought the final one on Kindle. I have occasionally seen paperbacks in the shops – new and secondhand but I suspect at this point Kindle or Kobo will be the easiest way to get hold of these, although, neither Kindle or Kobo have managed to link the five books together as a series which is both annoying and weird because it makes it hard to give you a proper link to click and so all I can do is link you to the list of Ian Sansom ebooks and tell you that the order is: The Norfolk Mystery, Death in Devon, Westmorland Alone, Essex Poison and The Sussex Murders.

Have a great weekend everyone.

*although obviously as nothing to winter in some places, but the UK is not made for the cold.

Book previews, new releases

Out This Week: New Royal Spyness

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After talking about the new H M The Queen Investigates book a couple of weeks ago, today it’s the turn of another Royal-related historical mystery series – Rhys Bowen’s Royal Spyness books which has reached number 19 – with From Cradle to Grave – which came out on Tuesday. I remain surprised and delighted that Bowen continues to find more set ups for murders for Georgie to solve, but also that she’s continuing to put out multiple books a year despite being in her 80s. Anyway the blurb for this latest installment has nanny problems (more accurately sister in law problems) as well as a string of deaths which may threaten Georgie’s beloved husband Darcy. I am up to date with this series – and always wonder if the next book will be the last but surely Bowen wouldn’t finish on a strange number like 19 when 20 is right there? Right?

first in series, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: First in mystery series

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It’s the middle of the week again and I’m back with some more murder mysteries, but this time they’re the first books in their series.

Grime and Punishment by Jill Churchill

After picking up two later books in this series earlier this year, I’m now going back and getting more and have acquired the first one. Book two, Farewell to Yarns was a BotW in May, but in Grime and Punishment Jane is trying to solve the murder of a cleaning lady in the house next door because the suspects include a lot of her friends. Often in a first in a series there is too much set up and the book can suffer, either from just having too much going on or from the mystery not being quite good enough. This isn’t one of those – it manages to introduce the group and Jane very naturally and the mystery is sufficiently twisty.

Murder on the Mountain by Ellie Alexander

After having enjoyed Alexander’s Secret Bookcase series, I was interested to read this first one in a different series from her – a re-release and retitle of something she had previously released under a different pseudonym. Our heroine is Meg, a journalist who scores a job at an outdoors magazine, where she’s definitely trying to fake it till she makes it because her outdoor skills are practically nil. The murder in this one is of a contestant in an outdoor competition TV show, but in the background is the death of Meg’s father (an investigative journalist) in mysterious circumstances while working on an expose. I didn’t love this – I found Meg a real trial because she is almost aggressively clueless about the outdoors, and about a few other things in the story. However as these are in Kindle Unlimited, I’ll probably give the second one a go to see if it improves any once all the series set up is over with. However, given this was Alexander’s first ever series, and I don’t know how much reworking of it she’s done, it may just be that Alexanders writing has changed since she wrote these!

Beaches, Bungalows and Burglaries by Tonya Kappes

Mae West’s (no, not that one) life has taken a turn – her much older husband has turned out to be a conman, he’s in jail, she’s divorced him and all his assets have been seized. So instead of a life of luxury, she’s got to start over and all she has is am RV and campground in Normal, Kentucky which her husband put in her name years ago. So she heads to Normal to start over, but finds that the community there is suffering because of her husband too. Then he turns up – not in prison, but dead in the lake at the campsite and suddenly she’s a suspect. I found this while I was looking for books for my missing states for the 50 states challenge this year, and didn’t realise that I’d read one of Kappes’ series years ago when she was being published by Henery press back when they were in a really good groove of easy, fun cozy crime. And this is slightly ridiculous (and the recipes at the end are awful) but it’s a pretty fun read, with a good set up for a series. If you’re a KU member, it’s worth a read, but I have no idea how Kappes has get this set up going for *checks* more than 40 books! I suspect that I’ll read a few more to see because long series are so hard to pull off!

Book of the Week, cozy crime, detective, reviews

Book of the Week: Buffalo West Wing

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As I said yesterday, most of my reading last week was to contribute to this year’s fifty states challenge and this was one of them. It’s slightly rule breaking but I’m going with it.

Buffalo West Wing is the fourth in Julie Hyzy’s White House Chef mystery series featuring Olivia Paras, who (as the title suggests) is the executive chef at the White House. In this, a new president has just been elected and that means big changes for the staff at the Residence. It also means Olivia needs to impress the new President and his family, but when some mystery chicken wings turn up in her kitchen, she gets off on the wrong foot with them because refuses to serve them to the First Kids. But when the people who do eat them fall ill, she’s caught up in a plot to threaten the First Family.

This is the first in this series that I’ve read (or even come across) and it had slightly more peril than I was expecting and also a lot of pre existing relationships to get my head around. But there was info there (and not in info dumps) that it made sense and I really enjoyed it. I would happily read more of the series.

I read this one in paperback as you can seem but as it’s nearly 15 years old (and the series has been dormant since 2016) they may not be that easy to find in physical copies. In fact I’m amazed I found this one in Waterstones a couple of months ago. But they are all available on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: November 10 – November 16

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I said last week that I have started my panic for the Fifty States Challenge early this year – and everything I finished this week except Gaudy Night is ticking off one of my missing states! If I can keep this rate up, I’ll be finished before Christmas, but my record on keeping this up is not great so I could still be in a panic on New Year’s Eve like every previous year!

Read:

Beaches, Bungalows and Burglaries by Tonya Kappes

Ghost Business by Jen DeLuca

New Uses for Old Boyfriends by Beth Kendrick

A Killer Edition by Lorna Barrett

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers

Buffalo West Wing by Julie Hyzy

The George Eliot Murders by Edith Skom

Started:

Calling All Blessings by Beverly Jenkins

Still reading:

You Had to Be There by Jodie Harsh*

Ritual of Fire by D V Bishop

Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath

One paperback in Waterstones Piccadilly and two ebooks.

Bonus picture: the new Legends and Lattes in the wild!

*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: Ballet Shoes is back!

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Just a quick post today to say that the National Theatre’s new version of Ballet Shoes is back from tomorrow (17 November). I saw it back in February and loved it, and I’m so pleased they’ve decided to bring it back for Christmas. I’ve been recommending it to people as a family show that’s not a panto for the holidays. And of course if you haven’t read the original book, I re-read it after seeing the show and it’s still a joy.