Author: veritywilde

Journalist, armchair sports fan, book worm and show fiend. There's a sentence you don't hear too often.
binge reads, series

Bingeable series: Her Majesty The Queen Investigates

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The latest of these came out last week and as I recently binge read the three books I thought it would be a good time to make a post about them.

So the premise – as the series name suggests – is that the (late) Queen subtly helps solve some murders that have occurred in her vicinity. Set a few years back – when she was in her early 90s, she uses her assistant Rozie to do the investigating she can’t do. In the first in the series, The Windsor Knot, the victim is an overnight guest at Windsor and it’s a bit of a closed group sort of thing. In the second, our the victim is a staff member, found dead by the side of the Buckingham Palace swimming pools. And in the third it’s the brother of a neighbouring aristo to the Sandringham estate.

I think the first book and the third book are stronger than the second, but given that I binge read the series I can’t say that the issues with the second book put me off. For me these work best when the problems they are solving seem the most organic – I can’t quite work out why but the second book felt much more contrived and complicated than the first one – and the third one, for all that the third is out and about all over Norfolk.

But they are all easy to read, with nice details about the royal residences involved (there really is a swimming pool at Buckingham palace – who knew?!) and enough real bits and bobs about the Queen’s life and family to feel like the person you think you know through the media. I did wonder what would happen now that Elizabeth II has died, but they are set in the mid 2010s and at the end of book three it says there is a fourth book coming so there will be one more at least, and I will be looking out for it.

As I said earlier, the new book is out now in hardback – in fact as I write this Amazon has the hardback as a Black Friday deal. I do think you need to read them in order though – but the good news is that the first in the series is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment – so if you’re a member you can read it for free. The second one has a different title in the US – so be careful of that because it’s easy to think it might be a fourth one you haven’t spotted, but the actual fourth one isn’t out until early 2024. But if you’ve enjoyed things like the Royal Spyness series, this might be the contemporary cozy crime equivalent you have been looking for.

Happy reading!

previews

Out this week: New Olivia Dade

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The third book in Olivia Dade’s Spoiler Alert series came out on Tuesday so I couldn’t help myself but post about it. I wrote about All The Feels last year and I can’t remember why I didn’t make Spoiler Alert book of the week, although I did also write about 40-Love so that might be why. Anyway this is a story about two actors who had a one night stand and then end up working together on a fantasy TV show (think Game of Thrones) for six years. But one the last night of filming that one night stand thing happens again and this time he doesn’t want to let her go. And that’s all I know – because my copy is a hard copy and it’s arrived at home after I have left for nights away. But we all know what I’m going to be reading when I get home later in the week. And the only reason I’m not reading the kindle sample in the mean time is because I know it’ll annoy me that I can’t carry on reading – and I really can’t justify buying the kindle edition when I have the paperback at home!

Recommendsday

Recommendsday: World War-set novels

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It was Remembrance Day last week, and Remembrance Sunday at the weekend, which got me thinking about my favourite novels set during one or other of the two world wars. And so here we are with a recommendsday featuring some of them.

The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker

I’ve mentioned before that I did a war literature module as part of my A Levels and read the entire reading list, because I got got so sucked into it all, and the first novel in this trilogy, regeneration, was one of those – and I went on to read the other two as well. This centres on a doctor at a hospital treating shellshocked soldiers near Edinburgh and how he tried to help the soldiers come to terms with what they have endured and his conflicted feelings about getting them fit enough to be sent back to the front.

I could write a whole post based on that A Level reading list about the First World War. but I’m going to restrain myself and move on…

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Ok, I’ve only moved on as far as stuff I first read when I was at university, but this is also really good. And it’s a modern classic that I’ve actually read and enjoyed and kept hold of. Yossarian is part of a bomber group stationed in Italy, where the number of missions you need to fly to complete your service keeps going up. The catch 22 of the title is the rule that dictates that anyone who continues to fly combat missions is insane – but as soon as he makes a formal request to be removed from duty it proves he is sane.

Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders

This was one of my favourite books of the year in 2018, although it didn’t get a full review at the time – just the mention in the end of year post.  This is a sequel to the Five Children and It – although obviously by a different author. The five are now mostly grown up five and their younger sister has only ever heard of the Psammead in stories, until he reappears for one last adventure with the youngest two siblings that will change them. This is a middle grade novel and Kate Saunders has done a wonderful job of creating a world that feels like it is the likely successor to the Edwardian Idyll of the original books and showing the realities of the Great War to a younger audience and a new generation.

And then let’s move on to the stuff I have already recommended. The Skylark’s War like Five Children on the Western Front will break your heart. On the Second World War sid, there is The House on Cocoa Beach by Beatriz Williams, Dear Mrs Bird by S J Pearce (and its sequel Yours Cheerfully), Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey,Lissa Evans’ Crooked Heart and V for Victory are in World War Two Two, as To Bed With Grand Music and A House in the Country which were written during the War itself. The Maisie Dobbs series hits World War Two in book 13, but several of the earlier books in the series deal with the Great War and Maisie’s experiences in it. Equally some of my favourite books in the Amelia Peabody series are set in the Great War and some of the most exciting developments in the series happen in them – Ramses I’m looking at you!

Happy Wednesday!

Book of the Week, detective, Fantasy, Forgotten books

Book of the Week: Fire in the Thatch

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I read two British Library Crime Classics last week, and it was a tough choice between the two – both of which are within the statute of limitations according to my own rules, but I’m going with Fire in the Thatch, because I read it quickest and I do like Lorac’s style – it’s so easy to read.

It’s towards the end of the Second World War, and a service man who has been invalided out of the forces takes a tenancy on a thatched cottage in rural Devon. Vaughan sets about putting the cottage and land in order, seemingly ready to make his life there. His landlord is a local farmer, whose son has been taken prisoner and has invited his daughter in law and baby grandson to come and live with them. But June is bored of the country and its company, and invites her friends to stay nearby, disturbing the peace of the rural idyll. And then Vaughan’s cottage burns down and one of his friends refuses to believe that it’s an accident. Inspector Macdonald is sent down from London to investigate whether there was a motive for murder.

Setting aside that I really liked the victim and wanted him not to be dead (it’s so much easier in a murder mystery when the victim is awful isn’t it?) this is a clever and twisty mystery, where I had figured out the who of the solution but not quite the why. Some of the motivation is a little of its time – sorry can’t explain more than that because of spoilers – but it’s not really any wilder than some of the stuff that goes on in some of the Girls Own stuff I read so I was prepared to go with it.

MacDonald is Lorac’s regular detective and his is calm and methodical and although you don’t always see much of his personality or personal life, he still manages to be engaging to the reader. This is one of a long series, not all of which are available on Kindle, but I’ve already written about several others – including Post After Post Mortem, These Names Make Clues and Murder By Matchlight.

Fire in the Thatch is £2.99 on Kindle at the moment in the BLCC edition, but there is another version for 99p, if you can live with the fact that the author’s name is spelt wrong on the cover. This is also the only version that I can find on Kobo. But the BLCCs do slowly rotate through Kindle Unlimited, so it may comethrough at some point. Several of the other Lorac’s are in KU at the moment though if you want to read them instead.

Happy reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: November 7 – November 13

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So, the list has been impacted by a couple of things – the fact that I was away from home for two nights at the start of the week, then I spent the whole weekend watching figure skating – and when you’re at the rink from 8am until after half past ten at night, that doesn’t leave a lot of time for reading! But it was so amazing. Also, I realised at the start of the week that I have the first two books in the S J Bennett series, so I went back to read them first before carrying on with Murder Most Royal.

Read:

Seat of the Scornful by John Dickson Carr

The Windsor Knot by S J Bennett

Death of a Shadow by George Bellairs

A Three Dog Problem by S J Bennett

Fire in the Thatch by E C R Lorac

Started:

Better Than Fiction by Alexa Martin

Still reading:

On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera*

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Going With the Boys by Judith Mackrell

The Inverts by Crystal Jeans

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Snowed in for Christmas by Sarah Morgan*

Murder Most Royal by S J Bennett*

One book bought, in Foyles at the start of the week…

Bonus photo: have a selfie of me at the skating – because all my live action pictures were terrible!

Bonus bonus: have a video of my favourite performance of the weekend – Latvia’s Deniss Vasiljevs skating his Free (long) programme as well as I’ve ever seen him skate.

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

not a book

Not a Book: Grand Prix Figure Skating!

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Very not a book, but this weekend I’m in Sheffield watching figure skating. I’m having the best time, even though all the pictures I’ve taken are terrible but then I don’t think I was expecting an iPhone to take the best figure skating photos! I’ve even popped up in some of the photos of the event…

Yes, that’s me, sitting behind the Lilah and Lewis banner (not line, belongs to the people sitting behind me) and concentrating fiercely on something – I think probably on one of the male skaters practicing their jumps.

Anyway, in case you don’t know, the Grand Prix of figure skating is a six event series that leads to a grand final and this year because of Covid restrictions in China (and Russia being banned), Great Britain is hosting an event for the first time. I haven’t been to see skating live for a decade – since the European championships came to Sheffield – so I was first in the queue for tickets. And so far it’s been amazing. If you see this before the events finish today and happen to have a look at the coverage, you might be able to spot me (and that banner) right behind the skaters as they start and end their routines – I’m right opposite the judges:

I hope you’re all having as wonderful a weekend as I am – check out my Insta stories if you want to see my terrible photos – and see you tomorrow for Week in Books!

book related

Books Incoming: November edition

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A very restrained collection this month – and no, that’s not because I’m posting this earlier in the month – the time between last month’s photo and this months is the same as it usually is – it’s the posting schedule that’s gone wonky because I wanted to post the Gatwick photos before they got super out of date and so the books incoming slid back. Anyway, I’ve already read Mansion for Murder – and Murder on a Summer’s day was my treat to myself this week in Foyles. It’s earlier in the Kate Shackleton series, but it’s one I haven’t read. Then there’s another Foyles impulse buy in Park Avenue Summer (set at Cosmopolitan magazine in the mid-1960s, how could I resist!) and Oh, What a Lovely Century is one I’ve had my eye on for a while, but that turned up on the charity bookshelf at work, so I donated my money and picked it up. Yay me.

Have a great weekend everyone.

mystery, series

Crime Series: Nanette Hayes

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Am I starting a new series strand? Maybe. I nearly called this retro crime series, but I didn’t want to limit myself too much. Anyway, I have a couple of crime series in mind for this – stuff that is a little older, but not Golden Age old. And these have got a gorgeous reissue recently – which is what first brought them to my attention.

Nanette Hayes is a saxophone-playing street busker, whose mum thinks she has a proper job. At the start of the first book, her boyfriend breaks up with her and a fellow busker she invites to sleep on her couch ends up murdered in her kitchen. The dead man was an undercover cop – and Nanette ends up doing some investigating of her own to try and make sure she doesn’t end up being blamed. In the second book she’s in Paris, trying to track down her missing aunt and in the third and final novel she finds herself investigating the murder of a woman who made a voodoo doll that Nanette is given by a friend.

This are just incredibly stylish and evocative. Nanette is strutting her way through a jazz infused world where seedy peril is always lurking on the periphery. There’s just something about her that makes you want to read about her, even when she’s being foolhardy or stupid. The books are relatively short, but they pack a lot in. The mysteries are good but Nanette is the star.

I picked the first of these up a couple of months back after seeing them looking gorgeous in Foyles – and I went back for the other two because I enjoyed it so much. Nanette’s New York (and Paris) are so cool that I’m annoyed that there aren’t more of them to read. But the three there are are worth it – and you could probably read them all back to back in one weekend if you wanted, which is a treat in itself

You might need to order these in, but as I said the Big Foyles had all three of these in stock so you might get lucky. I have no clue what the original UK release was like – but I don’t recall having seen these in a second hand book store. Doesn’t mean they don’t turn up though.

Happy reading!

previews, romantic comedy

New this week: Better Than Fiction

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Well it was a delightful treat from Past Verity when this dropped onto my Kindle on Tuesday morning – because I had completely forgotten that I had preordered the new Alexa Martin novel! I’ve recommended her football romances before, but I think her last novel and this are moving more towards the Rom com than the straight Rom. I shall report back. This promises a reluctant bookstore owner being converted to book lover by a best selling romance author. I can’t wait!

books on offer, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: November Kindle deals

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It’s that time again: Kindle deal recommendsday! And once again I’ve spent money while putting this post together. Quelle surprise I hear you say. Anyway: to the books.

As we get closer to Christmas, we have a selection of Christmas books hitting the offers – and all of these are 99p. Let’s start with Jenny Colgan’s The Christmas Bookshop, which I haven’t read, but her Christmas books are usually fairly reliable. Also in the haven’t read but like their other stuff is Merrily Ever After by Cathy Bramley. I have however read Susan Mallery’s The Christmas Wedding Guest – it was her Christmas book last year. Much older a Trisha Ashley’s Wish Upon a Star which I read way before I started this blog! And if you want a historical romance, the Christmas Desperate Duchesses novel is on offer too: An Affair before Christmas by Eloisa James. And then in not Christmas, but sort of Christmas-y covers we have Walking Back to Happiness by Lucy Dillon – another book that I read looooong before the blog started.

Next up we have previous BotWs (or release day reviewed) books that are on offer: The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, Book Lovers by Emily Henry, The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan, The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis and the much older The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley. There’s also Murder in the Basement by Antony Berkeley (which is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment as well). It’s more expensive (£1.99) but The Feast is also on offer – I really, really enjoyed Margaret Kennedy’s mystery which you can’t say a lot about without giving it too much away!

I’ve recommended a bunch of Christina Lauren books – most recently Something Wilder – but The Soulmate Equation is on offer at the moment – I actually have a paperback copy on the stack by my end of the sofa. This month’s 99p Georgette Heyer is Friday’s Child, which I think is one of my mum’s favourites and the Peter Wimsey is Whose Body. The …In Death is Abandoned In Death (number 54) All of the Lady Hardcastles are on offer for 99p this month (although the whole series is in KU if you’re a member) the first one is A Quiet Life in the Country .

And finally, I haven’t written about it (yet) but I did enjoy The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood when I read it earlier this year – there’s a second book in the series out early next year.

Happy Wednesday everyone.