Category: books

Book of the Week, books, cozy crime, new releases

Book of the Week: Grave Expectations

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Another murder mystery pick this week – but after a forgotten classic last week, this week it’s a new release – and a debut at that.

Grave Expectations’s “detective” is Claire Hendricks – thirty something, a true crime fan and a medium. Yes really, a medium. She can see ghosts and one ghost in particular who follows her around – her best friend Sophie who has been haunting her since she was murdered when they were teenagers. Claire’s been booked as the entertainment at a family birthday party for one of her uni friends’ grandmothers. Except that at the party they find an unquiet ghost and set out to discover what happened with the two least unbearable members of the family to help them (neither of them are Claire’s uni mate) despite some scepticism.

I have written before about how I can never quite put my finger on what makes something with paranormal or supernatural elements work for for me and what doesn’t, but from the fact that I’ve picked this you’ve probably worked out that this one worked! I had a couple of issues with it, but they were minor ones. But basically this is a fun and funny cozy crime novel with a clever set up and a heroine with issues, and who I wished was a little bit less messy. But if this is the start of a series (and I hope it is) they’re minor quibbles that can be ironed out in the sequel.

This is Alice Bell’s debut and it’s already been picked by the Radio 2 book club, so hopefully it’ll be easy to get hold of – it’s a bargainous 99p on on Kindle as I write this, although it’s a bit more expensive on Kobo. My copy came from NetGalley – and I finished it just ahead of its release last week so I’ll be looking for it in the shops in the coming weeks.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: May 1 – May 7

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It’s bank holiday Monday – again! I’ve had a fun week of reading – I’m nearing the end of the Alleyn re-listen (or at least as far as I’m prepared to go!) and I’m rationing myself with the Wimseys. It’s Eurovision week so Ive started reading a Eurovision-related memoir written by someone I know and I’ve made some progress on the long runners. I’m away a couple of nights this week so we’ll see what that means – also Eurovision does tend to interfere with reading time…

Read:

Dead Water by Ngaio Marsh

Falling Hard for the Royal Guard by Megan Clawson*

Absence of Mallets by Kate Carlisle

Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L Sayers

Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor*

Grave Expectations by Alice Bell*

Strange Bedpersons by Jennifer Crusie

The Mountbattens by Andrew Lownie

Started:

Wild Dances by William Lee Adams**

Prime Cut by Diane Mott Davidson

Still reading:

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin*

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Reach for the Stars by Michael Cragg

One ebook bought. A minor miracle.

Bonus photo: spring is sprung so have something pretty from the church car park!

*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

Coronation

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So, today is the first coronation of a British monarch in my life time and it most of our lifetimes. Everything startedto go a bit coronation crazy in London a few weeks ago and now we’ve got bunting hanging up in various places near my house too. I’m fascinated to see what all this pomp and ceremony looks like in 2023 and how everyone reacts to it.

On the book front, I’ve already done a few posts about the Royals here – but so far King Charles hasn’t really figured in any of them. I did try to come up with some new recommendations for today, but I’ve basically failed miserably. However, I do have some recommendations relating to the previous King Charles. And I’m talking Charles II because I haven’t really read a lot about Charles I because I know how it ends and I’m not up for executions. But if you do want something, Charles Spencer (yes Princess Diana’s brother) has written a book called The Killers of the King about the men who signed Charles I’s death warrants and what impact it had on them and their families which I’ve seen crop up on a lot of lists.

As far as Charles II-related goes, Charles Beauclerk wrote a biography of his ancestress Nell Gwynn, restoration actress and Charles II’s mistress, which I read about 15 years ago and remember as being an interesting look at the royal court and made more interesting by the personal link between the author and the principle characters. It’s in Kindle Unlimited at the moment if you want to take a look. If you want to know what life was like in Restoration Britain, Ian Mortimer has done one of his Time Traveller’s Guide books for the period which I listened to on audiobook and can recommend. On the fiction front, I wrote a BotW post about The Ashes of London, the first in Andrew Taylor’s Marwood and Lovett series which is set in the Restoration and I’ve just finished the latest one (although I haven’t read all of the ones in between) and they are good mystery stories that do a similar sort of thing in the Stuart era that the Matthew Shardlake series does in the Tudor period. There’s also Rose Tremain’s Restoration, which features a nobleman and his ups and downs at court. It was shortlisted for the Booker when it came out – I enjoyed it, but it’s definitely a book you have to concentrate on. There is a sequel – which I have on the shelf but haven’t read yet. Also waiting on the shelf for me to finally get round to is Georgette Heyer‘s Royal Escape – which is about Charles II’s escape from Britain during the civil war (before he was Charles II obviously).

And you can of course read my previous posts about the twentieth century royals about the Jubilee and also royal romances Battle Royal (slightly more tangentially) and the Royal Spyness mysteries.

Happy Saturday everyone.

books, stats

April Stats

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Books read this month: 33*

New books: 25

Re-reads: 8 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 10

NetGalley books read: 9

Kindle Unlimited read: 1

Ebooks: 4

Audiobooks: 9

Non-fiction books: 1

Favourite book this month: Romantic Comedy, but with Pineapple Street not far behind.

Most read author: if we discount the Ngaio Marsh re-listen spree, then it’s Kate Carlisle with three Fixer Upper mysteries (and a fourth started).

Books bought: This is tricky because I bought a few in person and they’re harder to keep track of when they arrived (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it) but 3 ebooks and five actual books, plus the arrival of the preorder of Romantic Comedy which came with another book I’d ordered from the same place at the same time so already counted previously.

Books read in 2023: 126

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 696

A good month in reading. There were some real stinkers, but there were many more really good ones and for once I did most of the NetGalleys that I had earmarked for the month. As I said on Monday, three bank holidays this month and who knows what that’ll mean for the reading, but I’m hoping it’s good things!

Bonus picture: this is from my walk to the rugby ground – it looks like it could be in the middle of nowhere, but it’s actually in a not very big park in a fairly central part of town. It’s all about the angleS!

*includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – including 1 this month

Book of the Week, books, detective

Book of the Week: Murder of a Lady

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This week I’m back with a murder mystery – and another British Library Crime Classic – after a run of more than a month without one! This time it’s an impossible murder in the a Highlands by Anthony Wynne.

The murdered lady of the title is Mary Gregor, the sister of the laird of Duchlan, who is found stabbed to death locked in her bedroom of the family castle. Our amateur sleuth is Dr Eustace Hailey, who is in the grand tradition of the Golden Age mystery, and who happens to be staying nearby when the body is discovered. Despite being told that the victim was a kind and charitable woman, he soon uncovers evidence that suggests the reverse and that the situation at the castle was not a happy one. In fact even after her death, Mary Gregor still seems to loom over the building – and then more deaths happen.

This is definitely one of the more fantastical of the BLCC’s I’ve read, with a strong vein of highland superstition and mysticism. In fact there was a while when I was wondering is the solution was going to involve the supernatural so impossible did it seem for anyone to have carried out the crime. But it does stick to the rules of the detective club – although the solution is quite something, it is just about plausible.

I bought my copy at the Book Conference second hand sale, but this is also available on Kindle and Kobo and is actually pretty bargainous at £1.99 as I write this, although it should be noted that the ebook edition isn’t a BLCC one (there are some of these where the paperback and ebook rights appear to have got separated) so I can’t vouch for the quality of the ebook version. And if you want more impossible/locked room mysteries, I have a post for that too.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: April 24 – April 30

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It’s the first of May so Happy Bank Holiday Monday if you’re in the UK. We have three this month because it’s the Coronation next weekend. I’m hoping this all means some extra reading time for me but who knows what will actually happen. Anyway, all the usual end of month stuff coming up this week after a productive week of reading at the end of April – even if the long running list is still long!

Read:

False Scent by Ngaio Marsh

The Frangipani Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu

Mother of the Bride Murder by Leslie Meier*

Hand in Glove by Ngaio Marsh

Paper Cuts by Ellery Adams*

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny

Murder of a Lady by Anthony Wynne

Started:

Falling Hard for the Royal Guard by Megan Clawson*

Absence of Mallets by Kate Carlisle

Still reading:

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin*

Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor*

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Reach for the Stars by Michael Cragg

Two books bought. Oops daisy.

Bonus photo: my second rugby match in less than a month! This time watching the Saints beat Leicester (whilst following the women’s six nations on the phone)

*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

Books in the Wild: New Releases in the real world

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I had a slight quest around the central London bookshops this week looking for something specific and although I didn’t find it, I did find several books that I’ve written about here – which I can now attest are actually gettable in stores!

Firstly let’s start with this week’s BotW, Happy Place, proudly in hardback and in a nice prominent spot in Waterstones the day after release day.

Next up, this table display in Foyles where I have read – or have waiting to read really quite a lot. After writing about Aunty Lee yesterday, I really need to read Vera Wong… to see if it gives me the same older lady charm I got from that. Then there is Killers of a Certain Age, getting its second mention of the week, the latest SJ Bennet, Magpie Murders which as I mentioned the other day is on TV at the moment, The Three Dahlias which is one of my favourites so far this year and came out in paperback this week and finally A Fatal Crossing which I wrote about last year.

And finally the romance offer table where I valiantly tried to find two books to buy. When I’m doing buy one get one half price I like to do it as one book I know I’ll like (or at least by an author I have liked previously) and then take a chance on something or someone new with the other one. But I’ve already read the Susanna Hoffs and I have the Megan Clawson and the Alexis Daria on the kindle. I’m about three Marian Keyes behind at this point so I can’t buy more before I’ve caught up and everything I’ve read about Colleen Hoover suggests that she is Not For Me so I couldn’t really justify anything – this time at least!

Happy Saturday everyone!

Book previews, books

Out this week: new T J Klune

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I’ve already written about one book out this week, but actually it’s a busy week for it. And among them is a new one from T J Klune who wrote The House in the Cerulean Sea which I loved a few years back. This one is called In the Lives of Puppets and is a Pinocchio retelling. I’ve read a fair few fairytale and folktale retelling a over the years but I’m not sure I’ve ever done Pinocchio – or at least I can’t remember that I have so this is definitely intriguing!

Book of the Week, books, new releases

Book of the Week: Happy Place

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It’s the last week of April and I’m bang on time with a review for once – because Happy Place is actually out today. Astonishing work from me for once!

Emily Henry’s new novel is about Harriet and Wyn, who are on a weeklong summer holiday with their group of friends who don’t know that they broke up five months earlier. They’ve all been going to Sabrina’s dad’s cottage in Maine since they were students but now he’s decided to sell it they’re there for a last hurrah and neither Harry or Wyn can bring themselves to spoil it by telling everyone that they’ve broken up – especially as the others all call them the perfect couple. But as the days pass it’s clearer and clearer that they’re not over each other and pretending they’re still a couple is not helping any of it at all…

This is definitely at the women’s fiction end of the romance genre – yes, it follows the rules but it’s actually a lot about Harriet herself and her own personal growth as well as about her relationship with Wyn. It also made me cry more than once, so there’s that – Him Indoors got quite worried about me sniffling away at the end of the sofa – but by the end of the book it was worth it, even if I had a couple of minor quibbles along the way that mean I didn’t like it quite as much as I liked Book Lovers, but that was a high bar to reach!

You’re going to be able to get this everywhere – and it’s even got a nice coordinating/matching cover to the other three Emily Henry Romances. You can get it on Kindle or Kobo here and I’m expected the physical copy to be on the tables in all the bookshops, the airports and probably the supermarket too.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: April 17 – April 23

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It’s starting to feel very spring-like. Of course now I’ve said that the weather will probably teach me a lesson, but this week I’ve been wandering around at times without a coat and thinking about getting some of the more summery outfits out. In book terms, I was away for a couple of nights last week so haven’t managed to read much more of the Michael Cragg, so the ongoing list has grown again, but apart from that it was a good week of reading.

Read:

Singing in the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L Sayers

Killer Pancake by Diane Mott Davidson

The Hollow Crown by Dan Jones

Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers

The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams

Premeditated Mortar by Kate Carlisle

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Started:

Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny

The Frangipani Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu

Still reading:

The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasdin*

Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor*

The Empire by Michael Ball*

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Reach for the Stars by Michael Cragg

One new arrival – but it was a gift not a purchase and it was also the reason I managed to resist in Daunt – I needed the space for it in my suitcase! But that was it last week. Go me.

Bonus photo: a lamb frolicking. I said it was starting to feel like spring!

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