Category: week in books

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.

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.

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge

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It has been a pretty wet and miserable start to November where I am, so a book from a favourite author that has a cheerful warm cover and makes you laugh is always a nice place to be and given that it’s on offer this month – for the first time as far as I have noticed it seems like a good time to be recommending it.

Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge is Helen Ellis’s latest collection of essays as the subtitle suggests its focus is her marriage and what a marriage can look like more than twenty years in – but it also takes you through the strange days of Covid and the effect that had on everyone. One of the effects on Helen was to become a houseplant person, and that is definitely a thing that happened to me during the pandemic and I felt very seen in the essay when she talks about smuggling more plants into the house and lying about the number of plants she has to her husband!

Ellis’s previous books American Housewife, Southern Lady Code and Bring Your Baggage and Don’t Pack Light have all been books of the week here, across nearly a decade, which means she’s been making me laugh for almost as long as I’ve been writing this blog and so in a way it’s not a surprise to me that I would be writing about this today. On the other hand, not every author that I liked in the early days of this blog has managed to keep up the quality or is still writing things that I like so that should be a testament in itself. I think that the fact that Ellis has another life going on alongside writing (she’s a high stakes poker player) helps provide her with fresh things to write about too, and she’s unafraid to mine her life (and her friends experiences too) or to go and get a new experience for things to write about. Equally, she clearly knows what to leave out – this feels like such a well rounded collection that there must have been more essays written that didn’t make the cut. It’s not a long book, but because it is essays (and because her books don’t come along that often) I rationed myself and managed to spread out my reading of it across more than a week and it was worth it. Now I just have to wait and hope for another collection soon.

I bought this on Kindle, where it’s on offer at £2.99 at the moment. It’s also on Kobo at £3.99 and as an audiobook read by Helen Ellis herself. I have some of her other collections in physical copy (maybe all of them, but I’m not by the shelves to check right now) and I’m not ruling out picking this one up to put on the shelves too, but I don’t remember seeing any of them in the shops. I will check next time I go into a Big Bookshop though.

Happy Reading

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: November 3 – November 9

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I was going to say it’s that time of year again where I start to panic about the missing states on my 50 states challenge, except that I actually panicked about three weeks earlier than I usually do which makes me both optimistic about my chances of not ending in a panic, but cautious because I could get complacent. Anyway, four of the seven on the finished list this week

Read:

Death and the Final Cut by G M Malliet*

The Murder in the Cathedral by Kerry Greenwood

Innconvenient Murder by Patti Benning

Double Knot by Gretchen Archer

The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy by J Michael Orenduff

Word to the Wise by Jenn McKinlay

Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge by Helen Ellis

Started:

How Can I Resist You by Jeevani Charika

Beaches, Bungalows and Burglaries by Tonya Kappes

Still reading:

You Had to Be There by Jodie Harsh*

Ritual of Fire by D V Bishop

Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath

About six – some missing states but also writing the offers post..

Bonus picture: I ransacked the tbr shelves to look for books that would tick off missing states – here they are, in a nice pile to catch my eye and remind me to read them!

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

Book of the Week, historical, mystery, new releases

Book of the Week: The Murder at World’s End

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It’s Tuesday and I’m back with this week’s Book of the Week – which is actually a book that came out last week. I’m even topical. Go me!

The year is 1910 and Haley’s Comet is passing over the earth. On a tidal island of Cornwall, a Viscount is preparing for the apocalypse. But when the staff of Tithe Hall unseal their rooms the next morning, Lord Conrad Stockingham Welt is dead in his office and a murder investigation gets underway. Straight into the police’s crosshairs is Stephen Pike, who arrived at the house fresh from Borstal the day before the murder. But Stephen knows he didn’t do it – he was looking after the elderly aunt of the victim Miss Decima Stockingham, who is foul mouthed, but very, very smart. Soon the two of them are trying to work out who did commit the murder as the policeman in charge of the case makes wild claims to try and pin it onto one of the servants.

This has got such a great premise – I love a cantankerous older woman heroine and the pairing of Miss Decima and Stephen is really entertaining and makes a great use of the above stairs-below stairs nature of the plot. And it’s really quite humorous at times too. I will admit I had the solution worked out well before they did though – but forgive them because there is world building and setting up going on here for a sequel and I am very much here for that when it happens.

My copy came from NetGalley, but it’s out now in Kindle and Kobo as well as in hardback. I’ll be watching out for it in the shops.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: October 27 – November 2

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It’s definitely heading into winter now. The mornings might be a bit lighter but it’s only temporary and the weather is colder and wetter. And so I’m deep into mystery books because it feels like they suit the season. Last week was fairly calm (especially compared to the week before) and I’m hoping for similar this week. I’ve actually made a proper plan of what I want to read this month, so we will see if I manage to stick to that in any way!

Read:

The Will of the Standing Stones by A G Barnett

The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery*

Dark Horse by Patti Benning

The Case of the Purloined Poodle by Magda Alexander

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Taylor’s Version by Stephanie Burt*

The Body in the Kitchen Garden by Paula Sutton*

Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch

Started:

Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge by Helen Ellis

Still reading:

You Had to Be There by Jodie Harsh*

Ritual of Fire by D V Bishop

Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath

Well. A couple of impulse purchases because the Helen Ellis was on offer as were some Georgette Heyer detective books, although I only bought one of them. I did manage to resist the Foyles double stamps though, but only because I own most of the paperbacks I might have bought already and I had that preordering spree on Waterstones just a few weeks ago!

Bonus picture: autumnal colours in Bloomsbury.

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

Book of the Week, mystery, new releases, reviews

Book of the Week: A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Solving Murder

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It’s Halloween week, and so today’s Book of the Week has ghost in the title, even if it’s not so much spooky or scary as mysterious. You’re welcome.

It’s the end of 1914 and Alma Timperley has just found out that she had an aunt that she didn’t know about, but also that her aunt has died and left her a hotel in her will. The Timperley Spiritualist Hotel is in Cornwall, and caters to a very specific clientele – those who wish to communicate with the dead. And as the first Christmas of the war approaches, there are more people than ever looking for comfort in hearing from their recently departed loved ones. As if that wasn’t enough, soon after Alma’s arrival at the hotel, one of the maids is found dead and there are suggestions that there is a German spy in town. And then there is the fact that Alma can talk to the dead, just like her aunt could.

The spiritualist craze that happened during and after the Great War pops up in a few books – notably (in my reading life anyway) in Dorothy L Sayers’ Strong Poison, where Miss Climpson uses her experience of fraudulent mediums to help Peter Wimsey – but in this case, the mediums (or some of them at least) really can talk to the other side. And in terms of the mystery that needs solving, as a newcomer Alma is able to ask plenty of questions about the hotel and it’s inhabitants without arousing too much suspicion. I have a somewhat mixed relationship with books with supernatural elements as you all probably know by now, but I really, really enjoyed this – it’s a great idea and an interesting twist on a wartime spy mystery and not too heavy on the actual ghosts – I wouldn’t even really say it was haunted. This is F H Petford’s first novel (at least as far as I can find) and the end of the book suggests that there is the possibility of a sequel – which I would read with great pleasure.

My copy of A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Murder came via NetGalley, but it is out now in Kindle and Kobo, where it is £1.99 at time of writing, as well as in paperback.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: October 20 – October 26

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Another incredibly busy week, where I went down to Essex and then up to Carlisle as well as work and a trip to the theatre. The list is looking pretty good though, even if the still reading list doesn’t seem to be coming down much. But I can work on that!

Read:

The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog by Elizabeth Peters

Nightfall in New York by Katherine Woodfine

A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Solving a Murder by F H Petford*

Soyangri Book Kitchen by Kim Jee Hye*

From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming

Murder at the Grand Hotel by Isabella Bassett

War and Peas by Jill Churchill

Started:

The Will of the Standing Stones by A G Barnett

The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery*

Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch

Still reading:

You Had to Be There by Jodie Harsh*

Ritual of Fire by D V Bishop

Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath

Two secondhand books acquired and I think that’s it.

Bonus picture: thank you flowers from my trip to Essex, and a glimpse of the to-read overflow pile…

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