Category: week in books

Book of the Week, detective, new releases, reviews

Book of the Week: Underscore

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For this week’s pick I’m reporting back in with some good news: the new Vinyl Detective is pretty good.

The set up is this: the granddaughter of an Italian film music composer is trying to reissue his music. But because he was suspected of carrying out a murder, some of his masters were destroyed and records themselves are somewhat hard to find. So she enlists the Vinyl Detective to try and track down the rarest of them all for her – the one for the movie where the murder happened. Oh and if he can clear her grandfathers name that would be great. But trying to stop her are the grandchildren of the murder victim…

You may remember that I was a little trepidatious about this one, because I didn’t love the last book in the series. But this was a really good read. It’s got a good mystery, a real sense of the musical genre it’s tackling and lots of food. Plus the extended gang is very much in evidence if you have read the other books in the series. Plus as a bonus for me, there’s lots of action in and around Barnes and Richmond, which are both places that I have stayed in a fair bit in my efforts to avoid the long commute back and forth to London at various points.

I’m going to say this will work best if you’ve read at least some of the others in the series, but it’s also an excuse to post the shot of them all here and to comment on the fact that this book’s cover animal is a dog. You’re welcome. I’ve already seen this in the shops so in should be relatively easy to get hold of in paperback as well as in all the usual digital formats.

Happy Reading

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: May 5 – May 11

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So here’s the thing, despite the fact that I have a tonne of books waiting to be read, at the start of last week all my brain wanted to do was re-read Mitchell and Markby books. Now this started because I bought the first one second hand a few weeks back as you know, and started reading it on Sunday night. And then I ended up buying the next few on kindle so I could read on because when I read them originally I had borrowed them from a friend and I gave them back like the good girl I am. And then I really struggled to get started on anything new to me and so moved on to more familiar old friends – with new books in series that I like and a dash of Terry Pratchett. We will see where this week takes us…

Read:

Say it With Poison by Ann Granger

A Season for Murder by Ann Granger

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

Cold in the Earth by Ann Granger

Murder Among Us by Ann Granger

Underscore by Andrew Cartmel

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

Started:

A Farewell to Yarns by Jill Churchill

The Beast of Littleton Woods by T E Kinsey

Still reading:

Curtain Call to Murder by Julian Clary

The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym

Wish You Were Here by Jess K Hardy*

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Four books bought and one pre-order made. And of course another preorder arrived.

Bonus picture: we have a flower on the new(ish) arrival!

*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, detective, Forgotten books

Book of the Week: Tea on Sunday

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Happy Tuesday everyone. I’m deeply confused about what day of the week it is and messing with my brain as I keep panicking that I’m forgetting to do things/should be somewhere that I’m not. Why is my brain like this? Anyway – to this week’s pick which sees me back with a British Library Crime Classic.

In Tea on Sunday, Alberta Mansbridge has invited an assortment of guests over for tea – among them her nephew, a friend she had fallen out with, her accountant, her doctor, an ex-prisoner she has been trying to rehabilitate and an Italian architect she has been sponsoring. But when they arrive they find that she has been murdered. The house is locked, and so her murderer must have been someone who she would have let into the flat. Our detective charged with working out who is responsible is Inspector Corby who discovers that there are plenty of options for who might have wanted the wealthy, elderly lady out of the way.

This written in 1973 but feels like it’s from an earlier period – except for the fact that some of the guests are of decidedly more modern occupations than you would have found in some of those books, or at least more explicit about what it is they do than you would have found in many of those mysteries. There have been a few patchy novels among my recent BLCC reading – but this is definitely a good one. Lettice Cooper was a prolific author, but not normally of mystery novels but I really liked her writing style so I shall look out for more from her. One of her other novels has been published by Persephone so that may be the easiest one for me to lay my hands on, should I ever get the current state of the pile under control.

Anyway, this is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment and I’ve seen it in paperback in the shops too as it’s a recent release.

Happy reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: April 28- May 4

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It’s a Bank Holiday in the UK today so if you have a day off work, I hope you’re enjoying it and sorry that the nice weather didn’t last. It’s also May, which means hopefully the nice weather will come back at some point, although we’re all bound to spend the next month getting our outfits wrong as we try and predict whether we need to be dressing for heat or cold. Anyway, continued progress on some fronts on the reading, and less so on others as there’s been a lot going on in real life. But I seem to be saying that a lot at the moment, so maybe this is just normal now? What a worrying thought.

Read:

Death on the Pier by Jamie West

The 4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie

Death at the Matinee by Jamie West

Murder on Line One by Jeremy Vine*

Tea on Sunday by Lettice Cooper

Death at the Playhouses by Stuart Douglas

Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer

Started:

Curtain Call to Murder by Julian Clary

The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym

Still reading:

Wish You Were Here by Jess K Hardy*

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Two books bought – one in Quinns, one in Oxfam.

Bonus picture: the narrow alley down to Quinns bookshop – which I always expect to be higher up the hill than it is…

*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, Fantasy, reviews

Book of the Week: Legends and Lattes

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Happy Tuesday everyone. The weather here in the UK is distinctly summery, and I’ve started to one again think about my lack of a summer jacket. But of course as we have a bank holiday coming on Monday, this will not last, and we will soon be plunged into rain and misery again. But I’m enjoying it while I can. Today’s pick has got what I would call strong autumnal vibes – but it was the perfect book for what I needed last week, which was comforting, low angst reading.

Viv has spent her adult life as a barbarian bounty hunter, but as we meet her at the start of Legends and Lattes, she is hanging up her sword. She’s got a plan for a new life and has just finished the last mission she needs to do to be ready to carry it out. And so she leaves her crew behind her and heads to the coastal town of Thune where she wants to open a coffee shop. Just a few issues: no one there knows what coffee is, she’s never run a shop before and not everyone wants her to be successful.

I’d heard lots of people say that this was really, really good and it totally lived up to the hype for me. As I said at the top, this is such a comforting read. The cover even says “low stakes” and although there is some peril here, that is pretty much exactly what you get. Viv sets up a coffee shop and creates herself a found family whilst facing down a few challenges. I can be a bit iffy with fantasy, but this is definitely at the end of things that I like – the world made sense, it’s high fantasy but in some ways it reminds me of the sort of fantasy you get from the Discworld, but with less peril and a lot less satire. It’s a proper hug of a book and I do love a found family type story. I bought this a while ago when it was on offer (based off all those recommendations) and had been saving this for a Time of Need, and it did exactly what I needed it to do.

I read Legends and Lattes on Kindle, but it’s also available on Kobo and as an audiobook – read by Travis Baldree himself as is also a prolific audiobook narrator. There’s a prequel called Bookshops and Bonedust which also features Viv which I now need to read, and a third book in the series coming in the autum.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: April 21 – April 27

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Another pretty solid week of books. I’ve got one of the long running list and I’ve made progress on some of the others too. Perhaps not quite as much progress as I wanted but it was a very busy week in real life and there’s nothing you can do about that.

Read:

A Clutch of Constables by Ngaio Marsh

Barking! by Grace Smith

A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie

Fell Murder by E C R Lorac

The Oscar Wars by Michael Schulman

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

Murder Will Out by Alison Joseph

Started:

Wish You Were Here by Jess K Hardy*

Death at the Playhouses by Stuart Douglas

Still reading:

Murder on Line One by Jeremy Vine*

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Three books bought.

Bonus picture: a misty morning on the train. It’s nearly impossible to get a good photo from the train but I keep trying because it can be so beautiful.

*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

Book of the Week: A Case of Mice and Murder

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I said yesterday that I’d had a really good week in reading, and I had several options for this today – but I’ve gone with this because I went straight on to the sequel (thank you NetGalley!) and I also have a plan for some of the other options, so fear not, you will hear about more of last week’s reading in due course…

In A Case of Mice and Murder it is 1901 and the calm of the Inner Temple is about to be disrupted as the body of the Lord Chancellor is discovered with a carving knife in his chest outside the chambers of Gabriel Ward KC. Ward is coerced/inveigled into investigating by the Head of the Temple, who is anxious to keep scandal – and the police – at bay as far as possible.

For those of you who aren’t aware of the eccentricities of the English legal system, the Inner Temple is one of the four Inns of Court. Along with the Middle Temple, it is situated between Fleet Street and the Embankment on the bank of the Thames, opposite the Royal Courts of Justice in Central London. The four societies (the other two are Greys Inn and Lincolns Inn) are responsible for the training, regulating and selection of barristers in England and Wales. The Middle and Inner Temple were founded by Knights Templar in the twelfth century and has special powers that mean it has operated as a special independent enclave throughout its history. This makes it a great setting for a closed community murder mystery in the middle of a city. Sally Smith is an Inner Temple KC herself and uses all her knowledge from living and working in the Inner Temple to bring the setting to life.

Gabriel is a great character too. He’s definitely a reluctant detective, but reluctant could also apply to a lot of the rest of his life. The way that the Inner Temple works has enabled him to create a life that he loves within a very small area, hedged around with routines and traditions. He’s also very solitary and keeps himself out of the politics and wrangling of the Inner Temple – because he has no desire to hold any of the leadership roles. So the discovery of the Lord Chancellor’s body disrupts this life and brings him into contact with all sorts of new things and people. One of these people is Constable Wright of the City of London Police (not to be confused with the Metropolitan Police) who is one of the police officers charged with investigating the death and the two very different men work together to figure out what happened.

I really, really enjoyed this and as I said at the top I went straight on to the sequel (which is coming out in July) and if there had been a third book I would have gone straight on to that too. I love a historical murder mystery and not only did I love the setting, I also loved the time period – it starts in May 1901, just a few months after the death of Queen Victoria at the start of the Edwardian era. There are lots of Victorian set mysteries and there are lots set in the years between the World Wars, but really not that many in the Edwardian era. So it’s a delightful change all around.

I bought this in paperback (thank you buy one, get one half price deal) but it’s also out in Kindle and Kobo. I suspect the price of this one will drop when the second one is imminent, so if you’ve already blown your book budget this month, do add it to your watch list.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: April 14 – April 20

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A really, really lovely week. I was off work and it has been really productive and just generally delightful. I’ve read some really good stuff too – a train journey to Brighton and back really helped with that! I have made some more progress on the long runners, but maybe not as much as I would like. I will get there though. I will. I have, however, had a good week on the NetGalley front, so I’ll take my wins where I can get them!

Read:

Devil’s Food by Kerry Greenwood

The Witching Hour by Catriona McPherson

Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective by Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar*

Death at the Dolphin by Ngaio Marsh

A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith

A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith*

The Mystery at Rake Hall by Maureen Paton*

The Cat Who Saved The Library by Sosuki Natsukawa*

Started:

Fell Murder by E C R Lorac

Murder on Line One by Jeremy Vine*

Still reading:

The Oscar Wars by Michael Schulman

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Two books bought, because I can’t resist a bookshop…

Bonus picture: Brighton Beach on Thursday, looking out at the remains of the West Pier.

*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, detective, historical, mystery, new releases, reviews

Book of the Week: The Edinburgh Murders

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I’m breaking a couple of rules this week because somewhere along the line I had managed to miss that Catriona McPherson had started a new series – and that we were on to the second book in it. But as The Edinburgh Murders came out last week I am at least timely!

Covers of The Edinburgh Murders

It’s 1948 and Helen Crowther is a welfare almoner for the newly formed NHS in Edinburgh. It’s not an easy or a popular job, and her home life isn’t simple either but she keeps on going. While she’s at the bath house with one of her clients, the body of a man is found boiled to death in one of the cubicles. And then another couple of bodies turn up and Helen finds herself investigating because she’s noticed a few things that are worryingly close to home.

This has a great setting and a cleverly put together mystery to solve. I found Helen a really interesting character, and her job gives her an excellent excuse to be sticking her nose into other people’s lives. There aren’t as many historical mystery series set in the immediate post war period as there are set in the 1930s so that make a really nice change as well as the Edinburgh setting. I’m pretty sure this will work best for you if you’ve already read the first book, but I haven’t and I still enjoyed it! Like with McPherson’s Dandy Gilver series, the mystery is darker than you often find in historical mysteries, but it’s not too graphic although there are a couple of gruesome moments its more implied than right there on the page.

My copy came via NetGalley, but it’s out now in the UK on Kindle and Kobo as well as in paperback. I couldn’t find the first one of these in the shops last week when I was looking, so I don’t know how easy the hardcover version of this is going to be to find though.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: April 7 – April 13

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So a couple of things are notable from last week’s list. Lets take them in order. Firstly: I finished the Ruth Galloway series. So that binge is over, and the book hangover has commenced. Secondly a large amount of Kerry Greenwood was read after the news that she had died – I’m more than halfway through Corinna Chapman book three – and would have finished it (and probably the next one too) if I hadn’t suddenly realised that I was going to have to write about other things than Kerry’s books on here in the near future. Thirdly: I’m having a good go at the NetGalley list this month. The Simon Brett is out in a couple of weeks (he’s clearly writing at a rate of knots at the moment!) and the Catriona McPherson came out last week. And I’ve started another one that came out last week. Now should I have read them in a different order: yes. But the fact that I’ve read them is progress in itself!

Read:

The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths

Earthly Delights by Kerry Greenwood

They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie

Heavenly Pleasures by Kerry Greenwood

Camping and a Steak Out by Patti Benning

Major Bricket and the Circus Corpse by Simon Brett*

At Mrs Lippencote’s by Elizabeth Taylor

The Edinburgh Murders by Catriona McPherson*

Started:

Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective by Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar*

Devil’s Food by Kerry Greenwood

Still reading:

The Oscar Wars by Michael Schulman

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Four books bought – I just couldn’t help myself… but on the bright side none of them were hardback new releases, so I did at least resist that temptation!

Bonus picture: I have deployed the hammock! Sadly it was so lovely I fell asleep while reading the Cher memoir and ended up with a headache from too much sun and still without having finished the book. But I shan’t let that deter me. I shall put my head in the shade next time and wear a hat.

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