Category: week in books

Authors I love, books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: August 30 – September 5

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This list looks a little deceptive – because all of those Mindy Kalings are Kindle single Essays that form one single collection – there are six in all and two were on last week’s list. I nearly just put them on here once as a whole – but they count individually in the good reads list so it would throw my whole count out for the year (unless I start keeping separate lists, and we all know that’s not going to happen). Lots of time last week spent reading The Cult of We – which is long and non fiction which always takes me longer, even in times when I’m not mostly drawn to reading mystery novels! And just to recap in case you missed it – we had the mini reviews last week, as well as the stats and all the usual stuff.

Read:

Death at Dukes Halt by Derek Farrell

Please Like Me by Mindy Kaling

Help is on the Way by Mindy Kaling

Searching for Coach Taylor by Mindy Kaling

Once Upon a Time in Silver Lake by Mindy Kaling

The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters

First Comes Like by Alisha Rai

A Knife for Harry Dodd by George Bellairs

Death in the Dales by Frances Brody

Started:

The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis

Bombshell by Sarah MacLean

Still reading:

A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz*

The God of the Hive by Laurie R King

The Cult of We by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell*

I went into town on Saturday between getting my brows weeded and my hair done and I accidentally bought four books. What a pity…

Bonus photo: The aforementioned book haul…

Four books on a desk

An * next to a 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, fiction, mystery, new releases

Book of the Week: Death at Dukes Halt

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I’m finishing the month as I started it, with another murder mystery book pick for my Book of the Week, in a slightly cheaty move because I finished it on Monday, but I’ve talked enough about Inspector Littlejohn recently already, and that was pretty much all I actually finished last week! But before I get down to my review of the new Derek Farrell, a quick reminder that tomorrow is the Mini Reviews and Thursday will be the August Stats.

Danny Bird is facing up to a scary prospect: a weekend at a country house to help Caz fulfill a promise to a dead friend. Pub manager Ali is chauffeuring them down to Dukes Halt where they find a mismatched set of weekend guests: a Hollywood actress, a right-wing MP and an Albanian gangster among them. Soon there’s a body in their midst and Danny is detecting again to try and clear himself and his friends. But he’s also trying to work out what happened at the house decades ago when he discovers an unhappy boy’s secret diary.

This is the fifth outing for Danny and the gang and it’s a good one. Farrell has taken Danny out of the Marq (the Asbo twins are left in charge of running a talent night while they’re gone and I look forward to seeing how that works out) and put him into a country house murder mystery in the grand tradition of the genre. It’s got everything you would expect from an Agatha Christie – but updated to the present day. In one of the earlier books in the series Danny is described as Poirot on poppers, which is a great line but doing Danny a slight disservice now because he is not the isolated external figure that Poirot is. He’s got friends, relationships, a perspective and that all comes into focus in this. You also see him more on his own in this that he has been in the previous series so there’s a lot more about who Danny is and what he believes in that you’re used to and that’s a really good development. But don’t worry, there’s still plenty of witty banter and oneliners. The pandemic means there has been a longer break between full length books than I was hoping when I finished Death of an Angel (although Death of a Sinner did help) but I think Death at Dukes Halt has been worth the wait.

You can get Death at Dukes Halt direct from the publisher, Fahrenheit Press, who have it in various ebook formats and paperback. If you do get the paperback from them, you get the ebook with it as well which is nice – I started reading the paperback and then switched to the kindle so I could read it on the move. But you can also get it on Kindle.

Happy Reading!

Authors I love, books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: August 23 – August 29

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We’re nearly at the end of August, so this week there’ll be the usual stuff as well as the monthly stats, and the mini reviews. And in case you missed it last week, I threw in a bonus post for you all ahead of the Bank Holiday weekend. I spent most of my bank holiday weekend watching the world’s best motorbike racers at Silverstone, which probably accounts for the fact that I didn’t realise that I was on such an Inspector Littlejohn streak until I came to put this post together. Whoopsadaisy.

Read:

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers

The Body in the Dumb River by George Bellairs

Murder Will Speak by George Bellairs

Murder of a Quack by George Bellairs

Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs

The Illegal by Gordon Correra

Kind of Hindu by Mindy Kaling

Started:

First Comes Like by Alisha Rai

Still reading:

A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz*

Death at Dukes Halt by Derek Farrell

The God of the Hive by Laurie R King

The Cult of We by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell*

Bonus photo: It’s pretty much impossible to get a good photo of a motorbike going at speed on a phone. So instead, here is a picture of the GOAT of motorbike racing, Valentino Rossi, on the cool down lap in front of his fan grandstands, complete with a Rossi flag. It’s not great, but I was too busy enjoying the moment (and the weekend to be honest) to get anything better!

Valentino Rossi on the cool down lap

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

 

Book of the Week, new releases

Book of the Week: Battle Royal

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Making a break from the crime picks of recent weeks, I’m going with a romance pick, because why not. I’ll get to that in a minute, but because I forgot to mention it yesterday, don’t forget to check out my rather belated summer reading post. And also coming up this week is another batch of recommendations – this time for non-fiction history books.

Cover of Battle Royal

Anyway, Battle Royal is the first book in Lucy Parker’s new Palace Insiders series. Sylvie was a contestant on a TV baking show four years ago. Her glittery, whimsical aesthetic was a fan favourite, but she got voted off the show when a bake went spectacularly awry. Since the show she’s set up her own bakery and now she’s back – as a judge. Dominic was the only judge who wasn’t impressed with Sylvie when she was on the show, even before the mishap. He’s a brilliant baker but he’s also serious and stuffy. He already thought he saw too much of Sylvie, because her bakery is opposite his, but now they’re going to be judging the show together. And then Princess Rose’s engagement is announced. Dominic’s family bakery has been baking cakes for royalty for years and they’re the bookies’ favourite to make the wedding cake, but Sylvie and her team think they’re a better fit for the unconventional princess’s big day. Suddenly Sylvie and Dominic are competing on every front…

Lucy Parker writes the best enemies to lovers romances. I mean I’m not sure what else I need to say. She comes up with wonderful scenarios where the heroine and hero have genuine reasons to not like each other but then works it all out so the bit where they get together is just the most satisfying thing ever. This one does need to come with a content warning: there’s some child neglect and a whole lot of bereavement in the backstories of our leads. I was a weepy mess at several points (and I don’t think it was because I was over tired) but because of the sad pasts and memories not because either the hero or heroine had done something unspeakably awful if you know what I mean.

I treated myself to this on release day last week and it did exactly what I wanted it too. It made me laugh, it made me cry and it gave me a big sweeping romantic arc where the hero and heroine work out that they’re perfect for each other without any Stupid Misunderstandings or conflict that could have been solved with a simple conversation. They are competing against each other but they’re not sabotaging each other or bad mouthing each other or anything like that. It was just wonderful. Pretty much my only regret is that now I’ve read it I have to wait a year for the next one. And based on the bits of the next couple that you see in this, that’s going to be a corker soon.

This is the first in the series, so nothing to worry about there, but if you like this and you haven’t read any Lucy Parker before, do go back and read the London Celebrities series – if you like this sort of trope and these sort of characters then you’re in for a treat.

My copy of Battle Royal was from the Kindle store, but it’s also available on Kobo. Amazon are also listing a paperback, but I can’t see it on the Foyles or Waterstones websites, which would fit with my previous experience that you’re probably going to have to import a copy if you want a physical one. But the ebooks are reasonably priced, so don’t let that deter you!

Happy Reading!

Authors I love, books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: August 16 – August 22

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So a shorter list again this week. It’s been another busy one for various reasons, but also I ended up rereading – or starting to reread a lot of old favourites, so that hit the list of completed stuff somewhat. Also, Gaudy Night is very long, especially if you’re both reading it and listening to it at the same time. But I needed a bit of Peter and Harriet this week and it’s been a long time since I read it. It’s still wonderful and I’ve nearly finished it – only a couple of hours left of the audiobook now, which is almost making me sad to think about it being over.

Read:

Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L Sayers

Guardians of the Horizon by Elizabeth Peters

The Language of Bees by Laurie R King

Half-Mast for the Deemster by George Bellairs

Battle Royal by Lucy Parker

The Two Hundred Ghost by Henrietta Hamilton*

Started:

The God of the Hive by Laurie R King

The Cult of We by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell*

Still reading:

A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz*

Death at Duke’s Halt by Derek Farrell

I bought myself the new Lucy Parker this week as a treat after a particularly bad few days, and I regret nothing. But that’s it. Another one of my preorders is on its way though – should arrive in my sticky little hands this week sometime.

Bonus photo: I know, it’s not that long since I last posted a photo of me, but after 18 months of doing not a lot and going almost nowhere, we went to a wedding on Sunday, so here I am in all my finery at an event with actual people. It was lovely.

Verity (me) in a pretty dress for a wedding!

An * next to a 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, mystery

Book of the Week: A Third Class Murder

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I nearly broke away from the mystery theme of the last few weeks for today, and then I changed my mind. So much of my recent reading has been murder mysteries, that maybe I’ll end up doing mystery month. Although to be fair, a lot of them have been Inspector Littlejohn novels and that would get a little boring for you all!

When an antique dealer is murdered on a train, the police soon make an arrest. But Reverend Lucian Shaw was also on the train and soon becomes convinced that the police may have got the wrong man. When he starts to investigate he discovers that there may have been even more under currents in his parish than he knew about – although his wife could have filled him in on some of them!

A Third Class Murder really wants you to think that it’s a British Library Crime Classic, but it’s not. But don’t hold it against it,because it’s actually a nice, easy fun cozy crime novel that happens to be set in the 1930s. It’s not earth shattering or ground breaking, and yes I figured out who did it before the reveal but that’s fine – I wanted a murder mystery that I could enjoy and not have to think too hard about. Perfect lazy afternoon reading.

My copy came via my Kindle Unlimited Subscription, which means it’s only available on Kindle (at the moment at least).

Happy Reading!

Authors I love, books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: August 9 – August 15

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Well. If you’ve been paying any attention to the news, you’ll know that it’s been a very big and difficult week of news. And that means my day job has been very busy. Consequently the reading list is short. And as we’ve just finished Seeing a Large Cat on the latest Amelia Peabody re-listen, I ended up comfort reading the key points across the next couple of books as they refer to the Ramses situation (if you know the series, you’ll know what I mean) and that always cheers me up, but as I didn’t read the whole books (and they’ve already been on the list once this year already!) they don’t get included.

Read:

A Third Class Murder by Hugh Morrison

Seeing a Large Cat by Elizabeth Peters

Corpse at the Carnival by George Bellairs

Death at Leper’s Hollow by George Bellairs

How to Make the World Add Up by Tim Harford*

Started:

Half-Mast for the Deemster by George Bellairs

A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz*

Death at Duke’s Halt by Derek Farrell

Still reading:

The Language of Bees by Laurie R King

Another pre-order turned up this week and I think I forgot to mention two more pre-orders that I put in at the start of the month, but so far they’re the only books I’ve bought this month. Yay me.

Bonus photo: No this is not my puppy, but it is a puppy in my extended family and it is eating my shoelace. I got some quality puppy time on Sunday and it brightened up my week.

A puppy trying to eat my shoe lace

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

Book of the Week, crime, Forgotten books, mystery, new releases

Book of the Week: The Man Who Wasn’t There

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Honestly I nearly started this with “another week, another crime pick” but then I got such bad deja vu that I realised I did that last week. But it’s still true. For the third week in a row, I’m picking a murder mystery book for my BotW. But as I said yesterday, I’m in a distinctly murder mystery mood so I don’t know how surprising this news is!

Sally and Johnny Heldar have helped solved mysteries before, so when the woman that Johnny’s cousin Tim wants to marry finds herself caught up in a murder case, it’s only natural that Tim turns to them for help. Prue’s employer has been murdered and as a result she’s called off their engagement. Tim is desperate for Sally and Johnny to clear Prue’s name and win her back for him; but the more they investigate, the more complicated the mystery gets, with infidelity and blackmail and wartime treachery to contend with.

I read a previous Heldar mystery, Answer in the Negative, last year and really enjoyed it. I like Sally and Johnny as characters in both books – they have a nice relationship where they both get to do investigating. This is a previously unpublished entry in the series that the author’s nephew discovered in a stash of manuscripts. It’s not known when exactly this was written, but I would guess around the time that it was set – which is the early 1950s. The introduction says it went unpublished because tastes changed, which makes me sad because it’s too good to have only come to light now.

I’ve read a lot of mysteries with roots in the First World War and a lot set in the Wars but not a lot in set in the fifties with links to the Second World War. So this is a nice change. It’s also interestingly twisty, but follows the rules that the clues are there if you know where to look. On the basis of this, I’m hoping that more of the unpublished Heldar books find their way into the light soon.

I got an advance copy of this, but it’s actually out on Thursday in Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

Authors I love, books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: August 2 – August 8

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Another week dominated by classic crime, with just a dash of romance reading thrown in too. I don’t know why, but I’m back in a headspace where I mostly just want to read mysteries. I’m also having a struggle to concentrate again, so leaning towards the genres I know will provide a satisfying pay off if I do manage to keep my concentration going!

Read:

Two-Way Murder by E C R Lorac

Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron

Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L Sayers

Death Sends for the Doctor by George Bellairs

Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur

The Man Who Wasn’t There by Henrietta Hamilton**

More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham

Started:

A Third Class Murder by Hugh Morrison

Corpse at the Carnival by George Bellairs

Still reading:

How to Make the World Add Up by Tim Harford*

The Language of Bees by Laurie R King

Bonus photo: I am nothing if not ambitious, so I’ve decided to commit and try and read all the Inspector Littlejohn books. I’m already at 20 out of 57 so it’s less daunting than it could have been, but I also haven’t done any searching to see how easy they all are to find. Wish me luck…

A list of Inspector Littlejohn books with the ones I've read ticked off.

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

Book of the Week, crime, detective, Forgotten books

Book of the Week: Black Plumes

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Another week, another classic crime Book of the Week pick. And this time it’s a Margery Allingham that’s *not* an Albert Campion. On to that in a second, but first a reminder that there will be Mini Reviews tomorrow, and that if you missed the July Stats you can find them here.

Black Plumes starts with the slashing of a painting at a prestigious art gallery. Then the owner’s son-in-law is murdered. At the centre of the mystery is 90-year-old Gabrielle Ivory, formerly a society beauty, now side-lined by the younger generation who think she’s past it. But as the mystery develops it becomes clear that she may know more than they think she does – and she’s not going to let them ignore the threat to the gallery and chalk it up as a practical joker – even if there is a risk that the person behind them may be rather close to home.

This is a clever and atmospheric murder mystery. There are a lot of unlikeable characters in this, but also a lot of suspects – not all of whom are the unlikeable ones! You see this story mostly by following Frances, youngest of the Ivorys. At the start of the book her brother-in-law is pressuring her to marry the unpleasant co-owner of the gallery and artist and family friend, David Field, proposed a fake engagement to her as a way of getting out of it. Frances is convinced that something is wrong at the gallery but her concerns are dismissed by other members of the family – even after the murder has happened. David – whose painting is the one that is slashed at the start of the novel – is one of the only people who listens to her, but he is a bit of a rogue and some of the clues seem to point at him. I really enjoyed it – and if you haven’t read any Allingham before, this wouldn’t be a bad place to start – especially as the Campion series takes a while to settle in, which can make it tricky for people who like to start series at the beginning.

My copy came from Kindle Unlimited but it’s also available to buy on Kindle where they also have a modern paperback edition, which Foyles also has available to order but not in store pickup. This was originally published in 1940 so there are likely to be second hand copies around – but I can see from some reviews mention of racially offensive language, which as I didn’t notice it in my Kindle edition has presumably been edited out in the newer versions but which will be in old editions

Happy Reading!