I’m not that surprised I didn’t get much read this week – it was elections and I’ve been super busy with work and have done a lot of hours. Hopefully this week will be more normal…
Read:
Marriage is Pure Murder by Staci McLaughlin
Once in a Lifetime by Jill Shalvis
Death by Vanilla Latte by Alex Erickson
Bad Housekeeping by Maia Chance
Started:
Fatal Forgeries by Ritter Ames
An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson
Written in Dead Wax by Andrew Cartmel
Still reading:
Kick by Paula Byrne
Reel History: The World According to the Movies by Alex von Tunzelmann
The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
Yeah. Quite a lot of books bought – two proper books at the lovely Big Green Bookshop after work on Saturday and five ebooks which were on various short term offers…
This week’s BotW is another forgotten Golden Age crime novel which has been republished by the British Library. I picked this up at the book barge on Regents Canal, but it’s taken me a couple of months to get around to. The Sussex Downs Murder is the second story to feature Superintendent Meredith – there are a load more, and I already have another waiting for me on my Kindle now that I’ve read this.
Yes, I admit it, I read it on the train. Its such a useful handbag size!
John Rother and his brother William live and work together at a farm in the Sussex Downs. One night John leaves for a holiday and disappears, leaving his car and some worrying blood stains. Has he been kidnapped? Is he dead? Whatever has happened, William falls under suspicion as rumours had been circulating in the village that his wife was getting rather too friendly with John. Superintendent Meredith is called in to investigate, but events soon take a macabre turn when bones start turning up.
If you’ve read a lot of detective novels, you may suspect the solution to this one rather earlier than Meredith does, but it’s still a really enjoyable read. I suspect at the time, the solution would be a big gasp-inducing moment, but because there’s been 80 years of crime writing since, you may have come across plots like this before. It is a really well written and well crafted mystery, with plenty of interesting characters and lots of twists and turns. And if you’re a fan of Golden Age mysteries, it’s well worth reading because it has exactly the sort of vibe you get from a Sayers or a Christie – not too creepy, but totally engrossing.
I’ve read quite a lot of these British Library Crime Classic reissues and I’m struggling to think of one that I haven’t enjoyed. I’m always watching out for them, and I suspect that this will continue to be the case. It’s £2.99 on Kindle at time of writing, which is a bargain, or £1.89 on Kobo which is an even bigger bargain, but is for a slightly different edition. You should be able to get order the paperback from all the usual sources too.
Not as much read as I wanted this week, but sometimes it goes like that – I’ve been super busy and I can’t see this week being any quieter, what with the election on Thursday.
Read:
Flat-Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy
Westmorland Alone by Ian Sansom
The Sussex Downs Murder by John Bude
One Fete in the Grave by Vickie Fee
Bearly Departed by Meg Macy
Started:
Marriage is Pure Murder by Staci McLaughlin
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
Still reading:
Kick by Paula Byrne
Reel History: The World According to the Movies by Alex von Tunzelmann
The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell
Only one ebook bought so I’m counting that as a big success. Fingers crossed I can keep that going…
Normal service is nearly resumed here after last week’s nights, although I’m still having to resist the urge for an afternoon doze. Anyway this week’s BotW is Julia Quinn’s Because of Miss Bridgerton, which is the first in her new Rokesby series.
Pretty in lilac – and definitely not set in the Regency!
Billie Bridgerton is the tomboyish daughter of Viscount Bridgerton, who spends her days riding the estate and doing the work of her father’s estate manager. The Rokesbys are the neighbouring family and she’s always expected that she’ll end up marrying one of their sons, but definitely not George. Definitely not. She can’t stand him and he can’t stand her. Except suddenly, when they’re thrown together, they don’t hate each other any more. But what do you do when you start getting feelings for some one you’ve always hated – especially if you’re fairly sure they don’t feel the same way about you.
I do love an enemies to lovers romance, and although Billie and George are not quite enemies, it definitely has elements of that, along with best friend’s brother and a bit of a ugly duckling into a swan situation with Billie who definitely doesn’t want to be involved in the Season or the London world at all. It’s fun and flirty and is such a joy to read.
Julia Quinn was my gateway drug into the world of historical romances – she was the first modern author I can across who was doing the same sort of thing (if with a bit more sex in it!) that Georgette Heyer was and I worked my way through her back catalogue at speed. Her best know series are the Bridgerton books – and that makes this especially good – because it’s going back to the previous generation of that family. And there are tit-bits here for people who have read those previous books about Anthony and his siblings – it fills in some gaps in Bridgerton family history and there are some definite nods to the characters that we’ll meet later on in Billie.
This has been out over a year – but I didn’t manage to find a copy in the shops when it first came out (and I’m not meant to be buying books) so it took until I found a copy at the library last week for me to get around to it. The next book in the series – The Girl with the Make Believe Husband – is out today. This one features one of George’s brothers and is nicely set up in Because of Miss Bridgerton. I doubt if I’ll be able to wait a year before I read it having enjoyed this one so much.
You should be able to get hold of a cop of Because of Miss Bridgerton from all the usual sources – I’m going to leave you my traditional links to the Big Green Bookshop and to the Kindle and Kobo editions.
I hate nightshifts. My brain is totally frazzled. Totally. And that’s before you get to the events of this week. It’s not been a good one. So I’ve read lots of lovely romance. Lots of it.
Read:
The Death of Lucy Kyte by Nicola Upson
Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Summer, With Love by Sarah Morgan (omnibus edition of:
The Spanish Consultant, The Greek Children’s Doctor and the English Doctor’s Baby)
The Magnificent Flying Baron Estate by Eric Bower
The Nightingale Before Christmas by Donna Andrews
Started:
Westmorland Alone by Ian Sansom
Flat-Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy
Still reading:
Kick by Paula Byrne
Reel History: The World According to the Movies by Alex von Tunzelmann
On the brightside, I didn’t buy any books. So there is that. Onwards and upwards.
It was a tough decision for this week’s BotW – I didn’t read as much as I was hoping to, and some of what I did read was disappointing. The two best things I read were the two graphic novels, and even though it’s only a few months since I wrote about Lumberjanes, I’m going to geek out over the girls again.
Volume Four is Called Out of Time and we join the girls as they learn (or try to learn) survival skills. But soon they’re hit by a blizzard and Jen gets separated from them. The girls launch a search for her – fearing she’s freezing to death, but actually she’s met a mysterious woman who seems to have some relationship to Rosie.
This volume has loads of backstory and drops some serious hints about the purpose of the Lumberjanes and leaves you wanting to know more. My big problem with volume three was that some of the artists had changed, but in this one we’re back to my favourites from the earlier volumes. This has always been such a good example of female friendships – and now we have the boys camp popping up again it deals really well with that too. At times it felt like there was possibly a little too much going on, because they’re trying to get set up, backstory and a fight with a monster in to one trade paperback, but I’d much rather have too much plot than too little.
You should be able to buy Lumberjanes from any good comic shop (start at the beginning with Volume one though for maximum impact), and please do consider finding a comic shop to support. Amazon aren’t even offering any discount on the cover price on this as I write it, so go to the Comic Shop Locator and put in your post code and find an indy to support. My local store is incredibly knowledgeable (the owner runs his own comic convention), friendly, happy to get anything in for me that isn’t in stock and keeps a folder with my name on with my Rivers of London single issues for me. You can order online from him too if you really don’t want to leave your house. Failing that I’m sure Big Green Bookshop would have a go at getting it in for you. And either way it’ll give you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside for supporting the little guy not the corporate giant!
Lots of cozy crime novels this week – but I’ve also read a fair bit more of some of the long runners, just not finished them. I’ve also given up on one, which I just couldn’t get in to. Hey ho. Nights started on Sunday night (so hopefully I’ll just be waking up from a good days sleep as this publishes) so expect cozy crime and romance next week as my tired brain struggles with anything more complicated!
Read:
A Reference to Murder by Kym Roberts
The Woodpecker Always Pecks Twice by JR Ripley
Ivy Get Your Gun by Cindy Brown
Uniformly Dead by Greta Mckennan
Lumberjanes Vol 4: Out of Time by Noelle Stevenson et al
Angel Catbird Vol 2: To Castle Catula by Margaret Atwood et al
Started:
The Death of Lucy Kyte by Nicola Upson
Still reading:
Kick by Paula Byrne
Reel History: The World According to the Movies by Alex von Tunzelmann
One book bought – because it just happened to be in my Amazon basket when I was buying some other bits. Or at least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
I read a few good books this week, but in the end I picked Rachel Rhys’s A Dangerous Crossing for my BotW, although I realise as I write this that there have been rather a lot of historical mystery picks recently, but I know this is one I’m going to be lending out to various people, so it deserves a mention here. As you may have realised, i’ve got a big soft spot for historical mysteries, but this has a healthy dose of suspense mixed in as well so it does make for a bit of a change, honest!
I love the glamorous 1930s style cover for this – although the paperback one looks like its going to be different.
Set on a liner on its way to Australia in 1939, it follows Lily Shepherd who is heading down under on an assisted passage scheme to escape her past. On board, she finds herself mingling with people who she would never have socialised with on dry land and is drawn into their intrigues and secrets. By the time the ship docks in Melbourne, two passengers are dead and Lily’s life will never be the same again.
The cast of characters in this is really cleverly constructed. Lily is young and innocent in many ways and doesn’t always realise that her behaviour is being judged by other people. A lot of the action focuses around Lily’s table mates at dinner – a brother and sister who are heading to Australia after he had a health scare, a young man whose father is sending him away from the risk of war. There is the upper-class couple who keep visiting tourist class and a young Jewish girl fleeing Austria without her parents. Lily’s massively judgmental roommate and an older companion who is supervising them on the journey pop up to point out the class divisions that Lily is crossing when she is mixing with people they see as above – and below – her station and putting her prospects in Australia at risk.
The mystery itself is a proper slow burn – after teasing you with the arrival in Australia at the very start, you then spend a lot of the rest of the book on edge waiting for something bad to happen. And it’s very, very effective. In the author biography it says that Rachel Rhys is the pen name of an “already sucessful suspense author”* so that’s not really a surprise. I thought it was very page-turnery and doom laden but not so creepy as to be terrifying, which makes it pretty much my ideal sort of suspense!
A Dangerous Crossing is out now in Hardback and comes out in paperback in August. You should be able to get it from all the usual places (Amazon, Foyles, Waterstones) or order it from the Big Green Bookshop. The ebook edition is availble on Kindle and Kobo and there’s an audiobook from Audible** as well.
Happy Reading!
*It’s Tammy Cohen whose other books look far too terrifying for me – if I’d known when I picked this up, I might not have read it, which would have been a shame!
** You’ll need to be logged in for the link to work.
This week’s BotW is Anita Shreve’s new novel, The Stars Are Fire, which came out last week and which I finished at the weekend. Shreve has been on my list of authors that I really ought to have read, and this piqued my interest when I saw it on NetGalley so it seemed like an opportunity to rectify that omission. And it turned out to be a good decision.
I think this cover is pretty – but I’m not sure it really represents Grace.
The Stars Are Fire is set in Maine in 1947 where Grace Holland is struggling with her marriage. Her husband Gene is distant and won’t talk about the war, her mother-in-law hates her, she has two small children and a third on the way. When a massive fire breaks out after a long summer drought, Gene goes to join the volunteer firefighters to try and prevent it from reaching the town. Grace is left alone to try and defend their house and protect their children. When the flames arrive, she watches her home burn to the ground and is forced into the sea to shelter from the waves. When the morning comes, her home is gone and her husband is missing and she’s forced to try and build a new reality.
I was a little sceptical about this book when I started reading it, and while I still have a few reservations, the book was engrossing and kept me turning the pages eager to know what happened next. My main issue with the book was with Gene, who doesn’t feel like a fully rounded character. You’re not meant to like him, but I struggled to get a sense of who he was and why Grace had been interested in dating him in the first place. For me the most enjoyable part of the book was the middle section, but I always knew that it wasn’t going to last. The final section of the novel felt a little rushed and underdeveloped. I was a little worried about how it was all going to be resolved (or if it was going to be resolved) but at the end I was happy.
That all sounds a little negative, but they’re fairly small quibbles when set against the beautiful writing and how engaging and intriguing Grace is as a character. She’s strong and reslient and seizes opportunities out of the ruins left by the fire. I hadn’t heard of the Great Fire of 1947 before I read this book and Shreve paints a vivid picture of the heat and drought leading up to it as well as the terror of the actual events. The stifling atmosphere before the fire is mirrored in the way that Grace feels in her marriage – although she doesn’t realise how trapped she feels at the time. Although the fire brings her personal loses, it is also the making of Grace and the woman we leave at the end of the book feels very different to the one we met at the start, which makes for a satisfying read.
The Stars Are Fire is out now in hardback (sorry) and ebook. As previously mentioned, my copy came from NetGalley but you can get hold of it from on Kindle or Kobo and from Amazon, Waterstones,Foyles or you could order it from the Big Green Bookshop. I suspect it’s the sort of book that will be out on the tables in bookshops and at the airport, although I don’t suggest that you read it on the beach or somewhere hot as it may leave you paranoid about wildfires! I read it on the train and it made several journeys to and from work fly by.
