Verity Reads Books (lots of them)

As you know from yesterday, normal service is suspended while I talk about my favourite books of 2025. When I put these posts together it’s always interesting to me to see what the patterns are in my reading in any given year, and I would say that this year has been quite low on new fiction that I’ve really loved. I’ve read more than 40 new releases from NetGalley this year (although not all of those were fiction) and a lot of them have been firmly in the middling area of the ratings. Now that could be that my tastes and what is popular in publishing are diverging, I could be turning into an old curmudgeon or I could just have had a flukey year. Any way here we go.

I’m actually going to start with a relatively recent read – A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Solving a Murder by F H Petford. This was a Book of the Week at the end of October, and it’s got loads of my favourite things in books: an early twentieth century setting, a murder mystery and main character who is new to the setting. It’s got spiritualists, seances and espionage, although I share some of the concerns I’ve seen on Goodreads about the title not really telling you what’s going on in the book – it’s less sceptical about ghosts than you might think from the name. I always say that I have a very mixed relationship with books with paranormal elements, but this really hit all the things that I like. It’s clearly setting up for a sequel – and I look forward to seeing how the world develops if that happens.

Next up is a Book of the Week from June. And if Ghost Hunter’s Guide… has a misleading title, A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Pennant has a misleading blurb. Because it wants you to think that Miss Hortense is Murder, She Wrote but set in Birmingham, however it is much less cozy than that would imply. Miss Hortense is quite an abrasive character who is holding onto plenty of secrets and the community that she belongs to has been subjected to racism and discrimination on a personal and group level. So it’s darker than a Jessica Fletcher comparison would suggest but it’s a really good mystery and although it has a huge cast of characters that’s partly because it’s setting up for a series so I forgive it because there is so much potential here.

Still in the murder mystery realm, it’s Hattie Steals the Show by Patrick Gleeson, this wasn’t a book of the week, but was in my Recommendsday for theatre mysteries because I really enjoyed it and I put the first book in the series on my Christmas list so I think it deserves a place here. I love a mystery set in the world of the theatre and this is a really clever one with plenty of insider knowledge about the way that theatre productions work. Hattie is a stage manager with a slightly difficult past who ends up investigating a death at a theatre where she is about to do a week of work. THere is a third book coming next year and I’m really looking forward to it.

And finally a book that’s not a mystery – Dear Miss Lake by A J Pearce, which is the fourth (and final) book in her Emmy Lake series. I’ve loved these books so much and this is such a great end to the series. You do need to read them in order to get the most out of them, and usually that would mean that I wouldn’t include it in a post like this, but it is one of the very, very few new novels this year that got a full five stars from me with no reservations at all. A J Pearce is working on a new series set in a different time period and I’m really looking forward to reading that when it comes out.

And that’s the lot for today, but tomorrow is the non-fiction and in the meantime, Some Like It Hot is on TV this afternoon and you know how much I love that movie, so if you haven’t watched it, you totally should.

It’s Boxing Day and I’m starting my annual end of year series of posts about my favourite books that I’ve read this year. And I’m starting with the New to Me novels because actually this is where some of my highest rated books of the year have been. But coming up over the next few days there’s also new fiction and non-fiction.

And I’m starting with A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith because I read both the Gabriel Ward books this year and they could have been on either list because they’re both so good. I’ve gone with the first one to feature here, because I have that rule about firsts in series and so it totally makes sense, but it’s sort of a recommendation for both the books rather than just one. It’s 1901 and Gabriel Ward is a barrister who lives and works inside the Inner Temple in the City of London, a self-regulating enclave populated by the legal profession. His ordered life is about to be disrupted by the discovery of the body of the Lord Chancellor on his office doorstep and is coerced into investigating what has happened. Gabriel is a great character and the Inner Temple is a brilliant setting for a mystery – it’s a closed community which works for the plot but it’s also something that most readers will know very little about and so there’s loads of fun titbits in there for you to enjoy as the author is herself a barrister who lives and works in the Inner Temple and so knows it inside out.

Next up is a book that’s been getting buzz for a couple of years but that took me a while to get to because of my slightly strange relationship with fantasy novels. But Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree is right in the part of the genre that I like. Viv is a retired bounty hunter who takes up residence in a coastal town so that she can set up a coffee shop and start a new life. Thune reminds me in a lot of ways of a Terry Pratchett city – and I mean that as the highest compliment. This has less satire and less peril and more romance than a Discworld book but I really, really liked it.

And finally I couldn’t not include the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths as I binged through the whole series in under two months earlier this year. The Crossing Places was a book of the week in February and I’d finished the lot by early April. Ruth is a forensic archeologist who works at a fictional university in Norfolk. In the first book she is called in by the police after a body is found in the marshes and this sees her become the force’s go to for old bones but also tangles her life up with DI Harry Nelson. And this is the point where I have to say that some people will not want to read this series because Harry is married and as I said in my series post this will be a dealbreaker for some readers. But it wasn’t for me, and I just loved reading these. And because I was coming to this a decade after everyone else I could just go straight on to the next book every time I finished one. This is a series that also features the pandemic – because it happens in real(ish) time and Elly Griffiths couldn’t pretend that it didn’t happen – and I didn’t hate that either.

Coming up we’ve got my favourite new fiction reads of 2025, but in the meantime, enjoy Boxing Day – and if you’re in the the UK, Paddington 2 is on tv this afternoon, complete with the finale musical sequence to Sondheim’s Rain on the Roof from Follies.

You guys, it’s Christmas Eve! How did that happen so fast? Anyway in case you’re so on top of your Christmas tasks that you have reading time at the moment and need some suggestions, I’m back with some Not New Christmas books that you could read while you wait for the big day (or at any point while you’re feeling Christmassy really.

A Jingle Bell Mingle by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone*

This is the third book in the Christmas Notch series and sees a one-night stand turn into a trapped together in the snow but also trying to help each other out of their creative blocks situation with Sunny who is a writer with a background in the adult film industry and Isaac, a former boyband member who has been a recluse since the death of his wife. I have a slightly mixed relationship with this series – basically I always like the premise but whether I like the execution is a bit hit or miss. And with this, I really, really wanted Isaac to just get some counselling and talk to a professional about his grief and loss. But if he had done that there would be no tension/conflict in this because so much of the issue in the relationship are to do with his bereavement. But there is some fun banter in this and you can see why they work together as a couple even through Isaac’s issues. So for me it was fun, but patchy.

The Christmas Book Hunt by Jenny Colgan

This is a very bookish novella where Mirren is hunting for a book that her Great Aunt remembers from her childhood, but that doesn’t seem to exist online. Her aunt is seriously ill and so Mirren sets off on a trek around Britains bookish and rare book hotspots to try and track it down. Along the way she keeps running into Theo, who is also search for the same book as her, although she doesn’t know that. This has a romantic subplot, but is more about Mirren’s hunt for the book than that. It’s a quick, sweet read and it’s in Kindle Unlimited at the moment or 99p for non members which makes it the cheapest on this list!

Murder Under the Mistletoe by Richard Coles

This novella is a festive visit to the world of Cannon Clement – it’s Christmas Day and Daniel and his mum are at the Big House for Christmas with a lot of the other villagers when someone drops dead so of course he has to try and solve it. It’s a nice novella to add to the series – and unlike some mystery series novellas it does actually feature a death (rather than someone or something going missing) although it’s definitely a slighter plot that the novels (as you would expect), but if you like the novels, this makes a nice addition to the series. When I read it in January I thought that it didn’t make any difference to your understanding of Champton, but I’ve read the next book since then which references it so it should also be noted that this is definitely a book 3.5 and fits into the series chronology between Murder at the Monastery and Death on Location, so bear that in mind if you haven’t read the rest of the series. I picked this up in the sale in hardback after last Christmas, but it’s out in paperback now.

The Christmas Egg by Mary Kelly

Every year the BLCC have a christmas release or two and this is one from 2019 but actually written in the 1950s. This is set from the 22nd to the 24th of December as Inspector Nightingale and Sergeant Beddowes investigate the death of an old woman in Islington. She’s a Russian princess who fled to Britain at the time of the Revolution and has been living in hiding since, afraid that she will be discovered by her enemies. She had a nephew living with her who appears to have fled, but then turns up again. This is definitely a bit of a different mystery to many in the collection. For all that our vicitim is an emigré princess, it’s got a grittier feel to it and a dark and dismal urban setting. It all turns a bit adventure thriller towards the end as well, with a helicopter involved which definitely makes it feel a bit more modern too.

That’s your lot for now, but in case you still want more, The Anti-Social season was a BotW last year as was Christmas is All Around and both of them are 99p at the moment too, which makes them a bargain!

Happy Reading!

After breaking my own rules last week on Friday, this week I’m doing it on Saturday – no bookshops to show you this week, and I’m anticipating a Christmas Books incoming next week but I wanted to do this musical recommendation this week because it’s in cinemas this month and there are still some screenings out there. The National Theatre has NT Live, but it’s pretty rare that we get filmed versions of Broadway musicals and so when you get one it’s important to support it so that we get more!

This is the filmed version of last year’s Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along, a musical that was a legendary flop in its first incarnation, but which in this new incarnation won a clutch of Tony Awards and now hits the big screen for those of us who couldn’t make it to New York (or face the steep ticket prices). Merrily tells the story – in reverse – of the friendship between Franklin Shepherd, Charley Kringas and Mary Flynn. It opens on a party in LA in 1977 and ends with the first time the three meet on a rooftop in New York in 1957. Jonathan Groff is Frank, Daniel Radcliffe is Charley and Lindsay Mendez (about seven months pregnant at the point this was filmed!) is Mary.

This is actually based on the Maria Friedman production that I saw back in the West End in 2013 and which was also filmed, which may explain why Maria Friedman in directing this version has chosen to go for mostly close up shots of the actors. I know this has been divisive for some, but for me it was one of the most successful filmed theatre performances that I’ve seen. Often in recordings like this, performances can seem to theatrical for the camera, but the three leads in this were amazing. Being able to see actual tears in Jonathan Groff’s eyes at various points and Daniel Rafcliffe’s hands shaking with rage at the end of Franklin Shepherd, Inc. I had the trumpet fanfare stuck in my head for days, alternating with Our Time. It’s heartbreaking by the end to watch them all so full of promise and hope, knowing how it finishes.

I know Sondheim can be an acquired taste – I hated my first encounter with him (touring Sweeney Todd with Jason Donovan as Sweeney, Harriet Thorpe as Mrs Lovett and the actors playing their own instruments) and nearly swore off him completely but started to change my mind when I saw Sunday in the Park with George about a year later. Since then I’ve seen about half of his musicals live – most recently Frogs and Here We Are – and I think this is one of the easier sells of the catalogue – everyone has had a friendship that has had ups and downs, the performances are great, there are some classic songs in there and it’s not too abstract. It’s been days and I’m still humming Not a Day Goes By, Old Friend and Our Time.

This is in cinemas at the moment, but rumours are that it’s going to end up on a streaming service, possibly the one with a red letter logo. And if it does turn up on a streaming service, it’s included with your subscription so the barrier to entry is low. Go on, give it a go.

I said the other week that December was short on new releases, so for the second time this month I’m mentioning a series I haven’t read by an author that I’ve read other books by and this time it’s Kathi Daley whose T J Jensen series I’ve writen about before and who also writes the Zoe Donovan series that I’ve read a couple of it the last few weeks. This is a new entry in her Cottage on Gooseberry Bay series. This is a mystery series set around holidays in a small town by the seaside. Christmas Bells is the twentieth in the series, so I have a lot of catching up to do. It’s promising a mystery set around a Christmas tree lot that’s ten years in the making. These are in Kindle Unlimited, and I’m trying not to hold the covers against them!

Happy Reading