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…
It’s election day in the UK tomorrow, and I’m gearing up for an all-nighter at work. So the natural way to prepare is to… read some nice relaxing cozy crime books that don’t feature any politics at all! Here are a few that I’ve enjoyed recently.
I’m working on making my collages neater… it might take a while
I think I’ve mentioned these before, but Donna Andrew’s Meg Langslow books are a lasting source of delight to me. They have some of the best punny titles in the genre (all based around birds) and are witty and fun. There was a slight mid series slump* (but hey where there are 20 books in a series that can happen) but they’re back on form now. Start at the beginning with Murder with Peacocks – I’ve recently read numbers 17 and 18 – the brilliantly titled The Good, the Bad and the Emus and The Nightingale before Christmas.
I’ve also got a serious soft spot for Cindy Brown’s Ivy Meadows series about a wannabe actress who is a trainee Private Investigator in her spare time. Each book is based around a different play or musical title – the fourth book has just come out, Ivy Get Your Gun, and I enjoyed it although I think the second book in the series The Sound of Murder is still my favourite.
I read my first book in Lyn Cahoon’s Tourist Trap series a few weeks ago and, although there were a few things that had me confused, I already have another one lined up on my Kindle so I must have liked it. This follows the trend for small business-owner detectives with a Bookshop-cum-coffee-shop proprietor in a small coastal town. I like a competent heroine and Jill is good at her day job – or at least she by the eighth book in the series Hospitality and Homicide and she at least has a credible reason for investigating the death. There’s an interesting supporting cast and a nice relationship to watch develop too. What more could you want?
I bought the Donna Andrews – and you can get them fairly easily (and for a sensible price) in the UK, but the other copies came to me via NetGalley, so it might be a case of adding them to your book wishlists and waiting for the price to drop, because I often find American cozies are too expensive for me soon after release, especially given how quickly I read them.
Happy Reading – and if you’re up watching the election result tomorrow night, think of me and my colleagues working probably the busiest nightshift of the year!
*SPOILER ALERT: The slump (for me at least) coincided with the period where Meg’s twins were very small. Once they got to toddling and the books had less feeding and naps, it all sorted itself out
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…
So yesterday I took advantage of the last of my post-nightshift days off to go on a family jolly to Blenheim Palace. It’s less than an hour from home, but surprisingly I’d never been before – perhaps because it’s not National Trust or English Heritage so you have to pay. It was fabulous – and I got my day ticket converted into a year pass (which doesn’t cost any extra to do) so I can go back again and see some of the bits we didn’t have time for on Tuesday. Any how, after a day out at a country house, it got me thinking about books which feature amazing houses. So here’s a few for you for Recommendsday.
OK the sky wasn’t as blue as I was hoping, but at least we didn’t get rained on…
I know it’s totally the obvious choice, but I had to start with Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. It’s not my favourite Waugh (that’s Vile Bodies) but I know I may be in the minority on that. I had a massive Waugh kick a couple of years ago and read a whole load of his novels back to back and for the most part they still really work. Brideshead tells of Charles Ryder’s infatuation with the Marchmains and their upper class and crazy world. The house is at the centre of it all as a character in and of itself. Well worth reading if you haven’t already. I definitely need to watch one or other of the TV/film versions soon. And read Vile Bodies too.
Next, if you haven’t read any Roderick Alleyn books (and why not?) the first in the series, A Man Lay Dead, is set around a weekend party at a country house where one of the guests ends up dead. Again, it’s not my favourite of the Alleyns (that’s Artists in Crime) but it’s a really good start to the series and a really good example of a country house murder mystery.
It feels like a while since I mentioned Rebecca on here, which is strange since the Du Maurier classic is one of my mum’s favourite books and I have a lovely Virago hardback copy which sits on my downstairs keeper shelf. It’s creepy and gothic and has one of the most famous opening lines in literature in “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderlay again”. If you haven’t read it, why not and if you have go and reread it. You won’t regret it*.
Finally, if you want something funny, try PG Wodehouse’s Blandings series. The first one is Something Fresh, where you meet Lord Emsworth, his son Freddie and his secretary The Efficient Baxter and get a taste for the sort of high jinx that ensue. I think I like them better than the Jeeves and Wooster books, but again I think I’m in the minority there.
I could go on – I haven’t even mentioned I Capture the Castle, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre or The Secret Garden..
All recommendations for more books with amazing houses gratefully received, in the meantime
Happy reading!
*Even if, spoiler alert, you never trust a housekeeper again.
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.
Yeesh. This week has gone downhill. I had something else planned for this post this week, but hey, it can wait, all the horrible stuff coming out of Manchester means that I feel squicky posting it. So I’m here to say, basically, look after yourself. Be nice to people and look after yourselves. I’m doing my little bit of self-care by reading nothing but stories where I know I’m going to get a Happy Ending. So that’s romance. I can’t cope with murders at the moment – so my cozy crime reading list has gone out of the window. Here’s a few that are on my list in case you feel like doing the same.
My train book on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was Julia Quinn’s Because of Miss Bridgerton, which I picked up from the library last week and has done a good job of taking my mind off things. Then I’ve got Secrets of a Scandalous Heiress by Theresa Romain to read, but I might read the last of the Jill Shalvis omnibus (Once in a Lifetime) I mentioned in Kindle May bargains first to break up the historicals. I’ve got Level Up by Cathy Yardley sat on my Kindle as well, which was the subject of a whole episode of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books (which I still haven’t listened to because spoilers!) and Courtney Milan’s The Heiress Effect waiting for me as. I’ve also got advance copies of the next Sarah Morgan book, Holiday in the Hamptons (and one of her older books in the Library Book bag), of Rebecca Pugh’s new novel Right Here Waiting for You and that’s all before you get to whatever I might impulse purchase in my weakened state in the early hours – or what I might pull out of one of the to-read boxes.
Check back on Monday to see how far down the list I get – and whether I get the half-read crime book I started on Monday finished.
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!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 