Tag: book reviews

Forgotten books, mystery, Recommendsday

Book of the Week: Not to be Taken

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It’s been a few weeks since I had a British Library Crime Classic as the BotW: it was early May that I picked Tea on Sunday so I think I’m allowed another one now.

The victim in Not to be Taken is John Waterhouse, who dies after a gastric episode which all of his friends think is accidental. But his brother doesn’t agree and forces an exhumation. Further investigations show that he was killed by arsenical poisoning and the police set out to try and figure out who was responsible. We see the story from the point of view of one of the friends, Douglas, who is a country gentleman farmer. Over the course of the book we learn more about all the characters and the options for who might have killed John become wider and wider.

Not to Be Taken was originally published as a serialisation for readers themselves to solve, with a prize available for readers who could answer the question “who was the poisoner” correctly. This BLCC edition has the solution provided, after telling the reader that they should now be able to work it out. This is very twisty and very clever. I had some ideas, but like the readers at the time, none of them were totally accurate. I’ve read a couple of of Anthony Berkley’s other books, including Murder in the Basement which was also a BotW (four years ago!) but I think this is the first of his that I’ve read that doesn’t feature his regular detective, Roger Sheringham. It’s well worth a look – I’ve had a mixed run with the more recent BLCC releases, but this is a really good one.

It’s in Kindle Unlimited at the moment, which means it isn’t on Kobo, but as I always say, these rotate through the various schemes and offers so add it to your watch list and it will come around soon I’m sure. And just to flag that for some reason the Kindle and paperback versions of this have some how ended up listed separately on Amazon, which is annoying but seems to be happening more than you would expect at the moment.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, detective, first in series

Book of the Week: Next Stop, Murder

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A slightly strange week of reading last week due to the trip, so it’s been a strange one to pick something today, but in the end I did come up with something!

Next Stop, Murder is set in a town in the Adirondack Mountains. Celia has moved to Blue Lake with her daughter Katie after a tragedy in New York. Celia’s taken over an ice cream shop, which is a big change from her previous life as a NYPD forensics expert. But when a body is found on a tour bus, Celia finds herself drawn into the investigation.

This did feel very much like a first book in series because there’s a lot of set up work being done alongside the murder plot. It’s got an interesting narrative style though, with the narration moving around as well as diary entries from Katie, and articles from the local press. The mystery isn’t that complicated, but it worked well and I enjoyed the book enough that I’ll be checking out the second in the series to see if those first-book symptoms have cleared up.

This one is in Kindle Unlimited, so it’s not on Kobo (at the moment at least) and I suspect the paperback that’s listed on Amazon is a print on demand one, so I wouldn’t expect it to be in the shops. But if you’re in KU at the moment it’s an easy way to pass a couple of hours.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: We Three Queens

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Yes, I’m breaking one of my own rules this week and writing about a book that’s a long way into a series. No I don’t really care. Last week was one of those weeks, and anything that wasn’t rule breaking wasn’t something that I really felt inspired enough to write about. So here we are.

Cover of We Three Queens

This is the eighteenth in Rhys Bowen’s series about Georgiana, a fictious granddaughter of Queen Victoria, who is facing all sorts of troubles in the loose orbit of the Royal Family of the 1930s. As I said in my post when this book was released in November, in this book we have finally reached the winter of 1936 and crunch time for Georgie’s cousin David when it comes to choosing between the Crown and Wallis Simpson. And of course Georgie and her husband Darcy are caught up in it with the woman in question hiding away at their estate. As if that wasn’t enough, Georgie’s former stepfather, who owns the house, arrives home unexpectedly and with a film crew in tow to film scenes in the grounds. And on top of all this Georgie’s brother, his wife and their two children have also invited themselves to stay. And did I mention that she’s a new mum?

There is a murder in this, but it actually happens quite a long way through. But there is a lot going on to get to that point, so you don’t feel like you’re missing out on a mystery plot – in fact if i hadn’t read the blurb to know there was going to be one, I wouldn’t have been surprised if there hadn’t been one, although this is obviously a mystery series.

For the last few books I have been wondering if we were nearing the end of the series, especially as there have been a couple of big moments coming up where it would have been possible for Bowen to sign off from Georgie and leave on a satisfying note, but there is a nineteen book coming in the autumn, so it looks like we’re going to be following Georgie and the family into the reign of George VI as the world hurtles towards World War Two. And without giving you any spoilers, there are still a few hanging threads left to tie up, and as long as Bowen can keep coming up with new adventures for Georgie, I’m happy to read them!

This series used to be published in UK paperback editions, but I haven’t seen any of them for some time. So your best bet for this is Kindle or Kobo, although I have a seen some of them occasionally in the Cozy Crime Mass Market shelves at Waterstones Gower Street and Waterstones Piccadilly, but it is a totally lottery which one it is.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, mystery, reviews

Book of the Week: Helle and Death

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It’s Tuesday and I’m back with another murder mystery for my book of the Week pick. And it’s a wintery one despite the fact that it’s a heatwave here. Does reading a book about cold weather make you feel better or worse in situations about this? Who knows. Anyway.

The set up here is that Torben Helle and a group of his university friends have been invited for a reunion by the most successful of their group, a man who because super rich after his invention took off. They haven’t really spent time together as a group in the ten years since they graduated but in snowy Northumbria they reassemble. The morning after their arrival they are snowed in and their host is dead in his bed. One of them must of done it – but who? Torben and his knowledge of Golden Age murder mysteries (and his closest friends in the group) set out to solve the crime.

As we all know at this point, I love a murder mystery – and I especially love a country house murder mystery so this was right up my street. The pacing is a little slow, but I liked the characters and the idea of a group of previously close friends brought back together. I saw a few of the twists coming, but I was ultimately pretty satisfied with the way that it all worked out. And I loved all the references to classic murder mysteries – because of course loads of them were books that I’ve read (some of them read multiple times!).

My copy came via NetGalley (yes, I know, I know, I know) but it’s out now in Kindle and Kobo. I’ve seen the sequel in the shops and would definitely give it a read to see if the pacing improves when there isn’t so much heavy lifting to do in the set up.

Happy Reading

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: A Murder for Miss Hortense

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I previewed this one last week as it came out – and I’ve since finished it so I’m coming back around to give a review because it is a really great set up and a really nice read.

Cover of A Murder for Miss Hortense

And so the set up: Miss Hortense is a retired nurse who lives in a Birmingham suburb after coming to the UK from Jamaica in 1960. When a body turns up in the home of one of her acquaintances, she is drawn into investigating. She’s pretty fearless – she’s had to be to survive more than three decades in nursing and living in an area that wasn’t exactly welcoming when she first arrived. A lot of the signs point to a connection to the Pardner network, which she was instrumental in setting up back in the 1960s soon after her arrival when the Jamaican community were struggling to get help from banks. But she left the pardner under a cloud years ago. For years Miss Hortense has been at the centre of the community, she knows all the histories and a lot of secrets but the investigation leads her into areas she would rather not think about, and dangers that she thought she had put behind her.

I really enjoyed this – Miss Hortense is very independent and self-reliant, and somewhat abrasive at times, but she makes for a fascinating lens to look at a very tight-knit community that is hiding plenty of secrets. I really liked the language and the also the fact that it has a different setting to so many murder mysteries and doesn’t info dump you with stuff, it expects you to be smart enough to figure things out already or go and find out. I went off down a rabbit hole about pardner schemes because I had never heard of them before, which was fascinating, but it’s also such a great (and realistic) device to be causing tension in a community. I read this in less than a day, and would happily return to the world of Miss Hortense – and I hope that there is a sequel. She’s certainly well placed to be able to investigate something else…

My copy came from NetGalley, but this is out now on Kindle and Kobo and in hardback. I will be keeping an eye out in the bookshops to see if I can spot it in person so to speak.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, books, cozy crime, crime

Book of the Week: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

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So a bit of a strange one this week – because I started this literal years ago and couldn’t get into it, gave up and then came back to it this weekend, started again and read it all in evening. So here we are.

Vera Wong is the 60-year-old proprietor of a tea shop. She likes to match make and meddle in her son’s life. But one day she finds a dead body in her shop and switches her focus to finding out who killed him – because she doesn’t think the police are trying hard enough. But it turns out that she likes her chief suspects a lot more than the victim and soon it’s all getting a bit messy.

So as I said, I didn’t get into this first time around at all and it did take a while to get into it the second time too. But I really liked Julia and Emma when they arrived and the effect that Vera had on their lives and that’s where I started to get into it and after that something clicked. The solution is clever and something I hadn’t spotted as well.

I do have a bit of a mixed record with Sutanto – I liked Dial A for Aunties, but didn’t enjoy the sequel and haven’t read the third yet, although I probably will for the sake of completeness because I am that person. There is a sequel to this, but given my prior experience who knows what I might make of that!

My copy of this one came from NetGalley an eon ago, but it should be fairly easy to get hold of if you want to – I’ve seen it in paperback in the big bookshops and of course it’s on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, detective, mystery

Book of the Week: Swan Song

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After a break last week for a book that wasn’t strictly a mystery, this week I’m firmly back in the mystery world – not just with today’s pick but with basically everything in tomorrow’s Quick Reviews too. Because basically almost everything I haven’t already told you about from last month is murder mystery because that’s the sort of month it was, and June continues the same way (I finished this on Sunday!)

The Second World War is over, and on Oxford preparations are underway for the first postwar production of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger. It is not a happy company because one of the singers, Edwin Shorthouse, was already unpopular before he started throwing his weight around and behaving badly at rehearsals. So when he is found dead, few of the company are upset, until it starts to look like it may be murder and not a suicide and one of their number may be responsible. Gervase Fen has a challenge on his hands.

I am slowly (and out of order) working my way through Edmund Crispin’s series about the eccentric Oxford Don, and this is a really good one. I love a theatre-set mystery and this is a perplexing locked room puzzle, and those are always good too. This has a dash of the absurd about it as well as the eccentricities of Fen and it’s very easy to read and the solution fits with that.

This is available in all the usual ways including Kindle and Kobo and there have been enough recent editions that you maybe able to pick it up second hand too.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: On Turpentine Lane

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Amid all the murder mysteries last week there were a couple of other books – one of which was my first Elinor Lipman novel which is now my first non-mystery BotW in nearly a month – dragging the ratio of mystery to non-mystery so far this year up to 13 mystery to seven others!

Our heroine is Faith Frankel, 32 years old and back in her home town working in fundraising at a private school. Not in town (or answering her messages) is her boyfriend/fiancé Stuart, who has taken off on a cross country walk to find himself. In his absence Faith has bought herself a house – a fixer-upper bungalow – and is trying to get her life on track. But the history of the house may be less than peaceful – for starters the police turn up to search her basement for bloodstains. And her family life is less than peaceful too – her father is having a midlife crisis and has has left her mother to pursue his a new career as a painter of fake Chagalls and one of his new benefactors.

I know I said this wasn’t a mystery – and you’ll have noticed in that summary that there is a mysterious element to this, but really it’s not the main thrust of the plot – which is a delightful and some what madcap romantic comedy. It’s a bit chaotic and the plot developments just keep coming, making the pace really high and keeping you turning the pages. I was a little bit perplexed as to why someone as sensible as Faith was with such a freeloader as Stuart to start with, but I just gave up and went with it because he wasn’t really a presence in the book – but he did provide plenty of humour and acted as a catalyst for other events in the book. I would happily have read another 100 pages of the madness – but Lipman did tie it all up very neatly at the end so I can’t really complain too much.

This is in Kindle Unlimited and Kobo Plus at the moment, I’m not sure how easy the paperback woudl be to get hold of, because I’ve never really looked for Elinor Lipman in the shops. But of course this does give me an excuse…

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, cozy crime, detective

Book of the Week: A Farewell to Yarns

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As you could see from the list yesterday, last week was mostly spent reading Mitchell and Markby books, but when I wasn’t reading those, I was reading another murder mystery from the early 1990s and that’s what I’m writing about today. And just to whet your appetite, I’ve got another series of a 1990s vintage coming to you on Friday. It’s like I’ve got a coherant theme happening… oh wait, I have. Two of them. Just you wait until tomorrow…

Anyway, Farewell to Yarns is the second book in a series featuring widowed single mum Jane Jeffry. It’s the run up to Christmas and as well as helping organise a church bazaar she’s got an old friend coming to visit her. Jane hasn’t seen Phyllis in years and surprised by the fact that she suddenly wants to visit her – and then is even more surprised when Phyllis turns up with a bratty son that no one knew she had. And then there’s a body and Jane can’t help but get involved in trying to figure out what happened.

Maybe it’s just the mood I’m in at the moment, but this is another really easy to read and fun (if you know what I mean) cozy murder mystery. It’s not long, but the plot is clever if slightly outlandish in places, but that doesn’t matter because if you were going to rule out slightly bonkers things in books you’d never read any cozy crime at all! Think of all those small towns with insanely high murder rates and small businesses continuing to thrive even though their owners keep stumbling across bodies on the premises. I haven’t read the first book in the series, but it didn’t matter at all because any background you need is explained in this – and it’s only the second book in the series so there aren’t too many running plots that you need to get your head around anyway.

This one is going to be harder to get hold of – I bought my copy (and another in the series) in the second hand bookshop at Baddesley Clinton and it’s not available on Kindle. But Amazon and Abebooks have copies and sensible prices, and I’m hoping that I might be able to pick up a few more in the series if I keep my eyes peeled!

Happy Reading

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