Tag: first in series

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: The Fan Who Knew Too Much

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I’ve got one of my recent purchases for this week’s pick – I love it when a bookshop wander turns up something good that you didn’t know about before, and that’s exactly what happened with The Fan Who Knew Too Much.

When a podcaster is murdered live on air when about to reveal a secret about cult 1980s TV show Vixens from the Void, fellow fan and friend Kit finds herself dragged into an investigation disguised as a Blu Ray extra documentary. Was Wolf killed because he had discovered something new about the disappearance of an extra on the show 40 years earlier – and is there as yet undiscovered trivia to be found from reuniting the original stars of the show?

Nev Fountain is a writer on the sketch show Dead Ringers and this has got blurbs from Andrew Cartmel, Ben Aaronovitch and Jenny Colgan if that gives you a clue about the sort of end of the mystery and fiction spectrum this falls into. I would also say it’s pretty British and has got a lot of references to British culture (beyond that of old TV series) that might be lost on you if you’re not someone who grew up watching low budget TV and setting the video for your favourite shows.

I’m not a massive Doctor Who fan, but I was a big viewer of Star Trek and also of shows like Buck Roger when they were repeated when I was little. I’m also not a stranger to the world of online fandom and communities so this really appealed to the nerd inside me. And it’s not perfect – some times it’s just too, too bonkers – but I think that’s part of the point. If you want to follow a group of professional fans trying to recreate some low budget sci fi in Brighton while corralling a group of aging actors and their egos, this delivers on that in spades. Some of the murder plot is frankly insane and it could have used being slightly shorter, but I forgave it because it had enough hilarious moments that they’re the bits that stick with you.

I bought my copy in Waterstones, but it’s also available on Kindle and Kobo – where it also looks like it’s in Kobo Plus. And there’s a sequel coming later in the year too.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, cozy crime, historical, mystery

Book of the Week: Deadly Summer Nights

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Happy Tuesday everyone and today’s pick is a first in series historical cozy crime that I picked up when I was spending that Waterstones gift card before Christmas.

Our setting for Deadly Summer Nights is a holiday resort in up state New York. It’s 1953 and it’s the second season that Elizabeth has been managing Haggerman’s Catskill’s Resort. Her mother is a former actress and dancer and inherited the resort – and although she’s using her connections to book entertainment acts for the resort, it’s her daughter who is doing all the hard work on the day to day. And because it’s the 1950s and she’s a woman, not everyone is pleased about that – or prepared to listen to her. The last thing they need is a dead body at the resorts, but that’s what they’ve got. And in the dead man’s cabin the chief of police finds a copy of The Communist Manifesto and suddenly everyone is claiming that the resort is a hotbed of communists. But Elizabeth isn’t convinced and sets out to try and figure out what happened herself.

I really, really enjoyed this. The setting is fun and a bit different – even if I was really annoyed on Elizabeth’s behalf at all of these useless men who wanted to dismiss her. I do like a historical murder mystery and I haven’t read a lot that are set in mid-century America outside of a big city like New York. And the resort setting is a lot of fun whether it’s modern or historical- I’ve read Kathi Daley’s series set on a resort and I would happily read more if they appear.

This is also my first Vicki Delaney novel – although I have read one of her books under her Eva Gates pen name. There is only one other book in this series so far – and I will try and get hold of it to see what happens next. This has the start of a promising love triangle going on and I hope there’ll be clues in that about whether there will be more – Delaney seems to have a lot of series going on under her various names and I don’t know enough to know which ones are still active.

My copy came from the lovely cozy crime bookshelf in Waterstones Piccadilly, and I think it’s going to be a special order if you want the paperback version. And it’s also on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: Death at the Dress Rehearsal

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Yes I’m cheating because I finished this on Monday. No I’m not sorry. Not even remotely this time!

It’s 1970 and Edward Lowe and John Le Breton, two aging actors are on location filming a not very good BBC sitcom called Floggit and Leggit . But when Edward stumbles across a body he’s convinced the death is not the accident the local police think it is and even though they’re not really friends to start with (you could say they tolerate each other) he convinces John to help him investigate. Soon they’re crisscrossing the country in their gaps in filming and the body count starts to mount. Can they figure out who is behind the deaths before the killer strikes again?

Now if you’re anything like me, you’re reading that blurb and thinking hang on, that sounds like Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier solving crimes around the filming of Dad’s Army. And then about ten seconds later I had a sample in my kindle and about 30 seconds after that I’d read enough to decide to buy it. And that is definitely the vibe. It’s a pretty solidly plotted cozy crime novel with plenty of twists and an interesting and slightly fractious duo of aging actors at the centre of it where the dynamic is definitely a mix of Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson and the generally accepted personas of the two actors behind them. The sitcom is more Lovejoy meets open all hours or last of the summer wine but there’s actually not as much action from the set as you might expect. I really enjoyed it – and if I hadn’t been trying to finish Astor before I went away for another few days (and if there had been less action in the F1) I would have finished it yesterday. I haven’t read anything else from Stuart Douglas, but I’m already looking forward to the sequel next year.

I bought my copy on Kindle – it was £1.99 when I bought it last week, but it’s up at £5.99 at time of writing. And it’s also in Kobo (for the same price as Kindle) and available in paperback too, although the only one of the central London Waterstones that claims to have it is Piccadilly and the only Foyles is the main one at Charing Cross Road.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, cozy crime

Book of the Week: A Dark and Stormy Murder

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This week I’m back in the cozy crime genre for my pick, and with a first in a series so I’m abiding by the rules (yes, those rules I set myself!).

And so the plot: Lena’s just landed a job as the assistant to her favourite writer, Camilla Graham and moved to a small town in Indiana. Lena has always wanted to be a writer and now she gets to learn from her idol. Lena’s best friend already lives in Blue Lake – in fact she’s the one who met Camilla first, but Lena quickly gets stuck into small town life and meeting the locals – including a notorious recluse and the chief detective. But when a body turns up on her boss’s land, and strange things start happening at the house Lena can’t help but start investigating…

This has a fairly classic cozy crime set up in many ways – small town, two potential love interests for the heroine and a developing group of friends. But the writing as a profession is fun and the actual murder plot is good and allows the development of Lena and Camilla’s working relationship as well as doing some world building work too. There’s also a secondary investigation going on that is setting up more for the series, so it feels quite action packed – and I mean that in a good way. At the moment Lena seems to be picking my least favourite of the two love interests but there’s plenty of scope for either him to grow on me or for her to change her mind. This is my first book by Julia Buckley, and there another five in this series and she has a couple of other series too so that’s something to look forward to, if I can just get the tbr under control…

I read this one in paperback, but it’s also available on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, Book previews, books, books on offer, historical, new releases

Book of the Week: Silver Lady

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Back to historical romance this week – and this one isn’t actually out until next week, but I’ve already finished it, so I’m going with it today – sorry and all but you can at least preorder it if you like the sound of it.

Silver Lady is the first in a new series from Mary Jo Putney and is set in a lightly magical version of Regency Britain where some people are “gifted” – which means they have special skills that border on magic. Bran Tremayne is one of this – his powers of perception have made him an excellent investigator for the Home Office. But he finds himself drawn to Cornwall, where he was born before he was abandoned by his birth parents. When he is there he meets a mysterious woman who has had her memories suppressed. As she recovers her memories in his care, Bran discovers that Merryn is at the centre of a dangerous plot – can they survive the danger to get to a happy ending?

I mean it’s a romance novel, so I think you know the answer to that, but this is a fun read – it’s got some peril and adventure and the world building is pretty good – the “dangerous gifts” of the title are explained very well and naturally as part of the plot of the book . I’m not usually a lover of amnesia storylines, but this one makes sense within the framework that you’re given for the world and Merryn is less of a damsel in distress than I was expecting her to be. I’ve had a bit of a mixed record with Putney before, but I enjoyed this and will look out for the sequels when they come along.

Silver Lady is out next week – you can preorder it on Kindle and Kobo and if you’re in the US you should be able to get a paperback too.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, books, cozy crime

Book of the Week: Catering to Nobody

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Another week, another cozy crime pick. It feels like I’m coming off a run of romance picks onto a run of murder mystery ones. And looking at what I’ve been buying recently, this could continue for a while. Anyway, lets pack Past Verity on the back, because this is the book that I mentioned that I finished on Monday last week and nearly picked then, but restrained myself and chose The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras instead, which was clearly a smart choice, because I read another two in the series last week as well.

So, the set up: Goldy is a divorced mum of one, with an awful actually abusive ex-husband. To support herself and her son Arch after the divorce (her ex is bad at paying child support and she doesn’t want to have any more contact with him than she has to) she has started a catering company. In Catering to Nobody, Arch’s favourite teacher has been found dead and Goldy has been tasked with catering the wake. But at the event her former-father-in-law is taken violently ill and she’s accused of poisoning him. With the leftovers impounded, her kitchen shut down and her ex-husband loudly proclaiming her guilt all over town, Goldy sets out to clear her name and find out what really happened – and why.

This was published in 1990, so it’s even more vintage than the first Meg Langslow and slightly less vintage than the start of the Kinsey Milhone series (which I also love). There is something about the pre-mobile phone, pre-internet era that really just works for murder mystery plausibility. This is also set in small town Colorado and that works as well and is a bit different to California or the Eastern Seaboard states which are where a lot of the cozies I read are. Goldy is a great heroine and I really liked her friendship with her husband’s other ex-wife, Marla. I’m slightly annoyed that the cover says “Goldy Schulz Mysteries” on it – as in book one (and in fact until book four) Goldy’s surname is Bear (which inspires the name of her catering company – Goldilocks Catering, where everything is just right) so it’s giving away a bit of a plot development. But I forgive it because it’s really good – so good that I immediately read book two, and then book four because the series is so old they’re not all on Kindle and it takes a while for second hand books to arrive so I’ve given up on reading them in order for once.

The other thing that this has got going for it is that I really like the recipes. Diane Mott Davidson has included lots of them – not just baked goods but some of the other dishes that Goldy is making for the events she is catering (or just for her family) as well. There are a lot of cozy crimes with recipes and quite often, as a Brit, the recipes boggle my mind. But the books in this series that I have read so far have several that I am interested enough in to think that at some point I might try and convert the American recipes (a stick of butter? Cups of dry ingredients? How imprecise) and give them a go. Which is more than I usually think!

So, my copy of Catering to Nobody came from Kindle, but it’s also available on Kobo. Getting a paperback copy is going to be reliant on the secondhard market I think – if you’re in the US you might find it in a bookshop, but I think in the UK chances are fairly remote – the best cozy crime selection I’ve seen recently was the Waterstones Gower Street one – and they didn’t have any Diane Mott Davidson books at all.

Book of the Week, books

Book of the Week: The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras

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I nearly picked the Diane Mott Davison today, even though I finished it on the train on Monday morning, but you never know what’s going to happen in a week, and I did really enjoy the Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, so I’m going for that today, but I suspect this isn’t the last time I’ll mention Diane Mott Davison.

Hubert Schuze runs a shop selling Native American pottery in New Mexico. Officially that is. Unofficially he’s also an illegal pot hunter – after all that’s what got him kicked out of university – so perhaps it’s not a surprise when a mysterious man offers him $25,000 to steal a pot. Except that this pot isn’t on a reserve, it’s in a museum – so it’s proper stealing. But the money is tempting, so he goes to scope out the museum, but when he returns to his shop he finds an agent accusing him of stealing a different ancient pot. And then he’s accused of murder. It’s all getting a little bit out of hand – will Hubie manage to escape jail and make sure that the culprit doesn’t?

This fits into the not-quite-the-right-side-of-the-law adventure caper genre, if such a thing exists. Think Ranger from Steph Plum – but before he started his security company and with pottery. Or a Karl Hiassen novel – but with a lot less death and destruction. Like a cozy crime that’s gone a bit rogue. Think John Smythe from Vicky Bliss if he owned a shop in New Mexico and specialised accordingly, and his friends call him Hubie. You get the picture. And it does exactly what you want it to – there’s a very tight spot for Hubert to try and get out of – hopefully in one piece and preferably coming out with a profit of some sort. Or at least something to try to sell. It is a lot of fun – and it’s the first in a series so I will try and remember to report back on whether it manages to keep the momentum going!

This is easiest to get hold of in ebook – and it’s actually cheaper on Kobo than Kindle at the moment although in terms of my target prices for ebooks both prices are a bit high at time of writing for what is a cozy crime adventure caper. It is also available in paperback form, but the prices are (even more) eye-watering for that!

Happy reading.

Book of the Week, mystery

Book of the Week: The Three Dahlias

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I had a lovely week off last week and read some good stuff, but interests of not repeating myself, today’s pick is a book I finished on Monday. Yes I know it’s cheating, but the book is really good so I’m sure you’ll let me off!

The three Dahlias of the title are three actresses who have played or are about to play the same character – a legendary heroine of golden age detective fiction. They’re spending a weekend at a fan convention organised at the stately home the author lived in. But then there is a suspicious death and they have to work together to find the killer.

I mean could this be any more up my street? Honestly it ticks so many of boxes of things that I like: A murder mystery set in a country house! A classic crime connection! A group of actresses! A convention! It almost seemed too good to be true. But it wasn’t. It was really, really good. I was 100 pages in before I even realised it. I really liked the way the narrative switched between folllowing the three different actresses and I think it did really well at making each of them seem distinct. I did have the murderer figured out (or at least narrowed down) but I couldn’t figure out why so it had me partly fooled.

I loved the golden age crime tie in – from what you can work out, Dalhia is a bit of 1930s Phryne Fisher type character – glamorous and rule breaking and with a police man in tow (but written at the time) – and like some of the Golden Age detectives, the series went on being written for many years, although wisely the books didn’t move through time at the same pace as the author! And each chapter starts with a quote from one of the books and it works really well – making you want to read a Dahlia book without really ever telling you much about their plots!

A sequel is coming later this – which is both excellent news and really interesting to see if the formula can work again! I will be keeping my eye out for it for sure.

My copy of The Three Dahlias was part of my post Christmas book buying spree, so I think it should be fairly easy to get hold of in your format of choice.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week, cozy crime

Book of the Week: A High-End Finish

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New year (yes it’s still a new year even if we’ve hit the middle of the month), new cozy crime series for me and something different to talk about in today’s BotW. And you know I love a cozy crime series. So here we go.

A High-End Finish is the first in a series of cozy crimes featuring Shannon Hammer, a contractor specialising in Victorian homes in her town of Lighthouse Cove on the Northern California coast. In this first book, Shannon finds a dead body in the basement of a house that she’s working on – and becomes a suspect in a murder inquiry as she went on a blind date with the victim a few days earlier – and was heard threatening him after he wouldn’t take no for an answer. The town’s new police chief doesn’t seem inclined to believe that she had nothing to do with the murder, so Shannon starts investigating herself with the help of her friends, her nosy neighbours and a crime writer who has just moved to town.

This is a really nice set up for a new series but because there are a lot of characters to introduce and backstories to set up, the detecting is not quite as well developed as you would like and I thought the solution was a bit, ho hum. BUT I really liked Shannon, her friends and the town itself so I forgive it – because first books in series are often like this – either they don’t do a good enough job of setting up the side characters or the mystery isn’t as good as you want it to be. This usually settles down in book two – especially if it’s an established author starting a new series (which Kate Carlisle is). Luckily I picked up the next book in the series (in fact the whole series so far) second hand last month (as seen in Books Incoming) so it’s a good thing I liked them and I can also go straight on to book two to see if the problems get ironed out.

It is nice to have a home improvement/contractor theme for a cozy series though – as previously mentioned, I’m a bit cookery cozied out, and as I’m not usually into the supernatural sometimes it feels like there aren’t a lot of choices for me beyond that. Still hopefully these will keep me busy for a few weeks (at least).

As previously mentioned, my copy of A High-End Finish came via one of my Facebook book groups, but they’re available on Kindle and Kobo as well as in paperback. As they’re American Mass Market Paperbacks though, you may have trouble finding them in stores in the UK – so your best bet might be ordering from Book Depository or similar.

Happy Reading!

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: The Family You Make

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As I mentioned in Friday’s bingeable post, I read the new Jill Shalvis last week and although I finished it at the start of the week, somehow I knew it would be the pick, so I wrote this. And thank goodness I did because: covid.

When Levi Cutler gets stuck in a ski gondola in a snowstorm, his only companion is a mysterious stranger called Jane. When he calls his parents to say goodbye, he can’t bring himself to do it and instead lets his mum think he is happily settled and Jane is is girlfriend. But they survive. And now Levi’s family want to meet this girlfriend that he’s so happy with. Thus starts a fake relationship and off we go on one of my favourite tropes! Jane had a traumatic childhood and keeps people at a distance – that’s why she’s a travelling nurse who moves from trouble spot to trouble spot, stopping only to work the ski season near Lake Tahoe. The only person she has let get close to her (even if she won’t admit it) is Charlotte, her landlady and another fiercely independent woman who likes to keep other people at a distance. Charlotte definitely doesn’t need any help from anyone – especially not her annoying neighbour and co-worker Matteo…

I absolutely raced through this – it’s one of my favourite of Shalvis’ for a while. I haven’t always loved her Wildstone series, but this felt much more my sort of thing. I liked the primary and secondary romances and thought they both got about the right amount of time – too much plot in not enough time has been a recent problem for me with Shalvis – and and I liked the parallels between Jane and Charlotte’s lives and attitudes to relationships. And their different heroes are pretty good too. Plus Levi’s family is entertaining side show – I mean who doesn’t love meddling relatives – and it all ends on a nice heartwarming note. Plus it’s a ski resort romance that *isn’t* set at Christmas – which is a really rare find! There’s a sequel out at the end of June and I’mooming forward to reading it already.

My copy of The Family You Make came from the library, but it’s out now on Kindle and Kobo and paperback, although as ever I’m not sure how easy the paperback will be to find – Foyles have it available to order (but not click and collect) but it looks like a supermarket sort of book, but I haven’t been into a big Tesco for a couple of years right now, so I guess we won’t know until it turns up in The Works in six months time (or not)!

Happy Reading!