Tag: murder mystery

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, first in series, historical, mystery

Book of the Week: Death and the Conjurer

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Another mystery book this week, this time a new to me author writing mysteries set in the 1930s.

In Death and the Conjurer, a celebrity psychiatrist is found murdered in his study – but the door was locked and there seems to have been no way for anyone to have committed the crime. The Scotland Yard detective calls in magician turned sleuth Joseph Spector to help solve a seemingly impossible murder.

And this really does seem to be an impossible one. The solution when it comes is clever and well worked out and as the book says the clues are there, even if I didn’t believe it when the book said that! Inspector Flint and Spector are a good duo – they both have their strengths so it feels like a pretty equal relationship rather than a stupid cop and a brilliant amateur. It’s also the first of three so there are two more for me to read now too.

This one is in Kindle unlimited at the moment and so if you’ve got a membership it’s worth a look.

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

not a book, streaming, tv

Not a Book: Signora Volpe

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Back with a TV/streaming recommendation today, for those of you who like a murder mystery series at the gentle end of the spectrum.

Our set up is this: in episode one Sylvia Fox, a British spy, is off to Italy for her niece’s wedding. Then someone turns up dead and the groom goes missing so she starts to investigate. There’s a hot Carabinieri officer and by the end of the first episode she’s solved the crime, decided to take a career break and bought a house to do up. There are two more two hour mysteries for her to solve in series one and another three in series two. And I really do hope we get a series three.

For all that Sylvia is an ex spy, these are pretty chill mysteries – there’s not a lot of blood, no jump scares and until the last episode of series two not a lot of peril. And by the time you get to that final episode you’re fairly sure it will all work out ok in the end. There’s lots of beautiful scenery and I want Sylvia’s house, wardrobe and defensive driving skills. I’ve been watching Emilia Fox in things since she was Georgiana in Pride and Prejudice and she’s always very watchable and in this she makes a nice duo with Tara Fitzgerald as her sister.

There are a few occasions in series one why you wonder why the Italian characters are speaking English to each other rather than Italian, but that’s mostly sorted out in season two. The romantic strand is very slow moving – and more long looks and brooding stares than anything else (so far) but Capitano Riva does a very good brooding stares than anything so I forgive it and just hope that we get a bit of progress if we get a series three!

These have just been shown on U and Drama in the UK, and are on their streaming service at the moment, elsewhere in the world they are available through Britbox.

Enjoy!

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!

detective, series

Mystery series: PI Grace Smith

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Happy Friday everyone, and to tie in with the theme this week, I’ve got a mystery series set not in Brighton but in the fictional town of Seatoun, somewhere on the south coast within easy reach of London, so you can see why it might fit my seaside-y vibes this week!

Grace is a former police officer, who left the force under something of a cloud, and who now works as a private detective in the town where she used to be a cop – trying to avoid her former colleagues as far as possible. Her career as a PI isn’t really going anywhere – and the cases she gets tend towards the mundane and the ridiculous. Less dead humans, more dead animals or missing people.

At this point it should be noted that I’ve read all but one of the five books in the series in their original late 1990s paperback form. And yes I know there’s only four in the photo (and in two different covers styles) but I couldn’t find a copy of Who Killed Marilyn Monroe on my shelves and there’s a chance I found it on the shelves at one of the hostels that I stay at. But anyway, these days they have been retitled and reissued on Kindle and that’s how I read book three. Now I read these all fairly well spaced out, so I can’t say for certain, but I didn’t notice any major re-working or rewriting between the two versions – just the radical change in title and design.

The new covers look much darker and more thriller-y than the previous ones. But don’t be deceived. Like Ruth Galloway, these are not as scary as the covers would have you expect. Obviously these are books written 20 years ago – so mobile phones are much less common and research is all done in person in archives and not on the internet – but that really works for a mystery series. And as I can remember this era from growing up – and cassette tapes machines, smoking in bars, a time before smart phones – there’s a nostalgia factor here for me too.

Only five are on Kindle at the moment, but they are all in Kindle Unlimited. One of them – with yet another different cover and the original title is available on Kobo. But I have managed to pick up most of these in second handbook shops or book exchanges so the paperbacks are not as hard to find as you might think.

Have a great weekend.

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

Book of the Week, detective, Forgotten books

Book of the Week: Tea on Sunday

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Happy Tuesday everyone. I’m deeply confused about what day of the week it is and messing with my brain as I keep panicking that I’m forgetting to do things/should be somewhere that I’m not. Why is my brain like this? Anyway – to this week’s pick which sees me back with a British Library Crime Classic.

In Tea on Sunday, Alberta Mansbridge has invited an assortment of guests over for tea – among them her nephew, a friend she had fallen out with, her accountant, her doctor, an ex-prisoner she has been trying to rehabilitate and an Italian architect she has been sponsoring. But when they arrive they find that she has been murdered. The house is locked, and so her murderer must have been someone who she would have let into the flat. Our detective charged with working out who is responsible is Inspector Corby who discovers that there are plenty of options for who might have wanted the wealthy, elderly lady out of the way.

This written in 1973 but feels like it’s from an earlier period – except for the fact that some of the guests are of decidedly more modern occupations than you would have found in some of those books, or at least more explicit about what it is they do than you would have found in many of those mysteries. There have been a few patchy novels among my recent BLCC reading – but this is definitely a good one. Lettice Cooper was a prolific author, but not normally of mystery novels but I really liked her writing style so I shall look out for more from her. One of her other novels has been published by Persephone so that may be the easiest one for me to lay my hands on, should I ever get the current state of the pile under control.

Anyway, this is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment and I’ve seen it in paperback in the shops too as it’s a recent release.

Happy reading!

series, Series I love

Series I Love: Dr Ruth Galloway

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I did have a debate with myself about whether this should be a Series I Love or a mystery series or a bingable series post, but given that I read all fifteen books in the series in less than six weeks and kept going out to get more of them so I could find out what happened next it has to count as a series I loved surely.

Ok so first book in the series, The Crossing Places was a BotW at the end of February, but I’ll recap you the set up any way. Dr Ruth Galloway is a forensic archaeologist who teaches at the (fictional) University of North Norfolk. At the start of the series she is in her late 30s, single and living in a cottage in a pretty bleak area of the Norfolk coast that she fell in love with while working on a dig some years before. She’s fiercely independent and the isolation of her house mirrors the life that she has created for herself. In The Crossing Places she is called by the local police when the bones of a child are found on a beach. This is how she meets Detective Inspector Harry Nelson, originally from Blackpool but who moved to Norfolk to run the Serious Crimes Unit. Ruth becomes the North Norfolk force’s resident forensic archaeologist, which means their paths keep crossing every time historic remains are found and and through the cases Ruth’s life starts to change and expand in all sorts of ways, personal and professional. There are fifteen books in the series, which cover about the same period of time – starting in around 2008 and taking us right through the pandemic – which is quite the experience to revisit in a book!

This has got a lot of things that I love in crime books as well as a good mystery to solve – namely a great cast of supporting characters that form a sort of found family, lots of links and call backs to previous books in the series which reward reading in order and a romantic thread with a strong will-they/won’t-they vibe. Now I know I review a lot of romance books and so some of you reading this are going to be romance readers (as well as crime readers) so please follow this * to the bottom of the post for a spoiler-y point that may be a deal breaker for some of you.

As I’ve said, I binged my way through all of these in about six weeks to the detriment of my other reading plans – and it would have been quicker if I could have got hold of some of the books faster. And yes, it gave me a massive book hangover when they were over because I’d grown so attached to the characters and enjoyed being part of their lives. However, I’m glad that I came to them when the series was already complete because it meant I could just gobble them up and not have to wait a year to find out what happened next – and there are a couple of these that end of cliff hangers which would have driven me mad!

I’d read four of the seven books in Elly Griffiths’s Brighton Mysteries before I came to these – and as I said in the BotW for Crossing Places, I think I had been avoiding these because the covers looked like they would be too dark for me. But they’re no darker than the Brighton ones (which I started because I spotted the first one on NetGalley back in the day) and although they’re darker than most of the American cozy crimes I read, they’re not dark-dark. They’re probably somewhere around the Hawthorne and Horowitz and Thursday Murder Club point in the scale, if such a scale existed.

These are really easy to get hold of – I bought several of these from various Waterstones and Foyles around central London when I finished the one I was reading while I was staying in London. Do read them in order if you can because as I said there are lots of links between them. And of course they’re on Kindle and Kobo too – including omnibus editions of some of them if you want to save some cash on buying them individually.

Have a great weekend!

*As you’ve probably guessed Nelson is the love interest here – but he’s also married and if cheating/infidelity is a deal breaker for you in your reading you will not like this series, do not read, do not pass go, do not collect £200 etc.