tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79385753717967322292024-03-16T01:10:23.470+00:00The Way She ReadsAll about sharing the books and authors I adore. Not so much a review blog as an ode to my love of reading. Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.comBlogger1301125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-28519561074348174432024-02-04T13:57:00.000+00:002024-02-04T13:57:00.126+00:00 Random in Death by J.D. Robb<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiSocCl20-CidtI4C0eCxX8mYeXC1nqYjM7ZhMU0SnTk8y2dgx8dDm1AoOdXwoTM5-bnBlV7BELKrcVEtqqYCSVy1cfoHkdAnSmcDNkuuCQdkvB05A1-pFdhDbEJxk-7kQ0vzvHPLNnbv-1cS-nJ_0n4u4Df558wpWzUA3zX-ptfgh0rwqpz9784W_Gg0/s522/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="339" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiSocCl20-CidtI4C0eCxX8mYeXC1nqYjM7ZhMU0SnTk8y2dgx8dDm1AoOdXwoTM5-bnBlV7BELKrcVEtqqYCSVy1cfoHkdAnSmcDNkuuCQdkvB05A1-pFdhDbEJxk-7kQ0vzvHPLNnbv-1cS-nJ_0n4u4Df558wpWzUA3zX-ptfgh0rwqpz9784W_Gg0/w260-h400/2.jpg" width="260" /></a></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Death Series # 58<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Piatkus<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publishing Date: January 2024<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">E-book<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><b style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It's the best night of her life. It's the
last night of her life.</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Sixteen-year-old Jenna Harbough's parents had finally given in, and there she was, at a New York club with her best friends, watching the legendary band Avenue A, carrying her demo in hopes of slipping it to the guitarist, Jake Kincade. Then, from the stage, Jake catches her eye, and smiles. It's the best night of her life. It's the last night of her life.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Minutes later, Jake's in the alley getting some fresh air, and the girl from
the dance floor comes stumbling out, sick and confused and deathly pale. He
tries to help, but it's no use. It's time to call Lieutenant Eve Dallas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Who
could want this level-headed teen, passionate about her music, dead? Was she
targeted or could she have been the victim of a random attack? And if she was,
who's next..?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review</span></b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Writing
an original review for an In Death title is impossible by this stage. I have
read and enjoyed every single book in this series and have run out of words to
express my love for these mysteries, the setting, and the characters featured.
From the moment I read <i><b>Naked in Death,</b></i> I have been intrigued by the near-future
setting and the main characters. The interactions between Eve and Roarke, and
the way they compliment each other enhance every single book.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As
always, J.D. Robb brings us an original and heartbreaking murder in Random in
Death. And, also as always, she and her team bring the mystery to a satisfying
conclusion despite the odds being stacked against them. Fans of these books
will enjoy the investigation of the crime as much as the personal news of the
main and secondary characters. And if they are as big a fan as I am, they are
already counting down the days until the release of, Passions in Death, In
Death #59. </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">😊</span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-69025899851881936702023-12-01T18:37:00.000+00:002023-12-01T18:37:13.392+00:00The Pantomime Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwgzAElT5Zax9Ow6Zt1DpAfemsOznulrDMZUgObAacYXx1ytOLR0NEMAxu8AZsel5hJPYI8Qp7loYvvfJMFF-yQdtLBrJzuYiYT0VUi1GjC6fcfwUNA4hSECDpbXS7bqDsIzeSDAf_OhyphenhyphenlKG9DNC1ZgYpO0_aXwJ4AguMTEjRS0INvdpm6fg8-vN_hl4A/s346/62.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="231" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwgzAElT5Zax9Ow6Zt1DpAfemsOznulrDMZUgObAacYXx1ytOLR0NEMAxu8AZsel5hJPYI8Qp7loYvvfJMFF-yQdtLBrJzuYiYT0VUi1GjC6fcfwUNA4hSECDpbXS7bqDsIzeSDAf_OhyphenhyphenlKG9DNC1ZgYpO0_aXwJ4AguMTEjRS0INvdpm6fg8-vN_hl4A/w268-h400/62.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">#2 Miss Clara Vale Mysteries</span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">290 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Embla Books<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publishing Date: November 28, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Someone is killing fairy godmothers in
Cinderella... Can Miss Clara Vale crack the case before the clock strikes
twelve?<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1929,
December: Snow is falling, and Miss Clara Vale is wrapped up against the cold
as she braves the icy streets of Newcastle in her latest investigation.<br />
<br />
When a young actress from the touring pantomime of Cinderella arrives at her
door, Clara isn't sure what to make of her request. Sybil Langford, the
legendary fairy godmother in their production, has mysteriously vanished. Could
Clara help track her down?<br />
<br />
But a few days into Clara's search, Sybil's body is pulled from an icy river,
and Clara finds herself in the middle of yet another murder mystery.<br />
<br />
With scheming stepsisters waiting in the wings, handsome princes who aren't all
they seem, and clues as elusive as glass slippers, Clara will need every one of
her scientific skills to catch the killer...<br />
<br />
And when Sybil's replacement meets her own tragic end, Clara is in a race
against time before the murderer sends a third cast member to their unhappily
ever after...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Although
this is the second title in a series, this was my first encounter with Miss
Clara Vale, and it was a pleasure making her acquaintance and joining her on
her sleuthing adventures. Furthermore, I can safely say that this book can be
read as a stand-alone story.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Historical
mysteries with female leads don’t always work for me. All too often the story
becomes a little absurd or over the top in order to allow the sleuth to
investigate within the world she inhabits. I had no such qualms about Miss Clara
Vale. While it was still (very) rare, women were allowed into colleges in
England in 1929, so it is plausible that she would be a knowledgeable chemist.
The fact that most but not all men she encounters disapprove of her chosen
profession and way of life, and try to discourage her, also makes perfect sense
but thankfully didn’t take over the story.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
enjoyed the multi-layered mysteries in this book. What starts of as a case of a
missing pantomime leading lady soon turns into something a lot darker and more
serious when she turns up dead. Clara Vale moves along with developments,
adjusting her investigation to new discoveries as required and making good use
of science, friends, and associates.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I have
to admit that I figured a lot (but not all) of the mysteries in this book out
for myself well before Clara and the police arrived at the same conclusions. That’s
not a complaint, however. It just means that this is a true puzzle mystery in
that the reader is given all the clues they need to solve the riddles.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This
story is filled with interesting and well-portrayed characters. I like Miss
Clare Vale. She is a smart, practical, and feisty woman who mostly manages to
steer clear of stupid decisions. There is a vast cast of secondary characters
in this book, and I liked that they were described just enough for them to play
their assigned role in the story without turning into boring stereotypes. I’m
especially fond of Clara’s new assistant Betty, and I’m looking forward to
reading more about her.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Overall,
The Pantomime Murders was a delightful surprise. Who could ask for more than a well-plotted
mystery, featuring a fascinating main character, intriguing side characters,
and a satisfying solution? Especially when it’s all served as a smooth and
captivating read. I’ve got a feeling, I’ll be spending more time with Miss Clara
Vale in the future.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;"> </span> </p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-10792974692029220932023-11-27T19:07:00.001+00:002023-11-27T19:07:12.434+00:00 The Searcher by Tana French<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TdIMPQab4pi3nEN4KlOHLb96MXx2Busk70webUUGLHLzPpq8-4pu3YwgVaVWzcUruXgNE3oqamKeEwoZSHWwGfgdcTPIwRRES7c4LFIXc_5fh6LcVR5midBAGYwCZIZ7ZVG9ue3zvNOlg-PMBoF5w0KnDv9sDP_cViu7SOQfDpFCN4AImbOOdncTk0s/s2835/61.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2835" data-original-width="1843" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TdIMPQab4pi3nEN4KlOHLb96MXx2Busk70webUUGLHLzPpq8-4pu3YwgVaVWzcUruXgNE3oqamKeEwoZSHWwGfgdcTPIwRRES7c4LFIXc_5fh6LcVR5midBAGYwCZIZ7ZVG9ue3zvNOlg-PMBoF5w0KnDv9sDP_cViu7SOQfDpFCN4AImbOOdncTk0s/w260-h400/61.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Cal Hooper #1</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">391 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Penguin/Viking<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publishing date: October 2020<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Cal
Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a remote Irish village would be the perfect escape.
After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force, and a bruising divorce, he
just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing
much happens.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But
then a local kid comes looking for his help. Trey’s brother has gone missing,
and no one, least of all the police, seems to care. Cal wants nothing to do
with any kind of investigation, but somehow he can’t make himself walk away.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Soon
Cal will discover that even in the most idyllic small tow, secrets lie hidden,
people aren’t always what they seem, and trouble can come calling at his door.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To
say this book has a slow start would be an understatement. The first quarter of
the story leisurely meanders along. The reader is in Cal’s head as he reflects
on his new life and surroundings in Ireland and what, and more importantly who,
he left behind in America. The writing was beautiful, and Cal is an interesting
main character, but the slow pace didn’t urge me to keep on reading. On the
other hand, it is fair to say the story's pace perfectly matched the pace
of the life Cal thought he was settling into.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Everything
starts to change and speed up as soon as Cal meets Trey, a thirteen-year-old kid
who wants Cal to use his police skills to find out what happened to their older
brother who disappeared a few months earlier. Once Cal starts asking questions
the story and events pick up speed, but it isn’t until the last third of the
book that the tale really explodes off the page and events follow each other at
a much faster, at times rather uncomfortable but always fascinating, pace.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">So
much for the story since I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. I have a few
thoughts about what exactly did and didn’t happen in the end. For starters, if
you read crime fiction because you love the straightforward endings in which
evil gets punished and everybody gets what they deserve, this may not be the
book for you. I think it’s safe to say there are no clear-cut good and bad
people in this story with the possible exception of Lena, the widow Cal
befriends and ends up relying on for assistance. While that may not be ideal
for a fictional mystery, it does feel true to life. In fact, true to life could
be used to describe a lot of what happened in this book. The way small local
communities are inclined to distrust outsiders and, for better or worse, tend
to take care of their own, for example, as well as the rural gossip, and the
leisurely pace of life. I haven’t decided yet whether or not I believe Cal, the
former cop, would behave as he does in this story; his actions should go
against everything he was trained to believe in. On the other hand, any other decision
on his part might have let to more harm rather than a ‘satisfying’ conclusion
so the jury is still out in that respect.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In
an interview with the All About Agatha podcast (</span><a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Sl35ZwxlgtSNxOrnKWYXb" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Sl35ZwxlgtSNxOrnKWYXb</a><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">),
Tana French revealed that she took tropes from the Western genre and applied them
to the west of Ireland, and as far as I’m concerned, she succeeded very well. This
story has that ‘loner against the rest of the community’ (the old gunslinger
who gets rocked out of retirement for one more mission, to paraphrase Tana
French) vibe that we also find in traditional westerns as well as the ‘us
against the rest of the world’ sentiments we often encounter in small,
close-knit communities.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">For
a long time while reading this story, I didn’t think I would want to read the
sequel. The last quarter of the story changed my mind; I now can’t wait to find
out what will happen next to Cal, Trey, and Lena. Bring on March 2024 and <b><i>The Hunter</i></b>.</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-92065479032115546792023-11-20T20:35:00.000+00:002023-11-20T20:35:18.331+00:00Murder in a Country Village by F.L. Everett<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8RWiOZqzaTy6rtJs9Ng4hCB1EUjCf-7W6HfXK3yv7YqjElHGMnNtMunuVCwxJcg-RHaP6hQej2TasYgqmjDOn0FkQUl99-vc817WHnlaG3X8oHH9Z3hZFBlQyrFisTGYkTS9vw2Ld6UDXRxN3-A-pHQpo1kC490zM0-CzE4G7uLyk-GEX1fgjn3sL7Y8/s2560/60.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1669" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8RWiOZqzaTy6rtJs9Ng4hCB1EUjCf-7W6HfXK3yv7YqjElHGMnNtMunuVCwxJcg-RHaP6hQej2TasYgqmjDOn0FkQUl99-vc817WHnlaG3X8oHH9Z3hZFBlQyrFisTGYkTS9vw2Ld6UDXRxN3-A-pHQpo1kC490zM0-CzE4G7uLyk-GEX1fgjn3sL7Y8/w261-h400/60.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><br /><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">An Edie York Mystery #2</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">318 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Bookouture<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publishing Date: November 23, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">England, 1941. With World War Two shaking
the nation, rookie reporter Edie York wants to write the front-page news. But
she ends up as the headlines when she stumbles over a body on the moors...</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Eager
to follow Churchill's order to keep calm and carry on, Edie York has left the
bombed-out streets of Manchester behind for a stroll in the countryside. But
her rationed picnic lunch turns to ashes in her mouth when she discovers Joyce
Reid, a well-known anti-war activist, lifeless at the bottom of a cliff.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Despite
infuriatingly handsome DCI Louis Brennan's less-than-amused warnings ringing in
her ears, Edie is unable to leave the conscripted local bobby to do his work.
Heading off to investigate, she immediately uncovers potential suspects galore.
From alleged black-marketeers to the local land girl, a shell-shocked artist to
Joyce's on-off lover, Edie is sure the murderer is right under her nose.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Then
Edie makes another gruesome discovery, and realises she needs long-suffering
Louis on the scene to officially investigate. Can they uncover the killer
hiding in plain sight, before it's too late? Or will Edie's own obituary end up
featured on the front pages she's coveted for so long...?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
should start this review by saying that I haven’t read </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>A Report of Murder</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,
the first Edie York mystery, yet. While there are references to that first book
in this story, I’m very happy that I never felt as if I missed out on vital
information.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Murder
in a Country Village</span></i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> is a charming, well-plotted, and fluently
told mystery. It is also somewhat of a slow burner. While the first body is
discovered fairly early on in the story it isn’t even qualified as anything
other than an accident until well beyond the midway point of the book. Having
said that, Edie has her doubts from the very start and can’t help but
investigate both the death and the controversial community of pacifist artists Joyce,
the victim was part of.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It
isn’t until much later on in the story and Edie’s discovery of a second corpse
that things speed up. That is also the moment when her friend, DCI Louis Brennan
starts taking an active interest in the case.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">There
was quite a lot to enjoy in this story. Edie is a very likeable, be it at times
exasperatingly impulsive, main character. It’s quite refreshing to encounter a DCI
encouraging the amateur investigator to do more sleuthing rather than sternly
forbidding them from such action. Edie’s roommate, her colleagues, her friends, and
the girl she fell out with years earlier were all interesting and vividly
described secondary characters. What’s more, Manchester and its surroundings during
WWII made for a fascinating setting, just as the conflict between pacifists and
the rest of the population added extra tension to the story.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Overall,
I thoroughly enjoyed this well-written and easy-to-read mystery. The crimes
were enticingly mysterious, and the solution was satisfying. What’s more, the
author played fair with the reader; the clues were there and I’m happy to say
that Edie and I reached the same conclusion at more or less the same time. It’s
highly probable that I will revisit Edie and Louis in the not-too-distant
future.</span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-91741763588385717182023-11-09T10:38:00.003+00:002023-11-09T10:38:54.960+00:00 De Cock en de eenzame dood by Peter Römer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKPjBpQASNgsu_V4-4B6HWDDyHcZjK1JGwAcZDYIcBwa00H0BDLpDa7Jihg6rqLH-vEKYy6TxXAfnp1N3rpmXXO0zmdA38Ve55QgPy2YJpDxa6Smz6zXodIgG-w_DL949Hc6Iiua_TQIM3Asv-EckNPbe4dpv3j40jXmfYlzr-nb85aJ3j3cAHaUdnTc/s551/59.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="360" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKPjBpQASNgsu_V4-4B6HWDDyHcZjK1JGwAcZDYIcBwa00H0BDLpDa7Jihg6rqLH-vEKYy6TxXAfnp1N3rpmXXO0zmdA38Ve55QgPy2YJpDxa6Smz6zXodIgG-w_DL949Hc6Iiua_TQIM3Asv-EckNPbe4dpv3j40jXmfYlzr-nb85aJ3j3cAHaUdnTc/w261-h400/59.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(De Cock and the lonely dead)</span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">De Cock series #89</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">158 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Fontein<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publishing Date: August 2021<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Own<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">De
Cock wordt naar de Lindengracht geroepen. Hennie, de vrouw die tientallen jaren
de aardappelkraam op de markt bestierde, is in haar bed gesmoord met een
kussen. Hennie was geen vriendelijk mens, maar wel rijk: achter de
aardappelhandel waaraan ze goed verdiende zaten flink wat investeringen, ook in
huizen. Naast zakelijke conflicten, zoals met Dennis, een ontevreden huurder
met wie Hennie hooglopende ruzie had, denkt De Cock ook aan een motief in de
familie. Want Hennie's zoon Tonnie blijkt ook zo zijn redenen te hebben om niet
rouwig te zijn om haar dood...</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(Translation:</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">De
Cock is summoned to the Lindengracht. Hennie, the woman who for decades ran the
potato stall on the market, has been smothered with a pillow in her bed. Hennie
wasn’t a friendly person, but she was rich: the potato trade from which she
profited nicely let to numerous investments, including in property. Apart from
business conflicts such as the one with Dennis, a dissatisfied lodger with whom
Hennie had a heated argument, De Cock is also considering a motive within her
family. Because Hennie’s son Tonnie also appears to have reasons for not
mourning her death…)</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A
few opening notes before I get to my thoughts about this mystery:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
read the original Dutch version of this book, but I’ll do the review in
English. I’m not sure how many (if any) people who read my reviews understand
Dutch, but I am sure that if any Dutch speakers do follow my reviews, they’ll
be more than proficient in English.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Peter Römer, the author of this title is not the
creator of De Cock. In fact, the first 75 books in this series were written by A.C.
Baantjer.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At
least a few of Baantjer’s titles have been published in English. For obvious
reasons the name of the main character underwent a small change during the
translation process. English-speaking readers know De Cock as DeKok.</span></li></ul><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
do have a soft spot for this series of books. I can’t say I’ve read them all,
or even that I adhered to the order in which they were published, but I can
honestly say that I’ve enjoyed every single De Cock mystery I have ever started.
There’s something about our main character and his quiet and calm approach to his
investigations and his deep-rooted sense of justice that always works for me.
It’s the recognisable descriptions of Amsterdam, and the wonderful way in with
the author(s) manage to capture characters with just a few pen strokes. And the
mysteries always work and always manage to keep me on my toes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
mystery in </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Cock en de eenzame dood</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> was satisfying. With a
universally unliked victim, a few likely suspects, and a lack of definitive clues,
I enjoyed the puzzle. I almost found my way to the solution but managed to miss
the final twist. For me, that amounts to a rewarding mystery and enjoyable
reading experience.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
now out of unread De Cock mysteries. I’ll be stocking up next time I find
myself visiting the Netherlands.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-13317070459337523402023-11-06T18:51:00.008+00:002023-11-06T18:59:11.981+00:00Shot With Crimson by Nicola Upson <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUqgYlpOTzrthbpaZv2xb7ver-Gh41N7JokkFzWIgWGHO9EAeHzIa7g_FWRUTnVpaGnbiLrUMIAS05o9pEclbWfPHbIgMZGef_Exv0dAYZq-JQP6guigDDIa8xVjMf5qPgOV_7oPhR7FGgZ253NaTD3jMFh1t28u-oFh20VmUols76Fjsz5ceobt4vq5Q/s400/58.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="249" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUqgYlpOTzrthbpaZv2xb7ver-Gh41N7JokkFzWIgWGHO9EAeHzIa7g_FWRUTnVpaGnbiLrUMIAS05o9pEclbWfPHbIgMZGef_Exv0dAYZq-JQP6guigDDIa8xVjMf5qPgOV_7oPhR7FGgZ253NaTD3jMFh1t28u-oFh20VmUols76Fjsz5ceobt4vq5Q/w249-h400/58.jpg" width="249" /></a></div><br /><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">#11 Josephine Tey Mysteries</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">352 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Faber & Faber<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Publishing date: November 2, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><b><i><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I will never understand why murder is
considered such a lowbrow speciality in Hollywood.</span></i></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">September,
1939, and the worries of war follow Josephine Tey to Hollywood, where a
different sort of battle is raging on the set of Hitchcock's </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rebecca</i><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Then a shocking act of violence reawakens the shadows of the past, with
consequences on both sides of the Atlantic, and Josephine and DCI Archie
Penrose find themselves on a trail leading back to the house that inspired a
young Daphne du Maurier - a trail that echoes <i>Rebecca</i>'s timeless
themes of obsession, jealousy and murder.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><i><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“The sky above our heads was inky black. But the sky on
the horizon was not dark at all. It was shot with crimson, like a splash of
blood. And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea.”</span></i></p><p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: right;"><i><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier</span></i><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">While
I have to admit that I may have missed a title or two, I can honestly say that
I have loved Nicola Upson’s Josephine Tey mysteries since I first read </span><a href="https://meen-readingjournal.blogspot.com/2010/05/expert-in-murder.html" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">An
Expert in Murder</a><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> thirteen years (13!) ago. Right from the start I’ve loved
Upson’s attention to detail, gentle voice, vivid descriptions, clever
introduction of real historical figures, and perfectly plotted mysteries and </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Shot
With Crimson</i></b><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was filled with all those qualities.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">This
isn’t the first Josephine Tey mystery featuring Alfred and Alma Hitchcock and
fortunately, the first one, </span><a href="https://meen-readingjournal.blogspot.com/2012/04/fear-in-sunlight.html" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Fear
in the Sunlight</a><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, is among the previous titles I have read (click the title
for my thoughts on that book). The quote below, taken from that older review
could have been written today for Shot With Crimson.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><i><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In fact, there were times when I had to remind myself
that I was reading a work of fiction featuring real historical figures. There
is such detail in the descriptions in this story that it is quite possible to
believe that all of it really happened.</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><i>Shot
With Crimson</i></b> starts with a prologue set in an English country house during WWI.
The house is used as a hospital for wounded soldiers, and we are witness to a
six-year-old Daphne du Maurier undertaking but not completing a task set by
James, a medical orderly there.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Fast
forward to the start of WWII and James is now a special effects artist working on
Rebecca for Alfred Hitchcock. He is back at the estate where he worked two
decades ago and discoveries about what happened then lead to him lashing out in
the worst possible way.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">When
we meet James again, he is on his way back to America on the same boat as Josephine
Tey who is on her way to visit her lover Martha in Hollywood. He is obviously
distressed, and Josephine reaches out in the hope of calming him.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Meanwhile,
back in England Josephine’s friend DCI Archie Penrose is sent to the country
house to investigate the murder of a woman there.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Finding
themselves on different sides of the Atlantic, Archie and Josephine are unaware
that they are both dealing with the same case and, as they both dig deeper, the
issue only becomes more complicated until it leads to its final, rather sad,
conclusion.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">For
a long time, I thought this was the kind of story where the writer might have revealed
too much information at the start of the book. Since I had read books by Nicola
Upson before, I should have known better. Layer upon layer of secrets still
waited to be exposed and absolutely nothing was quite as it seemed at first. In
other words, this is a very cleverly plotted mystery.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Apart
from Alfred Hitchcock, his wife Alma, and his daughter Pat, quite a few other
famous people feature in this story: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, producer
David O. Selznick, and du Maurier herself also make brief appearances. For film
buffs, there was also quite a bit of detailed information about the making of a
film in Hollywood in the late 1930s.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I
loved the parallels between Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and the mystery. They
added to the sense of realism and were all too plausible. As I said before, I
had to remind myself occasionally that what I was reading was fiction.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Overall,
I loved this book. The plot fascinated me, the writing was smooth, the
conversations flowed naturally, and the mystery was intriguing, leaving me
truly baffled before providing a very satisfying, be it devasting solution.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">My
final thought is less related to the book than the times we live in. Given how
long it takes to write a book, edit it, and get it published, there is no way
Nicola Upson could have known how shockingly appropriate the quote below would
be for the times and events we live through right now.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><i style="text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We think we’ve learnt our lessons from the past, but we
never really get beyond an eye for an eye.</span></i></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-27092003090510616992023-10-31T11:45:00.012+00:002023-10-31T11:49:30.550+00:00The Witches of Vardø by Anya Bergman<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKFBpmX1QnlvRcWxcHNZ4RnFyM0SqkrBq72ef8F5OG1BWm0rzCJaAn5luF2-sTROgCByU9EyFTzd3WQzKucpT6JOEKuBtcxYsI9FiuQuJ-TRgOhyphenhyphen_jUEH1_m_lXOe5y4zO_d_1AAUtX0MG606Y5_ZCRck14HXJK_bY2iOqbJ_rycphgr3O4OcdZlZcQSs/s650/57.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="424" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKFBpmX1QnlvRcWxcHNZ4RnFyM0SqkrBq72ef8F5OG1BWm0rzCJaAn5luF2-sTROgCByU9EyFTzd3WQzKucpT6JOEKuBtcxYsI9FiuQuJ-TRgOhyphenhyphen_jUEH1_m_lXOe5y4zO_d_1AAUtX0MG606Y5_ZCRck14HXJK_bY2iOqbJ_rycphgr3O4OcdZlZcQSs/w261-h400/57.jpg" width="261" /></span></a></div><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">400 pages</span></p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Bonnier Books UK<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Book Club Read<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">Norway,
1662. A dangerous time to be a woman, when even dancing can lead to accusations
of witchcraft. When Zigri, desperate and grieving after the loss of her husband
and son, embarks on an affair with the local merchant, it's not long before she
is sent to the fortress at Vardø, to be tried and condemned as a witch.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
Zigri's daughter Ingeborg sets off into the wilderness to try to bring her
mother back home. Accompanying her on this quest is Maren - herself the
daughter of a witch - whose wild nature and unconquerable spirit gives
Ingeborg the courage to venture into the unknown, and to risk all she has to
save her family.<br />
<br />
Also captive in the fortress is Anna Rhodius, once the King of Denmark's
mistress, who has been sent to Vardø in disgrace. What will she do - and who
will she betray - to return to her privileged life at court?<br />
<br />
These Witches of Vardø are stronger than even the King of Denmark. In an age
weighted against them they refuse to be victims. They will have their justice.
All they need do is show their power.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
a bit conflicted about this book. It contains a powerful story, featuring at
least three fascinating women. However, it also felt drawn out with what for me
was a bit too much description and background information. While some of what the
author shared was captivating because it enhanced my understanding of the
character in question or allowed me to appreciate the harrowing circumstances
under which they were forced to survive, other sections came across as having
been added because the author fell in love with her subject.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
story is set in the second half of the 17th century in the northern regions of
Norway. Life is grim, and superstitions are strong. When 16-year-old Ingeborg’s
mother is accused of witchcraft and taken to </span><a name="_Hlk149593931" style="font-size: 12pt;">Vardø</a><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
to stand trial, she follows with her equally young friend Maren in a quest to rescue
her last remaining parent. Unsurprisingly, it isn’t long before Ingeborg and
Maren are also arrested. Because of their young age, they’re not locked up in
the witches’ hole with Ingeborg’s mother but are instead put under the
supervision of Anna Rhodius, a middle-aged woman exiled </span><a name="_Hlk149643198" style="font-size: 12pt;">to
Vardø</a><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> by the king of Denmark.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">A
lot of this story (maybe a bit too much) is taken up by explaining how
these women ended up on Vardø. The actual trial, the outcome, and the aftermath
take up relatively less space in this book. The latter part of the story is
also where what had previously been basically a historical tale slips into
magical realism. And if I’m perfectly honest I have to admit that I’m not
entirely sure how I feel about that, although I do approve of the outcome it led
to.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">Anna,
Ingeborg, and Maren are fascinating characters doing their best in a world
where all the odds are stacked against them. While I sympathised with their plight,
I can’t say I liked them very much, though.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I
fear that all of the above makes it sound as if I disliked this book, and
nothing could be further from the truth. </span><b style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Witches of Vardø</i></b><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> is
a beautifully written story with a fascinating and heart-wrenching premise. Throughout
the story are engrossing flashes of myth and folklore and all of it put
together paints a vivid picture of the harsh and cruel circumstances under
which these women are trying to survive.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
pitch line on the cover says: A dangerous time to be a woman. And while that
was most certainly true during the 17</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> century, it does beg the
question if there ever was or will be a time when it won’t be dangerous to be a
woman. Because my biggest takeaway from this story is how little things have
changed. Sure, nobody accuses women of being witches in the literal sense of
the word anymore, and being condemned to burn to death is (mostly) a thing of
the past too, but somehow women will stand accused of ‘making men’ attack them
just by wearing revealing clothing, behaving in certain ways, or daring to be
out and about after dark. And everything that almost invariably follows for the
woman who dares to make such an accusation may not involve literal flames, but
I suspect that the questions asked during cross-examination and the vitriol
thrown at them on social media only hurt differently, not less.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">So,
after what feels like a long and not entirely satisfying review, my overall
assessment of this book is that it’s an engrossing and horrifying historical
story that will leave the reader with plenty of food for thought.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIz99KVc2CQRdZDHtEzphRuYKrVvaClX4t_IIuJllSZUxz1Kd6FgfhhkzFoi-oAQaq2Am9AUH6BZnrshUeJdkY22u6uu_gOxgW5dvWG4EK_VPfXzVlJnrLEVoAJdR_PMGxYtqnuXZEaqTx2t-pvXga4j_rebdIuJSK_8fyNsF7Syo3Ps9IFvFxPPLJIMI/s360/4%20gold%20stars.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="360" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIz99KVc2CQRdZDHtEzphRuYKrVvaClX4t_IIuJllSZUxz1Kd6FgfhhkzFoi-oAQaq2Am9AUH6BZnrshUeJdkY22u6uu_gOxgW5dvWG4EK_VPfXzVlJnrLEVoAJdR_PMGxYtqnuXZEaqTx2t-pvXga4j_rebdIuJSK_8fyNsF7Syo3Ps9IFvFxPPLJIMI/w320-h160/4%20gold%20stars.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><p></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-56113103525265724752023-10-24T14:46:00.003+01:002023-10-24T14:46:56.123+01:00The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlfYRKWWXjMNBbtGlFCFsIajV1SFhm3XHm-uMB-5mSkBX4hsM4E0VjRYydM6F61UPpIf5uz5KNEmMul4PXJU4WYnvPKgqPKULFpTirn3WDfXbI-sw6gPlbPGs5jlMtufJaSwIkpvubdIIahBUMhn0g6OMLC6StEFSUOuaRNlSsAsdtzII50rdapsPrfZI/s500/56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="324" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlfYRKWWXjMNBbtGlFCFsIajV1SFhm3XHm-uMB-5mSkBX4hsM4E0VjRYydM6F61UPpIf5uz5KNEmMul4PXJU4WYnvPKgqPKULFpTirn3WDfXbI-sw6gPlbPGs5jlMtufJaSwIkpvubdIIahBUMhn0g6OMLC6StEFSUOuaRNlSsAsdtzII50rdapsPrfZI/w259-h400/56.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><br /><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Appeal #1.5</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">208 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Viper<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publishing Date: October 26.2023<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Netgalley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One dead Santa. A town full of suspects. Will
you discover the truth?</span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span></b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Christmas
in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive
pantomime, <i>Jack and the Beanstalk</i>, to raise money for the church
roof appeal. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking amongst the
amateur dramatics enthusiasts. Sarah-Jane is fending off threats to her new
position as Chair, the fibreglass beanstalk might be full of asbestos, and a
someone is intent on ruining the panto even before the curtain goes up.<br />
<br />
Of course there's also the matter of the dead body. Who could possibly have had
the victim on their naughty list? Join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they read
the round robins, examine the emails and pore over the police transcripts. Will
the show go on?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Before
I get to my thoughts about </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Christmas Appeal</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> a word of
warning. While I guess that you could read this book without having read </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The
Appeal</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, I would strongly advice against such an action. </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The
Christmas Appeal</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> very much moves on from the earlier book and contains
(vague) spoilers for the prequel.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">While
I’m on the subject of similarities between the two ‘Appeal’ titles, I want to
add that this second one is very much a continuation of the first story. Once
again Charlotte and Femi are invited by their mentor to investigate emails and
messages shared between the members of the Fairway Players amateur drama group in
order to figure out who was murdered by whom and how it happened.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">While
the setup of the Fairway Players has changed as a result of what happened in </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The
Appeal</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, the dynamics between the members are as intriguing and amusing in
this sequel. The politics, gossip, and backstabbing in the drama group remain
frequent and as delicious as they were before. There is a nice mixture of
familiar characters (with one very surprising appearance) and new faces.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Once
again, the murder mystery appears to be an afterthought to what is happening
within the group. In this book too, (the remains of) the victim don’t appear
until near the end of the story. In both books, the reader wouldn’t know they
were dealing with a mystery if it hadn’t been for the instructions given to
Charlotte and Femi at the very start of the story. And yet, it is all the
apparently unconnected interaction between the various members of the group
that give us all the clues to what is really happening—provided we pay enough
attention.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">After
discussing </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Appeal</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> with my book club I’m more conscious than
ever that these books aren’t for everyone. Having the story revealed through
what at first glance appear to be irrelevant emails and messages about the
production of a (Christmas) play can be confusing. Personally, I love it. While
it can be a bit like hard work trying to keep up with who is who and how they
related to each other, I thoroughly enjoyed the interactions between these
people, all with their own agenda, while trying to figure out how any of their
communications might relate to the mystery in question.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Finally,
while </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Appeal</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> certainly had its moments of light relief, The
Christmas Appeal is funnier. In fact, it’s a bit over the top, a caper, which
feels perfect for a mystery centred around the production of a Christmas panto.
And while </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Appeal</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> was all about righting a miscarriage of
justice, </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Christmas Appeal</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> puts a different spin on what does
and doesn’t constitute justice. Whether or not you agree with the outcome is a
personal choice.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Long
review short: </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Christmas Appeal</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is a wonderful sequel to </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The
Appeal</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> and a well-plotted and delightful mystery.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Related
review: </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i><a href="https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-appeal-by-janice-hallett.html">The
Appeal</a></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-2526715660710246432023-10-22T18:00:00.000+01:002023-10-22T18:00:40.118+01:00Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night by Sophie Hannah<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZh53pRTcBP9hAXMEfoJf2WeD0c2sOz2pjHhvBxitNweCXGObhmH6CEbZjtCW5oi8zIdo-3NTmBuLwhnouOCAfTWKjehR5O7VfV3NN-V3D6Cp6j4AzTMwMXHFQ99KKvso4QbWyl_X1mT4f-_Ro1qWXrr4gneV8jpTeCNJPiomCQd_Owfe98DDCiLc42eg/s2319/55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2319" data-original-width="1500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZh53pRTcBP9hAXMEfoJf2WeD0c2sOz2pjHhvBxitNweCXGObhmH6CEbZjtCW5oi8zIdo-3NTmBuLwhnouOCAfTWKjehR5O7VfV3NN-V3D6Cp6j4AzTMwMXHFQ99KKvso4QbWyl_X1mT4f-_Ro1qWXrr4gneV8jpTeCNJPiomCQd_Owfe98DDCiLc42eg/w259-h400/55.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">New Hercule Poirot Mysteries #5</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">348 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: HarperCollins<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Release date: October 26, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Netgalley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CAN HERCULE POIROT SOLVE A BAFFLING MURDER MYSTERY IN
TIME FOR CHRISTMAS?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
It’s 19 December 1931. Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool are called
to investigate the murder of a man in the apparent safe haven of a Norfolk
hospital ward. Catchpool’s mother, the irrepressible Cynthia, insists that
Poirot stays in a crumbling mansion by the coast, so that they can all be
together for the festive period while Poirot solves the case. Cynthia’s friend
Arnold is soon to be admitted to that same hospital and his wife is convinced
he will be the killer’s next victim, though she refuses to explain why.<br />
<br />
Poirot has less than a week to solve the crime and prevent more murders, if he
is to escape from this nightmare scenario and get home in time for Christmas.
Meanwhile, someone else – someone utterly ruthless – also has ideas about what
ought to happen to Hercule Poirot . . .<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">For
decades, a Christie for Christmas was a given and something readers looked
forward to. How delightful that this year we are once again given a seasonal
Poirot mystery. Strictly speaking, this title isn’t a Christie, of course. But
it is safe to say that without Christie, this book wouldn’t be available to us,
so I’ll happily take it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This
is the fifth Hercule Poirot book by Sophie Hannah and it is as good and
captivating as the prequels. What I like best about these new Poirot stories is
that while Hercule Poirot is his irritatingly charming self, just as Christie
created him, and the mysteries are as mystifying as Agatha’s were, Sophie
Hannah didn’t attempt to copy or reproduce what has gone before. The most
obvious sign of this is Poirot’s new sidekick, Edward Catchpool. I don’t know
if he was created to be a combination of Inspector Japp and Captain Hastings,
but that is certainly how he comes across to me, and it adds to the sense of
continuation I get when I read these stories.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As
for this story, the set-up was rather inspired and even after finishing the
book I’m still not sure whether Catchpool’s mother asked Poirot to investigate
a crime she was only marginally involved with because she wanted it solved for
her friend’s sake or because she wanted to spend Christmas with her son.
Unsurprisingly, we are faced with what appears to be an impossible murder
which, to add to the confusion, is followed by a rather illogical reaction to
it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Reluctantly
Poirot and Catchpool travel to the doomed mansion, determined to solve the
crime as quickly as possible so that they may return to London in time for
their planned Christmas celebrations. Once they arrive at their destination,
our two investigators encounter a rather unusual household set-up, as well as
an apparently motiveless murder.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
not convinced that Sophie Hannah plays as fairly with her readers as Agatha
Christie herself did. Whereas with Christie, I often find myself slapping my
forehead once the solution is explained, wondering how I could possibly have
missed the clues given how (retrospectively) obvious they were, that didn’t
really happen while reading Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night. While the guilty
party could definitely be determined based on the information shared with the
reader, the motive was (mostly) opaque (to me?).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
had one other minor quibble with something that was mentioned in this story.
Google, unfortunately, wasn’t able to tell me how aware people in 1931 were of
genetics in connection to longevity, but I would have thought ideas like that
didn’t become common knowledge until a few decades later. I stand to be
corrected.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Quibbles
aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this tale. I loved the interactions between Poirot
and Catchpool. The behaviour and conversations of the other characters were
delightfully weird and over the top, with Catchpool’s mother being in a league
of her own when it comes to the lengths she’s willing to go to to get her way.
Captivating from start to finish, this story kept me on my toes and provided me
with two days of pure reading enjoyment.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When
exactly can I have the next New Hercule Poirot mystery?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-84007989156368059312023-10-16T20:50:00.001+01:002023-10-16T20:50:59.173+01:00 The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4M4MksVbdS3-_YF_bTouDK16TZaB9TowNmna3qoPHgN2G8D-AfOcTCOro0gRS-NmKRvJ7AJi0TRAFRSZ2j1-jk8B2cW9YRTDj-yNll5X12GiBQ2HTvBuccaFHf3CiRp5vm3Dg6CpmfAzQAwijWaOsRVbxYUq90DlNa_gdGANr7X-gNFhCsNbKBOLU8RM/s2560/54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1696" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4M4MksVbdS3-_YF_bTouDK16TZaB9TowNmna3qoPHgN2G8D-AfOcTCOro0gRS-NmKRvJ7AJi0TRAFRSZ2j1-jk8B2cW9YRTDj-yNll5X12GiBQ2HTvBuccaFHf3CiRp5vm3Dg6CpmfAzQAwijWaOsRVbxYUq90DlNa_gdGANr7X-gNFhCsNbKBOLU8RM/w265-h400/54.jpg" width="265" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Thursday Murder Club #4</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">429 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Penguin<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Own<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Shocking news reaches the Thursday Murder
Club.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">An
old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he
was protecting has gone missing.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters
and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home.<br />
<br />
With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on
their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to
die?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“We think time travels forward, marches on in a
straight line, so we hurry alongside it to keep up. […] But it doesn’t you see.
Time just swirls around us. Everything is always present. The things we’ve
done, the people we’ve loved, the people we’ve hurt, they’re all still here.”</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
came to this fourth Thursday Murder Club mystery fully expecting another crime
caper featuring our unlikely and delightful group of pensioner sleuths. And
that’s exactly what I found between the covers, but there is so much more to
this story. While it is true that the previous three books were also more than ‘just’
fascinating mysteries, </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Last Devil to Die</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> touched me harder
and deeper than any of the previous instalments.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
problem with reading a series of books is that there’s a serious danger of falling
in love with the main protagonists. And that would be fine if it wasn’t for the
fact that sometimes bad things happen to great characters. It had been building
over the books so far but in this book Elizabeth and Stephen’s ordeal broke my
heart. At the same time, I greatly appreciate how Stephen allowed me to see a
very different side to the otherwise cool, brusque, self-sufficient, and apparently
unbreakable Elizabeth. I am also grateful for the way Richard Osman handled what
is a very sensitive and divisive issue. For spoiler reasons that’s all I’m
willing to say about this aspect of the story, but I’m looking forward to the moment
when I meet others who have read this book and being able to discuss it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
mystery in this book is possibly the most outlandish so far. The twists and
turns are numerous and follow each other at a furious pace. Nothing and nobody
is quite what or who they appear to be and characters you thought you knew
through and through suddenly show a different side you never saw before. Laugh-out-loud moments mix with heartbreaking scenes to keep the reader on their toes
while never allowing us to wallow for too long.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
so very impressed with what Richard Osman has done in these books. He’s managed
to make a highly improbable set of sleuths into a plausible and always successful
team. I sometimes feel that I should be rolling my eyes, but for reasons
probably only known to the author, I never do. Because everything works. The mystery
while somewhat unlikely, is well plotted and the characters are charming and
lifelike. These books have taken crime capers and turned them into stories that
also contain life lessons through storylines that will stay with you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“We call people “dead” because we need a word for it,
but “dead” just means that time has stopped moving forward for that person? You
understand? No one dies, not really.”</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I could have filled several pages with quotable sentences and
paragraphs from this book. I limited myself to the three you find here because
they stood out for me but on a different day, I might have picked three other
ones.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">My
copy of the book came with bonus content in the form of the original but
eventually discarded first chapter of this book. While there is nothing wrong
with the book as it was published, I have to admit I’m now very curious about
what happened next to Garry Grant.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
not sure what else to say about <b><i>The Last Devil to Die</i></b> and the series it is part
of except that if you like books that you will lose yourself in, inspired mysteries, and stories
that touch every emotion known to man, these are the books you want to read.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Waiting for the last devil to die? What a joke. New
devils will always spring up, like daffodils in springtime.”</span></i></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-69844379714223621682023-10-15T19:58:00.001+01:002023-10-15T20:02:02.500+01:00The Twelve Days of Murder by Andreina Cordani<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DRQpSVGm1xvze0ruV1U53wIXMmUH2bPFa8n-ttWYJyhxirrijhUYg4ZewOlc93dfQWxfGn_M5qKzN7rngpiuRxVXfXg9Qflf656P7PPsJk3MNab1qrZeeiS58rox0f2_Lt4tnptyZHCiNPCvlo7xEcfz-wrMI1RXX1qc97CcwazFxZ9iM0Suy8H1an0/s1500/53.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="981" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DRQpSVGm1xvze0ruV1U53wIXMmUH2bPFa8n-ttWYJyhxirrijhUYg4ZewOlc93dfQWxfGn_M5qKzN7rngpiuRxVXfXg9Qflf656P7PPsJk3MNab1qrZeeiS58rox0f2_Lt4tnptyZHCiNPCvlo7xEcfz-wrMI1RXX1qc97CcwazFxZ9iM0Suy8H1an0/w261-h400/53.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><br /><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">315 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Zaffre<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Release Date: October 26, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Netgalley<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><b><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Find the truth. Solve the murder. Never
reveal your secret.</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Twelve
years ago, eight friends ran an exclusive group at The Murder Masquerade
Society. The mysteries they solved may have been grisly, but they were always
fictional - until their final Christmas puzzle, when one of the group
disappeared, never to be seen again.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
Now, the remaining members receive an invitation to a reunion masquerade, to be
held in a beautiful and remote country house in Scotland. The game begins, and
it feels just like old times.<br />
<br />
Until the next morning, when Lady Partridge is found hanging from a pear tree.<br />
<br />
It quickly becomes clear that in this game, the murder will be all too real,
and the story is bringing long-hidden secrets to the surface. If they hope to
survive the festive season then they will need to face the truth about what happened
on that fateful night twelve years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If
I had to summarize this book in one sentence, I’d say: The Secret History meets
And Then There Were None. The group of students who form the Murder Masquerade
Society are all rich and confident. All of them, that is, except for Charley.
As a result, Charley always felt like an outsider, although that never stopped
her from participating.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
last time the Society got together twelve years ago, one of them, Karl,
disappeared without a trace. He was the organiser of their murder games. He was
also the appointed victim for that particular game. While the locked room in
which his body should have been found did contain the (fake) blood smears and
other clues, no sign of Karl could be found. And after more than a decade it is
still unclear what happened to him.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">For
twelve years the society has been dormant but now Karl’s twin sister Ali has invited
all the participants to take part in another mystery game in a remote location.
For reasons best known to those individual members, the remaining seven all
return with one of them bringing an uninvited eight guest.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">From
the start, things are a bit off. For starters, there’s no sign of Ali, who is
supposed to be in charge of proceedings. But matters don’t get really worrying
until the appointed victim in the game, Lady Partridge, is found hanging in a
pear tree. Her death being anything but pretend.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">With
a snowstorm isolating them from the outside world, the landline down, and their
venue having no telephone reception or Wi-Fi, the survivors are on their own.
But what is going on? Can they trust each other? And does enjoying fake
mysteries mean they are also able to solve a real case?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
above made for a fascinating and fast-paced mystery, especially since Lady
Partridge wasn’t the only victim. There is always something delicious about the
friction between reasonable mistrust between the characters and the need to
work together in order to survive. The fact that it isn’t immediately clear
whether what is happening is in some way related to Karl’s disappearance or a
new ordeal adds to the tension. And there’s some wonderful character
development in this book, especially where Charley is concerned.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">For
obvious reasons, I can’t say a whole lot more about the story. I will therefore
limit myself to stating that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The mysteries were
truly mystifying, and the solutions were mostly satisfactory. I’m just not sure
the reader was given entirely enough information to work out (part of) the
solution along with Charley. With that in mind, I still highly recommend this book
to anyone who enjoys an original murder mystery that will have them scratching
their heads for the longest time.</span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-51590113877043324632023-10-08T12:10:00.000+01:002023-10-08T12:10:35.734+01:00West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman<p> </p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmVcPLkY-170i3rEF9SzU38-d0t6JRnS8LYuALl3ucDZHL65eDHjI0HAgAhts5DcNVCMxJNl2myycYJ2Wohk0xSmfU875QiSsYRXRt7Hi_6712B4YkD-Giqlw6wPSOEVOzvloPwaM49sHK-1jGKvzLXzoc3eo4KBpQ7vB5PDimfru0Ks5H4o99wnLqoJY/s500/52.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="325" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmVcPLkY-170i3rEF9SzU38-d0t6JRnS8LYuALl3ucDZHL65eDHjI0HAgAhts5DcNVCMxJNl2myycYJ2Wohk0xSmfU875QiSsYRXRt7Hi_6712B4YkD-Giqlw6wPSOEVOzvloPwaM49sHK-1jGKvzLXzoc3eo4KBpQ7vB5PDimfru0Ks5H4o99wnLqoJY/w260-h400/52.jpg" width="260" /></a><br /><br /></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">288 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Raven Books<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publishing Date: October 24, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Netgalley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">'Any respectable practitioner must follow the rules in
making the truth - however skilfully camouflaged by lies - accessible to all'</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It's
the Fourth of July weekend at the prestigious West Heart country club. Gathered
for cocktails on the first evening are just some of the guests: the club
president, the treasurer and his pregnant wife, the snooping school boy, the
bereaved father, the taciturn caretaker, the prospective member, the private
detective...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
And there will also be a body.<br />
<br />
And a fiendish mystery to solve.<br />
<br />
But everything else is to play for.<br />
<br />
And you are about to find out that <b><i>you </i></b>have a role to play
in this mystery too..<br />
<br />
<i>West Heart Kill</i> is an outrageously original and imaginative murder
mystery that is both a love letter to the greats of classic crime fiction and a
brilliant puzzle the likes of which you will never have read before.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When
a blurb states that the mystery in the book is ‘a brilliant puzzle the likes of
which you will never have read before’ it is hard not to see that statement as
a challenge. Therefore: challenge accepted. </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">😊</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Brace yourself for a review filled
with vagaries. So much of the plot depends on the things that make this story
unique and surprising, and I wouldn’t want to ruin those discoveries for
others. I do have a few things I want to say about the fascinating, original,
surprising, and thought-provoking reading experience I just had, though.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The book starts with the
narrator/author comparing </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>West Heart Kill </i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">to all other murder
mysteries. In fact, the book starts as if it hasn’t started yet, with the
narrator describing what is happening, or going to happen, as if this is not
the actual story yet but rather a description of what is to come. I’m going to
stop relaying how the story is told soon, but I do want to add that the list of
‘dramatis personae’ has some parts of the description of individual characters blacked out. The text implies that the missing information would
either tell the reader a lie or reveal too much.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I have to say a bit more about how
this story is narrated after all because the second chapter is told from a first-person
perspective, the third section shifts to the “we” of the first-person plural,
and the book finishes as a play. Interspersed between the sections of murder
mystery are apparently random theoretical facts about and opinions on murder
mysteries and their authors. Except that nothing in this story turns out to be
random. With one possible exception, although I can’t go into that. Which is
probably just as well since I haven’t figured out how I feel about </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">that</i><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
yet.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If all of the above gives the
impression that this book is anything but a mystery, allow me to reassure you.
The components you’d expect in any whodunnit are all present here. We’ve got a
private detective, deaths that need explaining, a locked room, and a closed
circle of suspects, to mention a few familiar tropes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But those are the bare bones. There
is so much more going on. As an avid reader of the genre, I knew that everything
on the page had to be in some way relevant to the mystery plot. And while a lot
of what I read had me stretching my head in the moment, it all made a wonderful
sort of sense when I reached the end of the book. If all you want from your
mysteries is the traditional set-up of murder, followed by investigation, and
denouement, this book may be too much for you. If, on the other hand, you enjoy
discovering something new and being taken by surprise, you are going to love
this story.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">All too often the claim that the book
a reader is about to start is unlike anything they’ve ever read before turns
out to be a disappointing overstatement. Not this time. This time I fully agree
with the last line of the blurb. </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>West Heart Kill</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is indeed an</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">outrageously original and imaginative murder mystery
that is both a love letter to the greats of classic crime fiction and a
brilliant puzzle the likes of which you will never have read before.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">All
I know is that if ever a book deserved a re-read, this is it. I’m already anticipating
how much fun I will have starting the story again but this time armed with the
knowledge I’ll need to figure out exactly how immensely clever this work is. Because I’m
sure I haven’t recognised the half of it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-40023396546132082922023-10-04T16:10:00.003+01:002023-10-04T16:10:55.397+01:00Supper for Six by Fiona Sherlock<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkD6p7mTeT2-TUk4gHBw4mZoz3F_YGR9me07FYH6xyv3nUURAWrts2n4Mb032mSgFBSh35b_G6GuAOtEWmZqLWe-r2jnvNx5m6Z988n6VBs2uU2BpHq9yIOYRZl49b4GdXwybfJs-3sYCGEsW4J54lwbwehN24_sjoVxV2HSGcC3-0xIZ01EkIdW0f3Mc/s392/51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="255" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkD6p7mTeT2-TUk4gHBw4mZoz3F_YGR9me07FYH6xyv3nUURAWrts2n4Mb032mSgFBSh35b_G6GuAOtEWmZqLWe-r2jnvNx5m6Z988n6VBs2uU2BpHq9yIOYRZl49b4GdXwybfJs-3sYCGEsW4J54lwbwehN24_sjoVxV2HSGcC3-0xIZ01EkIdW0f3Mc/w260-h400/51.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">295 pages</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Release Date: October 19, 2023</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Netgalley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When
Lady Anderson invites five guests to her apartment in Bruton Square, Mayfair,
none of the guests know why they have been summoned. And it isn't long before
dinner turns DEADLY.</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Supper for Six . . . but murder is on the
menu<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">London,
1977: Agapanthus and Francois Langford, Jeremy Crowley, Elizabeth Chalice and
Chrissy Crowley have very little in common - except for the fact they have all
been summoned at fairly short notice to attend a dinner party hosted by Lady
Sybil Anderson, in her rather charming and opulent apartment in Bruton Square,
Mayfair.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
Except each guests believes they are having a private dinner party with their
host - so the other visitors are quite a surprise.<br />
<br />
Once the awkward introductions are out of the way, a powercut sends shockwaves
through the group - and when the lights come back on, Jeremy is discovered
dead.<br />
<br />
Elizabeth Chalice - the only private investigator in the group - becomes
detective, witness and suspect all at once . . . Is Jeremy's death an accident
- or is it the very reason they've all been called here at once?<br />
<br />
A murderous Abigail's Party - Fiona Sherlock's Supper for Six is immersive and
incredibly entertaining. Join Elizabeth Chalice on her quest to get to the
bottom of this rather deadly dinner party . . .<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To
say I’m conflicted about this book would be a gross understatement. I’ll try to
explain why that is the case.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But,
first things first… What the blurb doesn’t mention is that this case is
presented in the form of a podcast, hosted by Felix Caerphilly, an
investigative journalist who started looking into the case as a teenager in
1978 but doesn’t make his findings public until the present day.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
podcast format means that the whole set-up is rather high-octane. I get it, with
a podcast you need to keep your listeners on edge so that they return for the
next episode. While the same is true for chapters in a book—you want to
write them in such a way that your reader keeps on turning the pages— the need
for cliffhangers is bigger with a podcast, simply because the listeners have no
option but to wait for the next episode to be launched.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But…there
is such a thing as too much and too fast. A breather, a moment to reflect,
every now and again would have been nice. As it was, this story felt chaotic.
It went back and forth, repeating itself more than once while also suddenly
springing new information on the reader, as if out of nowhere. It had a bit of
an ‘everything bar the kitchen sink’ feel to it. One suggested solution seemed
to be in the story only to make a (political) point rather than because it had
any real relevance to the mystery in question. And finally, I had to suspend my
disbelief a bit too far on one or two occasions. For obvious, spoiler related,
reasons I can’t actually go into the details of exactly what didn’t feel right
to me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Having
said all that, I can’t deny that I read the book in under 24 hours without ever
feeling the urge to put it aside because of any of the ‘issues’ I mentioned above.
It is definitely a story that keeps you racing through the pages as you try to
keep up with the various revelations and possible outcomes. Every single
character in this story has secrets they want to keep hidden and reasons to be less
than truthful, which raises the stakes and therefore keeps the reader
engrossed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Maybe
this is not the book for those who feel strongly about the level of realism they
expect to find in their mysteries. However, if you’re in the mood for a fast-paced (turbo-charged) story that will hook you and keep you captivated until
the very end, you’ll almost certainly be entertained by this book.</span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-45920379621966093852023-10-04T15:44:00.002+01:002023-10-04T15:52:26.510+01:00 The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipuS07aGH0dBVvVRQm4sxy6312g3cJ6SbNArmPvKFgRFm6V0_PqgYH-ws2nkgGoTjgBkFLzBJW938zD0Kc_ZjEUVjzKlauWi9H-xxVA5-tqvXa2TOQgeiY853Mc0MhgyFAvLhZLl1sG-SR9mlugZHibh1Jh09akkMtT36QuIsADkMSjSsM_R2gHantuBw/s500/50.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="323" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipuS07aGH0dBVvVRQm4sxy6312g3cJ6SbNArmPvKFgRFm6V0_PqgYH-ws2nkgGoTjgBkFLzBJW938zD0Kc_ZjEUVjzKlauWi9H-xxVA5-tqvXa2TOQgeiY853Mc0MhgyFAvLhZLl1sG-SR9mlugZHibh1Jh09akkMtT36QuIsADkMSjSsM_R2gHantuBw/w259-h400/50.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica;">Joseph Spector #2</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; line-height: 115%;">253 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Head of Zeus<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; line-height: 115%;">Release Date: October 12, 2023</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; line-height: 115%;">Netgalley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span class="a-text-bold" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-weight: 700;">Illusionist turned sleuth Joseph Spector investigates a sinister conundrum at a 1930s theatre in this thrilling new mystery novel from Tom Mead, author of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700;">Death and the Conjuror</span><span class="a-text-bold" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-weight: 700;">, one of </span><span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700;">Publishers Weekly</span><span class="a-text-bold" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-weight: 700;">'s Mysteries of the Year 2022.</span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />1938, London. Young lawyer Edmund Ibbs has a new client: a woman accused of shooting her husband in the already infamous 'Ferris Wheel Murder' case.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The case proves to be a web of conspiracy, and Ibbs himself is accused when a second suspicious death occurs, during a magic act at the crowded Pomegranate Theatre.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Also present at the theatre is Joseph Spector, illusionist turned highly respected sleuth. Spector begins to investigate the mystery, but when </span><span class="a-text-italic" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-style: italic;">another</span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111;"> body is discovered later that same night, all evidence points to Ibbs being guilty.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />With time against him, and a host of hangers-on all having something to hide, can Spector uncover the guilty party, or will he and Inspector Flint of Scotland Yard conclude that Ibbs is the culprit after all?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Earlier
this year I read </span><a href="https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/05/death-and-conjuror-by-tom-mead.html"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Death
and the Conjurer</span></a><span style="line-height: 115%;"> (click for my review) and found myself
eagerly anticipating the release of the second mystery featuring Joseph
Spector. Well, the wait is over, and I have to say <b><i>The Murder Wheel</i></b>
more than lived up to my very high expectations.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">If
you follow my reviews, you may have noticed I love mysteries. And if there is a
hierarchy to my appreciation of mysteries, impossible/closed-room murders are
at the top of my list. So, imagine my delight when I discovered that <b><i>The
Murder Wheel</i></b> contains not one, nor two, but three such dilemmas. It is
delightful when what appears to be impossible not only turns out to be feasible
but also logical and so easy to understand after explanation that I want to
slap my forehead for not having figured it out for myself. Better still, during
the denouement, the author very kindly indicates what the clues were and where in
the story they could (should) have been found.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I</span>’m
growing quite fond of the regular characters in these stories. Joseph Spector
is a bit of an enigma. A retired stage magician, he now appears to spend most
of his time in a pub which he treats more or less like his office. He appears
to be an einzelgänger but does have a keen interest in people and there is very
little he doesn’t notice and store away for future reference. Of course, making
the main character and investigator of this series a retired magician is a
stroke of genius. Who could be better equipped to see beyond the sleight of
hand and recognise the ways in which the seemingly impossible can be pulled off?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Scotland
Yard Inspector George Flint is the official investigator in these books and
while it can certainly be said that Joseph Spector out-investigates him, he isn’t
your stereotypical blundering yet arrogant policeman, far from it. He’s well
aware of his limitations when it comes to these impossible crimes and what’s
more, he is really invested in solving the cases which means he not only
embraces but also seeks Spector’s assistance. He makes for a refreshing move
away from a somewhat tired stereotype in mystery fiction.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This
book offered a second refreshing aspect in Edmund Ibbs, a young lawyer and amateur
magician. Most of the story is narrated from his perspective which means we get
to observe Spector from more than one perspective. What’s more, his presence
also means that we don’t get to see Spector as uniquely qualified to solve
cases since Ibbs manages to solve at least one of the three cases on his own.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I
really can’t praise this book and series enough. Well written, exquisitely
plotted, and smoothly told, these Spector mysteries are a joy to read and come
with satisfying and plausible—be it (almost) impossible to guess—solutions. Nothing short of spectacular!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I
will be awaiting the publication of Joseph Spector #3 with a great deal of
impatience and am delighted to discover that Tom Mead is already plotting the
fourth instalment. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">😊</span></span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-70662532354446968932023-09-24T20:33:00.000+01:002023-09-24T20:33:30.778+01:00Murder by Invitation by Verity Bright<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgstvNA6VkGnClqa--MgnKImCt7jyMLmtbwz0iDx5BpUFmIL8qg01nE8lA6C61vqp6MSZu2XGleAu4w3vrEtOcIXJDQ5GmYv1plz-HDqcfmi8Il5HzF1DJIl2gFRMrCUFEPdGMhRpDeCHnHMyRSspdsW6Qm_CdX4zXJ_EIbJlygAhIGyYVzMQCXk_YB6Ts/s500/49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="324" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgstvNA6VkGnClqa--MgnKImCt7jyMLmtbwz0iDx5BpUFmIL8qg01nE8lA6C61vqp6MSZu2XGleAu4w3vrEtOcIXJDQ5GmYv1plz-HDqcfmi8Il5HzF1DJIl2gFRMrCUFEPdGMhRpDeCHnHMyRSspdsW6Qm_CdX4zXJ_EIbJlygAhIGyYVzMQCXk_YB6Ts/w259-h400/49.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #15</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">363 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Bookouture<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Release Date: September 27, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Netgalley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lady
Swift has been cordially invited to a huge royal celebration in Little Buckford
to toast the King’s birthday… but wait, is that a body in the village hall?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
Lady Eleanor Swift and her loyal butler Clifford are busy lending a hand with
preparations for the big day. The grand dining room at Henley Hall is
overflowing with home-sewn flags, paint and royal rosettes. Even Gladstone the
bulldog and his new friend Tomkins the ginger cat are invited!<br />
<br />
But just days before the event Mr Prestwick-Peterson, the chairman of the
celebrations committee, is found dead in the village strangled with handmade
red, white and royal blue bunting.<br />
<br />
With the village hall in total disarray and a key part of the decorations
missing, Eleanor wonders if someone dastardly is sabotaging the King’s birthday
celebrations? Teaming up with her handsome beau Detective Hugh Seldon to
question the local butcher, baker, and pub landlord it becomes clear that the
meddlesome busybody Mr Prestwick-Peterson was not universally liked in charming
Little Buckford. Indeed, the only mystery is why he wasn’t murdered before…<br />
<br />
Searching Mr Prestwick-Peterson’s pristinely organised rooms, Eleanor is
surprised to find a faded photograph of a beautiful young woman hidden within
the pages of a novel. Could this be the key to untangling this very village
murder? And can Eleanor catch the killer before the party is over for her, too?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
have to start this review with a disclaimer: I did not read the 14 preceding Lady
Eleanor Swift mysteries. Fortunately, I can also state that this did not leave
me confused and that it didn’t affect my enjoyment of this story at all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Quite
the opposite in fact. There’s a lot to enjoy in this charming story. The
characters and the interactions between them are vivid, interesting, and at
times chuckle-worthy. The exchanges between Lady Eleanor and Clifford, her
butler, are especially delightful. Just as those between Eleanor and her fiancé
Detective Hugh Seldon often made me smile. Overall, I can honestly say there
wasn’t a boring or superfluous character in this story, and that includes Gladstone
the bulldog and Tomkins, the cat.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The
mystery in this book was intriguing and well-plotted. The murder of a man
universally disliked is always a great set-up and the fact that every possible
suspect had the same, impossible to disprove, alibi, added greatly to the
intrigue. When a second murder victim is discovered, the urgency of the
investigation increases, especially since it is only days until the festivities
to celebrate the King’s birthday are to take place. The solution surprised me,
although I realised after I had it all spelled out for me that the clues I
needed to figure it out for myself were all there. </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">😊</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
one thing I found less charming was the thriller aspect near the end of the
story. I don’t object to it being there, it just felt a bit (too) long in what
was otherwise a delightful cozy mystery. Having said that, I can’t say it
bothered me enough to put me off Lady Eleanor and I can definitely see myself reading
other books in this series in the future.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To
summarize: </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Murder by Invitation</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is a smoothly written, captivating
cozy mystery featuring delightful characters and a well-plotted mystery.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-9077233410391054822023-09-20T20:11:00.000+01:002023-09-20T20:11:18.638+01:00 The Appeal by Janice Hallett<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpcsLEP5RshKMW1Euryec-gslDo8wpx9wiUVMGGnfvvSTxtzh3rd3Kpop5WkUR3AN2aYH4wbVkQ8NrDKwWrLl4sg9vfLUjImVbotcgaoTbVJ0a4XLZOR-gaEl3M5H5ZgOnCXdtqfGyDxN3Lh8O7bdp0AQtOlytrqIe7Ak_TgrmDLySt0-k0QTrmDxvIrs/s2339/48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2339" data-original-width="1524" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpcsLEP5RshKMW1Euryec-gslDo8wpx9wiUVMGGnfvvSTxtzh3rd3Kpop5WkUR3AN2aYH4wbVkQ8NrDKwWrLl4sg9vfLUjImVbotcgaoTbVJ0a4XLZOR-gaEl3M5H5ZgOnCXdtqfGyDxN3Lh8O7bdp0AQtOlytrqIe7Ak_TgrmDLySt0-k0QTrmDxvIrs/w260-h400/48.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">447 pages</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Viper<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Book Club Read<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Own<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One Murder.</span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Fifteen Suspects.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Can You Uncover the Truth?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">There is a mystery to solve in the small town of
Lockwood. It starts with the arrival of two secretive newcomers, and ends with
a tragic death. Roderick Tanner QC has assigned law students Charlotte and Femi
to the case. Someone has already been sent to prison for murder, but he
suspects they are innocent. And far darker secrets have yet to be revealed…</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Through the amateur dramatics society’s disastrous
staging of All My Sons and the shady charity appeal for a little girl’s medical
treatment, the murderer hit in plain sight. Will Charlotte and Femi solve the
case? Will you?</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><i><span style="color: red; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Arthur Miller constructs a play the way a
sculptor creates a three-dimensional image from an amorphous chunk of clay. He
shows us a basic shape. Then bends and stretches its contours, turns it for us
to view alternate angles, gradually reveals the finer details until, finally,
we can see for ourselves what it really is.”</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">And
the same can be said for this story. Nothing is as it appears at first and as
the story progresses, deeper and hidden levels are constantly revealed. The big
question being how it all ties into the mystery.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It
is only thanks to the first two pages, where two young lawyers (?) are tasked
to go over the paperwork of a case, that we know we will be dealing with a
murder somebody has already be imprisoned for.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
next 2/3s of the book deals with an amateur dramatics group and the real-life
drama taking place off stage. Through emails and messages, we get to know the
Fairway Players and how they relate to each other. We learn about a young child
with cancer and the fundraising efforts to get her an experimental treatment
from America. But most of all, we slowly but steadily discover that nobody is
exactly how or who they present themselves as. Secrets, past connections,
animosity, obsession, fraud, lies, they all float to the surface. Until
ultimately, on the premiere of their performance of </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">All My Sons</i><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> things
come to a head. Truths are spoken and accusations made, and they lead to death.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
have to be honest, the cast list in this story is so long that it took me a
while before I knew who was who and how they related to each other, and to what
was happening. While it was a little frustrating initially, it turned out to be
a blessing in disguise because keeping track of it all forced me to read slowly
and pay attention to all the details. And that, in turn, allowed me to
notice the various discrepancies and misdirections I might have missed if I’d
read at my normal pace.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
murder is almost an afterthought. In most mysteries, we start with a body after
which the investigator tries to figure out the motives and events that led up
to and might explain the crime. In </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Appeal</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, we are given all
those possible motives and the events that led up to the crime before the
murder is committed. You would think that having all that information would
make the identity of whodunit obvious. Not for me. I still wasn’t sure who out
of an enormous cast of suspects had done the deed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
murder victim wasn’t who I thought it would be either, although it does make a
lot of sense it would be them. The actual murderer was also rather low on my
list of suspects, although now that I know, it does make sense that it would
be who it is.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
final page and a half were delightfully creepy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
rarely re-read books, not even mysteries, on purpose, although the occasional
title does slip in due to my far-from-perfect memory. However, I can’t help
feeling that The Appeal and Hallett’s other titles would greatly benefit from a
re-read. While I tried to keep a running list of characters and things that
stood out about them and their actions while reading this story, I’m still sure
I must have missed a long list of clues. For obvious reasons, I can’t share those
notes or the thoughts I had when I wrote them down. The fun (for me) in this
mystery is the slow lifting of the veil.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">After
having read all three of Janice Hallett’s currently available titles I have to
conclude that she is something of a genius when it comes to slow reveals and misdirection
while still giving the reader all the information they need to keep up with the
investigators. Except that the fictional sleuths have so far proven a lot cleverer
than I am. Then again, being shocked and surprised by the end of the book is
one of the big joys I find in reading mysteries.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I am now caught up
with Hallett’s mysteries and eagerly awaiting the release of </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The
Christmas Appeal</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> on October 26</span><sup style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. The blurb indicates that the
story will return us to the Fairway Players and Femi and Charlotte, which
should be interesting, to put it mildly. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Bring. It. On.</span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-34474301107304427092023-09-20T20:04:00.001+01:002023-09-20T20:20:59.200+01:00 Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPl0LxXMBzudTRwVmFEE0eBFsYGtKprO1E9uvh6Q972jzM8tyYdjrHbvsrgkKFasBPAbgxnVSJKqdeEJOv4TPCxfVWRQFYQ5PqX_ROEFswcY8vxOdkISC8ASBptl4voUp8PRs9nqa2b6wV-B6D3FKdtXEJKR2reTmpKN0g_WVlSwcw9MEBr_GHxZIyhpo/s500/47.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="326" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPl0LxXMBzudTRwVmFEE0eBFsYGtKprO1E9uvh6Q972jzM8tyYdjrHbvsrgkKFasBPAbgxnVSJKqdeEJOv4TPCxfVWRQFYQ5PqX_ROEFswcY8vxOdkISC8ASBptl4voUp8PRs9nqa2b6wV-B6D3FKdtXEJKR2reTmpKN0g_WVlSwcw9MEBr_GHxZIyhpo/w261-h400/47.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">#25
Hercule Poirot</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">287
pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Publisher:
HarperCollins<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">Beautiful Caroline
Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband, yet there were five other
suspects: Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market; Meredith Blake
(the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home; Elsa Greer (the three-time
divorcee) who had roast beef; Cecilia Williams (the devoted governess) who had
none; and Angela Warren (the disfigured sister) who cried ‘wee wee wee’ all the
way home.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">It is sixteen years
later, but Hercule Poirot just can’t get that nursery rhyme out of his mind…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">When I started </span><b style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Five
Little Pigs</i></b><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, I was convinced I’d never read it before. As the story
progressed, I realised that I probably had, be it a long, very long, time ago.
I remembered just about enough to figure most of the solution out before Poirot
revealed all in the final chapter. And, as always, it didn’t matter.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">This wasn’t the only
time Agatha Christie used a nursery rhyme as a title for one of her mysteries
and in </span><b style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Five Little Pigs</i></b><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> worked very well for this story. The five
surviving suspects all fit their designated little pig very well. At the same
time, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Things We Do for Love</i><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> would have been an equally fitting title
for this story.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">In this book, the
same story is basically told (at least) five times and then repeated five more
times in written statements. It should be boring but, no doubt due to Agatha
Christie’s genius as a storyteller, it is actually fascinating. Especially since there are minor yet revealing differences between what the five narrators relate.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">As always, I don’t
want to expand on the blurb for this story. Spoilers are always a no-no, but
never more so than in a mystery. Suffice it to say that for me this story ranks
among the best mysteries Christie ever published. It was a joy to read and I
lost myself in this very clever mystery. It won’t be long until I dive into the
Christy-verse again.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> </span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-29823921402239310562023-09-13T20:22:00.000+01:002023-09-13T20:22:23.015+01:00 Harlem After Midnight by Louise Hare<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkA_krzkJrefR84AiiyzDdcMbg7Po89uEgGUjIVQ25AcH2QezrdH4e0s0GN6AbwdMPNxbmWqawvSvvoIHsKzFm4KoWuhavex6kHBAmTl3-s23Jd6LbVo-CrZ7xHKRyOj0aqUWTsfY7aBXUBbF1NbYNDsIObkKA04EqL67jq07HafW7I9MxzPzmk-19ggs/s500/46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="327" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkA_krzkJrefR84AiiyzDdcMbg7Po89uEgGUjIVQ25AcH2QezrdH4e0s0GN6AbwdMPNxbmWqawvSvvoIHsKzFm4KoWuhavex6kHBAmTl3-s23Jd6LbVo-CrZ7xHKRyOj0aqUWTsfY7aBXUBbF1NbYNDsIObkKA04EqL67jq07HafW7I9MxzPzmk-19ggs/w261-h400/46.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">#2 Canary Club Mysteries</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: HQ<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Pages: 416<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Release Date: September 14, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Netgalley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1936,
September 17th, 1am…</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In
the middle of Harlem, in the dead of night, a woman falls from a second storey
window. In her hand, she holds a passport and the name written on it is Lena
Aldridge…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Nine
days earlier…</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lena
arrived in Harlem less than two weeks ago, full of hope for her burgeoning
romance with Will Goodman, the handsome musician she met on board the Queen
Mary. Will has arranged for Lena to stay with friends of his, and this will
give her the chance to find out if their relationship is going anywhere. But
there is another reason she's in Harlem – to find out what happened in 1908 to
make her father flee to London.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As
Lena's investigations progress, not only does she realise her father lied to
her, but the man she’s falling too fast and too hard for has secrets of his
own. And those secrets have put Lena in terrible danger…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This
book starts almost at the point where </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i><a href="https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/08/miss-aldridge-regrets-by-louise-hare.html">Miss
Aldridge Regrets</a></i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> ended. For that reason alone, I recommend that you
read these books in order. I’m not saying you can’t read this story as a
stand-alone, but you’ll get a lot more out of it if you’re familiar with what
has happened before. What’s more, events come full circle in </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Harlem After
Midnight</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">And
while I’m on the subject of how this book starts; I hope you’re ready for a
shocker. The first scene of the book features a young woman on a Harlem
pavement. She appears to have fallen out of a window and is clutching Lena
Aldridge’s passport. What on earth is going on?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Actually,
it will take some (reading) time before you discover what happened in that
prologue. The timeline of the story moves back nine days, and we join Lena after
she has moved in with friends of her lover, Will. Over the next few days, we
follow Lena as she tries to find out about her father’s life in New York before
he travelled to London. At the same time, she tries to figure out what her
future should look like. Does she return to London and her friend Maggie, as
she originally planned, or could there be a future for her in America after all…a
future with Will?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Slowly,
through meeting his family and from stories told by his friends, Lena gets to
know Will better and it isn’t long before she realises that Will has a few
secrets in his past. Not that she can complain about that. It is not as if she
has told him all her secrets either. But, over the nine days, the atmosphere around
her goes from friendly and welcoming to fraught and a little hostile, although
Lena has no idea why.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Things
come to a head on the night of a party with a woman falling from the window of
Will’s friends’ apartment and Will being the main suspect.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Since
I try to avoid spoilers at all costs, that’s all I’ll say about the mystery. As
for the story, it is just as fascinating as the prequel. Except that in this
case there is more than one mystery from the start. While most of the story is
told from Lena’s perspective and focusses on her stay in New York, other
sections are set in 1908 and voiced by her father and one other character who
will remain unidentified in this review.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
obviously not going to reveal how any of the mysteries in this story are
resolved, but I do have thoughts I want to share about those resolutions. For
starters, I found the resolution to the mystery of the fallen woman as dubious
as the one in </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Miss Aldridge Regrets</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. The answer is provided and
makes sense but whether or not you’d call it satisfactory depends on your personal
opinion. As the word dubious implies, I remain to be convinced. Furthermore, while
the reader finds out exactly why Lena’s father left New York for London, it is
a little unclear whether or not Lena herself was aware of his ultimate goal.
Then again, for her sake, I’m inclined to hope that she didn’t figure it all
out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Having
said all of the above, the story did fascinate me. The setting, the characters,
and the interactions between them grabbed my attention. The book is very well
written, and my reading experience was smooth and enjoyable. While this book
may not completely satisfy the mystery purists, I highly recommend it to
readers who enjoy a combination of captivating characters, a rich historical
setting, and enough intrigue to keep them on their toes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
wonder if there will be more Lena Aldridge mysteries. While this book could
easily be the end of her story, I wouldn’t be sorry if Louise Hare decides to
feature her in future books. Reservations or not, Miss Aldridge has gotten under
my skin.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-20934380332613969152023-08-30T11:13:00.000+01:002023-08-30T11:13:46.070+01:00 The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdfupQLAPies_JBht7UkCQnpiEahC__cHD6e9e5QmNo9kErW-Syx6MdEEc9mFzUBmAHE-RckkeVe0hisPzpPaes4YAnjuIWySZ4yNNAzl9CoevaEc-Ln3py1AUujhszNmUrlTOqJqrja1FFnbbv00mM9JQMFRJyPlfnvsZli1saXmwImo7xwdE-jeqkz4/s500/45.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="326" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdfupQLAPies_JBht7UkCQnpiEahC__cHD6e9e5QmNo9kErW-Syx6MdEEc9mFzUBmAHE-RckkeVe0hisPzpPaes4YAnjuIWySZ4yNNAzl9CoevaEc-Ln3py1AUujhszNmUrlTOqJqrja1FFnbbv00mM9JQMFRJyPlfnvsZli1saXmwImo7xwdE-jeqkz4/w261-h400/45.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">400 Pages</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Penguin<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Release date: September 14, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Netgalley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Six contestants. The nation's favourite
baking show. And a prize worth killing for...<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For
six amateur bakers, competing in <i>Bake Week </i>is a dream come
true.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But for the show's famous host, Betsy Martin, it's more than a competition.
It's her legacy. As she welcomes contestants to her ancestral home, Grafton
Manor, she's excited to discover who will have what it takes win the ultimate
prize: The Golden Spoon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>Quickly, though, things start to go wrong.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The contestants are jittery - they've heard strange noises in the manor at
night.<br />
Betsy is irate - a new co-host has arrived, and he's out for her spotlight. Then,
the sabotage begins. At first, it's small. Sugar switched for salt. A hob
turned too high.<br />
But when a body is discovered, everyone is a suspect.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>Because someone at <i>Bake Week </i>wants to settle old scores...</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
love it when a book surprises me, and boy, did <b><i>The Golden Spoon</i></b>
do just that. Because, while this book certainly falls under the ‘mystery’
heading, it’s anything but a stereotypical whodunnit. In fact, for the longest
time it isn’t entirely clear what has been done, or to whom. All the prologue
tells us is that Betsy makes a horrific discovery while there is a storm raging
around her estate, where she hosts the Golden Spoon baking competition. The
story then returns to a few days earlier. The six contestants in the baking competition
are introduced as they arrive at the impressive location, and we subsequently
follow them and their host Betsy Martin through the first few days of the
competition.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Not
all is well. Betsy finds herself having to work with a co-host she detests, while
the competitors find themselves competing not only against each other but also
against somebody unknown who appears determined to sabotage them and the
competition. Add to all this mayhem that most if not all of the contestants may
have ulterior motives for taking part in the competition…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">You
catch my drift. Much is happening between the covers of this book and quite a
lot of it doesn’t become clear until very late into the story. And that could
have been an issue. After all, I tend to read mysteries because I want to try
and figure out whodunnit before the story reveals all. That becomes a lot
harder if it is unclear who the victim is and what exactly has been done to
them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
very happy to report, that the set-up of this story, despite being untraditional,
worked perfectly well for me. All the characters in this story are fascinating
and watching their back-stories and motivations unfold kept me captivated. In
fact, there were times when I all but forgot that the mystery in this story still
remained a mystery itself.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">While
I can’t say anything specific about it, I would like to add that the resolution
to this tale is somewhat untraditional as well. I’m sure there will be those
who’ll end up frowning about the ending of this story but for me, it made perfect
sense in the context.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To
summarize: </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Golden Spoon</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> was a fascinating, well-written, and
easy-to-read mystery featuring fascinating characters, an original set-up, and a
captivating storyline. Colour me impressed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-62869043715328473202023-08-22T21:42:00.000+01:002023-08-22T21:42:21.476+01:00The Couple at the Table by Sophie Hannah <p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiHaaswHmydWB4cOfHadggO4jxxTBJGmfjlGwy4CfpXkSqxtw_XLqbPxkNJ152BhELwRJbZzFKVf2bvibn8Ev4T-UtNe2G7h3T-j9oVBvi-cK83gkH3HPlz4kDx1LkKf6GsCor8rK-pTqDjZ3TugrYabn-2ZbNKphx42DxPUPQdRan1fXbwmfr7svnQYk/s500/44.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiHaaswHmydWB4cOfHadggO4jxxTBJGmfjlGwy4CfpXkSqxtw_XLqbPxkNJ152BhELwRJbZzFKVf2bvibn8Ev4T-UtNe2G7h3T-j9oVBvi-cK83gkH3HPlz4kDx1LkKf6GsCor8rK-pTqDjZ3TugrYabn-2ZbNKphx42DxPUPQdRan1fXbwmfr7svnQYk/w266-h400/44.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">358 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">#11 Culver Valley Crime<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Library<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Blurb</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">You're
on your honeymoon at an exclusive couples-only resort.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You receive a note, warning you to 'Beware of the couple at the table nearest
to yours'. At dinner that night, five other couples are sitting close by, but
none of their tables is any nearer or further away than any of the others. It's
almost as if someone has set the scene in order to make the warning note
meaningless. Why would anyone do that?<br />
<br />
You have no idea.<br />
<br />
You also don't know that you're about to be murdered, or that once you're dead,
all the evidence will suggest that no one there that night could possibly have
committed the crime.<br />
<br />
So who might be trying to warn you? And who might be about to kill you, and
seems certain to get away with it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Review</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Six couples.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One honeymoon resort.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">An impossible murder.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Trust
me to start reading a series of mysteries with title #11. I usually go out of
my way to avoid starting anywhere other than at the start, but in this case, it
didn’t even occur to me to check before bringing the book home and diving into
it. After reading and loving Sophie Hannah’s Hercule Poirot novels, I just
didn’t think twice when I saw her name on the cover of this
fascinating-sounding book.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Is there such a thing as a slow-burn mystery? Slow-burn is a huge trope in
romance, but is the term used for the mystery genre too? Because if it is, I
think it applies to this book. Although the murder has happened six months
previously, I didn’t get any sense of an (ongoing) investigation until about
halfway through the book.<br />
<br />
The story in this book alternates between July 2019 and January 2020. In July
Jane Brinkwood was murdered in an exclusive resort in what appears to be an
impossible murder. Six months later, Lucy, one of the other guests at the
resort and the ex-wife of Jane’s new husband, contacts the investigating police
officer, Simon Waterhouse in the hope of breathing new life into the case,
which appears to have stalled.<br />
<br />
Simon Waterhouse, much to the disgust of his superior, hasn’t given up on the
case at all, mainly because he and his wife and colleague Charlie, were also
guests at the resort at the time. However, Lucy’s action sets in motion a chain
of events that will, eventually lead to the solution.<br />
<br />
The first part of the book centres mostly on Lucy and Simon and it isn’t until
later that we get introduced to the other guests at the resort. In fact, for
the first part of the story, it isn’t clear that most of those guests had
reasons to at least dislike Jane. For me, the story didn’t really start to flow
until all those other voices came into play too. But as soon as it started
flowing, the story washed over me like a tsunami; I was hooked and had to
finish the book in one long sitting.<br />
<br />
And I liked the ending. The solution to the seemingly impossible crime was
plausible. Not only that, but it was also somewhat obvious now that it had been
explained to me. And yes, I did want to kick myself for missing one or two
clues that were hiding in plain sight. Having said that, while the how and the
why were very much a mystery (pun intended) until the very end, I figured out
the culprit early on. Discovering I had been right was hugely satisfying.<br />
<br />
Overall verdict: A very well-plotted mystery featuring fascinating characters,
and a wonderful read. I will be diving into more, none Hercule Poirot, books by
Sophie Hannah in the not-too-distant future.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-70699047641285946482023-08-14T19:53:00.000+01:002023-08-14T19:53:20.351+01:00 Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTd4a1Mvv5twanZMzC09XKsC0-7L4H8FGgbyErPOl_Lv6Zrs6v33PJDkPqfjwW-idtYtGkChutLekazXbL1iBtsrIaIbKxPKD2MLJCeBtwASDwy6rIJEOiwhNtl5F6HVF0jQNnB_umPFET4qIaeymOOcUWnr0MIcM7868FDiy2BvMGq93SNLMSw4LZkPI/s499/43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="327" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTd4a1Mvv5twanZMzC09XKsC0-7L4H8FGgbyErPOl_Lv6Zrs6v33PJDkPqfjwW-idtYtGkChutLekazXbL1iBtsrIaIbKxPKD2MLJCeBtwASDwy6rIJEOiwhNtl5F6HVF0jQNnB_umPFET4qIaeymOOcUWnr0MIcM7868FDiy2BvMGq93SNLMSw4LZkPI/w263-h400/43.jpg" width="263" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Canary Club Mystery #1</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">404 pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: HarperCollins<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Library<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A
nightclub singer with more than one secret hastily leaves London on The Queen
Mary after her best friend's husband is murdered...only to discover that death
has followed her onboard, in this thrilling locked-room mystery.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
London, 1936. Lena Aldridge is wondering if life has passed her by. The
dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn’t worked out. Instead, she’s stuck singing
in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho, and her married lover has just
dumped her.<br />
<br />
But Lena has always had a complicated life, one shrouded in mystery as a
mixed-race girl passing for white in a city unforgiving of her true racial
heritage. She has nothing to look forward to—until a stranger offers her the
chance of a lifetime: a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on
the Queen Mary bound for New York.<br />
<br />
After a murder at the club, the timing couldn’t be better, and Lena jumps at the
chance to escape England. But when a fellow passenger is killed in a strikingly
familiar way, Lena realizes that her greatest performance won't be for an
audience, but for her life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">My
main reason for bringing this book home from the library, apart from the
beautiful cover and the intriguing blurb, was that I had signed up on Netgalley
to read and review the sequel. If at all possible, I much prefer to read my
mystery series in the right order. While I can’t be sure until I read </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Harlem
After Midnight,</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I’ve got a feeling that having already met Lena
Aldridge when I start that book will stand me in good stead.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lena
Aldridge is a fascinating main character. She was raised by her musician
father, who was black, and knows nothing about her mother except that she was
white, which means that most of the time, Lena can ‘pass’. When the story
starts, Lena’s father has recently died, she has broken up with her married
lover, and she’s mostly disillusioned about her life and her job as a singer in
a dingy nightclub. The club is owned by her best/only friend’s husband who has
just announced that he wishes to divorce Maggie and leave her with nothing. When
the husband is murdered in his club while Lena’s on stage, Lena’s life goes
from uninspiring to outright frightening. Thankfully, Lena has a way of getting
away from the madness because she has been made an amazing offer. An old friend
of her father’s wants her to travel to New York to star in a Broadway
production. The murder, and Lena’s uncertainty about what the consequences will
be mean that she’s only too happy to leave London behind her and try for a new
and brighter future on the other side of the Atlantic.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If
you’re anything like me, you may wonder why a mostly streetwise woman like Lena
would trust a stranger with an offer that sounds too good to be true. I pushed
that niggle of doubt aside because being a possible accessory to murder might
make most of us jumpy and prone to dodgy decision-making.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
crossing from England to New York should have been a time of rest and
relaxation for Lena, but no amount of creature comforts makes up for the shock
of having one of her fellow passengers dying in a way that is strikingly
similar to the earlier murder in London. And that’s only the start of the
violence on board.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
not going to say anything else about what happens next, except that if you are
expecting a traditional mystery in which the main character investigates what’s
going on, this isn’t quite that. While Lena does think about everything that
happens, she doesn’t try to get to the bottom of it and the only reason she and
the reader find out what did happen and why, is because the guilty party spells
it out for her. I have to admit I didn’t see the solution coming, which for me
is always a positive in a mystery.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
really liked this story. It gave me a smooth read and featured a fascinating
character. Lena captured my interest right from the start. It’s great when the
main character is multi-faceted, and boy are there a lot of sides to Lena, and
not all of them are what you would call positive character traits. Which is of
course what made her relatable and so much fun to read about. Since the story
is told in Lena’s voice and from her perspective, we don’t get to know the
other characters in this story as well, especially since she only spends a few
days with them on the crossing to New York. And I have to say that most of the
others felt a bit two-dimensional. Again, this is perfectly understandable
given how the story is told, but it did mean I was less invested in what had
happened to them or why.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">And
that brings me to my one ‘issue’ with this book. While I enjoyed reading the
story whenever I picked the book up, the story never gripped me in such a way
that I couldn’t wait to get back to it. There was none of the usual urgency I
experience when I’m reading a mystery. Combine that with the fact that both the
set-up and the solution, while original, felt a little far-fetched and you’ll
understand why I rated it 3.5 stars. Having said that, I am looking forward to
reading the sequel, </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Harlem After Midnight</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, soon because spending
time with Lena Aldridge is unlikely to be boring.</span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-33956245056140638792023-08-04T11:53:00.000+01:002023-08-04T11:53:25.498+01:00 The Good Liars by Anita Frank<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2YGdpcTkbEac3ukw9oRzqHKdUspBdN0J5ZK0aFNrfUgDgyOZfgvow0-wPIbpnSYUAAuKK5H07oXzlbNZCvsOkF0UgH7fHvhgJ0cHndrNr9-AotLyq5dZgrumXUmqc7GpbW-Yv7ETLNdYcm36bZxfzxxvcDn-jWCZulFWy9GYvfeBeO4CzK5egLS88RfU/s346/42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="226" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2YGdpcTkbEac3ukw9oRzqHKdUspBdN0J5ZK0aFNrfUgDgyOZfgvow0-wPIbpnSYUAAuKK5H07oXzlbNZCvsOkF0UgH7fHvhgJ0cHndrNr9-AotLyq5dZgrumXUmqc7GpbW-Yv7ETLNdYcm36bZxfzxxvcDn-jWCZulFWy9GYvfeBeO4CzK5egLS88RfU/w261-h400/42.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">400
pages</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Publisher:
HQ<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Publishing
Date: August 17, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Netgalley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the hot summer of
1914 a boy vanishes, never to be seen again.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">
<br />
Now, in 1920, the once esteemed Stilwell family of Darkacre Hall find their already
troubled lives thrown into disarray when new evidence leads to the boy’s case
being reopened – and this time they themselves are under police scrutiny.<br />
<br />
As the dead return to haunt the living, old resentments resurface and loyalties
are tested, while secrets risk being unearthed that could destroy them all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If you take the
blurb to suggest a dark tale, you would be right. This story is very
atmospheric, as Darkacre, the name of the manor where the action takes place implies.
Doom, gloom, secrecy, and shellshock all add to the undercurrent of evil. As
the story progresses, that suggestion gets stronger until, in the end, it turns
out not to be a suggestion at all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m not sure how to
label this book. It’s not quite a mystery, although there certainly are quite a
few puzzles to resolve. And despite the haunting atmosphere, it’s also not quite
a gothic thriller. And while there are hints of supernatural goings on and the
departed certainly haunt those still alive, </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Good Liars</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> isn’t
a ghost story either. This is however a fascinating and memorable tale; one
that may well leave you wondering what you would do under similar
circumstances.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Darkacre is a large
manor house occupied by a cast of four. There’s Ida Stilwell, the mistress of
Darkacre and the wife of Maurice Stilwell who two years after the end of WWI
still suffers from shell shock. Leonard Stilwell is the younger brother who is
an invalid, having lost the will to live after losing three of his limbs during
the war. Finally, there’s Victor Monroe, a friend of the Stilwell brothers who
has more or less been adopted into the family. Sarah Hove is a
nurse/housekeeper who joins the family to look after Leonard and take care of some
household duties. Eventually, this group will be joined by Detective Sergeant
Verity, who ends up stranded there when bad weather makes leaving Darkacre
impossible.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">From the beginning,
it’s clear that all is not happy and well with this family. And the tension
increases when the police arrive to tell them that they will reopen an old
investigation into the disappearance of a young boy in 1914. What’s more, they
will be searching the estate’s woods.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Told from shifting
perspectives, we watch as the situation in the house slowly moves from mildly
uncomfortable to outright horrifying. But, as the title implies, we are dealing
with a group of good liars. I mean, you have unreliable narrators, and then you
have this lot.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">And that’s probably
all I should say about the plot. There are a lot of layers to this story, just
as there is a lot of evil in it. It’s a fascinating tale though of the unravelling
of a family who thought themselves to be untouchable and it asks some interesting
questions about guilt, innocence, and justice.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The story is very
well written and told. The descriptions of the house, the atrocious weather,
and the surroundings add at least as much menace to the tale as the actions of
the characters do. The words flow smoothly, pulling the reader along and the
further I got into the book, the harder it became to take a break from reading.
I did manage to figure out one or two plot twists before they were revealed on
the page, but that didn’t diminish the story for me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Overall, </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>The
Good Liars</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is a fascinating and thought-provoking book.</span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-69189783838030705772023-07-31T21:19:00.000+01:002023-07-31T21:19:56.354+01:00 A Death at the Party by Amy Stuart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYWaxG2mqMCCYI9T-YnPIVhnBCq85YSNapTK2UjEnPh4iy57uEhn5VoQjxXJPE6rUkBhjDF75d1xFK0kfR-C4RiFAVvAFDPN90qDHJe1qEjD_NhcQiCrYhjE0kvjNjgUwfzP-joBcc4043nMYhDIl3bRTQzKdljcSBgi9XDBv-cdBonB2_VGmceou_WNE/s500/41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="326" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYWaxG2mqMCCYI9T-YnPIVhnBCq85YSNapTK2UjEnPh4iy57uEhn5VoQjxXJPE6rUkBhjDF75d1xFK0kfR-C4RiFAVvAFDPN90qDHJe1qEjD_NhcQiCrYhjE0kvjNjgUwfzP-joBcc4043nMYhDIl3bRTQzKdljcSBgi9XDBv-cdBonB2_VGmceou_WNE/w261-h400/41.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">400 pages</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Penguin<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publishing Date: 03/08/2023<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Netgalley<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">THE
PLANNING TOOK MONTHS. THE MURDER JUST MOMENTS . . .</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
Nadine Walsh is determined to make her summer garden party the event of the
year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Everyone
deserves a celebration after the year they've had. A chance to forget.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As
she prepares to welcome her guests, however, Nadine can't help but be
distracted. Her husband is of little help to her. Her two grown children are
consumed with their own concerns.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But
it's Nadine's own secrets that threaten to destroy her perfect party.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">By
the end of the night, Nadine will be standing over a dead body in the basement.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">How
did it come to this? And how far will Nadine go to keep her secrets buried?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><i><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“By the end of the night, Nadine will be standing over
a dead body in the basement.”</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In
fact, that’s how the book begins; with Nadine standing over a body in the
basement, preparing herself to return to the party she is throwing to celebrate
her mother’s sixtieth birthday. The last time a big party was thrown for her
mother’s birthday was thirty years ago when Nadine was 10. That party also
ended with a body. That time the victim was Nadine’s 15-year-old aunt. This
time, the identity of the dead body remains a secret until the end of the book.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This
book is not a ‘whodunnit’, that much is clear right from the start. The mysteries
in this book are ‘whogotdunnin’ and ‘whydunnit’. All the reader knows is that
the dead body is male, that Nadine isn’t sorry he has died, and that she has no
intention of dialling 911. Instead, she makes sure her lipstick is perfect
before she returns to the party as if nothing has happened.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">After
this vivid and intriguing opening, the story jumps back to the start of the day
as we follow Nadine while she prepares for the party. Over the course of the day,
we learn a lot about Nadine and the people around her. Especially, we discover
that there are quite a few men in her life who irritate her enough to explain her
(lack of) action in the opening chapter. There are numerous secrets in this
story, just as there are hidden connections between people and past events.
Both are revealed slowly over the course of the story and as we learn more, the
tension increases. The fact that Nadine appears to be on the verge of a nervous
breakdown only adds to the suspense.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This
is a very clever story. The plotting is immaculate, giving the reader enough
information to make them think they know what’s going on while keeping the
truth hidden almost in plain sight. The characters in this book are realistic
in that none of them are particularly likeable but all the more intriguing for
it. The writing flows so smoothly that it’s almost as if the book reads itself. I
was hooked by the end of that first opening chapter and found it all but impossible
to put the book down until I reached the final paragraph and knew what had
happened and why.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As
for that ending, it’s somewhat abrupt and some may say that it wasn’t really a
resolution, but I liked it. In fact, I would go so far as to say that any other
ending would have lessened this story. To put it differently, if you like a suspenseful
story that will keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat, you need to
read </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>A Death at the Party</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">.</span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-33156725307817950732023-07-24T21:37:00.000+01:002023-07-24T21:37:07.407+01:00 Queen Bee by Ciara Geraghty<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJ5dsAObzCXU6E_KVE-FDhQzz8jTzSsCwxs5WU7r9EOWZ1UNwsihtzJVzDHKfrf-PZbZdd5NJt6RzMalFHxXtBLOYXwPhPgvpFb756SYAu7pdGVdhWMzHwzs-RdLo_TgWWztthGh14SwmGz8fOnkH9aD2dUmsD7ZaJGJZyQFjwBXdzh9eO46LiBurms4/s390/Queen%20Bee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="255" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJ5dsAObzCXU6E_KVE-FDhQzz8jTzSsCwxs5WU7r9EOWZ1UNwsihtzJVzDHKfrf-PZbZdd5NJt6RzMalFHxXtBLOYXwPhPgvpFb756SYAu7pdGVdhWMzHwzs-RdLo_TgWWztthGh14SwmGz8fOnkH9aD2dUmsD7ZaJGJZyQFjwBXdzh9eO46LiBurms4/w261-h400/Queen%20Bee.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">416 pages</span></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: HarperCollins<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publishing Date: Feb 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Own<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Book Club Selection<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Agatha
Doyle is in denial. Her glorious empty nest has filled up with two adult sons
and a widowed father busy renovating her childhood home for his new girlfriend.
Worst of all, she can’t seem to write a word of her overdue novel. Or confide
in her husband, Luke, that she’s plunged off a cliff into menopause.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When
she’s talked over at a panel event, Agatha has had enough – stepping forward
she stands up for herself and unintentionally goes viral, becoming the poster
girl for midlife women everywhere.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But
underneath the new life, what is happening in her old one – and in particular,
her marriage?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Well,
this was quite a read and I’ve got some thoughts. </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">😊</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I really liked the idea that formed
this story. Goodness knows that it’s all too ‘easy’ these days to achieve
online fame and/or notoriety, so Agatha going viral after a rant for middle-aged
women and against the patriarchy is more than realistic. What’s more, the
underlying idea that menopause is something that is either denied or ignored
isn’t too far from the everyday truth either. It’s a bit like other issues that
exclusively affect women. Menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause are ‘inconveniences’
that the world (read: mostly men) has decided we should just put with while
shutting up about them. Men-flu on the other hand… Don’t get me started.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Did you see what happened there? I
was only trying to review a book and within one paragraph I find myself ‘pulling
an Agatha’, be it less publicly.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But, back to my thoughts on the book.
So, the instant fame premise works very well. The same can be said for Agatha’s
anger and exasperation about…well, basically the world at large. Except that, I’m
not sure anybody, no matter how hormonal, is angry and snarky all the time. And
with Agatha, it does appear to be a continuous anger rather than an ebb and flow
of mood swings; coming and going just as the hot flushes and night sweats do. Of
course, we only know about Agatha’s moods because she writes about them, and like
most people who keep a journal, she writes about the emotional high and low
lights and not about the mundane ‘meh’ moments in between. Which is fair
enough, and there are one or two moments when we get glimpses of a more mellow
Agatha, but I would like to have seen a few more of those. And I would have
liked it if she hadn’t grumbled about every nice thought she had or any good
deed she did. Not only because that would have made Agatha more sympathetic but
also because it would create a (bigger) contrast with all her anger and frustration.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But enough about that. That long
paragraph makes Agatha’s anger sound like a huge issue, which it wasn’t. It’s
just something I noticed along the way.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This story is firmly and very well
set in the world we live in right now. Grown-up children returning to live at
home and not having any real prospects of setting up a life for themselves
independently; it’s sadly all to recognisable. I’m guessing that anybody who’s
been in a relationship for a long(er) period of time is aware of how easily
things can slip into a rut. And goodness knows that Agatha isn’t the only one
struggling to juggle work, home, love, friendships, children, parents, and
whatever else the world decides to throw our way.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I may have given you the impression
that </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Queen Bee</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is a heavy, somewhat dark story. And that couldn’t
be further from the truth. In fact, Queen Bee is a smoothly written, light-hearted, and effortless
read. At times Agatha’s thoughts are laugh-out-loud funny and I found myself
chuckling more than once. There isn’t a boring moment in this story as the plot
pushes you along until it reaches its climax.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As for that climax…Let’s just say it
used two plot devices I’m not fond of and leave it at that.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Overall, I really liked </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Queen
Bee</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. Just like in her earlier books, Ciara Geraghty created a fascinating
main character that pulled me into her story and didn’t let go until I’d reached
the final page. The side characters were well-presented and interesting. The way this rather light-hearted read managed to raise real and complicated issues is impressive. And I
think it’s wonderful such a strong and feisty voice was given to menopause. I
can only hope it will resonate.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In other words: </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Queen Bee</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
is a good story well told.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">*****<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Side
note:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
curious. Do (Irish) women (in general) really never discuss menopause? If the
answer to that question is yes, I guess I should be grateful for my mother who,
at some point during the late 1970’s announced to my brother and me that she
was menopausal and that she was probably going to be short-tempered from that
moment forward. Truth be told, I don’t remember her as being particularly
short-tempered but that doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate the heads-up or the ease
with which she announced that phase in her life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Also:
how does the Queen bee dying relate to our titular Queen Bee fleeing to LA? Or
does it?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938575371796732229.post-34034645435174567712023-07-19T22:17:00.003+01:002023-07-19T22:17:59.887+01:00Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVpYotMyWsget__3sLV9qQYA6Ko8KaItDmvqOpIi2i7pIHQC_XLjMlFmcWZJ8C0u410evCbIy692xsLLLPbn7utCprVGq56JvqQWdRJmQ00RcNltLEYg6MkwnH_6GGsPHh_O_ErtQMpglgPV1RRivhuOBy8IEoiqtW5VtAuvJ7eYa_j_McKDoLCd1V_Dk/s2835/39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2835" data-original-width="1843" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVpYotMyWsget__3sLV9qQYA6Ko8KaItDmvqOpIi2i7pIHQC_XLjMlFmcWZJ8C0u410evCbIy692xsLLLPbn7utCprVGq56JvqQWdRJmQ00RcNltLEYg6MkwnH_6GGsPHh_O_ErtQMpglgPV1RRivhuOBy8IEoiqtW5VtAuvJ7eYa_j_McKDoLCd1V_Dk/w260-h400/39.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">364 pages</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publisher: Sandycove<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Publishing Date: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Library<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blurb<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sally
Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing
what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and police
detectives, but also a sinister voice from a past she cannot remember. As she
begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, Sally steps into the world for
the first time, making new friends and big decisions, and learning that people
don't always mean what they say.<br />
<br />
But who is the man observing Sally from the other side of the world? And why
does her neighbour seem to be obsessed with her? Sally's trust issues are about
to be severely challenged.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Review<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This
book comes with so many endorsements it’s almost scary. It’s obviously seen as
a work of genius by a long list of authors, many of whom I love reading. Which
means that if I don’t like this story there must be something wrong with me,
right?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Well,
on the upside, I didn’t dislike </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Strange Sally Diamond</i></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. It is an exquisitely
written, fascinating, and compelling story. I’m in awe Liz Nugent’s mastery
with words when it comes to portraying Sally and the other major players in
this story. And I still haven’t figured out why this was such a smooth read
when the subject matter is so very bleak and heartbreaking.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Because
that’s the other side of the equation. No matter how much this story captivated
me and how brilliantly Liz Nugent drew me into this story, there’s no getting
away from the fact that it’s a bleak tale. What is more, there doesn’t appear
to be anything resembling resolution, or justice. Even the tiny glimmer of hope
provided when the book ends filled me with a renewed sense of horror.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
filled with admiration when it comes to characterisation. Sally and Paul are in
many ways very similar but at the same time, they are almost exact opposites in
every way imaginable. Where Sally takes everything at face value and doesn’t
make or accept excuses, Paul manages to find an excuse for everything he does
and everything that has happened to him. They each tell their part of the
story. Both voices are compelling, and it is almost scary how easy it was to
drift along on their words while they described horrific events and
circumstances. I distinctly remember having the same reaction after I finished </span><b style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i><a href="https://meen-readingjournal.blogspot.com/2014/03/unravelling-oliver.html">Unravelling
Oliver</a>.</i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To
say I’m conflicted about this book doesn’t begin to cover it. As I said, it’s
brilliant; faultlessly plotted, gorgeously written, and totally engrossing. I
have no doubt I will be thinking about this story and the characters in it for
quite some time. It’s just that, no matter how dark a story may be, I don’t
like it when the ending of a book leaves me feeling down and hopeless. Because,
while a lot happens in this book, I think it’s fair to say that none of the
characters in it find resolution.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>Helena Stonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17529886101156451591noreply@blogger.com0