November 2024 Reads

A bit below my monthly average, but I thoroughly enjoyed the books I read during November. For some reason it completely escaped my attention that I read both the first and the latest book in the Lady Eleanor Swift series by Verity Bright. It's hard to believe we're getting close to Christmas and the end of the year. Before I do a reading round-up for the year, I've got a few more books to read first. If I posted longer or related reviews, the links can be found below.

A VERY ENGLISH MURDER (Lady Eleanor Swift #1) by Verity Bright (4*)

A fun, somewhat over the top but overall, very amusing and easy to read vanishing-corpse mystery. I’m looking forward to spending more time in early 20^th century England solving mysteries with Lady Eleanor, her butler Clifford, and her English bulldog Gladstone.

 

AGATHA CHRISTIE: A MYSTERIOUS LIFE by Laura Thompson NF (4.5*)

This was more than ‘just’ a description of Christie’s life. This biography also deep dives into her books, her writing, her storytelling powers, as well as the puzzles she created and solved. The author takes links and hints about Agatha’s life from her (mostly Mary Westmacott’s) fiction. All of it sounds plausible but none of it can be taken as fact since they are conclusions drawn by Laura Thompson and not biographical details provided by Christie herself. It is noteworthy that the author uses the word ‘elusive’ with regard to Agatha Christie given that Lucy Worsley titled her biography Agatha Christie: an Elusive Woman. This has been a most enjoyable bedtime read. Sure, at about eight pages per evening it took a looooong time read, but I wasn’t in a hurry. I’m going to miss my nighttime encounters with Agatha Christie.

 

LIAR’S ISLAND (CSI Ally Dymond #3) by T. Orr Munro (3.5*)

Two CSI investigators find themselves stranded on a small island with a tiny group of inhabitants, one of whom may well be a murderer. I enjoyed Liar’s Island and I’d call it a well-plotted and easy-to-read mystery that for me personally could have done with a little more tension and a little less personal backstory. My full review can be found here:  https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2024/11/liars-island-by-t-orr-munro.html

 

A MIDWINTER MURDER (Lady Eleanor Swift #20) by Verity Bright (4+*)

A delightful new instalment in the Lady Eleanor Swift series. The setting combined with the reclusive Earl who lives there create a wonderful contrast with the charming Christmas atmosphere Eleanor’s staff create in the gamekeeper’s cottage. Just as the mystery is wonderfully balances with the developing romance between Ellie and her Chief Inspector fiancé. My full review can be found here: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2024/11/a-midwinter-murder-by-verity-bright.html

 

OUT OF SIGHT (Second Sight #3) by K.C. Wells 4*

Detective Gary Mitchell and psychic Dan Porter tackle their third baffling case while their relationship continues to flourish. What should have been a cold-case investigation almost immediately turns active and takes them far out of their comfort zones in more ways than one. In the background runs the continuing unsolved mystery of Gary’s brother’s murder. Because this story arc stretches over all the books in this series, they should be read in order.

 

EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE (Ernest Cunningham #1) by Benjamin Stevenson 4.5*

Gripping, well-plotted, and at times funny mystery in which the first-person narrator strictly follows the Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction as established during the Golden Age of Crime Writing. More than once I feared the story was trying to be too clever only for the ending of the story to prove that the plot was indeed that clever. I’m sorry now that I already read Everyone on This Train is a Suspect and Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret earlier this year. Not because they spoiled this book for me but because I’d love to be able to look forward to reading them.

A Midwinter Murder by Verity Bright

Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #20

352 pages

Publisher: Bookouture

Release Date: December 4, 2024

 

Blurb

Homemade baubles, reindeer-shaped cookies and snowy walks across the rolling moors… but Lady Swift’s festive plans are ruined when a body turns up!

Winter 1924. When Lady Eleanor Swift unexpectedly finds herself a guest of the reclusive Duke of Auldwyke, she’s determined to enjoy Christmas with all the trimmings at his sprawling manor house. And that includes kisses under the mistletoe and cozying up by the fire with her fiancé, dashing detective Hugh Seldon.

Instead, the season of goodwill turns frosty as she finds the Duke’s studious secretary, Mr Porritt, dead in the storeroom. Clasped in his chilly hand is a golden pendant in the shape of a rose. The Duke denies ever having seen the necklace before. But Eleanor can see the lies in his eyes… Did it belong to his mysteriously absent wife?

Hugh and Eleanor must ditch relaxing with hot cocoa in favour of interviewing the Duke’s holiday guests. Every suspect has a secret they’d kill to keep: the socialite with the false name, the Sir with a questionable inheritance and the husband hiding a crack in his marriage.

As the blizzard outside rages, Auldwyke Hall becomes cut off. Trapped by the snow, Eleanor and Hugh must skate around the increasingly secretive Duke to unwrap the identity of the killer. But does the answer to the secretary’s murder lie with a ghost of Christmas past? And when an attempt is made on the Duke’s life too, they realise the killer is closer than they think…

 

Review

May I present a delightful new instalment in the Lady Eleanor Swift series.

Despite her attempts to refuse the invitation, Lady Eleanor finds herself, accompanied by her full staff, dog, and cat, travelling to Auldwyke Hall to celebrate Christmas with a Duke she has never met and several other guests she’s never seen before either. Eleanor’s fiancé, Chief Inspector Hugh Seldon, will be joining them a day later. But what Eleanor had hoped would be a romantic and festive seasonal celebration turns dark within minutes after her arrival at the Hall when she discovers the body of the Duke’s secretary who has obviously been strangled.

What follows is an investigation conducted by Eleanor and Hugh with the help of a local constable during which it soon becomes clear that most of the guests have something to hide. At the same time, Eleanor and Hugh try to find time for romantic encounters as well and Eleanor’s staff try to create the perfect Christmas atmosphere in the gamekeeper’s cottage. As tends to be the case in the Lady Eleanor Swift mysteries, it’s all a bit mad-cap but very entertaining and a captivating read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book even if there were few clues on the page to help the reader identify the culprit. The story was a wonderful contrast between the mysterious and gloomy atmosphere in Auldwycke Hall and the wonderful Christmas mood created in the gamekeeper’s cottage by Eleanor’s loyal staff. And, as to be expected from a Christmas mystery, the ending is as merry and happy as can be.

Liar’s Island by T. Orr Munro

CSI Ally Dymond #3

400 pages

Publisher: HQ

Release Date: November 21, 2024

 

Blurb

When the body of Kieran Deveney is found on Liars Island, it sends shockwaves through the tiny, close-knit population. The rugged coastline has a history of smuggling and shipwreck, but there has never been a murder – until now.

With the hunt for the killer underway, two locals confess to the crime. Each claims they acted alone, and neither can be convicted while the other stands by their story. Which of them is telling the truth?

CSI Ally Dymond arrives to uncover the evidence that could crack the case. What she finds is a community awash with secrets. As a storm closes in, and with the identity of the murderer still in doubt, no one can leave the island. But it’s not the treacherous weather that Ally fears, it’s the people she’s trapped with…

 

Review

Kieran Deveney is the co-owner of a sports centre on Liar’s Island. His father is on the board of trustees for the island and more or less determines what happens there. When Kieran’s body is discovered on the island the question is who killed him. The island only has a tiny population and when two of them individually confess to having murdered Kieran singlehandedly, the police are facing a stand-off as far as their investigation is concerned.

CSI Ally Dymond and a junior colleague are sent to Liar’s Island to uncover evidence that will prove or disprove either of the confessions. Before they can return to the mainland with what little potential evidence they have found, a storm descends on the island, and they find themselves stranded in close proximity to a murderer.

The story is told in the first person from Ally Dymond’s perspective. However, interspersed throughout the story are CSI reports for each of the island’s inhabitants as well as passages printed in cursive that describe relevant details about those inhabitants’ pasts. I’m not sure how I felt about those cursive parts. On the one hand, they allowed the reader to join the dots and be part of the solving of the puzzle. On the other hand, those sections weren’t the result of the on-the-page investigation so it created the weird situation where the reader knows more than Ally Dymond did. One thing they made perfectly clear though, is that everybody on the island had a motive for killing Kieran.

Liar’s Island is an atmospheric story with the placenames creating the atmosphere. For example, Kieran Deveney is found in a bay known as Devil’s Cauldron on Liar’s Island. This is also a rather slow-moving story and a relatively large section of it deals with Ally Dymond’s private life. This book is very well written and easy to read but it also felt a bit flat. Despite the atmosphere, the location, the murders, and the storm there wasn’t any real tension or urgency in the story.

This is the third book in the Ally Dymond series by this author. I didn’t read the previous two books, and I don’t think it is necessary to have done so in order to enjoy this title. Having said that, if you think this series sounds like something you might enjoy, I advise you to start with book one (Breakneck Point). I may be wrong, but I think Liar’s Island contains at least one spoiler for the previous stories.

Overall I enjoyed Liar’s Island and I’d call it a well-plotted and easy-to-read mystery that for me personally could have done with a little more tension and a little less personal backstory.

October Reads

October was a solid reading month. I didn't have any star reads and my lowest score was 3 stars. See below for my thoughts on the books I read. The first two come with links to longer reviews on this blog because I was lucky enough to get ARCs through Netgalley.

What was your October like? Did you read any books you'd like to recommend? Please share in the comment section because I'm always on the lookout for new gems.

MISS BEETON’S MURDER AGENCY (Miss Beeton #1) by Josie Lloyd (4-*)

A fast-paced, thrilling mystery, and captivating crime-caper with a few too many wtf moments for me to rate if five stars. If you like your cosy mystery with a large dose of mayhem, a host of larger-than-life characters, a cute little doggo, as well as plenty of action, and you don’t mind suspending disbelief once or twice, you’re going to love Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency.

Longer review: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2024/10/miss-beetons-murder-agency-by-josie.html

 

EVERONE THIS CHRISTMAS HAS A SECRET (Ernest Cunningham #3) by Benjamin Stevenson (4.5*)

I found this book all but impossible to put down. Ernest’s chatty narration pulled me along and had my swiping through the pages as fast as I could. The cast of characters was fascinating and the possible motifs for murder kept me guessing until Ernest reveals all in the rather spectacular denouement. Did I pick up on all the clues? No! Did I figure out whodunit? Also, no! But did I thoroughly enjoy myself while reading this book? Absolutely!

If you’re looking for a captivating, well-plotted and faultlessly executed mystery this Christmas, you are probably looking for Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret.

Longer review: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2024/10/everyone-this-christmas-has-secret-by.html

 

ONE OF US IS DEAD (Roy Grace #21) by Peter James (3*)

Rufus Rorke was supposed to have died two years ago but is recognised, alive and well by a man he used to be friends with. At the same time the police, led by Detective Superintendent Roy Grace are investigating a number of suspicious deaths. It isn’t long before the police's attention is focussed on Rufus. But how do you catch a man who has successfully lived undercover for years?

This is a well-written story with a fascinating plot. I was disappointed that it wasn’t a real mystery or thriller, though. This is not a whodunnit but a ‘how-do-we-catch-him’ sorta story and I kept on waiting for a twist in the tale that never happened.

 

MY BROTHER’S HUSBAND (My Brother’s Husband #1) by Gengoroh Tagame (4*)

I’m copying the original blurb here since I can’t put it better myself:

Yaichi is a work-at-home suburban dad in contemporary Tokyo; formerly married to Natsuki, father to their young daughter, Kana. Their lives suddenly change with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, affable Canadian named Mike Flanagan, who declares himself the widower of Yaichi's estranged gay twin, Ryoji. Mike is on a quest to explore Ryoji's past, and the family reluctantly but dutifully takes him in. What follows is an unprecedented and heartbreaking look at the state of a largely still-closeted Japanese gay culture: how it's been affected by the West, and how the next generation can change the preconceptions about it and prejudices against it.

I’m not sure how much I like reading Mangas but even turning the pages from back to front didn’t diminish how much I enjoyed this touching story.

 

AUTUMN CHILLS by Agatha Christie (4.5*)

A collection of 12 short stories featuring Hercule Poirot (4 stories), Miss Marple (2 stories), Harley Quin (2 stories), Parker Pyne (1 story), Tommy & Tuppence (1 story). Two of the stories were stand-alone and one of them (While the Light Lasts) wasn’t actually a mystery. While I enjoyed some stories more than others, all of them were a delight to read.

 

YOU ARE HERE by David Nicholls (4+)

Michael and Marnie have both retreated from the world after their marriages failed. Now they both find themselves on a coast to coast walk and with every passing kilometre they find themselves coming out of their self-imposed shells and getting closer to each other. A well-written and intriguing read about second chances taking them.

 

DEATH OF A BOOKSELLER by Alice Slater (3.5*)

A story about obsession that makes for an obsessive read despite the fact that I’m not sure how much I actually liked the main characters or the story itself. The book makes the reader wonder about the popularity of true crime books, podcasts, and television shows. How healthy is that fascination and how does that public interest affect those who have to live with the consequences of murder? The book’s ending was a bit too ambiguous for my liking too. Just as the title is a little misleading.

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson

 

Ernest Cunningham #3

208 pages

Publisher: Michael Joseph

Release Date: October 24, 2024

 

Blurb

My name is Ernest Cunningham.

I’m not a detective. I just happen to have a knack for what makes mysteries – and murderers – tick. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any killers out there might be willing to take a break for the holidays.

I was wrong.

So here I am, backstage at the Christmas show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. From the magician’s assistant to the hypnotist, my suspects are all professional tricksters. Masters in the art of misdirection.

My clues are even more of a mystery:

A suspect covered in blood, with no memory of how it got there.
A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens.
And an advent calendar. Because, you know. It’s Christmas.

Solving the murder is the only gift I want this year. But can I catch a killer, and make it home for Christmas alive?

 

Review

Ernest Cunningham can’t stay away from murders, it would seem. After Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone and Everyone On This Train is A Suspect he is back for a third instalment when his ex-wife Erin asks for his help. Her partner has been murdered and she is found with blood on her hands without having any idea how it got there. And, as if one impossible murder isn’t enough, it isn’t long before magician Rylan Blaze is decapitated by a blade made of paper. With only a few days until it is Christmas, Ernest is, once again, up against it.

“I’m not a private investigator. I just happen to have a knack for understanding how mysteries tick, provided they follow the rules set out by the classics, of course.”

As was the case in the previous two books, the narrator in this story is Ernest Cunningham himself and he often addresses the reader directly. In fact, he plays a game with the reader, providing them with all the clues needed to solve the mystery without actually pointing them out. In other words, plays fair and according to the rules set by the writers of the Golden Age of Mystery.

“You’ll find no hidden clues or unreliable narrators here. My job is to relay to you everything you need to reach the same ‘lightbulb’ moment I did.”

And, because we’re dealing with a Christmas mystery, the story has a seasonable flavour:

“…this whole thing’s best treated as an advent calendar. Twenty-four chapters hold twenty-four clues and various bits and bobs that help me with the case. Well, twenty-three clues and a killer.”

Readers with great self-control could treat this book like an Advent calendar and read one chapter each day starting December 1st. I like that idea, but I wouldn’t have been able to limit myself like that. There’s too much happening and the use of cliffhangers at the end of each chapter pushed me straight from one chapter into the next one. In fact, I found this book all but impossible to put down. Ernest’s chatty narration pulled me along and had me swiping through the pages as fast as I could. The cast of characters was fascinating and the possible motifs for murder kept me guessing until Ernest revealed all in the rather spectacular denouement. Did I pick up on all the clues? No! Did I figure out whodunit? Also, no! But did I thoroughly enjoy myself while reading this book? Absolutely!

If you’re looking for a captivating, well-plotted, at times laugh-out-loud funny, and faultlessly executed mystery this Christmas, you are probably looking for Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret.

Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency by Josie Lloyd

 

Miss Beeton Mysteries #1

384 pages

Publisher: HQ

Release Date: October 24, 2024

 

Blurb

Alice Beeton never meant to wind up single and childless on the wrong side of fifty. Like her distant relative Mrs Beeton – yes, that Mrs Beeton – she had hoped to have her own spic-and-span household by now. In reality, she lives in an immaculate but dingy basement flat in a rather shabby block in Kensington with Agatha, her fiercely intelligent, if rather over-territorial, corgi-Jack Russell cross.

Now Alice runs the Good Household Management Agency, providing discreet domestic staff to extravagant townhouses and sprawling country piles. So when Camille Messant calls in urgent need of a new housekeeper, Miss Beeton sends out new hire Enya. She’s rather forward but she does come with impeccable references and is fluent en français.

But in the early hours of New Year’s Day, Alice is rudely awakened with the news that Enya has been found dead. As the police struggle to drum up an adequate investigation and the wealthy family and their party guests close rank, Miss Beeton takes it upon herself to solve the crime…

 

Review

Alice Beeton is a distant relative of the Miss Beeton of Miss Beeton’s Book of Household Management fame. She runs the Good Household Management Agency providing domestic staff to the rich and famous. When she employs a new hire named Enya on the same day that she is asked to provide the Messant household with a housekeeper immediately, it seems too good to be true. When, only a few days later, Enya is found dead, Alice Beeton feels responsible. With the police investigation not going anywhere, Alice decides to do some investigating of her own. After all, she’s a huge fan of murder mysteries. How hard can it be to unmask a murderer?

Alice with more than a little help from her friends Jinx, Helly, Barney, Jacques, and Massoud, to name but a few, soon discovers that investigating a crime is much harder than it looks between the covers of a book. And much more fraught with danger too. Going undercover in the Messant household to replace Enya, Alice Beeton finds herself taking risks and not getting anywhere fast. But, as she reflects 49% into the book: “Being stuck in the middle was part of the process.”

There’s a lot going on in this book apart from the murder which is not surprising since this appears to be the first book in a planned series which means that several characters and back stories had to be established. If I’m honest, it was a bit (too) much for me at times. More than once, I found myself wondering ‘who are you again?’ about secondary characters and some plot developments were outrageous enough that I found myself rolling my eyes. At the same time, the writing is smooth, and the story was intriguing enough to keep me turning the pages.

There are recipes in this book, some going back to the original Mrs. Beeton and others more modern. These recipes are placed right behind the place where a dish is mentioned right in the middle of chapters, and I’d love to tell you more about them. Unfortunately, the formatting of the ARC the publisher provided me with meant that they were literally unreadable. That is a shame since most of the dishes mentioned in the story sounded very yummy and I wouldn’t have minded trying my hand at recreating one or two of them.

Overall, this was a fast-paced, thrilling mystery, and captivating crime-caper with a few too many wtf moments for me to rate if five stars. If you like your cosy mystery with a large dose of mayhem, a host of larger-than-life characters, a cute little doggo, as well as plenty of action, and you don’t mind suspending disbelief once or twice, you’re going to love Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency.

September was a good and nicely varied reading month. I finished one series and started a new one. I read a fascinating book about the origins of words and customs associated with Christmas, a thriller everybody appears to be raving about, and two Dutch titles. As I said a varied month.

PROBLEM AT POLLENSA BAY AND OTHER STORIES by Agatha Christie (4*)

Two stories each featuring Parker Pine, Hercule Poirot, and Harley Quin as well as two stand-alone stories that aren’t mysteries. A thoroughly enjoyable collection. Having said that, I would advise dog lovers to steer clear of the story titled Next to a Dog.

 WORDS CHRISTMAS GAVE US by Grace Tierney (5*) NF

More than just a Christmas-themed lexicon, Words Christmas Gave Us is also a well-written, easy-to-read, and captivating work of non-fiction. Some words, such as gizzard and the aforementioned salmangundi, were new to me while I also found myself learning more about words and customs I considered myself familiar with. For a longer review please click on the link: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2024/09/words-christmas-gave-us-by-grace-tierney.html

 WE SOLVE MURDERS (We Solve Murders #1) by Richard Osman (5+*)

Take one private security officer thriving on danger (Amy Wheeler), a retired cop enjoying a very quiet life (Steve Wheeler), and a best-selling author up for just about anything (Rosie D’Antonio), throw in dead bodies, bags filled with money, and a death-threat or two, and you may well find yourself on a caper taking you from the New Forest to Dubai via South Carolina and Ireland.

Richard Osman has done it again. He’s created another madcap adventure featuring fascinating and captivating MCs and filled it with a lot of heart and some inspiring pearls of wisdom. Now I find myself desperately waiting for both the next Thursday Murder Club book and the sequel to this gem.

 DE COCK IN HET KORT (4 short stories) by A.C. Baantjer (4*)

There are only 46 pages in this bonus publication. What makes them special that they were all written by Baantjer in himself and not by Peter Römer who has taken over de De Cock series twenty titles ago. The four stories are fun and original with the fourth one being extra special since it is a meeting between De Cock and Baantjer, his creator.

 THE COMFORT OF GHOSTS (Maisie Dobbs #18) by Jacqueline Winspear (4+)

The latest and last title in the series set in the immediate aftermath of WW II sees Maisie Dobbs/Scott deal with several of the consequences of that conflict as well as some ghosts from her personal past while also focussing on the future and the way ahead for her and those she loves. Or, to quote the last sentence of the book:

“In that moment, she felt lighter, leaving the past behind, as if Fate had asked her to take one final look across the landscape of years, before turning her head towards the future and the building of a new house.”

 THE ONLY ONE LEFT by Riley Sager (4*)

A severely disabled woman suspected of having murdered her family decades earlier decides to tell her story to her troubled live-in caregiver, one typed letter at a time. As her story and the plot thicken the house where it all happened, Hope’s End, crumbles. A real page-turner but also a reminder of why I’m not a huge fan of thrillers. In order to really enjoy a book, I need to understand the MC(s) and in most thrillers, as in this one, the choices they make and the way in which they behave are too far-fetched for me to become fully invested in the story.

 DE COCK EN DE MOORD OP AFSPRAAK (De Cock #95) by Peter Römer (4*).

The title of this Dutch mystery translates as: De Cock and the Murder By Appointment.

A producer of a popular television programme is murdered in his apartment and a short time later a gossip reporter is strangled in a movie theatre. The two, apparently unconnected, cases bring De Cock face to face with the world of showbiz and for a long time, he’s like a fish out of water. As always a wonderful cozy police procedural set in Amsterdam. What’s not to love?