How’s everyone faring this week? I left the house once in the last week, but now I have two days in a row of dentist appointments, and I have to go out in these temperatures. There was a high of 11 degrees yesterday when I left the house. And, I know people in the southeast were not prepared for snow!
My sister and I did go see “Peter Pan” last week. It was fun. I was impressed with the sound. We could actually hear the singers’ words over the orchestra. That’s so rare nowadays when I go to a musical.
On to the subject of books.
I’m currently reading a debut mystery, Shadow at the Morgue by Cara Devlin. It’s my setting and time period, 1880s in London. But, I’m about halfway through, and I’ve bogged down. I don’t know if it’s because the topic is becoming familiar. Leonora Spencer works illegally in the morgue run by her uncle, an assistant coroner. Jasper Reid, who works at Scotland Yard, knows of Leonora’s work, but he can’t take action without upsetting the man who adopted him, retired Chief Superintendent, Gregory Reid, who rescued Leonora after the slaughter of her family when she was a child.
After a break-in at the morgue, Leonora is determined to learn why a man, later found murdered, broke in and stole a locket from. a corpse. Jasper doesn’t find it an important case, but he’s determined to keep Leonora out of trouble.
As I said, I’m bogged down at the moment. Maybe it’s because I just finished a terrific book that’s released next week. Next week is a good one for fans of thrillers with the release of Andrew Welsh-Huggins’ The Mailman, James Byrne’s Chain Reaction, and John McMahon’s Head Cases. Fans of books with unusual protagonists will want to watch for all three of these.
And, after you tell us “What Are You Reading?”, you’ll want to watch for tomorrow’s blog. Margie’s post of her favorites of 2024 will be up, and I know there are some of you who are always eager to read Margie’s lists.
Hello everyone. It’s been a quiet-ish week here; no major calamities although our 14-year-old grandson had food poisoning while at his hockey tournament in Seattle on the weekend, which meant he had to sit out some games, poor guy. But he’s better now and his team won the tournament in overtime. It’s delightfully chilly here in the mornings this week and I’ve been loving going out for walks as soon as it starts to get light outside. Blissful.
This week I read:
DOWN A DARK RIVER by Karen Odden (first mentioned here by someone else; Mary M?)
I haven’t read many books yet this year (am a slow, savour-the-book kind of reader) but this one is already a strong contender for this year’s list of my favourites.
We join Scotland Yard in 1878 just after a huge corruption scandal (which was a real event) which left only a very few senior inspectors to do the work of many, one of whom is Michael Corravan. Irish, grew up in rough and seedy Whitechapel, a bare-knuckles boxer who worked on the docks and eventually became a member of the River Police. From there he transferred to Scotland Yard where the new director, Vincent, is trying hard to rebuild public faith. To that end he wants cases solved as quickly as possible and wants to make sure there isn’t a hint of scandal – Scotland Yard must stay out of the newspapers.
Corravan is working on the case of the disappearance of the wife of a wealthy Mayfair gentleman, but is forced to hand the case over to his young colleague, Mr. Stiles, in order to deal with a new case assigned to him. A young woman has been murdered, placed in a small boat, and left to float down the Thames. Soon another young woman is discovered in the same circumstances., yet there is no connection between the two women. It’s imperative that the case be solved quickly so that Scotland Yard isn’t seen to be floundering but also to prevent widespread panic at the thought that someone out there is killing young women. But Corravan is struggling – he doesn’t think he needs help, he tends to barrel his way through things, and he seems not to care whether or not he offends anyone in the process, but he’s tenacious and keeps digging for clues. He has a wonderful assistant in Mr. Stiles who is quietly intelligent, empathetic, and just as dogged as Corravan in his own way.
There is longish list of characters at the beginning of the book but the author is skilled at introducing them into the story and I never once felt the need to consult the list.
I loved this book. The writing is top-notch, every character is utterly convincing, we are privy to the backstory of many of them which in turn makes us invested in the characters, the narrative compels you to keep reading, and there isn’t a dull page to be found. You absolutely feel Corravan’s frustration when he isn’t getting anywhere with the case, and you feel the emotions of the characters as if they were your own. And something rare in a mystery, there is real emotional growth in the main character. I also learned how the phrase ‘red herring’ came to be. I love when reading a book teaches me little snippets of things I didn’t know before.
We had a new fire breakout near me today. It’s the Hughes Fire. It’s actually the town north of me. And it’s on the east side of town, so my office is closer than I am in my condo. I feel like my condo is far enough away I’m not that worried, at least at the moment. Don’t think the office is in any danger either, but I will be keeping an eye on it. Hopefully, we actually get the light rain they are predicting for the weekend. But before we get there, we have more wind tomorrow.
On the reading front, I am once again between books.
I just finished WRITTEN IN BLOOD, the second in Sheila Lowe’s Claudia Rose series. I really didn’t care for it. The pacing was all off. There were some things that a good edit should have caught. And that made me wonder if some of the other issues that bugged me were the result of lazy writing/bad editing or just my poor memory. I already have several other books in the series, but not the next one. Not sure about going on after this one.
I’m about to start FRAMED FOR MURDER by Marla A. White. This is the first in a series from a localish writer (not my town, but the next one south). I got it at a local bookfair this summer. Hopefully, I’ll enjoy it.