I had a busy week with lots of appointments – car, doctor, dentist. And, now I’m settled in just in case we get bad weather this weekend. What about you? What have you been doing? How’s your weather?
And, before we jump into books today, just a reminder to stop back tomorrow when our friend Kaye Wilkinson Barley will tell us about her “Favorite Books of 2024”.
I’m reading a fun book right now, How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel by Kate Jackson.” What would you do if you found yourself in the world of the classic crime novel? How would you avoid being framed for murder – or evade an untimely demise? Let classic crime expert Kate Jackson give you the tools to survive the golden age murder mystery. From dinner parties to detective interrogations, you’ll need to know how to keep your wits about you in a world of red herrings, hidden identities and one too many suspicious butlers…
Complete with original illustrations by Joanna Lisowiec, this insightful parody of the genre takes survival tips from an international cast of crime-writers; Craig Rice (USA), Ngaio Marsh (New Zealand), Augusto de Angelis (Italy), Sheila Pim (Ireland), Sébastien Japrisot (France), and Maria Lang (Sweden), as well as a whole host of British Library Crime Classics authors, of course.”
If you’re a fan of traditional crime novels, including ones by Agatha Christie, you might find this one fun as it tells you what modes of transportation to avoid (everything), what rooms in your mansion to avoid, and links to all kinds of mysteries and victims who avoided all these survival tips at their own peril.
What about you? What are you reading this week?
Glen and I both got dismissed from jury duty last week. He only had to return for half a day until they completed filling the jury box. They can call us again in one year but we hope it doesn’t happen that soon.
We are expecting to have rain tonight and through all of Thursday. The temperatures have been cold for here, but not compared other places in the country. Today it was in the low 50s.
Last week I read FALL FROM GRACE by L.R. Wright. Wright is one of my favorite Canadian authors. This was the fourth in a series, published in 1991. The series character is Karl Alberg, a staff sergeant in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada. The setting is beautiful. Her writing puts the emphasis on character studies; thus the mystery story seems less important. I am sure some readers don’t care for that but I am fine with that approach.
Glen finished reading HOME: AMERICAN WRITERS REMEMBER ROOMS OF THEIR OWN, edited by Sharon Sloan Fiffer and Steve Fiffer. He liked it a lot. Now he is reading UNDER ALIEN SKIES: A SIGHTSEER’S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE by Philip Plait.
I’m glad you both got dismissed from jury duty, Tracy.
Oh, I read the Karl Alberg series years ago, Tracy, and really liked them. And, I liked the TV series made from them, Murder in a Small Town, but I petered out on it. I’m not good with series on TV, no matter how good they are.
How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel does sound like a lot of fun Lesa, so it’s gone onto my list.
It’s been delightfully colder than normal here for three weeks in a row, with early morning temperatures of -9 C (around 15.8 F). I so love walking in the cold!
David and I have been making plans for a four-day trip to Victoria (on Vancouver Island) next week. Our three children and spouses got together and gave us a gift for our upcoming 50th Anniversary – gift cards to all our favourite haunts in Victoria. Two bookstores, a Thai restaurant, afternoon tea at the Abkhazi Gardens teahouse, and to the Dutch Bakery and Cafe, the cost of the ferry to and from Victoria, and the cost of a hotel. Such a thoughtful gift.
They had wanted to have a party for us and invite family and friends but knew I wouldn’t really enjoy such a thing and so they came up with this idea instead. Our anniversary isn’t until March but for various reasons it worked out better to go next week rather than wait till March.
Only one book read this week:
AN EXCELLENT THING IN A WOMAN by Allison Montclair
This is the 7th book in the Sparks and Bainbridge series. It would be better to read the series from the beginning (The Right Sort of Man is the first book) so that you can appreciate the complexity of how the main characters got to where they are now in their lives – the revelations from past books in the series will have you fully committed to Iris and Gwen, and each new book tells us a bit more about them and we grow to love them all the more. The previous book ended on a cliffhanger, the answer to which is revealed on the very first page of this book.
The series is set in post-WWII London, when memories of the war are still quite fresh in everyone’s minds. Iris and Gwen run a marriage bureau in an effort to bring happiness to as many people as possible. Somehow or other they always end up being involved in a murder case. In this outing, a French dancer who is in town for the filming of a show bursts through their office door, says she cannot go back to Paris and demands that they find her a husband in just over a week. Not long after her visit she is discovered murdered. Not only that but Gwen’s beau, an aspiring playwright but currently working as a stage hand at the fledgling BBC television studios is accused of the murder. There is no choice now but for Iris and Gwen to get involved.
This book has a bit of a complicated story line, involving a dance troupe from Paris, two murders, various characters’ connections to the war, all woven around the filming of a variety show for television. There is a lot detailed information about the early days of television of how shows were produced, which was interesting but I felt it got in the way of the story sometimes and slowed down the narrative somewhat in the middle of the book. However, the last quarter of the story was great.
I will always read a Sparks and Bainbridge book and am already looking forward to the next one as it seemed like this one was setting up possible future adventures.
Last week I said I’d think about a few books I’ve read by Canadian authors or stories set in Canada for Tracy (and Rosemary), so here is said list:
– A KILLER IN KING’S COVE by Iona Whishaw (first in the excellent Lane Winslow mystery series set in British Columbia)
– AND THEN THERE WERE NUNS by Jane Christmas (an account of her entry into a convent to see if she was meant to be a nun)
– WAR WIDOW by Tara Moss (first in the Billie Walker mystery series – very very good)
– DARK AUGUST by Katie Tallo (first in the Gus Monet series)
– NEW GIRL IN LITTLE COVE by Damhnait Monaghan (Rachel starts a new life as a teacher in a tiny fishing village in Newfoundland – a fish out of water story)
– BLUEBIRD by Genevieve Graham (almost as good as The Secret Keeper)
– THE PARIS APARTMENT by Kelly Bowen (excellent book)
I enjoyed all the above books.
Ooh Lindy, thanks so much for that list. I’m going to look all of those books up right now before I (inevitably…) forget. The book you’ve just read also sounds interesting, I will see if I can find the first one, as you advise.
What a wonderful present your family has given you! That really is my idea of a perfect gift (I too would hate a party). Visiting all your favourite haunts will be such fun (and the Dutch Bakery sounds SO enticing). I hope you both have a fabulous time.
Lindy, What a beautiful anniversary gift from your family. I’m afraid my long-distance traveling days are over, but I always thought Victoria looked beautiful. Enjoy every bit of your trip.
I have a good friend who loves the Sparks and Bainbridge series. I think it’s the highlight of her reading year when another book comes out.
And, thank you for the list of Canadian authors. As I said, I know my sister enjoyed some of Genevieve Graham’s books thanks to you.
Lindy, Enjoy your trip and congratulations on your anniversary.
Thank you for the review of the Sparks and Bainbridge book. It is in my library queue.
I have not read any of your books except NEW GIRL IN LITTLE COVE by Damhnait Monaghan. I loved it but have not heard of her writing another one.
Sharon, she does have a collection of stories out called THE NEVERLANDS but I haven’t read it. Came out a year before New Girl in Little Cove I think.
Lindy, I do appreciate your listing of books by Canadian authors or stories set in Canada. Thanks so much for taking the time to come up with the list.
Other than Genevieve Graham (who was on your top ten list), I have only heard of one of those on your list. I read A KILLER IN KING’S COVE by Iona Whishaw and I have a copy of the second book, DEATH IN A DARKENING MIST. I like reading about British Columbia.
I will look into all the others and see what I can do to get copies. I am especially interested in NEW GIRL IN LITTLE COVE by Damhnait Monaghan because of the setting in Newfoundland.
Your trip to Victoria next week sounds wonderful and congratulations on your upcoming 50th anniversary. I think it is perceptive and thoughtful of your children to realize that you would enjoy that more than a party.
Tracy – Glenn Burwell also has a police procedural set in British Columbia, primarily Vancouver.
Thank you, MM. I found this series at Amazon and purchased a Kindle of the first book in the series. I am not buying paper books until September, but I can buy Kindle books, especially at reasonable prices. I am looking forward to trying THE CHAPEL OF RETRIBUTION by Glenn Burwell.
It’s been fairly nice, but a bit chilly out. It’s supposed to rain tonight. I certainly hope so.
I went to a SuperBowl Party. I felt like I travelled back in time to when the Broncos and The Bills got blown out every year. I was as surprised as anyone. Then today I read some referees got fired for being involved with gambling, just as everybody suspected. Cheaters never prosper.
This week I read:
Choice to Kill by Robert W. Stephens; A casual private eye in Hawaii is planning his wedding. Then he is surrounded by dysfunctional relationships that make marriage look frightening indeed. Of course, there’s a murder, but that’s not the scary thing about this novel.
Roast Mortem by Cleo Coyle; There’s somebody burning down coffee shops in New York City, and a couple of dead bodies as a result. Our sleuths investigate, and and find the heat is on.
Cannon’s Law by Dennis Archer; A cowboy starts a cattle drive on the spur of the moment, and finds himself facing some outlaws, and the usual girl. Pretty average.
Rise of the Fury by Clint Hollingsworth; The title has nothing to do with the story. An assassin screws up a hit. The usual shadowy organization she works for gives her a chance to prove herself, and she decides to off Mac Crow, bounty hunter, and general doofus. This is actually much better than I can make the cliched premise sound, and is one of the better Men’s Adventure series going, only the author isn’t very prolific.
Crawlers: A Conclusive Casebook by Nathan Brislin; A collection of sightings of the newest fashionable cryptid, The Pale Crawler. These look sort of like alien grays, only they crawl around on all fours, and seem vaguely threatening, but never actually attack anyone who sees one. I’m skeptical.
Heathcliff and The Good Life by George Gately; The second most famous orange cat with black stripes has his Sunday strips collected in this one. Heathcliff is one strange strip. His 80’s cartoon doesn’t even approach the zaniness of the actual comic.
Blood in the Water by Julien Rapp; Derrick Dreadlow’s partner and soon to be sister in law is arrested for murder, and he soon gets suspended from the force himself. He still works the cases, and gets into a side business. His wife makes an art showing. There’s some vaguely menacing mob stuff, but no Wo Fat, dangit. I actually picture Dreadlow as looking like Riptide vintage Jake Penny.
Seven books read in a single week! I don’t even know how that’s possible. I’m quite a slow reader – the most I can read in a week is two books. My goodness; I’m going to have to pick up the pace a little bit.
Lindy,
It’s not a contest. Don’t pressure yourself like that. Enjoy your reading at your own pace.
I thought it was funny when you said you remain skeptical about the crawlers, Glen. I think I would, too.
Do you like Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse mysteries? I read them, and they sort of just died out for me. I love her Haunted Bookshop mysteries. (I guess I should say, their mysteries since it’s a husband and wife. Two of the nicest people ever.)
“Cheaters never prosper” no longer works for me, not with the biggest cheater of all in the White House.
How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel sounds exactly like something I need to read.
I’m hearing that it is raining in other parts of LA, but I haven’t seen it yet. But we are supposed to get about 2 inches on Thursday. While we need it, all at once like this could cause problems, especially in the recent fire areas. On the other hand, they are letting us work from home on Thursday because of the rain. Not complaining about that at all.
On the reading front, I’m aiming to finish THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB by Robert Thorogood. I’d bought the book not too long before I learned of the adaptation that was on PBS in the fall. I watched it and enjoyed it. It’s fairly faithful to the book, but I’m enjoying the book even though I remember how things come together at the end. I was a bit worried that would make me impatient, but it hasn’t happened.
Well, that’s new to me, Mark, allowing you to work from home because of the rain!
I think others said they enjoyed the TV adaptation of The Marlow Murder Club more than the book itself. I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
Gray and rainy in Bern, so today is a good day for working at the computer. I read the last of my Christmas books today, this one the first in a fantasy trilogy that my nephew sent me. The trilogy by Saara El-Arifi is called The Ending Fire, and the first book is THE FINAL STRIFE. The severely oppressed classes in an oligarchical country are planning a secret rebellion against their masters, with three separate heroines from three distinct groups of people (who have different colors of blood!) fighting against the baddies. I found it very exciting and bought the second book in the trilogy, but I’ll read something else first to take a break.
After I finished listening to THE GATEKEEPER (James Byrne), which I loved, I listened to and finished a crime novel by an author completely new to me, Michael Koryta, called AN HONEST MAN. It takes place on a small island in Maine and is about the corruption there and a man trying to uncover it. I highly recommend it, although it’s on the dark side (but realistically so). It has a very appealing child character, a ten-year-old boy named Lyman, as well as an appealing adult protagonist.
I’m glad you loved The Gatekeeper, Kim. I raved about it so much I almost feel responsible if people don’t like the book.
You surprised me when you said Michael Koryta’s book was set in Maine. He’s from Indiana originally, and a number of his early books are set there.
It sounds as if it’s a rainy day everywhere. A good day to tuck in and work, as you said, or just tuck in and read.
Kim, I don’t know if you get George Easter’s Deadly Pleasures zine, but this issue he talks about what books he is most looking forward to this year, and one was yours! (I am looking forward to it too, of course.) You were on the list of Most Anticipated Mysteries, along with Val McDermid, Carl Hiaasen, S. A. Cosby, Stephen King, Jo Callaghan, Cara Hunter, Bruce Borgos and Mick Herron, among others.
Hi Jeff! I know George from my two times at a Bouchercon mystery conference, and I think he’s a wonderful person. I subscribe to Deadly Pleasures, but I didn’t look through the newest issue right away. Luckily, a friend wrote me two days ago to tell me George had listed my next book, SPLINTERED JUSTICE, as an April release. THEN I saw exactly what you saw–that I was also in the august company of the writers you listed as the author of one of the 2025 mysteries he’s most looking forward to! I felt great! And you telling me makes me feel great all over again! Thanks for making sure that I got the news. I’m glad you’re looking forward to the new book, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Ten degrees yesterday morning, but thirty with a coating of fresh snow this morning.
I finally read Richard Osman’s latest, WE SOLVE MURDERS. It had a few scenes with the wit and character development he showed in The Thursday Murder Club books, but not as enticing. The author said this is the start of a new series, but sadly it read like a recycled beginner’s effort. Well, never say never, but I think I’ll take a break.
For a highly readable police procedural, THE PUPPET SHOW by MW Craven. Published in 2018, the first in the award winning series featuring Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw. Set in England’s Lake District, a dark and twisting police procedural with well-defined characters. A serial killer leaves no clues, and the police are adrift. Disgraced detective Washington Poe is brought back from suspension and into an investigation he wants no part of. He’s partnered with the brilliant but socially awkward analyst, Tilly Bradshaw – possibly the best sidekick ever. The body count rises and Poe discovers he has far more invested in the case than he could have possibly imagined. It’s probably an overload of triggers for many readers but definitely a page-turner. It brought to mind the Cara Hunter series, which started around the same time.
On the other end of the spectrum, I listened to THE LADIES OF MISSALONGHI, a memorable classic romance with a fairy tale ending. Set in the early 1900s in Australia by author Colleen McCullough. I think this was mentioned by Rosemary.
And I’m currently listening to A ROGUE’S COMPANY, the third in Sparks & Bainbridge historical mystery series set in post-war London. This is the same series Lindy mentioned, but she’s much further along. It is an enjoyable series.
Thank you, MM. I just placed a hold on The Puppet Show. A new-to-me police procedural sounds wonderful.
Oh, I vaguely remember The Ladies of Missalonghi. I read it years ago, so don’t really remember the plot, but I know I enjoyed it.
Have just added The Puppet Show to my list since you make it sound so good!
Good morning everyone – it’s 11am on Deeside, and the sun is finally showing itself after a week of dark clouds and dampness.
On Sunday we celebrated the re-opening of ‘our’ section of the river path by walking all the way from Peterculter into the Duthie Park (in the city centre). It’s about 8 miles, almost all of which can be walked on the Deeside Way (the old railway line from Aberdeen to Ballater.) We stopped for coffee and cakes at Ground, a new-ish café in Bieldside, about half way along. Ground is also a bike repair shop, so most of the customers were cyclists. We were distinctly *not* lycra-clad.
It was a good walk, you see so much from the path that you wouldn’t see by driving along the main road. There are some enormous granite mansions along part of the route, but also some farms and small cottages. I love seeing what people have done with their gardens – some are beautifully landscaped, others are full of the kind of kitsch ornaments that I love (and David can’t stand.)
I’m currently reading A WRITER’S HOME IN WALES by the celebrated Welsh travel writer Jan Morris. She lived in a coach house up a hillside in rural Wales for many years. Most of the locals are Welsh speaking, though everyone in Wales can now speak fluent English too.
I am enjoying Morris’s descriptions of the natural world, and of some of the characters that she came to know, but I have to say I am finding her style a bit irritating. She frequently addresses the reader as if they were a real visitor in her house – little asides like ‘tea? No? Something stronger?’ or ‘Now come upstairs – don’t worry, the stairs wobble but they’re quite safe’ – some people seem to have enjoyed this, but I find it far too cutesy for my liking. I’ve never read any of Morris’s travel writing – for which she won many awards during her lifetime– so I don’t know if she normally wrote like this, or just chose to do so here.
I’m also reading THE POOL OF THE BLACK WITCH, a children’s book by ‘BB’ (Denys Watkins-Pitchford), first published in 1974. ‘BB’ wrote quite a few children’s books, none of which I have ever read – they were popular with much more middle class parents than mine, presumably because they were seen as wholesome. The Pool of the Black Witch is about a young boy called Timothy, who goes with his parents on a caravan holiday to a rural part of Wales. Timothy’s main interest is fishing, so he is delighted to find a river very near to the farm on which they are staying. He doesn’t have much success until he meets a local poacher, who teaches him to use flies as bait instead of worms, and gives him a better fishing rod.
The problem with this book, for me, is that it really is about very little but fishing. We have every detail of which fish are where, how they nearly catch one but fail, how they plan their next expedition (they go out at night, and Timothy’s parents seem to have no problem whatsoever in entrusting their son to the care of a slightly dodgy stranger…) and – worse for me – long descriptions of the poor fish writhing and struggling on the end of the line. I know I am being hypocritical, as I do eat fish, but these days the fishermen on the Dee are obliged to put everything they catch straight back in (despite paying vast sums for fishing permits). I think attitudes were very different all those years ago, and presumably many a small boy (not sure about 1970s girls – I was reading Enid Blyton, Malcolm Saville, and Helen Dore Boylston) enjoyed every word of this book, but I’ll be quite glad to finish it.
These are the two books I found to read for Dewithon, I think I must have read all the better Welsh books I own last year!
My third book this week is A TERRIBLE VILLAGE POISONING by Hannah Hendy. It’s about a female couple who work in a school as dinner ladies. I couldn’t get any earlier books in this series from my library, but it seems that Margery and Clementine have become known as The Dinner Lady Detectives. I’m only on chapter two, but so far I’m not much impressed with the quality of the writing – I have noticed a lot of factual inconsistencies, and wonder if the publisher (Canelo) even employs a proof reader, let alone an editor.
Before these, I fitted in the next Rose Trelawny murder mystery by Janie Bolitho. BETRAYED IN CORNWALL is about a young fisherman who is found dead at the bottom of a cliff with a package of drugs beside him. Need I tell you that Rose knows the family (who’ve never been mentioned in any of the previous books) intimately, so is of course immediately getting involved, determined to prove that Joe has been murdered, and that he was not involved with drugs in any way.
Meanwhile, the house of a wealthy couple is burgled while they are on holiday; they were about to divorce because the wife has had a string of affairs and the husband was having one with Joe’s mother (this seems highly unconvincing to me, as he is a suave businessman from London, and she is a frumpy [Bolitho’s description, not mine!] bed and breakfast owner.) Etta, Joe’s mother, had asked Rose to talk with her grumpy and uncommunicative daughter, Sarah (again, would you ask someone else to do this?) – then Sarah disappears.
I think these plot strands could have worked, but unfortunately for me they just didn’t. Rose is still waging a non stop fight with Inspector Jack Pearce, still withholding evidence from him just to be difficult, still snapping at him for no reason. We are supposed to think that this is because of their wild sexual attraction, but really, how on earth are we supposed to believe this exists?
So I do wonder why I am continuing with this series, but I want to get it read and done. I think the whole set of books can then make their way to the Oxfam Bookshop.
I also finished edition 83 of the Slightly Foxed periodical, which I enjoyed very much (hurrah! At least one success this week!) Excellent contributions by Elspeth Barker’s daughter (Barker wrote the wonderful coming of age novel, O CALEDONIA), Suzi Feay on Leon Garfield’s SMITH, Michael Barber on Christopher Isherwood’s MR NORRIS CHANGES TRAINS , and Jane Ridley on Marion Crawford’s controversial (at the time – it wouldn’t be now) memoir of life as nanny to Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, THE LITTLE PRINCESSES.
On Tuesday we went to an excellent talk, part of the university’s public engagement programme, about the Pictish settlement at Tap O’ The Noth at Rhynie. Rhynie is a tiny village in rural northern Aberdeenshire. In the 1970s, a farmer’s son ploughing a field unearthed a huge stone carved with a picture of a Pictish man (‘the Pictish Mannie’ – people around these parts love to add ‘ie’ to nouns, eg Marks & Spencer’s is always ‘Markies’).
Archaeological investigations have been going on ever since, and this talk was given by a professor of archaeology who has been closely involved with the dig. He and his team have concluded that a Pictish settlement with over eight hundred settled dwelling houses existed on Tap O’ the Noth (a big hill) around 300-400 AD. They were highly skilled people, even refining silver from local mineral deposits. The professor made all of this so much more interesting than I had anticipated – he had lots of pictures, and told the story in a very entertaining way.
On Sunday we are off to Edinburgh yet again to attend a concert by a band called Jazz Sabbath. I have never seen them before so have little idea what to expect – we’ll see!
On TV I am now on the 4th and (for the time being) final series of SLOW HORSES, and we have started the second series of WOLF HALL. I’ve also started THE NEWSREADER, the Australian series Anna recommended, and I enjoyed the first episode, which was set around the time of Haley’s Comet ‘revisiting’ Australian skies, but it mainly about intrigue and office politics at a TV station.
And now I am off to the river. On Wednesday an otter swam alongside me as I walked the path, popping out of the water at one point to sit on a rock, before gliding seamlessly back into the depths.
Have a great week everyone.
Good afternoon, Rosemary, since I’m sure it’s afternoon there by now.
Enjoy your walk, and I hope your neighborhood otter shows up to keep you company! Your walks sound wonderful, but only sound that way. I’m lazy and seldom go walking, so I’m sure I wouldn’t enjoy the combination of your unsettled weather and the walk. But, the cafes always sound wonderful.
The discussion of the Pictish dig sounds fascinating. I’m glad the presenter was a good one.
Oh, and I have to say I’m in agreement with David on that one. Not a fan of kitsch garden ornaments.
Your walk sounds delightful Rosemary (as do all of them) but 8 miles is a long way! And another 8 miles to get back of course. I think I would have collapsed by the side of the road by the 4 mile mark. Maybe 6 because of being distracted by all the sights.
Rosemary, I enjoy it when you talk about the Rose Trelawny mysteries by Janie Bolitho. I read a couple of series like that, where there are several irritating elements, but I just can’t stop reading them. One is the Jane Haddam series set mostly in Philadelphia (at least 25 books) and another is Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series, which is truly wonderful but still there are things about her style that irritate me.
Rosemary, I forgot to thank you for telling me about some the Canadian books at Lindy Gomm’s Top 10 favorite books post. I am familiar with the books by Bill Richardson and Stuart McLean, but I still haven’t read them. I think I first heard about them at your blog (a list of 20 Books of Summer). At the time I could not find copies of the books, but I am sure I can remedy that this year. And there you had also mentioned Claire Mowat’s book, which I had totally forgotten about and sounds like the perfect book for me. I have to confess I haven’t read anything by Farley Mowat either.
Good morning from frigid Idaho! Yesterday, we started the morning out with 5 degrees. Today, we are expecting 3 to 7 inches of snow. They’ve already started canceling school although I still have to go in.
As a big fan of “Golden Girls” back in the day, I was excited to read MURDER BY CHEESECAKE by Rachel Ekstrom Courage.
Rose is busy planning a St Olaf wedding with all the town traditions for her niece. Dorothy is tired of going by herself to events and decides to join a dating service. After viewing many potential candidates on VHS tape (yes, VHS) she contacts one of the men and sets up a time to meet. At the meeting, the guy is acting weird and eventually excuses himself from the table to use the restroom and never returns. Dorothy is upset and throws herself into helping Rose with the wedding plans. At the first event for the wedding, Rose discovers a dead body in the hotel freezer. The police questioned all the girls but particularly focused on Dorothy because her name and phone number were in the deceases’ pocket. The girls take it upon themselves to solve the murder.
It’s a cozy and the over usage of adjectives just about drove me nuts but it was a quick read and bought back fond memories of the show. My copy was from NetGalley.
I’m sorry you have to go in, Bev, even though they canceled school. Stay safe!
I was curious about that Golden Girls series. Thanks for reporting on it!
Bev, I wanted to thank you for your suggestion of the Dreadful Water series by Thomas King last week on Lindy Gomm’s Top 10 favorite books. I do have a copy of the first book in the series but I had forgotten about it. I need to pull it out and shelve it with my TBR pile of Canadian books.
Good morning. We’ve had several storms this week that have either changed to sleet or rain so it’s been a mess to shovel.
After starting and not being able to get interested in several books I finished IF IT ISN’T ONE THING by Steven Havill. I felt it was of the weaker books in the series. Estelle and the sheriff’s department are overwhelmed by a rapid series of crimes. But there really wasn’t much of a mystery per se.
You’re right, Sandy. It was one of the weaker books. I think you can tell Havill is getting ready to retire.
Your book sounds fun. Will look for it. Our weather would be much to your liking – we’re now in a period of low 80s several days in a row, though it looks cooler (70s) next week. We could use a little rain, though I don’t see any at the moment, New York still has some snow on the ground, as Alternate Side Parking is still suspended. Nice to miss that. We are just about at the halfway point of our trip, which is good. We still have another month and a half before we have to worry about weather.
Books. Jackie read and really liked her J. R. Ward book, A BLOOM IN WINTER (“fabulous”). She is now reading the new J. D. Robb, BONDED IN DEATH. She loves the “urban war” theme.
Not a lot of reading time this week. After the phones, Jackie insisted I get a new tablet to match hers, which took time. Then there was a Super Bowl. Anyway, I did finish one book, Jo Callaghan’s second with DCS Kat Frank and AIDE Lock, the sometimes amazingly lifelike AI program that helps solve crimes, Leave No Trace.. Their success with the cold cases in the first book (IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE) has gotten them a chance at their first “live” murder case. A man in his 30s has been found, naked and crucified in the middle of the winter. They need to discover who he is (that part is easy), how it was done, and, most troubling, why and by whom. I won’t give the gory details, but then a second man is discovered dead in the same way, and now the urgency ramps up even more. Kat and Lock disagree on methods and motives, there are personal stories within her group (her Sergeant is eight months pregnant), and there is real fear of a third murder to come. I raced through this one in two quick days. Really good book, as was the first. Both are highly recommended but must be read in order.
Dorothy M. Johnson was one of the most successful women writing western fiction, and her The Hanging Tree is a collection of the title novella, which was filmed with Gary Cooper in 1959, and nine short stories, most of which are a lot lighter than the title story. She also wrote the stories filmed as THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALLANCE and A MAN CALLED HORSE. Good writer.
Now that the Palm Beach County librarian told Jackie how to access and reserve books here via the Cloud Library, I have bene able to reserve and borrow books much more quickly than is typical in Brooklyn. Jackie had hundreds of people ahead of her for the J. D> Robb, yet I got it for her in a few days here. I read the Callaghan book via the Cloud, and I am now reading another favorite, Stephen Spotswood’s 5th Pentecost and Parker book, Dead in the Frame. Lillian Pentecost, the top PI, has been arrested for murder and the cops couldn’t be happier than to see her put away and out of their hair. The victim is the odious “connoisseur of crime” Jessup Quincannon, whose life Lillian has threatened publicly. Now Will Parker, just back from vacation, must work to free her boss and find the real culprit. I really like this series. This one won’t take me long to finish either.
Love the sound of your weather, Jeff. You’re right.
Like Jackie, I enjoyed the urban wars theme in Bonded in Death.
I’m glad that Palm Beach County librarian helped you and Jackie out. It’s nice to be up higher on waiting lists, isn’t it?
Happy Thursday everyone – I always look forward to What Are You Reading day! The days are starting to get longer and we actually saw the sun! Our bay appears to be freezing over, something that we haven’t seen in a long time. It would be great if it froze hard enough to bring out the ice fishermen’s shanties – always love seeing those.
This week I listened to book 2 and 3 of the Undersheriff Bill Gastner books – Bitter Recoil and Twice Buried. Both were solid books, but I enjoyed Twice Buried a tad more. I plan to keep plugging away on this series. The narrator is especially good.
I also finished Buried Lies by Steven Tingle. This is the sequel to Graveyard Fields, which I also read, but sadly I don’t recall much of it. This book was a more lighthearted procedural with quite the cast of homegrown characters with very unforgettable nicknames. PI Davis Reed is chilling out in Cruso, NC, waiting for writing inspiration to hit him so that he can begin his novel. As he waits for said inspiration, he decides to accompany his local police friend on a call to a golf course where a dead body in a sand trap awaits them. Four local business men, one now deceased, were the last group on the course, yet their colleague has died from the impact of a golf ball to his temple from somebody behind them. An eccentric, bored, wealthy couple, when learning about this person’s demise, offer Davis much needed money to pursue the possibility that the man was murdered. At times whimsical, this book is still a compelling procedural with many clues and twists and turns toward the inevitable outcome that the man was indeed murdered.
Happy Thursday and Happy Reading, Mary! Let us know if the ice shanties get out on the ice.
I really enjoyed the Undersheriff Bill Gastner books. Some were better than others, but that’s true in any series.
Thanks for saying how much you enjoy Thursdays here. I do, too.
Good morning, friends! I’ve been going to bed a little earlier than before, so I haven’t been posting in the evening. We’re back to rain today. It sounds like it rained all night, and it calls for rain continuing today, so I’ll be happily staying home. I had two card games this week, plus a large luncheon at a restaurant. Last Sunday my younger son invited us over to watch the Super Bowl on their 120-inch TV, along with plenty of snacks, and that was a lot of fun. I’m originally from Philly, so of course we were all rooting for the Eagles, and they won in a spectacular way. Here are the three books I finished this week:
Alli Frank and Asha Youmans’ 2024 novel, BOSS LADY, appealed to me because I had enjoyed a previous book of theirs (Tiny Imperfections), and because I was intrigued by the protagonist. Antonia “Toni” Arroyo transports passengers from one location to another in the San Francisco Airport. Her longtime aspirations to be a college-educated scientist had been put aside when her father died and her husband left her with twin girls to support. But she has continued to work on her inventions, with a dream of managing her own business. When she feels she has finally invented a worthwhile product that could attract investors, she is thrilled to get a spot on a Shark Tank-like TV show. Re-enter Toni’s husband, who seems to think he can waltz back into their home and lives since he hasn’t signed any divorce papers and their high school freshman daughters like having him around. He, too, has aspirations of starting his own business, and he clearly doesn’t understand what attracts and motivates his wife. Toni is a fun, relatable character, and I was charmed by her support system of her mother, her favorite transport client, and a couple of fellow airport employees, all with their own unique qualities and backgrounds, and their desire to help Toni succeed. There’s a potential romance as well, but it’s a very rocky road until late in the book and not as convincing as I would have liked. The Shark Tank-like show portrayed in the book is, of course, not very plausible (I watch a lot of Shark Tank). But the plot is something I hadn’t encountered before, and although I thought that some sections were too drawn out, I recommend it as an easy, pleasurable read.
In CJ Wray’s THE EXCITEMENTS, English sisters Josephine and Penny Williamson are always asking their great-nephew, Archie, to find some “excitements” for them to enjoy because they are both in their late nineties, and they miss the fun and danger of their earlier lives. Both worked for their country during World War II, and not necessarily in the ways they had described to their family and friends. Both had had romance at some points in their lives, and one of them has picked up some larcenous ways that she can’t seem to put behind her. In the present day, Archie is accompanying his great-aunts to Paris, where they will receive the latest in a chestful of war-related medals. But an unexpected siege at the awards ceremony tests the mettle and resourcefulness of all three (the hilarious Morse Code episodes are worth the price of admission alone). There are many chapters that cut back to various points in the sisters’ lives, which took a bit of getting used to, but ultimately worked just fine. This is a unique story, based on a real-life pair of sisters that the author encountered, and told in an engaging way. Both women are fascinating characters, as are quite a number of the supporting cast. There is plenty of humor sprinkled throughout, especially in the dialogue, along with sincere emotion and depth. It’s a stimulating cocktail of a book, and I found it intoxicating.
Having lived and worked in Silicon Valley for years, enjoying many wonderful meals and special events at Chef Chu’s iconic restaurant in Los Altos, I was drawn to VIEWFINDER: A MEMOIR OF SEEING AND BEING SEEN by Chef Chu’s film director son, Jon M. Chu, . It didn’t hurt that I had also loved three of Jon’s biggest movies: Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights, and Wicked. Jon grew up in Los Altos, a first-generation Chinese American and the youngest of five children. His parents turned their strip mall lunch counter into a wildly popular restaurant, while giving Jon and his siblings every opportunity to learn and grow, from family season tickets to the ballet, opera, and symphony in San Francisco to whatever classes caught their fancy (Jon took 12 years of tap dancing classes!). But they never talked much about their own background. Their mantra was, “never complain.” It was only in this memoir that Jon sat down and envisioned a moving cinematic account of his parents’ story, which was eye-opening for himself at the same time. The rest of the book is filled with captivating details about Jon’s childhood life, his own family–his wife and four children–and his journey from homemade filmmaker to film student to heralded movie director. Encounters with Steven Spielberg and Steve Jobs were impactful for the young Jon, and making Crazy Rich Asians had great meaning for him. He says, “A young Asian American facing a cultural identity crisis: that’s the story I needed to tell.” This book is everything I want a memoir to be–detailed, vulnerable, and filled with delightful insights into the author and his experiences. I can only hope that Jon’s next book will be about taking on the two-movie Wicked series and how his personal vision brought both films (we haven’t seen the second one yet) to huge box office numbers, awards, and accolades from critics and audiences alike.
The Excitements sounds like a good book, Margie.
And, parts of Boss Lady sound good. I can’t stand when ex-husbands, or ex-whatevers waltz back in, thinking they can just be in charge again. But, I like the sound of Toni herself.
Margie, I too loved The Excitements as you know, and highly recommend it.
Left to my own devices I would not have picked up the memoir you reviewed but now you’ve made me want to read it! It sounds fascinating.
I finished TRUE NORTH by Andrew J Graff. He teaches at Wittenberg University in Columbus, Lesa. This was the river rafting book I surprisingly enjoyed. Sam is a burned-out art teacher. He buys Woodchuck rafting company from his uncle which is a disaster. His wife takes over the management in order to sell it. But first they have to deal with the mining company that wants the land. Aside from rafting this was about marriage, a community as well as ecology. I really liked it a lot.
Next, I read I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL by Natalie Sue from Kindle Unlimited. Jolene is an admin worker who accidentally gains access to her colleagues’ private e-mails and DM’s. She uses this information to try and save her job. This one was funny for the most part and I enjoyed it as well.
My last book was NEVER by Jessa Hastings. Another version of Peter Pan. This time Peter comes from Daphne Darling, granddaughter of Wendy and his no longer a boy. I thought this was written interestingly and I was all wrapped up in the story until I got to the very end where I wanted to throw the book across the room…..ugh just ugh. I am still trying to decide how much I liked it after all.
Happy reading!
Happy reading, Sharon!
Don’t you hate it when a book disappoints like that? Or, makes you angry?
Thanks for the information about Andrew Graff. I recognized the title True North, but didn’t know Graff is a professor at Wittenberg.
Too late to comment again but I will try. I am reading The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn, I love it and is well written. My hands hurt too much to say more,
I’m sorry, Carol. Take care of yourself, and rest.
How awful Carol. I feel mightily sorry for you. We need our hands for everything!
Good morning from the west coast, where it’s gloomy, rainy day. This is the first time I’ve chimed in here, but I just finished reading something along the same line as How to Survive and thought I would share it. How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin is an absolute delight. When I first started it, I thought it might be predictable, but not at all. A great heroine, good backstory, really a first rate read with twists and turns and good, solid writing.
I agree – that was a fabulous book! I read an ARC of the next book – coming out in April. Not as good as the first but still good!
Great to hear from you, Terry! I have the sequel to that book from NetGalley, but I want to wait to read it until I get the first one from the library. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it.
Also a suggestion from a lurker. Mike Martin has written an excellent series set in Newfoundland. The protagonist is a Native Canadian RCMP officer. Many current problems like smuggling and opioids are covered but there is a warm sense of community and family. I really recommend it.
Thank you, Chris! I’m going to look for his books. I like the sound of the sense of community and family.