It’s been a good week. Easter dinner at my sister and brother-in-law’s. Weather in the 70s a couple days. Last night, Linda and I went to see “A Beautiful Noise”, the musical about Neil Diamond. Because I’m writing this before the show, I don’t have anything else to say, but we love Neil Diamond’s songs. My father was a fan, and I even bought the “Greatest Hits” album with my father. We split the cost. So good memories.
Memories. That’s what The Correspondent by Virginia Evans deals with. Release date is April 29. It’s going to take me a couple days to get through this meaty, epistolary novel, but I’m hoping it’s worth it. I’ve only read the first fifth of the book, but I admire seventy-three-year-old Sybil Van Antwerp.
“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle, or, a better metaphor, if dated, the links of a long chain, and even if those links are never put back together, which they will certainly never be, even if they remain for the rest of time dispersed across the earth like the fragile blown seeds of a dying dandelion, isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”
Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.
Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.
What about you? What are you doing this week? What are you reading? I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I’m enjoying The Correspondent.
I had a good Easter myself.
This week I read:
One of You by Lorie Lewis Ham; There’s a big deal in Fresno’s Tower district. When a beloved mystery author is murdered, our sleuth investigates. It’s amazing she can investigate at all, as she spends most of her time letting us all know how woke she is.
Sugar and Iced by Jenn McKinlay; The cupcake bakers find themselves catering a beauty pageant. The mother is all for it, but the protagonist has mixed feelings about this. Then one of her underlings goes Miss Congeniality. It turns out that maybe the protagonist is the one with the problem rather than the contestants.
Holiday Buzz by Cleo Coyle; It’s Christmas time, and there’s a Christmas Stalker killing people. When he kills one of Cleo’s employees, she get on the case, as her supercop boyfriend tries to make it to NYC despite a storm. Very Christmassy.
I’m glad you had a good Easter, Glen. Sounds as if you enjoyed Cleo Coyle’s Holiday Buzz. From one holiday to another.
Not much to report from here this week even though it seemed fairly busy. Had a grandson over for dinner while his parents were in Amsterdam (to see the tulips) and Paris to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Our son and family came over the following day and brought lunch for all of us; the only things I had to do was make tea and provide never-ending snacks for little Evelyn. And tomorrow we take the other daughter and her husband to the airport; they’re heading to England to visit his mom for a week, and then going off to Ireland for another couple of weeks – a holiday they’ve been saving up for for a long time.
Books I read this week:
DEATH UNDER A LITTLE SKY by Stig Abell
A first novel from a former Times Literary Supplement editor.
Jake is 38 years old, a detective from the big city, in a failing marriage. He’s ready for a change in his life. Just at this pivotal point in his life he is informed that his uncle has bequeathed his isolated home in the vast countryside and all his money, to Jake. So Jake quits his job, ups stakes and pins all his hopes for a quiet peaceful life away from his stresses, on his new home.
It turns out this home is pretty much off-the-grid living – no phone, no internet, no washing machine, no shower. A fair bit of the book is devoted to seeing how Jake makes this place his own, bit by bit.
But this is first and foremost a mystery novel, and not too far in human bones are discovered at a community fair, and Jake is pulled back into the world of detection. It isn’t easy since the locals clam up and aren’t even willing to talk about the person whose bones were discovered; indeed many of them are downright hostile and threatening – both to Jake and to Livia, his fledgling romantic interest.
This is a slow-burn mystery and the writing is atmospheric, descriptive, and moody. I enjoyed the style of writing but thought it sometimes got in the way of telling the story a little bit. Still, the book has plenty of tension-filled scenes and there was an underlying threat of menace throughout. The two main characters could have been a bit more engaging but I think that will work itself out in the second entry in the series.
I SEE YOU’VE CALLED IN DEAD by John Kenney
It was the title that first caught my eye but this book is definitely going to be on my favourites list for 2025.
Bud is an obituary writer for a newspaper, although he hasn’t been doing a good job of it for a while now. He’s not enjoying life and has been in a bit of a depression since his wife left him. He gets drunk one night and in his drunken state decides he should write his own obituary. It isn’t meant to be serious and it’s full of untruths, but he accidentally hits ‘send’ and now it’s out there in the world. The company wants to fire him but there’s a snag – because of the obituary he’s technically dead, and dead people can’t be fired so the situation is causing big problems at the newspaper. While his job is hanging in the balance Bud somehow ends up going to the wakes and funerals of dead people. Of total strangers in fact. What happens at these events makes for great reading.
Up to this point you think the book is just going to be a funny story about a man who made a silly mistake. And it is indeed darkly funny but it is also so much more – life and death, written in such a way that it gets you emotionally. But in the next breath you laugh. It breaks your heart but puts it together again all at the same time. It is effortlessly profound, and the dialogue is superb. I felt connected to every character, most of whom are in difficult situations of their own, and we experience their worlds – how they cope with what they’ve been given, and it’s all so believable. But funny and readable and human and wise. It’s not preachy, it’s just a novel written in a way that makes you feel, just feel, all while being entertained. And by the end I was inspired and determined to make the most of every day.
When I finished the book (in just over a day) I wanted to begin it again right away, which has not happened to me before. This is a book I will keep and treasure, and re-read from time to time. I loved it.
Both of those books sound really good Lindy, especially I See You’ve Called In Dead.
Two more for the TBR. Thank you!
Lindy – Have you read any of John Kenney’s previous books? My library has several that sound interesting – without the wait list of his new book. thanks
MM, I have not read any other books by John Kenney. Until this latest book I’d not heard of him. He has two other novels I think, and a few books of poetry.
I agree with Rosemary, Lindy. Thank you for calling our attention to I See You’ve Called in Dead. I just put it on hold at the library, and I’m number 55 on the list, so word is getting around about this book!
Amsterdam for the tulips! England and then Ireland! Two weeks in Ireland sounds wonderful. I’ve been there, and absolutely loved my trip. And, May should be beautiful there.
Lindy, thanks for the recommendation. I put I See You’ve Called in Dead on hold at the library
Lindy, thank you for the recommendation for I See You’ve Called in Dead. It sounds amazing. I just put a hold on it in the library, where it is “processing.”
Death on a Scottish Train by Lucy Connelly. An October release I am reading and enjoying now thanks to NetGalley.
Thank you, Kevin! I’m happy to hear you’re enjoying Death on a Scottish Train. I have it on my NetGalley list.
Hello, everyone. My husband and I are spending almost three weeks in Rumania, seeing castles, beautiful churches, and mountains, and we’re just getting started, so forgive me if I’m “away” some days. I’m typing on the phone with my finger, and I’m so slow! But I just finished a beautifully written, moving, and thought-provoking book called MIGRATIONS by Charlotte McConaghy. It’s set in a near future when almost all animals, birds, fish, insects, etc are extinct, so it’s sad. But still excellent!
Have a wonderful trip Kim! What prompted you to choose Romania? A while ago I went to a talk by a Scottish author who had lived in that country for many years; he sets his novels at least partly there. He said if you want to visit Romania go now, while it’s still relatively unspoiled, because Western commerical influences are already visible in some places.
Oh, we get it, Kim. Between cell phones, Internet, and enjoying your trip, you might not have days to stop by.
Enjoy your trip, and I hope you get to enjoy Romania as it should be seen, as Rosemary said.
Rosemary and Lesa, I’m glad you asked about Romania. Why are we here? Well, it’s a European country we’ve never been to full of Unesco World Heritage monasteries and churches, spectacular castles, and dramatic, mountainous scenery. So far we enjoyed parks and museums in Bucharest and today, on our way to Transylvania, we saw a beautiful convent and church in a lovely landscape. I’ll keep you posted (with my index finger!) Oh, yes. Very few tourists, too!
It sounds wonderful Kim, enjoy your holiday!
I hope you and your husband have the best trip ever; it sounds fabulous already!
Thanks, Lindy!
Kim, Thanks for mentioning MIGRATIONS. It sounds exactly like the kind of book I want to read. I like to read about Antarctica. I had read about her new book, WILD, DARK SHORE but this sounds good also.
Good morning everyone.
I’m so glad you had a good Easter Lesa. It’s not really a big thing in Scotland, although when I went to the supermarket last Friday it appeared to have been stripped by a swarm of locusts (despite the fact that it was going to be open every day as normal.) The only thing they did have in abundance was a huge oversupply of chocolate eggs. Maybe they weren’t selling well – they have become so expensive, and you get so little chocolate and so much packaging for your money, that people perhaps decided to buy something else.
I completely missed Thursdays at Lesa’s last week, just did not get time to come in here, but I got back from Edinburgh yesterday, so here I am.
Books – I’ve been even slower than usual lately. I finished MRS PARGETER’S PATIO by Simon Brett, and enjoyed it.
In this outing, Mrs Pargeter is having her patio dug up and the work – surprise! – uncovers a body. Whose was it, and who put that it there? Mrs P is soon on the case, aided by her late husband’s many (criminal) associates, all of whom are great characters. These are cosy mysteries, so all of these people are now (more or less) reformed, having been set up in respectable businesses by Mr Pargeter before he died. Mrs P has inherited shedloads of money, plus her husband’s ‘little black book’ containing the phone numbers of just about anyone whose services she may require.
Mrs P is also concerned to help her young gardener, Kirsty, whose mother died of a drug overdose, and whose father, a reggae musician, disappeared without trace on her 8th birthday.
Kirtsy has two great wishes. The first is to find her beloved father, the second to appear on a gardening competition TV show presented by a smooth operator of the worst kind. Mrs P loathes such shows, but wants to make Kirsty happy.
Eventually, of course, all of these plots come together. Brett is a very good writer with a subtle sense of humour, and in these books the characters are far more important than the plot. I love Truffler, Mrs P’s morose right hand man, Gary, her driver, and the many others, all of whom are only too keen to help Mrs P. And Mrs P herself is a wonderful creation, determined to pretend she knew nothing about her husband’s criminal past, but in fact far, far more astute than she chooses to appear.
So that was a fun read.
Now I am onto THE TIGER IN THE SMOKE by Marjery Allingham. I started this because it fits in with Simon and Kaggsy’s #1952 club, but I almost wish I hadn’t, as I doubt I’ll get a review written by the end of the week, and I also forgot how much Golden Age crime tends to irritate me.
This one – considered, I think, the author’s best – includes so much slang of the period that I’m having a hard time working out what everyone’s talking about. It starts with a young woman who believes herself to have been widowed in World War Two. Just as she is about to marry a very successful businessman, she starts to receive photographs of a man who looks remarkably like her late husband. Who is sending them? And why? My problem so far is that I don’t really care. Meg Elginbrodde (the widow) is a dull and entitled girl, Geoffrey Levett, her new man, is pompous and boring, the main police characters are incomprehensible, and the only interesting person is Canon Avril, Meg’s father. There are also some very questionable references to disabled, war wounded, men which would be totally unacceptable today,
I will press on, if only because I can then consign this book to the charity shop bag. But I do know many people really like this novel. Its just me and my issues with Golden Age crime.
On TV we are up to the third series of WHITECHAPEL. The second series focused on killers who were copying the crimes of the notorious Kray twins. It was a very frightening story, which I felt worked extremely well as the Krays were indeed terrifying. They ran all kinds of rackets in 1960s London, brutally murdering anyone who stood in their way. The police were in their pockets – everyone was. I really enjoy the developing friendship between the troubled middle class detective Joseph Chandler (Rupert Penry-Jones) and the experienced local sergeant Ray Miles (the always outstanding Phil Davis.)
Last week I visited my friend Sue to see her new baby goats. They are so cute and funny, and all three are thriving. Sue and I went for a walk. I thought it would be our usual one of about an hour and a half – I didn’t realise that she had something else in mind. Three and a half hours later we finally got back to her house! But it was a lovely route, along the river and through some beautiful countryside with wonderful views. We saw some fabulous country houses – at this time of year I think ‘Oh wouldn’t it be great to live out here!’ – then I remember what it’s like in winter, when the weather can be bad enough even were I live, just 8 miles outside the city centre.
Earlier this week a colleague and I, in our capacity as committee members of the Friends of Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, were given a tour of the St Nicholas Kirk. This is a huge church in the centre of Aberdeen, the ‘mither kirk’ of the city. There are records of kirk buildings there as early as the 1100s, though they have been rebuilt many times since then.
The kirk closed as a church a few years ago, and has now been taken over by Scot-ARTS, a charity that hopes to turn it into a community resource. At the moment everything is just as it was left – the pews with doors at the ends, the huge pulpit, the even larger tabernacle-style seating for the elders, the Drum aisle (where the Lairds of the Drum estate were buried), and many effigies, brasses and memorial stones (the graveyard outside is crammed with ancient graves and tombstones.)
We were allowed to go up into the balcony – where there are more pews, but with almost no view of anything. Here they used to place the deaf children, though by what logic anyone thought it sensible or kind to put children who couldn’t hear in a location where they also couldn’t see, if anyone’s guess. Sermons in the Church of Scotland are notoriously long even now, and in the 16th /17th centuries I imagine they were a good deal longer – so these bored children carved graffiti on the wooden pews. They wrote in Doric, and an expert in the dialect has been able to date the carvings from the use of certain words.
We then went up into the bell tower and saw the mechanics of the carillon of bells, which are operated from the organ, and the one enormous bell that chimes the hour. Unfortunately we hadn’t noticed that it was nearly 11am. BOOM went that bell, and we all shot down the rickety staircase a lot faster than we had climbed it.
My colleague Wendy (who’s much braver than I am) climbed another narrow set of stairs up inside the clock face. In the roof there is also ‘the witches’ ring’ – to which people accused of witchcraft were tied until they were taken to the Castlegate to be burned.
The kirk also houses the Oil & Gas workers’ chapel; services are still held here on an occasional basis, and there is a book of memorial for all people in the industry who have died in UK waters.
So Wendy and I had a fascinating morning, and we hope to make connections between Scot ART and the Friends of the Gallery.
On our way back up the road from Edinburgh yesterday David and I planned to stop off at one of our favourite cafes – only to find that it’s closed on Wednesdays. Every cloud has a silver lining though, as instead we tried Rait Antiques, whose sign on the motorway is distinctly unpromising, but which turned out to be wonderful. I wish I could post a photo of their amazing cakes. David had the biggest, and apparently the best, millionaire’s shortbread he had ever tasted, and I had a delicious cherry and chocolate chip scone with jam. Peppermint tea too – they had a whole range of teas. Lovely.
Home today and hoping not to have to go anywhere outwith Aberdeenshire for at least a week or two.
Have a good week all.
Glad you’re back this week, Rosemary. We have so many British shows to watch Saturday night is not enough. We finished the latest DEASTH IN PARADISE series, which had a kind of dumb end. (SPOILER ALERT) They spent the whole series trying to save the Commissioner’s job, only to succeed and then have him quit anyway? Huh? (END SPOILER) The new series of CALL THE MIDWIFE is on Sunday nights. We’re watching REBUS (Ken Stott version), SILENT WITNESS, and SPOOKS (MI-5) on Saturdays, along with an episode of THE GOOD LIFE. Still have one more episode of LUDWIG to go.
Jeff, we loved the way they ended Ludwig and are looking forward to the next season. I am not sure we will continue on with the Commissioner on Death in Paradise.
The Commissioner had been forced out. They offered him his job back and he refused. So, he never quit.
I suspect he will be back.
Hi Jeff – and yes, I know what you mean. I have a huge backlog of TV shows to watch, but there are only so many hours in the day.
I’ve more or less given up on Death in Paradise, though I have no real objection to it. I did love Ken Stott’s Rebus though, I’d happliy watch that again. I’ll see if it’s streaming anywhere here.
I haven’t seen Ludwig at all, I must remember to add that to my lists. Have you already seen Whitechapel? If so what did you think of it?
We watched the first series of WHITECHAPEL which was sort of OK, but gave up on the second. Just not for us.
Good afternoon, Rosemary! The tour of St. Nicholas Kirk, along with its history, sounds fascinating. Thank you for writing about it.
I really need to read a Mrs. Pargeter mystery. You make the characters sound wonderful.
I hope you’re home for a couple weeks, too, so you can enjoy home.
The kirk exploration sounds like a novel! How fun – thank you for sharing.
I wanted to ask you if you have ever watched “Born and Bred”? You often share BBC shows and this is an older one. I found in on the Kanopy app, and my husband and I are so enjoying it. Set in the 1950’s, in a fictional town in Lancashire, it’s the story of a son, and his family, returning home to assist his near retirement father with his medical practice. The characters are just delightful!
Mary, I have never heard of Born & Bred – but now I am intrigued. I will see if I can find it anywhere on i-player or any other streaming services (we ourselves don’t have many of those, mainly Netflix and Prime.)
Thank you for the tip!
Rosemary, I loved your description of the St. Nicholas kirk. Made me think I was right there with you. Oh, and now you’ve made me want to read the Mrs. Pargeter books. I have never read them; clearly I’ve been missing out.
Thank you Lindy.
The Mrs Pargeter books are fun – I’ve had most of them from the library (they’re sometimes in the large print section.) If you haven’t read Simon Brett’s Charles Paris series, they are also good. And the adaptations of these for radio, with Bill Nighy as the feckless Charles, are brilliant.
Rosemary, I am glad you are talking about the Mrs. Pargeter books, because I had been thinking about rereading some of them but wasn’t sure whether I would still like them.
We saw POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive last weekend. I should have checked into it before we went – it lasted less than four months on Broadway and it’s the only show where we thought about leaving during intermission. On the bright side our weather has been in the upper 70s and we’ve been enjoying eating lunch and dinner on the porch.
I read Dead Post Society by Diane Kelly. Whitney and her cousin Buck buy the headmaster’s house at a defunct boarding school to keep it from being demolished. No one else wants it because of a murder / suicide that occurred there but Whitney figures they can turn it into a boutique hotel and flip it. During the course of the renovations they come across evidence that points to the deaths being a double murder.
Direct Descendant by Tanya Huff. H.P. Lovecraft lite with romance. It didn’t quite work for me.
Actually, I can see why H.P. Lovecraft lite didn’t work!
We saw POTUS on Broadway. It was a little too slapstick for me, but Lea DeLania made it for us. She was hysterical.
Aren’t those 70s wonderful?
Lesa, we agree. Lea DeLaria is always hilarious. The first think I remember her in was playing the taxi driver in the 1998 revival of ON THE TOWN. She was great. She won the Obie Award and got a Drama Desk nomination. We enjoyed POTUS without thinking it was great. Silly but somewhat amusing.
Exactly, Jeff! Silly, but we did laugh.
My mother was a dedicated letter writer. I thought, in a different time and place, she might have been a traveling storyteller. My reading this week also includes an epistolary
novel, much shorter than the one you’re reading, but it made quite an impact.
Megan Miranda can certainly write a suspense novel, possibly “cozy” suspense, no car chases or graphic violence. In DAUGHTER OF MINE, the setting is a close-knit lake community in the mountains of North Carolina during a drought. Two submerged vehicles are recovered, and long kept secrets unravel.
Set in an idyllic Irish village, HOLDING by Graham Norton (read by the author) was absorbing. Lovable characters and the complexities of keeping secrets. “A funeral was always more important than the person going to be buried”
First published in 1938, the short novel, ADDRESS UNKNOWN, appeared as series of letters between a Jewish American living in San Francisco and his former business partner, returned to Germany. Beginning in the Autumn of 1932 and ending in Spring of 1934. It was said to have changed many Americans’ views of the growing conflict in Europe. (Kathrine) Kressmann Taylor’s revealing tale of the consequences of fascism remains relevant today.
MM, I find it fascinating to read about letter writing. Oh, I love the thought of a traveling storyteller.
All three of your books sound good this week. Thank you!
MM, Address Unknown sounds like the perfect book to give to my history loving grandson. I shall seek it out.
Address Unknown is quite a short book, less than 100 pages. It was reprinted for the European market shortly before the author’s death in the mid-1990s. I read an ebook (2020) from the library. The afterward from the author’s son was quite interesting.
Thanks MM. That’s helpful. I wonder if I’ll be able to find it here.
These all sound good MM.
I have read the Graham Norton novel, and enjoyed it. I think he’s one of the very few celebrity authors who can actually write.
Well, it’s been a rough week for me. Last week, I thought I had gotten bit by a bee because the area around my nose was swollen. On Tuesday, it was hurting so bad that I went to the doctor. No bee sting, instead I have shingles on my face and boy, does it hurt. The really bad part is I wear contacts and because my nose is so swollen I can’t get my glasses on. Fun times. In any case, I did manage to read two books.
The first book is “Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes” by Sandra Jackson-Opoku. Savvy inherits her aunt’s southern restaurant and is trying to make a go of it. A developer wants to buy the shop, and she is one of two holdouts on the block. She keeps telling him no and then the deaths occur. The first one was a philandering husband who had celebrated his 50th anniversary the night before. He came into the restaurant for breakfast and ended up dying from a Viagra overdose. People said it was due to Savvy’s award-winning sweet potato pie. But then another person dies from a Viagra overdose. The police don’t see the deaths as homicides so Savvy with the help of her employee and her ex-husband start to investigate. Another one of those amateur detectives blundering up the investigation. I seem to be on a streak with them.
The second book is Rick Steves’ “On the Hippie Trail”. Tonight, Rick Steves is doing a presentation in Boise, and I was looking forward to it. The book details his journey from Istanbul to Kathmandu. At the time, he was 23 years old. While I wouldn’t want to make the trip myself, I did find the book interesting.
Oh, Bev. I’m sorry about the shingles. I’m surprised you were able to read two books with the problems with your contacts and glasses. I understand shingles are miserable.
And, I guess that Sweet Potato Crimes book will come off my TBR pile. Another frustrating amateur sleuth.
I’m sorry you missed Rick Steves’ presentation. Darn shingles.
Bev, I’m sorry that you have shingles. I’ve heard from many other people how painful it can be. I hope it clears up quickly!
I am so sorry to hear about your shingles Bev. A friend of mine had it all around her eyes and it was horrible. Do you get offered the vaccination against it? I have had that for the first time this year, so I’m hoping it works. I do hope you start feeling better very soon.
Yikes! That’s awful. I know several people who have had shingles – my mother had it twice. You definitely – and by you I mean everyone here – NEED to get a shingles vaccine. We got ours, then the next year they came out with a new, two-part “seniors” vaccine, and we got both of those too. At least I feel protected from that.
I know. I had the two-part vaccine, too, Jeff.
a lot of interesting books mentioned this morning!
Regarding THE CORRESPONDENT.
i love this book.
After reading it through NetGalley I preordered a copy. It’s a book I want to place in the hands of close women friends. It is an amazing book; an examination and celebration of an extraordinary woman’s life. Full of joy. Full of heartbreak. Perfect.
Good morning, Kaye! Oh, I’m so glad you loved The Correspondent. I’m 2/3 through it, and I’ll finish it today. I’m loving it!
Good morning, everyone. I think that Spring might actually really, truly be here! Time to get outdoors and start cleaning up.
I have been listening to “A Murder Most French” by Colleen Cambridge, the second book in the series featuring Julia Child and her friend Tabitha Knight, an American living in Paris. Unfortunately, this installment left me somewhat disappointed. Tabitha is once again embroiled in investigating a murder that escalates into multiple killings, all while learning to cook with Julia’s guidance. The pacing feels slow, and the key revelations were predictable and lacked excitement. However, the book does offer some intriguing historical insights, particularly about the Paris catacombs. I’m eager to finish this one so I can move on to a more engaging read.
Good morning, Mary! Well, spring took long enough to get here! But, I sat out on the porch yesterday and read. It was wonderful.
I didn’t care for the first book in Colleen Cambridge’s series. Not enough Julia Child, and too much Tabitha for me, so I never went further.
Good week here too, for the most part. We went to the city yesterday to see a new Broadway musical opening this Sunday, DEAD OUTLAW. If you Google Elmer McCurdy, you’ll see the grisly story, and the musical pretty much covers his life (31 years) and death (another 66 years in the limelight!). I’d say Jackie liked it more than I did, but it was certainly different, and entertaining in its way.
We’ve had two 80 degrees plus days this week, which was nice, and overall the cold weather is pretty much gone.
Books. I talked about The Day The World Came To Town last week, and I finished that book, which was, surprisingly, my first non-fiction book of the year, Very good and a wonderful antidote to the attitude of xenophobia going on in this country these days.
With Love, Marjorie Ann is the Crippen & Landru original collection of short stories by Marcia Talley, four of which feature the title character. But my favorite story was “Too Many Cooks,” about the three witches and Macbeth. That was originally published in an anthology of Shakespeare-based stories, Much Ado About Murder, and I was able to buy a used copy of the anthology to read soon. Authors include Edward D> Hoch, Peter Robinson, Robert Barnard, Jeffery Deaver, Brendan Dubois, Edward Marston and Simon Brett.
Splintered Justice is the fourth in Kim Hays’s Bern-set police procedural series featuring Homicide Detective Giuliana Linder and Fahnder (Investigator) Renzo Donatelli. Things have moved on since the last book – Renzo is in the middle of a divorce and has pretty much given up his romantic hopes that Giuliana will sleep with him, for one. This time there are two cases, and Renzo gets the lion’s share of the book for the first time. Linder’s case (and he is supposed to assist her) is about a woman who admitted to giving her dying husband an overdose of insulin. Her stepdaughter (who had little to do with her father when he was alive)accuses her of killing him for the inheritance, and they must investigate the circumstances. Most people know Switzerland has assisted suicide laws, but this goes into them in some depth. Meanwhile, Renzo hears a scream from the central cathedral and is knocked down by a teenage boy running out. Seems he had deliberately shaken the scaffolding to knock a workman off, a man he accuses of “murdering” his mother fifteen years earlier, because he supposedly (as a 10 year old!) left a door unlocked so the woman was able to climb the tower and jump to her death. But now Renzo is interested in what happened 15 years ago, where she jumped or was pushed. She was part of the small Croatian community in Bern, and her daughter, ex-husband, so-called best friend and others are still around to be interviewed.
While the plot is interesting (though not my favorite of the four books), what is so good and so interesting about the whole series to me is not the characters but the whole thing. Bern itself is interesting (one of the few Swiss cities we never got to in the ’70s, when we visited Geneva, Lucerne, Zurich and Basel), but it is the differences from what we are used to here (or, for those of us who read British procedurals, England) and the whole Swiss attitude – to work, to families, to retirement, to policing, to – yes – assisted suicide and death in general. I really feel like I’ve learned a lot about Switzerland in these books, as well as enjoying the mystery plots, and you can’t ask for more than that. Nice job, Kim. One thing, though. Bern is the “federal city” (not the capital) and seat of government, and I wondered if that – the Parliament – will come into a future book, as I can’t remember it ever being mentioned so far.
In 2012/2013, Mary Robinette Kowal published “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” (available free on tor.com), a wonderful novelette which won the Hugo Award as Best Novelette of the Year. In 2016, she published the first of the prequels to the story, The Calculating Stars, which swept the Hugos and other awards as Best Novel of the Year. In 1952 (think of it as an alternate timeline if you wish), a meteor crashes into Chesapeake Bay, wiping out Washington, D.C and killing millions. The Secretary of Agriculture becomes the President and the government is moved to Kansas. It seems to have set off global warming to a level that Earth will become uninhabitable some years in the future, so they set off to found a colony on Mars. Elma York (the Lady Astronaut of the title) is a pilot and “calculator” (math genius) who ends up on that mission. In the new book, The Martian Contingency, it is five years later and the Second Mars Mission has both York and her husband, Nathaniel, on hand. Definitely start from the beginning if you are going to read this series.
I started the Ethel Lina White short story collection, BLACKOUT And Other Tales of Suspense. More next week. Of course I have several other books on hand.
Hi Jeff! Thanks for your thoughtful review of SPLINTERED JUSTICE. I want readers to take away a strong sense if Swiss life and Swiss concerns, and it sounds like this worked very well for you. I liked your suggestion that I write about Bern’s politics. I’ll think about that!
It was really good. I’ve been happy to add you to my “authors whose books I read as soon as they come out” list.
Thanks for reminding me about The Martian Contingency. I really like the whole series.
Jeff, my sister and I are coming to NYC next weekend to see three shows, but I’m glad Dead Outlaw isn’t one of them. We’re seeing Gypsy, Good Night and Good Luck, and Pirates. I hope you continue to have nice weather!
I think I’d like Kowal’s books. I just haven’t gotten around to them.
I liked your reasons for enjoying Kim’s books. Thank you for the review and commentary.
Have fun, Lesa. We have tickets for GYPSY for next month. Over the years we’ve seen it with Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone, so we’re looking forward to Audra McDonald’s version.
Wow! You’ve seen outstanding actresses in the role. I’m looking forward to seeing Audra McDonald’s version, too.
Just checked the latest forecast and they are saying 80 Tuesday and Wednesday but only mid-60s next weekend. We’ll see, I guess.
Oh, well. I have a light-weight jacket. Probably more comfortable for walking around, anyway.
Good morning! We’re having our Easter celebration this Sunday at my DIL’s sister’s house (an hour’s drive), which will be a lot of fun. Son Zach (birthday yesterday) and I (birthday next Monday) will also be celebrating on Saturday with the family at a restaurant called Q1227, which Zach says is amazing. I don’t have to cook dinner this weekend, but I’ll be making fudge and fruit salad for the Easter celebration. I attended the first meeting of the new group, Drama Queens, on Monday, and our first show to attend as a group will be Legally Blonde, featuring youth up to 22 years old. We’re going to try to attend at least one musical or play a month at a variety of local venues, with group discounts (yay). Can’t wait! I’m back watching Hacks (season 4) on Max, and just completed The Great American Baking Championship–Paul and Prue are hosts, and they use the same tent in England, but the contestants are American. It’s on Roku, which is ridiculously difficult to access, but free.
Here’s what I read this week:
Moira Macdonald’s debut novel, STORYBOOK ENDING, isn’t really a rom-com, and it isn’t about a love triangle, as the synopsis suggests. April, who works at home for an online real estate company, is lonely and looking for love, so she tucks an anonymous note into a used book at the Read the Room bookstore, hoping it will be found by the man on the used book desk, who is very attractive. What she doesn’t know is that the note was instead found by Laura, another bookstore patron and single mother who was widowed more than five years ago. Laura loves her job as a personal shopper, but she feels she’s finally ready for a little romance again. She and April begin leaving notes for each other in a particular book in the store, and their friendship grows.Neither of them has ever spoken to the bookstore clerk about it, but both are convinced that they have begun a promising relationship with Westley. At the same time, an indie film company is shooting scenes for a movie at the bookstore, disrupting Read the Room’s usual routine, but attracting attention from curious employees and customers alike. And when the director asks Westley to play himself in the background of some of the scenes and later to become the star’s stand-in, he reluctantly agrees . How it all plays out is not what I expected, but nevertheless a lot of fun. I enjoyed Storybook Ending as charming and undemanding read. The female protagonists are relatable, as are many of those in supporting roles. Unfortunately for Westley, he isn’t portrayed through most of the book with enough depth to be a swoon-worthy candidate for the women’s attraction. But some of the subplots, in addition to the main plot, are interesting enough for me to recommend the book to readers looking for a cozy story about friendship, the quest for a meaningful life, and the love of books and reading, told with a light touch and some humor . (May)
In Matthew Norman’s winning novel, GRACE AND HENRY’S HOLIDAY MOVIE MARATHON, set in Baltimore, Grace and Henry are strangers who have both lost their spouses within the past year, Grace’s husband to cancer and Henry’s wife in the crash of a private plane. Their mothers are acquaintances, so they devise an excuse for the two to meet, which doesn’t fool either but does kindle a budding friendship as they struggle to recover from the tragic event that has changed their life. Grace is quirky, brash, and irreverent, a bar owner who is raising two young children. Henry is a a quiet artist working for an ad agency, who is now wondering if his and his wife’s decision not to have children was such a good idea. He forges a bond with Grace’s sixth-grader son, a precocious artist, and even takes it on himself to catch and humanely rid Grace’s house of the intruding population of mice. He and Grace connect over their favorite holiday movies, which they watch together or separately. Appropriately, many chapters of the book bear the title of a holiday movie, from The Family Stone and Die Hard to to Edward Scissorhands and Love, Actually. The romance comes late in the book, and is deeper and more nuanced than a Hallmark holiday movie, although it does take place between Thanksgiving and the end of the holiday season. I found it to be a heartfelt, touching story, peppered with humor and featuring an engrossing character study of both of the protagonists and some of their likeable family members and friends, as Grace and Henry navigate through parallel journeys to a happier time. I flew through the book and would recommend it to interested readers at any time of the year (October)
Michael Robotham is one of my go-to authors for masterfully written police procedural thrillers. I must say, however, that I admired THE WHITE CROW more than I actually enjoyed reading it. It is the sequel to When You Are Mine (2021), which introduced Philomena (Phil) McCarthy, a London police officer who struggles with the fact that her father and uncles are all criminals–only Phil’s father hasn’t spent time in prison. Her colleagues in the London Metropolitan Police already resent her for her skills and ambition and wouldn’t be amused to learn about her family background. Phil is also recently married to Henry, a firefighter. In this story, she sees a 5-year-old child hiding outside after dark and finds out, when she helps the little girl, that her parents have been involved in a home invasion that led to the burglary of their jewelry store and left her mother dead. Although not yet a detective, Phil convinces her boss to allow her to join the investigation into this crime, thanks to her excellent instincts. There is quite a bit of action in the story, especially a spectacular, complicated scene late in the book, and the author handles it with finesse and breathtaking suspense. But this book, much more than the first in the series, focuses more on Phil’s family than it does on Phil herself. The characters, especially her father, are well drawn and interesting, but I am no fan of gangster vs. gangster storylines and the hopelessness of innocent bystanders in such situations. I am more interested in any future books in Robotham’s Cyrus Haven and Joseph O’Loughlin series. (July)
Good morning, Margie! Enjoy all your celebrations. And, I hope you really enjoy the Drama Queens!
Grace and Henry. I requested it on NetGalley, but I’m not sure I’ll get it because I have a number of galleys out. If not, I’ll have to wait until October and the library. Love the sound of this one!
Storybook Ending and Grace and Henry both sound great Margie! Thanks. They’re on my list now.
Thanks Margie – I was able to place a hold for STORYBOOK ENDING and I’m only third in the queue!
I hope you enjoy your meal at Q1227. My foody nephew (currently living in Texas) insisted that was the place to try when he was visiting family in Lincoln. They said the food was excellent.
Good to know, MM! It’s about 40 minutes from where I live, and I can’t find anyone (other than my son) who has been there or even heard of it. The menu looks awesome. Looking forward to it!
Well, Margie, you never asked me!
I also read Migrations by Charlottle McConaghy. Her books are really eye opening about climate change. I had a hard time liking the main character of Franny, but I enjoyed the book.
I read I See You’ve Called in Dead too. I laughed and I cried but it was really good.
My favorite read was The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley. Historical fiction at its best.
My last book was The Inheritance by Tricia Sakhlecha. I ripped through this thriller based on a remote Scottish island where a family comes together to celebrate the parents 40th wedding anniversary. I did not see that ending coming.
We are off to the Arts in Bloom exhibit at the Cincinnati Art Museum where flower enthusiasts match their arrangements to select artwork. My neighbor exhibited last time. We really enjoyed it. While we are there, we will catch the special exhibit on the history of bicycles. This weekend is the community theater performance of Hairspray at the Incline Theater.
We thoroughly enjoyed watching Towards Zero on Britbox as well as The Brokenwood Mysteries and Chelsea Detective on Acorn.
Happy Reading!
Happy Reading, Sharon! I love the sound of the exhibit at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Cincinnati’s museums put on some fascinating exhibits.
And, enjoy Hairspray. I love live theater.
Our car has had some repairs. my tooth pain is easing off, and I made the important for the important infusion and was surprised to have no pain.
I am almost finished with a historical mystery set St. Louis, Missouri and Illinois during the end of the Great Depression Prohibition and a little after, The Bootlegger’s Bride by Rick Skwiot is a masterpiece. This is a not a mystery that you can pick up the clues and decide the killer or killers. The author withhold important facts that he slowly drops. The characters are believable and you hope for them. I am almost at the end and have a long list of suspects. I learned a lot about the crime, bootlegging in St. Louis, the main characters were readers and certain authors, like Charles Dickens for one spoke to their souls. There many more references to authors, a few that I had not heard of. Great for the mystery, character development, historical details and lot of other things aspects that make it must read!
I’m glad you survived the infusion Carol! What a relief now that it’s done.
The Bootlegger’s Bride sounds intriguing.
Good to hear, Carol,that you’re catching up with the tiresome stuff of day-to-day life!
And, that you had a good book to read in the meantime.
Just a quick note. As mentioned, Jackie has trouble holding books because of problems with her hands, so she reads almost everything in ebooks. Since she’s been reading Emily Henry’s books, I put her new one – GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE – which came out this week, on hold at the Cloud Library. She said she preferred the Kindle, so I should put it on hold at our local library too. The Cloud Library copy came in already. The Brooklyn Public Library has FOUR ebook copies, and she is number…wait for it…1521! I guess she’ll be reading the Cloud Library edition. Since we synced our account at the Palm Beach County Library to the Cloud, this has happened consistently: most books, if they have them, become available much, much faster that the local library, either regular edition or ebook. You should check if your local library is affiliated with the Cloud Library.
/end unsolicited but wholehearted endorsement
1521! My gosh. I think I’d be reading the one from Cloud Library, too. Great endorsement!
Jeff, I got lucky and was the #1 hold at the library on the new Emily Henry back in January. Still pending, but I hope to have it soon. I have always enjoyed “real” books, but I agree that it’s a lot easier to read ebooks where I can alter the font size and brightness as necessary and read “hands off” on the Kindle app on my iPad while I’m eating, and highlight text I want to remember when I’m reviewing. . I hope Jackie enjoys the book.
Greetings from Malice Domestic! I’m up in my room doing a little blog work but heading down soon for dinner with some friends and then co-running the book club for The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman, this year’s Malice Remembers author.
On the reading front, I’m working on #Flashback for Murder by Sarah E. Burr, the fourth in her Trending Topics Mysteries. I’m really enjoying it.
Oh, Malice Domestic! I never made it to that conference. Have fun, Mark!
Jackie went to Malice the first year (1989) when there were – literally – TWO MEN registered! I started going the second year – 1990 – and had a table there selling books for 15 years of Malice, until we retired in June 2004.
Two men! I imagine they spent a few meals together.
That is so great, Mark! One of my books this week was The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax, which had been on my TBR list for a while.
We did a Costco run for prescriptions and fruit (we eat a lot of fruit) this morning. Tomorrow Glen has his tooth extracted and we assume that will go well.
Glen is now reading LIGHT RAINS SOMETIMES FALL by Lev Parikian. The subtitle is “A British Year Through Japan’s 72 Ancient Seasons.” He likes it a lot. It talks about rain and birds a lot. (I have read Parikian’s earlier book about birding.)
I just finished reading THE SPELLMAN FILES by Lisa Lutz. It has been on my shelves for 13 years. I thought I might find it too humorous, but I was very happy with it. It did not really feel like crime fiction though. It seemed like the first 2/3 of the book was about the background of the family and their business. They run a private investigation company, and the two kids began helping out with surveillance when David was 14 and Isabel was 12. Then when Isabel was 14, her mother has another child, a daughter named Rae. Isabel, or Izzy, tells the story, looking back on her teen years and moving onto cases that they are working on currently. It was a very strange mystery novel, but I enjoyed it very much and have plans to read the next one in the series.
Love fruit! I hope Glen’s dental appointment goes well.
The Spellman books were so popular in the libraries when they first came out.
That’s funny, Tracy. We went to Costco on Tuesday, mostly for fruit and milk. And we went to the dentist today, but fortunately just for a cleaning. Good luck, Glen.
I always get the best book ideas here, thanks everyone! This week I read The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax, a classic from 1962 about a New Jersey widow longing for adventure who offers to help out the CIA. It’s funny Mark mentioned it this week too.
My other fun read was Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd, which Lesa reviewed. I liked the way the protagonist was coming to know herself and the world after 30 years in a nunnery as she came to learn what happened to her friend. I thought the descriptions were really good, too.
Definitely our pleasure, Trisha. I put three books on hold at the library after reading today’s posts.