As a reader, I’m a little melancholy. I’m sorry. Three authors, Jeffrey Archer, Peter May, and Mark Pryor, are not supposed to die within three weeks. I wasn’t as shocked at the deaths of Archer and May, but Mark Pryor was only 59. Way too young. That’s enough. Too much loss for the reading community. I do admire what his family wrote for the last line of Pryor’s obituary. “In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests patronizing and supporting your local bookstore, in memory of Mark’s passion for literature and his unwavering support for the written word.” Because I asked friends to give to their local public library when my husband died at age 59, I felt this.
Other than that, it’s been a quiet week here. I’ll take a quiet reading week.
A couple weeks ago, one of you reviewed Mariah Fredericks’ Murder on 34th Street. It’s set in November 1932 when Santa was threatened before the 9th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Harry Gardner, the man who is playing Santa, shared a threatening note with Grace Verlander, the assistant to the head of personnel.
As I’m reading it, the parade is halfway over, so I don’t know if it’s Santa or another dead body that is found on a float.
I haven’t read one of Fredericks’ novels since she finished the Jane Prescott series five years ago, although several of her standalones such as The Wharton Plot have been popular. But, this one? Fredericks has the voice exactly right. Grace is a perfect narrator, familiar with the store employees. Murder on 34th Street makes me feel as if it’s 1932, during the Depression, but with a store that’s hoping people will see it as a place where wishes come true. I’m looking forward to the rest of the book.
What about you? What have you been doing this week? How’s your weather? (I have a cousin in Montana who has had snow!) What are you reading this week?
I have a book to recommend. (and excuse my laziness, but I’m just cutting and pasting this from my blog. We have a lot going on in our lives right now – deer colliding with cars, hot water heaters failing and flooding, all just to much).
Those of us who read a lot have learned over the years that certain books just somehow find their way into the lives of the readers who need them at the perfect time.
I read across all genres, but I tend to stay away from books and authors who advertise as “laugh out loud funny.”
I enjoy laughter as much as anyone, but, to me, many of a these books just seem to try too hard.
I prefer a more natural approach to a laugh – a line the writer surprises you with; one you just did not see coming.
This book, THE MIDLIFE BIRTHDAY CLUB by Rachel Hanna, did make me laugh out loud. It also had me dripping tears down my face. Sometimes both those things happened all on one page. And i loved it all.
Because I am a big fan of Southern Fiction, and of Women’s Fiction, I have read and enjoyed Rachel Hanna’s work.
THE MIDLIFE BIRTHDAY CLUB, however, spoke to me in ways that I am not even going to try to explain. Let me simply say that I found it be one of the most moving novels I’ve read and quite special. It’ll be included in my list of favorites for this year.
With a review like that Kaye, how could I not immediately order this book?! The answer of course is that it wasn’t possible not to, so it’s now on order. Looking forward to it!
It does make one melancholy Lesa, to read about the deaths of authors (and others) we love, especially when there there are so many so close together. I was unhappy earlier in the year when Sophie Kinsella died at a young age as well, because I’d enjoyed so many of her books, especially the earlier ones. I think The Undomestic Goddess was my all-time favourite of hers. And Mark Pryor’s death would be extra difficult because of the exact age. A sad business all round.
This past weekend was Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. David and I went to our son and daughter-in-law’s house for a delicious dinner. Evelyn had written out the menu for us. When I read it I clutched it to me because I thought it was so cute and she kindly said I could take it home after dinner. One of the items was ‘mashed potatoes by Evelyn.’ She was very proud that she’d made them herself. Curiously, considering she reads a lot, her spelling is atrocious. Hopefully it will sort itself out over time. Some things on the menu: brocoleane, satted (sautéed) carots rosted, are frid chicpees (air fried chickpeas), juse, ham with aprocot glase. I can’t wait to give it to her ten years or so from now and see what she thinks of her former efforts. While the grownups were talking after dinner she took herself off to a chair in the corner to read Calvin and Hobbes.
Books this week:
SPELLSTRUCK by Martha Waters
This was just an OK book for me. Intriguing premise though – set in an alternate 1920s London, where magic has been banned, yet there exist a number of clubs where people can enjoy themselves with the usual alcoholic drinks or (illegally of course) with slightly enchanted ones. These special drink offerings are little temporary spells such as changing one’s appearance or allowing one to levitate above the floor. All harmless but providing a bit of extra fun for an evening out.
Suddenly here and there, clubs start experiencing a series of unexpected accidents with their spells.
Vesper Holloway runs one such club on her family’s behalf. Enter Max Ashbridge, once a friend of Vesper’s brother and now employed by the government to enforce the ban on the use of magic. But he rather likes Vesper so offers her club immunity if she will help him investigate these accidents.
The accidents increase as does the chemistry between Vesper and Max as they try to uncover who’s responsible for the irresponsible use of magic.
The book has a bit of fantasy and magic, a mystery to be solved, and a bit of romance. It was mildly entertaining but that’s it. I much preferred the author’s novel ‘And Then There Was the One’.
MURDER IN BELGRAVIA by Lynn Brittney
Bk 1 in the Mayfair 100 mystery series. An older book published in 2018, but new to me.
From the jacket:
‘London, 1915. As World War l engulfs Europe, a special task force is formed in the affluent Mayfair district to tackle the city’s thorniest crimes against women. When the bobbies and Scotland Yard come up short, there’s only one number to dial: Mayfair 100.
An aristocrat has been murdered, and his wife, a witness and possible suspect, will only talk to a woman. With the blessing of London’s chief commissioner, Chief Inspector Beech, a young man invalided out of the war, assembles a crew of sharp, intrepid, and well-educated women to investigate. But to get at the truth, Beech, Victoria, Caroline, Rigsby, and Tollman will venture into the city’s seedy underbelly, a world where murder is only the first in a litany of evils.’
I really liked the way the five main characters – the chief inspector, a lawyer, a doctor, a young police constable, and a retired policeman – were introduced and right from the beginning I felt I knew them which made me care about them which made an already strong story even better. It was an interesting mix of a cozy type of historical/mystery/police procedural and a much more serious, gritty novel exposing some quite disturbing scenes from the time period the novel was set in.
I learned lots of history I hadn’t known before, such as Forced March tablets which were given to soldiers before a battle to fire them up; these were actually cocaine tablets. Or the existence of a freely available medicine to give to colicky babies which were opium-based and often killed the babies! The bits of history did sometimes feel like being given a history lesson rather than learning about them incidentally, but at other times the learning was an immersive heart-wrenching experience. I’ll definitely be trying to find a copy of the next book in the series to see this special task force in action again.
MURDER ON 34TH STREET definitely sounds fun. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for it.
I’m working on DEATH DOWN THE AISLE, the new Phyllida Bright Mystery from Colleen Cambridge. As the title suggests, this one involves a wedding. Phyllida is Agatha Christie’s housekeeper, and she’s getting involved at a murder that takes place after the wedding of someone in the village where they live. I’m a third of the way in, and we’ve just found the body, so I’m curious to see where things go from here. And this is why I’ve been prioritizing this series this year. I can be up to date when I finish this book, which comes out the end of the month.