Happy Thursday, everyone! I’ll have time to be online this morning, and then later in the afternoon or early evening. Linda and I drove up to Mom’s yesterday. Today, the three of us, and my sister, Christie, are heading to Mentor, Ohio. We all have an interest in history, yet we’ve never been to President Garfield’s home, just over an hour from Mom’s. So, today is our day to visit Lawnfield, the James A. Garfield National Historic Site. And, who knows what other trouble we’ll get into today. I’ll report back next week.
So, tell us what you’ve been doing this week. What are you reading?
Late Tuesday night, I started Ann Cleeves’ new Detective Matthew Venn novel, The Dying Light. That doesn’t mean I had any time to read yesterday, with driving and family time. Here’s the online summary of the book.
DI Matthew Venn peels back layer upon layer to discover the dark secrets one family is keeping in this searing new novel, brimming with energy and taut with claustrophobic tension. A scorching heatwave marks the start of the summer in Devon. Detective Matthew Venn is called in to investigate a puzzling death, when the body of a young woman, Lottie, is found in the swimming pool of a luxurious holiday home. The girl’s best friend, Hannah, whose family owns the house, is missing. The girls had arrived a few days earlier to celebrate the end of their school exams, quickly stirring unrest in the small community with incendiary social media videos mocking the place as parochial.
When further tragedy strikes, Venn and his team begin questioning a community filled with secrets. The fact that Hannah’s father, Paul Armstrong, is a rising political star with powerful enemies draws intense media scrutiny to the case. With the summer heat come holidaymakers, and it emerges that some of them may have stronger connections with the Armstrong family than first thought. Venn knows all too well that the real answers lie not in what people say, but in the silences that they keep.
Taut, atmospheric, and brimming with suspense, this searing new novel finds DI Matthew Venn caught between a powerful family’s secrets and a powder keg of local tensions.
I always enjoy Cleeves’ writing. What about you? What do you want to talk about today? What are you reading?
Not the most interesting of weeks. A bit of fun (mahjong and going out for breakfast). A bit of work (laundry, housework, grocery shopping). A bit of worry (David’s latest blood test results show a big jump in PSA number despite no longer having a prostate, staying away from sugar, exercising, and having a good mindset, etc. Cancer is still lurking somewhere.)
Oh and we had our 26-year-old car in for servicing – oil change, new oil filter, ‘check engine’ light problem investigated (turned out to be a disconnected hose), brake check, snow tires put on, etc. The car passed with flying colours and total cost was only $132 CDN (about $94 USD).
Two books this week:
THE HAUNTED LIBRARIAN by Auralee Wallace
A story of a library, ghosts, and of learning to accept who you are.
Amelia has always been able to see ghosts, but felt she needed to keep that part of herself secret so she could be ‘normal’ and ‘fit in’. But the harder she tried, the odder she appeared and the more closed off she became. To this day the one place she feels safe and at home is in a library, so when – despite a rough start – she is hired to work in a library housed in a beautiful old building, well, she’s found her dream job.
But dang it all, there seems to be not one but three resident ghosts in the library. Amelia does her best to ignore them because how could she possibly tell her new bosses that she sees ghosts? She doesn’t want to see the incredulous, then disappointed looks on their faces that she’s been used to seeing for her whole life, and take a chance she’ll be fired.
Despite her best intentions she soon has no choice but to interact with the ghosts, all the while keeping her secret from kind and welcoming Rosalinda and perhaps even kinder, definitely handsome Simon. Somehow, the fact that the ghosts aren’t moving on is causing all manner of ominous paranormal activity and is turning the library into a menacing place and there are fewer and fewer patrons. It’s up to Amelia to save the library while at the same time doing something about the resident ghosts whose very presence is causing physical harm to the library.
Amelia herself was my least favourite character in the book, and I didn’t warm to her because it got a bit tedious and repetitive when she kept making excuses to herself about why she ‘couldn’t’ tell the truth about herself. On the other hand, I loved how the author portrayed each of the three ghosts, each one distinctive, believable, and entertaining. In general, the second half of the book was more gripping and ended up being quite suspenseful and touching.
I liked what the author wrote in her acknowledgments: ‘Finally, to librarians everywhere, thank you for safeguarding stories, welcoming readers, and keeping magic alive. The Haunted Librarian was written with you in mind.’
MAD MABEL by Sally Hepworth
A very good book and nothing like what I’d been expecting. Admittedly it’s the first book I’ve read by Sally Hepworth and I thought it would be a thriller sort of story and yes, it was suspenseful but also funny, and so sad it made me cry.
It’s been talked about here before so I won’t go into much detail. Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is 81 years old, and has been living a quiet life in Melbourne for the past sixty-six years. Then a neighbour dies and Elsie’s past comes back to haunt her– that of being Australia’s youngest convicted murderer. She didn’t kill her current neighbour but she’s for sure the prime suspect since all the rumours and questions surrounding her conviction decades ago are dredged up again. But no one but Elsie herself knows what really happened back then.
This time around she has a friend though (whether she wants one or not) – the force of nature that is seven-year-old Persephone, daughter of a neighbour and a wonderful character in the story.
The author told the story going back and forth between present day, and back when Elsie was a child growing up. Each time the story switched to another time I was bereft because I couldn’t bear to leave the tale. That happened every single time, until eventually it all came together. But whether I was reading about Elsie when she was 81 or 14, my heart ached for her.
I’m so glad I read this book.
A bit of snow about an hour south of here yesterday, but not even a drop of rain at my house.
I started the week with a bit of “British Chiller” fiction. HAUNTED is a 1988 gothic horror novel by James Herbert for an Occult October challenge. Suspense meets the supernatural! The story follows David Ash, a cynical and skeptical paranormal investigator working for a psychical research institute who aims to debunk supernatural phenomena using science. The writing was captivating, completely tense, and creepy. But still not my genre.
THE CASE OF THE CHRISTIE CONSPIRACY by Kelly Oliver. The Detection Club Mystery Series is a five book series to date. I found it slow going, and the plot scattered. Not for me.
All the way back in March, Lesa gave THE PRIMROSE MURDER SOCIETY by Stacy Hackney high praise. But it took a second recommendation before I got around to it. The story follows a desperate single mother Lila Shaw and her true-crime-obsessed ten year old, Bea, as they move into a luxury retirement building in Richmond, Virginia, to clean out an apartment and investigate a 21-year-old cold case for a massive cash reward.
The sequel, The Primrose Murder Academy, is due out March 2027