I hope you had at least one day with good weather to enjoy this week. I love temperatures in the low 80s, just perfect for me. There may have been a little more sun over last weekend, but Tuesday I was able to get outside and read on my lunch hour, and it was just 80.
So, what am I reading? Actually, I’m reading two books that come out later this year, but in the evening I’m settling in for short stories, Michael Gilbert’s second collection featuring Mr. Calder & Mr. Behrens. This collection was published fifteen years after Game Without Rules. Frankly, I thought Game Without Rules was much better, although I’m only a little over halfway through this one. And, Game Without Rules should be read second, if you can. This one is set during WWII, and immediately after, while Game Without Rules is set during the Cold War. The last story in Game Without Rules actually should come after this book as well.
Well, now that I told you everything I’m thinking about Mr. Calder & Mr. Behrens, I don’t need to review it when I finish. I do need to see what you’re reading this week, though. What books have caught your attention?
Morning Lesa,
I have to be in Edinburgh today, so I decided to be organised & draft my contribution last night. Then, need I tell you, I left it sitting on my desktop – and now I’m in the car half way down the road…
So I’ll hope to post it tonight, but in the meantime just to say, I’ve finished reading Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie and now I’ve started South Riding by Winifred Holtby.
Hope everyone has a good day!
Rosemary
Hope you have fun, Rosemary. Edinburgh is one of my favorite cities, has been since our first visit in 1972.
Thanks Jeff, it was just a flying visit this time. Pleased to say I did find my copy of Eyeless in Gaza (that was not, however, the only reason for this ‘essential travel’!!)
Safe travels, Rosemary! Thank you for thinking of us! Hope to catch you at the end of the day, but I understand that travel and errands can wear you out. Take care of yourself!
Good morning. I didn’t get much reading time this week since the weather was nice enough to finish cleaning out the garden beds and get the rest of the cold weather vegetables planted. We also took advantage of the warm weather to have my boyfriend’s daughter and sister over for a few hours. He hadn’t seen either of them since last summer and it was nice enough to sit outside.
I read A SIDE OF MURDER by Amy Pershing. It’s the first in her Cape Cod Foodie series. It’ll be the last for me. I found the story jumped around too much to hold my interest.
An ARC of LYCAON’S FIRE by Jeff Schanz. A different take on werewolves. I’m hoping he writes a sequel.
Oh, good. You were able to get out and enjoy the weather, Sandy. Thank you. I’m happy to read your comments about A Side of Murder. I won’t worry about that one.
I finished THE KITCHEN FRONT by Jennifer Ryan. I enjoyed it and thought the recipes ftom WWII were the best part. I felt a little unsatisfied with the ending. Perhaps it is possible to have too happy of an ending tied up in a bow?
Now I am over halfway through OFF THE WILD COAST OF BRITTANY by Juliet Blackwell. I am enjoying the modern day story of 2 sisters raised Ina survivalist family reunited on a tiny island (based on Ile de Sein). Younger sister Natalie has been dumped by her boyfriend trying to meet the deadline to open a guest cottage/restaurant. I am sure her sister has a secret of her own which is why she ended up in France. There also is the WWII storyline of Violette who lived in the house Natalie is renovating. I really like the modern day storyline but have a feeling I will be less happy with the WWII one when all is revealed.
Happy Reading!
Sharon, You have two books there that I want to read. I own an ARC of The Kitchen Front. And, yes, the ending can feel fake because it’s so perfect. I agree. I have a copy of Off the Wild Coast of Brittany from the library. I’ll get to that one soon. I’m glad you’re enjoying it! I’ve read almost all of Juliet Blackwell’s books.
Just finished How to Raise an Elephant by Alexander Mccall Smith. Just the ticket for smoothing out a worried brow.
Oh, good, Cheryl. It’s always nice to find the book that fits your mood.
Started two books. Asha and the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilaan,. The author was born in a stable in the Himalayas and now teaches and writes. The story of a young girl on a journey with her friend to find her father is inspired by tales by her grandmother. Off to good but strange start.
The other one is All the Children Are Home by Patry Francis. Another one is very small preint but very engaging. A foster mother has decided on no more children but one that stayed at her home for about two weeks and then taken for adoption gave her sleepless nights. The girl is small for her age and had been terribly neglected along with an older sister. The foster mother had the file on the little girl’s and stayed up through the night to read it. After reading that chapter, I wanted to stay up and read the rest of the tiny print book! But had turn in, the author has definitely got me hooked into the intriguing story.
Carolee, I can’t wait to hear what you think when you finish All the Children Are Home. I’ve only read summaries. I’m more interested in what you think when you finish.
I read Surviving Savanah by Patti Callahan. I enjoyed it very much. The underlying message was that of moving forward with your life while overcoming tragedy. It was a 2 timeline story. In the present and 1838. The writing was excellent. I truly felt like I was lost at sea. Now I want to revisit Savannah! I have not yet finished listening to The Lost Apothecary but I am enjoying it thus far. Currently reading Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders by Tessa Arlen. Set during WWII in a small village in England. I love reading about how life was during the war in Europe.
Kathleen, My mother just finished Surviving Savannah as well, and really liked it. I’m the one who would like to go back to Savannah! While I liked The Lost Apothecary, it wasn’t quite what I expected.
Two excellent novels. I can’t say enough about them.
I did try, but my post disappeared, so suffice to say A New York Secret by Ella Carey and The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray are both books I loved and will be recommending.
Strong, engaging, likeable women and excellent writing showcase historical fiction at its best.
Oh, good, Kaye! I’m planning to read The Women of Chateau Lafayette, so I’m happy to read your recommendation. Great comment about the women and historical fiction. Thank you! Sending hugs!
80s – nice! We’ve had a few low 70s, which is nice too. Very low humidity so we can use some rain.
It’s been years since I read them, but I agree on GAME WITHOUT RULES being the superior collection. I’m reading two short story collections – C. J. Box’s SHOTS FIRED, entertaining with a few Joe Pickett stories. And THE EXPENDABLES, the first collection by Antonya Nelson.
The last book I finished was Lee Goldberg’s BONE CANYON. It’s the second in the Eve Ronin series and you can see that Goldberg thinks “Hollywood” when reading this series. I liked it, probably more than the first in the series. Eve is a young cop who leverages good publicity making an arrest into a promotion to Detective, but some of the other cops resent her. Her family life also comes into the books. Fairly short, fast reads without being too taxing.
I’m reading the new Supt. Alan Banks book by Peter Robinson, NOT DARK YET, which does continue dealing with the ongoing story from the last several books of Zelda, a formerly trafficked young woman, now involved with Annie Cabbot’s father Ray but still trying to get revenge on the guys who victimized her and other young girls. So far, it moves faster than some of the recent ones (as I remember them). Robinson is always worth reading. Banks’s daughter gets married in this one.
I’m wondering, Jeff, if trafficked young women is the new “Mexican drug cartel”. Everyone has to write one. I’m reading one right now about a woman who was sold to an LA gang when she was 5 or 6, and escaped, but has never truly escaped.
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one to think Game Without Rules was the better book. I agree with you about Bone Canyon, short, fast, not too taxing.
The weather here has been a bit variable–not in the 80s yet–but it looks like we will be having a warm week coming up, I’m ready, but I hope it won’t get too hot, too fast.
I think I might have liked Amy Pershing’s A SIDE OF MURDER a bit more than SandyG. First in the Cape Cod Foodie Mystery series, it focuses on Samantha Barnes, whose viral (and violent) argument with her ex curtails her career as a New York chef and precipitates a move back to her roots in coastal Massachusetts. Having inherited her aunt’s crumbling house and looking for a way to earn some money, she accepts a job as a restaurant reviewer and feature writer at the local newspaper, whose editor is a friend. She is also reunited with a former crush, who is now the harbormaster. When a local ex-waitress is found floating in the water near a restaurant, Sam joins her closest friends in the investigation. This series shows promise–the Cape Cod setting seems to be authentically written.
In GOOD EGGS by Rebecca Hardiman, the Gogarty family in Ireland is a mess. Octogenarian Millie has been caught shoplifting (again), has crashed the car (again), and caused a fire in her home, injuring herself. Her son, Kevin, hires a caregiver to keep tabs on Millie part-time, but he’s having problems of his own. Having lost his job, he is tasked with taking care of his four children but rarely sees his wife, who travels extensively for her own job. He’s having a mid-life crisis which leads him to a flirtation with the secretary at teenage daughter Aideen’s boarding school. Aideen has been sent there because she can’t get along with her twin sister or, really, anyone. And it pretty much goes downhill from there! Ultimately Millie and Aideen team up, and at the end there is some redemption–but not for the book itself. I had high hopes for it in the beginning, but at the end I didn’t care as much as I should have.
Anne Youngson’s THE NARROWBOAT SUMMER is a gem of a book, but not for those looking for action. Eve is fleeing her 30-year career and Sally is tired of her life as a wife when they happen to meet “on the towpath of a canal in a town not far from London.” From a narrowboat named Number One, they hear an unearthly sound. “It howls as if it were a mezzo-soprano in mid-aria spotting her husband committing adultery in the stalls while being impaled from behind by a careless spear carrier.” I couldn’t resist that kind of writing. “It” turns out to be a dog, and the boat and dog belong to prickly Anastasia, who must have surgery and treatment for a serious illness and who needs to somehow get her narrowboat to a place where it can get some needed repairs. Against all odds, Eve and Sally agree to take on the task. It’s a story about deciding what to do with one’s life and is filled with fascinating, quirky characters that the pair meet along the way. The writing is absolutely lovely.
LATER is a bit of a departure for King, writing under the Hard Case Crime imprint, with a pulp-fiction-type paperback cover. Jamie is very young when he finds he can “see dead people” (and yes, a reference is made to the Bruce Willis movie) and actually talk to them. The rule is, apparently, that they have not been dead for long, and that they must answer questions truthfully. Early on, Jamie learns that seeing dead people who have met violent ends can be gruesome and scary. The up side is that they can tell you where they hid things. Jamie’s mother is, at first, the only person who believes in what he can do. The problems start when her live-in lover, a police officer, starts believing. Wouldn’t it be great if Jamie could help her solve crimes (and her career)? The plot then descends into something like “a horror story” (Jamie’s words). I’m not a horror fan, but I would classify this book as “horror lite.” It’s a short book, easily read in a day. It’s definitely different from any of the recent King books I have read, and I can’t exactly say that’s a good thing.
Well, darn, Margie. I had high hopes for Good Eggs. I mean, it’s set in Ireland! So, darn. I brought my copy of The Narrowboat Summer back to the library. Kaye raved about it, too. I want to read it, but just don’t have time right now for a slow-paced book. I also appreciate your comments about Later. Thank you!
It is unusual for King in that it is very short and a fast read. I did like it, for the most part,
I have NARROWBOAT SUMMER coming from the library. There was an Inspector Morse (THE WENCH IS DEAD) that we watched recently, based on a favorite Colin Dexter book of mine (with the same title). Morse is laid up in the hospital, and a book about a 19th Century murder has him trying to solve the case 100 years later, from his hospital bed. The book won the Gold Dagger (equivalent of our Edgar) as Best Novel. I liked the book better than the TV show.
Hi Lesa — I just started reading The Searcher by Tana French. I can only say the first ten pages are beautifully written and provide a fine hook.
Oh, Patricia! Well, that summary told me everything I need to know about The Searcher. (smile)
Fun reading week as two of my library ebook hold were available. Both with that “instant best seller promo”. And both were enjoyable reads. The first was suspense, Lisa Gardner’s BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED. Features an “ordinary” woman, albiet recover addict, that spends her life searching for people reported missing. The book centers around her current search and the detecting held my attention. The other was Yaa Gyasi’s 2020 novel TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM. The novel uses the lens of addiction to look at faith, religion, love and science in a captivating story.
In between I stumbled upon (how I miss the library shelves and wandering bookstores!) Robert Goldsborough’s ARCHIE MEETS NERO WOLFE. So fun to revisit 1920s New York and characters from Rex Stout’s grand series.
Now about halfway through Charles Finch’s latest addition to the Charles Lenox series (#14) AN EXTRAVAGANT DEATH. Set in 1878, starting in London then quickly moving to New York.
MM, Our library is slowly extending our hours, but people can browse. We haven’t put back our evening hours yet, but we are open on Saturdays as well as during the week. I hope your library reopens soon! I know. If I hadn’t had Central Library as a place to browse all this time, I would have gone nuts. There’s something about being able to wander the stacks.
I’m glad you enjoyed your books this week!
Last night, I finished GOLDEN GATE, the second in the middle grade CITY SPIES series by James Ponti. I loved it! The book was over all too quickly and I’m ready for book three. Sadly, I probably have to wait 11 months for it.
Today, I’ll be diving into THE BOUNTY, the new Fox and O’Hare book from Janet Evanovich. I’m hoping it will be better than the last in the series. Since I get them from the library, if I don’t enjoy it, it’s not real loss. I enjoyed the first five in the series, which were co-written by Lee Goldberg. Now that he’s no longer involved, we will see how the series progresses.
Yes, Mark. I see Steve Hamilton is Janet Evanovich’s co-author for The Bounty. Totally different type of author than Lee Goldberg. You’re right. We’ll see what happens with the series.
Isn’t it frustrating to have to wait 11 months when you love a book? I get it!
Hope you’re doing okay at work this week!
I finished THE DRUMMERS by Tricia Fields. I liked it very much, the plot was well developed, except that who killed Cia was too much a surprise, not satisfying. I would like to know more about why there was a five year gap between books.
Now I am part way into ETERNAL by Lisa Scottoline and really liking it, so far the best book I’ve read this year. I don’t like her contemporary problem novels and wasn’t sure I wanted to read this one and am glad I did!
Cindy, It could be as simple as Fields’ first 5 books were published by Minotaur Books (Macmillan), and her latest was published by Severn House. Severn House specializes in the library market, and they often pick up series that have been dropped by other publishers, knowing there is still an audience for those books in the library. I can’t say that’s the answer, but it could be.
It’s good to hear that you’re that happy with Eternal!
Good weather here in Santa Barbara, although I am hoping in May and June we will have more of our overcast skies, which my husband and I love. It is called May Gray and June Gloom here. Most people hate it.
I am currently reading The Clocks, another in Christie’s Hercule Poirot series. Close to the end, and not one of the better ones, but I am still enjoying it.
Also currently reading Sunset Over Soho by Gladys Mitchell for a month long read along. Set during the Blitz in London. At this point, I am loving the story. Mitchell’s books are strange and different kinds of mysteries and I have only read two others by her.
I recently finished Murder in Piccadilly by Charles Kingston, one of the vintage mysteries reprinted by the British Library. I am trying to write a review of it right now but having a hard time because has so few (if any) likable characters. It does have a good ending.
I also read The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne for a year long Brian Moore Read-along. The only other book I have read by him was Black Robe, also this year. A very interesting author.
Tracy, I’m afraid I’d be with all the others. I was always a fan of the sunny skies in Florida and Arizona. Overcast just makes me feel blah. Then, I just want to cuddle up with the cats and do nothing.
An interesting selection of books there, mostly older titles. I find older titles to be just like newer ones, some better than others.
Weather’s been pretty warm here. Things are starting to open up…Everything but our library which is under construction!
This week I read:
Domino Lady Volume 2; The Domino Lady is a formerly obscure pulp heroine, who is now more popular than ever. Some of the authors didn’t really have a grasp on the 1930’s. Nehru jackets weren’t really a thing then.
Broadcast 4 Murder by JC Eaton; The sleuth’s mother gets a temporary gig hosting a radio show on mystery books, and finds a body in the broadcast room. Mostly about crazy and out of touch old folks, y’know, the folks who won WWII and put a man on the moon using slide rules.
Looking for the General by Warren Miller; Don’t know how I got this one, but it was nearly incomprehensible to me, about a guy who was being tortured by The Military, Aliens, both, or neither,.
Hostage by Claire Mackintosh; Got an ARC. A flight attendant is having marriage problems, and problems with her adopted child. Trying to avoid her problems, she decides to work a 20 hour flight to Sydney Australia. Terrorists blackmail her into helping them take over the ship. Die Hard it isn’t.
Rabbit hole! I went looking for the dates of the Nehru jacket, Glen. I thought 60s, and I was right as to the popularity and the connection to Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first Prime Minister. Anyways, throw me a comment like that, and I’m heading off to check on it. I read the first 2 of JC Eaton’s books. For me, the attraction was the Arizona setting. I actually knew a couple of the places they mentioned in the books.
I had a Nehru suit! In fact, I have a picture of me wearing it. Let me check, OK, found it. It is a very faded picture from…August 1968. The late ’60s was also the last time I was clean shaven, for what that’s worth.
I can’t believe you could find the picture, Jeff! Too bad we can’t see the photo!
Oh yes, please find some way to post it Jeff!
Hi all, I am back from Edinburgh and here is the post I had intended to post this morning before I left:
Hi Lesa
Our temperatures have dropped dramatically this week. Last Saturday we were walking on the Deeside Way with no coats; it was a beautiful sunny day. The path takes you through woodlands and open fields, then down beside the river. There we saw the Cambus O’May bridge in all its restored glory – it was only re-opened last week after extensive repairs to damage caused by severe floods 6-7 years ago. It is a white iron Victorian suspension footbridge. In the flood the Dee was so overwhelmed that caravans were actually washed down river from holiday parks by Ballater; they crashed into the bridge and buckled it. Now it has been restored to its glory, and on a sunny April morning it looked marvellous.
Within 24 hours we had heavy snow, gale force winds and freezing temperatures – and although the snow has melted, I opened the curtains this morning to see another blizzard. We’re hoping that’s the end of it for this year.
This week I finished Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia. I always have mixed feelings about Christie. I know she is one of the stars of the ‘Golden Age’, but I feel she tells more or less the same story over and over again. The plots so often hinge on someone or something from a character’s (usually the victim’s) long lost past. I won’t give away the ending of this one, but it really stretched credibility even more than usual. However, I enjoyed the setting, an archaeological dig in Iraq (as one Goodreads reviewer said ‘when it was still a peaceful country before George Bush got hold of it…). I know that Christie’s second husband was an acclaimed archaeologist, and she clearly has a lot of experience of spending time in remote places with a group of disparate people.
So now I am reading Winifred Holtby’s South Riding. I originally felt daunted by its 500+ pages, but in fact it is an easy and gripping read. The central character, Sarah Burton, returns from London to her home town in a run down part pf Yorkshire, to take up the position as headmistress of the local council school. The school has been allowed to go to rack and ruin, the girls have not been encouraged to have any ambition or intellectual aspirations – as the lazy, disinterested deputy head says, ‘Most of them will go into shops, become nursemaids, or help their mothers run lodging-houses until they marry.’
Miss Burton is one of a generation of educated, intelligent, women who are determined to improve the prospects and intellect of girls.
Winifred Holtby was a great friend of Vera Brittain (Testament of Youth) with whom she was a student at Somerville College, Oxford. They were both pioneering women.
Many other issues are addressed in the book – corruption in local government, poor, insanitary, housing, illegitimacy, privilege, snobbery – but all as part of a good story, I’m enjoying it much more than I expected to. I had seen two TV adaptations over the years; in the 1970s Dorothy Tutin had played the role of Sarah, and more recently she was portrayed by Anna Maxwell Martin, with David Morrissey taking the part of local, near-bankrupt, landowner Robert Carne.
We are up to episode 3 of the new series of Line of Duty. It is excellent and nobody has the faintest idea what is going on. My friend also recommended Between The Lines, a series from the 1990s which she describes as a precursor to Line of Duty. It s being repeated on BB4, so I must have a look at that.
I was listening to Val McDermid speaking on a book podcast that I often follow (;Backlisted;), and she was describing the bookcases she has has had fitted into her Georgian house in the New Town in Edinburgh. It seems that she saw the ones in Toppings book shop in St Andrews (floor to ceiling wooden cases) and decided she must have the same, so she employed the very same joiner to come and fit them in her house – she even has one of those library ladders that can slide along the shelves – I’m jealous!
Hope everyone has a good week,
Rosemary
Oh, Rosemary. I’m so glad you were home in time to post this. Thank you. Your descriptions of the Dee, the flood and the bridge were magnificent. I’ve never heard of Winifred Holtby or of her book, South Riding. But, your descriptions make it enticing. However, the most enticing bit is about Val McDermott’s library (sigh). That sounds wonderful. Thank you for sharing every bit of your post.
There is word here that sometime in late April, our branch and the entire system, may reopen to patrons in some limited capacity while maintaining curbside pickup. I hope.
Currently reading DARK SKY by CJ Box in eBook format via the library.
Good luck with that, Kevin. We’ve reopened to the public, but still have curbside delivery, so I hope you do, too.
Hi, Lesa. I try to catch your Thursday blog when my addled brain doesn’t forget. I love to see what so many others are reading. It’s good to see that two books on my TBR list got favorable comments here. Hopefully, I’ll be getting to The Searcher and The Narrowboat Summer soon.
I was able to fit in a non mystery/crime book recently. You Cannot Mess This Up by Amy Weinland Daughters was such a delight. A forty-six-year-old woman goes back in time for a day to when she was ten-years-old. She is there as her adult self, but she gets to be with her child self and her family. The contrast between 1978 and 2014 is so much fun to read about. While there’s lots of humor, it also has a serious side. I reviewed it on my blog.
Two books I just finished and loved are Body Zoo by J.D. Allen and Death by Equine by Annette Dashofy. After reading Body Zoo, I can’t wait to go back and pick up the first two Jim Bean novels. This book comes out in June. Annette is the author of one of my favorite series, the Zoe Chambers series, and this new book is a stand-alone. It has the same great writing as Annette’s series, and it’s due out in May. I am starting a book tonight that comes out next Tuesday, A Dead Man’s Eyes (Lisa Jamison #1) by Lori Duffy Foster. I’m looking forward to reading it, and I need to do so quickly, as my review needs to go up by Tuesday. Hopefully, after I finish Lori’s book, I can fit it a couple more catch-up books.
Don’t you feel sometimes, Kathy, as if it’s a gerbil wheel? I always feel as if I”m playing catch-up. I miss some of the books I want to read, and read others that I wouldn’t have bothered. On the other hand, sometimes reviewing allows me to discover some I would have never read.
Perfect description, Lesa. A gerbil wheel. Hahaha!
In between helping an author friend to add her book to GoodReads after her publisher provided the ISBN and clearing out the flower bed for the peonies, I managed to read a wonderful work of magic realism – Never Play With Death – by Hans Trujillo.
Oh, good, Joyce. I’m glad you found a wonderful book to read!
Finished DARK SKY and working on the review. Started the new Sheriff Brady and am also reading it in eBook. Libraries are great. Even better is having an adult son that can MAKE THE TECHNOOGY WORK!
Sorry, no, I didn’t read or review DARK SKY, Kevin. But, thanks for looking. See, now you have to keep Scott for another week or so.