Category: Monthly Wrap Up

Finally some sunshine! This is my reading nook in the living room, where I disappear to when I want to be in the same room with everyone but away from the TV end. I love the way the sun streaks through this window in the late afternoon until it sets. It’s been busy again this month and next month is crazy! I guess this is just what being a book blogger is like. Here are my favourites this month, lots of crime fiction and a couple of brilliant historical/crime combinations too.

The Small Museum by Jody Cooksley

A shiver thrilled my spine at the thought of what might be contained in collections to be kept away from ordinary eyes…

London, 1873. Madeleine Brewster’s marriage to Dr Lucius Everley was meant to be the solution to her family’s sullied reputation. After all, Lucius is a well-respected collector of natural curiosities. His ‘Small Museum’ of bones and specimens in jars is his pride and joy, although firmly kept under lock and key. His sister Grace’s philanthropic work with fallen women is also highly laudable.

However, Maddie soon finds herself unwelcome in what is meant to be her new home. The more she learns about both Lucius and Grace, the more she suspects that unimaginable horrors lie behind their polished reputations.

Framed for a crime that would take her to the gallows and leave the Everleys free to continue their dark schemes, Maddie’s only hope is her friend Caroline. She will do anything to prove Maddie’s innocence before the trial reaches its fatal conclusion.

This is a cracking gothic thriller where Maddie has only two choices: shut up and remain complicit in a potentially horrific scheme or try to speak up and be labelled a madwoman. All in all, this is a really well written and researched novel with all the ingredients I love in an historical novel: a fantastic sense of time and place; strong female characters that break through the Victorian ‘Angel in the House’ stereotype; those Gothic elements to bring a sense of mystery. Then added to this are the addictive twists and turns of a crime novel. What an incredible debut this is!

The Maiden by Kate Foster

Kate Foster has taken a real life news report and turned it into an incredible read, full of historical detail and intrigue. It’s the late 17th Century and Lady Christian Nimmo lives with her sister Johanna and her mother at their lavish home in Scotland. Although their home is becoming less lavish by the month because since their father’s death she notices pale spaces where paintings or rugs once lived. Their fortunes are at the mercy of their uncle by marriage. James Forrester is laird of the neighbouring castle where he lives with Christian’s invalid aunt Lillias. James comes for dinner and departs with a little more of their family history packed away for sale. The girls must marry well and it is Johanna with her bubbly personality and pretty face who is proposed to first. For her wedding to Robert Gregory, Christian’s uncle sends her a beautiful brooch to wear and she is pleased at his kindness and the acknowledgement that she might feel left behind that day. However, she does enjoy the attentions of the fabric merchant Andrew Nimmo who brings them new fabric and entertains them with tales of sailing to far off lands and the night sky at sea. Marriage to him would be interesting andadventurous, all the things that Christian yearns for when she reads novels and poetry. So when he proposes she accepts happily, sharing her sister’s new found marriage advice and looking forward to being mistress of her own house. Yet only months later she is detained for the suspected murder of her Uncle James, killed by his own sword under a sycamore tree in the grounds of his castle. How has it come to this and will Christian have to face the infamous ‘Maiden’, a guillotine where Scotland’s aristocratic condemned meet their fate?

What the author does that makes this novel sing is combining the time period and story to the structure of a modern crime thriller. Just when we think we know everything, she trips us up with a different perspective or twist we didn’t see coming. Some revelations throw a completely different light on everything that has gone before bringing that excitement and compelling you to keep reading. I genuinely didn’t know how it would be resolved until we arrived there and once we did it was obvious this was the only way for it to end. Utterly brilliant and definitely a debut worthy of it’s accolades.

The Bookshop Ladies by Faith Hogan.

One sure way to entice us bookworms is to write a book about books and this one has all the warmth, friendship and female empowerment we would expect from a Faith Hogan novel. It’s like receiving a big warming hug, but in book form. Our central character is Joy and we meet her at a hugely traumatic point in her life. Joy lives in Paris with her husband Yves Bachand, a well-known art dealer who has made the career of many a new struggling artist. Joy has a very successful career of her own in public relations. Everything is turned upside down when Yves suffers a massive heart attack and in his dying moments manages to tell Joy he has a daughter. Over the next few weeks as Joy starts to comes to terms with losing her husband, she’s also trying to get her head around his dying words. Could he possibly have been unfaithful? The whole idea adds a new level of devastation because Joy and Yves couldn’t have children of their own. Their solicitor approaches Joy about an unusual request in his will, he has bequeathed a painting he owned to a girl called Robyn. We’re back in the gorgeous coastal village of Ballycove, where our other main character Robyn lives. Robyn has a small bookshop, with largely second hand books on various subjects from rare birds to trains. Although Robyn has put the stock onto online book sites she isn’t exactly turning a profit and she wonders if she’s made a big mistake. Her grandfather Albert suggests that she hire someone or find a volunteer to do a few hours in the shop to free Robyn up for business planning and working on her vision for the shop. Into this scenario walks Joy, renting the flat above Albert’s and hoping to stay for only a couple of weeks in order to pass on the painting. She can see that it belongs with Robyn as it was painted by her mother Fern. Joy both welcomes and dreads meeting Robyn and definitely her mother. If she can do it quickly, almost like ripping off a band aid, she can get the painting handed over and be back on a plane to Paris in no time. However, she hadn’t factored Robyn into the equation. She walks past the shop twice plucking up courage and when she does finally walk in she’s so taken aback by this girl who looks so much like Yves she could only be his daughter. Stunned into silence, Robyn’s chatter takes over and she assumes that Joy is there to apply for the position she advertised in the window. In her stunned state Joy doesn’t argue and soon she is Robyn’s new book assistant.

I really enjoyed the women in this novel, especially Joy who is so resilient and generous with her time, her emotions and her heart. I felt like Ballycove worked it’s usual magic, but Joy matches it, bringing her enthusiasm and joie de vive to the bookshop. She’s using her professional skills of course, but there is just that touch of enchantment about her too. She’s like a bookish Mary Poppins. However, would Robyn’s mum Fern immediately know who Joy was and what would it do to her relationship with Robyn? I felt sad that Joy might lose everything she’s built in Ballycove and the sense of family she’s enjoyed with Robyn and her grandfather. There’s a lovely little romantic subplot and a lot of personal growth on Robyn’s part, particularly the unresolved emotions around being bullied at school. The word that always best describes Faith’s writing is charming. It’s like making new best friends and although her stories are emotional and raise serious issues, they are always uplifting too. This felt like a lovely warm hug in a book and added lots of ideas to my imaginary future bookshop.

Toxic by Helga Flatland

When Mathilde is forced to leave her teaching job in Oslo after her relationship with eighteen-year-old Jacob is exposed, she flees to the countryside for a more authentic life.

Her new home is a quiet cottage on the outskirts of a dairy farm run by Andres and Johs, whose hobbies include playing the fiddle and telling folktales – many of them about female rebellion and disobedience, and seeking justice, whatever it takes.

Toxic was a perfect read for me because the author creates such psychologically detailed characters and a setting so real I felt like I was there. Helga never underestimates the intelligence of her readers, assuming we’ll make sense of these complex characters and their backgrounds. The story is structured using two narrative voices, that of Mathilde and Johs. Johs’s narrative establishes both his family and the setting of the farm where Mathilde will make her new home. At first the narratives seemed completely divorced from each other; life at the farm is only just starting to undergo change after the rather stifling management of their grandfather Johannes, whereas Mathilde is a city dweller who seems hellbent on pushing boundaries and pursuing freedom. It is that search for freedom, during the COVID pandemic, that starts Mathilde hankering after a more rural life and losing her job is the catalyst for taking action. Quickly I became so drawn in by the two narratives that I stopped worrying about a link and once Johs and Mathilde are on the same farm their differences create a creeping sense of foreboding.

The author uses local Nordic myths and songs to give us a sense of the history of the area, but also the attitudes towards modernity and women. I found these songs harmless at first, simply a part of a community where families have remained for generations. However, the more I heard, especially with their interpretations from granddad Johannes who performs them on his Hardinger fiddle, the more the content felt controlling and misogynistic. Johs and Mathilde show how different backgrounds and life experiences rub up against each other. Two different upbringings have created opposite values and lifestyles. Yet I felt a dangerous antipathy building towards Mathilde and that one wrong move could cause this tinder box to ignite. With her lack of boundaries, that wrong move seemed very possible. I was surprised by where the ending came, although not shocked. As I took a moment and thought back, every single second we spend with each character is building towards this moment. Utterly brilliant.

Boys Who Hurt by Eva Björg Aegisdottir

We’re back with Detective Elma in the fifth of the author’s Forbidden Iceland series and she is returning to work from maternity leave when a body is found in a holiday cottage by a lakeside. The victim’s name is Thorgeir, who has grown up in Akranes and in a coincidence typical to small towns, his mother is Elma’s neighbour. The cottage belongs to the family and the evidence suggests Thorgeir was not alone – there were two wine glasses and a lacy thong is found under the bed. He is found in the bed, with stab wounds and the line of a well known hymn is written on the wall behind the bed, in blood. With Saever on paternity leave with their daughter Adda, Elma works alongside her brilliantly grumpy boss Hörour to solve the murder. Several leads come to light. Thorgeir was working with his friend Matthías on an exercise and well-being app and had secured a large sum of money as an investment, but from an unexpected source. The hymn is well known, often sung at a popular Christian camp for teenagers and refers to the washing away of sin – had Thorgeir needed such forgiveness? Matthías and his wife Hafdis mentioned a young woman that Thorgeir had been seeing recently, but there is no sign of Andrea anywhere. The friends had attended camps together as teenagers, but on one such occasion a young man called Heioar had died out on the lake in the night, in similar circumstances to Thorgeir’s father’s death a few years before. It’s soon clear that many secrets are hidden in Akranes, some of them within Elma’s own home.

It sometimes feels like every home in Akranes holds an ocean of pain and unresolved trauma. There’s so much going on just under the surface, an intergenerational trauma that seems to come partly from religion and partly from rigid expectations. One of the most complex relationships is between Thorgeir and his new girlfriend. I was fascinated with her narratives showing how attraction and repulsion can co-exist between two damaged people. Also, how one terrible deed doesn’t define a person. This was a brilliant thriller, exposing a dark underside to Akranes and keeping me guessing to the very end.

Look out for my full review on the blog tour last month.

The Cuckoo by Camilla Lackberg

A community torn apart

As a heavy mist rolls into the Swedish coastal town of Fjällbacka, shocking violence shakes the small community to its core. Rolf Stenklo, a famous photographer, is found murdered in his gallery. Two days later, a brutal tragedy on a private island leaves the prestigious Bauer family devastated.

A town full of secrets

With his boss acting strangely, Detective Patrik Hedström is left to lead the investigation. Tensions rise threatening cracks in the team of officers at Tanumshede police station and pressure mounts as the press demand answers.

A reckoning in blood

In pursuit of inspiration for her next true-crime book, Patrik’s wife Erica Falck leaves behind their three children and travels to Stockholm to research the unsolved decades-old murder of a figure from Rolf’s past. As Erica searches for the truth, she realizes that her mystery is connected to Patrik’s case. These threads from the past are woven into the present and old sins leave behind long shadows.

This was my first Camilla Lackberg novel and I thoroughly enjoyed my introduction into the world of Detective Patrik Hedström and his wife Erica. At first it didn’t grab me. I couldn’t remember all of the characters and how they all related to each other at the party. Henning and Elizabeth Bauer are celebrating their wedding anniversary with family and friends, but sprinkled amongst the celebrations the author places little hints of menace or disquiet. As Henning’s son Rikard stands to make a speech we realise all is not well in their relationship. Even worse the couple’s oldest friend Rolf has declined to come, but is over in the gallery organising the photos for his exhibition with an ominous final pair entitled ‘innocence’ and ‘guilt’. Old secrets are stirring and when Rolf is found dead, killed by a nail gun, Patrik has to look at who had something against him. His wife Vivian is shocked and devastated, especially since she was partying the night away. Could there be a link to his exhibition? Or was there something to uncover at Blanche, the club that the friends owned together? Then the next day, when a terrible discovery is made on the Bauer’s private island the pressure mounts on Patrik to find out who could have committed such a sickening crime. Meanwhile his wife Erica has a link to the crime through Louise, Henning’s daughter-in- law. Erica finds herself drawn to a certain aspect of the crimes, through Rolf’s photographs which appear to have featured women in the transgender community. It seems that many years ago the group were linked to another terrible murder. I was fascinated by the narrative told to us by this previous victim, a transgender woman called Lola. She felt to me like the most developed of the characters and through her I became hooked on finding out who had done this and untangling the fascinating relationships between this lauded group. This was a tangled web and I thoroughly enjoyed unpicking it.

The Midnight House by Eve Chase

I love Eve’s writing: her female characters; the secrets from the past just waiting to spill out; the gothic feel and atmosphere she creates, especially around old houses; lastly, it’s the dynamics she creates between the characters particularly the mothers and daughters. Here she gathers all these aspects together with an intriguing plot and such a relatable central character in Maggie. Maggie is an author, living in Paris and struggling with writer’s block. Something from her shared past with brother Kit keeps coming into her mind. Her mind keeps being drawn back to her teenage years her mother Dee Dee was a famous model, living in the Notting Hill area of London, close to the Portobello Road with it’s antique and collectible traders. One summer morning, Maggie wakes up to find that Dee Dee hasn’t come home. This isn’t too unusual, late parties and sometimes modelling shoots can drag on into the night. She loves spending time with brother Kit anyway. They go out with Kit’s skateboard and he has a fall, breaking one of the wheels. A stranger comes to their aid, dusting Kit down and trying to repair the wheel. He introduces himself as Wolf and when his eyes lock with Maggie’s it’s instantaneous, first time and first sight love. He recognises the connection too, so he takes the skateboard back to his uncle’s antique shop to properly fix Kit’s skateboard. Just so he has an excuse to go back. Maggie navigates this new feeling, but is also concerned for her mother who still hasn’t come home. Adult Maggie needs to visit home and ask her Aunt Cora some questions. Once in London she makes her way to the old house with the pink door and bumps into a man on his way out. She’s surprised to see this is Marco, Dee Dee’s hairdresser. He tells Maggie he’s digging out the basement of the house and sends her into a complete panic. Maggie knows that secrets lurk in the garden of their old home and it might not be long before they’re found… I loved the depiction of first love in this beautiful novel and the mystery unwinds slowly like a maze. Her best yet.

Next month’s reading..

House of Mirrors by Erin Kelly

Another unusual family and a great mystery from Erin Kelly, my full review is coming this week, but the book is out now. Karen and Rex Capel seem like any normal couple nearing middle age, but there are many secrete in their past, particularly the truth about what happened ‘the night of…’ when two men were left dead, Rex’s sister Biba disappeared and Rex ended up in prison. The Capel family are rich, but Rex’s father found a younger wife and started a new family, leaving Rex adrift. Several things happen that destabilise this usually, rather quiet family. Rex and Karen’s daughter Alicia seems to be getting serious about eco warrior Gabe who she is dating and she also opens a vintage dress shop. Honestly, Erin Kelly had me as soon as I read the name of the shop – ‘Dead Girl’s Dresses.’ Roger Capel dies leaving her an inheritance including her grandmother and her aunt Biba’s wardrobe of clothes. A strange woman keeps appearing, even turning up at the shop in disguise and leaving several cryptic notes. Could Aunt Biba still be alive and might there still be secrets about ‘the night of’? An interesting and engaging mystery with a touch of Alice in Wonderland inspiration.

The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable.

I’m not going to say too much about this novel because it’s not out until the end of the summer. It is an incredible debut though and I was utterly spellbound by it. Set in 18th Century Venice, our heroine is Anna Maria an orphan handed over to the Ospedale Della Piéta as a baby. This community of nuns have a recess in a wall where a baby can be anonymously passed into their care. The girls are brought up to work within the hospital, scrubbing floors and doing laundry, but they also have the chance to learn a musical instrument. The best musicians have a chance to be taught by the music master and be part of his elite orchestra. Anna leaps off the page, she’s lively, talented and ambitious. She’s determined that her violin playing will bring her to the attention of the famous music master, because the alternatives don’t bear thinking about. This really is a book to look out for and I loved it.

My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes

I loved this dive straight back into the Walsh family after Again, Rachel. Rachel has always been my favourite Walsh, but in this latest novel Anna really did steal my heart. Anna is nearing her fiftieth birthday and her high flying PR role in the beauty business is wearing a little thin. Although she’s always loved living in NYC, the pandemic left her feeling the distance from her family in Ireland. After losing her husband Aidan in a terrible car accident several years ago, her contact with his family in Boston has waned. Her subsequent relationship with Angelo – a ‘feathery stroker’ – has been conducted with respect, equality and a deep fondness, but never passionate, all consuming love. With a need to be near those she loves, she gives notice on her job, her apartment and her relationship. Back in Ireland she is offered an emergency PR role for family friend Bridie who is opening a resort on farmland she owns near the coast. Her daughter is seriously ill and their building works have been vandalised overnight. With disgruntled locals and no time for the delicate negotiations required Bridie is begging Anna to work her magic. There’s only one problem, the financial broker on the deal is Joey Armstrong. He and Anna have unfinished business, will they be able to work together without stirring up the past? This is a fantastic novel, full of Marian’s trademark wit and emotional intelligence. I absolutely devoured it.

The Night in Question by Susan Fletcher

“Florrie learned, long ago, that society forgets an old person was ever young.”

Florrie Butterfield has been in poor health lately and her mobility starts to suffer, so rather sensibly she decides to sell her house and look for a residential home. She wants assisted living, where she can keep her freedom and independence but have help on hand if needed. When she finds Babbington Hall in the Oxfordshire countryside she thinks she’s found just the place. As she settles into her self-contained flat in the grounds she starts to make friends, when unexpectedly one of them is found dead near the compost heap. Arthur’s death could have been natural causes, but Florrie’s suspicions are aroused. Then something terrible happens. The home’s manager Renata approaches Florrie as someone she’d like to talk to about matters of the heart. It’s lovely to still be seen as someone useful, someone to confide in. Florrie looks forward to their get together, but that night as she looks out of her window at the storm brewing outside, she hears a scream. Then she sees a body fall from an upstairs window, from Renata’s room. So, Florrie sets out to investigate these deaths. Is there a murderer at large and if so what have they gained from killing a defenceless old man and the lovely Renata? This was a lovely mix of mystery and a woman looking back over her life, it brought back so many memories of working in nursing homes and the rich lives many of my residents had lived.

Goodbye Birdie Greenwing by Ericka Waller

I loved this beautiful story that revolved around an elderly lady called Birdie, who receives a terrible diagnosis from her doctor. Birdie is lonely. She has lived alone ever since an event that took away her sister and husband. She hasn’t been participating in life and even now she chooses to walk away from the hospital without the help or support offered. Birdie’s doctor Ada is also isolated. Having come to Brighton from Poland she has few friends, just the elderly man and his son who run the Polish shop nearby. When a new intern comes to work with her, this isolation is challenged and she is worried about Birdie who lives in the same road. She finds herself walking past and checking the house and garden for signs Birdie isn’t coping. Birdie also has new neighbours. Jane has moved to the south coast with her daughter Frankie to escape the rather claustrophobic influence of her mother Min. However, Frankie and Min are thick as thieves and share a rather abrupt and forthright manner. It’s sure that where Frankie has gone, Min will definitely follow eventually. It is Birdie’s predicament that brings all these women together in unusual ways. Ericka writes beautifully about mothers and daughters, the subtle cultural differences that influence how we support and help each other, as well as the personal growth that occurs when we let someone in. I thought this was a beautiful story and everyone I have recommended it to has enjoyed it too.

You Are Here by David Nicholls.

It’s been such a gift to have two of my favourite romantic writers with books out this month. Marian Keyes is a writing goddess! Equally David Nicholls writes about the experience of falling in love like no one else. As anyone who’s read or watched the Netflix series One Day can attest, David writes about those misunderstandings, obstacles, miscommunications and the minutia of relationships with such truth and charm. Here we have Michael and Marnie, each invited on a walking weekend in Cumbria by a mutual friend, Cleo, but with the intention of meeting someone else. Michael is closed off, hurt in the past and not able to let anyone in. Marnie is a great character, she’s funny, patient, and willing to go with the flow. The man she’s supposed to meet has a high stress and high paid job in London. He would suit her, geographically at least, but to be blunt he’s a bit of a dick. Marnie is a reader though, a translator of fiction and full of romantic ideals. She goes into the walk as a novice, breaking in new boots and not enamoured by the unfortunate weather. However, a transformation occurs over a couple of days as Marnie starts to appreciate the head space, the incredible views and just being out in the open air. Michael’s potential date doesn’t turn up, but he is still wrapped up in thoughts of his estranged wife. He does find himself drawn by Marnie though, noting how she looks when dressed for dinner at the hotel. He finds her perhaps a little too outspoken, she doesn’t hold back when finding the going a bit tough, but does respond to her sense of humour. As the main group make preparations to leave for the working week, Michael plans to walk on to the opposite coast and Robin Hood’s Bay. Marnie has nothing immediate in London and could easily walk alongside him a bit longer. How will they get along, just the two of them? This is a beautiful novel that’s somehow heartwarming thanks to it’s lack of traditional romance. This is two older people, who’ve been hurt, negotiating a challenge together and I was transfixed by the ‘will they won’t they’ of the story.

Next month’s reading:

Well, what a wonderful start to my bookish New Year! January has been a busy month and I’ve read some fabulous books. Being away for a couple of weeks at the beginning of January has helped enormously. I’ve been able to keep up with blog tours and managed to get some personal choices read as well, a balance that I’d like to continue through this year. It’s been so nice to just pick something that appeals to my mood on that day! So my favourites are a great mix: three are choices from my Squad Pod book group; one is a blog tour book from Orenda Books and Random Things Tours; the final two were personal choices. These are my January favourite reads:

The Knowing is a fantastic debut from Emma Hinds and Bedford Square Publishers. If a book could have been written specifically for me it would have been this one. If you love The Night Circus, The Crimson Petal and the White or the books of Sarah Waters then this is for you. Flora is a mystic, tarot reader and tattoo artist living with a member of the Dead Rabbits gang in Five Points, NYC. Jordan has had Flora since she was a child and their ‘relationship’ is nothing more than a long history of physical and sexual violence. Her life changes when she meets Minnie, a young woman with dwarfism who organises freak shows and curiosities. She takes Flora in and shares her own room, within a mansion belonging to her lover Chester Merton. This isn’t just an act of altruism though, Minnie wants Flora to share her gift and become their ‘tattooed mystic’. But Flora’s ‘knowing’ is more powerful than anyone expects. This book takes us from NYC to the slums of Manchester, through Flora’s eyes, as she experiences love, obsession and betrayal.

Lou has lost her sugar daddy and needs to get a job, so she decides to interview for a role in Edinburgh working in a halfway house for offenders newly realised from prison. She intends to live with her cousin Beatrice and get her life back on track. Before she’s even over the jet lag she meets a man at the matinee of Beatrice’s new play. After a few days of wild outdoor sex, she has to start her new job. One shift shadowing a current employee introduces her to the men she’ll be on night shifts with. The offenders are guilty of crimes that range from drugs and public decency, all the way up to murder. I wondered if Lou hadn’t bitten off more than she could chew! Her nighttime routine means doling out cocoa and the right biscuits, but is timed to the minute so she’ll be able to catch one resident who tries to hang himself every evening at the same time. This thriller is dark, but also very funny. I loved Lou. She is a force of nature, displaying compulsive and even dangerous behaviour. As the routines of the house start to unravel a little, I was rooting for her and hoping she’d come out alive! A brilliantly dark and comic thriller.

This book was a Squad Pod choice in it’s paperback form and I fell in love with it’s charm and themes of loss, letting go and moving on. There is nothing more cathartic then having a good clear out – something I tend to do at this time of year. I also love a good rummage in second hand and charity shops, especially the bookshelves of course. I’m also mainly clothed in Vinted purchases so I love to repurpose things and give homes to some unique items that seem to exist purely for me – a candleholder in the form of a monkey wearing a dress anyone? Gwen is being made redundant and decides to use the pay off she receives to have a career break and really think about what she wants to do next. For the summer she decides to volunteer at her local charity shop and it opens her up to experiences she never imagined. Gwen has been in a rut for a long time, now that she can reshape it she seems overwhelmed. She also seems detached from family and old friends. With the help of volunteer Connie, who is determined to help Gwen take the next step, or the hint of romance with young volunteer Nicholas could she find a new way of living? This is a love story, not a boy meets girl, but of finding yourself. It’s about discarded belongings getting a new lease of life and a family’s acceptance of loss. I loved it.

This was one of my personal reading choices for the month and I really enjoyed the premise. Blue has decided to attend a grief retreat, run in the rural home of Molly and Josh Park. Guests stay in the farmhouse and take their meals together, but also participate in therapy sessions facilitated by Molly. Blue is an unusual woman, who has grown up with the gift of mediumship. The happiest days of her childhood were with stepfather Devlin who encouraged her gift and understood what it cost her – after seeing a spirit Blue would be exhausted and affected by headaches. She lived with Devlin, her mum and two other children – a baby and young boy named Bodhi who seems to glower at her and never speaks. As soon as she reaches the farm, Blue’s headaches and vision problems start. Her neighbour Sabine’s door keeps coming open, no matter how many times it’s locked and Blue gets the sense of a little girl with long, wispy blonde hair. As a storm encroaches on the weekend and the roads start to flood, they are completely cut off. Blue is getting the sense that all is not well with their hosts. Who is the girl in the photograph, hidden in their private living room? Why does she sleep so well after Molly’s hot chocolate? Why does participant Milton keep coming to the retreat when he barely joins in? As the flood waters close in, will Blue find answers to her questions? Or are they in even more danger than they imagined?

We rejoin the unforgettable Molly the Maid in this wonderful sequel that drew me back into her world immediately. Molly still lives in her grandmother’s and is still working at the Regency Grand, but now she’s living with her boyfriend and has been promoted to Head Maid. She has declined a trip to Cuba because the mystery author J.D. Grimthorpe will be launching his new book from the newly restored Art Deco tea room at the hotel. She knows the author is very precise and has high standards so getting his tea trolley ready is no easy task. Molly trusts Lily, her protégé, to make sure all his needs are met including his own honey pot to sweeten his tea. As everyone gathers to hear the author, including some avid book fans, he takes a sip of his tea and collapses to the floor, quite dead. The Regency is once again at the centre of a murder mystery and Molly’s incredible memory and powers of observation are a much needed asset. What she’s not telling them is that she knows J.D. Grimthorpe rather well. Could she have a motive for his murder? This is a brilliant return of a character I absolutely loved the first time.

This book absolutely blew my mind! It’s like nothing else I’ve read recently and I was transfixed by it, almost reading it cover to cover in one sitting. Cole doesn’t understand modern women any more. He has taken a job in a remote coastal area that comes with its own lodgings, removing himself from London and the failure of his marriage. His wife Mel is seeking divorce, but he has always treasured her and looked out for her safety, especially when she was working too hard. They had decided to start a family through IVF and still have three viable embryos waiting for implantation. Mel is acting like he’s some sort of monster. When he meets Lenny, an artist who lives in the coastguard cottage, he is taken with her femininity and decides to call her Leonora as he thinks it suits her better. They become friends, but he is wary of wanting more even though they look at life the same way and she lets him look after her. Then he becomes embroiled in the drama around two missing girls, who were walking the coastal route over several days to highlight the amount of violence against women in society. Will Leonora stand by him if he is implicated? This is a brilliant book which captures the zeitgeist and is full of so many delicious twists and turns you won’t know who to believe.

That’s my January round up for 2024. February is looking like a bumper month for publications and with less time to read them all I’m going to be very busy!

October has continued to be a quieter reading month as I’m still recovering from a relapse that started last month. I’ve not taken part in blog tours and mainly have picked and choose what I’ve read from my TBR book trolley and my pile that lives next to me in the bedroom. It’s been an eclectic mix and I’m even starting to pick up the odd non-fiction book too. I’ve enjoyed most things I’ve read but these six really are the cream of the crop.

This latest novel from C.J. Cooke was originally a NetGalley choice but I bought it as well, because I like a finished copy when I’ve enjoyed a book and I’ve bought her last three models without worrying about trying it first. They’re always good. This one was exceptional and all based on board the Arctic whaling boat the Ormen. In the present day it’s a shipwreck just off an isolated part of Iceland and about to be moved out to deeper water and sunk. We follow Dom, who is try to document the ship before it is disappears forever, but I had so many questions about why she’d chosen to do this alone. Not long after a group of three explorers also turn up to document the boat and they join Dom, living on the Ormen and measuring sounds, distances and filming their attempts at Parkour. Then we’re sent over 100 years into the past and a different voyage for the Ormen, a whaling expedition with an unusual addition on the ship. Nicky wakes as the ship is moving and soon realises she has a severely broken ankle with an open wound. She has no recollection of coming aboard, but does remember being in the park and bundled into a sack. For some reason she has been taken from her home and family by one of these rough and ready crewmen. She hopes the captain will free her, but when he refers to her as the crew’s Selkie wife she knows what she’s here for. If Nicky wants to live and return to her family, she will spend the voyage ‘entertaining’ the men in her cabin. Nicky resigns herself to her fate, but not to the strange thing that’s happening to her injured leg. Where the leg is healing, instead of soft warm skin covering the wound Nicky can see a sleek silver grey skin, almost like that of a seal. This is a brilliant bit of historical fiction and a great ghost story too. The setting is eerie and unsettling, Nicky’s voyage is horrifying and the explorers become very on edge with their situation and each other. Unputdownable!

The Hidden Years is another dual timeline narrative, set in a large mansion in Cornwall both in the 1960’s and the war years. We start with Belle who is at university in the 1960’s when she meets Gray and falls head over heels in love. Gray invites her to Silverwood, a community where self sufficiency and creativity are a way of life. Gray wants to work on his music and he wants to take Belle down to Helford, Cornwall with him. Once there, Belle experiences a different way of living but also befriends a lady in a nearby cottage who inexplicably seems to recognise her. We then go back to the 1940’s a girl called Imogen taking two boys down to their school in Cornwall, where she’s offered a temporary job as matron in the dormitory. She has a friendship with one of the teachers Ned, but there’s a spark of attraction with another school master too. When Imogen starts to volunteer as a nurse for the war effort, her relationships with these two men will cause heartache and shape her life. I loved the way she writes about how war shapes the future of these young people and how far reaching it’s influence is. This is a great read, full of period detail and local history with a central mystery you’ll want to uncover.

Alice Hoffman’s new novel The Invisible Hour is a mixture of historical fact and magic realism, including one of America’s most famous writers, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hoffman’s book uses Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter as a basis for her story which starts with a young girl called Ivy who becomes pregnant while still a teenager. Her rich, Boston, family are horrified and reject her pleas for help, so Ivy leaves home. With the help of a friend she makes her way to a community in Massachusetts that has a very charismatic leader. Joel has been left land by his first wife and has built a religious community that makes its money from the apple orchards they harvest. By the time Ivy’s father has sent out a private investigator to find her, she is married to Joel and has a small daughter, Mia. In a separate timeline we meet a teenage Mia who is finding the restrictions of their community too hard to cope with. She has already found a way to sneak into the library and enjoy the books banned by Joel. When tragedy strikes at the farm, Mia takes a chance and runs with the help of the librarian. However, Joel isn’t very good at letting things go and Mia has left with a painting, with a very important inscription on the back. There’s jeopardy and tension all the way, but of course Alice Hoffman brings in some romance and a sprinkle of magic as Mia steps outside her time and meets Nathaniel Hawthorne. This was a feminist take on the themes of The Scarlet Letter, with a strong defence of women across history and an even stronger defence of the written word.

This was a real return to form for the Strike novels after the complex and internet based case at the centre of the last book. Here Strike is running several cases, but the main investigation is of a religious organisation not unlike Scientology in it’s methods. A peer of the realm asks Robin and Strike to find his son, who has been part of the church for a number of years. They have been trying to let him know that his mother was terminally ill and would like to see him, unfortunately she has now died and he believes that the church haven’t given him their letters. We’re taken to the church’s farm and retreat in Norfolk, known as the Chapman Farm. With most of their operatives already on cases it’s Robin who volunteers to be a new recruit, offering to visit services at their London temple. Strike worries, but from Robin’s point of view as an equal partner she has the right to make these choices. However, knowing Robin’s previous trauma I was worried that the church would target and manipulate her. They agree she will identify a place on the farm’s perimeter to leave them a note each week under a rock. That way if she wants to come out, they will know. The farm sections are tense, disturbing and kept me turning the pages – no mean feat in a book of this size. As always the feelings these two have for each other will threaten to break the surface and as Robin finds herself in danger will this be the time they are honest with each other? This was a great investigation and a definite step up from the last novel in the series.

This is the third novel from Alix E. Harrow and she became a ‘must-buy’ author for me after her last. Consequently, I ended up with three copies of this after forgetting I’d ordered it and getting a copy from the publisher. We’re in the town of Eden, Kentucky, a place where industry dominates the job market and the Graveley’s power plant is the destination of most young men who stay put. Opal doesn’t want that for her brother Jasper, who she’s been looking after since she was twelve and their mother drowned in an accident. The brother and sister live in a motel room, exist on food that doesn’t need cooking and live hand to mouth. Opal has two cleaning jobs, but isn’t spending their money on their day to day expenses, or on herself. She has seen potential in Jasper and she wants him to get a proper education. Her savings are all for him to attend a private academy where he’ll flourish and be able to leave Eden. However, Opal is attracted to Starling House. She passes on her way between jobs each day and although it’s barely visible from the road, there is one light that glows in an attic room and there’s the gates, sinuous ironwork that almost looks alive. One night she stands at the gate and places her hands on the curls of the ironwork. Immediately, she feels wetness and realises her hand is cut, but on what? When she looks up, a tall, dark wild looking man has appeared in front of her with a sword. He’s magnetic and as they stare into each other’s eyes he says one word – ‘Run’. Opal doesn’t need telling twice, but will she be able to stay away? Especially when the house wants her. … A love story of swords and thorns rather than hearts and flowers, this is a perfect dark fantasy for autumn.

Val McDermid is one of my reading oversights, so I was thrilled when her latest Karen Pirie novel was chosen for one of our Squad Pod reads. We were also sent Still Life, to catch up with the story and I can now see why Val is the Queen of Crime. Karen Pirie is in charge of a cold case unit, but this case begins with a new body being pulled from the Firth of Forth. The dead man has been living in France under an alias, but strangely his artist brother went missing a few years before and is in Karen’s cold case files. Surely the two disappearances are related? I loved Karen because she’s so determined, meticulous in gathering every detail and not above getting her hands dirty. They follow the dead man’s movements during his Scottish visit and think he had a lead on his brother’s disappearance. Meanwhile, her sergeant Jason is following leads on a skeleton found in a camper van, within the garage of a rented house. Two women lived there, but the team can’t be sure at first who they body is and which woman is on the run. They have a lead to the north west of England where one of the women has lived in an art collective. So, on her own travels to France, then Ireland Karen has the help of a young recruit called Daisy. The story took us into interesting places, including Westminster and the Scottish office and how they choose their art from the National collections. I was also touched by the sensitivity Val brought to Karen’s personal life and her new relationship with Hamish, while still grieving for Phil – a fellow police officer and the man she loved. The cases are fascinating, but so is Karen and there are so many reasons to keep turning the pages. I was so sucked in by this that I read the next one straight away and then went back to the first in the series! I’m so excited to have all of Val’s back catalogue to read.

So that’s been October. Here’s what I’m hoping to read in November.