2022 50 BOOKS - OR AS MANY AS YOU CAN MANAGE

#82 was The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jonasson. Scandinavia-noir at its very best set in the remotest part of Iceland.
#83 was A Murder Inside by Frances Brody, an enjoyable cosy mystery about a murder in a new women’s open prison in 1969. I very much enjoyed it.
#84 was The Birthday Girl by Sue Fortin, a psychological thriller with so many twists and turns that I could not put it down.

A whalebone theatre sounds as though it might be a bit smelly, Terribull!

#40 Pat Barker ‘The Silence of the Girls’ The Iliad is being ransacked these days for the untold stories of the women. Grim and powerful, very readable.

45 - The Governess Wendy Holden (Audio) The story of Marion Crawford the Scottish Governess of the title to a very young Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. When I started listening to this our Queen was very much alive and by the time I'd finished she had died, a death that given her age could have come at any time but nevertheless still quite out of the blue. The book as expected dwells very much on their growing up years before, during and after Edward V111's abdication and the following war years before MC made the massive faux pas of publishing her memoirs and became persona non grata It all seems so tame now given what's currently flying off the shelves in various recollections which sometimes differ

46 The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn. An excellent debut novel I believe , set in rural Dorset between the wars, the story of a large country house and a young girl with a passion for amateur dramatics who constructs an outdoor theatre from a poor dead beached whale's ribcage The setting and parts of the narrative reminded me of several other books I'd read in particular The Cazalet Chronicles and Atonement both sprang to mind. When the war breaks out the young heroine of the book joins the War Office and volunteers to be parachuted into France behind enemy lines to join the resistance, ostensibly as a spy having perfected her knowledge of French, but also with the aim of looking for her missing brother, deeply sad at times.

47 The Radleys - Matt Haig (Audio) Having read his The Midnight Library and not liking it all I thought I'd give him another go when I saw this prominently displayed in the audio section of my local library. I didn't read the blurb very thoroughly but gathered it was about a family with hidden secrets, which I put down to a few skeletons in the cupboard. However it was to emerge that The Radleys were a family of suppressed vampires. If I'd known it was about vampires I probably wouldn't have picked it up. Having said that once I got into it, I actually enjoyed it and found it darkly funny in a tongue in cheek sort of way.

48 A Line to Kill Anthony Horowitz The author has developed a series of crime books in which he puts himself in the story along with his Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne. In this they both travel to the Island of Alderney, of all places, for a literary festival to discuss a book they have collaborated on together. Whilst there, one of the sponsors is murdered. Very Christiesque in that almost all the major characters had a motive to kill the deceased. Cosy crime, good escapism.

49. The Blackbird - Tim Weaver Crime again. I've read most in the Missing Person investigator David Raker series, I've really enjoyed some, others less so. This one falls between the two, fast moving with umpteen twists, ultimately quite a preposterous plot leaving a loose end overlap into what will inevitably follow in his next book which no doubt I'll read too when it's out.

50 Late in the Day Tessa Hadley I like Tessa Hadley from the couple of other books of hers I've read, this one is about two long term couples who have been friends since they were very young thrown into turmoil when one of the quartet dies suddenly. Quite good although a bit dismal, her writing reminds me of Anita Brookner at times.

What to read next, my husband has just finished the Ink Black Heart, I loved Galbraith's last book Troubled Blood, but like that one this is also over 1,000 pages with a lot of on line three way conversations, confusing at times I'm told. It's going to take me a while to get through it, oh well I've done the 50 now so I just might!

Just started book 108, Storm Prey, by John Sandford, enjoying it so far.

I`ve finished Net Force, it was OK, but too many characters to get my head around.

reading and enjoying Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguru

#49. Dead Tomorrow by Peter James.

Have just finished the second Richard Osman book, ‘The Man Who Died Twice’.

It was ok, but don’t think it deserves to be classified in the ‘crime’ section of books. All very twee, the characters just don’t resonate with me at all.

And a very daft plot.

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32. All About Me by Mel Brooks. It’s a memoir. Whilst the early parts about his childhood and war service are good it then degenerates into basically a list of films and tv programmes he’s done.

33 Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively. She ruminates on the gardens she’s had since her childhood in Egypt, by way of other peoples gardens, gardens in art, in literature and so on. Calming reading.

34. I started The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd but DNF as it was giving me awful dreams.

35. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor. I’d read that this was a delightful classic but I found it bleak and depressing. Beautifully written, though.

#62 The Stranger Times C K McDonnell.
A bonkers, quirky, urban fantasy about a newspaper that publishes stories about paranormal creatures and activities only to discover that they are real. With a wonderful cast of characters, especially the paper's editor. I loved it.

I enjoyed Whiskey Beach. Have just started book 107, Net Force, by Tom Clancy, I`ve not read any of his books before, hope I like it.

32. Deconstructed, Liz Talley
A bit of fun, about a cheating husband who gets his come-uppance when his wife and her friend get to work on him.

33. All the Lies They Did Not Tell, Pablo Trincia
Not at all fun. A journalist investigates the truth behind a true story of supposed satanic child abuse in Italy in the 1990s, and the devastating consequences for everyone involved.

34. The Coronavirus Doctor’s Diary, John Wright
Again, a very sobering read, but absolutely fascinating. The amazing Prof Wright, a medical doctor and epidemiologist, had a regular slot on Radio 4 from the very start of the pandemic, recording from the front line and chronicling its progress in Bradford. I was lucky enough to hear him speak about his diaries recently and immediately bought the book, proceeds of which go to charity.

35. The Murder Book, Mark Billingham
A good yarn from one of my favourite thriller writers.

36. A Keeper, Graham Norton
I wasn’t sure about trying it, not having enjoyed the recent TV series, Holding, but I thought this book was charming. It’s about a young woman returning to Ireland after her mother’s death, and unravelling the secrets about her parentage.

37. Left You Dead, Peter James
Reminded me how good this series is. This one focussed a lot more than usually on Roy Grace’s private life, and was surprisingly brutal about it.

38. Home Stretch, Graham Norton
I was tempted to another of Graham’s books, and it was nearly, if not quite, as enjoyable as A Keeper. Again partly set in Ireland and partly in the US, and involving secrets and lies from the past.

I loved Chasing Fire, it had loads of action, plus murder, romance, sex, and a good story.
Now just starting book 106, another by Nora Roberts, Whiskey Beach.

Book 105, Chasing Fire, by Nora Roberts. About a team of people who jump out of planes to fight forest fires.

31. The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni. The main protagonist is a boy born with red eyes, who becomes the target for bullying at his Covent school. There’s a hefty dose of religiosity in it, which spoiled it for me.

#80 was The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths. As always, I thoroughly enjoyed the latest in the series, which was set in the first lockdown. It helped to bring back the sheer awfulness bill that time.
#80 was A Friend for Life - heartwarming tales of people who have rehomed dogs and cats from Battersea and how their lives have changed for the bett because of it.
#81 was Murder in Summer by Lina Areklew. This was a Scandinavian thriller set in the north of Sweden with the roots of the murders going back to 1979.

#61 Real Bad Things Kelly J Ford.
One from my virtual pile of free Kindle books. It is about secrets and lies around a dysfunctional family and a killing twenty five years previously in an Arkensas trailer park. The characters are all unlikable and the book is dark but I found it quite compelling. Even so I doubt if I will look for more of this author's books.

Book 104, Kindred in Death, by J.D.Robb

30 All My Mothers by Joanna Glen. About a young woman looking for her ‘real’ mother and finding many mothers along the way.

Tbh, it didn’t thrill me as much as all the rave reviews indicated.

#48. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman.

Book 38
The House at Riverton - Kate Morton
I’ve read some of her other novels an enjoyed them, but this one, her best selling debut novel, I somehow missed.

I was quite disappointed, it was a bit like Downtown Abbey, but without all the colourful characters.

Grace goes into service at fourteen, eventually becoming a ladies maid, you are being told the story by Grace, now a very old lady, and Grace is the only person who knows what really happened at a lavish party , where a young poet appeared to have shot himself.

It’s not bad, but I found the characters not particularly interesting, certainly not gripping.

#60 The House at Sea's End Elly Griffiths.
Number 3 in a series about a forensic archaeologist, Dr Ruth Galloway, helping the police with murder enquiries. It is set in North Norfolk and the descriptions of the unique coastline are quite powerful. I enjoyed it.

Book 103, Salvation in Death, by J.D.Robb. Loving these, although the sex bits make me blush a bit!