The Not So New 2024 50 Books a Year - Thread 2

Book 54: The Ziz Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths -An excellent read from Elly.
Book 55: Maxwell's Christmas by M.J.Trow- Another great tale. Maxwell works out the killer.
Book 55: The Railway Murders by J.R.Ellis

Book 177, Empress Orchid, by Anchee Min. A true story of events in China during the 19th century. It was a slow going read for me, but I liked it.

63. A Very Bad Thing, J T Ellison

Columbia Jones is a world famous novelist who dies suddenly while on tour. Her daughter Darian and journalist Riley who is writing an article about her come under suspicion, as do figures from her mysterious past. And suddenly everyone around her is in danger.

There are many twists and turns. I enjoyed it, though the storyline’s long and involved and by the epilogue I’d forgotten who some of the characters mentioned were.

I raced through that one SueDonim! And found the ending very tense indeed. 😁

Ooh I’m going to buy that Liane Moriarty novel on my Kindle Sparklefizz for reading over Christmas!

I'll be interested to know what you think of it FGT2

#55 These Old Shades Georgette Heyer.
At the beginning of the year I decided I was going to revisit a Georgette Heyer title each month in 2024. This is the last. I first read it in my mid teens and loved it. I was in love with the arrogant dissolute Duke of Avon and wanted to be Leon. It is still a very entertaining read; Ms Heyer's attention to historical detail is immaculate and the characters wonderfully written. However, rereading it 50+ years later I feel a little uncomfortable about the relationship between the 40 year old Avon and his adoring "Infant" 19 year old Leon/Leonie. The book takes place mainly in pre Revolutionary Paris and involves babies swapped at birth and nature vs nurture.

#93. Close To Death by Anthony Horowitz.

Book 56: The Brewery Murders by J. R. Elliis

Book 65
Outback - Patricia Wolf
This didn’t really grab me, Australia, relentless heat, and two backpackers go missing, DS Lucas Walker is back in his home town, where his granny is dying, and is asked to look into it, he’s joined by the girls sister who is with the Berlin police.
It’s about meth labs, corrupt police, the landscape is vast and hot, and dangerous, I didn’t like it particularly.
The ending was bizarre, I turned a page and it was over, like she couldn’t be bothered to tie up the loose ends.

111-The Rising Tide-Ann Cleeves.
As always a great plot, and surprising ending. Although I've seen all the Vera episodes over the years I still enjoy reading her books more.
A group of teenagers go to stay on Holy Island with their teacher. The friendships they make then have carried on well into their retirement, and they have been meeting there at five year intervals. When one of them is found to have committed suicide, Vera is called in to investigate. There are skeletons in some of the members closets, that come to light along the way.

Diggingdoris Yes, I enjoyed it too.

Yes I thought that Ann Cleeve's book in the Vera series was a good one too Diggindoris.

73 Broken Light Joanne Harris

I've enjoyed many of Joanne Harris' books about the schools of St Oswald's and their female sister school The Mulberry Academy. This one involves ex pupils of those establishments now all grown up. So much so, one such ex pupil, Bernie Moon now nearing 50, is at that very menopausal stage of her life with some of the serious symptoms that goes with it, such as debilitating hot flushes very resonant with many women of a certain age. Heartbroken and hormonal she often feels like she's losing her mind. Into that setting comes the murder of a young woman in a local park, sparking some childhood memories with Bernie that have been lying dormant. In this the reader has to suspend belief . Bernie having acquired certain powers as a young child and has been using them to effect in the aftermath of this murder to destroy the lives of some predatory and malevolent men who come into her orbit. while acquiring new female friends who form a supporting sisterhood against such men who are in the frame for committing assaults against women. I can't say for me it was one of her best at 400 plus pages it dragged a bit. She has moved Bernie and her rather indifferent husband from their school days down south to London but with an ending that culminates back at a school reunion in the familiar setting of Malbry, Yorkshire.

Book 178, How to Solve Your Own Murder, by Kristen Perrin. A trio of teenage girls visit a fairground fortune teller in 1965. One of them is told she will be murdered, and she spends the next 60 years trying to work out who will kill her, annoying lots of people in the process...........until she is actually murdered.
An OK read, but a bit on the tame side for me.

#82 was Sister Moon by Karen Joy Fowler. Set in San Francisco in the 1890s, where there’s a respectable middle class, but also the remnants of the Wild West. Lizzie spends her days fundraising for the Ladies’ Relief and Protection Society’s home for children. The mysterious Mrs Pleasant appears there one day with an orphaned child in tow, providing a spark in Lizzie’s dull life. She decides to be more adventurous and take more risks in her life.
I found this book to be really disjointed and a frustrating read. At times I had trouble remembering the convoluted stories of the different characters, though I think it was deliberately written such that you never knew the truth of some characters’ assertions. At the end the author says she has based it on some real people and places and that the truth of their lives is unclear. That’s certainly the case in the book. 5/10

Ian Rankin A Heart Full of Headstones
Rebus stands accused of a crime that could put him behind bars for years.

Book 57: The Canal Murders by J R Ellis

64. Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan

One of the best books I’ve read for ages. Very short, it’s just a two hour delight. Irish coal merchant and devoted family man Bill Furlong has old memories revived when he makes a delivery to a local laundry run by nuns. I couldn’t recommend it more, particularly for reading at this time of year as it’s set in Advent.

I now teally want to see the film of the book - the fact that Cillian Murphy plays Bill is just a bonus.

Book 179, The Fury, by Alex Michaelides. OK, but a bit complicated at times.

Book 180, The Sanctuary Seeker, by Bernard Knight. A medieval murder mystery, set in 1194. A good read.

74 A Cotswold Christmas Kate Hewitt (Audible)

As I've recently had a few days in the Cotswolds and as it's nearly Christmas this seemed timely for the middle of the night, can't get back to sleep easy listening. Fairly schmaltzy, if rather predictable, romantic guff. Anna from New York escaping from a recent broken engagement rolls up in the Cotswolds, only to find her room booked at a bed and breakfast is flooded. It's Christmas time everywhere is booked solid. The landlady points her in the direction of a newly, converted stable block of the nearby manor house, as yet unoccupied, the conversion work undertaken by local attractive, 30 something carpenter who takes Anna there and shows her around. Therein hangs the tale, after some hiccups, a few trials and tribulations, they get together as the listener knew they would. Along the way a fair old sprinkling of snow dusted dreamy depictions of winter in the Cotswolds, carol services and rosy cheeked children. To cut a long story short that's about it.

112-Nobody's Girl-Kitty Neale.
On the cold stone steps of an orphanage, just hours old and clutching the object which was to give her her name, Pearl Button had a hard start to life. At 16 she starts out on a life alone, with lots of highs and lows along the way.
Another unputdownable moving story from KN.

Book 58: Murder of a Scoundrel by Pippa McCathie and Nicola Clifford

#94. Where Secrets Lie by DS Butler.