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

61. Not a Happy Family, Shari Lapena

When millionaire couple Fred and Sheila Merton are found brutally murdered in their upstate New York mansion, there’s no lack of suspects, from their three disaffected, spoilt children and their partners to the former family nanny. There are plenty of twists and turns and an interesting ending. I’d recommend it.

#92. The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz.

I have The Christmas Appeal on my TBR pile TerriBull, but I don’t think I’ll buy any more of hers

I didn't enjoy The Examiner much either Sarah. I really loved The Appeal. I have found her follow ups increasingly complicated, apart from The Christmas Appeal.

Somebody I used to know by Wendy Mitchell, a true and lovely read of Wendys struggle and coping mechanisms through her early onset dementia.

Book 64
The Examiner - Janice Hallett
Didn’t enjoy this one half as much as ‘The Appeal’ which I thought was excellent.
A group of six mature students taking an MA course, though absolutely no one is who you think they are.
It’s not very believable, and I find myself once again, disliking almost every character, and not caring much what happened too them.
I quite like the style though, written exclusively through messaging and WhatsApp, but not really for me.

110-Hot to Trot-M C Beaton/R W Green
This is another Agatha Raisin mystery/murder case. I am enjoying the books that are written with her co-author. They are a little less silly and the plots are sensibly crafted.
I assume that now Marion is no longer with us, Mr Green is writing the stories using Marion's characters and maybe a list of ideas that she had.

#54 Attack and Decay Andrew Cartmel.
Number 6 in the very entertaining Vinyl Detective series. The unnamed Vinyl Detective accepts commissions from clients to source rare vinyl records. These commissions are never hazard free. This book involves the VD, his girlfriend Nevada and their friends Tinkler and Agatha going to Sweden to authenticate and purchase on the client's behalf a rare death metal record. Danger and murder follow.

No. 76 Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

A group of passengers board a flight from Tasmania to Sydney.
They all lead busy lives - the flight attendant working a shift on her birthday - the mother struggling alone with 2 small children including a crying baby - a pair of newlyweds going off on their honeymoon - the overworked dad missing his child's school show - the young man returning from his friend's funeral - the ER nurse wondering what retirement will bring.

They are all strangers, each with their life heading in a particular direction, until .....

An elderly woman (whose back story we gradually learn throughout the book) is on the flight and she suddenly walks through the plane making predictions of when a passenger will die and the cause.

Who is this woman? Is she a genuine clairvoyant? Her predictions cause chaos in the passengers' lives ....

I really enjoyed it.

109-The Pink House-Catherine Alliott
Sorry to say I gave up on this one after 50 pages as I found it too wordy. I know that is her style but I felt she was just padding out unnecessarily. She took 2 pages to describe something which could have been said in a few lines.
Apologies to any of her fans .

#79 was Sunburn by Laura Lippman. Polly and Adam meet, apparently by chance, in a bar in a small town in Delaware, they are both just passing through. But Polly stays, then Adam does too, finding work in the bar where they met. A passionate relationship begins, but they are both holding back dangerous secrets which bring potentially lethal consequences.
This book was much more than that description gives it credit for. Its secrets and twists were well revealed and it kept you guessing. I hadn’t read this author before but I will look out for more of her books. 8/10

#80 was The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths. This the one where Nelson receives strange letters reminiscent of a past case and Michelle’s baby is born. It was very good. 8/10

#81 was Water by John Boyne. When Vanessa arrives on a remote Irish island the first thing she does is change her name. She lives as a solitary outsider, hiding away from her past. But she has questions of her own to answer, was she complicit in her husband’s crimes? She reflects on the choices she made throughout her marriage, what did she do, and what she did not do.
John Boyne’s writing is wonderful. This was only 165 pages long and left me hungry for more. Excellent. 9/10

Oh thanks for coming back Bridie, having loved Sally Diamond, I'm looking to read some more of hers, but I imagine SD is her best, hence all the acclaim which of course was justified.

Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent...the story of weird Oliver and each chapter describes a person known to him and their story of their relationship with Oliver, I enjoyed this..
Think you might to Terribull, not as good as Sally Diamond, but worth a read.

#91. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz.

108-The Melody Lingers On-Mary Higgins Clark.
Lane Harmon is an interior designer and meets lots of rich and famous clients. She is attracted to Eric Bennett who is the son of a financial expert who has disappeared with billions of his clients money.
A thriller that is not full of police procedures. Most enjoyable!

72 The Teacher Tim Sullivan

This is one in the series of TS's crime novels featuring Bristol based, DC George Cross who is on the autistic spectrum where his dogged, pedantic and entrenched behaviour socially impedes him nevertheless manages to achieve outstanding success rates in crime solving.

George is not a people person due to the nature of autism but nevertheless works well with his colleague, DS Josie Ottey who sees beyond the difficulties of his persona in helping him to try and understand nuances which he is often unable to relate to.

The crime in this book is the murder of an elderly man in a south west village, which initially looks like just an accident of falling down the stairs, but on closer inspection at the scene of the crime, there are stab wounds on his body. In the frame are, down from London second home owners, who have been having ongoing, increasingly antagonistic, next door neighbour disputes relating to some proposed planning permission. Digging deeper into the victim's background it was found that before retirement he was headmaster of a prep school, where he was prone to cane his pupils to almost within an inch of their lives, leaving many of those pupils now adult scarred mentally from their experiences at his hands. One such ex pupil is now a successful, high ranking Civil Servant who has a particular axe to grind as his young brother committed suicide when Moreton at a later stage, having been removed as headmaster started up a crammer for A levels where the brother was sent. Meanwhile Moreton's own son who was also a pupil at the school is now a disgraced Tory MP. Of late the deceased, had recently become addicted to Oxycontin following ongoing pain from a hip operation and his GP gradually weaning him off the drug, and refusing him anymore, lead him to secure it from local small time drug dealer crooks. It is into that fray that a number of these adversaries could well be the murderer and it is George Cross in his inimitable way, of looking beyond the obvious, in digging deep into the multi faceted backdrop, in eventually solving who done it!. Well written and recommended for lovers of crime.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

I enjoyed ‘The Women’ early this year Sparklefizz but I did find it irritated me how often she referenced pop songs of the late 60’s and early 70’s! Maybe just me though but I felt she’d over-egged that pudding. 🤔

That was something I liked, FGT2

60. Silent Voices, Ann Cleeves

I’ve only ever seen one episode of Vera, which I didn’t really enjoy, but I might try it again after listening to this audiobook. Vera investigates the death of a respected social worker, who’s found dead at a leisure centre. I liked the characterisation of Vera. And the narrator, Jane Birkett, had an impressive range of voices for all the characters, from Vera’s gruff sergeant to an elderly neighbour who could have been my Aunt Emily - some were a bit over the top, but this just added to the enjoyment.

I am way behind with my posts for this thread but I have recently read the following:-
Scattershot by Bernie Taupin. I thought it would be an interesting read about how he found his lyrics but it jumped about too much for me to follow. The title was very apt.
Tombland by CJ Samson much too long I skipped some chapters and went to the end.
Moral Compass by Danielle Steel an easy read
All That Lives and What Will Burn both by James Oswald. One of my favourite authors. There is always a supernatural twist in these stories.
The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell A really good read.
The Wild Coast by Lin Anderson one of my favourite crime novelists.
The Estate by Denzil Meyrick Such a brilliant author.
I am presently reading Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz so far very enjoyable.

I enjoyed ‘The Women’ early this year Sparklefizz but I did find it irritated me how often she referenced pop songs of the late 60’s and early 70’s! Maybe just me though but I felt she’d over-egged that pudding. 🤔

Book 63
The last Tudor - Philippa Gregory
I have enjoyed all of Philippa Gregorys historical novels, but this one didn’t really grip me.

The tale starts with the three Grey sisters, Jane , Katherine, and Mary, Jane of course became Queen Jane for a matter of days, before she was executed, Katherine married without Queen Elizabeth’s permission and was imprisoned for the rest of her life, separated from her oldest son and husband

Mary, the tiny sister, small as a little child, follows suit, and she too is imprisoned without her husband.This husband Thomas Keys seems to be the only truly honourable character in the book.

Queen Elizabeth 1 is depicted as a monarch as evil as her father, but without his charisma, she is truly vile.

I’m not sure why it didn’t really grab me, I think mainly, it was a dislike of almost all of the characters.

107-Hidden Agenda-Carol Smith.
I have enjoyed several of hers in the past, but this one seemed to be so muddled I had difficulty getting the plot clear in my mind. The timeline kept going back and forth several times on the same page. So I would be interested to hear if anyone felt the same.
There are six girls who meet at school, who all take a different career path. There are tragedies along the way, but when one of them is accused of killing her two toddlers, the group rally round in support.

#90. No More Blood by Jack Cartwright.

Sounds good Sparklefizz I shall look forward to reading it.

I'm sure you will enjoy it TerriBull. I am so blown away by it that last night I ordered a copy for my daughter for an extra Xmas present.