50 Books Challenge - 2nd Thread.

133-A is for Alibi-Sue Grafton
Although I've read one or two of her books over the years, I've never read any in the right order. But with the help of charity shops, I've now collected the full series and have started at the beginning.
Kinsey Millhone is a young Private Investigator, and is asked to look into a cold case. Not an easy task as people forget details over 8 years.

My next two books, best described as peculiar, although that doesn't always mean bad for me.

83 The Land in Winter - Andrew Miller

Booker nominated, set in the West Country particularly hard hit during the freezing cold winter of '62/63. It is into this background the story is set.

Andrew Miller's writing is mesmerising in conjuring up the feel of the impenetrable harshness of the frozen solid ground where life under interminable snowfalls of that winter pretty much ground to a halt. The novel is built around a quartet of characters composed of two married couples. Dr Eric Parry and his wife Irene and farmer Bill Simmons and his wife Rita. Both their houses, merely separated by a field or two and clearly visible from the very frozen windows. The wives both pregnant are to form a bond during their rather isolated existence given their respective husbands are busy tending to either patients or animals. The writer paints a picture of an England still somewhat immersed in the aftermath of the war in that he references past traumas from that time. The class system is also present in how he presents his main characters. I couldn't help feeling that he was painting a picture of two couples who to an extent had hidden depths and kept part of their previous lives and personal histories unspoken about within their relationships. The dynamics of their respective marriages came across as superficial and in some respects, all four appeared to lack deeper feelings for each other. To me they didn't seem to know each other very well at all. Certainly in the case of the Dr, born into a working class family from one of the rougher parts of Birmingham, is covertly conducting an affair with one of his up market patients, whilst his wife Irene has little to do with her time having recently given up her career in London and spends the run up to Christmas planning a party for friends and connections from her time there. Rita, whose own working class background is diametrically opposite to that of solidly middle class Irene, has her own demons, a father who is committed to a mental asylum apropos of his wartime experiences and a previous life of a nightclub dancer which mentally she hasn't entirely abandoned. Bill on the other hand has given up his degree course at Oxford to become an ill prepared farmer. His background, belies his anglicised name. His family hails from middle Europe, almost certainly Jewish, and it is to his prosperous "Rachman" style landlord of a father he turns to for money to keep the farm afloat when he is turned down by his local bank manager.

This is a slow burn plot but the author's style, ponderous at times, doesn't detract from making the story absorbing and the descriptions of one of the harshest winters in memory are very well drawn. I'm sure for anyone who remembers 62/63, this book would evoke that time very well. I thought it was very good.

84 Skin Deep - Liz Nugent (Audible)

Having read a few of the Irish writer, LIz Nugent's books I think I know what to expect, darkly psychological and this one is no exception.

Delia O'Flaherty grows up on an island off the coast of Ireland, a stunningly beautiful child obsessively adored by her father to the detriment of her 3 brothers who he almost ignores. She unfortunately is to grow up with few redeeming qualities self centred and utterly selfish and completely lacking in empathy. Tragedy strikes and during her growing up years Delia is to find herself displaced first to be fostered in mainland Ireland and then as an adult she first moves to England and then to the South of France, where she is to reinvent herself as Cordelia Russell, a socialite with a cut glass English accent but eventually her past is to catch up with her and because of a fire accident, her partly damaged face means she is no longer able to rely on her looks.

I've enjoyed Liz Nugent's books, although I can imagine they're an acquired taste, this one is another disturbing read with a chilling ending.

Book 65
The Word is Murder - Anthony Harowitz

Really enjoyed this rather unusual crime novel

Harowitz inserts himself into the book,
joined by enigmatic and brilliant metropolitan police consultant, Hawthorne.

A woman arranges her own funeral, six hours later, she’s dead! A wealth of suspicious characters, but it’s the cleverly invented Hawthorne who steals the show.

It kept me guessing till the end, very enjoyable.

#97. The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman.

Not a fan of this series, though I’ve read them all.

Just started it, looks an easy read though.

Sara1954

The ‘Hawthorne’ books are very good, I’ve read all of them.

Ready to order the latest one as soon as the library start stocking it.

I also enjoy the Hawthorne books, I like the way Anthony Horowitz cleverly inserts his actual self into the plots often at cross swords with the inclined to be irascible Hawthorne.

Book 71 The Mischief Makers by Elisabeth Gifford

This book was a Christmas present from my daughter who recommended it. I was really looking forward to reading it because it's about the life of author Daphne du Maurier whose book "Rebecca" is my favourite book of all time.

However ..... I was slightly disappointed in "The Mischief Makers". Maybe my expectations were too high (the reviews were terrific) but I didn't think it was as well written as I was anticipating, and I didn't find it as "compelling" and "glorious" as reviewed. 7/10

Thank you so much for this thread TerriBull and I look forward to joining a follow on thread in 2026.

Happy New Year to everyone.

Calandargirl and TerriBull
I have just discovered these books, but I shall definitely be reading more, I think Hawthorne is a great character.

Book 56: A death on location by Richard Coles.I have not enjoyed this book. I was boring and I didn't care about any of the characters. Awful.
Book 57: Jane Austen at Home 250th Birthday Edition by Lucy Worsley. I have read this book slowly to really enjoy it. I do like Lucy Worsley's history books.
As she says, "everybody should know about Jane Austen, not just because she was an important novelist. The argument of this book is that she was also an important human being: someone who, quietly changed the world." A good read to end my year of books.

85 Strangers on a Train - Patricia Highsmith

My last one of the year!

Superb crime noir from Patricia Highsmith, first published in 1950, riveting from the outset. The two protagonists meet by chance on a train journey. During the course of their conversations, Guy Haines and his travelling companion Charles Bruno hatch a plan for the perfect murder. The plot driven along by Bruno, an alcoholic ,directionless, wastrel with psychopathic tendencies, manages to manipulate the chain of events first by drawing from Haines, a successful young architect, the fact that he harbours a hatred for a wife who has moved on to pastures new since their separation. He now wishes to divorce her, something she will not agree to for her own reasons. Unfortunately, she not only stands in the way of him forging a life with his new found love but a career which is in the ascendancy. Meanwhile Bruno, indulged by an affluent mother, hates his moneyed father, who is in the process of cutting off his allowance. Haines is the reluctant partner in crime and is initially horrified when Bruno takes it upon himself to seek out his wife during a crowded outdoor event, where he takes the opportunity to strangle her when she is momentarily alone and escape under the cover of darkness without notice.

Subsequently a cat and mouse interlude where he stalks Haines persistently turning up at his workplace and social events all the time heaping more pressure on him to return the favour cranking up extreme paranoia in Haines.

A taut old school psychological thriller. Only 250 pages so I cracked on with it in just over a day.

Sparklefizz

Thank you so much for this thread TerriBull and I look forward to joining a follow on thread in 2026.

Happy New Year to everyone.

Thank you and Happy New Year to you Sparklefizz. I'll be starting the '26 one soon. Lets hope we all find some enjoyable reads to indulge ourselves with for the next 12 months.

I’m sneaking in at the last minute, having failed to post my reading this year, here’s my ‘list’

Slow Horses by Mick Herron - loved it
The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves - good
In Memoriam by Alice Winn - I found this so harrowing I didn’t finish. My bookclub all said it was the best book they’d read that year
Good Material by Dolly Alderton - mildly entertaining!
Dead Lions by Mick Herron - more Slow Horses. Even better now that I’ve sorted out who’s who a bit better
Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans - my choice for bookclub and my third reading. Love these WW2 set books.
Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay - published as a children’s book but a lovely read for all
Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li - a non-fiction title - a mother learning to live with the deaths by suicide of her two sons. Beautifully written.
Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan - a big read. I didn’t think I’d manage it but it grew on me - full of comments on our society and our human weakness.
Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis - the world of NGOs in (possibly not) solving the human fallout from ideological conflicts. Thought provoking and often funny.
Crooked Cross by Sally Carson - 1930s Germany. I haven’t read the book yet but listened on R4 and want to read.
Night Trains: the Rise and Fall of the Sleeper by Andrew Martin - really enjoyed this history of sleeper trains in Europe. When very young, in the 1950s, I travelled with my mother from Glasgow to London on the sleeper, and on to Bournemouth to stay for a month with my maternal grandparents. Wish I could afford it now 🫤
Wild Houses by Colin Barrett - an audio book. A lonely Irish man exploited by criminals. It was good but I really need to read the printed books - the perils of listening at night in bed!
Real Tigers by Mick Herron - you can see I’m hooked. Will watch the tv series when I’ve finished the books.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - vampire history, kind of fascinating but way too long
All Fours by Miranda July - listened on BorrowBox. Kept missing bits but what I heard was a boundary-breaking meditation on a woman exploring her personal and sexual life in more open and experimental relationships.
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 and 3 quarters by Sue Townsend - saw this was on BorrowBox and enjoyed hearing it again - it was as funny as ever
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan - another ‘big read for bookclub which I found interesting and page turning. Set in the future (2119, I think) when nuclear wars and flooding caused by sea-level rise have changed the world. An academic is trying to find a lost poem by a famous poet of the early 21st century. Like Caledonian Road, it explores human society and human flaws.
Now reading Helen Garner’s How to End a Story: Collected Diaries. Helen Garner is an Australian writer. I’ve only read one of her novels but have heard her discussed on radio several times. I started the recently published diaries and thought they weren’t that interesting for me but then I got into her story of her writing and her marriages (and their breakdown) and have to force myself to stop reading and go to bed.
So not 50 books - only 20, but it’s not a competition 🙂

Thank you for all your recommendations (and warnings). Some of them (the recommendations) are on my TBR pile for 2026 🙂

Scanning your reads Litterpicker, I have read and enjoyed, Crooked Heart, Caledonian Road, Fundamentally and The Dark Wives. Husband a big fan of the Mick Herrons.

The 2026 thread up and running now, so join us whenever.

75. A Particularly Nasty Case, Adam Kay

My last of 2025, and a decent one to end on. I’d read and enjoyed Adam’s books based on his experiences as a junior doctor, so was pleased to come across this, his first novel. I’ve seen it described as comedic crime - to be fair it’s more comedy than crime, but there are a couple of murders for our hero Eitan to solve. For once I spotted the culprit well before the end, but this didn’t make it any less entertaining. Some of the sex scenes were a bit graphic for my liking, but it’s a good read and I’d recommend it.

134-Escape for Christmas-Phillipa Ashley
To round off my year I enjoyed this festive read. What should have been a chance for guests to ignore Christmas with all the trimmings, actually turned out to be one they will never forget. Set in a guest house in Windermere, this was a great book to curl up with over the Xmas break.