2026 - 50 Books a Year Challenge

#27 Colder Than the Grave by JD Kirk
My latest read in the DCI Logan series, set around Inverness.
Happy for the first time in years, Jack should have known things were going too well. When the discovery of a mutilated body in a school car park sets off a series of murders and disappearances, Jack’s dream of a peaceful life begins to crumble around him. Another good read from this series. 8/10

Book 14: Maxwell's Enigma by M. J Trow

26 Flesh David Szalay

The 2025 Booker Prize Winner which almost guarantees it to be peculiar, and in that it delivers. The style of writing is unusual, sparse dialogue, the main protagonist, Hungarian Istvan, delivers much of his speech in strange staccato sentences of rarely more than 4 words. I think that's what set it apart from the other contenders.

Essentially, it's a rags to riches and back to rags again. Istvan is first introduced as a teenager growing up in an austere housing estate in Hungary. Seduced by an older neighbour, he becomes embroiled in a skirmish with her husband leading to the man's death, for which Istvan gets the blame for. Following time in a youth detention centre, and a subsequent spell in the army where he is stationed in Iraq he is to emerge a toughened up character from the shy young adolescent at the outset. Eventually is to find his way to London, where whilst employed in private security he becomes chauffeur to a wealthy family. He manages to turn the somewhat bored wife's head where she makes it clear she would like an affair with him, all the while her husband is suffering from terminal cancer. When he dies, they marry . From that time onward his life is on an upward trajectory, into a lifestyle of large houses, private jets and exclusive restaurants. Not everything runs smoothly as his young teenage stepson despises him, which doesn't bode well for Istvan, the son will inherit everything on his 25th birthday, so his days of living high on the hog are numbered. This is the most interesting part of the book, during the marriage Istvan and his wife Helen have a son of their own, before tragedy strikes and their lives are upended.

Ultimately it was a very sad story of a broken man as Istvan finds himself right back where he started.

AliBeeee I loved Orphan Train when I read it a few years ago. A very moving book.

#26 The Last Love Song by Lucinda Riley. This book is pretty much "chick lit" and not particularly well-written. There were some things I found annoying - one of the main characters was named Sorcha, and her boyfriend continually called her "Sorcha-porcha" until I wanted to scream. 5/10

#34. Where The Innocent Die by MJ Lee.

28 Hiroshima by John Hersey
About the effect on the people of Japan after the atomic was dropped on Hiroshima. He wrote about six people the year after it happened and then went back and then returned 49 years later to find out what happened to them and how they had survived/managed through the years. Quite harrowing as in all wars it's the people on the street that are affected the most. It was interesting and I hope the world never finds itself in that situation again.

33-The Word is Murder-Anthony Horowitz
A woman is strangled 6 hours after organising her own funeral. Did she know she was going to die? Did she recognise her killer?

32-Belle of the Back Streets-Glenda Young
Set in 1919, Ernie Sutcliffe comes home from the war and starts to take his daughter Meg on his Rag and Bone cart round. But everything is about to change drastically.
An insight into the hard post-war life in northern England.

I have just finished Transcription by Kate Atkinson and also listened to the 2 part series on radio 4. The book was very good and brought some loose ends together which the radio play didn't. A spy story along the lines of Le Carre and worth a read.

I have started Long Island by Colm Toibin set in New York with an immediate twist I was not expecting. About an Irish/Italian family. I think I am going to enjoy it.

#26 Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Between 1854 and 1929 approximately 250,000 children who were orphaned, abandoned or otherwise destitute, were relocated from eastern coastal US cities such as New York to the Midwest for “adoption”. They were taken on trains with adult chaperones, journeying for several days, then offered to anyone who was willing to take them in. Some went to family homes where they were adopted, however, many became indentured workers and were cruelly treated.
This is a novel, but the author has obviously done a lot of research into the Orphan Trains and met some of the last surviving children, all very elderly by then.

Irish immigrant Niamh is orphaned due to a fire when she is 9 years old. She’s taken from New York to Minnesota and a very uncertain future. Returning east to Maine much later in life, she leads a quiet existence, but in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past.
Seventeen year old Molly has grown up in care and commits to a community service position helping the elderly widow clear out her attic. But as Molly helps sort through the items in the attic it becomes clear that their backgrounds aren’t so different. As they go through the trunks Niamh’s story unfolds, a gripping and at times very sad tale of what happens when you move defenceless children to be taken in by anyone who would have them. An excellent read. 9/10

25 Witch Trial Harriet Tyce

Drawn in by HT's debut novel, Blood Orange which I remember I found riveting, always hoping that subsequent books will be as good as that one, but for me, generally they aren't. I thought this one sounded promising, but alas, again disappointing. Two schoolgirls on trial for the murder of a classmate. Externally one is a picture of sweet innocence and the other's goth like, morose and defensively aggressive demeanour does her no favours with members of the jury. Who is telling the truth? as the the trial draws to a conclusion and the two are pitted against each other in their varying testaments. The basis of the case against them bullying, a teenage pact gone wrong and a dark undercurrent of an obsession surrounding witch craft, I think it was detailed descriptions of the latter that made me lose interest in the plot somewhat. Much of the narrative is delivered by one of the jurors, heart surgeon Matthew Phillips, who harbours his own demons and whilst the trial continues appears to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

31-You Belong to Me-Mary Higgins Clark
43 year old Regina Clausen travels alone on a luxury liner, but disappears when she disembarks in Hong Kong.
Three years later a clue sets off an investigation to find out what happened to her.
Lots of characters in this story and I kept getting Donald and Douglas muddled up. I wish writers would not use similar names! A great story though with a surprise ending.

#33. A Secret To Die For by Jack Cartwright.

Just the last few pages to go to complete “Wuthering Heights” which I read for the first time as a young teenager.

At the time I thought Heathcliffe to be such a romantic figure, but reading it now I realise that he was a violent, manipulative, sadistic bastard.

Not keen on Emily Brontë either tbh. I read that she tortured her dogs and there are a number of instances in the book where dogs are deliberately treated very cruelly.

I am currently re-reading 'Wild Swans' by Jung Chang.

It covers the lives of 3 generations of Chinese women, starting with her grandmother who was a concubine, then her mother and finally Jung Chang herself.

Parts of it are completely horrifying, and it makes me sad that all three women endured such terrible lives, because of the country and the time in which they were born.

There are occasional bits that made me smile, such as when she was at primary school and 'lessons went on as normal, except for the period when we had to produce steel.'

Jung Chang now lives in London.

24 The Perfect Child - Lucinda Berry (Audible)

Book club choice. A bit of a misery thriller, although quite tense. Christopher and Hannah have most of the good things in life, a happy marriage, accomplished in their careers and a nice home. Lacking only in the longed for child. Quite by accident, into their lives comes Janie who they first foster and then adopt. At first on the surface she is the perfect child, although it soon becomes apparent that Janie is very damaged through childhood trauma as her manipulative and at times very cruel side comes to the fore, driving a massive wedge between the couple as their lives disintegrate. Unexpectedly, after years of trying Hannah becomes pregnant, when baby Cole finally arrives it is into a divided household where parental delusion has set in and Hannah has come to know Janie is a child that she can never turn her back on and matters go from bad to worse. Annoyingly, the ending was inconclusive and all in all quite a horrifying tale.

I'm currently reading one of your books Maggiemaybe, Witch Trial.

I hope so Magenta8. I really enjoyed it and it had a happyish ending so that was good too. Definitely will have a root around through his books and see if there is anything else by HE Bates.

stewaris I think H E Bates was a very good writer and although he is not much read now and only really remembered for 'The Darling Buds of May', he was rightly very popular at one time. Perhaps he is due for rediscovery.

27 The Purple Plain HE Bates
An old book left over from my dad's extensive stock of books after he died. I was surprised about how good it was. It covers the war in Burma but from the point of view of one pilot whose wife had died in a bombing raid on London the night they were married and how he dealt with the aftermath in Burma and had a happy ending.
PS A Thousand Splendid Suns was 26 just forgot to add the number to my post.

14. The Zig-Zag Girl, Elly Griffiths

A detective investigates when a dismembered body is found. Other deaths follow, and they all seem to be connected to magicians’ acts. I particularly enjoyed the story being set in the post war era, and the nostalgia that came with it.

15. Witch Trial, Harriet Tyce

A definite contender for the best book I’ve read this year. There’ve been a couple of dishonourable mentions of the author on the thread and I wasn’t sure whether to download it, but having watched Harriet Tyce on The Traitors I was curious about her writing. Even then I nearly missed out when I considered abandoning it half way through, as themes of witchcraft and the supernatural aren’t really to my taste. I’m so glad I persevered. By the end of this book I found it fiendishly clever, amusing, and very different.

I've ordered London Falling from my library Magenta . On a waiting list but sounds an interesting read.

London Falling - Patrick Radden Keefe

I am just over half way through this long detailed description of the events surrounding the death of teenager Zac Brettler in 2019.

This is a detailed account of an actual event which happened against a background of the underworld of large scale crime and corruption, centred in London.

I have been drawn more and more to non-fiction over the years but I am well aware that this book would not appeal to everyone.

30-The Summer of Serendipity-Ali McNamara
This is an unusual storyline set in the west coast of Ireland. When a property hunter goes to Ballykiltara, she falls in love with the area and learns about the history and legend of the town. But that is not all she discovers. A mystical, magical story!

#25 The Darkness and the Deep by Aline Templeton
The wreck of the Knockhaven lifeboat with the loss of all 3 crew is a hard blow for the small Scottish town. It’s harder still when police realise it wasn’t simply a tragic accident. Was it the act of vandals, or linked to the drugs trade which has been affecting the town, or maybe someone was so determined to kill one person that they were prepared to kill another 2? If so, who was the intended victim? DI Marjory Fleming and her team are under pressure from their bosses and the entire community to find out who the killer is.
This book didn’t start well, the first 70 or so pages were so full of unnecessary descriptions of each character and their lives as they were introduced that I had to make myself keep going. It was worth it though. Once the lifeboat went down, the book improved significantly and I was gripped. I was reading it on a train and it was lucky I was going to the terminus as I didn’t notice we had arrived in Edinburgh Waverley and everyone was getting off! 7/10

10 The Last Page Café by Kate Storey

Enjoyable book, easy reading but a fairly predictable ending.

So many books seem to be centred around cafés or bookshops at the moment!