#JanuaryReadingPlans

Happy New Year. May we each have enough to eat and drink, a roof over our head, books to read, and people to love in the year ahead.

Rescuing her from attackers shortly after delivering the news of her half-brother's murder, Dr Jacob Sandys flees south from the Lake District to West Wycombe with actress Dora Fitz-Pennington. Can they solve the murder before becoming victims themselves?

An enjoyable romp, made even more so by the fact that I used to live near West Wycombe - indeed my sister still does. I will keep my eyes open for the next in the series.

When the police hang up on a drunk teenager who claims to have found a body, Massimo Viviani, the owner of Bar Luma, accompanies him to confirm the existence of the body and gets drawn into the investigation due to the incompetence of the chief detective.

A not very interesting story, not helped by the fact that a lot of the time that for me at any rate it wasn't clear who was talking in the conversations. I won't be continuing in this series.

#coffeeandabook

Gay regency romance.

The author freely admits in a preface that this, his first published book, was written without any knowledge of the UK beyond a few tropes but the second edition was heavily revised with the help of a British friend. Even so there are just too many anachronisms as well as cultural blunders. I was wincing practically every page. DNF

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

How the machinations of a wicked stepmother reverberate through the lives of the stepchildren she casts out after their father's death.

Since I saw Cinderella, which was the first panto I'd been to in a very long time, on Monday, I enjoyed this book more than I might have done otherwise. But I really didn't take to it as much as I have done with others of her books.

#coffeeandabook

Suzy is at a local council planning committee session when the mayor collapses, poisoned. The poison was in his coffee but nobody else went anywhere near it. And the sugar bowl is missing.

Another good entry to this series which grows on me more with each successive volume.

A novel exploring various episodes in the life of Saul/St. Paul of Tarsus and other figures in the first 60 years of the church.

The author builds a brutal world, though I'm not sure whether he just has a brutal view of the world or it's a riposte against those who romanticise paganism. He offers some tantalising glimpses of other possibilities for the development of Christianity which were not realised.

"The world is in darkness. The hood the guards have placed over her head scratches at her cheeks and neck."

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

#coffeeandabook

Exonerated by his sister's suicide, Caspar is released from jail where he spent 9 months awaiting trial for murder. Can he rebuild his life? How far will he go in search for revenge against those who didn't believe his innocence, in particular the arresting officer with whom he had been starting a relationship.

A quick, seasonable read, entertaining and needing no brain power.

Kat and her daughter are taken to the Crystal Palace by Lady Cynthia and her friends. Kat is approached by Lady Covington who believes she is being slowly poisoned and agrees to investigate. Daniel has a case of his own but needs Kat's help fending off mothers who see him as a potential spouse for their daughters.

Another very readable installment in this series with a perplexing mystery and lots of humour.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

Daniel's foster brother asks Kat for help investigating the Foundlings Hospital, an orphanage where children and now one of the nurses have gone missing. The children are said to have been adopted but the addresses given for the adoptive parents don't exist.

We get more of Daniel's back story here.. The book was a very quick, fluent read. I still enjoyed it despite a slightly unsatisfactory conclusion.

In a time travel accident Kivrin Engle ends up just before Christmas 1348, when the Black Death arrived in Oxford and the surrounding countryside. Can she survive until rescue comes from 2055 Oxford? ⬇

#ClassicLSFBC @RamsFan1963

#coffeeandabook #ClassicLSFBC

@RamsFan1963

Novella about a werebear trying to decide between possible love interests: a werewolf, a fae, and a mortal human.

Amusing paranormal rom-com. Not really my genre but I enjoyed it without feeling I must rush out to get more of the genre or the author.

#QueerBC @PuddleJumper

#sunshinewellness

#seriesuptodate

The collapse of a cliff after a storm uncovers three bodies, two dating from the 16th century, and one much more recent. With the victim unidentifiable the only clue is the purple sheet the body was wrapped in.

An intriguing story that kept me turning the pages to find out what was actually going on.

A superstar actress is due to perform in a play with Cleopatra in the audience but doesn't turn up. Cleopatra tasks her Eye, Tetisheri, with finding the missing actress.

The mystery takes a bit of a back place to Sheri and Apollodorus's relationship but still worked well. I didn't see the final twist coming till near the end but it wasn't a GASP moment.

Neil finds what appears in low illumination to be a body. But then Rach's great uncle-in-law finds a real one and from this point the body count starts mounting.

Lots of red herrings in the present day case, although the 18th century case was more straightforward. The author is back on form after a previous rather disappointing entry in this series.

#coffeeandabook

The woman in the sedan chair had been wearing a powdered wig and a fine gown of blue satin, low-necked and edged with yellowing lace.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

Wesley is investigating a body found on a coastal path. In a field the other side of a hedge, 2 young metal-detectorists find some Roman coins. Interwoven with the story are extracts from the 1920s diary of a local doctor who also found the field of archaeological interest.

Certain features seemed very predictable to the point where I was thinking “not one of her best“ only for them to be given a sudden twist into the unexpected at the end.

#coffeeandabook

#coffeeandabook
#whereareyoumonday

Alexandria in the reign of Cleopatra VII

When a body is found buried in the grounds of Kit's old home, not only do the police suspect him but the new owners want to sue to get the purchase price back.

I thought this was the penultimate entry in the series but despite being promised for the summer of 2020, the final (?) volume has been promised for 2023, 2024, and the latest forecast is Summer 2025.

#DecemberReadingPlans

Kit & J. X. have decided to buy a house and move in together. While unpacking a crate supposedly containing china Kit finds a corpse.

Josh Lanyon is one of my guilty pleasures. I know her books are formulaic & comparatively brainless, and I still think her adoption of a gay male identity for her authorial persona was deceitful, but I have to admit her books are just the thing when I'm operating on a low physical, mental, or emotional bandwidth.

#lunchandabook

“Come with me, Kit,” J.X. urged.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

When the owner of a bird sanctuary announces he wants to sell it, he is found dead next day. George Palmer-Jones works out who did it but he needs his wife's help to prove it.

The locked room is an island cut off from the mainland by the tides but this is a great classic form mystery which I thoroughly enjoyed.

#sunlightwellness

A well-known birdwatcher is found dead in a marsh pool but killed by a blow to the head. The father of a young birdwatcher who is one of the suspects asks George Palmer-Jones to investigate.

One of the author's earlier works, from the 1980s. It nods towards the classic mystery mode, but is trying to break free, quite literally as characters rush about from Norfolk to the Scilly Isles to the North of Scotland at a moment's notice.

#coffeeandabook

I had to read this quickly for book club but it would have been better as a dip in and out of book. I was a bit put out to find when I googled the author after I'd finished reading that the author had actually been in Jakarta while I was reading it to do some talks and readings which finished the day before.

Three young Pakistani-Americans go on a road trip from New York to New Orleans.

Fun with an interesting perspective but a little heavy-handed with the social commentary at times.

#whereareyoumonday

With 3 Pakistani-American teens on a road trip from New York to New Orleans

#coffeeandabook

Reviewed together withe first in the series under Empty Nests

(Reviewing this & the sequel Bowerbirds together because they were originally written as one story)

Head of major Silicon Valley firm meets and falls for IT technician while giving a motivational talk to students.

I enjoyed the development of the characters' relationship and their back stories. The one big sex scene was actually quite boring and went on far too long. I'm not sure the HEA actually solved the issues that led to the near break up.

I read this 25 or 30 years ago and loved it, as I did all of Anne Rice's books I read at that time. This time round I DNF-ed. I got just over half way through and couldn't be bothered any more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this series as I raced through staying up way past my bedtime, eager to find out more about the characters' back stories as their relationship developed through the smallest touches and changes of expression.

Always moved laterally because he is so low-key his bosses tend to forget he exists, Arthur is advised to be more outgoing. He very slowly makes friends with Martin, a coworker with a very austere lifestyle who keeps to a very strict routine. When that routine is interrupted by illness Arthur poses as Martin's boyfriend as he has nobody else. He makes some surprising discoveries about Martin's life outside the Agency. Could the lie become reality?

An excellent series of 2 novellas and a short story. All the stars.

A literary friend of Perilla's asks him to look into the death of her husband, though nobody, including the widow, seems particularly sorry he's dead. Meanwhile Corvinus's adopted daughter and her husband find a body which somebody had stabbed even though he was already dead of natural causes.

A nice twisty tale, made even more so by the fact that I kept getting Perilla and Marilla confused.