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Sunday, March 17, 2024

Don’t Foget Me by Rea Frey

 



Ruby and Tom and daughter lily moved to a newly built community by a lake. Ruby just went along with Tom on location, design and everything else. Her only focus was to protect and nurture Lily, who besides being a clever student had frailties of her own, which Tom refused to acknowledge.

Fast forward and Lily goes missing. Followed by Tom going missing. When Tom’s body is found floating on the lake, suspicion focuses on Ruby. She doesn’t identify the body as Tom, but all her neighbours do.

Is Ruby in a fugue state not able to acknowledge what is in front of her. When one and then another neighbour is found murdered, the focus switches solely on Ruby. Even at that moment three quarter into the story, one would go with the theory that Ruby kills these people while in some state, which blocks her remembering what she has done.

The final denouement is shocking and frightening and a surprise. The dual timelines, the uncertainty of Ruby, the changing face of the immediate characters all created a puzzle.

Sent by Thomas & Mercer for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.



Thursday, March 14, 2024

Murder by Lamplight by Patrice Mcdonough

 


I enjoy a story with a female lead. Especially one who has to work the odds to get the recognition she deserves. Very often in the past centuries such women have been relegated to the dimmer parts of history and not acknowledged for the trail blazers they were.

Dr Julia Lewis a qualified doctor is one such woman. Grand daughter of a doctor she qualified in America because women were not allowed to study medicine in 1866 England. Now called upon to assist in a gory crime scene, she has to face derision not just from the coppers, but also from Detective Tennant who thinks she is incapable of handling the case.

When murder after murder occurs and clues point to numerous people first those connected to the theatre and especially the drag clubs of the day, the Doctor starts her own investigation of trying to follow sequence and logic. When the suspicions fall on the workhouse, it finds many people linked to the murder, all who are perfectly good suspects.

How it all pans out is ingenious.  Not just solving the crime, but the social commentary on the times was very, very good. It gives a setting to the story which enhances the read.

Sent by Kensington Books for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.


The Nallur temple in the very North of Sri Lanka, revered by many.




Monday, March 11, 2024

The Hidden Storyteller by Mandy Robotgam



This is all about WWII but still so very different.

The year 1946 Hamburg, Germany broken, in pieces. The people so overwhelmed by their own history, desperate, dying now of TB and malnutrition instead of at the hands of the Nazis.

We have Georgie Young, intrepid war reporter who has a tough reputation of laying the facts as she sees them. Coming from London at a time of personal crisis, she herself is at an uncertain stage but is determined to do the assignment. See Germany at its worst, give in her report. She didn’t expect to get mugged twice on her first day. She also did not expect to get involved on a personal basis with the people she came into contact with. From Meta the waif with a core of steel, to Zophie on a personal quest and Inspector Harri battling crime with no resources, no help. Getting involved in a serial murder investigation was not part of Georgie’s instructions, but she was not very good at following instructions.

The story covers post war Germany, the over riding British presence, the ignorance and condescension shown by many British officers which exacerbated a bad situation, corruption at every level on both sides, and the almost apocalyptic situation Germans faced every day just trying to survive one more day.

The story is very violent, very emotional and factual. It is unputdownable!

Sent by Avon Books UK for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.



Saturday, March 9, 2024

 


Much has been written about the Titanic, especially about survivors. This one is similar but it a spectacularly good read. We follow the Fortune family from Winnipeg- the father a self made millionaire, having the grand tour with his family. Two daughters affianced, so this could be their last trip together. Another younger daughter and a teenage son. Very united, close knit family.

We follow their journey minutely, even the foretelling of a disaster, a watery one, by an Egyptian soothsayer. The girls who are engaged have now doubts about their future, particularly the eldest who is fighting her feelings for the dashing Mr Kinsey. The second is in the throes of a flirtation only but is restless at the cloistered future that awaits on her return, and the youngest is facing a losing battle against her wishes and dreams of a university education and fighting the suffragist cause.

The Titanic’s epic death is detailed and descriptive. From the accounts of the girls the effort that everyone put in to survive, the salvation of so many souls who may have otherwise been lost, the crassness of some rich women even whilst being rescued, and mainly the utter futility of the many lives lost for so many reasons. Over confidence, the braggadocio displayed by builders and owners, the insufficient number of lifeboats all contributed to its demise.

This was a feet curling, edge of the seat read.

Sent by Kensington Books for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.


Nuwara Eliya’s finest garden. 



Tuesday, March 5, 2024

The Murder Club by Alexandra Ivy

 


An online murder club. It seems very simple - investigating cold cases trying to unravel clues detectives may have missed.  Bailey works a humdrum job, but she likes the residents of her nursing home and finds the murder club gives her the thrill of doing something different

When the messages become slightly threatening and when a resident dies leaving a sizeable inheritance to Bailey, things get very ugly. Nellie’s grandson becomes violent and accuses Bailey of improper behaviour. Bailey is suspended from work. When more people connected to Bailey start getting murdered and the messages become more threatening, Bailey and Dom (who is the new entrant in Baileys life) realise they have to step up their detection to catch this very cold blooded killer.

Set in a small town of Pike which has a notorious reputation for murder was interesting. The characters were both complicated with lots of secrets to hide.

Fast paced. The romance was an added genre.

Sent by Kensington Books for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.




Friday, March 1, 2024

The Last Day in Paris by Suzanne Kerman (Book 1)

 



I enjoyed the book very much, so I do hope I get the sequel.


1940 Paris was not a good time for anyone and for Jews it was ominous. Isabella heeded the signs and when her husband was brutally gunned down, she decided there was no option but to send her daughter away. Doing the work she loved in an art gallery, she realized the plunder that was going on with the huge amount of robbed art going to Germany, apart from the horrendous destruction of modern art which Goering disliked.

Working with the Resistance, Isabella had an ulterior reason for working in the gallery. She wanted to track and save her husbands masterpiece and this she did in the most devious and wonderful way. Fast forward several decades later to a dreary London suburb, and an even more frustrating life, we have Esther Isabella’s great grand daughter, the inheritor of the painting, and the events following which will change her life.

Involving hate against humanity, murder, scheming but also survival, romance and love the story is a remarkable one.

Sent by Bookouture for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.


A waterfall called Devon Falls very close to my home in Rozella. The English names are all the remnants of our colonial history.


Tuesday, February 27, 2024

The Hurtwood Village Murders by Benedict Brown

 


Second book I’m reading by this author. Set in I presume a quintessentially English village, complete with the characters including the eccentric. Here we have unusually the Heaton family detested universally, and although the main culprits are dead and gone, the animosity remains hidden but very much below the surface.

Marius our prize winning author and his sort of girlfriend the lovely Lady Isabella gets dragged into an investigation of threatening poison pen letters to three of the Heaton remaining clan. Death promised in no uncertain terms assured. Police are called in but the first murder of James happens anyway and then the second of Tilly. Scotland Yard gets roped in and no proper suspect is in place because there are a lot of red herrings. 

The detection is slow, but charming. Characterisation was varied, also charming. 

A sequel has to follow because I want to know where the romance is going. It’s not quite fair to leave the reader dangling!

Sent by Storm Publishing for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.


Where I’ve spent the last week. It’s a cooler part of this tropical island called Rozella. Turnips and beans growing in this greenhouse.