Category: Reviews, Thoughts & Notes

Relic by Preston & Child

The first in the long-running and possibly still going Agent Pendergast series by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child.

The New York Museum of Natural History is built over a subterranean labyrinth of neglected specimen vaults, unmapped drainage tunnels and long-forgotten catacombs.

SOMETHING IS DOWN THERE…..

I remember watching the 1997 film adaptation of this book back in the day but despite having the same title (obviously) I didn’t connect the two, and therefore was able to come to the story relatively fresh. It’s an enjoyable, fast-paced thriller with a reasonable amount of blood and guts and a protagonist who is clearly extremely clever but manages not to be annoying.

Ask me if I still feel that way if and when I get to volume 21.

So the NY Natural History Museum is hosting an exhibition called Superstition with artefacts from many cultures including a relic (hence the name) found during a disastrous expedition to South America where nearly everyone died in various ways while still managing (eventually) to get their finds back to New York. But, did something dangerous come back with them?

Why yes of course it did.

Following the discovery of the mutilated bodies of two young boys in the museum’s basement, our hero, Pendergast himself, arrives from New Orleans to investigate because something similar happened down there. Is there a serial killer, or something more sinister?

If you voted for sinister you would be correct.

Is there a cover-up by arrogant senior museum officials who eventually get their comeuppance? Yes.

Is there a local arrogant and incompetent FBI agent who (a) doesn’t like our hero; (b) won’t listen to advice & (c) also gets what’s coming to him? Yes.

Is there a more than competent young woman researcher going through personal stuff who is dismissed by almost all of the men around her but is key to unravelling the mystery? Yes

Charming but cranky professor in a wheelchair? Check.

Does the mystery get solved by our team? Partially (but worry not, there is an epilogue).

I enjoyed this greatly, despite unfortunately positive mentions of big game hunting, which YUCK, so much so that I seem to have obtained the next five books in the series. What can I say, these things happen.

This was my first completed read for #20BooksofSummer22

My Week – 22 May edition

It has been a very quiet week chez Bride so not that much to report.

Books finished:

Only one this week, Girl 4 by Will Carver, the first of his novels to be published (I think) and definitely the first in his Det. Insp. January David trilogy. Serial killer. Visions. Family drama. Nefarious plan. All good (as you will see later). I love Will Carver’s work and am enjoying delving into his earlier stuff.

Currently reading:

Unmasked by Paul Holes – not made much progress on this but hope to get it finished this week. Not having any difficulties with it, just fictional serial killers are holding my interest more than real life murderers.

The Two by Will Carver – January David #2; more than one serial killer (probably). Even more visions. Wicca. Internecine rivalry within the police. Very good indeed

But mostly I’ve been focussing on my 20 Books of Summer reading list which you can find here.

New books:

  • The Light of Italy: The Life and Times of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino by Jane Stevenson – 15th century Italy and my favourite of the many city states of the time. Federico has long interested me, and on my last trip to Italy I was lucky enough to make it to Urbino and to see some of the amazing works he collected, including paintings by Pierro della Francesca.
  • The Surrogate by Tania Carver – the first in her Brennan & Esposito series (he’s a police detective, she’s a psychologist, they have history) sees a horrendous double murder in Colchester.
  • Parallel Hells by Leon Craig – a debut collection of short stories with gothic and folklore-related subjects. I think I saw this mentioned on Twitter and was intrigued enough to buy; I really must get back into reading short stories, she said wistfully…..

Other stuff:

As I said not much is happening around these parts. I’ve been doing some work in our tiny wee garden; though I’m not very good at gardening, things are taking shape.

Friday nights have become Michael Connelly & pizza night. We are watching Bosch: Legacy and The Lincoln Lawyer TV series and enjoying them both a great deal. The Book God has read the novels (not all of them, I think, because Mr Connelly is very prolific) but I’m just along for the ride, enjoying the small screen adaptations.

Hope you stay safe and have a great reading week!

20 Books of Summer ’22

It’s almost June so that means 20 Books of Summer, hosted every year by Cathy at 746 books, is upon us once more. Despite my failures in previous years, I’m going to have another go but I have Purpose and A Plan this time round.

I have decided to use this pretty relaxed challenge to restart some of the series I have neglected over the past wee while and get back into reading them again, and to read more physical volumes than ebooks.

If you are interested in joining the challenge then the announcement post is here and Cathy’s own list is here.

But what about my list? Well, here we go…….

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry – yes, I know I’m way behind everyone else in getting to this, and I’ve had it for ages (I was gift for Christmas one year. Or my birthday. I forget) but I like to read the book before I watch an adaptation and one T Hiddleston is the male lead in this so what can you do?

Keeping the Dead by Tess Gerritsen – the seventh in the Rizzoli & Isles series; can’t remember when I read number six but we’ve been catching up on the TV series and although is hugely different it made me want to pick up the books again

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch – depending on whether you count the novellas or not (for info, I do) this is either the seventh or eighth in the Rivers of London series (how many times do you think I can type the word ‘series’ in this post, I wonder?).I actually started reading this ages ago, got almost halfway through and then stopped for reasons I can no longer recall. Will start from the beginning once more

Dreaming Spies by Laurie R King – the Mary Russell series hits volume 13. I love her and want to get back into the swing of Holmes-related stories again

Bryant & May: Strange Tide by Christopher Fowler – I have been neglecting Mr Fowler over the past few years and will put this right by starting off with number 13 in a series I have been reading forever. Until I wasn’t.

A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear – Maisie Dobbs returns having headed abroad at the end of volume 10; one of my favourite fictional characters, now lurching towards the outbreak of WW2

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo – the first of the standalone reads, this is a reimagining of the life of Jordan baker, one of the characters from The Great Gatsby. Really looking forward to this one, might be reading this near the beginning of the challenge

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid – I’ve had this one on my TBR pile for ages, and as well as wanting to read it on its own terms, I’m hoping it will also lead me back into David Mitchell’s Utopia Avenue. I love rock band stories (the best being, of course, Espedair Street by Iain Banks. I will not argue about this)

Holy Terror: Stories by Cherie Priest – a bit of horror & creepiness in short form. I haven’t been reading a lot of short stories recently and this looks just wonderful.

The Poisoner’s Handbook By Deborah Blum – because it wouldn’t be a reading list of mine without death and destruction in a nonfiction form; pretty sure this will do what it says on the tin

A Life in Death by Richard Venable – nor is it a Bride list without something true crime adjacent; this is the story of Det. Insp. Venables, an expert in Disaster Victim Identification and a member of the UK Police’s Major Disaster Advisory Team

The Fall of Robespierre by Colin Jones – an hour by hour analysis of the last day of Robespierre’s leadership during the French Revolution. The only proper history book on this list; what have I become 🙂

Dreadful Company by Vivian Shaw – the second in the Dr Greta Helsing trilogy, our heroine is in Paris and dealing with vampires. Again.

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsin Muir – I loved Gideon the Ninth and don’t know why I’ve waited this long to read the follow-up; whatever the reason, encouragement has been provided by the imminent release of the next volume

A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz – the third in the series where Horowitz himself is the sidekick to the detective Hawthorne. I really like this clever series and am especially looking forward to reading this one

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers – the second Wayfarers book, where Lovelace, once a ship’s AI, wakes up in a new body and has to figure a lot of things out…

The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross – the eighth (I think) novel in the Laundry Files universe; another one that I started and set aside for a while but again I’m incentivised by having read one of the shorts in the same series and remembering how much fun these are. Sort of Lovecraft meets the civil service….

Business as Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford – I mentioned this in my most recent weekly round-up. I do love an epistolary novel

The End of the Day by Claire North – I love Claire North’s work but have fallen a little bit behind in reading her books, so this challenge feels the right time to pick her up again. She is such an intelligent and talented writer.

Relic by Preston & Child – I remember seeing the film version of this many moons ago not realising that it was based on this novel, the start of a long and well regarded series featuring FBI Agent Pendergast. Hopefully the first of many.

And that’s it. Not a bad list I think, and we’ll see how I get on – watch this space!

My Week – 15 May edition (just a wee bit late)

Looking back at last week where I managed to both do some reading and get out into the big wide world….

What I finished:

I managed two this week, a bit of entertaining true crime and an engrossing mystery

Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants: Britain’s First Female Crime Syndicate by Brian McDonald

I was listening to an episode of the Dirty Sexy History podcast hosted by Jessica Cale (well worth a listen if you are interested in stuff that is a bit outside the mainstream history we mostly get taught) when this book was mentioned, and remembered that I had picked up the Kindle edition some time last year. It’s a very entertaining, extremely detailed and fast paced dive into mostly female criminality in south London, with some social history thrown in and lots of dodgy male offenders as well. I really liked it but the title is a bit misleading as we don’t get to Alice until we are quite far into the book, and what we do get was clearly insufficient for some reviewers on Goodreads who expected a full biography of the lady herself.

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

I really enjoyed Hallett’s first novel (The Appeal, which I didn’t review but should have because it was just excellent) and if anything this is even better. The narrative device this time is the use of transcriptions of voice recordings made by our protagonist Steven, who is recently out of prison and has become obsessed with trying to solve a mystery from his childhood – the disappearance of his teacher after a school outing where the investigated clues in the works of Edith Twyford, an out-of-fashion children’s author based loosely on Enid Blyton. Almost everything we read comes from Steven’s perspective and we are in potentially unreliable narrator territory here; I won’t say more because watching it all unfold is part of the joy of the book. The clues are all there for the reader to solve, and now that I know how things turn out I am almost certainly going to read it again to find the clues I missed. I really recommend this if you want something a bit different, and am looking forward to what she might do next.

What I’m currently reading:

The Fall of Paris has gone onto my Set Aside for Now stack; I will definitely be going back to it later in the year.

Girl 4 by Will Carver – this is the first novel from Carver who has become one of my favourite authors, largely due to his excellent DS Pace trilogy (which I loved so much and intend to read again). This is the first in a series of novels involving a police detective, January David, who specialises in very violent crimes. This first tale is a serial killer targeting young women (which is what they do) with the first victim hitting very close to home for our protagonist. I’m just over a third of the way in, so shall say no more.

Unmasked by Paul Holes – the cold case investigator whom I first came across via Michelle McNamara’s excellent I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (as mentioned here) and numerous mentions on the My Favorite Murder podcast , as well as his own investigative podcast with Billy Jensen, The Murder Squad. I have only just started this and it looks like a mix of cases he has worked on and the impact his career has had on his family and so far so good.

New books worth mentioning:

In honour of finishing the TV adaptation Slow Horses and the publication of the latest Slough House novel Bad Actors, I treated myself to all of Mick Herron’s series in one fell swoop. Will bereading the fifth entry in the series very shortly.

Last week I mentioned Under the Banner of Heaven which I had just finished, and had an interesting conversation with Kathy at Simple Tricks & Nonsense where she recommended Heaven’s Ditch about the building of the Erie Canal and religious stuff around it; now ordered and awaiting its arrival.

Most of this week’s book spend was focussed on the Book God’s birthday list, so my recommendation will be out of sync for the next wee while.

Other stuff:

So this week I finally got back to Sadler’s Wells, my favourite venue for all things dance, to see the Northern Ballet perform Casanova. I had such a good time; the costumes and sets were gorgeous and a quick glass of prosecco at the interval added to the fun. But oh, so many people on public transport were not wearing masks (I was fully masked the hole time) and that did make me feel uncomfortable, especially on the Tube which on the way home in particular was so crowded. This is how it will from now on I suppose….

Until next time I hope you are all well and have a great reading week!

My Week – 8 May edition

A quick look back at what turned out to be a very quiet week in which nothing much happened but somehow I still needed to sleep a lot…..

What I finished:

Only one book this week but it was totally absorbing. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer came to my attention because I saw that there is a TV adaptation starring Andrew Garfield (I may already have mentioned this somewhere) and I am one of those people who (where possible) likes to read the book before watching the film/TV series.

My only exposure to Mormonism was via a deep and abiding love for The Osmonds (don’t judge!) and the occasional knock on the door from missionaries looking for the Latter Day Saints church (temple?) in my little corner of Paisley.

This book kicks off with a particularly nasty murder of a young woman and her little daughter and goes back and forward between the case and a history of fundamentalist Mormonism, with particular reference to polygamy. The book is around 20 years old so of course excludes the recent stuff about Warren Jeffs (ugh – more about him later). I found it deeply fascinating and disturbing and beautifully written and would recommend if you have an interest in the subject.

What I’m currently reading:

I have almost finished Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants, and am about a third of the way through The Twyford Code, but haven’t made much progress on The Fall of Paris; I mentioned all of these books in my last post and I’m trying very hard not to start anything else until I have finished at least two of these.

What have I bought?

  • The Queen’s Consort by Steven Veerapen – the fateful second marriage of Mary Queen of Scots as seen from Darnley’s perspective. I’ve always thought he was a bit of a drip but am open to being persuaded otherwise….
  • The Abbey Close, also by Steven Veerapen – any synopsis which starts out “Paisley, 1542. As the armies of Henry VIII and James V prepare for battle, Catholic exile Simon Danforth must decide his loyalties” is a must read for me.
  • Love, Sex, Fear, Death by Timothy Wyllie – the Inside Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment states the subtitle, a cult I know very little about but it was mentioned in the afterword to Adam Nevill’s Last Days (which I finished recently – thoughts here) so I thought why not?
  • When Men Become Gods by Stephen Singular (possibly one of my favourite author names, a bit like Stephen Strange without the chaos magic), this follows on from Under the Banner of Heaven which I reviewed above, and tells the horrendous story of Warren Jeffs and his fundamentalist cult. One to be read in small doses I think.

Stay safe and I’ll see you in my next post!

Finishing out April

My reading dwindled towards the end of the month but I met my goal of a minimum of 6 books read, and I’m happy with that.

Photo by Bich Tran on Pexels.com

To the stats…..

Books read in April = 6

Pages read in April = 2043

Progress on Goodreads challenge = 28 books completed, 7 ahead of schedule = 43%

What I’m currently reading:

  • Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer – true crime + fundamentalist Mormonism = disturbing and fascinating read
  • The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett – an excellent crime puzzle thriller thing, enjoying the hecl out of it but the Mormons (see above) are holding sway at the moment
  • The Fall of Paris – see my thoughts on this in a previous post
  • Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants – as above

What I’ve bought since my last book haul:

  • I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh – it’s a thriller where tragic accident -> fresh start -> promise of a happy future -> past catching up -> devastating consequences
  • Unmasked by Paul Holes – a true crime hero dishes the dirt on his career; cannot resist…
  • The Void Ascendant by Premee Mohamed – The mindblowing, cosmic conclusion to the breakout Beneath the Rising trilogy. SURVIVAL HAS CONSEQUENCES. I must get going with this series…
  • The Harvest of Lies by Mark Henwick – an Sthanate novel of 19th century Saigon, and an offshoot from his mail Athanate series; I understand you don’t have to read those before picking this one up (which is probably just as well….)
  • Devil House by John Darnielle – true crime writer moves into murder house with, presumably, results
  • The Reyes Incident by Briana Morgan – chilling horror, urban legend but they had me at killer mermaids
  • Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead – missing aviatrix and actress about to play her 50 years later; nominated for heaps of awards including the Booker but somehow I managed to miss it at the time.

What will be arriving in May

Honourable book-to-TV adaptation goes to Slow Horses on Apple – Mick Herron’s series of modern spy novels brought to life with an excellent cast and an approach that stays true to the books; the best kind of adaptation in my view.

How was April for you? What are you looking forward to in May?

April so far…..

How did we get halfway through April without me posting anything (yes, I know my posting “schedule” is always erratic at the best of times)?

I’ll tell you why – coming down with the dreaded lurgy, that’s why.

Saying that, I should make it clear that I am not talking about Covid, just your common or garden spring head cold with added allergies (tree pollen is going mad at the moment) but it’s the first cold I’ve had since long before the pandemic and I was wholly unprepared, though in a (misguided) generous impulse as I recovered I gave it to my husband.

So I basically spent the last seven days or so slumped on the sofa. The good news was that I didn’t have any headaches so I was able to read…

A few thoughts on the books I finished:

Broken Dolls by James Carol – I am unable to resist a hunter of serial killers and this is the first in the Jefferson Winter series. I enjoyed it enough to buy the sequel, but this is clearly the introduction to a new character and suffered a tiny bit from that, but like I said, intriguing enough for me to want to read more.

Mimic by Daniel Cole – talking about serial killers, Mimic is the latest novel from Cole, who wrote the Ragdoll trilogy which I liked very much (but don’t ask me about the TV adaptation unless you really want a bit of a rant). This is a standalone novel, set initially in 1989 then jumping ahead to 1996. So no mobile phones or any other whizz bang technology, just good old fashioned police work. I liked it.

Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water by Vylar Kaftan – possibly my favourite author name in recent years; I can’t remember on whose recommendation I got this, but it’s a very atmospheric novella set on a prison planet where Bee, a telepath, is being held for crimes she can’t remember. It’s a strange book but was quite moving and beautifully written.

Suspects by David Thomson – better known for his non-fiction work on the history of the movies, this is the first of Thomson’s novels that I’ve read and I found it really intriguing. It’s basically a biographical dictionary of about a hundred (I didn’t count) characters from film noir, giving them backstories and often details of their probable future taking place outside the films in which they appear. I can see that a lot of people wouldn’t like this because there isn’t really an easily discernible narrative but I found it fascinating, though I definitely got more out of the characters whose films I had seen.

Currently reading:

  • The Cabinet by Un-su Kim – a literary work from South Korea, I’m not sure if it’s a novel or a set of linked short stories but it is definitely interesting and I just need to remember to pick it up…
  • Unquiet Spirits by Bonnie MacBird – the second in her Sherlock Holmes series, all about ghosts, murder and of course whisky; I’m struggling with this a bit because I’m just not in a Holmesian mood at the moment, so will probably set it aside and come back to it later….
  • Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants by Brian McDonald – as much about general London lawlessness as it is about this all woman shoplifting syndicate, I’m not quite a fifth of the way in and haven’t yet met Alice….
  • The Fall of Paris by Alistair Horne – the Franco-Prussian War, the siege of Paris, the fall of Louis Napoleon and the Commune; if you’re at all interested in French history, especially where it intersects with war then you should definitely read Horne’s work
  • Last Days by Adam Nevill – independent filmmaker is hired to make a documentary about a cult focussing less on the disastrous ending of the group and more on the potential supernatural elements; definitely not going to end well and I probably shouldn’t have started reading it at bedtime….

What I’ve been watching:

No films this month(so far), but I really enjoyed working my way through:

  • Peaky Blinders S6: the last outing, on TV at least, I had never watched this series before though the Mr B has been encouraging me to do so. The presence of Diana Mitford as a key character got me interested and I was hooked. Will be going back to the very beginning to watch the whole thing
  • The Ipcress File: I remember watching the sixties movie starring Michael Caine which in some respects can’t be beaten, though this was a very stylish and well acted version of the story; I hope they adapt the remaining Harry Palmer books

Hope you are all staying safe. How is your April going so far?

The Autopsy of Jane Doe [2016]

EVERY BODY HAS A SECRET

My husband does not like horror movies. I want to be very clear here; he doesn’t mind monster movies (vampires etc.) but he does not like the kind of horror movie that has situations which could conceivably happen to real people. So when he said that he would be going out to dinner with a former colleague leaving me home alone I took the opportunity to watch The Autopsy of Jane Doe which has been on my radar for ages.

They said don’t watch this alone. But I did, even as it was getting dark (clocks in the UK had not sprung forward as yet). I am brave that way as only someone with Thai food and a large glass of wine can be.

Like I said, I’m brave, me.

So we start at a home where a number of people have been bloodily murdered, and in the basement the police find the body, apparently unmarked, of a naked young woman who has no connection to the crime scene that can be ascertained. The officer in charge needs a cause of death so that he can deal with the press the following morning, so takes the body to the coroner (played by Brian Cox) and his mortuary technician son (Emile Hirsch) and asks for them to work on identifying how this young woman died.

It is late at night. The mortuary is in the basement, and although the place where autopsies are carried out is well-lit etc., the rest of the basement is a bit creepy, with an unhelpful corner around which things (should there be things) can lurk to catch the unwary. There is also a cat, so that’s one potential jump scare accounted for.

No-one should be carrying out an autopsy under these conditions. No one.

Things do not go at all well.

I really enjoyed this unsettling, well-made and gruesome horror/thriller. Did I work out what was going on? In part, yes, yes I did. Did I at one point shout at the TV because (given the evidence they’d found) the answer was kind of obvious? Might have. Did it have one of those endings that means all of the bad stuff is likely to continue? You’ve guessed it. Does the cat survive? Not saying (Spoiler – no).

I love Brian Cox, he is the first and best Hannibal Lecter and of course Scottish so I may be biased. I once saw him play Titus Andronicus on stage and he was fabulous. The rest of the cast is also very good but I will admit that Mr Cox was the main draw for me. Recommended, may watch again.

Dazzling details: The Autopsy of Jane Doe is rated 15, runs for 1h 26 (which is refreshing) and directed by Andre Ovredal (his movie Trollhunter is also really good – I even reviewed it back in the day)

February wrap

Well, after a fairly ordinary January, I found myself devouring books in February for no particular reason other than picking some really absorbing titles and, if I’m honest, finishing a couple of books that didn’t quite make it the previous month.

Photo by Monstera on Pexels.com

The Stats

Books read = 10 (I know!)

Pages read = 3,861

Goodreads progress = 22% of my goal, 4 books ahead of schedule

I’m going to cover the books I read in a couple of posts over the next few days so look out for them. I will mention one DNF or (more accurately) one set aside for later as I think I still want to read it. That book is The Quantum Curators & the Faberge Egg by Eva St John. I picked it up because I had been reading a lot of intense and dark stuff and thought I could do with a bit of humour and whimsy but apparently I was wrong. Nothing negative to say about the book, I was just in the wrong frame of mind, and intend to pick it back up at some point.

March pre-orders

Coming up this month:

  • Stars and Bones by Gareth Powell – this may look familiar as I mentioned it last time; due originally for publication in February I actually received it this morning
  • Sundial by Catriona Ward – Stephen King says it’s authentically terrifying so who am I to argue?
  • The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St James – a true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for….
  • Femina by Janina Ramirez – a new history of the middle ages focussing on the women written out of traditional narrative, really looking forward to this
  • Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough – another book about not being able to sleep – feel drawn to this theme at the moment even as my own intermittent insomnia is dormant (I’m probably going to regret saying that…)
  • A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear – Maisie Dobbs #17 – I am very behind with this series also
  • The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd – maps, I love maps
  • Dark Queens by Shelley Pulaski – more medieval history focussing on women; i think I see a pattern here
  • Escape from Yokai Land by Charles Stress (the 12th Laundry Files book – I really need to catch up with this series being only at book 7) – also arrived this morning and now I look at it properly it is (a) a novella and (b) actually book 7.5 so will probably shoot up my TBR 🙂

Currently reading Gallows Court by Martin Edwards but haven’t picked my non-fiction read as yet.

What are your plans for March? Let me know in the comments.

Have a great month everyone, stay safe!

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the tattered manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has little idea it will change her life. She’s worked with the revered crime writer for years and his detective, Atticus Pund, is renowned for solving crimes in the sleepy English villages of the 1950s. As Susan knows only too well, vintage crime sells handsomely. It’s just a shame that it means dealing with an author like Alan Conway…

Magpie Murders is a beautifully constructed murder mystery in two timelines, with the two stories linked by the author Alan Conway. One is a book within a book, Conway’s latest Atticus Pund mystery, and the other is set in the modern day where Susan Ryeland is trying to find the missing last chapter of the book, following Conway’s sudden demise.

I love Anthony Horowitz and I remember buying this not long after it came out several years ago, but failed to read it at the time (which is sadly normal for me these days). I hadn’t forgotten about it exactly but two recent events definitely brought it back to mind:

So what else could I do? And I’m glad I did pick it up because it is such fun and of course beautifully written. One of the things that I really loved was that the bulk of the Atticus Pund story is front-loaded so that we are reading it along with Susan and come to the realisation that the final chapter is missing and the story just stops dead along with her.

Why do English villages lend themselves so well to murder?

The modern day mystery is also very enjoyable as Susan goes off in search of the missing chapter and to fins out what actually happened to Alan Conway, whom she doesn’t even like, but who is their company’s biggest seller. Both aspects are excellent in their own right, but together they create something special.

I have also seen the first episode of the TV series and I can recommend it highly. Horowitz has written the script and changed the structure to fit the screen better. Wonderful cast and beautiful locations, I am deeply envious of all of the outfits that Lesley Manville (who plays Susan) is wearing in the series.

There is a sequel which I will try to pick up sooner rather than later.

Have you read this, and if so what did you think?