Book Review: Magpie Murders (Susan Ryeland #1) by Anthony Horowitz

 

Magpie Murders
by
Anthony Horowitz

Title: Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Rating: 3 stars (🌟🌟🌟)

Publisher: Harper

Well, I don't really know what to say. I liked parts of this but I have to admit to being overall non-plussed. I gave it three stars but mostly because I can't bring myself to give in two.

Book Review: Crossed Skis: An Alpine Mystery by Carol Carnac

 

Crossed Skis: An Alpine Mystery
by
Carol Carnac

Title: Crossed Skis: An Alpine Mystery by Carol Carnac

Rating: 4 stars (🌟🌟🌟🌟)

Publisher: British Library Publishing

I loved this! The setting was fantastic (piles of snowy awesome, mountains, chalets and skiing!) & the mystery is more a London police procedural with a concurrent thread running with an Alps vacationing party of 16 in which the sought after killer is embedded under an assumed identity.

Book Review: Seven Dead by J. Jefferson Farjeon

Seven Dead by J. Jefferson Farjeon
My rating: 3 stars 🌟🌟🌟
Publisher: British Library Crime Classics


The story of how seven dead people come to be in a locked room of a manor house was what hooked me into reading this and I loved the way it began with a burglar being the one to happen upon them while trying to rob the house. Sadly, what followed was mostly disappointing to this reader. I loved Mystery in White by Farjeon so my disappointment was probably felt more.

Book Review: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
My rating: 4 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Publisher: Signet

I bought a copy of The Wind in the Willows when I was expecting my son in 2013 & it went on the bookshelf where it's been overlooked ever since.

Book Review: The Country Inn Mystery (Jenny Starling #7) by Faith Martin

The Country Inn Mystery by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Publisher: Joffe Books

A very fun entry in the series that has me hoping there's more Jenny Starling coming.

Book Review: The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Guest List by Lucy Foley
My rating: 4 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Publisher: HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction

This was a great read! I'm giving it four stars but only because my criteria for a 5 is that I'd either read it again or it changed my life in a profound way. This wasn't that sort of book but it is the most enthusiastic four stars I can give!

Book Review: The Teatime Mystery by Faith Martin

The Teatime Mystery (Jenny Starling #6) by Faith Martin
My rating: 🌟🌟 (2 stars)
Publisher: Joffee Books


In a week that was insanely busy, this was the book I chose to read, and it took forever to get through. I've settled on the fact that it's not me, it's the book. This investigation into who killed Tris, the privileged local Lothario with a cricket bat had all the pop and swiftness of watching a glacier move, by the hour. The murderer was who I'd suspected and that didn't even bring a thrill. This is one of Jenny's outings that I'd recommend skipping (the food wasn't even inspiring!). That's enough said about it & I'm just glad it's over.

The next surely has to be better.

Summary: Jenny Starling is doing the catering for the village cricket match. But she’s not expecting one of the players to turn up dead.
Everyone from the village has turned out to watch the match, and with this being the club’s centenary, Jenny Starling has been hired specially to provide her stunning food for the event.
Then the next man up to bat, Tristan Jones, is nowhere to be found. He is discovered behind the pavilion, murdered by a blow to the back of the head with an old cricket bat.
The handsome twenty-something had a reputation as a Lothario, with an appetite for married women. Did a scorned woman or a cuckolded husband kill him?
However, he’d annoyed other people too. He was a stockbroker who took big risks with other people’s money and lost their lifesavings.
Soon another body turns up and Jenny Starling is going to need all her cunning to crack this complex case.

Book Review: Another Little Christmas Murder by Lorna Nicholl Morgan

Another Little Christmas Murder by Lorna Nicholl Morgan
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟 (3 stars)
Publisher: Sphere


'Tis the season for me to get my fix of murder mysteries at Christmas so this seemed like it'd fit the bill. The title promised I'd be getting  "Another Little Christmas Murder" mystery but alas, this isn't it, people. Christmas is mentioned twice here once to say it's weeks away and at the end when the two main characters are headed to her family's home for Christmas. What this story does have is snow. Lots of snow. A hellacious storm descends on Wintry Wold in Yorkshire and that's really the hook here to what is at its core a country house murder mystery.

Now usually, I love a country house murder mystery but that wasn't what I signed up for when I chose this. Not happy. Also to the not so great side of the ledger, this was terribly slow. It takes place over about two days but the first half is quite a slog and chatty so it's not until almost 56% in that the real investigation to who has done the murder and why get underway. The end was done well and was swift in the tidy tie-up. Our main characters Dylis and Inigo ended the story just where I'd hoped and expected they would which was nice because they were the best of the characters presented (they saved the whole thing).

I'd recommend this as a country house mystery but don't believe the title, it's a lie and will only lead to disappointment or annoyance if you're looking for a Christmas murder mystery. Be advised.

Summary: When Dilys Hughes finds herself snowbound in the middle of a bleak and lonely stretch of Yorkshire, she has no option but to accept help from passing motorist Inigo Brown, who is on his way to visit his uncle.
Arriving at his uncle's remote country house, Wintry Wold, the couple encounters a less than warm welcome from Inigo's new young aunt, Theresa. Why is she reluctant to let Inigo see his uncle, and is he really as ill as they are told?

As the snowstorm brings more stranded strangers to their door, Dilys starts to realise that all is not as it seems at Wintry Wold. When the morning brings news of the death of Inigo's uncle, Dilys sets out to investigate - was it a natural death, or was it murder?Arriving at his uncle's remote country house, Wintry Wold, the couple encounters a less than warm welcome from Inigo's new young aunt, Theresa. Why is she reluctant to let Inigo see his uncle, and is he really as ill as they are told?
As the snowstorm brings more stranded strangers to their door, Dilys starts to realise that all is not as it seems at Wintry Wold. When the morning brings news of the death of Inigo's uncle, Dilys sets out to investigate - was it a natural death, or was it murder?

 

Book Review: A Year at Castle Court by Holly Hepburn

A Year at Castle Court by Holly Hepburn
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟(4 stars)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

This was a good choice for my Brit chick-lit craving. Cat & Sadie best friends opening a cookie shop in castle court. Lissy is Sadie's little daughter & she's divorced from Sadie's father, Daniel. Cat's big secret played as something awful but perhaps I read too many novels where characters pull some truly dark, craven deeds, that I didn't see what was the big deal here.

Book Review: The Cheltenham Square Murder by John Bude

The Cheltenham Square Murder by John Bude
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟(4 stars)
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

This is the first story I've read with Inspector Meredith and I'm completely out of order in his series. This is book three but I've come to it as part of The British Library Crime Classics (which I'm working my way through & recommend). It's written in such a way that reading the first two books don't seem necessary.

Book Review: The Weekend Spa Break by Anne John-Ligali

The Weekend Spa Break by Anne John-Ligali
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟 (3 stars)

A quick and cute story that continues with the two friends readers met in The Big Event. Constance and Estelle finally go on the weekend spa break using the voucher that Estelle gifted Constance and it's the getaway they both need. The posh resort is all things plush and pampering and that's a good thing because both ladies have some of their home life concerns on their minds and Constance has an actual intrusion connected to her now ex-fiancee, Maxwell (though I'm not yet convinced the intrusion isn't just an unhinged, online stalker). It's a good read and I was incorrect that this was a duology, it's a trilogy and I definitely will be reading that one.

Book Review: The Last: A Novel by Hanna Jameson

The Last: A Novel by Hanna Jameson
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4 stars)
Publisher: Atria Books (April 9, 2019)

Though I thought this would be mostly about the murder discovered in the days after a global nuclear attack, this turned out to be a quieter apocalyptic story with the murder mystery receding into the background at times and ultimately being secondary to something that seemed totally unrelated at the outset.

Book Review: The Winter Mystery (Jenny Starling #2) by Faith Martin

The Winter Mystery by Faith Martin
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟 (3 stars)
Publisher: Joffe Books

This is the winter themed book that caught my eye and prompted me to read this series, to begin with, and it delivered on all the Christmas & snow promise. It's the second in the Jenny Starling series and once again the reluctant sleuth has landed in another murder investigation in between cooking delicious meals over a fortnight at Christmas time.

Book Review: The Au Pair by Emma Rous

The Au Pair by Emma Rous
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟4 stars
Publisher:  Berkley Books (January 2019)

This was my first read of 2019 (when I read this back in August 2018) and I was both thrilled and sad. Thrilled that I'd read such a great story and sad that I'd read it already. When it arrived in the post months before, I sat it aside to take on vacation. So I read it on vacation and it was such an engaging read, I started to get a bit resentful of having to put it down to participate in vacation activities. And I'm one who plans in reading time!

Book Review: The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4 stars)
Publisher: HarperCollins UK (January 24, 2019); William Morrow US (February 12, 2019)

Talk about a good read for a winter's night! I'm a sucker for the Christiesque set up in The Hunting Party (I grinned at the "little grey cells" mention). A group of college friends sequester themselves away at a remote resort for several days leading into New Year's Eve and right from the opening, the reader knows one of them hasn't made it to the second day of the year. Add in an epic snowstorm, long-held resentments to one friend's long reign of cruelty, two resort staff members with their own secrets and struggles and just to keep things interesting, a serial killer on the loose in the adjacent area and two random guests who even with all this strangeness, seem out of place and you have all the makings for a gripping read.

Book Review: Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon

Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟 (3 stars)
Publisher: The British Library

As the year closes, I'm still getting in mysteries with snow and Christmas themes and Mystery In White seemed a good choice. Funnily enough, it reminded me of The Christmas Card Crime that I just read in an anthology with regard to the setup. On Christmas Eve, passengers on a snowbound train disembark and in this instance, take refuge in a country house. Here, the blizzard rages and the house stands empty but appears set for guests with a boiling kettle on the stove, fires ablaze in multiple hearths and tea set out. And one more disquieting fact, a bread knife lays on the kitchen floor.

Book Review: Portrait of a Murderer by Anne Meredith

Portrait of a Murderer by Anne Meredith
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4 stars)
Publisher: The British Library

When the patriarch of a family is found to be dead on Christmas morning and not one of his six children nor their accompanying spouses can be bothered to even give the pretence of mourning him, you know it's going to be a ripping read. Adrian Gray is that patriarch and even more unfortunate than not being mourned by his brood, one of them has murdered him.

Book Review: The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories by Martin Edwards

The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories by Martin Edwards
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4 stars)

In keeping with my craving for mysteries with Christmas or seasonal leanings, I decided to read this short story collection. It was great because I read a lot of new to me authors and I found a whole catalogue of British Library Crime Classics that I'm going to continue with (how had it escaped me that this was a thing?!).

Book Review: Towards Zero by Agatha Christie

Towards Zero by Agatha Christie
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4 stars)

In my continuing quest to read all the Christies, I chose Towards Zero this week because I wanted a tennis-themed book to go along with all the US Open I'd been taking in.

Book Review: Lethal White (Cormoran Strike #4) by Robert Galbraith

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟  (3 stars)

I looked forward to reading this from the moment I finished the third installment and I have to report that I was thrilled to get into it and a little annoyed that it took me so long to get through it. Perhaps my week was busier than I thought it'd be. I checked and this one definitely clocks in at a heftier page count than the prior three books so that may have had something to do with it too.