I’ve been struggling with Weltschmerz this week. Every news headline seems to be showing me that things are already bad and are going to get worse. I can feel despair waiting beneath, like a dark sea I could fall into with a single mis-step.
My mood has been worsened by a series of small real-life annoyances that, like midge bites, don’t amout to much but are difficult to ignore.
As a consquence, my reading has been slower than I’d expected. I haven’t even gotten to one of the books that I had planned this week. Still, Advent starts tomorrow and I’m hoping the some festive reading with life my mood.
I’ve read three books this week and am halfway through two more. I’d expected them all to be entertaining but some of them turned out to more fraught than I’d anticipated, engaging my emotions and my thoughts in unexpected ways.
I bought ‘Killing Time‘ last week and decided to listen to it right away. I was sure that a short story about old people, written and read by Alan Bennett, was bound to make me smile, especially as it was billed as a dark comedy set in an old folks home during COVID lockdown.
Well, some of it made me sad, some of it confirmed that getting to be really old sucks but almost none of it made me smile. This managed to be both dispassionate in a grimly stoical way.
My review is HERE
At the start, I thought ‘Grave Expectations’ was going to be a quirky romp through a cosy mystery where two women, one of whom is dead, use their amateur sleuthing powers to solve the mystery of the body in the library that only they can see. And it was that. But with a few surprises. The setting screams Golden Age Mystery but there was nothing retro about the people in the novel. Much of the humour was at the expense of the strange behaviour of rich posh people and our two amateur sleuths are nothing like any of the women in Christie or Sayers.
The biggest surprise was that much of the book focused on what it would really be like to spend decades with a the ghost of your best friend, who nobody but you can see. Especially when that best friend still looks and mostly acts likes she’s still seventeen.
This was fun as a stand alone novel but I’d be happy to read a sequel if Alice Bell writes one.
I read the second half of ‘How To Age Disgracefully’ this week and it was the most fun per page that I’ve had all week. I loved the way, as the chaos escalated, almost all of the characters developed. Daphne was a wonderful creation as the seventy-year-old with a dodgy past, an imperious manner, an ambitous To Do List and a looming deadline for disaster but what really made the book a pleasure were that the people around her all brought their own little bits of anarchic magic to the plot. This was great fun.
‘Vital LIes‘, which I’m halfway through, is a solid spy thriller with the added bonus that the central character’s main focus is on protecting her children from people from her past who want to destroy her. It’s a nice mix of fast-paced action in the present day, flash backs to East Berlin just before the wall fell and Sentro and her daughter trying to reframe their relationship.
I’m halfway through ‘Into The Storm‘ as well. I’m deeply engaged with Enya, the GP at the heart of the story, whose life is falling apart. I love the framing of the story against the Irish Pagan calendar. The surprise for me was that this is a tough book to read. It’s instantly accessible, especially with the skilled narration by Angeline Ball, but it’s filled with emotional turmoil and with thoughts about how we shape our lives that are deep enough and and accurate enough to be unsettling.
Unusually for me, only one of the five books that I bought this week was published this year. Three are continuations of a series and one I picked up because I’ve just seen the movie.
The frozen body of a woman is found in a fishing ark on the ice near Torneträsk in northern Sweden. She has been brutally tortured, but the killing blow was clumsy, almost amateur.
The body is quickly identified, raising hopes of an open-and-shut solution. But when a six-month-old suicide is disinterred, Rebecka Martinsson and Anna-Maria Mella find themselves investigating shocking corruption at the heart of one of Sweden’s most successful mining companies. One that has powerful enemies of its own…
The Black Path’ (2006) is the third book about the lawyer Rebecka Martinsson and her involvement with murders in or near her home town in the Arctic north of Sweden. The first two captured my imagination, mostly because they have a strong sense of place and a deep understanding of the violence that men are a capable of when they feel threatened. I’m already hooked but I’m rationing myself to one book a month.
After decades of adventuring, Viv the orc barbarian is finally hanging up her sword for good. Now she sets her sights on a new dream – for she plans to open the first coffee shop in the city of Thune. Even though no one there knows what coffee actually is.
If Viv wants to put the past behind her, she can’t go it alone. And help might arrive from unexpected quarters. Yet old rivals and new stand in the way of success. And Thune’s shady underbelly could make it all too easy for Viv to take up the blade once more.
But the true reward of the uncharted path is the travellers you meet along the way. Whether bound by ancient magic, delicious pastries or a freshly brewed cup, they may become something deeper than Viv ever could have imagined . .
I’ve been looking forward to reading ‘Legend & Lattes’ (2022) ever since I stumbled acros the prequel ‘Bookshops & Bonedist‘ which turend out to be my favourite Halloween Bingo book of 2024. If this is half as joyous, I’ll have a smile on my face as I read.
Meet the Williamson sisters, Britain’s most treasured World War II veterans. Now in their nineties, Josephine and Penny are in demand, popping up at commemorative events all over the country. Despite their age, they’re in great form-sprightly and sparky, and always in search of their next “excitement.” This time it’s a trip to Paris to receive the Légion d’honneur, accompanied by their devoted great-nephew, Archie.
Keen historian Archie believes his great aunts had minor roles in the Women’s Royal Navy and the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, but that’s only half the story. There’s a reason sweet Auntie Penny can dispatch a would-be mugger with a brolly.
This trip to Paris is not what it seems either. Scandal and crime have quietly trailed the sisters since the war. Now armed with new information about an old adversary, these much decorated (but admittedly ancient) veterans intend to settle scores, avenge lost friends, and pull off one last heist before the curtain comes down on their illustrious careers.
‘The Excitements‘ (2024) is the only new release I bought this week. For the past few years, I’ve been following the trend to publish books with old people as the protagonists, presumably in an attempt to sell novels to the (now quite old) Baby Boomers. I’ve read reviewed more than twenty of them so far and a lot of them are fun. This one sounds like it’ a little more adventurous than most. I’m hoping that the Williamson sisters will have a glorious last hurrah.
When national park ranger Anna Pigeon needs to find peace, she turns to nature of solace. Lucky for her, she’s been newly assigned to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. Anna is enthralled by its ruins: the ancient cliff dwellings of a vanished Native American civilisation.
But Anna’s reverie is shattered by an inexplicable illness affecting visitors to the popular landmark – and two mysterious tragedies: the death of a child… and the murder of a friend.
Now she must find the very human source of the evil wind that is blowing through the ruins. For it threatens more innocent lives – including Anna’s own…
‘Ill Wind’ (1995) is the third book about Park Ranger Anna Pigeon. I’m excited about the setting for this one. I was very impressed with Mesa Verde when I visited it. It has a unique atmosphere. I’m curious to see how Nevada Barr describes it and what Anna Pigeon gets up to there.
Long before Dorothy follows the yellow brick road and triumphs over the Wicked Witch of the West, a little girl with emerald-green skin is born in the land of Oz.
Elphaba grows up to be smart and prickly, a lonely outsider with an extraordinary talent for magic. Arriving at university, she dares to believe she might finally fit in.
But Oz isn’t the haven she’d dreamed of. Some of its citizens are in grave danger, and Elphaba is determined to protect them from the Wizard’s power.
And when the world declares her a wicked witch, Elphaba takes matters into her own hands…
I went to see the movie version of ‘Wicked: Part 1′ last week. Only one of the songs was memorable but the acting was solid an the costumes and visuals were striking. What surprised me most was that there was a good story at the heart of the musical. When I looked to see who wrote it, I found that it was based on a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire. There is audiobook version dating back to 2005 but it sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom and it’s nearly twenty hours long, so I opted for the Kindle version. I hope to get around to reading it before they make ‘Wicked: Part 2‘.
Next week’s reading starts the ramp up to Christmas and checks in on one of my favourite Urban Fantasy series.
A call from an old colleague has DI Adams off her patch and out of her depth, investigating a mysterious new beer with unexpected side effects. Side effects far more dangerous than a simple hangover.
Deadly brewers. Super-powered DJs. Raging florists.
And it’s not just them. Half the police in Yorkshire have fallen for the beer’s spell, and Adams is barely keeping a step ahead. If she doesn’t figure this out before festival opening night the whole county will be under the influence of Niddered Ale, and there’ll be no sobering up from it.
Not ever.
‘Trouble Brewing In Harrowgate‘ (2024) is the latest DI Adams book. I know Harrogate quite well but I’d never thought of it as a location for magical shenanigans. I’m looking forward to seeing what trouble Adams finds herself in the middle of there.
Hungover and exhausted after her family’s annual party, all Anna Johnson wants for Christmas is to finish her to-do list and finally sit down with the world’s biggest glass of wine.
But when she stumbles across a dead body in her larder, her plans are well and truly buggered.
A mysterious death in her home really is the last thing she needs, but with her judgemental in-laws arriving in less than twenty-four hours, turning her house into a crime scene is not an option. If she’s going to save Christmas, it’s up to Anna to find out what the hell’s gone on.
Oh – and figure out what to do with the body before one of the kids finds it.
‘Happy Bloody Christmas‘ (2024) will be the first of my 5 Christmas Reads for 2024. The title and the cover both made me smile. To me, they seem quintessentailly English. I went for the audio version because the narrator’s voice is a perfect fit for the exasperated Bloody Marvellous! Now What Do I D0? tone of the book.
25 days, 25 chapters. This December, the countdown to Christmas will chill you to the bone.
Hoping to bring his family closer together, Adam Gray arranges a vacation in a remote cabin on a snowy mountain. Things take a dark turn, however, when someone starts leaving gifts in the Christmas stocking mounted on the barn door.
Each morning brings something new, and with every passing day, the contents become more terrifying. Soon, the family makes a spine-chilling realization: they’ve been dragged into a deranged game of Secret Santa, and if they want to survive, they will have to fight.
I’m reading this horror novel as Advent Calendar as a buddy read. reading one of the twenty-five chapters each day from today until Christmas Eve.
Alice Beeton never meant to wind up single and childless on the wrong side of fifty. Like her distant relative Mrs Beeton – yes, that Mrs Beeton – she had hoped to have her own spic-and-span household by now. In reality, she lives in an immaculate but dingy basement flat in a rather shabby block in Kensington with Agatha, her fiercely intelligent, if rather over-territorial, corgi-Jack Russell cross.
Now Alice runs the Good Household Management Agency, providing discreet domestic staff to extravagant townhouses and sprawling country piles. So when Camille Messent calls in urgent need of a new housekeeper, Miss Beeton sends out new hire Enya. She’s rather forward but she does come with impeccable references and is fluent en français.
But in the early hours of New Year’s Day, Alice is rudely awakened with the news that Enya has been found dead. As the intriguing, if somewhat scruffy, Detective Rigby struggles to drum up an adequate investigation and the wealthy family and their party guests close rank, Miss Beeton takes it upon herself to solve the crime…
‘Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency’ (2024) is a cosy mystery that takes place over the New Year period. I’m not expecting much beyond a little seasonal light entertainment but that will be enough for me.
Mike Finn's Fiction 