I’m back in cold, wet, permanetly overcast England, trying to make myself appreciate the beauty of louring skies and rain-scented streets and not succeeding. In the face of this failure, I’d normally retreat into fiction but there are lots of things demanding my attention so reading is becoming something that I have to fit in.
Anyway, here’s what’s been happening this week and what’s up next.
It’s been one of those weeks when my attention keeps wandering. I’ve been reading five books but I’ve only finished two of them. The first was a welcome escape into chaotic comedy. The second was a good story marred by writing that had me rolling my eyes (but not setting the book aside).
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‘Lethal Bayou Beauty (2013) is the second book featuring CIA assassin Fortune Redding who is hiding out undercover in the (very) small town of Sinful, Louisiana. Fortune’s supposed to be keeping a low profile but, in her first week in Sinful (described in ‘Louisiana Longshot‘) became involved with a murder investigation, breaking and entering and a fatal shooting, all while working with The Sinful Ladies, a group of single older women who run the town behind the scenes.
In ‘Lethal Bayou Beuty‘, Fortune gets involved in another murder investigation, this time one in which she’s the prime suspect in the eyes of most of the town. This book was a hoot. Sheer, joyful, irrepressible escapism. The plot works (with a very willing suspension of disbelief on my part). The characters are engaging, the action is fast-paced and the humour had me chuckling.
I’m now officially a fan.
‘The Hidden Graves Of St Ives‘ (2024) is the second book in Sally Rigby’s Cornwall Murder Mystery series. I bought it because the first book, ‘The Lost Girls Of Penzance‘ proved to be perfect entertainment on a long drive across the country and I needed something for another long drive.
For me, this was a strange reading experience. On the plus side, the story was entertaining, the plot hooked my curiosity making me eager for each new chapter, the characters were engaging and the dialogue worked. On the downside, the descriptions of facial expressions and charcters’ emotional reactions were clichéd and repetitive. Spotting how many times the phrase ‘A wave of emotion washed through ADD CHARACTER NAME” occurred in the text would have made a great drinking game. The descriptions of places and how the team got from one location to another were detailed but bland – more on the lines of stage directions than atmospheric prose.
It’s a mark of how good the story was that, despite the sometimes eye-rollingly poor quality of the prose, I had no desire to set the book aside. I’ll even be listening to the next book in the series.
In the meantime, someone needs to make this into a TV series. All they have to do is keep the dialogue and use the descriptions as guidance to the actors..
I bought three books this week, one to start a new series, one to continue an existing series, and one because the author is on my BUY EVERYTHING SHE WRITES list.
FBI special agent Mercy Kilpatrick has been waiting her whole life for disaster to strike. A prepper since childhood, Mercy grew up living off the land — and off the grid — in rural Eagle’s Nest, Oregon. Until a shocking tragedy tore her family apart and forced her to leave home. Now a predator known as the cave man is targeting the survivalists in her hometown, murdering them in their homes, stealing huge numbers of weapons, and creating federal suspicion of a possible domestic terrorism event. But the crime scene details are eerily familiar to an unsolved mystery from Mercy’s past.
Sent by the FBI to assist local law enforcement, Mercy returns to Eagle’s Nest to face the family who shunned her while maintaining the facade of a law-abiding citizen. There, she meets police chief Truman Daly, whose uncle was the cave man’s latest victim. He sees the survivalist side of her that she desperately tries to hide, but if she lets him get close enough to learn her secret, she might not survive the fallout….
I was looking for a new American mystery series to follow and I came across ‘Echo Road’ (2024) written by Kendrq Elliot and Melinda Leigh, which brought together their two detectives Mercy Kilpatrick and Bree Taggert. The book got good reviews but I decided that I’d like to get to know each of the detectives before bringing them together. ‘Cross Her Heart‘, (2020) the first Bree Taggert book is already on my shelves. I’m adding ‘Merciful Death’ so that I can start the two series side by side. If I like them, I’ll read one of each of them a month through 2025.
It’s the day before her daughter’s wedding and things are not going well for Gail Baines. First thing, she loses her job – or quits, depending who you ask. Then her ex-husband Max turns up at her door expecting to stay for the festivities. He doesn’t even have a suit. Instead, he’s brought memories, a shared sense of humour – and a cat looking for a new home.
Just as Gail is wondering what’s next, their daughter Debbie discovers her groom has been keeping a secret…
As the big day dawns, the exes just can’t agree on what’s best for Debbie. Gail is seriously worried, while Max seems more concerned with whether to opt for the salmon or prime rib at the reception, if they make it that far.
The day after the wedding, Gail and Max prepare to go their separate ways again. But all the questions about the future of the happy couple have stirred up the past for Gail. Because ‘happy’ takes many forms, and sometimes the younger generation has much to teach the older about secrets, acceptance and taking the rough with the smooth.
Anne Tyler is an authomatic buy for me, so I pre-oredered ‘Three Days In June‘. Sometimes, like ‘A Spool Of Blue Thread‘ they don’t work for me. Then I’ll read something like ‘Redhead By The Side Of The Road‘ and remember why I love her writing. I have high hopes for this one as Tyler excels as using big family events to thrigger introspection.
When only a crack shot will do….
In the two weeks CIA assassin Fortune Redding has been hiding in Sinful, Louisiana, she’s been harassed, poisoned, and shot at…and that was the easy part. But now she’s about to face her biggest challenge since setting foot in the tiny bayou town.
When mayoral candidate Ted Williams is murdered, everyone is surprised. Ted was a blowhole and a Yankee, but those usually weren’t good reasons to kill someone. When Sinful Ladies Society leader Ida Belle becomes the lead suspect in the crime, Fortune knows she’s got to solve a murder and save one of the only friends she’s ever had. But as the investigation begins, more and more secrets surface, and Fortune realizes that sometimes nothing is as it seems.
This is the third Miss Fortune book. By now, I think I know exactly what to expect and I’m already looking for to the anarchic fun.
I kn ow I’ll be reading under gloomy skies this week, so I’ve picked two thrillers that are a little bit spooky
Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.
Grady calls his wife as she’s driving home to share some exciting news. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by a cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there . . . but his wife has disappeared.
A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible: a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.
Wives think their husbands will change, but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change, but they do.
‘Beautiful Ugly‘ (2025) Is Alice Feeney’s lastest novel. I picked it because it’s set on a remote island off the coast of Scotland, it has an intriguing premise and its narrated by Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton.
I started it yesterday and I’m already a third of the way through. It’s much spookier than I expected. There are lots of secrets, strange events and (I think) two unreliable narrators.
The night after her father’s funeral, Claire meets Lucas in a bar. Lucas doesn’t know it, but it’s not a chance meeting. One thoughtless mistyped email has put him in the crosshairs of an extremely put-out serial killer. But before they make eye contact, before Claire lets him buy her a drink, even before she takes him home and carves him up into little pieces, something about that night is very wrong. Because someone is watching Claire. Someone who is about to discover her murderous little hobby.
The thing is, it’s not sensible to tangle with a part-time serial killer, even one who is distracted by attending a weekly bereavement support group and trying to get her art career off the ground. Let the games begin…
‘You’d Look Better As A Ghostr‘ (2023) is a debut novel that I’ve had on my shelves since it came out. If the humour works for me, then I’ll be buying Joanna Wallace’s second novel ‘The Dead Friend Project‘ (2024)
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