I thought I’d be reading in the garden this week but it seems May lulled me into a false sense of security. June has so far been wet cold and overcast while still staying humid. So, I’ve been reading indoors in the warm and dry.

Anyway, here’s what’s been happening this week and what’s up next.

---

This week, I finished a collection of Science Fiction short stories that I’ve been rationing to one a day so that I could savour them, finished the second novel about a telephathic police officer in Lisbon and devoured the lastest book from Kim Watt.

Fifteen Science Fiction short stories
AND I AWOKE AND FOUND ME ON THE COLD HILL’S SIDE, THE SNOWS ARE MELTED, THE SNOWS ARE GONE, THE PEACEFULNESS OF VIVYAN, MAMA CAME HOME, HELP, PAINWISE, FAITHFUL TO THEE, TERRA, IN OUR FASHION, THE MAN DOORS SAID HELLO TO, THE MAN WHO WALKED HOME, FOREVER TO A HUDSON BAY BLANKET, I’LL BE WAITING FOR YOU WHEN THE SWIMMING POOL IS EMPTY, I’M TOO BIG BUT I LOVE TO PLAY, BIRTH OF A SALESMAN, MOTHER IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS, BEAM US HOME

I read this collection of fifteen Science Fiction short stories fifty years ago, when I was eighteen. I knew then that it was exceptional. Re-reading it for the first time, fifty years later, I can see that it still is. 

The stories that have kept this book alive in my memory are the ones that made me think about what it means to be alien or to be human or to be male or female or neither. Four stories stayed with me and remained powerful when I re-read them.

The most powerful (and the grimmest) are the stories that start and end this collection: AND I AWOKE AND FOUND ME HERE ON THE COLD HILL’S SIDE about aliens and sex and the ability of human culture to survive contact with the truly different; BEAM US HOME about the hopes of a young man trapped in a bad place.

The other two stories are lighter in tone: MAMA COME HOME and HELP. They both feature a CIA Psyops team (although I didn’t know what Psyops was when I first read this. Now, with Cambridge Analytica running a psyops campaign to get Brexit through, I’m more familiar with it than I’d like to be.) their both humourous, clever and uplifting. One is a First Contact story with a twist around gender politics and one is about the damage done by colonisation and religion. 

My review, with comments on each story and a bio on the author, is HERE

When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to ‘kill thirteen innocents and one guilty’ in ‘an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man’, Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realises that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.
Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard – a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and unhinged righteousness.

‘House Of Silence‘ (2022) is the second of three books set in an alternative version of contemporary Lisbon where it has been known since the beginning of the twentieth century that a percentage of the population, referred to as ‘The Gifted’ in polite society, is born with telekinetic or telepathic abilities. Inspector Isabel Reis is Gifted and a homicide detective in Lisbon. She’s also very aware that the Gifted are treated as more of a threat than a treasure: assessed as children monitored throughout their lives and increasingly distrusted by ‘regular’ people. 

It was a joy to see that ‘House Of Silence‘ had all the strengths of the first book, ‘The Colours Of Death‘, (original, well-thought through, character-driven) but with a much improved control of the pace of the storytelling. The writing was quietly self-assured and the struture was tight and effective at maintaining tension while keeping the focus on the people involved. I enjoyed the first book but the second book was even better. I’ve already added the third book, ‘Broken Oaths‘ (2024) to my TBR pile.

Steel and iron. Tree and root. And a city crushed between.
In the ancient city of York, a master charm has been stolen. With it comes the power to raise an army of unstoppable metal guardians spread across not just Yorkshire, but the world.
Which is bad enough. But if the charm isn’t recovered soon, the steel beasts won’t be the only ones on the rampage.
Because Heather – near-goddess of the wood and wild, partner of the charm’s creator – has her own ways of dealing with these things. She’ll turn the city to mulch to reclaim the charm, and never mind the casualties.
DI Adams never asked to be the magical community’s problem-solver, but with York teetering towards destruction, she’s suddenly the only one standing between humanity and a full-blown nature-vs-machine catastrophe.
Armed with her invisible, caffeine-addicted dog, her duck, and some allies with questionable loyalties, Adams plunges into the hidden underbelly of York in search of the thief. Never mind the implacable automations, ravenous beasts, and lurking toilet monsters – she’s also got the horrors of people skills and some bendy physics to deal with, and she can’t even arrest them.
But she’s got to make this work. Time’s running out. The charm is waking.
And when root rises to meet steel, it won’t just be York that falls…

I fell on ‘A Right Shambles In York‘ with the eagerness of a starving man at a free buffet when it was published on Tuesday. It didn’t disappoint. I like that the DI Adams books are a little darker and edgier than the Toot Hansell novels. I enjoy Adam’s slightly prickly style. She’s focused. She hates small talk and she really, really hates having people try to help her. This story is an Urban Fantasy thriller. It’s tense. It has some fairly scary monsters and it puts Adams in a situation where help isn’t optional.

The tension and the action is still threaded through with bits of humour. I liked the way the people around Adams stay cheerful, even under pressure. I also liked the metal Guardians Adam’s encounters, especially the not-quite-a-cat-but- DEFINITELY-NOT-a-robot, Fergus. I hope he’ll become a regular member of the cast. 

---

This week, I’ve added four books: One starts a Brit spy series that’s new to me. One is an Irish mainstream novel that may or may not be funny but which was on special offer at £0.99. One is a newly released thriller and one is the third book in a series I’ve been following.

During a remote meeting, an official watches from Lisbon as his colleague, Inácio Machado, a Portuguese diplomat based in London’s Portuguese embassy, dies of what looks to be a heart attack. When no one comes into the room to Inácio’s aid, he tries frantically to contact the embassy to get immediate help. He tries and tries again, but no one picks up the phone and he’s forced to call the British emergency services.

When local police arrive, they walk into a disturbing scene. Everyone inside the building is dead, all seemingly from the same cause.

Inspector Isabel Reis, a Gifted Inspector with Portugal’s PolÍcia Judiciária has developed a reputation for closing sensitive cases involving powerful people. When the gravity of what has happened in Belgravia is revealed, she’s called up to London to assist London Met’s CID in the investigation.

The mystery takes another alarming turn when they realise that the embassy was harbouring an American-Portuguese military scientist who is unaccounted for.

One thing becomes clear very quickly: the deaths are murders, and Isabel faces capturing a killer more ruthless than she has ever seen before.

I bought this as soon as I finished the ‘House Of Silence’, the second book in the Inspector Reis series. I have high hopes for it. I’m very curious to see what Reis does next

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under – but rather than face the music, he’s spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman.
His wife Imelda is selling off her jewellery on eBay while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way to her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.
Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favour to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil?
Can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written – is there still time to find a happy ending?

‘The Bee Sting’ (2023) has been on wish list since I posted ‘Five Irish novels from my wishlist to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day 2024‘ last year. I listened to the audiobook sample when it came out and found it a little slow. This week, Amazon offered the Kindle version for £0.99 and I decided to add it to my shelves, even though it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Humourous books are always a bit of a gamble. I often find them sad and they seldom make me laugh. So, I read the opeing of ‘The Bee Sting’ before I pressed BUY. By the end of the third paragraph I had the feeling that Paul Murray’s humour matches my own. Take a look at the text below. It starts out grim and ends up no less grim but quirky enough to get me raising an eyebrow in a ‘this is going to be good’ way.

“In the next town over, a man had killed his family. He’d nailed the doors shut so they couldn’t get out; the neighbours heard them running through the rooms, screaming for mercy. When he had finished he turned the gun on himself.
Everyone was talking about it – about what kind of man could do such a thing, about the secrets he must have had. Rumours swirled about affairs, addiction, hidden files on his computer.
Elaine just said she was surprised it didn’t happen more often. She thrust her thumbs through the belt loops of her jeans and looked down the dreary main street of their town. I mean, she said, it’s something to do.”

They say blood is thicker than water. I say blood is just harder to wash off your hands.

My name’s Kimberley. I’m twenty-five. I have epilepsy, a seizure alert dog named Muffin, and a job I love as a senior housekeeper in one of London’s top hotels. I’m used to being invisible. Overlooked. Safe.
But that was before Jennifer Clifton checked in. She’s rich, powerful, terrifyingly calm — and she asks for me by name.
She offers me my dream job, working in her exclusive hotel in the Scottish Highlands. It’s more money than I ever imagined.
There’s just one catch: Don’t open the door to Room 21.
How hard can that be?
But something is wrong in this hotel. The guests give me the creeps. The staff whisper behind closed doors. And that room — the one I promised not to enter — calls to me.

I took this job for a better life. Now I’m trapped in a nightmare.

‘Room 21‘ (2025) is a thriller by a prolific British author who I haven’t read before. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the publisher’s summary but it got me to read the sample. The opening paragraphs of the proligue sold it to me, It wasn’t at all what I was expecting. Here’s the text that hooked me:

“Family can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, we’re bound to them by blood. Literally, by blood. Their cells and DNA, running through our bloodstream, are a part of our own bodies, our own genetic make-up. Hell, we even get antibodies from our mothers before we’re born to protect us from illnesses, infections and diseases. Perhaps we inherit our father’s strong jawline or high IQ, or maybe our grandmother’s high cheekbones or love of sewing. Without family, we would cease to exist. Literally. We are who we are because of them . . . which is great for some people who have loving, adoring families and who are kind, compassionate and there for you no matter what.
On the other hand, what happens if you don’t know who your family are? What if you’re adopted or fostered or have been abandoned by your family at a young age? How can you ever truly know who you are or why you are the way you are if you’ve never known your family? Some people may not care about where they come from, but I reckon that deep down, everyone is curious about their DNA.
Nothing makes sense. That’s how I lived for the first twenty-five years of my life.
Until today.
What if, like me, when you do eventually find your long-lost family, they turn out to be a bunch of vicious, psychotic, bloodthirsty lunatics?
Then what? Surely, it would be better to not know about them at all?
Because, let me tell you, there’s no book or manual out there, or online forum, which prepares you for finding out your family are serial killers.
Or maybe there is, and I just haven’t found it yet.
In any case, after tonight, I will have to walk around in public knowing that serial killers’ blood runs in my veins. Will people look at me differently? I expect they will. It’s not like I’ll have a sign on my forehead that says, “Has a serial killer family”, but I may as well. Every time I get angry or annoyed in the future, I’ll wonder if I have it in me to snap and kill someone, to torture them or string them up from the neck and watch them twitch and writhe around until they stop breathing.
The point is that yes, my family are twisted and evil, but I’m no angel from heaven either, especially now. I’ve changed since arriving here at this hotel. Have I changed because of my upbringing or because my family’s DNA has made me this way? It’s hard to tell and I expect I’ll never know the answer.
All I know is that tonight, I’m about to kill dozens of people. Bad, evil, disgusting people, but still people. Human beings with heartbeats and lives and loved ones. Do they deserve to die? Does anyone truly deserve to die?
I don’t know the answer to that question either, but what I do know is that I have a choice to make. I must choose whether to follow in my family’s footsteps or choose my own path in life.”

I’m intrigued. I’m also a little concerned that this one may be too dark for me.

MOVE FAST. STAY DARK.
These are the instructions sent to new operative Emma Makepeace
She’s been assigned to track down a man wanted by the Russians and bring him into MI5.
It should be easy. But the Russians have eyes everywhere.
Emma knows that if spotted she and her target will be killed.
What follows is a perilous chase through London’s night-time streets.
But in a city full of cameras, where can you hide?

I’m a fan of contemporary British spy novels but I hadn’t heard of this series. I heard the author being interviewed on ‘Woman’s Hour‘ on Radio 4 about the news that two of the candidates to become the next head of MI6 are women. She presented herself well, established her credentials as a journalist who has worked closely with spies for many years and then plugged her book in a polite low-key way that I admired. I looked her up and found the her 2022 debut novel, then titled ‘Alias Emma‘ and now, for reasons only publishing gurus understand, retitled ‘The Chase‘, was shortlisted for the 2023 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.

There are three books in the series so far, so I’m hoping this will be yet another series for me to follow.

Click on the YouTube link to hear a sample of the audiobook.

---

Two of next week’s books were released as audiobooks on Thursday. The third one is a cozy crime novel that I’ve been saving for the long drive North that I’ll be making this week.

England, May 1945
Monkshill Park School for Girls seems a world away from the violence that engulfed Europe during World War II. Yet its lonely, decaying grounds have witnessed a murder.
Annabel Warnock, a teacher with a secretive past, left for the holidays and never came back. Both teachers and girls assume she simply walked out, but the truth is quite different. Her body tumbled from the Maiden’s Leap, a viewpoint on the clifftop Gothic Walk, and was washed out to sea.
But Annabel herself is still trapped at Monkshill, unable to move on. As she haunts the grounds and school, she discovers a hidden world – students, staff and servants are riven with deadly rivalries and dangerous tensions.
And one of them is her killer…

I don’t often read books set in World War II. Too many of them seem glossed over and nostalgic. I picked up this new release despite the fact that it’s set in World War II and that the author is new to me. I’m intrigued by the premise that the main character has already been murdered and is now watching the investigation into her own death. Dark Academia, Period Mystery and Ghost Story all wrapped up in one package. I just had to try it.

Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of legendary horror author Vincent Taylor, famous not only for his novels, but for being the prime suspect in the brutal slaying of his siblings.
On the brink of financial ruin, Olivia reluctantly agrees to ghostwrite her father’s last book, not realising that she will be forced to reckon with the ghosts that live at the centre of her family. Because after fifty years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk. But is he ready to tell the truth?

I’ve been waiting for this book ever since I read Julie Clarke’s two previous novels ‘The Flight‘ (2020) and ‘The Lies I Tell‘ (2022) three years ago. I love the cleverness of her plots and the tightness of her writing. I’m sure this is going to be fun.

Journalist Cat Conway is looking forward to an easy assignment covering a major wellness and self-actualization summit at the Pinerock Resort, featuring Bliss Bondar and Bree Guthrie, creators of the Welcome, Goddess empire and widows with attitude. Cat’s mother, Marian Conway, bestselling author and defiantly mediocre parent, is on the agenda—and so is murder.

When one of the influencers turns up dead, suspicion falls on the high-profile guests. Could the killer be a jealous business partner? Or the Instagram-famous poet? The academic who takes vicious aim at the wellness movement? The empowerment guru whose wife hates him? Or Cat’s mother, who has a reputation to protect and a shocking secret to hide?

Cat’s pulled into investigating another celebrity death, but this time while struggling with the possible demise of her livelihood: The Quill & Packet is struggling financially, and may be headed toward its final edition. A convoy of protesters, angry at Cat’s reporting, has besieged the Quill’s newsroom. Can Cat rescue her mother and her newspaper, or will the killer stalking Port Ellis beat her to the deadline?

I read ‘Bury The Lead’, the first book in this series, a couple of months ago. I thought the series showed promise but that the main character was a little flat. I’m going to give the second book a try and then decide whether to continue with the series. I’ll be listening to it on my long drive north next week.