I hope this is my last week of squeezing in books between Things That Must Be Done. Still, the books I got to were all good reads. It’s possible I’ve been compensating for my perceived reading deprivation by buying too many books but I don’t regret a single purchase. 

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

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This week, I revisited two crime series (one well-known and one that deserves a much bigger readership) and finished an audiobook that’s been keeping me amused for a couple of weeks.

When Sheriff Bree Taggert discovers the body of a young woman floating near the bank of the Scarlet River, a note in her abandoned car suggests suicide. The autopsy reveals a different story. Holly Thorpe was dead long before she dropped off the bridge and hit the water.
As Bree and her investigator Matt Flynn delve into the case, secrets in Holly’s personal life complicate their efforts to solve the murder. Holly left behind a volatile marriage, an equally divisive relationship with her sister, and an employer whose intimate involvement with Holly was no secret. Each one has a motive for murder.
When Holly’s sister is terrorized by a stalker’s sick prank, and the prime suspect turns up dead, everything Bree was sure of is upended and her case goes off the rails. When the killer strikes close to home, Bree and Matt must race to solve the murders before one of their own becomes the next victim.

‘Drown Her Sorrows‘ (2021) was my third visit with Sheriff Bree Taggert. It was an easy, entertaining read, although not a particularly memorable one. It had an engaging puzzle with a pleasingly slow reveal of information to solve it. It was told from two points of view (Bree’s and her investigator Matt’s) to make exposition easier and more varied. The character sketches all made an impression. The plot was enlivened by a light touch of romance, a dash of family drama, a little optimism and dogs who wag their tails when they see their people.

Pam, Nancy and Shalisa once imagined retirement would mean setting aside their worries, picking up their margaritas, and lying back in a hot tub. Right up until their husbands lost all their savings in a reckless investment.
Now, collecting their husbands’ life insurance is starting to sound more appealing than growing old with them. But enlisting the help of the local barber/hitman isn’t merely the most daring thing the friends have ever done – it’s also where the trouble really begins.
Because they don’t realise their husbands have some tricks up their sleeves. And there’s no turning back now . . .

‘The Retirement Plan‘ (2025) surprised me in the best possible way. I’d expected brittle, dark humour about women banding together to get the better of (and probably kill) their deadbeat husbands. I would have been OK with that but what I got was much better. 

‘The Retirement Plan’ was a clever, well-written, bizarrely uplifting comedy of errors. With most thrillers, each plot twist darkens the story and raises the tension. In this story, every plot twist (and there were lots of them) made me smile and encouraged me to hope that, against the odds, everything might work out in the end. It was a story filled with believably flawed people who do bad things but who, given a choice, would rather be nice to people. It’s a story about fractured marriages that challenge the love they were founded on. It’s also a casino heist story with assassins, organised crime and clever fraud. Most of all, it was about people learning that what they value isn’t money but each other. 

If you’re looking for a book that will keep you guessing and make you smile, put on your headphones and listen to ‘The Retirement Plan’.

Sheriff’s detective Katrina “Hurricane” Williams confronts deep-rooted hate and greed in the Missouri Ozarks in this riveting police procedural…
What at first appears to be a brush fire in some undeveloped bottom land yields the charred remains of a young African-American man. As sheriff’s detective, Katrina Williams, conducts her inspection of the crime scene, she discovers broken headstones and disturbed open graves in a forgotten cemetery. 
As Katrina attempts to sort out a complex backwoods criminal network involving the Aryan Brotherhood, meth dealers, and the Ozarks Nightriders motorcycle gang, she is confronted by the sudden appearance of a person out of her own past who may be involved. And what seems like a clear-cut case of racially motivated murder is further complicated by rumors of hidden silver and dark family histories. To uncover the ugly truth, Katrina will need to dig up past crimes and shameful secrets that certain people would kill to keep buried . . .

I think Robert Dunn should be much more widely read than he is. His books are dark, powerful and feel truthful. I started reading him with ‘The Sound Of Distant Engines’ (2020) his disturbingly feasible story of a near-future America run by the Christian Right and constantly at war with the rest of the world. Then I went to his back catalogue and found the Katrina Williams series, four books that tell the story of a woman who, having survived atrocities inflicted on her by her own side while serving in the Army in Iraq, returns to her home in the Ozarks and becomes a Sheriff’s Detective. 

The first two books ‘A Living Grave‘ (2016) and ‘A Particular Darkness‘ (2017) were harrowing but compelling reads. Katrina Williams is a survivor but that doesn’t mean she’s doing well. The main emotion she’s capable of is anger. She’s an alcoholic. She has a reputation for violence and recklessness with her personal safety. She knows she’s broken and she’s not sure she can do anything about that. 

In the previous books, the Army and the Federal government have looked large as sources of the bad things in Katrina’s life. In ‘A Dark Path‘ (2018), her trouble starts closer to home as she confronts white supremacists and drug dealing biker gangs who have unexpected connections to her family that only she is unaware of. It was another stark, violent, gripping book with a plot wrapped around a good mystery and with Katrina’s struggle to fix herself, or at least not hurt the people she loves, at its heart.

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Ok, so I read three books this week and bought six. I don’t care as long as they’re a good six. Four of the books were opportunistic buys: two Kindle books that were offered for £0.99 and two audiobooks on a two-books-for-one-credit deal.One of the other two audiobooks is currently topping the Irish book charts and the other has been hyped for so long, I’ve given up resisting. 

Doctor Jasmine Marks is going back into hell.
The Hygrometric Dehabitation Region, or the “Zone,” is a growing band of rainforest on the equator, where the heat and humidity make it impossible for warm-blooded animals to survive. A human being without protection in the Zone is dead in minutes.
Twenty years ago, Marks went into the rainforest with a group of researchers led by Doctor Elaine Fell, to study the extraordinary climate and see if it could be used in agriculture. The only thing she learned was that the Zone was no place for people. There were deaths, and the program was cut short.
Now, they’re sending her back in. A plane crash, a rescue mission, a race against time and the environment to bring out the survivors. But there are things Marks’s corporate masters aren’t telling her. The Zone keeps its secrets, and so does Doctor Fell . . .

I’ve had my eye on this for a while. I liked Adrian Tchaikovsky’s last climate fiction offering ‘Firewalkers‘ (2020) and I’m hoping this one will be just as good. I was also glad to see Emma Newman as the narrator. I like her fiction and audiobook delivery. So, when this showed up on a buy-two-for-one-credit sale, it was a must buy.

Have you ever sent a message to the wrong person?
You text your sister. Your message is full of gossip about your neighbour. But you accidentally send it to the entire local community WhatsApp group instead.
Now everyone knows what you did.
As rumour spreads like wildfire through the picture-perfect neighbourhood, you convince yourself that people will move on, that this will quickly be forgotten. But then you receive the first death threat.
And someone wants you dead.
The next day, a woman has been murdered. And what’s even more chilling is that she had the same address as you – 26 Oakpark – but in a different part of town. Did the killer get the wrong house? It won’t be long before you find out…

Andrea Mara has been a best-selling author since her debut crime novel ‘The Other Side Of The Wall’ (2017). ‘It Should Have Been You‘ (2025) is her eighth book. It’s been dominating the Irish Best Seller list since it came out last month. I bought it because the premise is irresistible. It’s so easy to imagine destroying your life by pressing send on WhatsApp and using the wrong distribution list. I’m keen to see what Andrea Mara does with it and how she draws the relationship between the two sisters. 

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

I wasn’t going to buy this book. I really wasn’t. I adored the original Hunger Games trilogy. I even liked the movies. But that should have been enough, surely? Then, when I couldn’t find a movie to watch, I bought the DVD of ‘The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes‘ and had to admit that it was good. But I was definitely done then, wasn’t I? When ‘Sunrise On The Reaping‘ came out in March, I ignored it and waited for the fan-fed hype to fall away. Except I kept hearing good things. So, three months later, it’s in my TBR.

On the Lost Coast, some things should never be found….
When tragedy shatters 13-year-old Zelda Ruiz’s adolescence, she retreats with her uncle Mark to the bucolic town of Greywood Bay. It’s a chance to heal and build a new life together.
But nothing can prepare them for the malignant terror that has long coveted these lands.
It looms over redwood groves and lurks in the foundations of homes. It festers in the dark hearts of the wounded. And now, this cosmic horror has found a new weapon: a means to worm its way into our world.
To save their community—and each other—Zelda and Mark will need to confront their darkest demons, both inside and out. For what stalks Greywood Bay hungers for suffering above all else.
And soon, it will feast…By the Light of Dead Stars.

‘By The Light Of Dead Stars’ (2023) was my second pick in the two-for-one-credit sale on Audible. I’ve never read Andrew Van Wey before so this is a roll of the dice for me. The opening scene, which starts with our young teen heroine waking up hanging upside down in the back of the family car, with her blood dripping on the car roof caught my attention. 

I’m going to save this one for Halloween Bingo. If I like it, then I have a new series to follow. 

A letter has arrived at the home shared by the elderly Murdock sisters and their black cat, Samantha. It stirs Rachel’s curiosity, and Jennifer’s alarm, as she fears her sibling will once again head off on a dangerous adventure in detection. The letter-writer is an old friend’s granddaughter who explains that a bizarre drawing of a hand has been slipped under her door, making her very uneasy, and she’d appreciate Rachel’s sleuthing skills. 
Leaving a furious Jennifer behind and toting Samantha in her travel basket, Rachel departs Los Angeles to visit Prudence Mills and assess any possible threat to her. There’d been conflict over her late father’s business dealings, and Prudence’s little sister encountered a prowler in her bedroom. Even more troubling, Prudence’s face has been scarred by an unseen attacker—and for some reason, she fears telling the police. Now, in the snowy mountains, Rachel will be entangled in a chilling mystery—and, as a child of pro-temperance activists, visit a bar for the first time in her seventy years . . .

I read ‘The Cat Saw Murder‘ (1938),the first book in this Golden Age Mystery series about an elderly amateur sleuth who, together with her cat, keeps getting entangled in murders, last year and thought it was fun. ‘Catspaw For Murder‘ (1943) is the fourth book in the series but the Kindle version was on offer for £0.99 so I decided it would be the next book in the series for me.

After the devastating loss of her husband in Iraq, Morgan Dane returns to Scarlet Falls, seeking the comfort of her hometown. Now, surrounded by family, she’s finally found peace and a promising career opportunity—until her babysitter is killed and her neighbor asks her to defend his son, Nick, who stands accused of the murder.
Tessa was the ultimate girl next door, and the community is outraged by her death. But Morgan has known Nick for years and can’t believe he’s guilty, despite the damning evidence stacked against him. She asks her friend Lance Kruger, an ex-cop turned private eye, for help. Taking on the town, the police, and a zealous DA, Morgan and Lance plunge into the investigation, determined to find the real killer. But as they uncover secrets that rock the community, they become targets for the madman hiding in plain sight.

This is the purchase that I’m least sure of. It was another £0.99 Kindle. It’s the first book in another Melinda Leigh series. I ‘met’ the characters from this series briefly in ‘Drown Her Sorrows’ and looked them up. I like the lawyer/PI mix. I just hope it’s mostly a mystery and not mostly a romance. Melinda Leigh’s writing gets icing sugar soft when she’s doing the romance thing. 

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I’m planning on next week being light-weight fun. I’m reading three new releases, two by authors I always enjoy and ond one debut novel.

In the town of Lake Argen in Northern Ontario, the cell signal is always strong, families stay close, and local businesses flourish, from the tacky guest house to Cassidy Prewitt’s specialty bakery. It’s quiet. Few tourists, and fewer newcomers—those who leave seem never to think of the town again. It’s Cassie’s job to keep it that way, since she became the conduit for Lake Argen’s friendly ancestral agreement with the Dark. 
Usually her duties mean attending community meetings and tracking the odd escaped eldritch horror. Sometimes horror-sitting for the cuter ones. The disappearance of a trust-fund city boy doesn’t worry her, much. She was very convincing when she told the cops he’d just wandered into the woods. But when Melanie Solvich arrives to inquire further, Cassie’s on the case. Melanie’s curious, funny, a great listener, and a honey-blond ex-teacher with elbow dimples. Getting closer to her perfect woman beats dealing with the Dark any day.
Except… city boy didn’t wander off. He drove a rune-inscribed knife through his foot and vanished into the earth. Not the sort of thing the Dark can ignore. Lake Argen’s in danger and Cassie has to choose: her hometown or Melanie. Surely an army of unearthly monsters won’t stand in the way of true love?

It’s taken a few weeks after its hardback publication for this to come out as an audiobook but I think it will be worth the wait. I always enjoy Tanya Huff’s books, whether they’re military SF, vampire novels or humorous books about Canadian witches. This one seems pitched at the humorous end of the spectrum, which is exactly what I’m in the mood for.

There will be no pussy-footing around. Not when Kit McCafferty is involved.
When Kit rescues a wealthy witch from the treacherous, monster-filled waters of the River Tweed, she reckons she’s completed her fair share of good deeds for the day. But when a second anonymous body is pulled from the same river, Kit is dragged into a mystery as murky as the water itself. The corpse has no identification, no personal possessions and no one who cares. Kit is determined to change that.
At least Thane Barrow, the copper-haired werewolf who sees the world in a similar way to Kit, is happy to also get involved. Together, they navigate Coldstream’s magical streets and mysterious secrets, determined to uncover the truth about John Doe. Alas, it soon becomes clear that his death was no accident. Kit finds herself investigating a complex crime with more than one victim. She will have her claws full if she’s going to get to the bottom of what’s happened.
One thing is for certain – when death threatens, Kit McCafferty doesn’t back down. She pounces.

I couldn’t resist a series called ‘The Cat Lady Chronicles‘ so I bought the first book ‘Waifs And Strays‘ (2025) as soon as it came out. It was good fun, It made me smile, surprised me once or twice and kept me interested all the way through. I pre-ordered the second book as soon as it was announced. It dropped into my library last week. It will be a great book to relax with on a long summer’s day in the garden.

Fran Donoghue has just killed her neighbour. Don’t worry, you’ll agree, he deserved it.
Detective Gareth Donoghue has a terrible feeling about his missing neighbour.
By the time this is over, that will be the least of his worries…
A dark, sharp and hilarious novel about love, marriage, and murder, with an ending you won’t see coming… Gareth certainly didn’t.

‘My Wife, The Serial Killer’ (2025) is a just-published debut novel that seems to be surfing the ‘Women Who Kill‘ wave of books I enjoy them when they work well, especially when there’s something darker and more feral beneath the humour. I’m hoping this will be a good addition to the sub-genre.