It’s been another hot week when sitting and listening to a book in the shade was a sign of how sensible I was being rather than how addicted I am to books. My reading was fun, I found two newish series to try out and I had two long-awaited pre-ordered books drop into my audiobook library on the same day.  There are so many enticing books being released this year that I have an embarrassment of riches. Now, all I need is the time to read the books I’ve added so eagerly.. 

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

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This week, one of my roll-of-the-dice reads paid off, delivering a fast, pulpy adventure that was a lot of fun. I also got a short but worth it visit to the Murderbot universe and a soothing but slightly too long instalment from one of my favourite British police procedural series. 

What does the US government do with spies and special operators when they pass their expiration date? They retire them to a small town deep in the Piney Woods of East Texas, where they’re certain to cause no trouble.
A collection of broken spies, former double agents, and retired operators lives in secrecy, under the watchful eye of the government in the small, deep-woods town of Cottonmouth, Texas.
Devlin Mahoney is the de facto mayor of these special citizens, charged with keeping them in seclusion, hidden from the world, which he does from the office of the town’s only motel.
But the peace of this sleepy village is shattered when a pair of women, on the run from a vicious criminal, drops into Mahoney’s lap and he’s forced to choose between doing what’s right and doing what he’s told

In an interview with Nerd Daily, Jay S. Bell was asked to describe ‘Welcome To Cottonwood‘ (2025) in five words. He said:

“Fast, fun, pulpy, rollercoaster ride.”

I can’t do better than that. This isn’t the book to go to if you’re looking for serious spy fiction, but if you ever wondered what Reacher might be like if he had a sense of humour and some friends, then this will feed your imagination. 

The book is in three parts. The action and its consequences escalate in each part, leading to a bloody and explosive ending. 

There’s lots of violence, much of it decorated with detailed information about weaponry and combat techniques, some very scary people (many of them in Team Good Guys), a damaged damsel in distress and an unredeemable evil mastermind who deserves to be put down. Plus the bizarre nature of Cottonmouth, Texas, which has a motel so old it’s like something from a movie set, plus a cowboy-themed Diner run by an Iranian and an Israeli husband and wife team.

The story is held together by humour, romantic notions of doing the right thing, the joy of forcibly ‘retired’ people going back to what they were once good at and an absolute refusal to be beaten.oing the right thing, the joy of forcibly ‘retired’ people going back to what they were once good at and an absolute refusal to be beaten.

Perihelion and its crew embark on a dangerous new mission at a corporate-controlled station in the throes of a hostile takeover…

‘Rapport’ was a brief but welcome return to the Murderbot universe.

My review and a link to the short story are HERE

When a worker goes missing from a North Sea gas platform, there seem to be just two possible explanations – it was a tragic accident or a suicide. It does not take Smith and his detectives long, however, to discover that James Bell led a double life back onshore in Kings Lake, a life complicated enough to make him at least one dangerous enemy. Before the case can be unraveled, Smith must get a new team working together; Waters and Murray are still there, but one of Wilson’s men is transferred to him, and the female detective constable from Longmarsh poses some unexpected problems for her new sergeant. Together they begin to investigate the links between the companies and the people that bring ashore the oil and gas, and they also find themselves caught up in the seamier side of life that exists beneath Lake’s everyday comings and goings. Jo Evison begins to delve more deeply into the story of the Andretti murders, and Smith himself has to face the fact that he might no longer be considered fit for duty.

‘Luck And Judgement‘ (2015) was my third visit with DC Smith. I read the first two books in this series, ‘An Accidental Death‘ and ‘But For The Grace‘ in 2019. 

For me, the main appeal of this series is the cadence of Peter Grainger’s prose. It’s easy on the ear without being bland or simple, like listening to Spanish guitar music that slips into your mind as familiar and stays because it’s surprisingly fresh. 

The mystery plot is the wrought iron arch the text grows over, elegant and twisty, built to display the characters who drive the narrative, so I didn’t expect high drama. I also didn’t expect the book to lose its way and run out of momentum. 

‘Luck And Judgement’ was a slightly disappointing read. It opened well, went on for too long, mutated from a police procedural into an elegiac reflection on the life of a widowed policeman who may have been in the job too long and then didn’t so much end as run out of energy. 

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Each of the two books I added this week launches a new series and each of them is about revenge, but in terms of tone and emotion, they couldn’t be more different. One is a humorous wish-fulfilment adventure with an older woman taking her revenge on the bad guys. The other is a gritty New Zealand crime story with a Maori detective trying to catch a serial killer. I’m excited about both of them. If it hadn’t been for the two pre-ordered books that arrived this week, these two would have been my next reads. 

Mrs. Loretta Plansky, a widow in her seventies, is settling into retirement in Florida while dealing with her 98-year-old father and fielding requests for money from her beloved children and grandchildren. Thankfully, her new hip hasn’t changed her killer tennis game one bit.
One night Mrs. Plansky is startled awake by a phone call from a voice claiming to be her grandson Will, who needs ten thousand dollars to get out of a jam.
By morning, Mrs Plansky has lost everything. Law enforcement announces that Loretta’s life savings have vanished, and that it’s hopeless to find the scammers behind the heist. First humiliated, then furious, Loretta Plansky refuses to be just another victim.

I’ve read and enjoyed four of Spencer Quinn’s Chet and Bernie books. Listening to Chet the dog tell me about the adventures that he and his human Private Investigator partner have as they take on larger-than-life bad guys always makes me smile. This week saw the publication of the second book in a new series by Spencer Quinn, with the eye-catching title, ‘Mrs Plansky Goes Rogue‘. I took a look and realised that I’d missed the launch of the series in 2023. I decided to add the first book. ‘Mrs Plansky’s Revenge‘, to my TBR. The plot reminds me of the movie ‘Thelma‘, which was one of my favourite movies from 2024. Spence Quinn’s book pre-dates the movie but I’m hoping that it has a similiar spirit. 

Detective Senior Sergeant Hana Westerman is a tenacious Māori detective juggling single motherhood and the pressures of her career in Auckland’s Central Investigation Branch. When she’s led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man hanging in a hidden room. With little to go on, Hana knows one thing: the killer is sending her a message.

As a Māori officer, there has always been a clash between duty and culture for Hana, but it is something that she’s found a way to live with. Until now. When more murders follow, Hana realises that her heritage and past are the keys to finding the perpetrator.

Especially when the killer’s agenda of revenge may include Hana – and her family . . . 

My first New Zealand crime novel was ‘Marlborough Man’ by Alan Carter, a five-star read that whetted my appetite for more New Zealand crime fiction. I noticed that ‘Marlborough Man‘ won the Ngaio Marsh Awards for Best Crime Novel (2018), so I thought I’d try another winner. When Michael Bennett won the Ngaio Marsh Awards for Best First Novel (2023) with ‘Better The Blood‘, I added it to my wishlist. This month, I saw that he’d published the third book in the series, ‘Carved In Blood‘ and that it was being well received, so I moved ‘Better The Blood‘ from my wishlist to my audiobook library. I’ve only spent a couple of weeks in New Zealand, and that was on a work assignment. I know almost nothing about its history or contemporary culture, so a book with a Māori detective in the lead role tugs at my curiosity. 

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Next week, I’m reading two books that I had on pre-order. Both of them were published as audiobooks on Thursday and both of them are by authors I’ve read before. I decided to push my TBR to one side and dive into these two.

Once, Sera Swan was one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her powers, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her Guild. Now she helps Jasmine run an enchanted inn in Lancashire, where she deals with their quirky guests’ shenanigans and longs for a future that seems lost. Until she finds about an old spell that could restore her power …
Enter Luke Larsen, handsome magical historian, who might have the key to unlocking the spell’s secrets. Luke has no interest in the inn’s madcap goings-on, and is even less interested in letting a certain bewitching innkeeper past his walls. So no one is more surprised than he is when he agrees to help.
Running an inn, reclaiming lost power, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera is about to discover she doesn’t have to do alone – and that love might be the best magic of all.

I hate the cover of this book. If I’d known nothing else about it, I’d have passed this novel over.

I prefer the US cover but not by much. At least it doesn’t look like it was designed by an AI that mistook it for a children’s book.

In both cases, I’d normally have said: ‘Nope. Too cozy and romantic for my tastes’, so I’m hoping the covers aren’t a good indication of the content.

I bought it because Sangu Manadanna’s ‘The Very Secret Society Of Irregular Witches‘ was one of my favourite reads of 2023 and I’ve been waiting two years to see what she would write next. Now, I’m about to find out.

In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.
Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. She’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.
Until, on the night of Halloween, Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.
She suffers a catastrophic brain injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, she’ll suffer a deadly aneurysm.
Jet never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her ex-best friend turned sister-in-law, her former boyfriend.
She only has seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:
Jet is going to solve her own murder.

Like just about everyone else, it seems, I loved Holly Jackson’s debut novel ‘A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder‘ (2019). The sequel, ‘Good Girl, Bad Blood‘ (2020) was almost as good. I didn’t get on so well with the third book in the series, ‘As Good As Dead‘ (2021). I started it when it came out, but I couldn’t sustain my interest. I felt that the story hadn’t grown with the character. 

I went looking for ‘Not Quite Dead Yet‘ (2025) when I heard that it wasn’t the fourth book in the ‘A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder’ series but was Holly Jackson’s first book aimed at the adult rather than the YA market. When I saw the premise, I knew I had to try it. The idea is original. The (literal) deadline pressures should keep the storytelling tight. I’m hoping that this is Holly Jackson writing something new for the joy of it.