This week, I got my second Bingo. I also got a little behind schedule by setting aside a Halloween Bingo book too early for me to count it. I had fun with two books and set another two aside. As usual, I found way too many books to buy. I’ve mostly shown restraint by putting them on my wish list but I still bought more than I read.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve read and bought this week and what’s up next.

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The most fun I had this week was in reading a new book from Ilona Andrews Listening to Anthony Horowitz’s version of Watson and Holmes came a close secondl. The other two, I could have lived without.

It is November 1890 and London is gripped by a merciless winter. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are enjoying tea by the fire when an agitated gentleman arrives unannounced at 221b Baker Street. He begs Holmes for help, telling the unnerving story of a scar-faced man with piercing eyes who has stalked him in recent weeks. Intrigued by the man’s tale, Holmes and Watson find themselves swiftly drawn into a series of puzzling and sinister events, stretching from the gas-lit streets of London to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston. As the pair delve deeper into the case, they stumble across a whispered phrase ‘the House of Silk’: a mysterious entity and foe more deadly than any Holmes has encountered, and a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society itself. With devilish plotting and excellent characterisation, bestselling author Anthony Horowitz delivers a first-rate Sherlock Holmes mystery for a modern readership whilst remaining utterly true to the spirit of the original Conan Doyle books. Sherlock Holmes is back with all the nuance, pace and powers of deduction that make him the world’s greatest and most celebrated detective.

If you’re a Holmes fan, I strongly recommend this book to you. It’s an excellent pastiche. Faithful to the characters and spirit of the original books, but with a clever twist of being written by an older Watson, able to reflect on all of Holmes’ cases and how he, Watson, had chosen to write about them. The writing echoes Arthur Conan Doyle’s style and avoids both anachronisms and faux-Victoriana. The book is longer and the plot is darker and more intricate than the original Holmes novels, and deals with themes that resonate more with modern sensibilities. 

I recommend the audiobook version. Derek Jacobi’s narration was excellent.

My review is HERE.

Muriel McAuley has lived in the Scottish fishing village of Witchaven all her life. She was born there, and she intends to die there.
But when an overseas property developer threatens to evict the residents from their homes and raze Witchaven to the ground in the name of progress, all seems lost . . . until the day a mysterious fog bank creeps inland.
THE HAAR
To some it brings redemption . . . to others, it brings only madness and death. What macabre secrets lie within . . .
THE HAAR

I enjoyed the first half of this. Then it degenerated into set pieces of gory, pointless violence wrought on people I didn’t care about. I set it aside at seventy-seven per cent because I didn’t care how it ended.

My review is HERE

We are at war. The interdimensional invasion brought us unimaginable suffering, but it also awoke talents slumbering deep within us, a means to repel and destroy our enemy. Every day new gates open, leading to breaches filled with monsters and valuable resources. If you are a Talent, your country needs you. The world needs you. Be the hero you were born to be.

Adaline is a Talent. Ten years ago, she had a happy marriage and a job she loved. The invasion shattered both. Now she works for the government, searching the breaches for magic metals and medicine to help Earth repel an interdimensional enemy. Two kids, one cat, bills, benefits, mortgage and school tuition…Risking her life became routine.

She had gone into the dimensional gates hundreds of times. She was always well protected. This time everything goes wrong. Now Ada is trapped in the labyrinth of alien caves unlike any other. Her only companion is a scared German Shepherd named Bear. Together they must uncover the breach’s secrets and escape, because Ada promised her children that she will come home.

The future of humanity depends on it.

Ilona Andrews has done it again. ‘The Inheritance’ was a fast, tense read that was also exciting, packed with intriguing puzzles that hooked my curiosity and peppered with vivid action scenes.

I’m in awe at Ilona Andrews’ ability to have a whole new universe in their imagination – with a history of major events, a new magic system, a set of rules around portals and details of multiple alien races, including their conflicts and cultures – and yet the focus remained on the struggle of one woman and her dog to survive.

I also loved that Adeline, the main character, is a single mom who took her job, risking her life going into ‘Gates’ that can let hordes of deadly creatures through to our world, not because she’s a hero but because she wanted the security of good medical benefits and a top school for her kids.

I’m hoping that Ilona Andrews continues with this series soon. I want to see what Adeline does next.

Sebastian Synard doesn’t want any more trouble than he already has. But when he leads a group of tourists along the cliffs of St. John’s harbour, one of them ends up dead. Not only is there a murderer in his tour group, but the cop assigned to the case is sleeping with Sebastian’s ex-wife. It seems like things can’t get any worse, but as he’s enlisted to help flush out the perpetrator, the trail leads deeper than expected, and Sebastian finds himself on the edge.

I set this one aside at 25%. Partly it was the writing, which was too staccato and disjointed for me. Mostly it was because I didn’t like the main character and didn’t want to have him in my head any longer.

My review is HERE

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Ok, another week when I bought more books than I read, but I had good reasons, honest! The Alfred Hitchcock book and the Lee Goldberg book have been on pre-order forever, so they sort of don’t count. The spy book was a steal at £0.99, and how could I resist real 1960s spy stories from a Golden Age crime writer? The author of the Santa Claus book brought it to my attention and I had to have it. The audiobook is a perfect fit for Halloween Bingo, it’s short and it’s told by a dog. What more could I want?

Birds, Strangers and Psychos is a thrilling anthology that brings together the biggest names in mystery and crime fiction to pay homage to Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary filmmaker whose name is synonymous with suspense. Acclaimed editor Maxim Jakubowski curates 24 original short stories, each inspired by the mood, tension, and style that defined Hitchcock’s groundbreaking work. This anthology invites both emerging and established voices to reimagine the chilling atmospheres, twisted plots, and unforgettable characters of Hitchcock’s films, from Psycho and Vertigo to North by Northwest and The Birds.
Each author takes on the challenge of evoking the quintessentially ‘Hitchcockian’ elements that have captivated audiences for decades: ordinary lives interrupted by peril, psychological duels, and unexpected encounters that spiral into nightmares.

Maxim Jakubowski is one of my favourite editors. I like the stories that he picks. He’s been around a long time and knows everyone so he can call on a lot of talent. I loved the premise of getting well-known writers to produce Hitchcockian stories. Some of the authors I know and like: (Lee Child, S.A. Cosby, Peter Swanson, Joe Lansdale, Peter Lovesey, Ragnar Jonasson) some are on my shelves already ( Denise Mina, Sophie Hanna, Kim Newman) and the rest I’m looking forward to discovering.

A fifty-five-gallon drum washes up in the Malibu Lagoon stuffed with the corpse of Gene Dent, the key player in a bribery scandal that ensnared several local politicians. LASD detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone know the case—and all the likely suspects—well. Just as they begin their investigation, the sheriff publicly reveals evidence linking the crime to LA’s mayor.
But Eve and Duncan realize the bombshell allegation, true or not, arises from corruption within the sheriff’s own office…because they helped cover it up years ago. If the sheriff goes down, so will they.
Eve is agonizing over her moral dilemma when a helicopter crashes in the hillside below her Calabasas home. It’s not a coincidence. Eve soon discovers among the twisted wreckage and dead passengers shocking connections to her own past…and they lead straight to a fight for her life.

‘Fallen Star’ is the sixth Eve Ronin book. It’s an automatic buy for me. This is a series that always makes me smile.

All is not what it seems…
In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff—gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.
Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut. And now the dread night approaches—so let the Game begin.

I wish I’d though to add this book earlier. It’s perfect for Halloween. There’s a chapter for each day in October. I’d love to have read a chapter a day this month.

The story is told by Snuff, the Watchdog (who I suspect may previously have been a Hell Hound) and the cast includes, Jack The Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, Victor Frankenstein and Count Dracula. It takes place in London so I’m going to use it for the Urban Decay square on my Halloween Bingo Card.

In a peaceful Kent village, Mr Behrens lives with his aunt at the Old Rectory, where he plays chess and keeps bees. His friend Mr Calder lives nearby with Rasselas, a golden deerhound of unnatural intelligence. No one would suspect that they are in fact working for British Intelligence, carrying out the jobs that are too dangerous for anyone else to handle – whether it’s wiping out traitors, Soviet spies or old Nazis – in these gloriously entertaining stories.

I’ve read the first two stories. They’re grim, made grimmer by the civilised, cultured matter-of-fact tone used by the two retired men they kill for their country. These storues were published in 1967, at the height of the Cold War, but their not about Le Carrés generation of spies. These are the men who preceded them. The one recruited in the mid-1930s. The ones who did things no one is allowed to talk about during World War II. They are not angry or conflicted or guilt-ridden. They are calm, efficient, ruthless and scary.

When a down-on-his-luck shopping mall Santa is abruptly fired just days before Christmas, he decides to unleash holiday hell on the staff who wronged him. As the body count rises, shoppers at Merryvale will soon discover that this Santa’s got a bag full of wicked surprises – and he’s ready to deliver!
The Very Naughty List is a wickedly funny, twisted, blood-soaked yuletide horror.

What would Christmas be without a little blood splatter? I bought this book to make me smile (in a dark, twisted and possibly unhealthy way) on the run up to Christmas. I’ll be doing a Buddy Read from 1st December onwards.

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This week, I’m reading a book in a series that I’ve enjoyed, set in the Adirondack mountains in New York and a debut novel by a Japanese writer known for subverting genre and gender stereotypes.

Two murders, twenty years apart, with eerie similarities: a woman in a party dress murdered with no obvious cause of death. The last known suspect? Russ Van Alstyne, never convicted but never completely cleared either.
Now, decades later, a third young woman is found under similar circumstances. It’s a new case that opens old wounds for Russ, now a police chief himself.
With three crimes spanning generations, and Russ himself under suspicion, the pressure is on for him to solve the murder or risk losing everything he loves.

I read the first book in this series ‘In The Bleak Midwinter‘ in 2018 and knew that I’d found something special. I read the first eight books in the series over the next thirty months. It kept getting better and better, culminating in the eighth book ‘Through The Evil Days‘.

I’d never have thought that I’d get so immersed in a series of books about Clare Fergusson, former army helicopter pilot turned vicar and Russ Van Alstyne, local boy, Vietnam vet and now the local police chief. The mysteries were all good but it was Clare and Russ who kept me coming back.

The first eight books where published between 2002 and 2013. ‘Hid From Our Eyes’, the ninth book. was publishe in 2020. This was mostly explained by the deaths of family and friends that Julia Spencer-Fleming endured in the interim. I bought the book in 2021 but I’ve been reluctant to read it because it was the last one and once I’d read it, I wouldn’t see Clare and Russ again. This week, I saw that the tenth book, ‘At Midnight Comes The Cry‘, will be publshed in November 2025. So now I can finally read ‘Hid From Our Eyes‘. Which is just as well, as it’s a good fit for the Mysterious Mountains Halloween Bingo square.

Fierce, mixed-race fighter Shindo has been kidnapped by the yakuza. After brutally beating most of them in an attempt to escape, she is forced to work as a bodyguard to protect the gang boss’s sheltered daughter Shoko, a strange, friendless eighteen-year-old who could order Shindo’s death in a moment.
At first Shindo derides Shoko’s naïvete, but as the men around them grow ever more bloodthirsty and controlling, she becomes ferociously devoted to her charge. However, she knows that if things continue as they are, neither woman can expect to survive much longer.
But could there ever be a different life for two people like them?

This is a complete roll of the dice. Japanese novels are always a little different from American or European counterparts, even when they’re written in genres that might appear to have a lot in common. This debut novel sets out to shake up Japanese norms so it could get evne stranger. I’m OK with that, as long as the story flies and I can connect with the characters.

I got my second Bingo this week. All the books I’ve read have now had their squares called. All the books I’m reading have had their squares called. Every book I finish next week will generate a Bingo.

Setting a book aside at 25%, so it doesn’t count towards its square, has put me a little behind schedule. I have thirteen days to finish seven books, so there’s a chance I won’t make the Blackout Bingo this year. Still, the books I’m reading and the one coming next are too good to rush, so I’m just going to read at a pace that lets me enjoy them and see where it gets me.

Anyway, here’s thestatus of my card:

Reading: 4, Called: 22, Read: 18, Read and Called: 18, Bingo: 2.