Happy New Year, everyone.

2026. 

I can’t quite believe that’s the year. 

It used to be a date in my Science Fiction books, and now it’s here, and so am I. It takes a bit of getting used to.

As far as books are concerned, anything I bought before 1st January 2025 now becomes part of my TBR pile, which, at nearly 1,900 books, is substantial. 

I read 133 of the books I bought in 2025, but at the end of the year, I still had 118 books that I bought in 2025 that I haven’t started yet. So, I have lots of good reading ahead of me. 

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

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It was a laid-back week, with two long car journeys that we used to listen to audibooks in. I spent my reading time in the company of a dog trainer turned PI and her faithufl Pit Bull, a Slayer who suffers from crippling anxiety in social situations and a Canadian police officer solving crimes in her small town in the mountains of British Columbia.

Fifteen years ago a young girl named Moonlight Smith went to her best friend Nicky Nowak’s house for a sleepover. Moonlight joined the family for breakfast the following morning and was then picked up by her mother. Shortly after, Mr. Nowak went for a walk. He was never seen again.
Autumn has arrived on the mountains above Trafalgar, B.C. and Constable Molly “Moonlight” Smith is cuddled by the fireplace with Adam Tocek of the RCMP when Tocek and his dog Norman are called to a wilderness camping ground to join the search for a little boy who sneaked away from his family looking for bears. The child is found, dirty, terrified, weeping, but unharmed. Then the inquisitive Norman digs up something else: human bones.
The ID isn’t positive, but it is enough to have Sergeant John Winters of the Trafalgar City Police re-open the Brian Nowak investigation. He finds a family shattered beyond recognition. Mrs. Nowak is an empty shell of a woman, dressed in pajamas, never leaving the house. Her son Kyle haunts the streets of Trafalgar at night and spends his days creating beautiful, but highly troubling, art. Nicky Nowak lives in Vancouver and has grown up to be gorgeous, charming, and elegant. Yet behind that façade lies a woman whose heart has closed so tightly against human relationships that she comes to Trafalgar trailing in her wake a terrifying threat to another innocent family….

This was my third visit with Constable Molly Smith and it was as relaxing as I expected it to be. Some of the topics were harder-edged than I’d expected, adding prostitution and drug addiction to the expected murder mystery. Even so, the book felt more like an episode in a soap opera than a police procedural. Fortunately, the people were and the mystery had enough twists to keep me interested. It was an acceptable comfort read.

The path to enlightenment is fraught with danger when Greenwich Village PI Rachel Alexander and her pit bull, Dash, investigate the death of a tai chi practitioner
Did she jump or was she pushed? Devastated by the loss of their only child, David and Marsha Jacobs hire Rachel to find out why Lisa leaped to her death from the fifth-floor window of her martial arts studio. The tai chi instructor, who was studying to be a Zen Buddhist priest, seemed to have it all: beauty, brains, a vocation she adored, a sexy lover—and her beautiful, sad-eyed Akita, who may have been the only witness to her death and is still grieving the loss of his mistress.
Refusing to believe that Lisa would abandon her beloved pet—and with only a suspicious suicide note to go on—Rachel and her canine assistant, Dash, hit the streets of downtown New York, retracing the dead woman’s steps to figure out whether she was yin to a killer’s yang.

I read and enjoyed the first Rachel Alexander and Dash Mystery, ‘This Dog For Hire’(1996) six years ago. I’d meant to carry on with the series, but for some obscure reason, the rest of the series wasn’t available in the UK as an audiobook. I picked up ‘The Dog Who Knew Too Much‘ (1997) when it was released in the UK as an audiobook in 2025. I’m glad I did. It was great entertainment. Dina Pearlman was the perfect narrator for this, and she performed it with gusto.

Although this might appear to be a cosy mystery (Cute title, dog trainer turned unlicensed PI as the heroine, Pit Bull called Dashiell as her ‘partner’), ‘The Dog Who Knew Too Much‘ doesn’t set out to amuse or even to make the reader comfortable. The death at the centre of the story is a tragedy for everybody touched by it. Their grief, guilt and anger are real and powerful. The people in the story are vividly drawn. The practice of Tai Chi was so well described that it made me want to seek out a class so I could learn to slip into that disciplined meditation on motion. What I liked most about the book was the journey it took Rachel on. She chooses to investigate the death by literally living in the dead woman’s shoes. She lives in her condo, wears her clothes and attends her Tai Xhi studio. As she does this, she reflects on her own experience of grief, loss and betrayal. I learned as much about Rachel as I did about the people she was investigating. The mystery was a good one, but it’s the people whom I’ll remember. 

Someone is killing off the great dog trainers of the world—and it’s up to PI Rachel Alexander and her pit bull, Dash, to collar the murderer

Rachel has just been hired as undercover security at a dog-training symposium at a posh Manhattan hotel. How can the Greenwich Village PI and her pit bull, Dashiell, turn down the hefty fee, plus free room and biscuits at the Ritz? All Rachel has to do is keep the peace among the competitive diva dog trainers who have come with their prize pooches from all corners of the globe.

She and Dash have barely infiltrated the festivities when they find out that one of the trainers, the self-proclaimed guru of a controversial obedience technique, has been electrocuted in his bathtub. The cops are calling it an accident. Until another trainer dies . . . and then another. With suspects including a dog psychic and a behaviorist to the stars, Rachel discovers that it’s the humans who need to be housebroken as she and Dash bring a serial killer to heel.

My wife and I listened to ‘The Dog Who Knew Too Much‘ on our long post-Christmas drive north to family. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to listen to the next book, ‘A Hell Of A Dog‘ (1998), on the way back home. We didn’t manage to finish it, so we listened to it together on our first evening at home. 

This was also fun but very different from the previous book. This one was a book about dog people and their dogs. It was a murder mystery with a pool of a dozen suspects/potential victims, with people being picked off one by one in ways that seem accidental. Rachel’s job is to figure out if the deaths are really murders and, if so, who the murderer is. Carol Lea Benjamin was a professional dog trainer and has published half a dozen books designed to help novices train their dogs. Her knowledge of dogs and the dog world shines through, grounding this book firmly in reality. 

The dog people are larger-than-life individuals who are strong on self-promotion, passionate about their own dog training method, and dismissive of everyone else’s. They argue endlessly, drink to excess, and see their stay in a conference hotel as unleashing them from their marriage vows. It makes for an entertaining mystery.

By night, they fight in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse. 
By day, they are friendly next-door neighbors. 
Neither of them know that their alter egos are archenemies. 

‘The Lies Of Vampires and Slayers‘ (2023) was exactly what I’d hoped it would be: light, fast fun, packed with action, seasoned with a little bit of angst and a sprinkling of snark. I loved that the young slayer, away from her slayer family for the first time, is seen by her peers as an intimidatingly good fighter but sees herself as an outsider of average skill with a lot to prove. She also suffers from cripplinng anxiety in social situations. The only neighbour she can talk to without sweating is the vampire who has just moved in next door. Vampires, she knows how to deal with. 

A lot of the fun comes from the fact that both slayer and vampire are hiding their true identities, so neither realises that, by night, they are regularly in conflict with one another. 

The action scenes work. The monsters are creative and intimidating. The magic systems are engaging. The mystery wasn’t complicated, but it kept the plot moving.

I’ll be back for the next book in the trilogy

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This weekI bought two audiobooks that continue series that I’m enjoying and three ebooks, offered up at an irresistible £0.99 each.

A talking cat accused of murder. A magical carnival with sinister secrets. And a sleuth who’s running out of time.
When a traveling carnival arrives in Hollowbeck, it promises magic and mayhem. It’s also an opportunity for Morgan to find someone who can transform her brother, Ruiner, back into a human—he’s a little tired of being a talking cat, and she’s a little tired of cleaning his litter box.
Things look promising until the curtains rise on rehearsal night to reveal Ruiner sitting on the lifeless body of the wizard who promised to help him.
Ruiner swears he’s innocent, but that doesn’t stop the carnival boss from seizing him. He’ll be tried under carnival law. If found guilty, he faces certain death—and it’s not like it’s going to be a fair trial.
Morgan can’t lose her brother, but she can’t do anything from the outside, either. Her only hope is to infiltrate the carnival and find the real murderer before it’s too late.

‘One Smart Witch‘(2024) is the second Hollowbeck Paranormal Cozy Mystery.. I’m hoping it’s going to be as much fun as ‘Witch Slap‘.

COZY MYSTERIES JUST GOT TOUGHER.
A man in hiding. A gang of outlaws searching for retribution. This is no time for cupcakes.
Today is Brody Steele’s first day as the new owner of The Red Herring, Pleasant Valley, Maine’s only mystery bookstore. The cute shop has a loyal customer base as well as an ornery cat.
Unfortunately, Brody doesn’t know the first thing about running a legitimate business, he doesn’t want to be in the small town, and he hates cats. On top of all that, he hasn’t read a book since high school.
When a woman walks into the store, he thinks his bad luck is about to change. But as she starts asking about the previous owner’s whereabouts, his safe new existence begins to unravel.
For Brody Steele is a man with a secret he must protect at all costs. The U.S. Government has invested a lot to keep it hidden, and his enemies will stop at nothing to expose him.
Does happiness or death await Brody in this charming seaside community?

I’d never heard of this series until it was offered on sale. I like that it’s set up like a typical cosy mystery: small town in Maine, bookshop owner, bookshop cat, but the bookshop owner is actually a hardened criminal in hiding, and he’s never read any of the books in his new shop. I also like that it started with a quote from Spike Milligan: “I’m not afraid of dying. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” 

From the world’s number one thriller writer, twenty pulse-pounding short stories are collected for the first time in one edition, complete with an introduction from the author.

Here are twenty meticulously plotted, intimate portraits of humanity at its best and worst, featuring assassins, CIA agents, gangsters, and more. A drug-dealing hit man unburdens his fears to a stranger. An overlooked rookie cop is assigned to the department’s file room. A ruthless killer only kills bad guys. A methodical bodyguard quits his job when he’s outsmarted. A military mission is planned to perfection…

I always wondered what Lee Child’s writing would be like if he wasn’t writing a book where the phrase “Reacher said nothing.” has to appear at least one in every five pages. Now I get to find out.

Charlotte Emory has always lived a quiet, conventional life in Clarion, Maryland. She lives as simply as possible, and one day decides to simplify everything and leave her husband. Her last trip to the bank throws Charlotte’s life into an entirely different direction when a restless young man in a nylon jacket takes her hostage during the robbery–and soon the two are heading south into an unknown future, and a most unexpected fate….

An early Anne Tyler book that I’ve never read. Adapted as a made for a 1999 TV movie starring Susan Sarandon and Stephen Dorff. How could I resist?

At night they’re enemies. During the day they’re friends. Only one of them is aware of this…

I’m hoping this will be as much fun as ‘The Lies of Vampires and Slayers‘.

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This week’s reading has books from two reading challenges, a return to a fun Women Who Kill series and the first book in a series that’s a roll of the dice.

When your boss is at a conference in a city where there’s a suspicious death, it’s unlucky.
If it happens twice, it’s odd.
But when she’s in the same city at the same time as a third unexplained death . . .
Could she be a stone-cold killer?
Millie’s always known her boss Freya is a psycho – the demanding and ever-changing coffee orders, the cryptic instructions, the apparently expected mind reading and don’t even start on the insistence that Millie wears heels . . . All. The. Time.
But it only extends as far as exacting office standards. Right?
As Freya’s assistant, Millie has privileged access to her diary and travel history and when a pattern emerges of men (who seem to have no connection to each other) dying in cities where Freya is travelling, Millie is determined to figure out what’s going on.
After all, a stone-cold killer could be exactly what Millie needs . . .

I read and enjoyed ‘How To Slay At Christmas’ a little while ago so I’m going back to the first book in the series in search of more smiles.

‘Salem’s Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets and solid church steeples. Of course there are tales of strange happenings – but no more than in any other such town.
Ben Mears has returned to the Lot to write a novel and exorcise the terrors that have haunted him since childhood – since the event he witnessed at the Marsten House.
He finds the house has been rented by a newcomer, a man who causes Ben some unease. And then things start to happen: a child disappears, a dog is brutally killed – nothing unusual, except the list keeps growing…

This is the first of the twelve books in my 2026 Stephen King Reading Challenge. It’s Stephen King’s second novel. It’s an American vampire novel, set in rural Maine. It was published before vampire books became fashionable agaun – six months before Anne Rice’s ‘Interview With The Vampire‘, Three years ahead of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s ‘Hôtel Transylvania‘ and four years beforeJohn Badham’s star-stidded‘Dracula’ movie with Frank Langella as Dracula, Laurence Olivier as Van Helsing, Trever Eve as Harker. Jan Francis as Mina, and Kate Nelligan as Lucy). It should be fun.

For years, Bear Logan served alongside Jack Noble. A top hitman. A top operator. When his chance at a simpler life came, he took it. But freedom is meant for the free, and that’s a luxury Bear might never have.
Bear Logan escaped a life of espionage, severing ties with all but his adopted teen daughter, Mandy. But Mandy isn’t a regular teen. Her family dead or estranged, raised with Bear and Jack Noble. She knows how to survive.
Relocated to a sleepy town in upstate New York, Bear and Mandy try to blend in. But when Bear unearths human remains in their backyard, unwanted attention is soon thrust upon him.
Working with the local sheriff, Josephine McKinnon, they discover there’s more going on in the town than anyone realized. A long history of families falling sick and dying plagues the area. As the mystery unfolds, Bear, Mandy, and McKinnon find themselves in the middle of a decades old conspiracy and cover up. And Bear is their number one target.
Now, facing a corporate giant trying to correct the sins of its past, Bear must step out of the shadows to deliver justice for the town, even if it means his life.

This could be something or nothing. If it works, then I’ll read the next two books.

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford have just become the proud owners of an old house in an English village. Along with the property, they have inherited some worthless bric-a-brac, including a collection of antique books. While rustling through a copy of The Black Arrow, Tuppence comes upon a series of apparently random underlinings.
However, when she writes down the letters, they spell out a very disturbing message:
M a r y – J o r d a n – d i d – n o t – d i e – n a t u r a l l y…

This is the last Tommy and Tuppence book. The reviews are not encouraging but it’s the book where Christie says goodbye to these characacters that she’d known for fifty years so I want to see how she handles it.