For the second week in a row, I’m posting this Saturday Summary very early on Sunday morning my time. We’ve been away for the past couple of days, doing a little celebrating, so I’m in catch up mode.

I had a good reading week and I’ve come up with an interesting theme for next week’s reading.

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

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This week, I had one disappointing read, one surprisingly good read, and two continuations of series that kept me entertained. 

Rachel and Dash have a new client. Well, three new clients. A trio of transvestite working girls want Rachel to investigate the death of one of their own. Rosalinda’s throat was slashed on Halloween right after the Greenwich Village parade. Finding her killer isn’t exactly the NYPD’s top priority—and LaDonna, Chi Chi, and Jasmine are terrified that they’ll be next.
With her cash retainer in hand—and very few leads—Rachel starts digging. What is the connection between Rosalinda and a dead butcher? Soon, with the help of Chi Chi’s mini-dachshund, Clint, Rachel is breaking into a plant in the Meatpacking District. But her future is suddenly on the line when she sets herself up as bait to catch the killer. As Rachel follows a twisting trail with only Dash for protection, she discovers that her foray into “the life” could end with her own untimely death.

‘The Long Good Boy‘ was disappointing, depressing, dismal novel that tried and failed to make Rachel Alexander into the kind of detective who can be effective at solving murders amongst the transgender prostitutes and organised crime, covert drugs supply chains of Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The violently abusive environment was displayed in all its despair and pain, but Rachel was as out of place there as a hog roast at a Bar Mitzvah. I believed the environment. I didn’t believe in her ability to survive it.

My review is HERE

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?

‘Cozy Up To Death‘ was a delightful surprise. It was fun from the first page to the last. A cozy mystery with attitude. It made me smile and kept me guessing. I’ll be back for more.

My review is HERE

Raymond Bannister is a wealthy man living a secure life, but the day that he receives a single slipper in an envelope his world falls apart. He seeks out a place in the bad part of town – is he looking for his own demise? He is found slashed down in a dirty alleyway. The crime and the crime scene are inexplicable to Lestrade, and he seeks the help of his new consultant detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
This beginning will lead us back in time, to India, and it will lead us to the strange origin of a group of children that call themselves the Irregulars. Is the answer to this case also the answer to the big question – who is Sherlock Holmes?
Meanwhile the emotions between Missy Hudson and John Watson are stirring, as a certain Mary Morstan seeks the help of Sherlock.
A mysterious and cruel new player has entered the London underworld, his signature is just the letter

‘Becoming Sherlock: The Irregulars’ was the second book in the trilogy that started with ‘Becoming Sherlock: The Red Circle‘. The start didn’t seem as tightly written as the first book, but after the first couple of chapters, it picked up, and I became engaged with the story. I liked that, while The Irregulars were children, they were nothing like The Irregulars in the Conan Doyle novels. These Irregulars are clever, scary, lethal, and closely linked to Sherlock’s own obscured by amnesia origins. This was an original tale that had the flavours of a Conan Doyle story but with a new and challenging context. The near-future London of this story is as relatable and as alien as Doyle’s London. I liked how the story arc and the main characters developed. I’m looking forward to the big reveal in the final book.

Who’s got time to think about murder when there’s a wedding to plan?
It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles, and Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favourite criminal.
But when Elizabeth meets a wedding guest who fears for their life, the thrill of the chase is ignited once again. A villain wants access to an uncrackable code, and will stop at nothing to get it. Plunged back into their most explosive investigation yet, can the gang solve the puzzle and a murder in time?

In ‘The Impossible Fortune‘, Richard Osman has managed to combine a complicated, intriguing plot with wonderful moments of humour and pathos in the lives of the members of The Thursday Murder Club and their loved ones. I liked that all four of the main characters had a significant role to play in solving the mystery. I was as engaged in the dynamics of the relationship between Joyce and her daughter as I was with solving the mystery. While Joyce’s journal entries remained my favourite part of the book, I was also impressed by how well the interactions between the main players were described nd how realistic the dialogue was. I felt the end ran a little long. Perhaps not every thread of the story needed to be neatly tied up at the end.

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This week, I’ve been stockpiling mysteries of different flavours. I bought two contemporary cozy mysteries and two books from Twentieth Century series.

Meet Rona Parish, a feisty biographer with a talent for digging up murder and mystery wherever she goes — and Gus, the golden retriever, nipping loyally at her heels!
Rona jumps at the chance to write about Theo Harvey, a famous author who drowned in stranger-than-fiction circumstances. But is she diving head-long into danger?
Six months ago, Harvey was found floating face-down in a peaceful stream. Not far from the quaint little cottage where he penned his bestsellers.
His drowning is a puzzle the police can’t solve. So now Rona’s on the case — ready to dig deep to find the answers Harvey’s grieving widow craves.
But someone out there doesn’t appreciate her snooping.
It’s not long before Rona finds a sinister note tucked into her golden retriever’s collar, warning her to drop the project while she still can . . .

This may or may not work. I like the idea and the setting. I particularly like the unusual relationship between the husband and wife. Plus, there’s a dog on the cover. I’m hoping it’s not too twee and that I’ll want to read more books in this series.

Today is Owen Hunter’s first day in the coastal city of Costa Buena, California. He’s the new owner of Rockafellers, a vintage record store struggling to find customers. Much of that is due to Headbangers, a competitor with a better product mix and an aggressive owner.
There is also a local do-gooder group who wants Owen to fall in line with their vision for a kinder, gentler Costa Buena.
None of that worries Owen, though, because he is determined to be the number one used-music store on the boardwalk—even if that means stepping on a few toes. But when a murder occurs shortly after his arrival, he’s identified as prime suspect number one.
Owen Hunter must clear his name fast because he can’t afford to have a bunch of nosy cops poking around.
For Owen is a man with a secret that he must protect at all costs. The U.S. government has invested a lot to keep him safe, but his enemies will stop at nothing to find him.
Do prosperity and happiness await Owen in this coastal community?

I had a great time with the first book in this series ‘Cozy Up To Death’, so I’m keen to see how our hero fairs now that he’s move from Maine to California.

Introducing Bernie Rhodenbarr, sometimes burglar, sometimes sleuth. Pulling only an occasional, very discreet job, Bernie manages to maintain his comfortable New York City apartment and keep his unorthodox vocation a closely-guarded secret.
Every burglar knows never to trust anonymous phone calls. But when the caller offers easy money for an hour’s work, Bernie can’t ignore the job. All he has to do is find a blue box in an empty apartment. But the valuable box is nowhere to be found. The occupant is, however – and he’s dead. Suddenly Bernie finds himself the object of a massive man hunt, wanted for both theft and murder.

‘Burglars Can’t Be Choosers‘ is the first of twelve Bernie Rhodenbarr novels that Lawrence Block published between 1977 and 2022. I came across the series because it was mentioned in ‘Cozy Up To Death‘,, a novel set in a bookstore specialsing in mystery novels. It sounds like a fun series. If the humour works for me, this series could become a comfort read.

The British-based Anglo-Lassertan Mineral Company finds itself in hot water when one of its engineers, Alan Ottershaw, hits and kills a pedestrian while driving in a foreign country—a nation that happens to be “on the sunny side of the Iron Curtain,” with thick veins of the strategically important mineral querremitte. This particular country has draconian laws about killings, so Ottershaw is relieved when he’s whisked back to Calleshire before the foreign police can throw him in jail. But now that the Lassertan government is threatening to strip the mining company of its most valuable contract, poor Mr. Ottershaw begins to worry about his safety—and when he dies suddenly in a war reenactment, it looks like a very convenient solution to everyone’s problem.
A little too convenient, if you ask Calleshire detective C. D. Sloan, who, along with his bumbling sidekick, Constable Crosby, must investigate the death. It seems that nearly everyone in town would prefer to forget that the Lassertan debacle ever happened—but why has a man been following around the Calleshire MP dressed as the Grim Reaper? Who has been sending death threats and live scorpions via post? Detective Sloan is on the case.

I’ve read five of Catherine Aird’s books featuring Calleshire detective C. D Sloan, ‘The Religious Body‘(1966) ‘Henrietta Who?‘ (1968), ‘The Complete Steel‘ (1969) ‘A Late Pheonix (1970)’ and ‘Parting Breath’ (1977). For me, they’ve been relaxing reads that combine decent mysteries with snapshots of a Twentieth Century England that has long disappeared. There are twenty-nine books in the series, eleven of which were published in this century. I’m picking them up whenever I see them offered at a reduced price. I got the Kindle version of ‘The Body Politic‘ (1990) for £0.99.

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I decided to mark my birthday this week by reading three books that were first published in the year I was born: 1957. I’ve read Robert Heinlein and Daphne Du Maurier before. Patricia Highsmith is new to me, although I’ve got a few of her books on myy shelves..

When Dan Davis is crossed in love and stabbed in the back by his business associates, the immediate future doesn’t look too bright for him and Pete, his independent-minded tomcat. Suddenly, the lure of suspended animation, the Long Sleep, becomes irresistible and Dan wakes up 30 years later in the 21st century, a time very much to his liking.

The discovery that the robot household appliances he invented have been mass produced is no surprise, but the realization that, far from having been stolen from him, they have, mysteriously, been patented in his name is. There’s only one thing for it. Dan somehow has to travel back in time to investigate.

He may even find Pete … and the girl he really loves.

Robert Heinlein was awarded the first SFWA Grand Master Nebula Award in 1975, at the age of sixty-eight, thirty-seven years after his first book was published. He was one of the writers who shaped the Science Fiction genre. He’s also a writer about whom I have very mixed feelings. 

His children’s Science Fiction novel ‘Citizen of the Galaxy‘, also published in 1957, was part of my introduction to Science Fiction when I was ten years old. My favourite novel of his, ‘Stranger In A Strange Land‘ (1961), made it to my list of 25 Essential Books back in 2019. 

I can see both sides of the debate on whether ‘Starship Troopers‘ (1959) is advocating militarism, perhaps even Fascism, and I can understand the complaint that Jubal in ‘Stranger In A Strange Land‘ reads today as a classic Dirty Old Man. 

Where I parted company with him was when I read ‘Farnham’s Freehold‘ (1964). I know that its defenders say it is intended to hold up a mirror to racism, but I couldn’t stick with a story which Wikipedia summarises part of the plot as “A decadent but technologically advanced black culture keeps either uneducated or castrated white people as slaves. Sexual slavery and cannibalism are widespread and generally accepted. Adolescent girls are sexually exploited as “bedwarmers” by their owners. Other children are bred on ranches for consumption and slaughtered during puberty (when their flesh is considered particularly tasty) or sometimes earlier.” 

The next book I set aside was ‘Time Enough For Love‘ (1973). It was shortlisted for Nebula, Hugo and Locus awards for best science fiction novel, so I was surprised to find that it was an extended exploration of incest as an optimal breeding strategy. 

I’ve never read ‘The Door Into Summer‘. It has a reputation for having great ideas but is criticised for poor character development and an over-dependence on editorialisation. I’m going to give it a go. I’m expecting something flippant but well-constructed. It’s always possible that I may not make it all the way through this one. 

Melinda Van Allen is beautiful, headstrong and sexy. Unfortunately for Vic Van Allen, she is his wife. Their love has soured, and Melinda takes pleasure in flaunting her many affairs to her husband. When one of her lovers is murdered, Vic hints to her latest conquest that he was responsible. As rumours spread about Vic’s vicious streak, fiction and reality start to converge. It’s only a matter of time before Vic really does have blood on his hands.

It seems to me that Patricia Highsmith has had as much impact on psychological thrillers as Agatha Christie did on mysteries. ‘Deep Water‘ isn’t as well known as ‘The Talented Mr Ripley‘ (1955) or ‘Strangers on a Train’ (1950), but to me, the premise sounds very modern. In 2022, it was made into a movie starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas . 

By chance, two men—one English, the other French—meet in a provincial railway station. Their resemblance is uncanny, and they spend the evening talking and drinking. It is not until John wakes the next morning that he realises his French companion has stolen his identity and disappeared. So John steps into the Frenchman’s shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles—as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing.

This will be my first Du Maurier novel. Up untill now, I’ve only read her short stories. I like her ability to be accessible and entertaining while aslo being thought-provoking. I’m hoping that this will be a good dark thriller that has interesting things to say about identity and the potentially corrupting freedom that comes from choosing to be someone new.

‘The Scapegoat’ has been adapted to become a movie twice, once in 1959 starring Alec Guinnessand Bette Davis,and once in 2012 starring Matthew Rhys.