This week, the weather and my reading life improved. I’ve read books that suprised me with how good they were. I have books planned that I’m looking forward to and I’ve kept my book buying focused. I mean, only three books. That’s a lot of restraint on my part.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve read and bought this week and what’s up next.
This was a good reading week. I read and was deeply impressed by my first Patricia Highsmith novel, I had a stimulating intoroduction to the historical fiction of S. J. Parris and I had solid comfort read from Melinad Leigh. I tried a book from Asia Mackay but it turned out not to be a good fit for me.
To everyone around them, Melinda and Vic Van Allen are the perfect couple – young, wealthy and attractive. But when their love sours, their mind games reach a twisted, dangerous climax.
“If I really don’t like somebody, I kill him…. You remember Malcolm McRae, don’t you?”
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.
Wow! I can see why Patricia Wentworth has a reputation for having invented the psychological thriller. ‘Deep Water’ (1957) was dizzyingly strange. It had an almost hallucinogenic feel to it, as if reality was just slightly off. The calm detachment of the main character was as ominous as it was superficial. He constantly narrated his experience, but it always felt like a lie he was telling himself to see how believable it might be. Patricia Highsmith drew a very plausible picture of a man capable of remorse-free, spontaneous murder who, most of the time, presents a kind, calm, generous, and forgiving face to the world. The scariest part about that is that he isn’t really pretending. He is strangely detached from his own life. He lives off inherited wealth, and it seemed to me that he was a dilettante in everything that he did, including being a husband and a father.
Three gripping tales from S. J. Parris.
The Secret Dead
Summer 1556. A girl’s body is found in a Neapolitan monastery. Novice monk Giordano Bruno is determined to uncover what happened, but his investigation could deliver him into the hands of the Inquisition.
The Academy of Secrets
Autumn 1568. An invitation arrives for Giordano Bruno from a secret society of philosophers. Bruno is delighted, but keeping their heretical secrets soon becomes a matter of life or death.
A Christmas Requiem
Winter 1569. Giordano Bruno is summoned by the Pope, who is intrigued by his talent for memory games. But Rome is a den of iniquity, and Bruno will be lucky to escape the Eternal City alive.
S. J. Parris’ seven-book series of 16th Century historical mysteries, built around the real-life figure of Giordano Bruno, an Italian philosopher, poet, alchemist, astronomer, cosmological theorist, and esotericist, has been recommended to me repeatedly, so I decided to sample the series by reading three novellas , written as prequels to the first book, starting when Giordano Bruno first entered the Dominican Order at the monastery of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples in 1566.
Originally published separately, the three novellas are now available in a single volume called ‘The Dead of Winter’. I think they work well together. Giordano Bruno developed over the course of the three novellas, and my picture of the world he lived in grew progressively darker.
I’m now keen to read the Giordano Bruno novels so I can see how he fares in the court of Elizabeth I.
My review of the three novellas is HERE
Twenty-seven years ago, Sheriff Bree Taggert’s father killed her mother, then himself. Now Bree and her younger brother, Adam, find human bones on the grounds of their abandoned family farm. The remains are those of a man and a woman, both murdered in the same horrible way.
When the investigation determines the murders occurred thirty years ago, Bree’s dead father becomes a suspect, forcing Bree to revisit the brutal night she’s spent most of her life trying to forget. The only other suspect is an unlikely squatter on the Taggert farm who claims to know secrets about Bree’s past. When he mysteriously disappears and Bree’s niece is kidnapped, the cold case heats up.
Bree has stoked the rage of a murderer who’ll do anything to keep his identity – and motives – a secret. To protect everyone she loves, Bree must confront a killer
To my surprise, the Bree Taggert series has become a comfort read for me. The mysteries are solid but not startling. The emotional content is delivered with all the subtlety of a flashing neon light. And yet, I keep coming back. Partly it’s because the action scenes are well done and there’s just enough tension to keep me turning the pages without getting stressed out. I think it’s mostly because Melinda Leigh delivers stories in which very bad things are done to nice people by violent men with no redeeming characteristics, but it never becomes a gorefest because she balances all of that with moments of decency, kindness, friendship, family, and hope. ‘Right Behind Her’ is full of bad men doing awful things. For the most part, it’s the women and the girls who hold them to account and do their best to repair the damage. I find it easy to cheer for that.
t’s Lex’s first day back at work after maternity leave. She worries about the separation from her daughter as she leaves her with the nanny – but it’s normal to worry, right? But Lex isn’t a ‘normal’ mother. She’s an elite-trained killer who works for a covert department within Her Majesty’s Secret Service. She’s just been given the assignment of her life, but can she juggle motherhood with the life of an assassin?
I liked the idea behind this book. At least, I thought I did, until I started to read it. My first problem was that Lex really was a stone-cold killer. She has no qualms about torturing or executing anyone her bosses tell her needs to be dealt with. I mean, I knew that was her job, I just didn’t expect her to be so blasé about it. The second problem was that the humour didn’t work for me. All the right material was there, but it felt as if it was trying too hard. The third problem was that the storyline demanded too much suspension of disbelief. No one walks into the Russian Embassy in London with a fake party invitation, breaks into the server room, steals data and then blaggs their way past a security agent when found in a forbidden area. About a third of the way in, I accepted I wasn’t getting traction with the book and set it aside.
This week, I bought a Dorothy Sayers book that’s on the reading list for a golden-age mystery group I’m part of, a thriller set in the Bayou that I read a good review of and a slightly quirky thriller that I stumbled upon on BookBub.
The story begins with the discovery of a body in a bathtub in a London boarding house. The body is that of a well-known financier, but it is found without any identification or apparent motive for the murder.
Lord Peter Wimsey, intrigued by the case, takes on the investigation himself. He is drawn into a web of intrigue involving the victim’s associates, the enigmatic circumstances of the murder, and the underlying motives of those connected to the deceased. As Wimsey delves deeper into the case, he uncovers a series of clues and red herrings that lead him closer to the truth.
‘Whose Body?’ (1923) is the first Lord Peter Wimsey book. I tried it a few years ago and abandoned it because the narration on the audiobook was so out of sympathy with the text. I’m ready to try it again with a more recently recorded audiobook.
Macy and Ethan built their careers pursuing the unknown, turning their YouTube channel, Ghost Patrol, into a viral sensation as they investigated the paranormal. But when they wade into the murky depths of the Louisiana bayou—looking into the disappearances of two local women—alongside team members Tasha and Max, their latest case takes a lethal turn.
What begins as a routine hunt for answers quickly spirals into something far more sinister. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Secrets surface where none should exist. And when Macy stumbles upon a horrifying truth, she realizes they were never just chasing a story; they were lured here for a reason. As the swamp closes in and the line between hunter and hunted blurs, one thing becomes terrifyingly clear: some secrets are better left buried.
I picked up ‘The Swamps’ (2026) because it got a good review from a reviewer I trust (thanks, Leah), and Brittany Pressley is one of the narrators. Also, the idea of people running a YouTube channel getting into trouble they can’t handle makes me smile.
Siriwathi Perera doesn’t quite know where she’s going in life. She never expected to be a taxicab driver in New York City, struggling to make ends meet and still living with her parents at twenty-eight. The true-crime podcasts that keep Siri company as she drives don’t do much to make up for the legal career she imagined for herself, or the brother she’s grieving.
When public defender Amaya Fernando gets into her cab, they make a quick connection through their shared Sri Lankan roots. Siri, whose social circle is limited to her grade-school best friend, Alex, thinks things might finally be looking up with this new potential friendship. But she’s suddenly dropped into her own true crime when she discovers her next passenger murdered in the backseat, and she has to call Amaya sooner than she’d expected.
Pinned as the obvious and only suspect, and desperate to clear her name, Siri chases down leads across the boroughs of New York City with Amaya’s help. But with her court date looming, they have just five days to find out who really killed the midnight passenger—or Siri’s life will be over before she can even truly live it.
‘Midnight Taxi’ (2026) is a roll of the dice. I’m hoping for a slightly quirky mystery enhanced by being told by a protagonist from a culture I know almost nothing about.
For my next reads, I’ve picked two golden-gae mysteries, a young adult speculative fiction thriller and a young adult coming of age story.
Sixteen-year-old Frankie Budge—aspiring writer, indifferent student, offbeat loner—is determined to make it through yet another sad summer in Coalfield, Tennessee, when she meets Zeke, a talented artist who is as lonely and awkward as she is.
As romantic and creative sparks begin to fly, Frankie and Zeke make an unsigned poster that becomes unforgettable to anyone who sees it. Copies of their work are everywhere in town, and rumours start to fly about who might be behind the ubiquitous posters: Satanists? Kidnappers? Soon, the mystery has dangerous repercussions that spread further afield, and the art that brought Frankie and Zeke together now threatens to tear them apart.
Twenty years later, Frances Eleanor Budge—famous author, mother to a wonderful daughter, wife to a loving husband—gets a call that threatens to upend everything: a journalist asks if Frances might know something about the Coalfield Panic of 1996. Could Frances’ past destroy the life she has so carefully built?
‘Now Is Not The Time To Panic’ (2022) has been on my shelves for a couple of years so I decided it was time to try it or let it go. I think a lot is going to depend on how much of this book is romance and how much is people coping with chaos and all the unexpected and unwelcome things that life throws at them.
A strange house A ghost from the past
As soon as she moves into Hillside, Gwenda knows there’s something strange about this house.
A sealed room. A hidden door. The apparition of a young woman being strangled.
But strangest of all – this all seems quite familiar.
As her friend Jane Marple investigates, the answer seems to lie in a crime committed nearly twenty years ago.
The killer may have gotten away with murder. But Miss Marple is never far behind.
I’m part of a group that, for the past five years. has been reading Agatha Christie’s novels at the rate of one a month in the order that they were published. ‘Sleeping Murder’ (1976) was the last novel that Christie published. It’s also the final Jane Marple novel. One odd thing about it is that it was written some time in the 1940s and then locked away to be published on Agatha Christie’s death. I’m looking forward to this one, but I’m also sad that it’s the last.
Wren Connolly died five years ago, only to Reboot after 178 minutes. Now she is one of the deadliest Reboots around . . . unlike her newest trainee, Callum 22, who is practically still human. As Wren tries to teach Callum how to be a soldier, his hopeful smile works its way past her defenses. Unfortunately, Callum’s big heart also makes him a liability, and Wren is ordered to eliminate him. To save Callum, Wren will have to risk it all.
I was very impressed with Amy Tintera’s most recent novel ‘Listen For The Lie’(2024) so I picked up ‘Reboot’ (2013) from her back catalogue. It’s a clever twist on the zombie plague theme. This time, the zombies are the good guys. I’ve already started it. It fast, original, and propulsive. I’m sure I’ll be reading the sequel ‘Rebel’ 82014) soon.
Four years after she arrived in Los Angeles, Kitten Agnew has become a star. Though beautiful and talented, she’d be nowhere without Vivien Spender, Hollywood’s most acclaimed director – and its most dangerous. But Kitten knew what she was getting into when she got involved with him; she had heard the stories of Viv’s past discoveries. Once he discarded them, they ended up in a chorus line, a sanatorium, or worse. She knows enough of his secrets that he wouldn’t dare destroy her career – but he may be willing to kill her.
On a train from Los Angeles to Chicago, Kitten learns that Viv is planning to offer her roommate a part that was meant for her. If she lets him betray her, her career will be over. But fight for the part and she will be fighting for her life as well.
‘Dire Journey’ (1945) is an American Golden-Age Mystery that’s very different in tone and in the nature of the world it’s describing, from anything by Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers. I like that it takes the sleaze of Hollywood and bottles it up an a train that will take three days to get from Los Angetles to New York. That’s an extended locked room mystery with a lot of tension built in.
Mike Finn's Fiction 