And the last batch for now!

 

This should be me up to date for now!

Laura Shepherd-Robinson, The Art of a Lie: One of the shortlist for the CWA Historical Dagger, this is set in Georgian London and concerns a recently widowed confectioner and Henry Fielding’s investigation into her husband’s murder. When a handsome gentleman comes into her shop and introduces her to the concept of iced cream, her life changes radically – he offers to help her reclaim money she did not even know her husband had, which will help her save her threatened business. And I don’t know what else I can say without giving away too much of this very clever switchback of a plot that really had me on the edge of my seat, wondering what would come crashing to the ground first. There are a few slightly anachronistic phrases which made me stop, but otherwise this is an excellent read.

 

Fflur Dafydd, The Library Suicides: Quite an odd but enjoyable book set mostly in what I suspect is intended to be the National Library of Wales, in an alternative future where paper is banned as something that carries germs after the great pandemic. A fire is said to have destroyed most of the historical books in the library, too. Ana and Nan, identical twins, work in the library but the focus of their life is to take revenge on a poet and critic, Eben, whose harsh reviews (on behalf of the Smotherhood) caused their mother, a very successful writer, to commit suicide. As part of their plan, they trick a new security guard, Dan, into helping them, which he does in part by hacking into the security camera system to play old footage instead of what is actually happening. But this illusion is only one of many: nothing and no one is quite what it seems in this clever satire on all kinds of attitudes in society today.

Cecilia Peartree, The Way to Icy Death: A long-standing character in this delightful mystery series lies dead in the ice, and another familiar person is suspected. This is a classic whodunnit set in the gloriously eccentric Pitkirtly community with all its weird characters – lovely comfortable reading with lots of laughs.

Helen Harper, Gifted Thief: An alternative reality fantasy set in Scotland. Our narrator is the last representative of the hated Clan Adair, one of the ruling fae Clans, needed to help in a desperate plan to save magic from vanishing. However, she has grown up away from fae culture in a gang of professional thieves in Aberdeen, and though she has not been granted her fae powers she has a few skills that might come in handy – that and a genie trapped in a magic letter opener. This author has a few complete series set in worlds where magic is a given and strong women prevail against the odds – I like her sense of humour and I’m looking forward to reading more. 

Jean Gill, With Raven Wine: This may seem an odd title, but raven wine is a poetic kenning for ‘blood’ and there is certainly a good deal of it in this, the fourth in Jean Gill’s Viking quartet. For me, in this book the parallel stories in Orkney and the Mediterranean were woven together particularly effectively and of course came together at the end. These books are tremendously well researched and again I thought that in this one the research and the story sat very comfortably together. A favourite piece was the professional comparison of Viking and Constantinopolitan armour about halfway through, which was beautifully done – in fact, the whole Constantinople section, with the Orcadians suffering severe culture shock, was fascinating. And the climax of the book, the last few chapters, were gripping and emotionally charged, and provided a very satisfactory, if sorrowful, ending to the whole quartet.

G.J. Williams, The Conjuror’s Apprentice: Dr. John Dee is the conjuror here, entertainingly portrayed and seen through the eyes of his Welsh apprentice, Margaretta, who can read people’s emotions. They are called upon to investigate the murder of a boy whose body was found in the Thames, and whose secrets may incriminate his employer, Lord Cecil. The characters leap off the page beautifully, real history is woven in without a bump, and the pace is cracking. I look forward to the next one.

Aline Templeton, The Trumpet shall Sound: The beautiful setting of Ramillies, a large private house now used as a music venue, is the scene for quarrels and jealousies over a declining music festival. Not perhaps the most convincing of Templeton’s endings, for me, but I still enjoyed her portrayal of breaking and broken relationships as usual.

Veronica Heley, Murder in the Garden, Murder by Committee, and Murder on a Bicycle: one of my favourite mostly cosy series and I’m delighted to see there are more, even if sometimes Ellie, the heroine, needs to be told exactly what to do with her horrible daughter.

Maureen Myant, The Confession: Though I knew this was the start of a series, it felt as if it could well be a standalone as for a while I wondered if the main police character would actually make it through the book. It’s written partly from his point of view and partly from the point of view of a woman with whom he unwisely becomes involved, the estranged sister of a suicide victim who has left a confession to five murders. The trouble is that only one of the murders appears to have happened, and the perpetrator of that seems very safely convicted. Then, of course, the murders do start. A lovely twisty plot, even if some of the characters need a good talking to.

Whew! there we are. Some terrific reads in here. 

And where am I? One and a half chapters in to The Raven in Silver (Orkneyinga 6), nowhere near as far ahead as I should be or wanted to be, but at least it has started.