Meta tags:
description=Book reviews, TV reviews and general culture discussion;

Headings (most frequently used words):

2026, june, july, reading, the, thursday, saturday, blog, me, alone, with, each, other, 23, wednesday, 27, 25, sunday, 21, monday, 15, 13, search, this, about, archive, byatt, meet, at, museum, streetcar, named, desire, opera, light, in, piazza, last, one, out, walter, scott, prize, report, abuse,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (385), and (190), this (109), that (107), but (75), her (69), she (64), was (63), are (45), with (43), for (43), novel (43), not (39), has (35), one (33), they (31), his (28), would (27), read (26), mystery (25), about (24), book (23), 2026 (23), have (23), very (23), because (23), series (22), like (22), each (21), there (21), share (21), people (20), all (20), had (20), their (19), who (19), other (18), books (18), first (18), when (18), time (18), story (18), what (18), which (17), fiction (17), you (16), can (16), only (15), them (15), although (15), character (15), these (15), good (15), also (15), don (14), june (14), out (14), new (14), opera (14), letters (14), think (13), novels (13), see (13), characters (13), from (13), found (13), year (12), july (12), over (12), well (12), family (11), two (11), thing (11), written (11), life (11), were (10), where (10), some (10), library (10), seems (10), made (10), while (10), sam (10), set (10), than (10), man (10), really (10), even (10), into (10), years (9), best (9), last (9), been (9), four (9), few (9), better (9), mysteries (9), otsl (9), enjoyed (9), him (9), women (9), wrote (8), alone (8), always (8), find (8), reading (8), email (8), much (8), since (8), harper (8), great (8), most (8), author (8), something (8), clara (8), margaret (8), before (8), performance (8), through (8), colette (8), writer (7), blog (7), write (7), things (7), recently (7), done (7), labels (7), pinterest (7), facebook (7), blogthis (7), back (7), long (7), here (7), love (7), setting (7), could (7), plot (7), main (7), many (7), lost (7), then (7), now (7), five (7), after (7), mother (7), will (7), voice (7), role (7), didn (7), blanche (7), stanley (7), those (7), hard (7), tina (7), person (7), know (7), murder (7), train (7), information (6), ago (6), historical (6), doesn (6), list (6), once (6), get (6), language (6), doorways (6), kept (6), husband (6), daughter (6), least (6), end (6), need (6), grief (6), down (6), more (6), disappearance (6), son (6), father (6), shoes (6), school (6), broadway (6), makes (6), galka (6), did (6), work (6), gartland (6), stella (6), though (6), isn (6), literary (6), probably (6), epistolary (6), anders (6), friend (6), during (6), reader (5), just (5), little (5), never (5), usually (5), course (5), liked (5), difficult (5), choose (5), looking (5), structure (5), particularly (5), may (5), south (5), place (5), production (5), turns (5), english (5), tell (5), debut (5), being (5), perhaps (5), herself (5), war (5), despite (5), between (5), different (5), say (5), recommend (5), correspondent (5), wife (5), try (5), make (5), take (5), walking (5), murdered (5), recommended (5), cleves (5), police (5), number (5), completely (5), joe (5), own (4), home (4), anniversary (4), favorite (4), put (4), prize (4), published (4), wwii (4), works (4), elements (4), world (4), believe (4), nothing (4), village (4), town (4), turning (4), page (4), happened (4), enjoy (4), show (4), solve (4), problem (4), writes (4), marriage (4), big (4), without (4), learn (4), fabrizio (4), anything (4), clear (4), high (4), making (4), italian (4), believable (4), won (4), sung (4), orchestra (4), young (4), express (4), note (4), meet (4), fact (4), based (4), film (4), music (4), same (4), old (4), full (4), snouffer (4), sister (4), couldn (4), trying (4), sense (4), writing (4), party (4), woman (4), children (4), museum (4), death (4), any (4), kauser (4), detective (4), cozy (4), killed (4), takes (4), ending (4), point (4), month (4), another (4), quick (4), lot (4), way (4), said (4), couple (4), inspector (4), george (4), bird (4), latest (4), periods (4), lady (4), short (4), spufford (4), gentill (4), paris (4), simple (3), personal (3), interest (3), allow (3), posts (3), under (3), history (3), part (3), split (3), far (3), goes (3), three (3), weeks (3), announced (3), managed (3), narrative (3), call (3), pages (3), come (3), help (3), readers (3), next (3), driven (3), comes (3), someone (3), missing (3), length (3), carralon (3), ridge (3), moved (3), road (3), residents (3), gone (3), eventually (3), version (3), singing (3), real (3), star (3), 1950 (3), director (3), both (3), brought (3), especially (3), says (3), musical (3), known (3), bit (3), hage (3), seem (3), soprano (3), innocent (3), perfectly (3), seen (3), principal (3), adult (3), visit (3), special (3), elizabeth (3), sure (3), century (3), sounded (3), modern (3), fairly (3), powerful (3), use (3), moore (3), does (3), needed (3), small (3), early (3), brother (3), law (3), relationship (3), want (3), developed (3), lives (3), denmark (3), beginning (3), distracting (3), describes (3), feels (3), chose (3), tollund (3), larsen (3), together (3), times (3), thought (3), give (3), anita (3), bansinath (3), mostly (3), expected (3), less (3), due (3), men (3), suspension (3), disbelief (3), otherwise (3), doing (3), padding (3), realize (3), walk (3), live (3), lots (3), flowers (3), sandford (3), elderly (3), house (3), might (3), including (3), must (3), ramsay (3), vera (3), dying (3), ann (3), molly (3), create (3), purveen (3), indian (3), interesting (3), secret (3), dead (3), opinion (3), harmel (3), london (3), stories (3), separate (3), meredith (3), orient (3), covid (3), variant (3), passengers (3), positive (3), start (3), france (3), mayfair (3), beech (3), decided (3), darby (3), branches (3), post (3), archive (2), review (2), respond (2), question (2), leading (2), 250 (2), louis (2), february (2), myself (2), normal (2), older (2), matchbox (2), girl (2), alice (2), jolly (2), seascraper (2), bloomsbury (2), shortlist (2), april (2), finding (2), tired (2), saturday (2), nonfiction (2), broadly (2), experiential (2), open (2), enter (2), proportion (2), nancy (2), pearl (2), australia (2), important (2), forgetting (2), easily (2), west (2), propulsive (2), develops (2), remaining (2), lovers (2), ways (2), joy (2), development (2), representation (2), ipad (2), mini (2), genre (2), jane (2), wales (2), mining (2), operation (2), mine (2), disappeared (2), trace (2), 21st (2), break (2), car (2), apart (2), away (2), sydney (2), wonders (2), evidence (2), case (2), past (2), convinced (2), subject (2), matter (2), audience (2), right (2), mind (2), movie (2), played (2), reality (2), olivia (2), havilland (2), helped (2), included (2), beautiful (2), hours (2), minutes (2), minute (2), intermission (2), running (2), crystal (2), mama (2), local (2), operas (2), sang (2), comedy (2), speak (2), papa (2), season (2), lovely (2), baritone (2), playing (2), funny (2), strong (2), singer (2), above (2), portrayal (2), starring (2), wants (2), lyric (2), frustrated (2), listen (2), cast (2), adam (2), rogers (2), composer (2), naccarelli (2), worried (2), child (2), premiered (2), unusual (2), light (2), previn (2), similar (2), mid (2), late (2), 20th (2), notes (2), convey (2), range (2), scene (2), words (2), sara (2), reason (2), yet (2), room (2), racette (2), bruley (2), mitch (2), force (2), quality (2), younger (2), why (2), stay (2), given (2), how (2), kowalski (2), sex (2), appeal (2), originally (2), admit (2), dubois (2), fill (2), apartment (2), married (2), becomes (2), estate (2), issues (2), truth (2), friends (2), named (2), boston (2), thursday (2), pre (2), england (2), turner (2), wish (2), actually (2), highly (2), claiming (2), shortly (2), members (2), relationships (2), detail (2), fully (2), anne (2), youngson (2), hopgood (2), certain (2), age (2), still (2), intended (2), told (2), york (2), street (2), matthew (2), leila (2), neighborhood (2), jalaluddin (2), installment (2), featuring (2), middle (2), aged (2), khan (2), aunty (2), drive (2), begin (2), themselves (2), heard (2), physical (2), therapy (2), already (2), authors (2), getting (2), form (2), aside (2), went (2), apparently (2), personally (2), audiobook (2), virgil (2), minnesota (2), bluestem (2), doctor (2), blood (2), whole (2), involved (2), piece (2), sexism (2), involves (2), got (2), explains (2), lesson (2), palmer (2), jones (2), libby (2), forward (2), called (2), retired (2), hand (2), rather (2), talk (2), evans (2), original (2), 1920 (2), bombay (2), finds (2), taking (2), disappears (2), usual (2), lawyer (2), calcutta (2), took (2), starting (2), happy (2), strout (2), finished (2), wasn (2), choice (2), 2018 (2), switches (2), however (2), period (2), marceau (2), steal (2), jewels (2), proceeds (2), often (2), propulsion (2), general (2), doll (2), job (2), bringing (2), multi (2), challenge (2), consider (2), blurb (2), boone (2), bomb (2), falls (2), fan (2), ability (2), result (2), seldom (2), linked (2), section (2), putting (2), pick (2), again (2), serendipity (2), sulari (2), australian (2), selling (2), trip (2), quarantined (2), compartment (2), murders (2), join (2), unrealistic (2), allowed (2), return (2), isolated (2), simply (2), off (2), 100 (2), wwi (2), telephone (2), allardyce (2), assist (2), superior (2), involving (2), victoria (2), guess (2), huber (2), country (2), anna (2), copy (2), self (2), 2015 (2), dci (2), ryan (2), introduces (2), tragic (2), holy (2), island (2), order (2), wanted (2), branch (2), week (2), august (2), theme, powered, blogger, byatt, report, abuse, view, complete, profile, official, site, accept, complimentary, requests, reviews, longer, comments, bluesky, maryb2004, maryb, search, reviewing, connection, lebeau, research, raised, regarding, ouaouaboukoue, ouaouagoukoue, whatever, continuing, founding, 2014, october, lay, land, every, lists, ambivalent, wor, 2024, las, subscribe, atom, checked, notify, tag, winner, booker, benjamin, wood, viking, deed, rachel, seiffert, virago, benbecula, graeme, macrae, burnet, polygon, pretender, harkin, blogged, additional, helm, buy, wait, somehow, miss, announcement, follow, walter, scott, particular, unique, keeps, flowing, descriptions, vivid, american, climax, picture, failed, villagers, community, cherished, 583, roots, raise, ten, began, buying, properties, covered, dust, constant, drumming, air, ghost, hanging, returned, birthday, college, leaving, rental, side, abandoned, houses, fell, committed, staying, grew, ever, monday, let, marry, comparing, deborah, kerr, screenplay, decision, reasonable, naccerellis, wealthy, manage, alternative, institutionalizing, costume, design, ulises, alcala, hats, gloves, dresses, technicolor, manich, debby, lennonn, appearing, musicals, union, avenue, appearance, graduate, beautifully, happening, paolo, szot, brazilian, 2008, tony, award, actor, emile, becque, revival, pacific, hades, hadestown, met, scala, angry, sexy, roy, winsome, evenly, matched, symphony, bigger, legitimate, soaring, sometimes, struggling, himself, songs, translated, supertitles, kate, baldwin, opposite, bette, midler, hello, dolly, irene, malloy, enough, carry, loves, unconditionally, protective, katrina, coloratura, shines, perfect, diction, guettel, grandson, richard, mary, upon, mattress, craig, lucas, lyricist, johnson, italy, sites, visited, florence, enamored, efforts, keep, fall, remains, difference, languages, keeping, developmentally, disabled, evident, 1960, spencer, novella, 1962, 2003, essentially, albeit, actors, experience, amplified, parts, piazza, sunday, score, seemed, emotions, musically, boring, interestingly, incidental, changes, accompaniment, actual, bears, relation, tire, quickly, disclosure, acting, combined, emotional, stick, beware, act, rest, patricia, appointed, artistic, bill, harold, mitchell, tenor, pleasing, tone, mixed, lauren, easy, beside, tour, holds, bell, appropriate, manages, sexual, attraction, david, expecting, marlon, brando, disappointed, thug, intentional, sings, wonderfully, thomas, glass, sing, disappointment, sarah, impressive, rosalinde, die, fledermaus, renee, fleming, exceptional, attending, worth, andre, phillip, littel, play, tennessee, williams, libretto, arrives, orleans, french, quarter, conducive, hosting, nowhere, ancestral, creditors, psychological, everything, along, hopeful, performed, 1988, streetcar, desire, ruts, interested, esoteric, historic, either, near, feeling, places, described, style, unlikely, literate, jots, thinks, gem, formed, viewpoint, 389, ebook, whose, grown, living, nearby, bereft, trapped, pregnant, farmer, various, reasons, preserved, peat, centuries, travel, curators, responds, thus, begins, letter, frustration, circumstances, non, reviewed, centers, around, willow, asian, enclave, jersey, upheaval, mysterious, pillai, sharma, colleague, introduced, strange, consequences, neighbors, gossip, capturing, dynamics, closely, knit, virtue, shared, ethnic, background, billed, darkly, comic, darker, deficiencies, appreciating, black, bindu, ours, second, intrepid, requires, relaxing, reads, days, type, knows, youngest, hit, run, bring, bus, subway, toronto, reliable, public, transportation, request, granddaughter, student, continues, determine, driver, vehicle, required, delightful, uzma, moonlight, farm, curator, correspondence, suffering, loss, turn, families, feel, eyes, word, joys, weren, answered, sound, inherently, wrong, remember, reserve, improve, osteoarthritis, backwards, sideways, foot, ankle, exercises, anyone, informative, barefoot, else, against, support, your, walked, pavement, floors, museums, wished, yes, natural, trails, unlike, cities, trend, padded, slight, surfaces, criticisms, borrowed, audio, charts, etc, aloud, pdf, borrow, look, pictures, courtney, conley, milica, mcdowell, dpt, understand, spinoff, prey, bureau, criminal, apprehension, bca, assignment, cold, tied, basement, doused, gasoline, fire, homicides, related, disappoint, plotted, biggest, treating, meat, stereotypes, popular, toned, progressed, john, dark, moon, fourth, fifth, idyllic, turned, nightmare, destroyed, stayed, returns, missed, exploration, kinds, cases, plotting, northumberland, headmaster, arrested, hers, decides, prove, schoolmaster, universally, despised, shortage, suspects, loose, ends, shetland, issued, app, starts, explaining, detectives, therapist, office, vague, free, watchers, watcher, twitcher, norfolk, asked, informally, admits, effort, stuck, landing, stop, others, available, sybil, van, antwerp, prefers, emails, necessary, slightly, wouldn, hype, tremendously, wanting, awarded, annually, nationality, virginia, sixth, mistry, legal, company, almost, immediately, investigation, guest, preview, showing, deal, solicitor, india, industry, inspiration, among, merle, oberon, its, sujata, massey, beloved, teacher, term, loved, lonely, happens, revealed, outlook, digs, psyche, accessible, prose, mood, summer, going, ended, average, fast, paced, totals, wednesday, club, rights, shouldn, partly, wild, forth, chapter, publishers, beyond, surprisingly, saving, grace, sees, sweet, jewel, thief, learned, annabel, rules, bad, anonymously, used, center, remembrance, holocaust, victims, jewish, nazis, floating, seine, searching, answers, entire, utilizing, lack, fine, creates, competent, large, hangs, kind, kristin, stolen, jill, blaine, died, 343, ushered, souls, afterlife, comfort, charge, millionaire, oil, tycoon, cannot, console, regrets, former, focus, tale, corporate, greed, global, warming, capitalism, atonement, exquisitely, lincoln, bardo, companion, saunders, vigil, 1944, blitz, woolworth, bexford, obliterating, inside, concept, event, imagines, picks, later, throughout, jumps, sentence, level, complex, ideas, ordinary, phrase, sets, worlds, immerse, preferences, exactly, corresponding, chapters, interact, lacks, picking, felt, ought, rank, behind, thoughts, nonesuch, cahokia, jazz, golden, hill, francis, perpetual, rowland, sinclair, willing, stand, penvale, stepped, practice, care, twin, cancer, treatment, mend, lifetime, aboard, rise, leaves, determined, tested, presumed, occur, day, uses, events, tests, continue, venice, forced, gunpoint, stopped, border, borders, closed, fear, heavy, snowfall, 2020, authorities, transport, treated, somewhere, started, none, mattered, fun, agatha, christie, labeled, supposed, sucker, occurred, examined, male, calls, caroline, hospital, caused, filled, holding, jobs, duties, crimes, increased, agrees, team, assembles, crime, longtime, widow, ellingham, studied, base, operations, station, hence, previously, decent, action, tension, brothels, gangs, underworld, complaint, peripheral, poor, powerless, should, class, sequel, lynn, brittney, belgravia, 1830, baby, social, anxiety, hostess, formally, engaged, unfortunately, private, secretary, guests, suspicion, solved, suspected, solution, until, lee, bitter, cut, shelf, front, million, copyright, amazon, picked, publisher, reprinted, sequels, plus, denigrate, publishing, wonder, tried, traditional, rejected, definitely, editorial, advice, argue, success, money, uninteresting, tries, sounds, giving, yelling, gives, taylor, romance, arguments, followed, spicy, satanic, sects, operating, 200, relies, coincidences, occurring, ross, visiting, mainly, belong, systems, seek, central, locations, shelves, staff, highlight, worked, pretty, wifi, internet, combine, switching, include, culture,

Text of the page (random words):
the war has caused london to be filled with women holding down jobs and doing duties that before the war were done by men crimes involving women have increased and they need women to assist the police no women are allowed to join the police his superior agrees to an off the books team that beech assembles to solve the crime including dr allardyce and his longtime friend and war widow victoria ellingham who studied law for three years before her marriage their base of operations since they can t use a police station is victoria s mother s home in mayfair hence the telephone number i enjoyed this book although the author had previously written children s and young adult books this was her first adult novel and she did a decent job she is a good writer and her plot made sense and had a lot of action and tension involving brothels gangs and the underworld my only complaint is that she decided that all the peripheral characters who were poor and powerless should get a happy ending which is completely unrealistic so i guess you could class this as a cozy mystery even though most of it isn t particularly cozy i see that the library has one sequel which i will eventually read five found dead by sulari gentill another library serendipity find i m a big fan of sulari gentill s rowland sinclair mystery series so i was willing to try one of her stand alone novels and this was i think her latest gentill is an australian mystery writer and in this mystery the story is told in the first person by meredith penvale an australian lawyer who has stepped away from her practice for a year or so to take care of her twin brother joe while he went through cancer treatment joe is a best selling mystery writer and now that he is on the mend she is taking him on the trip of a lifetime aboard the orient express things don t go well however as there is a new covid variant on the rise in paris and shortly after the train leaves it is determined that a number of passengers tested positive and have to be quarantined in a separate car then the man in the compartment next to joe and meredith disappears presumed dead because of the blood that is all over his compartment then other murders begin to occur joe and meredith join with a number of other passengers to try to solve these modern day murders on the orient express while joe uses the events as the start of a new novel i enjoyed this novel even though i found it completely unrealistic because of the covid positive tests the train is not allowed to continue to venice and is forced to return to paris at gunpoint but they are stopped at the france border because the borders have closed due to the variant and fear of the passengers on the train in the original murder on the orient express the train is isolated due to heavy snowfall so gentill had to think of a reason for this train to be isolated but a few years after 2020 it makes no sense that the authorities would not simply transport the covid positive people off the train to be quarantined and treated somewhere it makes even less sense that france would not allow the train to return to paris since the variant started in paris it s not like they are bringing something new into france there were other issues but none of them really mattered it was a fun read especially if you know agatha christie literary fiction light perpetual by francis spufford in 1944 during the london blitz a bomb falls on the woolworth s in bexford high street obliterating all the people inside including five school age children apparently this concept is based on a real event spufford takes this as his starting point and imagines if these five children were not killed by a bomb what would their lives be like he picks up their story a couple of years later and then throughout the novel makes 15 year jumps to show us where they are in life i am a big fan of spufford s writing at the sentence level he has the ability to put into words complex ideas in simple language as i ve said before he has a way with a perfectly ordinary phrase that doesn t seem at all special and yet completely sets the scene or describes the character this novel is no different he also has the ability to create fully developed worlds historical and otherwise in this novel the readers can immerse themselves in the london of many different time periods he also develops the five characters very well where this novel didn t completely work for me was in the story and that s mostly a result of my personal reading preferences i don t particularly like short stories and i seldom like novels that are linked short stories while that is not exactly what this novel is in form it is in result each section corresponding to a time period is made up of separate chapters about each character the characters seldom interact each section is like a set of short stories about the characters for me this structure lacks propulsion and i found myself putting the book down and forgetting to pick it up again or picking it up again because i felt i ought to if i had to rank spufford novels i would put this one last behind golden hill cahokia jazz and nonesuch all of which i ve written about my thoughts on those are linked vigil by george saunders jill doll blaine may have died but she still has a job 343 times she has ushered souls into the afterlife usually bringing them comfort but her latest charge a multi millionaire oil tycoon is turning out to be a bit of a challenge she cannot console him because he regrets nothing and that challenge is making her consider her life or her former life more than she has in the past the blurb for this novel all seem to focus on k j boone the dying man and tell us that this is a tale of corporate greed and global warming and capitalism but this novel really isn t in my opinion about boone it is about doll who must consider life and death and the question of atonement this is a very short novel written exquisitely the subject matter may not be for some people personally i liked lincoln in the bardo better but this is a good companion piece general fiction the stolen life of colette marceau by kristin harmel this was a choice by my book club by all rights this is a novel that i shouldn t have liked all that much it is partly set during wwii and i m not wild about wwii novels it is also one of those novels that takes place in two time periods 2018 and wwii and the author switches back and forth in each chapter between time periods i am so tired of this structure and wish that publishers would tell authors to get beyond it surprisingly however i did enjoy the novel despite the structure the saving grace here is that the character in each time period is the same colette marceau we meet colette in boston in 2018 when she is an elderly woman colette is interesting because the world sees her as a sweet old lady but in reality she is a jewel thief she learned to steal jewels from her mother annabel but there are rules steal only from bad people and use the proceeds to help those in need colette has anonymously used proceeds from some of the jewels to found a center for the remembrance of holocaust victims although colette herself is not jewish we learn early on that during the war colette lost her mother killed by the nazis and her little four year old sister found dead floating in the seine she has been searching for answers about her sister s murder for her entire life a novel utilizing this structure can often in my opinion lack propulsion as the story switches between time periods but since this is completely colette s story harmel does create a propulsive plot those people who only like historical fiction if it is a page turner would probably be fine with this novel she also creates very interesting characters harmel is a competent writer but there is nothing particularly special about her writing and it takes in my opinion a large suspension of disbelief to find that the ending hangs together it s not the kind of ending i enjoy but i also know that what isn t for me often works for other people july 23 2026 email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels fiction literary fiction mystery novels wednesday july 1 2026 june 2026 reading june was an unusual reading month for me i wasn t really in the mood to read and i had less time to read because it was summer and i had other things to do also what is going on in the world is distracting to say the least but i ended up reading 11 books this month which is about the number of books that i read each month on average i think the fact that i read a few literary fiction books that i really liked and a few mysteries that were fast paced helped with the totals these are the books i finished in june the things we never say by elizabeth strout a beloved high school history teacher in a long term happy marriage and with a loved son comes to realize that he is lonely and frustrated with his life then something happens to him and a long time secret is revealed to him both of which make him re think his outlook on life as usual elizabeth strout digs right into the psyche of her main character in accessible prose my quick take is here recommended the star from calcutta by sujata massey the sixth in the purveen mistry series set in 1920 s bombay this mystery novel finds purveen and her father taking on the legal representation of an indian film company almost immediately this turns into a murder investigation when a guest at a preview showing of the latest film is murdered and then the star disappears purveen as usual has to deal with the sexism of the indian police who find it hard to believe she is a solicitor lawyer it is interesting that i ve now read two mysteries this year each set in 1920 s india one in calcutta and one in bombay that involved the indian film industry and took as their inspiration among other things merle oberon i like this series and recommend it while this novel could easily be read on its own i always recommend starting with the first in a series the correspondent by virginia evans sybil van antwerp would rather write letters than talk to people in person she even prefers letters over emails although she will email when necessary so she writes lots of letters and we learn all about her through her letters this novel had been recommended to me by so many people i was slightly worried it wouldn t live up to the hype but i enjoyed it tremendously evans managed to create letters that sounded like a real person wrote them not as if they were written by an author wanting to write an epistolary novel my quick take is here it has since won the women s prize for fiction awarded annually to a woman author of any nationality for the best original full length novel written in english and published in the uk highly recommended a lesson in dying by ann cleves a bird in the hand by ann cleves before ann cleves wrote the vera series or the shetland series she wrote two other series the george and molly palmer jones series and the inspector ramsay series these were re issued last year and i found them under new books on my libby app each starts with a forward by cleves explaining where she was in life when she wrote the books a bird in the hand was the first mystery she wrote and her detectives are a couple called george and molly palmer jones molly is a retired therapist and george is a retired something something to do with the home office and perhaps the police force it s very vague in their free time they are bird watchers when a well known bird watcher called a twitcher is found murdered in norfolk they are asked informally to solve the case in her forward she admits that since this was her first book she can see where she might have done better while i enjoyed it and think it was a good first time effort i don t think she stuck the landing but it won t stop me from trying others in the series if they are available a lesson in dying is set in northumberland and is the first book in the inspector ramsay series although he is not a main character cleves explains that this is similar to the first vera book in which vera is not the main character the headmaster of a local school is found murdered and when his wife is arrested for the murder by inspector ramsay an old school friend of hers decides to prove she is innocent it turns out the schoolmaster was universally despised so there is no shortage of suspects i enjoyed this novel even though i thought it had a few loose ends at the end in both cases i think she got better with her plotting as she got older last one out by jane harper this is the fourth or fifth novel by harper that i ve read and i ve enjoyed each of them set in new south wales this novel involves a missing person sam who disappeared five years ago without a trace it also involves a village that was once an idyllic place to live but has now turned into a nightmare because a big mining operation has destroyed it sam s mother and father split up after sam s disappearance his father stayed on and his mother moved to sydney but each year she returns on the anniversary of her son s disappearance she has gone over and over the evidence of his disappearance convinced that they all must have missed something and they will learn the truth of what happened to sam this is a good mystery but even better at character development and the exploration of different kinds of grief my quick take is here recommended dark of the moon by john sandford this is the first in the virgil flowers mystery series which i understand is a spinoff from sandford s prey series which i ve never read virgil works for the minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension bca and is on assignment in the small town of bluestem where an elderly couple a doctor and his wife were murdered in cold blood but before flowers can even get to bluestem another elderly man is tied up in his basement doused with gasoline and the whole house is set on fire it seems the homicides might be related and this is just the beginning i chose this mystery for the setting i love minnesota based mysteries and that didn t disappoint the plot was well plotted and kept the pages turning my biggest problem was that all of the men involved including flowers couldn t say anything about women without treating them like a piece of meat and the women all were stereotypes i know this is a popular series and i might give another book a try to see if sandford toned down the sexism as the series progressed but as of this point i can t recommend it walk by courtney conley dc and milica mcdowell ms dpt i don t remember where i heard about this book but i put it on my library reserve list because i ve been doing physical therapy to improve my walking i have osteoarthritis in some ways it didn t tell me anything i didn t know i already do backwards walking and sideways walking and i already do a lot of the foot ankle exercises but for anyone not in physical therapy it probably would be inform...