Here is a cute illustrated chapter book that is the second in a series to feature Daisy. Readers quickly are drawn in as they learn that ten year old Daisy, a descendant of Dr. Dolittle, can communicate with animals and is a detective!
There is a cute illustrated list of characters and then the story begins. There are six fun chapters in which to spend time with Daisy who is on a movie set with her mother as the story opens. Lots happens from there.
I think that this title is perfect for its intended audience. I am certain that I would have loved it when I was around ages 8 to 10.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Arcturus Publishing for this title. All opinions are my own.
This title is the third and last novel that Horowitz is writing about Atticus Pund and Susan Ryeland. It is a corker written by an author who, I think, is just the teeniest bit smug about his talent and expansive knowledge of publishing and other aspects of modern life.
Anyone who has not read The Magpie Murders can read this novel but there are definitely many aspects of that story that are revealed in this one. It may be best to read the series in order or at least catch up on events via the PBS series.
Susan Ryeland is back in England with her trusty MG. She is freelancing and hoping for a more permanent position as an editor when she is invited/lured into working with Eliot Crace. He is writing an entry in the Atticus Pund series, continuing what the original author (SPOILER! and murder victim) had begun.
As is true of others in the series, there is a story in the present (that has roots in the past) along with the manuscript of the new Pund novel. I love how authentic this looks with Horowitz making this look just like others that I have received from Harper Collins. It is quite clever.
It begins to appear that Eliot’s book may be a bit too closely related to his take on events in his family. Where will this lead? Nothing else here so that there will be no spoilers.
Suffice it to say that this read is immersive, long, filled with numerous characters and plots, clever and perhaps a modern classic.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper for this title. All opinions are my own.
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this riveting read. My review will be found later in this post.
Many thanks to Berkley Publishing Group for this title.
About the book:
Four strangers are brought together to participate in an experimental treatment designed to heal broken hearts in this surprising and heartfelt debut novel from author Amelia Ireland.
A ZIBBY OWENS MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025!
Freya, Callum, Mischa, and Victoria have nothing in common–well, except for one thing: they’ve each experienced a deep personal loss that has led them to an unconventional group meeting, every Tuesday night at seven. A meeting they’ve been particularly selected for that will help them finally move on. At least, that’s the claim.
As they warily eye one another and their unnervingly observant group leader, one question hangs over them: why were they chosen? To get the answer, they are going to have to share a whole lot of themselves first. Getting Freya, Callum, Mischa, and Victoria to trust each other is vital–because the real reason they’re connected will shift the ground beneath their feet.
Riveting and wise, THE SEVEN O’CLOCK CLUB shows us the courage needed to face your past and the joy that can be found in stepping into your future.
368 pages
My review:
I was intrigued by this book as soon as I saw it. The circle of chairs on the cover gave a hint that it would be about a group as did the title. As someone with a social work background and as a facilitator of support groups, I was curious to see who the group was for, what the sessions would be like, and how Ireland’s story would unfold. I was not disappointed.
The novel opens with a witness transcript. This adds an element of immediate suspense. Why was it necessary to testify?
The story then moves to the four characters who are attending a unique bereavement group run by a therapist named Genevieve. She has the right credentials for the job. The members of this circle have varying degrees of motivation and their own unique stories.
Readers get to know Mischa, Freya, Callum and Victoria in book sections that are titled with stages of grief as, for example, denial. The grief of the four unfolds over the course of the book as do their relationships and interactions with each other.
The story had a feel of authenticity in that first session. Each member was asked, not to talk about their loss, but rather about a happy memory. This is the beginning of getting to know these characters and readers will indeed get to know them well.
Having been specially selected to be in this particular group, will the four get the help that they need or will other forces come into play? Have the four been selected for individual reasons or does something bind them together? Readers will have to pick this one up to find out.
I thought that this book was well written and intriguing. It would make a good book club pick.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this title. All opinions are my own.
Note: If you read and enjoyed Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment, most definitely, take a look at The Seven O’Clock Club.
About the Author
Amelia Ireland lives in London but travels extensively to far flung places. She likes to rock climb, kite surf, and ride horses. She is also a mother to two very dramatic children.
From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews:
“When a discovery blows their worlds apart—and takes the narrative in a wildly different direction—it cements the mastery of this provocative, wholly original novel.”—People
“The divine Amelia Ireland has written a surprising and glorious debut novel. Ireland has created a world where broken hearts are mended and grief can only be released in mutual understanding. When Freya, Mischa, Callum and Victoria meet Genevieve Dempsey, they are lost and broken. As the novel unspools, they find their way to back to truth and ultimately—love.”—Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Left Undone
“Finished in one sitting. Had no idea where it was going but knew there was something lurking. Incredible twist. Ends with a final lap of the ride when you think it is all over. Different. Clever. Genuine. Sad. Reminded me in parts of the Outlaws show. I will be recommending this to friends.”–Ericka Waller, author of Goodbye Birdie Greenwing
Jo Thomas is a go to author for me when I want a “good read,” meaning one that will keep the pages turning, has a delightful setting (with yummy food), and characters with whom I want to spend time. All of these are present in A Place in the Sun as I (virtually) traveled to Italy with widow Thea and her two young children.
The house that Thea’s husband had bought needs A LOT of work; will the multi-talented Giovanni, help? The meet cute of Thea and he is indeed cute and he will indeed help.
Readers will hope for good things for Thea as she gets to know the people in her new community. Her husband died too young. Her finances were a mess but perhaps Italy will have the answers. This is what the reader will want.
Spend time with the people in this part of France. You won’t want to leave.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this title. All opinions are my own.
A Murder Unmentioned is the newest novel in the Rowland Sinclair series that is published by the Poisoned Pen Press, a great source for mystery novels.
The cover reflects the period of the novel. It shows some characters in the book including Rowly’s dog, Lenin and his aircraft Rule Britannia. Rowly and one of his friends are inside. As you read the book, this beautiful illustration, is worth going back to for references from the story.
For those who don’t know, this series takes place prior to WWII when Hitler is in the ascendant and Rowly would like to do all he can to show the world the disaster that is coming. This is always a part of the novels. As has been true in other books in the series, some real life characters make an appearance; in this one thet include politician Bob Menzies and garden designer Edna Walling.
The delight of these novels lies in spending time with Rowly and his friends. There is the unconventional artist Edna, the poet Milton and another artist friend. They have communist leanings and are definitely anti-Fascist.
Other prominent characters are Rowly’s conservative brother, Wil, his wife Kate and their two young sons. Master Ernest is featured in this one as a pivotal character. At only age six, he seems destined to follow in his uncle’s footsteps.
In this novel, the reader learns a lot about Rowly’s early life and his relationship with his sadistic father. You will feel for the young Rowly. This part of the book was not easy reading.
When the novel opens, Rowly’s father has been dead for thirteen years. The murderer was not found and the central mystery of this one is finding who killed him.
This is a good entry in a good series. Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for this chance to read the e-galley. The opinions are my own.
This is the first, but will not be the last, book that I read by this author. Her novels are now being published by the wonderful Poisoned Pen Press, a great place to find new authors and series.
#AmurderUnmentioned #NetGalley
My review of an earlier entry in the series:
The Rowland Sinclair mysteries take place in the 30s and Rowly reminds me of that great thirties sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey. He is an artist who is surrounded by his communist leading friends including the lovely Edna, a sculptress. This novel picks up where the prior one ended with the group escaping from Germany at a time when the Nazis were rising and brutal. They come to England where they try to alert the government to upcoming perils and to solve the mystery of an upper class man who is found dead. Subsidiary figures abound including H.G. Wells and Evelyn Waugh.
I truly enjoyed this novel and recommend it to fans of historical mysteries. I look forward to reading more. Thanks for this one, Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley.
I have read many WWII historical novels so was not certain that I wanted to read another one. However, as Natasha Lester is one of my favorite authors, I decided to go ahead and am so very, very glad that I did. I recommend this book most highly.
In this novel readers meet Marie-Madeleine Meric who was a true historic personage. Readers follow her in the 1920s in Morocco and later during WWII when, with bravery, she faced unimaginable risks.
Marie-Madeleine married her husband somewhat impulsively thinking that they would have a life of great adventure. He went to Morocco to gather intelligence and relied on MM to translate for him. However, it also turned out that he was quite controlling and MM eventually left him to go to France.
Readers should know that even when Edouard tried to control her, MM had a mind of her own and for example twice took part in a famous road race, had her own friends and helped in a women’s clinic. Also,unlike her husband, MM was compassionate and deeply loved her son and daughter.
When WWII was brewing and came, MM became involved in the intelligence gathering process, eventually becoming the head of the Mademoiselle Alliance. Through this work, readers meet a wide cast of characters with whom she worked. Two of the most important were Leon and Navarre. They and many others faced unimaginable danger and heartache in these pages.
Natasha Lester is a writer who animates history. She vividly describes setting sand imbues her characters with life. This author made me care so much for MM and those she cared for.
Note that some readers may find resonance with present day life in the rising of Hitler as a dictator who used the military to achieve his ends and who persecuted untold millions. This adds extra resonance to this story.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House-Ballantine for this title. All opinions are my own.
Welcome to Murder Week offered a fun and entertaining read; it’s just perfect vacation (or anytime) reading. Those who pick this up will enjoy the characters and the story.
Cath, in her 30s, has been living in Buffalo, New York where she was raised by her grandmother due to her mother’s frequent absences. The loss of her mother in her daily life had been a cause of much disappointment and sadness for Cath. Despite their seeming lack of closeness, strangely, when Cath’s mother dies, Cath discovers that her mother had booked the two of them for a murder week mystery in England. Why? This will be one of the questions of the novel.
There is a story within the story as a group of characters endeavor to solve the fictional case of a murdered hairdresser in this Peak village. Cath teams up with her two cottage mates, a young gay man named Wyatt whose partner purchased the trip for him, and Amity, a divorcee in her fifties. They are on the case! Follow them, figure out why Cath was sent on the trip and even find a bit of romance. All designed to please readers.
Those who enjoy traditional mysteries will enjoy this one.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for this title. All opinions are my own.
Perfect for fans of Glass Onion, The Traitors, and Murdle, this immersive, high-concept mystery puts you at the center of a decades-old case. With razor-sharp twists, sly misdirection, and a clever nod to Agatha Christie, THE GAME IS MURDER reinvents the closed-circle whodunit for a new generation.
The setup? A murder mystery party with real stakes: a decaying English manor, an unsolved crime from the 1970s, and a cast of cunning suspects. Your mission: read each account, weigh the clues, and name the killer. But beware—nothing is quite as it seems.
If you love solving puzzles, testing your theories, and outwitting unreliable narrators, you won’t want to miss this one.
More from the publisher on the book:
About the Book:
In this fresh and immersive murder mystery that riffs on crime classics, the reader is put in the role of the Great Detective, reinvestigating an infamous never-before-solved case from 1970s England.
You are invited to a very special murder mystery party. The game is simple: Listen to the witnesses. Examine the evidence. Solve the case. Be careful. Trust no one. All might not be as it seems.
If you agree to play the role of the Great Detective, you must undertake to provide a complete solution to the case. A verdict is not enough. We need to know who did it, how they did it, and why. Are you ready? Can you solve the ultimate murder mystery—and catch a killer?
About the Author:
Hazell Ward lives in Wrexham in North Wales, where she spent many years as an adult education teacher before going on to work for a charitable organization as a mentor to young people. She completed an MA in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and is currently juggling finishing her PhD with writing her second novel. She was short-listed for the Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition in 2021 and won the Crime Writer’s Association Short Story Dagger in 2023 for her story “Cast a Long Shadow,” published by Honno Press. The Game Is Murder is her debut novel.
My thoughts:
This is a bold, original and creative story that rewards the reader’s paying attention and thinking. It is rather ingenious in how it borrows from the genre. For example, I noted that the chapters are all named after famous detective novels; to name a few that are included there are A Murder is Announced by Christie; The Documents in the Case by Sayers; Footsteps in the Dark by Heyer; The Daughter of Time by Tey; and Artists in Crime by Marsh. Also, even within the first few chapters, astute readers will recognize names-there is Stanley Gardner, Wilkie Collins and Nicholas Blake. For certain, the more crime stories a reader knows, the more they will exclaim as they read.
The case involved a murder that, at least in the beginning of the novel, seemed reminiscent of Lord Lucan. Readers hear the story of what happened, initially by a family member and the story takes off from there.
This book will be adored by its intended audience.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for this title.
Hardcore fans entranced by all those Easter eggs may well turn the last page wondering if they’ve missed even more.
Move over, Anthony Horowitz. First-timer Ward has entered with a whodunit just as playfully meta as yours, though in very different ways.
Back in 1974, banker-turned-gambler Lord John Verreman, faced with financial ruin and divorce, sneaked into the basement of his estranged wife’s home and attacked Lady Antonia Verreman with a lead pipe, only to discover that the woman he’d killed in the dark was actually his sons’ nanny, Sally Gardner. At least that’s the story David Verreman tells the guests assembled at the Berkeley Club half a century later to determine once and for all whether or not David and Daniel’s father, who vanished before he could be brought to trial, was really guilty. The 13 guests include DCI Nicholas Blake; coroner Ronald Knox; pathologist Cameron McCabe; Sally’s husband, merchant seaman Stanley Gardner; Antonia’s sister, Carolyn Keene-Wade; and others whose names, like Ward’s chapter titles, pay tribute to the authors and classics of the detective story’s Golden Age. After kicking off with an elaborate contract between The Author and The Reader, Ward keeps interjecting pop-up games along the way and changing the rules of her big game, so that A.N. Author, King’s Counsel, the prosecuting attorney in one part of the story, turns into a witness for the defense in another part. Clues like the putative murder weapon will be analyzed to within an inch of their lives and all parties in attendance will stand accused, singly and jointly, of crimes and misdemeanors before the author pulls one last rabbit from her hat in a denouement likely to be hailed with both surprise and exhausted relief. Hardcore fans entranced by all those Easter eggs may well turn the last page wondering if they’ve missed even more.
Praise:
“A high-energy mystery, both exclamation point and question mark – like Agatha Christie on amphetamines. Imagine a labyrinth packed with ninety-degree turns and spiralling staircases and art on the walls – and a ruthless guide addressing you directly from the page – and you’ve got a sense of The Game Is Murder, a striking, playful novel for neither the faint of heart nor the slow of wit.” –A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman In The Window
“Move over, Anthony Horowitz. First-timer Ward has entered with a whodunit just as playfully meta as yours, though in very different ways.” –Kirkus Reviews
“A postmodern puzzler that dares to pull apart every trope in the book – literally.” –Antony Johnston, New York Times bestseller and author of Can You Solve the Murder?
“A significant achievement, packed with insight and invention, The Game Is Murder presents the reader with a fiction killing that seems to defy explanation. It is witty and remarkable and entirely unpredictable.” –Alex Pavesi, author of Eight Detectives
“Strikingly original, but with nods to Golden Age crime, it’s an ingenious story of constantly changing perspectives. Different, clever, and highly entertaining!” –Guy Morpuss, author of A Trial In Three Acts
“Clever and unusual…What an intriguing start for this author!” –FirstClue Reviews
“Excellent fun, and perfect for anyone who loves Murdle.” –The Bookseller
Joyce's mystery and fiction book reviews with some non-fiction too! 