Month: September 2025

So many good summer reads here. Check them out.

The book:

A Most Puzzling Murder

Bianca Marais

On Sale Date: June 10, 2025

9780778368601, 0778368602

Trade Paperback

$19.99 USD, $23.99 CAD

Fiction / Myster & Detective

480 pages

About the Book:

Interspersed with riddles and puzzles that both Destiny and the reader must solve, A Most Puzzling Murder is a one-of-a-kind mystery that will leave you guessing and gasping until the very last page!

Destiny Whip is a former child prodigy, world-renowned enigmatologist and very, very alone. A life filled with loss has made her a recluse, an existence she’s content to endure until a letter arrives inviting her to interview for the position of Scruffmore family historian. Not only does an internet search for the name yield almost nothing, it’s a role she never applied to in the first place!

She decodes the invitation’s hidden message with ease, and its promise to reveal her family secrets proves too powerful a draw for the orphaned Destiny, who soon finds herself on Eerie Island. It’s a place whose inhabitants are almost as inhospitable as the tempestuous weather. The Scruffmores themselves turn out to be not much better, a snarled mess of secrets and motives connected by their mistrust for one another.

Their newly arrived guest proves to be just as much an enigma to them as they are to her. While Destiny slowly works to unravel the mysteries hidden throughout the ominous castle, she struggles to interpret disturbing nightly visions of what is to come. In the midst of cryptic ciphers, hidden passages, and the family’s magical line of succession, Destiny is certain of two things: one of the Scruffmores is going to die and she’s running out of time to stop it.

Start reading:

CHAPTER 1

Destiny

Sunday, 9:57 a.m.

Destiny Whip warily eyes her bedside table, thinking how it could easily be mistaken for a miniature graveyard, what with all the little pills neatly lined in staggered rows, positioned upright like tiny headstones. It certainly feels as though she’s regarding the burial ground of her hopes and dreams, haunted by the specter of the enormous potential she’s so dismally failed to live up to.

When you’re declared a child prodigy, everyone expects you to go far in life, but all Destiny has managed today is a slow shuffle to and from the bathroom. Even that required Herculean reserves of energy.

Balancing her laptop on her knees, she reaches to the farthest side of the bed for her emotional-support urn, pulling it close and tucking it into her armpit as though cuddling a teddy bear. She kisses the top of the teardrop shape, the metal cold against her chapped lips.

Bex appears in Destiny’s doorway, leaning her head against the frame. “Good morning.”

Her best friend is still too scrawny, but not nearly as emaciated as she was a year ago when all she feasted on was beauty magazines and models’ Instagram pages rather than anything resembling food. Bex looks mostly healthy again, her long chestnut hair gleaming, the hollows of her cheeks no longer reminiscent of sinkholes. 

“You okay?” Bex asks, the corners of her mouth turned down. 

It’s the anniversary of the accident today, one year somehow crawling by on scraped knees. 

Some people act like severe depression is a tarnish, one that can be polished off with the application of enough elbow grease. Luckily, Bex isn’t one of them. 

Destiny tries to speak, but a knot of regret is so tangled up in her throat that the words don’t stand a chance. 

Her laptop suddenly squawks with an incoming video call. In the months that Destiny has been seeing Dr. Shepherd, they’ve never once had a virtual consultation over a weekend. But today is going to be a tough one, which is why the psychiatrist insisted on the appointment. 

As the ringing continues, Destiny gently places the urn beside her and instinctively reaches for her notebook before paging to the list of tasks the doctor assigned last month. 

Bex sidles up next to her, reading over her shoulder. 

1. Leave the apartment once a day to go for a walk or grab a coffee. 

2. Reach out to an old friend or colleague to suggest a meetup. 

3. Replace all the dead plants. 

4. Keep a dream journal about the white-haired ghost woman. 

5. Email the council expressing your wish to return. 

6. Accept one of the consultancies that you’ve been offered (one that doesn’t require travel). 

7. Work on forgiving Nate. 

8. Limit your interactions with Bex.

Bex side-eyes the last item on the list. “Rude,” she huffs. “You’d think I was a bad inf luence or something.” 

Rather than answering Bex or the incoming call, Destiny thinks of how she’s never f lunked an assignment in her entire life. Always top of her class, and despite being admitted to university as a twelve-year-old, Destiny cannot fathom this degree of failure. 

She’s ticked nothing off the list, not even throwing away the plants whose shriveled corpses goad her, their untimely deaths undoubtedly due to the curtains constantly being drawn tight. That, and Destiny forgetting to water them. 

The laptop’s ringing grates on Destiny’s nerves, but she can’t force herself to answer and face Dr. Shepherd’s disappointment. It will be carefully concealed, of course, with the psychiatrist gently pointing out there’s always next week, or the week after that, to achieve these seemingly simple goals. But it doesn’t matter how much of an extension Destiny is given. 

It’s no use. 

For how can she possibly cut ties with Bex, who’s her dearest, not to mention only, friend? 

Plus, there’s no way the Council of Enigmatologists will take her back after she’s been AWOL for so long. Each time an envelope drops through the mail slot, Destiny fully expects it to be a letter informing her that they’ve completely revoked her membership. It hurts to remember how thrilled she was to be appointed president of the prestigious group just thirteen months ago, and how she, Bex, and Nate all splurged on a fancy dinner to celebrate. 

When the call finally drops, Bex exhales, a long whoosh of defeat. “I know I shouldn’t enable you with all the talking, but it’s not like I can call anyone on your behalf.” 

They both look down at the wallpaper on the home screen of Destiny’s laptop. 

It’s a photo that was taken thirteen years ago when Destiny was eight. In it, her mother’s arm is f lung across Annie’s shoulders, happiness radiating from the two best friends in waves. Destiny’s eyes fill with tears as she studies her mother’s straight black hair and pale skin, and those enormous glasses obscuring most of her face. 

Jutting her chin at Destiny’s mother, Bex murmurs, “I wish I’d known Liz.” 

Destiny nods before turning her attention to Annie, with her striking Afro and beaded shoulder-duster earrings, and her smile as bright as the sun. 

The image was captured two weeks before Liz died. A year later, the paperwork went through to officially make Annie Destiny’s second adoptive mother. Their deaths were a wrenching loss, a tearing in the fabric of Destiny’s being that she never quite stitched back together. 

There were times in the before when Destiny experienced the sting of loneliness, that awful yearning of the one forever stuck outside, nose and palms pressed against the cold glass, gazing in at what belonging looked like: foreheads bent together, raucous laughter elicited by inside jokes, sentences finished by those who knew you best. 

But this is not loneliness, in the same way that a drop of water is not a deluge, the way a sigh is not a hurricane. 

“I’m so sorry that you’re having such a rough time of it,” Bex says, reaching out to tuck a f laming red curl behind Destiny’s ear. She freezes upon seeing Destiny’s expression, her hand hovering like a ghost between them. “A year is a long time, though, and Dr. Shepherd is right despite the fact that she clearly has it in for me. You need to move on.” 

God, that Bex is apologizing to her, of all people, when everything that happened was Destiny’s fault. 

“No, I’m sorry,” Destiny says, her voice pulled so taut that it snaps. Seeing the pills all standing to attention—no longer a cemetery full of headstones, but rather an army ready to fight the last battle—Destiny reaches for the urn again, stroking it like a security blanket. “If you stop talking to me, Bex, I don’t know what I’d do.” 

“Not gonna happen,” Bex replies breezily. And then more firmly she says, “Okay, it’s tough love time. You seriously need to shower because you’re stinking up the place. Plus, the kitchen needs cleaning. Those take-out containers have grown thumbs. I swear I caught them trying to hitch a ride to the nearest primordial swamp.” 

Destiny laughs at how incredibly bossy Bex is. 

Especially for a dead person. 

Still, it’s reassuring that no matter how much has changed, some things stay exactly the same.

Excerpted from A Most Puzzling Murder by Bianca Marais, Copyright © 2025 by Bianca Marais. Published by MIRA Books. 

The author:

BIANCA MARAIS cohosts the popular podcast The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, which is aimed at helping emerging writers get published. She teaches creative writing through the podcast and was named a winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award for Creative Writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. She lives in Toronto, where she loves playing escape-room games and writing about strong female protagonists. 

Links:

Social Links:

Author website: https://www.biancamarais.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/biancamaraisauthor 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/biancam_author/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biancamarais_author/ 

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Most-Puzzling-Murder-humorous-mystery/dp/0778387690

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-most-puzzling-murder-bianca-marais/1146847363

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-most-peculiar-tale-indeed-original-bianca-marais/21435438 

Books-A-Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/9780778368601 

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-most-puzzling-murder 

AppleBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/a-most-puzzling-murder/id6501987778 

Google Play: https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Most_Puzzling_Murder.html?id=rbs7EQAAQBAJ 

Libro.FM: https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781488233814-a-most-puzzling-murder 

Indigo: https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/a-most-puzzling-murder-a-quirky-humorous-locked-room-murder-mystery-with-riddles-and-puzzles-for-the-reader-to-solve/9780778368601.html 

Target: https://www.target.com/p/a-most-puzzling-murder-by-bianca-marais/-/A-93112360 Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/A-Most-Puzzling-Murder-A-Quirky-Humorous-Locked-Room-Murder-Mystery-with-Riddles-and-Puzzles-for-the-Reader-to-Solve-Paperback-9780778368601/5560832578?classType=REGULAR&from=/search

My thoughts:

This book drew me right in, beginning with the first chapter. It offers a unique read with some “Choose Your Own Adventure” elements and puzzles for the reader to solve. These make it a perfect read for those who enjoy both doing logic puzzles and reading mysteries. I imagine that the author had fun with this title. Add it to a summer beach read list…or read it wherever you are.

Many thanks to the team at HTP for the invitation to this blog tour.

From the Publisher

About the book:

From the publisher

Life as a missing person is absolute murder…

When artist Eloise Ford hears that human remains found in an abandoned mine are believed to be those of long-missing teenager Elizabeth King, the shock sends her reeling.

It can’t be true. Eloise knows this for a fact because… she is Elizabeth King.

Now, her carefully curated life in Cornwall is falling apart. Her husband is acting strangely, her children aren’t speaking to her and she can’t sell a painting for love nor money. But much more worrying are the signs that someone knows exactly who she is… and why she had to vanish thirty years ago.

Eloise needs answers. Is her son’s ex-girlfriend just plain annoying… or does she know something? Will the detection skills of the online ‘Truth Seekers’ group prove more than amateurish? What’s the real story behind those village newcomers?

And just how far would she go to keep her family, her friends, and her fraudulent life, safe?

About the author:

From the publisher

Born in Cyprus, Jo Jakeman worked for many years in the City of London before moving to Cornwall with her husband and twin boys. She is the author of One Bad Apple. Find out more at www.jojakeman.com

My thoughts:

I was delighted to receive an early copy of this book and would like to thank Hannah Hargrave for this. I was familiar with the author from her earlier title, One Bad Apple, so was intrigued to open this new book.

When readers meet Eloise, she is reveling in what she, herself, describes as a “small life.” But, of course, this current life was not always her life. What happened to her that led to a name change and different life? What will happen when her past identity is again invoked? Who is behind events? Readers will want to know. Find out in this title that is told from more than one point of view and that includes other documents such as Facebook pages. I was intrigued.

This is a book that kept me turning the pages. It is clever and fun. I finished it wanting to know what the author will write next. I will be on the lookout but in the meantime, give this one a chance.

The Hidden Worlds That Shape the Books We Love

by Katie da Cunha Lewin

#TheWritersRoom #NetGalley

As a passionate reader, like others, I have curiosity about the places where authors create their works. Both the cover and title of this book made me want to read it. I am glad that I did.

Following the introduction, this title is broken down into five chapters that reflect the different spaces of writers. For example, chapter one is titled “The Preserved Writer’s Room” while chapter four is called “Temporary Spaces.”

Don’t skip the introduction as it gives the reader a chance to know the author. She has a lot of interesting things to say.

Having read Mrs. Dalloway three times, I was delighted to see that the first place that Da Cunha Lewin visited was Monk’s House where Virginia Woolf wrote. I enjoyed going on from there.

This book has both text and photos to pique the reader’s interest. I think that it can be read in any order. Wherever one dips in, the mix of the author’s thoughts and the descriptions make for good reading.

Anyone who is a reader that is curious about authors and their spaces will want to give this one a look.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Elliott & Thompson for this title. All thoughts are my own.

Pub date: 11 September 2025

This anthology of mystery stories has an entertaining conceit…what would it be like to match up authors and their detectives in a story?  Answer…a good idea.  So, in this collection there are pairing of, for example, Val McDermid and Peter James; or Kathy Reichs and Lee Child.  Read their stories to see how the detectives come together.  Also readers will enjoy the introduction to each story in which they learn a bit about the writers.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this fun story collection in exchange for an honest review.

Editorial Reviews

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/05/books/thriller-book-quiz.html

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/08/books/review/cartoons-comics-quiz.html

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/books/review/new-thrillers-fiction.html

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/books/review/the-secret-of-secrets-dan-brown.html

I had been curious about this book for a while. I am always intrigued by books about books.

Three young women who need to figure out their lives are eager to visit the area where a favorite book/movie took place. Like the characters in that story, each is thinking about next steps.

Emily has a talent for sewing. She is unsure about whether she should abandon a safe job to risk starting her own business. Rachel is about to move in with her (controlling) boyfriend. Will she change her mind? And Tori, at the last minute cannot go on this trip, because her father is upset with her reckless spending. Will she mature and find a job?

Into the story, also comes Alex. Alex is a last minute addition to replace Tori. What will this character add to the lives of the others?

This was an enjoyable but not amazing book for me. It was predictable but that was okay for me because I chose it as a comfort read. I would have liked to know more about the book that inspired the characters. Readers learn that it is about three friends but not much more. Given that the book is based on reactions of the characters to it, a bit more would have been welcome.

This was the first book that I read by the author. It ties up neatly.

I am pretty sure that I will pick up something else that Swain has written. Sometimes escape is what I want.

From the publisher:

Two feuding co-stars in a Jane Austen film adaptation accidentally travel back in time to the Regency Era in this delightfully clever and riotously funny debut

Tess Bright just scored her dream role starring in an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. It’s not just the role of a lifetime, but it’s also her last chance to prove herself as a serious actress (no easy feat after being fired from her last TV gig) and more importantly, it’s her opportunity to honor her mom, who was the biggest fan of Jane Austen ever. But one thing is standing in Tess’s way—well, one very tall, annoyingly handsome person, actually: Hugh Balfour.

A serious British method actor, Hugh wants nothing to do with Tess (whose Teen Choice Awards somehow don’t quite compare to his BAFTA nominations). Hugh is a type-A, no-nonsense, Royal Academy prodigy, whereas Tess is big-hearted, a little reckless, and admittedly, kind of a mess. But the film needs chemistry—and Tess’s career depends on it.

Sparks fly, but not in the way Tess hoped, when an electrical accident sends the two feuding co-stars back in time to Jane Austen’s era. 200 years in the past with only each other to rely on, Tess and Hugh need to ad-lib their way through the Regency period in order to make it back home, and hopefully not screw up history along the way. But if a certain someone looks particularly dashing in those 19th century breeches…well, Tess won’t be complaining.

A wickedly funny, delightfully charming story, The Austen Affair is a tribute to Jane Austen, second chances, and love across the space-time continuum.

My thoughts:

Having just spent a semester reading all six of Austen’s major novels, I loved the experience of entering her world. I have also enjoyed a number of Austen spinoffs so was curious about this title. It offers a fun and entertaining read.

Northanger Abbey was the final Austen book that I read so it was fresh in my mind when I picked up this novel. It was entertaining to think about what the protagonists, feuding though they may be, would do with an Austen adaptation.

When Tess and Hugh are sent back in time due re to an accident, readers are given immersion in Austen’s time. How will the two from times manage there? And, how will they get back to the modern world? Readers will enjoy finding out as they watch the relationship between Tess and Hugh evolve.

The Austen Affair is an entertaining enemies to lovers story. It offers a nice escape. Kirkus Reviews agrees, giving this title one of its coveted stars.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press-St. Martin’s Griffin for this title. All opinions are my own. Also thanks to Macmillan for the audio of this title. I went back and forth, reading when I could and listening while on the go. The narration was engaging and enhanced my experience with this title.

Pub date: 16 September 2025