Joyce's mystery and fiction book reviews with some non-fiction too!

So many good choices here.  Note that for some authors more than one book is a bargain this month.  That was definitely true for Susan Hill.  Hope you find some good reads here!

Are you one of the folks who was glued to the TV for the Royal Wedding? Would you like to relive some of the fun of that day? If you would, this is an excellent coloring book. The illustrations are very well done and there is lots to color. If you have your pencils at the ready, and you are a romantic, this could be for you!

This is a fantastic sampler of books that are being published by Algonquin. Included is an excerpt from new book by B. A. Shapiro whose new novel is about post Impressionist Art, the Barnes Foundation and Paris in the 1920s. I am quite excited about this one as I have been a frequent visitor to Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation and have taken a class on Contemporary Art.

There is another fictional story set in the world of art, Heather Rose’s The Museum of Modern Love. This is about the artist Marina Abramovic.

There is also Mesha Maren’s debut novel which takes place in West Virginia. It is a book which explores the meaning of home. The novel was written when the author lived in a one-room cabin in the state.

Also included are a short story collection by D. Wystan Owen and books by Gina Wohlsdorf and Tim Johnston. (Ms. Wohlsdorf’s novel, Blood Highway is a thriller while Tim Johnston is a crime story.)

Of note is that the sampler includes essays with the authors. These may serve to whet your appetite for reading their works even more.

So…lots of good suggestions for reading as we move toward fall’s shorter days.

Thanks for this sampler NetGalley and the publisher.

Do you enjoy mysteries? Short stories? Female detectives? If yes, this book deserves a place on your bookshelf. It is filled with stories from different eras and covers 150 years of writing, beginning with the Victorians. My favorites sections are the Golden Age, Mid Century, the Modern Era and Bad Girls. Many, many of my favorite authors are to be found in this collection. At over 1000 pages, this will be a book to dip in and out of over time. Highly recommended!

This richly and beautifully illustrated storybook comes out at just the right time.  It is a lovely re-telling of a classic Christmas story and will help little ones you know to anticipate the joys of the season.  Re-discover or enjoy this classic about belief for the first time.

My favorite quotes:

This one for fun:

“How can he know how to speak to everyone?…He must be Santa!” “Darling, that doesn’t make him Santa Claus,” Mother said.  “I speak French, but that doesn’t make me French toast!”

This one as a classic:

“Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.”

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

 

This book comes with an excellent pedigree. Jessica Fellowes, daughter of Julian and Downton Abbey fame, is a writer in her own right. The Mitford Sisters who led fascinating lives and are the subjects of many books are the children of the book, while Nancy is the protagonist. The setting is Britain, the time is after WWI so all of the elements are in place. Despite this however, I found the book to be good but not extraordinary. There is a mix of romance, mystery, secrets from the war, questions of identity and yet to my disappointment, it was not a five star book. This is the start of the series; I will hope the next book is just a little bit better.

Still Life by Louise Penny

The Cuckoo’s Calling by J K Rowling as Robert Galbraith

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

IQ by Joe Ide

Girl With a Gun by Amy Stewart

A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch

Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M C Beaton

These are all mysteries. Of them all, my favorite would be The Cuckoo’s Calling.

Anne Perry publishes a holiday novella each year. This one is from 2016 and is a e-book bargain today. It features two of my favorite characters from the Charlotte and William Pitt series. Vespasia and Victor Narraway are well past their youth when they find romance. Their relationship is tender and appealing. The mystery takes place in the Holy Land. This is a

I have read and enjoyed Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie mysteries. Life After Life and A God in Ruins have been in my TBR pile for quite awhile. When, pre-publication, I read about Transcription, I knew that I wanted to read this novel. Some of my favorite fictional subjects were in fact subjects in the novel including WWII, Britain and spies. Despite all of this, I did not enjoy Transcription as much as I had hoped that I would. Yes, the pages turned and there were some good plot twists but, somehow, I expected more given that Atkinson is so accomplished a writer. My favorite parts of the book were the parenthetical asides.

Have you read Transcription? If yes, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Another view:

This is from the Poisoned Pen Bookstore’s Newsletter: as you will see, I think that they liked the novel more than I did.

“Kate Atkinson brings the past of mid-20th century Britain so thoroughly to life that she almost seems to be reporting rather than inventing.  Her details are so rich and her hand so certain that, as readers, we are there-we are walking those streets, sitting in those smoky rooms.  And, most of all, we are completely caught up in the emotional power of the tensions and fears of that past.  With Juliet Armstrong, Atkinson has given us a remarkable addition to the canon of British spies.”