Six Degrees of Separation from Flashlight to The Hunter

Published on by Margaret17 Comments

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.

This month we are starting with Flashlight by Susan Choi, a book that topped lots of 2025 ‘best of’ lists and it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025. I haven’t read, but going off the description from Amazon I think I’d like to.

One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father, Serk, take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town. Hours later, Louisa wakes on the beach, soaked to the skin. Her father is missing: presumably drowned.

This sudden event shatters their small family. As Louisa and her American mother return to the US, Serk’s disappearance reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened that night slowly unravels.

For my first link I’ve chosen another Booker Prize nomination, The Secret River by Kate Grenville shortlisted in 2006. It’s historical fiction, a fictional account of the conflict that accompanied the settlement of New South Wales, Australia by exiled British convicts in the 19th century.

My second link is another book set in Australia, Exiles by Jane Harper, Investigator Aaron Falk finds himself drawn into a complex web of tightly held secrets in South Australia’s wine country. It’s the third and final Aaron Falk Mystery book.

My third link The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel is the third and final book in The Wolf Hall Trilogy. The trilogy as a whole traces the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII. The books bring 16th century England to life in vivid colour. I became very fond of Cromwell, who rose from humble beginnings to become Earl of Essex and Lord Great Chamberlain in 1539. This third book is about his final years as his enemies plotted against him. He was executed on 28th July 1540.

The next book in my chain is The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre, a murder mystery, a cross-genre hybrid of Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly. It’s a mash-up of British/American crime fiction/thriller, with plenty of twists and turns, complications and rollercoaster fast action chases, most of it unbelievable. It’s brutal and violent, with quite a bit of dark humour thrown in. It’s also tense and full of suspense.

My fifth link is to another ‘cracked mirror‘ book. It’s The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie, set in the village of St Mary Mead. Miss Marple was feeling rather down and a bit weak after an attack of bronchitis. Her doctor prescribes ” a nice juicy murder” for her to unravel and not long after the ideal opportunity arose with the death of Heather Badcock. Heather had gone to a fete at Gossington Hall held by her idol, the glamorous movie star Marina Gregg. 

My final link is also set in a village, but in Ardnakelty, Ireland. It’s The Hunter by Tana French, the second Cal Hooper mystery. Two men arrive with a money-making scheme to fleece the villagers, claiming there is gold on their land. One of the men is Trey’s father, Johnny who has been absent from the village for four years. But Trey is suspicious of her father’s true motives and doesn’t trust him, or the rich Londoner, Cillian Rushborough, Johnny met in London.  

I loved Tana French’s beautiful descriptions of the Irish rural landscape. It’s the sort of book I find so easy to read and lose myself in, able to visualise the landscape and feel as if I’m actually there with the characters, watching what is happening.

My chain is mainly made up of historical and crime fiction this month travelling from Japan through America and England and ending in Ireland. The links are Booker Prize nominations, books set in Australia, the third books in a trilogy, books with mirrors in the title and books set in villages.

I think I can say that the final book links back to the starting book as both concern books about a father and daughter.

Next month (March 7, 2026) we’ll start with a classic (and in celebration of the forthcoming film) – Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Classics Club Spin

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Before next Sunday,8th February, 2026 create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain on your Classics Club list. On that day the Classics Club will post the winning number. The challenge is to read and review whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by 29th March, 2026.

Here’s my list:

  1. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
  2. The Complete Parker Pyne by Agatha Christie
  3. The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
  4. Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
  5. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
  6. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
  7. The Time of Angels by Iris Murdoch
  8. I’ll Never be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier
  9. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
  10. The Go Between by L P Hartley
  11. The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
  12. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  13. Daisy Miller by Henry James
  14. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
  15. Friends and Heroes by Olivia Manning
  16. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
  17. Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
  18. Maigret’s Doubts by Georges Simenon
  19. Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
  20. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

 Which one would you like to see win?

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Covers Featuring Cool/Pretty/Unique/etc. Typography

Published on by Margaret20 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

Book Covers Featuring Cool/Pretty/Unique/etc. Typography (Typography is the art of arranging letters so they look visually appealing and more interesting than, for example, the body text of this blog post you’re reading now.

These are all covers that caught my attention one way or another.Tthey are all books I own some of which I’ve read and some waiting to be read.

The King in the North by Max Adams – I love everything about this cover. I love the combination of the colours and the letters filled with decorative patterns just like an illustrated manuscript – think of the Lindisfarne gospels and the Book of Kells.

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton – this cover conveys a sense of speed as Catton’s name looks like it’s running uphill over the top of the line of trees bent in the wind as the little drone approaches. It tells a story before you get to the words within the book.

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel – such a beautiful and colourful image, contrasting the dark and the light reflections.

The Vanishing of Margaret Small by Neil Alexander. This caught my eye because it makes me wonder how and why Margaret Small vanished. I like the background colour, contrasting with the author’s name and the use of the lower case in the title.

Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman – having the title written in a banner in the bird’s mouth amuses me.

West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge – another striking cover that immediately made me wonder what the book could be about. I like the tall letters dwarfing the figure of man in between the words, emphasising how tall giraffes are.

Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault – a bold title in upper case letters above the image. You just know this is about ancient warfare.

Aphorisms of Yoga by Bhagwan S. Patanjali – plain and simple with the title slanting diagonally upwards in colour against a white background. Sanskrit philosophy.

Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks edited by John Curran – I love the red background against the square black and white photograph and whiteness of the circle emphasising the inclusion of two unpublished Poirot stories and once more the contrasting size and upper and lower case letters in the title.

Sausage Hall by Christina James. What a whimsical title. I thought it sounded a bit gimmicky and it nearly put me off reading it, which would have been a shame – it’s such a good story. The blackness of the cover with its skull and crossbones indicates the darkness of the book. It’s a crime mystery with a sinister undercurrent exploring the murky world of illegal immigrants.

The Living and the Dead by Christoffer Carlsson

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Penguin| 8 January 2026| 428 pages| e-book| Review copy| 4*

Description

On a cold, snowy winter’s night in 1999, Sander and Killian leave a house party together, in a small town in rural Sweden. The very best of friends, they imagine they will remain so forever.

The next morning, each is a key suspect in a murder. Each has something they want to conceal from the police. And from the other.

The hunt for Mikael Söderström’s killer will take over twenty years. It will see a detective leave the force forever. And it won’t end until a second body is found, and the tight-knit community’s secrets are finally brought to light . . .

My thoughts

The Living and the Dead by Christoffer Carlsson, is translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson Broyles.

This has a slow start. It has a tense atmosphere and a great sense of place, set in Skavböke, a small town in rural Sweden. .There are many characters and it took me quite some time to sort them out – who were related, who were friends and who were police, although the list of characters at the beginning of the book does help. The narrative is told from the different characters’ perspectives, which was also confusing until I had them sorted in my mind and I had to re-read several passages for a while. It’s not a book to read quickly!

By the time I got to the second half of the book and the action picked up pace it was much more satisfying to read. It kept me guessing what was going on and who the culprit was all the way through. I enjoyed all the twists and turns, which took me by surprise. It’s a dark, bleak thriller with plenty of suspense as secret relationships, rumours and rivalries abound in the small town. I particularly enjoyed Carlsson’s description of the Swedish landscape and characterisation.

I didn’t know until after I’d read this book that it is the third book in Carlsson’s Hallandssviten Series. I’ll certainly be looking out for more of his books.

Christoffer Carlsson was born in 1986 on the west coast of Sweden. He holds a PhD in criminology from the University of Stockholm and is one of Sweden’s leading crime experts. Carlsson is the youngest winner of the Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, voted by the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy, and has won the prestigious Glass Key award for The Living and the Dead, given to the best Scandinavian crime novel of the year. He’s also won the Best Swedish Crime Novel twice.

My thanks to the publishers, Penguin and NetGalley for a review copy.

What’s in a Name? 2026

Published on by Margaret9 Comments

This is currently hosted by Andrea at Carolina Book Nook. I’ve been doing this challenge since January 2008 (albeit I’ve missed one or two years). It was started by Annie, who was ten or eleven at the time, on her blog Words by Annie. First Beth @ Beth Fish Reads and then Charlie @ The Worm Hole took over hosting before handing it over to Andrea.

So, this is a ‘must‘ challenge for me!

The challenge runs from 1st January to 31st December 2026. You can sign up at any time but can only count books you read between those dates. Read a book in any format (hard copy, ebook, audio) with a title that fits into each category.

In 2026, choose 6 books that have titles that contain:
(Click on the links for more examples and info on Andrea’s blog)

  • Six/6 – Titles for this category need to include the word “six” or number “6” somewhere in the title, even if they are part of another word or number.
  • Cold weather – Your title for this category should include a word that describes cold weather such as “snow,” “ice,” blizzard,” “frozen,” etc.
  • Peace – Titles for this category need to include a word that describes peace: “peace,” “serenity,” “still,” “calm,” etc, even if it doesn’t directly mean “peace.”
  • Pathways – Titles for this category need to include a words that are types of paths: “trail,” “road,” “avenue,” “sidewalk,” etc.
  • Terrain* – Titles for this category need to include a word for a type of topographic terrain or the name of a particular part of terrain.
  • Flower – Titles for this category need to include a type of flower or the word “flower.”

I’ve looked through the books that I still have unread and have found some possibilities for this challenge:

Six/6 – Six Wicked Reasons by Jo Spain; The Mitfords; Letters between Six Sisters by Charlotte Moseley; Winds of Change: Britain in the Early Sixties by Peter Hennessy

Cold weather – A Cold Wind From Moscow by Rory Clements; Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride; In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Fire and Ice by Diana Stabenow

Peace – The War that Ended Peace by Margaret MacMillan

Pathways – Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler; East West Street by Philippe Sands; The Winding Road by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

*Terrain – Light Shining in the Forest by Paul Torday; The Enchanter’s Forest  by Alys Clare

Flower – Golden Poppies by Laila Ibrahim; Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

*Types of terrain:
Mountains
Hills
Plains
Plateaus
Valleys
Deserts
Forests/Jungles
Wetlands
Coastal
Glacial/Polar

WWW Wednesday 28 January 2026

Published on by Margaret13 Comments

WWW Wednesday is run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently I’m reading The Inheritance of loss by Kiran Desai, the winner of several prizes including the 2006 Booker Prize. It’s a book I bought in 2007 and meant to read long before now. I’m reading this slowly and so far it’s looking good.

This is set in the Himalayas where a judge and his granddaughter live in a dilapidated mansion. The judge, broken by a world too messy for justice, is haunted by his past. His orphan granddaughter has fallen in love with her handsome tutor, despite their different backgrounds and ideals. The cook’s heart is with his son, who is working in a New York restaurant, mingling with an underclass from all over the globe as he seeks somewhere to call home.

I’m also reading The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch, another book I’ve had and left on the shelves for far too long. I’ve read just a few opening chapters and think I’m going to enjoy this book. It’s set in Ireland, where a young woman goes to work as a governess in the remote Gaze Castle only to find there are no children. She is confronted with a number of weird mysteries and involved in a drama she only partly understands.

The last book I read Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Bookmyre which will be published in May, so I’ll write about it later. It’s crime fiction set on the Atlantic.

Description from Amazon:

An Atlantic voyage. A family at war. A secret worth killing over.

Reporter Jack Parlabane thrives on chasing stories in unlikely places, and where could be less likely than a fan convention on a cruise liner celebrating a contentious Sixties TV series? But unlike the media family exploiting their show’s renewed relevance, he’s not there to stoke controversy: he’s there to solve a murder.

Already in deep water with his employer, Jack desperately needs a win, and solving this decades-old mystery could be it. Problem is, he’s in the middle of the Atlantic, and someone onboard has already killed once to keep their secret.

And that’s not even the tricky part. No, the tricky part is definitely the dead body locked in a stateroom with him, covered in his blood. Now Jack has to solve two murders, otherwise the only way he’s getting off this ship is in handcuffs – or in a body bag.recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.

What will I read next? It could be Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Like her previous novel The Luminaries, which I loved, this book is set in a fictionalised New Zealand, primarily in and around a national park in the South Canterbury region. The title is taken from a line in Macbeth. It follows members of a guerilla gardening collective, Birnam Wood as, with the help of a charismatic tech billionaire, they undertake a new project on abandoned farmland.

But when the time comes to start another book it could be something completely different.