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