Category: Crime Fiction

Top 5 Tuesday: Top 5 anticipated reads for Q1 2025

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Top 5 Tuesday was created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, and it is now being hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads. For details of all of the latest prompts for January to March, see Meeghan’s post here.

The topic this week is Top 5 anticipated reads for Q1 2025. It’s time to talk about all the shiny new books coming out in January, February and March in 2025. What are the books you can’t wait to hold in your hands the most?

Murder as a Fine Art (A book in the Julian Rivers series) by Carol Carnac (E.C.R. Lorac) Publication date 10 January 2025

When a civil servant at the newly formed Ministry of Fine Arts is found crushed beneath a monstrous marble bust after dark, it appears to be the third instance in a string of fatal accidents at the department. Already disturbed by rumours of forgeries and irregularities in the Ministry’s dealings, Minister Humphry David is soon faced with the possibility that among his colleagues is a murderer – though how the bust could have been made an instrument of death is a masterstroke of criminal devilment. Taking charge of the case, Inspector Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard enters a caustic world of fine art and civil service grievances to unveil a killer hiding in plain sight.

Murder on the Marlow Belle (The Marlow Murder Club Mysteries, Book 4) by Robert Thorogood Publication date 16 January 2025

Verity Beresford is worried about her husband. Oliver didn’t come home last night so of course Verity goes straight to Judith Potts, Marlow’s resident amateur sleuth, for help. Oliver, founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, had hired The Marlow Belle, a private pleasure cruiser, for an exclusive party with the MADS committee but no one remembers seeing him disembark. And then Oliver’s body washes up on the Thames with two bullet holes in him – it’s time for the Marlow Murder Club to leap into action.

Oliver was a rather complicated chap and he wasn’t short of enemies. Judith, Suzie, and Becks are convinced they’ll crack the case in no time. But things are not as they seem in the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, and the gang will need to keep their wits about them, otherwise a killer may sail away scot-free …

Only Murders in the Abbey by Beth Cowan-Erskine Publication date 13 February 2025

Loch Down Abbey is full of guests for a Highland Ball. Including several uninvited members of the Inverkillen clan, the Abbey’s former residents. Housekeeper Mrs MacBain thinks her biggest challenge will be finding suitable rooms for everyone and keeping the peace at cocktail hour.

Until the morning after the ball, when one of the guests is discovered inside the Abbey’s library – as dead as a doornail.

Who would have had motive to want them dead? And how did they manage to commit their crime and escape while keeping the door locked from the inside? With an Abbey full of suspects and secrets, it is down to Mrs MacBain to catch the killer before they strike again…

The Frozen People: An Ali Dawson Mystery by Elly Griffiths Publication date 13 February 2025

Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen – or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research.

The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London in order to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of MP Isaac Templeton. Rumour has it that Cain was part of a sinister group called The Collectors; to become a member, you had to kill a woman…

Fearing for her safety in the middle of a freezing Victorian winter, Ali finds herself stuck in time, unable to make her way back to her life, her beloved colleagues, and her son, Finn, who suddenly finds himself in legal trouble in the present day. Could the two cases be connected?

Murder at Gulls Nest: Nora Breen Investigates by Jess Kidd Publication date 13 March 2025

Somewhere in the north, a religious community meets for Vespers. Here on the southeast coast, Nora Breen prepares for braised liver and a dining room full of strangers.

After thirty years in a convent, Nora Breen has thrown off her habit and set her sights on the seaside town of Gore-on-Sea. Why there? Why now? Instinct tells her it’s better not to reveal her reasons straight away. She takes a room at Gulls Nest guest house and settles in to watch and listen.

Over disappointing – and sometimes downright inedible – dinners, Nora realises that she was right to keep quiet: her fellow lodgers are hiding something. At long last, she has found an outlet for her powers of observation and, well, nosiness: there is a mystery to solve, and she is the only person for the job.

Recent Additions: Christmas Presents

Published on by Margaret3 Comments

I’ve always loved books and whenever anyone asked me what I’d like for my birthday or Christmas the answer was always ‘books, please’ . So l was delighted this last Christmas to receive four books!

Two of them are books that were on my wish list and the other two were complete surprises.

One: Simple One-Pan Wonders by Jamie Oliver (from my wish list)

I’ve got some of Jamie’s books, and this one looks like a good addition. In his introduction he writes ‘With a twinkle in my eye I want to position this book as one that is absolutely dedicated to the art of minimal washing up – you cook each recipe in just one pan or tray … it’s about making your life easier.’ I like the idea of minimal washing up and will be cooking quite a lot of these recipes.

It has over 120 recipes for tasty, fuss-free and satisfying dishes cooked in just one pan. What’s better: each recipe has just eight ingredients or fewer, meaning minimal prep (and washing up) and offering maximum convenience. With chapters including Veggie Delights, Celebrating Chicken, Frying Pan Pasta, Batch Cooking, Puds & Cakes, it all looks simply delicious.

Wars of the Roses: Stormbird Book One by Conn Iggulden (from my wish list)

Historical fiction has long been a great favourite of mine. I absolutely loved Sharon Penman’s The Sunne in Splendour that made me want to know more about the Wars of the Roses.So, when I found Iggulden had written a trilogy about the civil war I was keen to read it. I’ve read some of Iggulden’s other historical fiction novels and loved them, so I’m looking forward to reading this.

King Henry V – the great Lion of England – is long dead. In 1437, after years of regency, the pious and gentle Henry VI, the Lamb, comes of age and accedes to the English throne. His poor health and frailty of mind render him a weakling king -Henry depends on his closest men, Spymaster Derry Brewer and William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, to run his kingdom.

Yet there are those, such as the Plantagenet Richard, Duke of York, who believe England must be led by a strong king if she is to survive. With England’s territories in France under threat, and rumours of revolt at home, fears grow that Henry and his advisers will see the country slide into ruin. With a secret deal struck for Henry to marry a young French noblewoman, Margaret of Anjou, those fears become all too real.

As storm clouds gather over England, King Henry and his supporters find themselves besieged abroad and at home. Who, or what can save the kingdom before it is too late?

The Case of the Canterfell Codicil (Anty Boisjoly Mysteries Book 1) by PJ Fitzsimmons (not on my wish list). This was a complete surprise for me as I don’t know anything about this book, or the author. It’ll be good reading a new-to-me author and I do like locked room mysteries.

1920s gadabout Anty Boisjoly takes on his first case when his Oxford chum is facing the gallows, accused of the murder of his wealthy uncle.


Not one but two locked-room murders later, Boisjoly’s pitting his wits and witticisms against a subversive butler, a senile footman, a single-minded detective-inspector, an errant goat, and the eccentric conventions of the pastoral Sussex countryside to untangle a multi-layered mystery of secret bequests, ancient writs, love triangles, revenge, and a teasing twist in the final paragraph.


The Case of the Canterfell Codicil is a classic, cosy, locked-room mystery with an improbable plot inspired by Agatha Christie and prose in the style of an homage to PG Wodehouse.

Wintering: The power of rest and retreat in difficult times by Katherine May (a surprise, not on my wish list). It’s a memoir covering quite a wide range of topics, not just about winter, or rest and retreat. I’ve seen this book is one people either praise it or criticise it, so I’m keen to know what I think of it.

Wintering is a poignant and comforting meditation on the fallow periods of life, times when we must retreat to care for and repair ourselves. Katherine May thoughtfully shows us how to come through these times with the wisdom of knowing that, like the seasons, our winters and summers are the ebb and flow of life.

A moving personal narrative interwoven with lessons from literature, mythology and the natural world, May’s story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas.

Ultimately, Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.

There’s a Reason for Everything by E R Punshon

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

There’s a Reason for Everything by E R Punshon is the third book I’ve read for Dean Street Press December, hosted by Liz at Adventures in Reading, Running and Working from Home. I’d never read anything by him before, or even heard of him, but it was one of the books Dean Street Press was giving away free in November 2021, so I was lucky to receive it. It’s the 21st in the Bobby Owen mystery series, first published in September 1945, and Bobby has recently been promoted from Inspector to Deputy Chief Constable of Wychshire.

The first thing to say is that I enjoyed it and the second thing is that it is a complicated novel with murders, a missing painting allegedly by Vermeer, dodgy fine art dealers and an abandoned country mansion, Nonpareil, once the home of the Tallebois family, and known as a haunted house.

Description from Amazon:

With a slow gesture of one lifted hand, Bobby pointed. There, in a space between the prostrate stag and posturing goddess, was a human leg, a twisted, motionless leg in a strained, unnatural position.

Bobby Owen, now Deputy Chief Constable of Wychshire, finds himself taking part in a ghost hunt at legendary haunted mansion Nonpareil. What he discovers is the very real corpse of a paranormal investigator. It seems that among the phantoms there are fakes – but will that end up including a priceless painting by Vermeer?

Nonpareil, where much of the action tales place, dominates the book. It is enormous, with many rooms, now boarded up and in darkness, connected by a

far-stretching labyrinth of corridors and of rooms, room upon room, one opening from another, all in gloom alleviated by the spare daylight that here and there struggled through chinks and cracks in the boarded windows. (page 83)

The silence is intense in the all-pervading gloom, with great shadows where a man could lurk unseen and in its east and west wings space enough to hide an army. The picture gallery, a long, lofty, narrow room, with windows on one side and niches between the windows where shrouded statues stand, is darker even than anywhere else in the house. A sense of danger, spookiness and foreboding pervades the book and it has a great sense of place.

The characters are just as mysterious, apart from the police, of course. Are they who they say they are? I was perplexed for quite some time until I began to see what was behind the bewildering confusion in Punshon’s narrative. I think this is a cleverly constructed plot, with ingenious puzzles to piece together before all the answers are revealed. I was quite pleased to find out at the end that I’d worked out one of the clues correctly.

I’ll certainly look for more of Punshon’s books to read. There are 35 Bobby Owen mysteries, 1 Inspector Carter mystery and 4 novels.

About the author from Dean Street Press:

E.R. Punshon was born in London in 1872.

At the age of fourteen he started life in an office. His employers soon informed him that he would never make a really satisfactory clerk, and he, agreeing, spent the next few years wandering about Canada and the United States, endeavouring without great success to earn a living in any occupation that offered. Returning home by way of working a passage on a cattle boat, he began to write. He contributed to many magazines and periodicals, wrote plays, and published nearly fifty novels, among which his detective stories proved the most popular and enduring.

He died in 1956.

Six Degrees of Separation from Orbital by Samantha Newman to Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

It’s time again for Six Degrees of Separation, a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

This month starts with Orbital by Samantha Harvey, the 2024 Booker winner:

A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.

My first link is The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey. I came to the end of this book and immediately wanted to start it again. What seems at first to be a simple tale is actually a multi-layered and complex book. I really enjoyed reading it. It’s set in the late 15th century in a small village in Somerset. A man disappears, presumed drowned – but how and why did he die?

My second link is a book also set in the 15th century, The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman, a fascinating novel about Richard III’s life from his childhood to his death at Bosworth Field in 1485. I think this is one of the best historical novels that I’ve read. It is full of detail, but Sharon Penman’s research sits very lightly in this book, none of it feels like a history lesson, and it all brings Richard’s world to life.

I’m staying in the 15th century for my third link, Red Rose, White Rose by Joanna Hickson, set in 15th century England during the Wars of the Roses when Cecily Neville was torn between both sides. Her father was Richard Neville, the Duke of Westmorland and a staunch Lancastrian and she married Richard Plantagenet of York and became the mother of Edward IV and Richard III. Told through the eyes of Cicely and her half-brother Cuthbert, this is the story of one of the most powerful women in England during one of its most turbulent periods.

For my fourth link I’m using the words ‘white rose‘ in the title and moving from the 15th century to the 20th with White Rose, Black Forest by Eoin Dempsey, a World War 2 novel. It’s told from the perspective of a German who opposed the Nazis and is set in the Black Forest, Germany in 1943, where Franka Gerber is living alone in an isolated cabin, having returned to her home town of Freiburg after serving a prison sentence for anti-Nazi activities.

My fifth link is to another novel set in World War 2 – Checkmate to Murder by E C R Lorac, a Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald murder mystery. What I found fascinating in this book is the insight into what life was like in wartime London, complete with the London fog and the details of the blackout and although the Blitz was over there were still plenty of bangs and noise so that a gunshot wasn’t easily heard. 

For my final link I’m moving to London in the 19th century with Bleak House by Charles Dickens about the obscure case in the Court of Chancery of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Here’s his description of fog in Chapter 1:

Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little ‘prentice boy on deck. Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon and hanging in the misty clouds.

My chain moves from the International Space Station to London in the 19th century and has travelled through the 15th century with a brief stop in the 20th century. The books are historical and crime fiction

What is in your chain, I wonder?

Next month (February 1, 2025), we’ll start with a classic – Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books I Read in 2024

Published on by Margaret9 Comments

This week’s topic is:  Best Books I Read In 2024.

Top 5 fiction:

The Stars Look Down by A.J. Cronin, a family saga chronicling the lives of a number of interconnected families over a period of thirty years. 

The story starts in 1903 in a North Country mining town, Sleescale, a fictional town, as its inhabitants experienced social and political upheaval. It ends in 1933. It highlights the terrible conditions in the coal mines, the lack of workers’ rights and the need for change in the relationship between the coal miners and the mine owners.

It’s a long book, but I read it quickly, completely absorbed in all the sub plots and keen to know how it would all be resolved. There is plenty of drama, with scenes including a flood in the pit, killing one hundred and five miners, including David’s father and brother. Cronin’s descriptive writing is so strong, conveying the terrible conditions in the pit, as the miners find themselves trapped and slowly realise there is no way out. Those scenes in particular made a big impression on me and will stay with me for quite some time.

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh, a powerful novel that kept me glued to its pages;

It is set partly in Bristol, England where Jacob is killed, and then moves into a small coastal village in Wales where Jenna is trying to make a new life for herself. It’s heart-wrenching reading as Jenna tries to put the past behind her and at times I thought this was a romantic novel. But it’s not, as it becomes clear that there are secrets in her past that haunt her. It’s almost a book of two parts and the second half is dark and violent, full of suspense and menace, and really shocking twists and turns. The characters are fully rounded, extremely well-drawn and realistic. The settings are vividly described, especially of the beautiful Welsh coast line. I could picture it so well and it made me long to be there.

The Tree of Hands by Ruth Rendell, one of her best standalone books.

Why I enjoyed it so much is that it thoroughly gripped me and made me want to read on and on. It’s a psychological thriller, full of suspense, with several twists and turns that made me unsure how it would end. I was delighted by the final twist!

Benet’s son, James aged four dies from croup whilst in hospital soon after Mopsa, her mother with a history of mental illness, comes to visit. Meanwhile Carol, a young widow with three kids, two of them in care, is living nearby with Barry, her younger boyfriend. He adores her but she doesn’t want to marry him, content for him to do all the housework and look after Jason her two year old son when he is not being looked after by babysitters. The trouble starts when Mopsa kidnaps Jason and brings him back to Benet as a replacement for James.

The Silence Between Breaths by Cath Staincliffe, about a group of people on the 10.35 train from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston. It’s a story of a routine journey that takes a terrifying turn. You know early on both from the description on Amazon and from the back cover that one of the passengers, Saheel, has a ‘deadly secret’ ie a bomb, in his rucksack. So, the tension is there from the beginning of the book and I was wondering when he was going to the let off the bomb and what would happen to the passengers.

The characterisation is superb, so that I cared about each person, the setting is so well described in such detail that it all happened before my eyes and the drama and tension grew as the events played out. One of the standout books that I’ve read this year.

The Flower Arranger at All Saints by Lis Howell

There is a lot to like in this book. The setting is Tarnfield, a fictional Cumbrian village. The setting is described so well that I could ‘see’ it all. It’s picturesque, quiet and secluded, a place where everyone knows everybody’s business. The church plays a huge part in village life, but traditions are being upended by the new vicar and his fondness for playing the guitar during sermons.

And the characters are so ‘real’. I believed in them and even though there are many of them they’re all easily distinguishable and I loved the biblical references and flower clues – they’re intriguing. The plot too kept me keen to carry on reading, wanting to know the identity of the murderer.

Top 5 nonfiction:

Shakespeare: The Man who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench, Brendan O’Hea, an enthralling book.

Reading it is like being in the room with Dame Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea as they talked about Judi’s career, her love for Shakespeare, and the numerous roles she has played over the years. Shakespeare to Judi Dench is a passionate affair, she talks about it with love.

This book is a wonderful run through the plays told from Judi’s perspective and, of course, her life, giving her insight not only into the characters but also into the world of the theatre. She talks about the rehearsals, the costumes, the sets, other actors, about critics, Shakespeare’s language – similes and metaphors, the use of rhyme, prose and verse, soliloquies, asides and how to adjust your breathing – and so on. Whatever she is talking about is all so clear and relevant, full of wit and humour and understanding.

Maiden Voyages by Sian Evans, a fascinating portrait of the women, and their lives on board magnificent ocean liners as they sailed between the old and the new worlds.

It covers a wide range of topics that fascinate me – not just travel, but also social history, both World Wars, the sinking of the Titanic, emigration, the impact that the ocean liners had on the economy. and on women’s working lives and independence, adventure and so much more besides.

The ocean liner was a microcosm of contemporary society, divided by class: from the luxury of the upper deck, playground for the rich and famous, to the cramped conditions of steerage or third class travel. These iconic liners were filled with women of all ages, classes and backgrounds: celebrities and refugees, migrants and millionairesses, aristocrats and crew members.

Great Meadow by Dirk Bogarde, first published in 1992,  is volume five of Bogarde’s best-selling memoirs.

A recollection of his childhood, from 1927 to 1934 when he was a 19 year old, living in a remote cottage in the Sussex Downs with his sister Elizabeth and their strict but loving nanny, Lally. For the children it was an idyllic time of joy and adventure: of gleaning at the end of summer, of oil lamps and wells, of harvests and harvest mice in the Great Meadow.

Into the Tangled Bank: Discover the Quirks, Habits and Foibles of How We Experience Nature by Lev Parikian

This is non fiction about nature. It’s easy reading, Parikian writes with humour, in a chatty style, but also richly descriptive. I loved it, it is compulsive reading. He is a storyteller, so there are lots of anecdotes and stories, plus his thoughts on nature and how we view it. Amongst many other topics he ponders about the ethics of zoos – something that puzzles me too – and wonders if the definition of a nature lover is becoming that of one who loves nature programmes. There’s a lot packed into this book.

Getting Better by Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen has grieved the loss of a child, lived with debilitating chronic illness, and faced death itself when seriously unwell in hospital with Covid. In spite of this he has survived, and has even learned to find joy in life in the aftermath of tragedy. In Getting Better, he shares his story and the lessons he has learned along the way. Exploring the roles that trauma and grief have played in his own life, Michael investigates the road to recovery, asking how we can find it within ourselves to live well again after – or even during – the darkest times of our lives. Moving and insightful, this is a wonderful book.

Who Pays the Piper? by Patricia Wentworth

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Dean Street Press| 2016| 255 pages| e-book|3.5* rounded up to 4*

This month, Liz at Adventures in Reading, Running and Working from Home is hosting another Dean Street Press December. After my disappointment reading The Red Lacquer Case by Patricia Wentworth I decided to see if Who Pays the Piper? was any better. And I’m delighted to say that it is. It was originally published in 1940, so 16 years later than The Red Lacquer Case. It’s the 2nd book in the Inspector Ernest Lamb Mysteries. This new edition published by Dean Street Press features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

Description from Dean Street Press:

Lucas Dale, new owner of King’s Bourne, was flirting with danger when he showed his priceless collection of pearls to the guests assembled in his period salon. But when, under threat, he forced lovely Susan Lenox to break her engagement and consent to marry him, he started a train of events that inevitably led to murder, shattering the quiet of the English village. Bill Carrick, Susan’s former fiancé, is the primary suspect, but as Inspector Ernest Lamb and Detective Frank Abbott soon discover, Dale’s questionable past offered motives of revenge and greed to darken the mystery. Motives which would lead another victim into the path of murder…

It’s a murder mystery, so that may explain why I prefer this one to The Red Lacquer Case, as I do enjoy crime fiction more than stories about enemy agents and unconvincing kidnappers that left me feeling exasperated. Who Pays the Piper? is complicated, with many twists and turns, convincing characters and plenty of suspects with plausible motives, along with red herrings – very much like some of Agatha Christie’s plots.

The title is part of the saying ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune’ meaning that the person who provides the money for something decides what will be done, or has a right to decide what will be done. The ‘piper’ in the title is Lucas Dale, who in the opening pages declares that he always gets what he wants. And having bought Bourne House from Mrs O’Hara what he wants is Susan Lennox, her niece. He forces her to agree to marry him and break her engagement with Bill Carrick, which in turn makes him a prime suspect when Lucas is found dead, shot through the back of his head. Bill had been overheard threatening to kill him. 

But he is not the only suspect and it is down to Inspector Ernest Lamb and Sergeant Frank Abbott (who also appear in some of the Miss Silver books) to investigate the case. They discover Dale’s questionable past includes others with a motive to kill him. There is his ex-wife wife, Cora de Lisle and Vincent Bell, his American business partner who both wanted money from Dale. I thoroughly enjoyed trying to unravel it all, even though when the murderer was revealed I was rather surprised.