Category: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Debut Novels I Enjoyed

Published on by Margaret16 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. For the rules see her blog.

This week’s topic is Debut Novels I enjoyed.

Here they are:

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney – a thriller.  I read it in just two sittings and when I got to the end I immediately had to turn back to the beginning and start reading it again.

Saving Missy by Beth Morrey. This really is a special book, full of wonderful characters, ordinary people drawn from life, about everyday events, pleasures and difficulties. 

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. This is a bitter sweet story of commitment and enduring hope and one that I loved.

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson. A beautiful book about family relationships, about the importance of communication, of talking and sharing experiences and feelings and about friendships. And it’s a love story.

The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirstie Wark. A gentle and leisurely paced book, packed with events, some of them dramatic and devastating in their effect on the characters’ lives.

Blacklands by Belinda Bauer, about Arnold, a serial killer and a twelve year old boy, Stephen. This is a dark and chilling story that took me inside Stephen’s mind and the notorious serial killer Arnold .

The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal, set in the 1850s historical fiction, art history, and a love story as well as a dark tale of obsession, pulsing with drama, intrigue and suspense. It’s full of atmosphere, dark and gothic towards the end.

In the Woods by Tana French. It’s set in Ireland mainly around an archaeological dig of a site prior to the construction of a motorway. A little girl’s body is discovered on the site. Is her death connected to the disappearance of two twelve year-olds 20 years earlier?

After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell. Alice is in a coma after being in road accident, which may or may not have been a suicide attempt. She has been grieving the death of her husband, John. What was it that Alice saw at Edinburgh station that shocked her so much?

Sacrifice by Sharon Bolton A bone chilling, spellbinding novel set on a remote Shetland island where surgeon Tora Hamilton makes the gruesome discovery, deep in peat soil, of the body of a young woman, her heart brutally torn out.

Top Ten Tuesdays: Throwback Freebie Books with Character Names In the Titles

Published on by Margaret5 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. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is a throwback freebie and I’ve chosen to have another go at Books with Character Names In the Titles, which I first did in February 2022.

Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville, the fictionalised life story of Kate Grenville’s maternal grandmother, Sarah Catherine Maunder, known as Dolly.

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

Nero by Conn Iggulden. This is the story of Nero’s birth and early years up to his 10th year. But it’s more about his mother, Agrippina than about him. She was ruthless, scheming and ambitious for her son, allowing no one to stand in her way.

Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, the second Inspector John Appleby book in which he investigates the murder of Lord Auldearn, Lord Chancellor of England whilst on stage during an amateur production of Hamlet at Scamnum Court.

Miss Austen by Gill Hornby, a fictionalised account of Jane Austen as seen through the eyes of her sister, Cassandra.

David Copperfield by Chalers Dickens, said to be his most autobiographical novel. There’s drama, comedy and tragedy, melodrama and pathos as the story follows David’s life from his birth to his adulthood.

Cécile is Dead by Georges Simenon, one of the best Maigret books I’ve read – and it is complicated, remarkably so in a novella of just 151 pages.

The Second Sight of Zachery Cloudesley by Sean Lusk,  a mixture of historical fact and fantasy set in the 18th century, in London and in Constantinople.

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute, set in three parts, with just the third part set in Australia, not in Alice Springs but in Willstown, a fictional town in the outback. Narrated by Noel Strachan, a solicitor, this is the story of Jean Paget. Jean has great strength of character, determination and entrepreneurial skills. 

Mrs March by Virginia Feito, a remarkable character study, taking the reader right inside Mrs March’s head as she descends into paranoia and madness.The whole book is seen solely from her perspective, which makes it the most uncomfortable experience – but that is down to the brilliance of Feito’s writing.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with My Favourite Colour on the Cover

Published on by Margaret10 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. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is Books with My Favourite Colour on the Cover. Here they are in various shades of red:

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz – a prime example of a puzzle-type of crime fiction combining elements of the vintage-style golden age crime novel with word-play and cryptic clues and allusions to Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s also a novel within a novel, with mystery piled upon mystery. I loved it.

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz – the second book in the Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery series in which Daniel Hawthorne, an ex-policeman, now a private investigator, who the police call in to help when they have a case they call a ‘sticker’. What I found particularly interesting was the way that Anthony Horowitz inserted himself into the fiction, recruited by Hawthorne to write a book about him and the cases he investigates.

Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz – the fifth literary whodunit in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series, Detective Hawthorne is once again called upon to solve an unsolvable case—a gruesome murder in an idyllic gated community in which suspects abound, aided by Horowitz, as a fictional character.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel – historical fiction, the story of Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith, and his political rise, set against the background of Henry VIII’s England and his struggle with the Pope over his desire to marry Anne Boleyn. This is the first in the Wolf Hall trilogy, based on the life of Thomas Cromwell (c. 1485-1540), who rose from obscurity to become chief minister of King Henry VIII of England.

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie, a pre-Second World War crime fiction novel. It shows Agatha Christie’s interest in Egypt and archaeology and also reflects much of the flavour and social nuances of the pre-war period. In it she sets a puzzle to solve –  who shot Linnet Doyle, the wealthy American heiress? Although the novel is set in Egypt, an exotic location, it is essentially a ‘locked room mystery’.

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Chistie in which Poirot investigates the death of Simeon Lee, the head of the Lee family. None of his family like him, in fact most of them hate him and there are plenty of suspects for his murder. He is found dead with his throat cut in a locked room – locked from the inside.

Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves, the 8th and last book in Ann Cleeves’ Shetland series. I have loved this series ever since I read the first book, Raven Black, back in 2010. And because I began reading the books before they were televised my picture of Inspector Jimmy Perez is drawn from them rather than from the dramatisations. There are some significant changes  between the TV dramatisations and the books. I love the books, but still enjoyed the TV adaptions.

Red Bones by Ann Cleeves, the third book in her Shetland Quartet. It’s set on Whalsay, where two young archaeologists, excavating a site on Mima Williams’s land, discover human bones. They are sent away for testing – are they an ancient  find or are the bones more contemporary?

Blacklands by Belinda Bauer, crime fiction. This is an absolutely gripping battle of wits between Stephen aged twelve and serial killer Arnold Avery as they exchange letters about the whereabouts of Stephen’s uncle’s body.

The Sun Sister by Lucinda Riley – the only book on this list that I haven’t yet read. It’s the sixth book in The Sven Sisters series, the story of love and loss, inspired by the mythology of the famous star constellation. It’s one of my TBRs only because I’m reading the series in order and so far I’ve read the first three books.

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2024

Published on by Margaret27 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. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2024. I don’t own any of these books – but I do fancy reading them:

To be published 2 July 2024:

The Moonlight Market by Joanne Harris, a ‘modern fairy tale’ about a secret market that appears only in moonlight, where charms and spells are bought with memories.

To be published 18 July 2024:

A Refiner’s Fire by Donna Leon, the 33rd Commissario Guido Brunetti in which he confronts a present-day Venetian menace and the ghosts of a heroism that never was.

City of Woe by A.J. Mackenzie, the 2nd Simon Merrivale mystery. Florence, 1342. A city on the brink of chaos. Restored to favour at court, King’s Messenger Simon Merrivale accompanies an English delegation to Florence, to negotiate a loan to offset King Edward III’s chronic debt.

To be published 22 August 2024:

The Voyage Home by Pat Barker, the 3rd book in the Troy series, historical fiction, the follow-up to The Women of Troy and The Silence of the Girls.

To be published 29 August 2024:July 2024:

The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves , Vera, Book 11, crime fiction, following on from The Rising Tide, which I loved.

Precipice by Robert Harris, historical fiction, summer 1914, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley – aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless – is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age.

Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers, a novel about love, family and the joy of freedom.

To be published 12 September 2024:

The Black Loch by Peter May, the return of Fin Macleod, hero of the Lewis Trilogy. A body is found abandoned on a remote beach at the head of An Loch Dubh – the Black Loch – on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis.

To be published 10 October 2024:

Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin, a John Rebus thriller. John Rebus spent his life as a detective putting Edinburgh’s most deadly criminals behind bars. Now, he’s joined them…

To be published 24 October 2024:

Silent Bones by Val McDermid. Book 8 in the Karen Pirie series. At the moment there is little information about this book, but as I’ve read a lot of the earlier books I’m expecting this one to be good. ‘The ingenious plot kept me guessing all the way through. It delivers on every level‘ MARIAN KEYES

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Summer 2024 To-Read List

Published on by Margaret6 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. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is Books on My Summer 2024 To-Read List. The first two are NetGalley ARCs (advanced reader copies) and the rest are from my 20 Books of Summer 2024 list.

First the NetGalley books:

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson, her 6th Jackson Brodie book, will be published 22 August 2024. I’ve read the first four books, and somehow missed the fifth. I’m expecting this to be good in which Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, to investigate the theft of stolen art works, and eventually a murder.

Hemlock Bay by Martin Edwards, the 4th Rachel Savernack Mystery, will be published on 12 September 2024.  I’ve enjoyed lots of his books before, including the first two Savernack books.

Then the books from my 20 Books of Summer 2024:

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker – historical fiction, retelling the story of the Trojan war from the point of view of the women. 

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith – a psychological thriller about two men whose lives become entangled after one of them proposes they ‘trade’ murders. I haven’t read any of her books but have heard that this is very good.

Killing the Lawyers by Reginald Hill – the 3rd book in the Joe Sixsmith series about a redundant lathe operator turned private eye from Luton. I’ve read several of his Dalzeil and Pascoe books, but this will be my first Joe Sixsmith.

I’ll Never Be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier – her 2nd novel about a young writer in Paris who is obsessed by his love for a young music student.

Unnatural Death by Dorothy L Sayers – the 3rd book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series in which a wealthy old woman died much sooner than the doctor expected. Did she suddenly succumb to illness–or was it murder?

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney. I’m keen to read this psychological thriller with a killer ending, because I enjoyed two of her other books. Isolated on their private island in Cornwall, the Darker family have come together for the first time in over a decade. But one of the family is a killer . . .

The Lady of Sorrows by Anne Zouroudi, the fourth book featuring the enigmatic and courteous investigator Hermes Diaktoros. He visits a remote island to see an ancient icon famed for its miraculous powers. He gets involved in a case of forgery, betrayal and superstition, and dealing with the consequences of an all-consuming rage.

Where Water Lies by Hilary Tailor. A novel about Eliza and her friendship with Maggie, who she last met twenty years earlier. One day she spots a woman who looks just like her. Eliza has spent half her life wondering what really happened that afternoon, but memories are like ripples on water, and can be deceptive.

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Wishes

Published on by Margaret29 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. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is Bookish Wishes. List the top 10 books you’d love to own. In no particular order these are the books on my Amazon Wish List: