Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56: I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

I’m featuring I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh, a book I’m currently reading. It won Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award in 2016, beating J K Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith. I’ve had this book since 2017 and I started to read it then but as it begins with a tragedy I didn’t feel up to reading it and put it back on the shelf for a while. I picked it up again recently when I discovered that Clare Mackintosh, a former police officer, is a member of Crime Cymru, a consortium of Welsh crime writers to promote Welsh crime fiction. And as March is Reading Wales Month I think it’s a good time to read it now.

Book Beginning:

Prologue: The wind flicks wet hair across her face, and she screws up her eyes against the rain. Weather like this makes everyone hurry: scurrying past on slippery pavements with chins buried into collars.

and then Chapter One:

Detective Inspector Ray Stevens stood next to the window and contemplated his office chair, on which an arm had been broken for at least a year.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Page 56:

Ray sighed. Puberty had turned his son into a grunting, uncommunicative teenager, and he was dreading the day the same thing happened to his daughter. You weren’t supposed to have favourites, but he had a soft spot for Lucy, who at nine would seek him out for a cuddle and insist on a bedtime story.

Description from Amazon:

A tragic accident. It all happened so quickly. She couldn’t have prevented it. Could she?

In a split second, Jenna Gray’s world descends into a nightmare. Her only hope of moving on is to walk away from everything she knows to start afresh. Desperate to escape, Jenna moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, but she is haunted by her fears, her grief and her memories of a cruel November night that changed her life forever.

Slowly, Jenna begins to glimpse the potential for happiness in her future. But her past is about to catch up with her, and the consequences will be devastating . . .

~~~

What do you think, does it appeal to you? What are you currently reading?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with the Word ‘Death’ 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 Books I’m Worried I Might Not Love as Much the Second Time Around (I love re-reading, but there are some books that hit so perfectly and I loved so much that I worry reading them again wouldn’t be the same. Or maybe the books I read when I was younger wouldn’t be favorites anymore. Or maybe some books just don’t age well?)

But as I don’t re-read very often I’m focusing on Books with the Word ‘Death’ in the Titles.

  1. Death at the President’s Lodging by Michael Innes – What struck me most about this Inspector Appleby mystery is that it is essentially a ‘locked room’ mystery. Dr Umpleby, the unpopular president of St Anthony’s College (a fictional college similar to an Oxford college) is found in his study, shot through the head.
  2. Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie is set on the West bank of the Nile at Thebes in about 2000 BC. She based her characters and plot on some letters from a Ka priest in the 11th Dynasty.
  3. Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn, the first book in her Daisy Dalrymple series. It’s a quick and easy read, a mix of Agatha Christie and PG Wodehouse, set in 1923 at the Earl of Wentwater’s country mansion, Wentwater Court.
  4. Agatha Christie’s Death in the Clouds, a kind of locked room mystery, only this time the ‘locked room’ is a plane on a flight from Paris to Croydon.
  5.  Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong, his first book featuring Chief Inspector Chen. It won the Anthony Award for Best First Crime Novel in 2001.
  6. Death Has Deep Roots: a Second World War Mystery by Michael Gilbert. Set in 1950 this is a mix of a courtroom drama, a spy novel and an adventure thriller. 
  7. Death in the Tunnel by Miles Burton, a British Library Crime Classic, first published in 1936, about the death of Sir Wilfred Saxonby who was found in a first class compartment of the 5 pm train from London to Stourford.
  8.  The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz. Divorce lawyer Richard Pryce was found dead in his home, having been hit on the head by a wine bottle, a 1982 Chateau Lafite worth £3,000, and then stabbed to death with the broken bottle.
  9. A Death in the Dales is the 7th book in Frances Brody’s Kate Shackleton series of historical crime fiction books set in 1920s Yorkshire. 
  10. Death Under Sail by C P Snow This is a classic mystery, a type of ‘country house’ mystery, but set on a wherry (a sailing boat) on the Norfolk Broads, where Roger Mills, a Harley Street specialist, is taking a group of six friends on a sailing holiday. When they find him at the tiller with a smile on his face and a gunshot through his heart, all six fall under suspicion.

Stacking the Shelves March 2024

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

Several years ago I used to take part in the Stacking the Shelves meme. This meme is now hosted by Marlene at Reading Reality and the details are on her blog, as well as a huge amount of book reviews. Why not visit her blog if you haven’t already found it? The gorgeous graphic is also used courtesy of the site.

It’s all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may they be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical stores or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course e-books!

These are the latest e-books I’ve bought:

The descriptions are from Amazon.

Homecoming by Kate Morton

A breathtaking mystery of love, lies and a cold case come back to life, Homecoming is an immersive, twisting epic from the bestselling Kate Morton, told with her trademark intricacy and beauty.

Adelaide Hills, 1959. At the end of a scorching hot day, in the grounds of a grand country house, a local man makes a terrible discovery. Police are called, and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most mystifying murder investigations in the history of Australia.

London, 2018. Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for nearly two decades, a phone call summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, has suffered a fall and is seriously ill in hospital.

Seeking comfort in her past, Jess discovers a true crime book at Nora’s house chronicling a long-buried police case: the Turner Family Tragedy of 1959. And within its pages she finds a shocking personal connection to this notorious event – a crime that has never truly been solved.

~~~

This Impossible Brightness by Jessica Bryant Klagmann

After the mysterious disappearance of her fiancé, Alma Hughes moves to a remote island in the North Atlantic, where she hopes to weather her grief and nurture her ailing dog. But the strange town of Violette has mysteries as well.

Townsfolk say that the radio tower overlooking their town broadcasts messages through their home appliances, their dreams, even the sea itself. When lightning strikes the tower, illuminating the sky in a brilliant flash, Alma finds herself caught in the unexplainable aftermath of one of Violette’s deadliest storms.

As the sea consumes the island, threatening its very existence, the deaths and lost memories of the recently departed also devastate the community. Alma, with a unique link to the lost, may be the only one who can help them move on. But to do so, she must confront a tragic loss of her own.

On this doomed island haunted by echoes of the departed, Alma searches for meaning in her future—and dares to discover the power of hope among the living.

~~~

Everything is Everything: a Memoir of Love, Hate and Hope by Clive Myrie

As a Bolton teenager with a paper round, Clive Myrie read all the newspapers he delivered from cover to cover and dreamed of becoming a journalist. In this deeply personal memoir, he tells how his family history has influenced his view of the world, introducing us to his Windrush generation parents, a great grandfather who helped build the Panama Canal, and a great uncle who fought in the First World War, later to become a prominent police detective in Jamaica.

~~~

An Instance of the Fingerpost: Explore the murky world of 17th-century Oxford by Iain Pears – Oxford in the 1660s. Sarah Blundy stands accused of the murder of Robert Grove, a fellow of New College. Four witnesses describe the events surrounding his death: Marco da Cola, a Venetian Catholic intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; Jack Prescott, the son of a supposed traitor to the Royalist cause, determined to vindicate his father; John Wallis, chief cryptographer to both Cromwell and Charles II, a mathematician, theologian and master spy; and Anthony Wood, the famous Oxford antiquary. Each one tells their version of what happened but only one reveals the extraordinary truth. Brilliantly written and utterly convincing.

~~~

The Great Deceiver by Elly Griffiths – book 7 of 7 in the Brighton Mysteries

Magician Max Mephisto, now divorced and living in London, is on his way to visit daughter Ruby and her new-born baby when he is hailed by a voice from the past, fellow performer Ted English, aka the Great Deceiver. Ted’s assistant, Cherry, has been found dead in her Brighton boarding house and he’s convinced that he’ll be accused of her murder.

Max agrees to talk to his friend, Superintendent Edgar Stephens, who is investigating the case. What Max doesn’t know is that the girl’s family have hired private detective duo Emma Holmes (aka Mrs Stephens) and Sam Collins to do some digging of their own.

The inhabitants of the boarding house, most of whom are performing in an Old Time Music Hall show on Brighton pier, are a motley crew. The house is also connected to a sinister radio personality called Pal. When a second magician’s assistant is killed, Edgar suspects a serial killer. He persuades Max to come out of semi-retirement and take part in a summer show. But who can pose as his assistant? Edgar shocks the team by recommending someone close. . .

The Invisible Man by H G Wells

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

The Invisible Man is my Classics Club spin book The rules of the Spin are that this was the book for me to read by 3rd March 2024 and I did. In fact I finished it about two weeks early and only got round to writing about it a few days ago. The Invisible Man was first published in 1897, a science fiction novel, originating in Pearson’s Weekly. But it was not quite what I expected. And I certainly didn’t expect it to turn into slapstick comedy.

Synopsis from Amazon

‘The man’s become inhuman … He has cut himself off from his kind. His blood be upon his own head.’

One night in the depths of winter, a bizarre and sinister stranger wrapped in bandages and eccentric clothing arrives in a remote English village. His peculiar, secretive activities in the room he rents spook the locals. Speculation about his identity becomes horror and disbelief when the villagers discover that, beneath his disguise, he is invisible.

Griffin, as the man is called, is an embittered scientist who is determined to exploit his extraordinary gifts, developed in the course of brutal self-experimentation, in order to conduct a Reign of Terror on the sleepy inhabitants of England. As the police close in on him, he becomes ever more desperate and violent.

In this pioneering novella, subtitled ‘A Grotesque Romance’, Wells combines comedy, both farcical and satirical, and tragedy – to superbly unsettling effect. Since its publication in 1897, The Invisible Man has haunted not only popular culture (in particular cinema) but also the greatest and most experimental novels of the twentieth century.

My thoughts

Griffin, a scientist, is a stranger to the village of Iping in West Sussex, staying at the Coach and Horses Inn. His story is a sad one. Whilst experimenting he has managed to make himself invisible, and dresses from top to toe in clothes, which even in winter makes him stand out from the crowd. Everything he does leads everyone to wonder what is wrong with him and draws attention to himself. What follows grows in intensity, as Griffin causes first confusion, then panic and finally madness. There’s a lot of shouting, pushing and fighting and surprisingly (to me at any rate) quite a lot of comedy – after all the invisible man is as naked as a new born baby.

I enjoyed it. There’s not much to the plot, it’s mainly a character study really, but what an amazing personality. And being invisible is not what he had thought – having to walk around with no shoes or socks on, especially in winter is not funny, neither is the sight of undigested food floating around mid-air. But it is worse than that because Griffin is only at the start of his escapade. By the end he is stark staring bonkers. Wells demonstrates the dangers of using science beyond control. Griffin has succeeded in lowering the refractive index of his body to make it invisible – ‘Either a body absorbs light or reflects it, or refracts it, or does all these things. If it neither refracts nor absorbs light, it cannot of itself be visible.’

Sadly, the end is all violence and drama!

Spell the Month in Books – March 2024

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month. The goal is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. That’s all there is to it! Some months there are optional theme challenges, such as “books with an orange cover” or books of a particular genre, but for the most part, any book you want to use is fair game!

This month’s theme is National Caffeine Month – Books with a beverage on the cover or in the title.

M is for Milkman by Anna Burns

Synopsis:

In an unnamed city, where to be interesting is dangerous, an eighteen-year-old woman has attracted the unwanted and unavoidable attention of a powerful and frightening older man, ‘Milkman’. In this community, where suggestions quickly become fact, where gossip and hearsay can lead to terrible consequences, what can she do to stop a rumour once it has started? Milkman is persistent, the word is spreading, and she is no longer in control . . .

A is for Cakes and Ale by W Somerset Maugham

I read this book back in 2008 and wrote very briefly about it, see this post. The description below is from Goodreads.

Cakes and Ale is both a wickedly satirical novel about contemporary literary poseurs and a skilfully crafted study of freedom. As he traces the fortunes of Edward Driffield and his extraordinary wife Rosie, one of the most delightful heroines of twentieth-century literature, Maugham’s sardonic wit and lyrical warmth expertly combine in this accomplished and unforgettable novel.

C is for The Various Flavours of Coffee by Anthony Capella

This is one of my oldest TBRs, a book I bought in 2008. I’ve started reading it several times, only to put it back on the shelf unread. If you have read it I’d love to know what you think about it.

Synopsis:

London,1895. Robert Wallis, would-be poet, bohemian and impoverished dandy, accepts a commission from coffee merchant Samuel Pinker to categorise the different tastes of coffee – and encounters Pinker’s free-thinking daughters, Philomenia, Ada and Emily. As romance blossoms with Emily, Robert realises that the Muse and marriage may not be incompatible after all.

Sent to Abyssinia to make his fortune in the coffee trade, he becomes obsessed with a negro slave girl, Fikre. He decides to use the money he has saved to buy her from her owner – a decision that will change not only his own life, but the lives of the three Pinker sisters . . .

H is for Murder and Herbal Tea by Janet Lane Walters

It’s book 5 in the Mrs Miller Mysteries series.

Synopsis:

Katherine’s wedding day has arrived and she and Lars make their vows. When she notices one of her best friends hasn’t arrived, she begins to worry. Her friend owns a shop where tea and accompaniments are sold. Her friend’s partner is a micromanager. Katherine’s friend has wanted to dissolve the partnership. A call to the New England town brings the dreadful news of a murder. Kate’s protectiveness factor takes hold and she leaves a note for Lars and heads to rescue her friend. Though she has promised to leave murders alone, she feels she has no choice. Lars follows to help her solve another murder.

The next link up will be on April 6, 2024 when the theme will be Poisson d’Avril – The French version of April Fool’s Day involves fish, so look for books related to fish, bodies of water, or comedy.

Six Degrees of Separation from Tom Lake to Come Tell Me How You Live

Published on by Margaret12 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 Tom Lake by Ann Patchett.

My first link is The Magician’s Assistant also by Ann Patchett, the first book of hers that I read. It’s about illusion – Parsifal was a magician and Sabine had been his assistant for twenty years. She and Parsifal had been married for less than a year when he died suddenly of an aneurysm, leaving her alone in their large house in Los Angeles, apart from a large white rabbit, called Rabbit, who was retired from the stage as he was too big to be pulled out of a hat.

My second link is Hemingway’s Chair by Michael Palin. Martin Sproale is an assistant postmaster obsessed with Ernest Hemingway. Martin lives in a small English village, where he studies his hero and potters about harmlessly–until an ambitious outsider, Nick Marshall, is appointed postmaster instead of Martin. I haven’t written a review of this yet so the link in the title takes you to Goodreads.

My third link is Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer, in which there is another assistant, Beth Rainsford, a research assistant at the Fitzmolean Museum. It’s the first in a series of books following William Warwick’s progress from detective constable to the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. When William meets Beth they fall in love almost at first sight – but Beth has a secret that she keeps from him. 

My fourth link is The Smiling Man by Joseph Knox in which Aidan Waits is a Detective Constable working night shifts with Detective Inspector Peter Sutcliffe, known as Sutty. They investigate the death of the ‘Smiling Man‘ at a disused hotel, The Palace, in Manchester. This is a fascinating and complex novel. Be aware though (if this bothers you), there are some violent scenes, and one strand of the story concerning a particularly loathsome and brutal character called Bateman and an eight year old boy and his little sister is very chilling.

My fifth link is The Clocks by Agatha Christie, which Detective Inspector Hardcastle and Colin Lamb investigate the murder of a dead man found in the sitting room at the home of Miss Pebmarsh at 19 Wilbraham Crescent. The strange thing was that there were five clocks in the sitting room and all, except for the cuckoo clock, which announced the time as 3 o’clock, had stopped at 4.13. 

My final link is another book by Agatha Christie, but not a crime fiction novel. It’s Come Tell Me How You Live, an archaeological memoir. She wrote it in answer to her friends’ questions about what life was like when she accompanied her second husband, Max on his excavations in Syria and Iraq in the 1930s.

My chain is made up of the following links – assistants, detective inspectors, detective constables and books by Agatha Christie.

Next month  (April 6, 2024), Kate is changing it up a little: look at your bookshelf – do you see a Lonely Planet title there? Or an Eyewitness Travel title? Or any other travel guide? That’s your starting book.