Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Readerwhere 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.
It was four o’clock in the morning, that strange interval between night and morning when both seem to be fighting each other for control of the day ahead.
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 is 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.
‘We’re not going to let them get away with it,’ Roderick exclaimed. ‘Someone should do something about him! Someone should … I don’t know! Ever since he came here, he’s been nothing but trouble.’
Synopsis from Goodreads:
In New York Times–bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s ingenious 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
Riverside Close is a picture-perfect community. The six exclusive and attractive houses are tucked far away from the noise and grime of city life, allowing the residents to enjoy beautiful gardens, pleasant birdsong and tranquility from behind the security of a locked gate.
It is the perfect idyll until the Kenworthy family arrives, with their four giant, gas-guzzling cars, a gaggle of shrieking children and plans for a garish swimming pool in the backyard. Obvious outsiders, the Kenworthys do not belong in Riverside Close, and they quickly offend every last one of their neighbours.
When Giles Kenworthy is found dead on his own doorstep, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest, Detective Hawthorne is the only investigator that can be called on to solve the case.
Because how do you solve a murder when everyone is a suspect?
~~~
What do you think, does it appeal to you? What are you currently reading?
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 Favourite Book Quotes (You can pick your favourite quotes from books, or about books! You can set a theme like quotes from books about love, friendship, hope, etc. or you can just share quotes you loved from your recent reads!)
Here are 10 quotes from my favourite Shakespeare play Hamlet.
O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! (Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 2)
Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. (Polonius, Act 1 Scene 3)
That one may smile and smile and be a villain. (Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5)
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. (Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5)
Brevity is the soul of wit. (Polonius, Act 2 Scene 2)
Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t. (Polonius, Act 2 Scene 2)
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. (Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2)
To be, or not to be, that is the question. (Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1)
The lady protests too much, methinks. (Gertrude, Act 3 Scene 2)
If it be now, ’tis not to come: if it be not to come, it will be now: if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. (Hamlet, Act 5 Scene 2)
Penguin 23 May 2024 | 392 pages|e-book |Review copy| 5*
Synopsis
ANCIENT ROME, AD 37
It begins with a man’s hand curled around another’s throat.
Emperor Tiberius first dispatches a traitor. Then his whole family.Next all his friends. It is as if he never existed.
THIS IS ROMAN JUSTICE.
Into this fevered forum, a child is born. His mother is Agrippina, granddaughter of Emperor Augustus. But their imperial blood is no protection. The closer you are to the heart of the empire, the closer you are to power, intrigue, and danger. She faces soldiers, senators, rivals, silver-tongued pretenders, each vying for position. One mistake risks exile, incarceration, execution. Or, worst of all, the loss of her infant son. For Agrippina knows that opportunity waits, even in your darkest moments. Her son is everything. She can make this boy, shape him into Rome itself – the one all must kneel before.
BUT FIRST, THEY MUST SURVIVE . . .
This then is the story of Nero’s birth and raising under the watchful and scheming eye of his mother Agrippina – a woman every man crossed at his peril.
My thoughts:
I’ve enjoyed three books by Conn Iggulden and Nero is no exception. It is excellent. It’s the first in a new trilogy and having read it I’m eagerly looking forward to reading the next two books about Nero. This is the story of his 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.
My interest in historical fiction about the Romans really began in 1976 when I watched the BBC adaptation of I, Claudius and Claudius the Godby Robert Graves, starring Derek Jacobi as Claudius. Later on I read the books, which I loved (I’m tempted to re-read them). Nero brought it back to me as it covers the reigns of Tiberius (the end of his reign), Nero’s uncle, Caligula, and then his great-uncle, Claudius.
Iggulden writes well, bringing life during this period vividly to life. He doesn’t hold back on describing the cruelty and brutality of the times. – he states in his Historical Note: ‘Tiberius was a horror of ancient Rome, who tainted or destroyed anything he touched. … Details of Tiberius’ parties on Capri are too grim to relate …’ There are episodes where, if I’d been watching on TV I would have been covering my eyes, and peeping through my fingers – but I am rather squeamish!
The Historical Note at the end of the book gives further details about the characters, their lives and relationships; and about the ad 43 invasion of Britain, about trade between the empire and Britain before the invasion, and the battle of Medway that took place in Kent.
Despite the gory and bloody scenes I thoroughly enjoyed Nero. Iggulden is a great storyteller.
My thanks to Michael Joseph / Penguin Random House, the publishers for a review copy via NetGalley.
Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Readerwhere 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 Archangel by Robert Harris, one of my TBRs, a book I bought five years ago. It is a thriller set in late 20th century Russia.
Book Beginning:
Late one night a long time ago – before you were even born, boy – a bodyguard stood on the verandah at the back of a big house in Moscow, smoking a cigarette.
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 is 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:
Stalin had suffered a catastrophic haemorrhage in the left cerebral hemisphere some time when he was alone in his room between 4 am and 10 pm on Sunday March 1 1953. Academician Vinogradov, who examined the brain after death, found serious hardening of the cerebral arteries which suggested Stalin had probably been half-crazy for a long while, maybe even years.
Synopsis from Amazon:
When historian Fluke Kelso learns of the existence of a secret notebook belonging to Josef Stalin he is determined to track it down, whatever the consequences. From the violent political intrigue and decadence of modern Moscow he heads north – to the vast forests surrounding the White Sea port of Archangel, and a terrifying encounter with Russia’s unburied past.
~~~
What do you think, does it appeal to you? What are you currently reading?
Cathy over at 746Books is hosting her 20 Books of Summer challenge for the tenth year. You can choose to read 20, 15 or 10 books from your TBR shelves and the challenge begins on Saturday 1 June and finishes on Sunday 1 September. You can find the rules and sign up details for this year here.
I first took part in 2015 and I have done it most years since then although not last year as I wasn’t well. Part of the pleasure in taking on this challenge is compiling the list of books I’d like to read and looking through my unread books.
And here are the books I may read – because the ‘rules’ of this challenge allow you to swap any book if you want to, change your list half way through, or decide to drop your goal from 20 to 15 or 10! And I expect I’ll be doing some changes as I’m very good at listing the books I want to read and very bad at sticking to the list.
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 May Flowers — you can pick your own title for this one to reflect the direction you choose to go with this prompt (books with flowers on the cover, flower names in the title, characters whose names are flower names, stories involving flowers/gardeners).
Although roses are not flowers that bloom in May I’ve chosen to feature books with the word Rosein the title (except for Deadhead, which has roses in each chapter heading). I’ve listed them in A-Z author order. Some are books I’ve read and I’ve linked the titles to my posts. The others I’ve linked to the descriptions in Goodreads or Amazon:
The Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly (not read). It is India, 1922, and the wives of officers in the Bengal Greys have been dying violently, one each year and always in March. The only link between the bizarre but apparently accidental deaths is the bunches of small red roses that appear on the women’s graves. When a fifth wife is found with her wrists cut in a bath of blood, the Governor rejects the verdict of suicide and calls in Joe Sandilands, an ex-soldier and Scotland Yard Detective. It becomes clear to Joe that the deaths are, indeed, a series of murders, and they are have not yet run their course. Who will be the recipient of the next—and last—Kashmiri Roses? As he discovers the shocking truth, Joe must work fast to unmask a killer whose motives are rooted in the dark history of India itself.
White Rose, Black Forest by Eoin Dempsey, a World War Two novel, 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. a novel inspired by true events The White Rose movement in Germany was a non-violent intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany, who conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, a fantastic historical crime mystery novel set in a Franciscan monastery in 14th century Italy. William of Baskerville and his assistant Adso are sent to the monastery to investigate a series of murders. I’ve read this book twice.
Red Rose, White Rose by Joanna Hickson – (not read) 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. Born of Lancaster and married to York, the willowy and wayward Cicely treads a hazardous path through love, loss and imprisonment and between the violent factions of Lancaster and York, as the Wars of the Roses tear England’s ruling families apart. So nearly queen herself, Cicely Neville was the mother, grandmother and great-grandmother of kings – and her descendants still wear the crown.
Deadheads by Reginald Hill – crime fiction, a Dalziel and Pasco murder mystery. Each chapter is named after a particular rose followed by a description of that rose and the first one is called Mischief, a hybrid tea, in which old Mrs Florence Aldermann instructs her great nephew, eleven year old Patrick, how to deadhead roses and explains why it is necessary. When Patrick inherits the splendid Rosemount House and gardens on the death of his aunt, he is able to indulge his horticultural passions without restraint. But is he a murderer?
The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon historical fiction about the Crimean War as seen through the eyes of Mariella Lingwood. Her fiance, Henry is a surgeon who volunteered his services at the battlefields and her cousin Rosa, determined to be a nurse has also gone to the Crimea. There’s a good deal of interesting and somewhat gruesome descriptions of the medical practices and, surprisingly to me at any rate, criticism of Florence Nightingale.
The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel – historical fiction set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, this is a World War Two romance, the story of Aiyi Shao, a young heiress and the owner of a glamorous Shanghai nightclub and Ernest Reismann, a penniless Jewish refugee who had fled from Germany. I loved the beginning of this book but the rest of it was not so good – too much ‘telling’ and I’d have liked less focus on the romance, which to me was barely believable.
Where Roses Fade by Andrew Taylor (not read), book 5 in the Lydmouth Crime series. When Mattie Harris’s body is found drowned in the river, everyone in Lydmouth knows something is wrong. Mattie wasn’t a swimmer – it can’t have been a simple accident. She was drunk on the last night of her life – could she have fallen in? Or was she pushed?
Mattie was a waitress, of no importance at all, so when Lydmouth’s most prominent citizens become very anxious to establish that her death was accidental, Jill Francis’s suspicions become roused. In the meantime she is becoming ever closer to Inspector Richard Thornhill, and discovering that the living have as many secrets as the dead…
Black Roses by Jane Thynne, one of my TBRs. Berlin, 1933. Warning bells ring across Europe as Hitler comes to power. Clara Vine is young and ambitious, and determined to succeed as an actress. A chance meeting at a party in London leads her to Berlin, to the famous Ufa studios and, unwittingly, into an uneasy circle of Nazi wives, among them Magda Goebbels. Then Clara meets Leo Quinn who is undercover, working for British intelligence. Leo sees in Clara the perfect recruit to spy on her new acquaintances, using her acting skills to win their confidence. But when Magda Goebbels reveals to Clara a dramatic secret and entrusts her with an extraordinary mission, Clara feels threatened, compromised and desperately caught between duty and love.
The Rose and the Yew Tree by Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie) (not read) A captivating novel of love and intrigue. Everyone expected Isabella Charteris, beautiful, sheltered and aristocratic, to marry her cousin Rupert when he came back from the War. It would have been such a suitable marriage. How strange then that John Gabriel, an ambitious and ruthless war hero, should appear in her life. For Isabella, the price of love would mean abandoning her dreams of home and happiness forever. For Gabriel, it would destroy his chance of a career and all his ambitions…
Famous for her ingenious crime books and plays, Agatha Christie also wrote about crimes of the heart, six bittersweet and very personal novels, as compelling and memorable as the best of her work.
