April 2025 Reading

This post is much later than usual because of my trip to England, Belgium, and the Netherlands! I didn’t get much reading done once I got off the plane at Heathrow, but I did manage to acquire several books, which I will share later.

My favorite books in April were The Wedding People by Alison Espach and Wild Dark Shore, a haunting, angst-filled story set in an exotic location.  Whether or not you liked it, it was the sort of book that captures your attention even after you finish reading it. I also enjoyed The Far Country by Nevil Shute.

Mystery/Suspense

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (2024). I find Atkinson’s private investigator, Jackson Brodie, very amusing and in this book he has been hired to find a missing painting and winds up at a stately home that is hosting a random group of guests and actors during a blizzard. However, it wasn’t as entertaining as I had hoped and I wondered if I should have reread the previous book first.

Desert Star by Michael Connelly (2022). LAPD Detective Ballard quit the force in the previous book but has since taken back her badge, leaving “the Late Show” to rebuild the cold case unit for the Robbery-Homicide Division. She asks Harry Bosch to come work with the unit as a volunteer and, despite being annoyed with her for going back, he agrees because her resources can help him solve a case that has bothered him for years. This is the fifth book about Renee Ballard, a flawed but appealing protagonist.

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin; narrator, Sebastian Humpreys (2024) (audio). When Chef and television personality Christian Wagner breaks his arm, he asks old friend Paul Delamare to sub for him at the Chester Square Cookery School where a group of quirky students are about to descend. Paul needs distraction from the loss of his partner and gets plenty of it when Christian is murdered and he is suspected of being the killer.

The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen (2025). Maggie Bird and her retired CIA friends are back in a second novel, this time investigating the disappearance of a teenager whose family has vacationed in Purity, Maine for many summers. This was not as dramatic as the first book or as funny as The Thursday Murder Club but was still a very absorbing read. My review.

A Very Lively Murder by Katy Watson (2023). Posy Starling has been cast as Dahlia Lively in The Lady Detective movie but filming on the set is disrupted – first by a prop weapon being mysteriously replaced by a more dangerous version and then by the murder of a cast member. Posy needs the other two actresses who played Dahlia in earlier productions to help her solve the mystery as they did in The Three Dahlias.

Ladies’ Bane by Patricia Wentworth ( 1952). Ione Muir is worried about her sister whom she hasn’t seen since her marriage. Does Allegra really want to use her inheritance to buy the medieval house she has been renting or is her husband bullying her into it? And is it sinister that the two men Ione encountered on a foggy night in London have suddenly arrived in this small country town, just like Ione? My review.

Fiction

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte Conaghy; narrators, Cooper Mortlock, Katherine Littrell, Saskia Maarleveld, Steve West (2025) (audio). When Rowan is shipwrecked on a remote island near Antarctica, she is rescued by the family that lives there – a father and three children. She won’t tell them why she came to the back of beyond but they also have secrets they are keeping from her. This was a fascinating but very dark story. My review.

The Wedding People by Alison Espach (2024). Phoebe’s husband has left her, their pet has died, and her career is going nowhere so she goes to Newport, RI (which they had planned to do together) and finds herself the only hotel guest who is not attending Lila’s wedding. Phoebe and Lila meet by chance and develop an odd but hilarious relationship, which no one understands but they both need.  My review.

Saving Grace by Jane Green (2001)(audio). Grace met her husband, Ted Chapman, a well-known author, when she worked in publishing. Their marriage was reasonably happy and they are both crazy about their daughter, but as Ted’s career has begun to fade, he has become emotionally abusive to Grace. When his new assistant starts to take over Ted’s life, Grace has to decide whether she wants to fight for her husband. This was very predictable.

Good Riddance by Elinor Lipman ( 2019). Daphne Maritch’s mother, a high school English teacher, bequeathed her the yearbook dedicated to her by the class of ’68. After Daphne leaves it in the recycling bin of her apartment building, it is found by a would-be documentary maker, whose curiosity threatens to expose secrets about Mrs. Maritch that would embarrass her family. This was as quirky and amusing as most of Lipman’s books, although I didn’t always like Daphne.

The Far Country by Nevil Shute (1952). An unexpected legacy from her grandmother enables Jennifer to leave post-WWII London for a brighter future in Australia. There, she meets Carl Zlinter, an immigrant who was a doctor in Czechoslovakia but is not allowed to practice medicine in his new country and cannot afford to go to medical school again. Can they find a future together despite their very different backgrounds? My review.

Historical Fiction

Ace, Marvel, Spy by Jenni Walsh (2005). Alice Marble (1913-90) was a tennis player from a poor family in California when tennis success belonged to the affluent. With a dedicated coach, Alice worked hard to become one of the best and won 18 Grand Slam championships between 1936 and 1940, including Wimbledon. When WWII began, Alice’s tennis career and life come to a halt and (in this novel at least) she did some espionage for the US government. I won a box of these books from TLC so my book group read it in April. We were all surprised we had not heard of Marble before! After her playing career was over, she was Billie Jean King’s coach.

Memoir

Period Piece by Gwen Raverat (1952). Charles Darwin’s granddaughter describes a Cambridge (UK) childhood, in which girls all had governesses and eccentric relatives (including her outspoken American mother) could inflict their foibles on their nearest and dearest. It’s quite amusing but I was curious about the author’s artistic career which was not covered. My review.

Contemporary Romance

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez (2019). Kristen is planning her best friend's wedding when she becomes romantically interested in the best man, Josh Copeland. But she is engaged to someone else, and even if she weren’t, Josh wants a big family and Kristen is struggling with infertility. I got tired of all the infertility angst and wished Kristen would recognize the possibility of adoption. I would recommend her other books for a first-time reader.

Can't Help Falling in Love by Sophie Sullivan (2025). I like fake engagement stories but this one was not very plausible. Lexi Danby is poor but worthy – trying to earn a degree in business while working as many hours as possible – unfortunately, she is not a very good waitress, which is how she meets the most eligible bachelor in Seattle. Will is just too good to be true so I suppose I can see why Lexi doesn’t trust him to really fall for her.

Children’s Books

Nancy and Plum by Betty McDonald (1952). There is nothing like a good orphan story! Nancy and Plum’s uncle has abandoned them to the brutal Mrs. Monday, who practically starves the children in her care and deprives them of any pleasure. The sisters have survived with humor and optimism but finally they’ve had too much and decide to run away. How they find adults to rescue them from this bleak existence is a great story from the author of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. My review.

Authors Read for the First Time: Charlotte Conaghy, Alison Espach, Orlando Murrin, Gwen Raverat, Jenni Walsh