Six Degrees of Separation – from Wild Dark Shore to Bloody Instructions

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up. May’s starting point is Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (2025), an unusual and compelling book in which the main character eventually reveals how a catastrophic wildfire changed her life.

A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith

This debut mystery, set at the turn of the 20th century at London’s Inner Temple, brings to life the arcane, fascinating world of Britain’s legal elite. Sir Gabriel Ward is a quiet but brilliant barrister, sometimes overlooked by his colleagues because he spends all his time in his Temple rooms or his professional chambers, just yards apart. His routine is upended one morning when he finds a dead body on the threshold of his chambers - the Lord Chief Justice, whom he has known since childhood.