Six Degrees of Separation – from The Anniversary to A Killing of Innocents

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 you end up. This month’s starting point is The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop (2023), a mystery in which the protagonist’s husband falls overboard while they are on a cruise celebrating their wedding anniversary (hello, I can sense an unreliable narrator from a distance).

Another book where the husband drowns is The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh (2022) (or was he killed before he drowned?).  This was an entertaining book set on the Wales/England border, requiring police from both sides to work together. Last Saturday, I went to An Unlikely Story with friends to hear the author being interviewed by local powerhouse writer, the elegant Hank Philippi Ryan. It was a fun event as Hank (left) is a talented conversationalist (as befits a skilled television reporter) and Clare was amusing about her writing and her police career; I am looking forward to the sequel.

My second link involves the lecherous CEO of her company, who dies during The Rooftop Party by Ellen Meister (2021), just after protagonist Dana had an acrimonious encounter with him, so she is the obvious suspect. Naturally, she has to clear her name, although that sometimes leads to even more danger . . .

I loved rooftop parties when I lived in New York City and another book that glamorizes rooftops is Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell (2013). It features Sophie and her devoted guardian who hide on the rooftops of Paris when the authorities threaten to send Sophie to an orphanage. They find dozens of children living on roofs in secret (leaping about as you can see on the cover below) and enlist them to help Sophie find out if her mother is still alive.

Even if you can’t go to a fancy party (fun) or live on a rooftop (less fun), you can still go to Paris, at least in fiction. Most of Elizabeth Cadell’s books are set in England or Portugal but in The Marrying Kind (1980), Laura Seton rushes to France in an attempt to uncover an art fraud and prevent a family scandal. It’s not a relaxing trip but she does fall in love, although people don’t think she and her sister are the kind who marry. And in this new edition, it looks like there is a pivotal scene on a rooftop, which I do not recall.

Another kind of person is The Killing Kind (2021). In a rare standalone by Jane Casey, Ingrid is a barrister who defended John Webster against a stalking charge, then finds herself the object of his obsession. He says a murderer is after her and that only he can protect her, but maybe he is the killer (even if not, he is too creepy to be around or read about). This was very suspenseful but it was one of those books where the heroine puts herself in danger heedlessly, which can be very annoying. There is a recent miniseries but I am not sure if it is available in the US. I was relieved when Casey returned to the Maeve Kerrigan series my sisters and I like so much.

And my final link involves more killing (four of my six books this month; well, it was a long week at work, what can I say), A Killing of Innocents by Deborah Crombie (2023). It’s always gratifying when one is familiar with the setting of a book and has been there in real life: the book begins with a stabbing in Russell Square, near the British Museum and close to the boarding house where Betsy Ray stays in Betsy and the Great World. Detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James are responsible for finding the killer before there is a general panic.  By now, we are very fond of all the characters in their lives and I try to read slowly to make it last.

So I connected a mystery by a beautiful Australian writer, Stephanie Bishop, who wrote part of The Anniversary at Yaddo, a relatively famous writer/artist residency program in Saratoga Springs, to The Killing of Innocents by an American author (one of my favorites) who sets her books in Britain - from an unhappy marriage to a happy one - with stops in Wales, France, and back to London. Have you read any of these?

My British friends always ask why American writers setting characters/books in Britain don’t ask a Brit to proofread for Americanisms. It would certainly make sense but I suppose it’s because they are sure they’ve mastered the vocabulary. But it’s easy to criticize, isn’t it.

Next month (June 1, 2024), Kate says we’ll start with a crime novel with difference – Butter by Asako Yuzuki. I suspect this is not my cup of tea but my friend Tracy likes Japanese mysteries so maybe she will try it.