June 2025 Reading

June was a varied month of reading and I particularly enjoyed The Eights, with its depiction of the early years of women at Oxford, and Death at the White Hart, a mystery by the creator of Broadchurch. I also continued with Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie series and Martin Edwards’ Lake District mysteries.  There were also some disappointments like the much-hyped All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman - it's hard to appreciate a protagonist who leaves her young child alone to go sleuthing and blacks out from partying!

May 2025 Reading

Three books really stood out this month. I had to go to multiple shops in London to find the new book about Maeve Kerrigan, The Secret Room, but it made my flight home from Amsterdam most enjoyable. I also really liked Know Your Newlywed by Hillary Nussbaum and Heather Taylor, a fake relationship romance, and Lost Lorrenden by Mabel Esther Allan.

WWW Wednesday – June 18

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading Two New Books

I am listening to Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister (2025), which starts with a bang. It’s Camilla’s first day back at work after her maternity leave (do women usually get nine months in Britain or is her employer very generous?) but, before she’s even had time for coffee,

January 2025 Reading

I read 14 books in January: all fiction but one, including three audiobooks and two rereads. The God of the Woods and Frozen River are historical novels which were much hyped, with long waiting lists at the library. I was disappointed in the first and found its ending completely unbelievable. I liked Frozen River and its themes of justice and male dominance provided lots of material for my book group discussion. I also enjoyed the newest Michael Connelly and my reread of False Colours.

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid

As she spoke, she reached for the phone that had just begun to ring. There were other, more junior officers in the big squad room that housed the Cold Case Review Team, but promotion hadn’t altered Karen’s ways. She’d never got out of the habit of answering any phone that rang in her vicinity. “CCRT, DI Pirie speaking,” she said absently . . . .

WWW Wednesday – January 15

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Someone recently recommended In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan (2023), which I am enjoying. The main character, Detective Kat Frank, is a single mother asked to lead a pilot program using a sort of robot with artificial intelligence. 

Vanishing Point by Val McDermid

Title: The Vanishing Point

Author: Val McDermid
Publication: Grove Press, paperback, 2013 (originally published 2012)
Genre: Suspense

Description: Stephanie Harker is traveling through O’Hare Airport in Chicago with 5-year-old Jimmy when she is detained at security. During the extended patdown, Jimmy is abducted and Stephanie is tasered by security who misunderstand her agitation.

Favorite Reads of 2014 (somewhat belated)

Fiction

Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid (2014)

The Austen Project, in which Jane Austen was retold by 21st-­century authors, was commissioned (I assume) by HarperCollins, and here Northanger Abbey is reimagined in modern-day Scotland during the Edinburgh Festival, which sounds like so much fun.  Young Catherine Morland is obsessed with Twilight and imagines everyone is a vampire, which seemed an inspired tribute to the original character’s gothic imaginings.

Northanger Abbey (Book Review)

Title: Northanger Abbey
Author: Val McDermid

Publication Information: Harper Collins, Hardcover, 2014

Genre: Fiction

Setting: 21st century Scotland

Plot:  Giddy teenager Cat Morland, a minister’s daughter, is invited to accompany affluent and generous neighbors, the Allens, to Edinburgh for the Festival.  Homeschooled and naive, Cat has spent more time obsessing over Twilight than preparing for a career.