Ruth's First Christmas Tree by Elly Griffiths

It is three days before Christmas and a bitter wind is blowing across Norfolk.

Until her daughter was born, forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway didn’t do Christmas, but now that Kate is a year old, she wants it to be special.

She must get a tree, shop for food, clean the house, buy presents, including one for her new boyfriend—who she isn’t even sure is her boyfriend—and remember to get the turkey out of the freezer.

But time is rushing by and the best-laid plans don’t always work out …

This book is number four and a half in the Ruth Galloway series of books. I am really enjoying this series and very recently read The House at Sea's End and A Room Full of Bones. I also reviewed The Janus Stone just a few months back, all of which I have really enjoyed.

So, it was perfect timing that I had recently read A Room Full of Bones, which was number four in this series as I then came across this little gem of a short story which picks up exactly at the point where the previous book leaves off. What's more, how perfectly seasonal is the timing for this book to fit in so precisely with my reading of this series.

If you want to read something quick and seasonal do give this delightful short story a go. In all honesty, it won't really matter if you haven't read the previous books as this short story is fairly stand alone and I read it in about an hour. Furthermore, it is available as a fee kindle download on Amazon so what's not to like?

I love this series of books and am planning on reading the next in the series very soon. If you haven't previously read any of this series and enjoyed getting to know archaeologist Ruth Galloway, DCI Nelson and their co-hort then I strongly urge you to treat yourself  this Christmas. I know I will be.

Publisher: Quercus

Price: Free

About the author:

Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway novels take for their inspiration Elly's husband, who gave up a city job to train as an archaeologist, and her aunt who lives on the Norfolk coast and who filled her niece's head with the myths and legends of that area.

She has two children and lives near Brighton.

Silent Run (Sanders Brothers #1) by Barbara Freethy

A woman wakes in a hospital bed with no idea of who she is. Her memory is gone, her baby missing. All she has is the gripping certainty that she is in mortal danger. Then a handsome, angry stranger barges in and makes a terrible accusation. He was her lover--and her child's father--until she disappeared seven months ago.

Jake Sanders swore he'd never forgive Sarah Tucker, but he isn't about to let her get away again--especially not with his daughter still missing. If he has any chance of recovering his baby, he must help the woman who betrayed him retrieve the pieces of her shattered memory--without letting his feelings get in the way.

Haunted by troubling flashes of memory, Sarah begins to realize she's lived a life of lies. But what is the truth? And where is her baby?

I have written previously about the subjectivity of reading and consequently, if I intend to read a book with a view to reviewing it I always stay well clear of other reviews in order that I am not influenced by other readers opinions. However, for some reason I strayed from my self imposed rule and read a couple of reviews for this book, one of which was fairly positive and another which was extremely negative.

So, when I began this book I had mixed feelings about what to expect. After all, everyone is entitled to their own opinion particularly when it comes to books.

However, I was completely gripped by this book right from the prologue. This book really did hit the ground running. There was no scene setting; rather the author jumps straight on with the story from the first page.

It was a fast paced read and it is one of the few books that I found myself being irritated by 'life' getting in the way of my reading time.

Okay, so it's fair to say that this book is never going to be considered classic literature and it's never going to be considered as part of a school syllabus but I feel fairly certain in saying that this is not what the author intended. What Ms. Freethy has done is written a book that is exciting and entertaining and which I enjoyed reading very much. This is the first book in a two part series and I am looking forward to reading the next book sometime soon.

ISBN:  978-1478350026

Publisher:  Create Space Independent Publishing Platform

Price (based on today's prices on Amazon.co.uk:)  Paperback £8.95 Kindle £3.99

About the Author:

Barbara Freethy is a number 1 New York Times  best selling author. Her 34 novels range from contemporary romance to romantic suspense and women's fiction.

Known for her emotional and compelling stories of love, family, mystery and romance, Barbara enjoys writing about ordinary people caught up in extraordinary adventures.

She has lived all over the state of California where she draws much of her inspiration from the beautiful Bay Area.

After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman

When Felix Brewer meets nineteen-year-old Bernadette 'Bambi' Gottschalk at a dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises. But on the Fourth of July, 1976, Bambi's world implodes when Felix, newly convicted and facing prison, mysteriously vanishes.

Though Bambi has no idea where her husband - or his money - might be, she suspects one woman does: his devoted young mistress, Julie. When Julie herself disappears ten years to the day that Felix disappeared, everyone assumes she's left to join her ­old lover - until her remains are found in a secluded wooded park.

Now, twenty-six years after Julie went missing, Roberto 'Sandy' Sanchez, a retired Baltimore detective working cold cases for some extra cash, is investigating her murder. What he discovers is a tangled web of bitterness, jealously, resentment and greed stretching over the three decades and three generations that connect these five very different women. And at the center of every woman's story is the man who, though long gone, has never been forgotten: the enigmatic Felix Brewer.

This was an excellent read and I enjoyed it very much. Although I am a fan of the mystery and suspense genre this is the first book that I have read by Laura Lippman even though she has many novels to her name.

This particular novel  was gripping because of it's gradual development and disclosure of the secrets concerning the people affected by the disappearance of Felix.

What  I really liked was how the story was told from the viewpoints of the different characters and I think this was an interesting technique employed by the author to ensure the reader understood the effect that Felix's disappearance had on each of them.

The characters are an interesting bunch. I found it hard to like Felix as I thought him selfish to leave his family and friends to deal with the fallout following his disappearance. At times I wanted to give Bambi a shake but admired here at the same time. I like a novel that has the ability to challenge and possibly change my opinion of characters as the story develops and that was certainly the case with this book.

The novel is loosely based on a true story and I found it to be a very satisfying read. Ms Lipmann leaves no loose ends and tidies everything up very nicely - something that I particularly like in a mystery novel. 

It always excites me when I discover a new to me author who already has a significant number of novels to their name as I can luxuriate in the thought that I have many more pleasurable reads to come.

ISBN:  978-0571299683

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Price (today on Amazon.co.uk): Paperback £7.99 - Kindle £2.39

Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working full time and published seven books about “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001. Her work has been awarded the Edgar ®, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe and Barry awards. She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity. She was the first-ever recipient of the Mayor’s Prize for Literary Excellence and the first genre writer recognized as Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association.

About the Author

Pardonable Lies (#3 Maisie Dobbs) by Jacqueline Winspear - #BookReview

The young policewoman stood in the corner of the room. Plain whitewashed walls, a heavy door, a wooden table with two chairs, and one small window with frosted glass rendered the room soul-less...

***

London, 1930. Maisie Dobbs, the renowned psychologist and investigator, receives a most unusual request. She must prove that Sir Cecil Lawton's son Ralph really is dead.

This is a case that will challenge Maisie in unexpected ways, for Ralph Lawton was an aviator shot down by enemy fire in 1917. To get to the bottom of the mystery, Maisie must travel to the former battlefields of norther France, where she  served as a nurse in the Great War and where ghosts of her past still linger. As her investigation moves closer to the truth, Maisie soon uncovers the secrets and lies that some people would prefer remain buried.

I am really enjoying this series of books. I read and reviewed the first in the series, Maisie Dobbs, back in July and then recently read, Birds of a Feather too. In Pardonable Lies, Jacqueline continues her tale of the exquisite Maisie Dobbs.

Maisie is one of the most likable characters I have ever come across in fiction. She is privileged yet well grounded, methodical yet slightly chaotic and determined yet compassionate and it is this juxtaposition of characteristics that make her so easy to identify with.

Set in the 1930's, I have to constantly remind myself that this is a modern book such is Ms. Winspear's skill in bringing the period to life.

If I had to categorize this series I would say they are a cross between Agatha Christie and Alexander McCall Smith and if you enjoy either of those authors you will love the Maisie Dobbs series. I highly recommend this book and am sure you will enjoy it too.

Update:  Since publishing this review I have also read Everything Most Loved, and Messenger of Truth. Please click on the titles to read my reviews.

***

ISBN:  978-0719567360

 Publisher: John Murray

Formats:  e-book, audio, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages:  352 (paperback)

About the Author:

Jacqueline Winspear was born and raised in the county of Kent, England. Following higher education at the University of London’s Institute of Education, Jacqueline worked in academic publishing, in higher education and in marketing communications in the UK. She emigrated to the United States in 1990, and while working in business and as a personal/professional coach, Jacqueline embarked upon a life-long dream to be a writer—she subsequently became a regular contributor to journals covering international education and travel, and has published articles in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, The Daily Beast and other publications. Her short stories have appeared in magazines internationally, and Jacqueline has recorded her essays for KQED radio in San Francisco. She has contributed to several anthologies of essays and short stories.

Jacqueline’s grandfather was severely wounded and shell-shocked at The Battle of the Somme in 1916, and it was as she understood the extent of his suffering that, even in childhood, Jacqueline became deeply interested in the “war to end all wars” and its aftereffects. As an adult her interest deepened to the extent that, though she did not set out to write a “war” novel, it came as no surprise that this part of history formed the backdrop of Maisie Dobbs and other books in the series. The unique and engaging character of Maisie Dobbs is very much a woman of her generation. She has come of age at a time when women took on the toil of men and claimed independence that was difficult to relinquish. It was a time when many women remained unmarried, simply because a generation of men had gone to war and not come home.

In her own words “The war and its aftermath provide fertile ground for a mystery. Such great social upheaval allows for the strange and unusual to emerge and a time of intense emotions can, to the writer of fiction, provide ample fodder for a compelling story, especially one concerning criminal acts and issues of guilt and innocence. After all, a generation is said to have lost its innocence in The Great War. The mystery genre provides a wonderful vehicle for exploring such a time,” explains Ms. Winspear.

Together with The Comfort of Ghosts (June 2024), Jacqueline has written 18 novels in the award-winning Maisie Dobbs historical mystery series, including the New York Times bestsellers A Sunlit Weapon, The Consequences of Fear, The American Agent, To Die But Once, In This Grave Hour, Journey to Munich, A Dangerous Place, Leaving Everything Most Loved, Elegy for Eddie, A Lesson in Secrets, The Mapping of Love and Death, Among The Mad and An Incomplete Revenge, as well as four other National Bestselling novels. Her standalone novel, The Care and Management of Lies, was also a New York Times and National Bestseller, and a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Her new standalone novel, The White Lady, was released March 2023.

Jacqueline has published two non-fiction books: What Would Maisie Do? (2018) based upon the series, and a memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing (2020). In addition, her recent published essays include Writing About War, for which she interviewed writers including Kate Atkinson, Rhys Bowen, Jeff Shaara and Adam Hochschild, exploring the impact of writing about war on the author, and Women On Fire, about women working in wildfire management. Her essay on writing historical mysteries appears in the anthology/handbook from Mystery Writers of America: How To Write A Mystery edited by Lee Child (April 2021). In 2024, she wrote Wars and Moments in Time: A Brief Look at the Historical Scope of the Maisie Dobbs Series.

(author media courtesy of the author's website https://jacquelinewinspear.com/)

(all opinions are my own)

Sugar and Snails by Anne Goodwin

At fifteen, Diana Dodsworth took the opportunity to radically alter the trajectory of her life and escape the constraints of her small-town existence. Thirty years on, she can’t help scratching at her teenage decision like a scabbed wound. 

To safeguard her secret, she’s kept other people at a distance ... until Simon Jenkins sweeps in on a cloud of promise and possibility. But his work is taking him to Cairo, and he expects Di to fly out for a visit. She daren’t return to the city that changed her life; nor can she tell Simon the reason why. 
Sugar and Snails takes the reader on a poignant journey from Diana’s misfit childhood, through tortured adolescence to a triumphant mid-life coming-of-age that challenges preconceptions about bridging the gap between who we are and who we feel we ought to be.Visit her website and blog at http://annegoodwin.weebly.com



As promised, this is the first review from the list of books in my previous blog posting. 

This book is actually quite difficult to review without giving the plot away so forgive me if I sound a little vague at times. Suffice to say that the plot is original and surprising and Ms Goodwin confronts the issues which face her protagonist with sensitivity and insight. 

She is also an excellent storyteller and the plot unfolds deftly in her hands. She has  diligently done her research in putting together this fine novel. 

Diana is a strong and complex character and it was not obvious to me as a reader what her secret is.  Her story is gripping and I loved the way I came to a gradual realisation concerning her refusal to return to Cairo.  In many novels I can second guess what is coming but with this novel the author unravels for us the issues and concerns that Diana confronts in a way that kept me reading in order to discover what was going on.

Ultiimately, this is a story of self discovery which challenges the reader to consider issues of equality and the way in which individuals are conventionalised by the society in which they live. It also deals with the enormity of dealing with decisions that we make when we are young and the impact that has on the rest of our lives.

Well done to Anne Goodwin for producing such a readable and challenging book. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on this book when you have read it.

ISBN:  978-1908600479

Publisher:  Inspired Quill

Price (today on Amazon.co.uk) Paperback: £8.99   Kindle: £3.49

About the Author:

Anne Goodwin loves fiction for the freedom to contradict herself and has been scribbling stories ever since she could hold a pencil. During her career as an NHS clinical psychologist her focus was on helping other people tell their neglected stories to themselves. Now that her short fiction publication count has overtaken her age, her ambition is to write and publish enough novels to match her shoe size. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was published in July 2015 by Inspired Quill.

Books, books and more books

I have been out of the blogging loop for a little while. Recently, life has got in the way of my blogging as I've had some health issues going on followed by some very successful surgery which means that I am now feeling great and looking forward to getting back to blogging about my reading.

I won't bore you all with the details of recent weeks. However, one of the good things to have come from all this convalescing is that it's given me plenty of time to read and I have managed to get through quite a few books. I have been immeasurably grateful for my kindle and for my husband who has made many library trips to keep me in reading material.

What’s happened to all the lovely books I have adorning my shelves, I hear you ask. Well, in addition to everything that's been going on we are also moving house and so all my precious books have been packed into boxes ready for moving and rather than partially unpacking again I have relied on my local library and my kindle books to sate my reading appetite (as tempting as it was to sneak a few back out of the boxes.)

Well, that’s more than enough about me. Let me tell you about what I have been reading in the past few weeks.  I will be coming back to review my favourites from this selection sometime soon but in the meantime, I thought you might like to see what I have been reading.

Snowdrops by A.D. Miller

Perfect Daughter by Amanda Prowse

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley

Reunion with Death by Sheila Connelly

Coastliners by Joanne Harris

I am China by Xiaolu Guo

The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

Lessons in Laughing Out Loud by Rowan Coleman

The House at Sea's End and A Room Full of Bones - both by Elly Griffiths

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healy

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats by Hesh Kestin

Sugar and Snails by Anne Goodwin

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman

These are not in any order of preference so I shall keep you guessing for the moment as to which are my favourites. However, you all know my reading tastes by now. Can you guess which are the ones I really enjoyed reading?

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Marie-Laure LeBlanc, the daughter of a locksmith, has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can learn to navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee carrying a dangerous secret.

Werner Pfennig is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine where his father died. But then he finds and repairs a broken radio and suddenly life blazes with possibility. His talents win him a place at an elite military academy, but can he pursue his dream whatever the cost?

Hundreds of miles away in a walled city by the sea, an old man listens to a long-lost voice and discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. And yet impending danger will not allow him to remain shut in for ever.

This book is set in Europe during a time when war dominated everything. It is a wonderful demonstration of how lives can coincide in the most unexpected of ways.

I was completely gripped by this very excellent novel from start to finish. The prose was beautiful and not a word was wasted. Every sentence had real meaning and I frequently found myself re-reading sentences and paragraphs simply for the beauty of how they were constructed on the page.

The atmosphere was tangible and I felt as though I was actually there, living the lives of these two young people who were forced to grow up in war torn Europe. Consequently, I felt very in touch with Marie-Laure and Werner and writing this book so that the reader could identify with both the German and French point of view lifts this book well out of the ordinary.

There is something very special about this novel and I highly recommend it. This is the first book that I have read by Anthony Doerr and I guarantee that it will not be the last. I only wonder why I have not read anything by this excellent author before.

About the Author:

Anthony Doerr is the best-selling and prize winning author of The Shell Collector, About Grace, Four Seasons in Rome and Memory Wall.

In 2007 Granta named him as one of their 21 Best Young American Novelists and in 2011 he won the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Prize. Doerr lives in Boise, Idaho, with his wife and two sons.