It’s quite a long time since I read the previous books in the Jackson Brodie series by Kate Atkinson and I didn’t really remember much about them, but that didn’t matter as this book stands alone as a really enjoyable whodunnit.
Set in a small village and revolving around folks in the ‘big house’ as well as the local vicar it had a nice nostalgic ‘Agatha Christie’ vibe but without the old fashioned inappropriate attitudes, added to by the fact that a murder mystery weekend was going on at the stately home at the same time as actual crimes including murder which was quite jolly.
It was a very fun read/listen and I look forward to the next instalment.
I’m always super excited when a new Grady Hendrix book comes out – not only are they fine examples of the horror genre, but Hendrix just writes such beautiful and complex female characters.
In this case, the book is set in a 1970s American home for unwed mothers. Most of the mothers are teenagers, sent there by their horrified and embarrassed parents who make up some story to explain their absence until they come back in a few months and carry on as if nothing had happened. The girls are not allowed to keep their babies, being fed endless propaganda about why it is the best thing to give them up for adoption as if they had a choice, which in fact they don’t. One girl in the home, Holly, was only about 11 and had been abused by her church pastor, which nobody would believe her about let alone help her. The main character, Neva, bonds with the travelling librarian that visits the home who gives her a book on witchcraft.
The main horror of the book though was not the supernatural stuff (although that was part of it) but the terrible way these girls were treated by the adults with all the power and seemingly no empathy or kindness towards the plight of these ‘wayward’ girls.
Neva tries to use her new powers to help Holly to escape from being sent back to the abusive environment that caused her condition, but it’s not easy and she doesn’t know who, if anyone she can trust or rely on.
It was a very thought provoking book and quite sad (and occasionally funny).
Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments: Edinburgh Nights, Book 2 (Audiobook)
The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle (Edinburgh Nights Book 3)
The Legacy of Arniston House Audiobook – T. L. Huchu (Author), Kimberly Mandindo (Narrator) – 13.03.25
I have been devouring this urban fantasy series, alternating between kindle books and audiobooks (literally just by which is the cheaper way of buying them!).
Set in Edinburgh (well, duh!) the series follows Ropa Moyo, a Scottish teenager of African heritage who lives with her gran and little sister in a caravan in a slum in a post ‘catastrophe’ Scotland where hardship is commonplace.
Ropa (like the little boy in the sixth sense) can see and communicate with dead people, and she makes a living passing messages on from the recently deceased to their grieving relatives. In the first book Ropa turns supernatural private detective after agreeing to help a dead mother who is terribly worried about her missing living son. A chance encounter with an old school friend introduces Ropa to a magical library and whole society of magical practitioners, who see that she has hidden magical potential, and take her on as an intern.
The series just gets better and better (in my opinion). The first time I listened to the audiobook (book two) I wasn’t sure what to make of the narrator – her accent is really nice and she fits the character of Ropa very well, but she has an odd way of parsing sentences often not the way I feel they should sound – putting the emphasis in the wrong place or putting in unnecessary pauses, which annoyed me at first, but then when I read book three on kindle I missed her and her’s was the voice in my head, so I was happy to get back to her in audiobook form in book four (I will definitely buy the fifth and final instalment as an audiobook!)
I just finished listening to book four (The Legacy of Arniston House) and I was totally gripped – I don’t know if it’s just because I’ve got to know Ropa after three previous books, or because this one is more personal to her and her family, but I was very moved by the things that were happening to her. Also book four gives more backstory (which was hinted at in the previous books) to Ropa’s family history which was interesting and thought provoking – not just goodies and baddies, but good people making bad decisions or mistakes or just difficult decisions where their is no clear right answer.
The ending was very exciting, and left a real cliff hanger so I now can’t wait for the next book (which says its the final book in the series, which is sad because I love the series, but good that they are not just stretching it out but have a resolution planned) – I hope T. L. Huchu writes more books though because I love these!
This is an unusual book, which I very much enjoyed reading. Several families of ‘book eaters’ live in secluded communities around the UK (and maybe the world?). They look human, but are not – they are not even sure themselves what their origins are, whether they were left by an alien species, or genetically engineered or the product of something magical is not know. Basically, they eat books – like literally, their food is pages of text and when they die they turn instantly into inky dust.
They are a little like the Amish because they keep separate from the world and are outdated in their outlook as well as their ways – the society is very rigid and misogynistic and our main character, Devon, is a woman book eater who grew up in one of the main families. As is tradition, girls are married off to a different family where they must produce a child, and then leave the child and move on to another arranged marriage as long as they are fertile.
Devon is horribly upset when she has to leave her daughter, but when her second child is not only a boy, but a ‘mind eater’ things get worse.
Mind eaters don’t eat books but get their sustenance by sucking out other people’s brains. Devon has to run away and although she loves her son, she is horrified by what she has to do to keep him alive and is desperately trying to get hold of the treatment made by one of the rival families that stops mind eaters from having to eat minds.
I loved the different twist on the zombie/vampire genre and I thought the writing and characterisation was very good. I can’t wait for the sequel/next in series to be published!
This was my bookgroup read for January, and I probably wouldn’t have read it otherwise. I found the first part of the book, about the second wife of the lord of the manor and the children growing up to be a bit tedious (I did like the story of the romance with the first wife). I found the characters very posh and quite annoying.
My interest picked up though later in the book during war time with people working undercover in France as well as the sister who stayed home and worked the land. Not my favourite of the book group books and we didn’t really chat that much about it.
I was disappointed by this novel. I like a cosy mystery, and I enjoy learning about words and their origins as well as solving puzzles, so I was excited to read this, and while it has all these things, I just felt it was lacking something. I didn’t warm to the characters and the story didn’t really engage me. I was quite bored actually. Ah well.
*SPOILERS* – don’t read if you don’t want spoilers.
Hmmm – I don’t know what to make of this book. Certainly it has a lot going for it – interesting characters with stories spanning decades and continents. Friendships, racism, classism, misogyny, climate issues, AI – so many topics examined. I enjoyed the backstories of the characters – growing up, finding themselves and each other, finding their place in the world, but the twist at the end, where all the characters come together on the beautiful remote island, voting on whether to allow development of off shore floating cities which would perhaps aid mankind but destroy the old world charm of their community – just when I thought I was getting my head around who was who and how their stories fitted together they hit us with the bombshell!!
The final part of the story is not real – it’s an AI simulation! I hate that!! I don’t like when books break the believable universe within the book to say ‘this bit is real’ but ‘this bit is made up’ I don’t like it. It forces you to confront the fact that actually it’s all made up, and the real emotion I have invested in these characters and their stories is cheapened. I feel cheated. It might be ‘clever’ and ‘meta’ but it sucks and it makes me want to spit or cry or generally have a hissy fit. Waah!
Flesh and Blood (Before and After Book 2) – Andrew Shanahan – 08.01.25
I was surprised by how much I loved these two post apocalyptic novels! Before and After begins with Ben Stone, a morbidly obese man living alone (with his dog) in an upstairs flat in London. He needs his leg amputated due to diabetes complications, and to get him to hospital involves removing the wall of his apartment and hoisting him out very securely strapped to a stretcher made for this purpose. In the middle of all this, just as he is strapped immobile something happens – first alerts coming into the radios of the people helping him, causing most of them to leave, then the remaining two men becoming enraged like berserkers and basically fighting each other to the death. Ben is trapped, listening to the world fall apart around him with the immediate problem of being strapped up with no food or water and a rotten leg to contend with.
I guess it’s a zombie novel, but so much more – I thought the writing was very engaging and intelligent and I loved the character of Ben and his dog and how they worked through the myriad of problems besetting them.
The second novel introduces a new (or nearly new since she was mentioned in the first book) character that adds interest and cleverness to what was already an interesting and clever set up. I loved the ending – very moving. Most enjoyable couple of books I’ve read in a while – highly recommended if you like this kind of thing!
This novel by Adam Roberts (actually a YA novel) is about something that caused all the adults in the world (17 and over) to fall asleep and stay asleep. For some, obviously this had immediate devastating consequences – think airline pilots, or anyone driving a high speed vehicle, or performing surgery, or anything vital like that, but the slower repercussions were just as terrible – sleeping bodies become dehydrated, emaciated, etc and the young adults left behind had to take responsibility for the younger children as well as trying to keep their sleeping adult family members alive.
Some groups revelled in the removal of constraints – raiding off-licence shops and partying/looting/joyriding etc, others tried to organise rationing of resources, learning how to fix generators and grow food, ie, survival skills, as well as trying to figure out what had happened and what they could do about it, especially as anyone turning 17 would join the ranks of the sleeping (or mostly dead after not too long).
I mostly really enjoyed the novel – the main character was likeable and the situation was intelligently explored. I however, found the ending to be rushed and unsatisfactory – maybe a sequel is planned, or just the writer didn’t like pat endings that tied things up too neatly?
I do enjoy Ben Aaronovitch’s stories, and this is a fun insight into Nightingale’s back story set in 1920s New York with prohibition, Jazz clubs and of course, magic.
Sarah Wray Writer 