Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
I liked The Ferry Port Mystery by David Pearson. For the first few chapters I was not sure I would. There seemed to be just enough to keep you reading and I was unsure how long I would continue but things got much better. But I am getting ahead of myself so I’ll go back to the beginning.
Continue reading “The Ferry Port Mystery by David Pearson”
I’ve been fan of Val McDermit for several years now https://www.jackreidy.com/blog/tag/val-mcdermid/ .
Past Lying: A Karen Pirie Novel is her latest. DCI Karen Pirie heads Police Scotland’s Historic Case Unit (HCU). We Americans would call it cold cases. The Scots prefer the “Historic” designation for reasons given in this book.
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A good book. I enjoyed this police procedural. It pulled me into the story from the beginning. I enjoyed the characters and the story.
Continue reading “A body in the cottage”
About 4 years I decided to try a book by Ann Cleeves based liking the Shetland TV series which was based on a series of her books. The book I tried was the first of her Two Rivers series featuring Detective Matthew Venn. Since then, I have read the second of this series as well as several from the Shetland and Vera novels.
He’s lived it in the nonfictional real world and now he is bringing it to us in a great fictional story.
The book Is Central Park West: A Crime Novel by James Comey. I thank both Netgalley https://www.netgalley.com and Mysterious Press for the chance to read this before publication. The book will be published on May 30.
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Another good mystery by Jodie Lawrance. I had read and reviewed two by her a few years ago (https://www.jackreidy.com/blog/tag/jodie-lawrance/). So I was happy to see this available. I thank both Netgalley (https://www.netgalley.com) and Joffe books (https://joffebooks.com/) for the chance to read this before publication. The book is “The Missing Woman” by Jodie Lawrance.
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An enjoyable mystery. I thank both Netgalley https://www.netgalley.com and Joffe books https://joffebooks.com/ for the chance to read this before publication. The book is “The Norfolk Beach Murders” and it comes out on May 11.
First, we meet Mu and Roger, a homeless young woman and her dog. Next comes the murder that they witness. And then we meet Detective Sara Hirst, who had been with the Metropolitan Police in London but inherited and moved to her father’s cottage in a coastal village. More murders.
We slowly learn how these murders fit into the larger picture and along the way meet a number of other characters. The story is well-written and told via several points-of-view. I found this to be a wonderful mystery and crime thriller.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
I picked this one for 2 reasons. One is that I was preapproved at Netgalley so I thank both Netgalley (https://www.netgalley.com) and Joffe books (https://joffebooks.com/) for the chance to read this before publication. The second is I was a fan of Colin Dexter’s novels which were also set in Oxford. As it turned out this was very different from Colin Dexter’s novels but it was a great read.
The book is “The Oxford Murders” by Peter Tickler. It will be published May 2.
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Dr. Robinson starts us off with a murder in 1980 and then moves on to another mystery in 2019 involving the DCI Banks team and a skeleton found in an archaeological dig. It seems likely to anyone who has read a few mysteries than the 2 stories will come together but the author takes his time in getting us there.
Continue reading ““Standing in the Shadows“ by Peter Robinson”
Having read many books by Peter May over the years and reviewed several https://www.jackreidy.com/blog/tag/peter-may/, I was sure this book would definitely be worth reading. And I was not disappointed.
Welcome to 1989. This is the second novel in Val McDermid’s series featuring journalist Allie Burns. I liked the first one (https://www.jackreidy.com/blog/2021/10/04/1979-by-val-mcdermid/) and now it is 10 years later and there have been quite a few changes in 10 years.
Because I have read several books and short stories by Ann Cleeves (see The Darkest Evening ) I jumped at the chance to read this one when I saw The Rising Tide on Netgalley.
I was a bit surprised when it started out slowly for several chapters. With a book by an author I did not know, I would have probably just put the book down and told Netgalley that I would not be reviewing it. But since it was Ann Cleeves I was sure she had her reasons and a great murder mystery would soon follow. I was not disappointed.
Continue reading “The Rising Tide: A Vera Stanhope Novel by Ann Cleeves”
I had never read Lucinda Riley’s books before. But I ran across “The Murders at Fleat House” on Netgalley and it sounded interesting. Since it was available and I was in the mood for a good mystery so I thought I’d give it a try.
It was a mystery written many years ago, before Lucinda Riley became a published writer and her only crime novel.
According to the brief introduction by her son (the author had died), the novel was unchanged since his mother had written it in 2006 and it had not been published until now.
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Much more than I expected. The book is Five Decembers by James Kestrel . In late November 1941 Detective Joe McGrady Is sent from Honolulu, Hawaii to the country-side to investigate a gruesome murder. It gets more complicated when a second body is found at the scene and Joe learns the identity of the first victim. And given the date you suspect World War 2 will soon enter the story.
Continue reading “Five Decembers, crime, war, love, fantastic reading”
Val McDermid is one of my favorite writers. So I jumped at the chance to read her latest. I thank Netgalley for that chance Of course my experience with her writing is limited to 3 mysteries in the same series (see reviews at https://www.jackreidy.com/blog/2020/10/05/still-life-by-val-mcdermid/).
Continue reading “1979 by Val McDermid”