The Book Post – July

Alrighty, because I’ve spent some time on planes and in a cosy cottage with red wine and a warm fire, there’s more bookish stuff to talk about than usual, so I won’t be bothering with the usual blurb palaver for all of them. Speaking of palaver, let’s get into it!

My favourite reads of the month:

A Death In Diamonds, by S.J. Bennett

1957 – A young woman is found dead in a mews house a mile from Buckingham Palace, wearing only silk underwear and a a diamond tiara. An older man is discovered nearby, garrotted and pierced through the eye with a long, sharp implement.

According to the police, a high society card game was going on downstairs that night. One of the players surely committed the murders, but each of them can give the others an alibi.

When someone very close to her is implicated, the young Queen is drawn in to the investigation . . .

The fourth book in the Her Majesty The Queen Investigates mystery series this certainly didn’t disappoint.

Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?, by Nicci French

On the day of Alec Salter’s fiftieth birthday party, his wife, Charlotte, vanishes. Most of the small English village of Glensted is at the party for hours before anyone realizes she is missing. While Alec brushes off her disappearance, their four children–especially fifteen-year-old Etty–grow increasingly anxious as the cold winter hours become days and she doesn’t return. Then Etty and her friend Morgan find the body of Morgan’s father–and the Salters’ neighbor– Duncan Ackerley, floating in the river. The police conclude that Duncan and Charlotte were having an affair before he killed her and committed suicide.

Thirty years later, Morgan Ackerley returns to Glensted with his older brother to make a podcast based on their shared tragedy with the Salters. Alec, stricken with dementia, is entering an elder care facility while Etty helps put his affairs in order. But when the Ackerleys ask to interview the Salters, the entire town gets caught up in the unresolved cases.

Allegations fly, secrets come to light, and a suspicious fire leads to a murder. With the podcast making national news, London sends Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor to Glensted to take over the investigation. She will stop at nothing to uncover the truth as a new and terrifying picture of what really happened to Charlotte Salter and Duncan Ackerley emerges.

It’s been a while since I read a Nicci French book, but I couldn’t put this one down.

The No-Show, by Beth O’Leary

Three women. Three dates. One missing man…

8.52 a.m. Siobhan is looking forward to her breakfast date with Joseph. She was surprised when he suggested it – she normally sees him late at night in her hotel room. Breakfast on Valentine’s Day surely means something … so where is he?

2.43 p.m. Miranda’s hoping that a Valentine’s Day lunch with Carter will be the perfect way to celebrate her new job. It’s a fresh start and a sign that her life is falling into place: she’s been dating Carter for five months now and things are getting serious. But why hasn’t he shown up?

6.30 p.m. Joseph Carter agreed to be Jane’s fake boyfriend at an engagement party. They’ve not known each other long but their friendship is fast becoming the brightest part of her new life in Winchester. Joseph promised to save Jane tonight. But he’s not here…

Meet Joseph Carter. That is, if you can find him.

This was a fabulous read with a heartbreaking twist I didn’t see coming.

The Postscript Murders, by Elly Griffiths

The death of a ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition should absolutely not be suspicious. DS Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing to concern her in carer Natalka’s account of Peggy Smith’s death. But when Natalka reveals that Peggy lied about her heart condition and that she had been sure someone was following her… And that Peggy Smith had been a ‘murder consultant’ who plotted deaths for authors, and knew more about murder than anyone has any right to… And when clearing out Peggy’s flat ends in Natalka being held at gunpoint by a masked figure… Well then DS Harbinder Kaur thinks that maybe there is no such thing as an unsuspicious death after all.

I’ve never met an Elly Griffiths book I didn’t enjoy – and this is no exception.

I also read …

Each of these were great reads and in any other month may have been contenders for read of the month.

The Classics

Seven Little Australians, by Ethel Turner

19th century Australia: Captain Woolcot, having lost his wife tragically young, remarried a much younger young woman to provide his six children with a new mother. Together, they had another child, making seven. The Captain felt it was necessary to run the family with army discipline, but his rules and regulations were no match for the fun loving children, led by the redoubtable Judy.

I first read this novel, our book club choice, when I was in primary school. I was living in Merriwa so must have been 10 or 11, I suppose. As a kid growing up in the country – albeit in a much harder time – the descriptions of the country and the warnings about snakes etc was what I’d grown up with. I remember taking off with my best friend on horses with saddlebags filled with food for a day in the bush – with parents approval. It was another time, I guess.

I also remember the impact on me when I read the tragedy at the end of the book and wonder whether kids of the same age now would be able to deal with it – or whether we were somehow different.

While this is often said to be the Australian version of Little Women, it is, and it isn’t. There are no lessons to be learnt here. What there is is a disregard for following the rules and a rebellion against strict parental rule which echoes the young Australian relationship with our British rulers of the time. It’s not just the kids growing up and getting into scrapes, it’s a metaphor for our country as it approached Federation.

It goes without saying I comprehended none of that at 10 … or 11.

Cheerful Weather For The Wedding, by Julia Strachey

Published in 1932, it tells the story of a brisk March day in England, during which Dolly is due to marry the Honourable Owen Bigham. Waylaid by the disheartened admirer who failed to win her over while he still could, a distant and detached mother, and her own sense of foreboding, Dolly turns to a bottle of rum in the hope of reaching the altar.

I listened to this novella on Audible narrated by the incomparable Miriam Margolyes and just loved it. In many ways it reminded me a tad of Mrs Dalloway, but then it was originally published by Virginia Woolf so I suppose that’s not at all surprising.

Your turn…

Deb, Donna, Sue, and I would love you to share what you’ve been reading…the linky is below.

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