A brief post today as I came down with a nasty bug which has meant not only impacted my posts; just one review of Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10, but also my reading. Dear readers will appreciate this was no normal chest infection, it must have been serious if I was unable to read!!
My weekly posts for Tuesday and Wednesday were already scheduled and went out without me but I did manage to support blogging buddy Lipsyy from Lipsyy Lost and Found for her inspirational event for Horror October this year – she’s organised some writers to come up with a story based on our ideas – hope over to yesterday’s post, or Lipsyy’s blog to vote!
This Time Last Year….
I was reading Boxes by Pascal Garnier, the first dark and disturbing novella I read by this man who reminds me a little of Roald Dahl with his acute observations with sinister undertones.
Blurb
He was the sole survivor of the natural disaster that at one time or another strikes us all, known as ‘moving house’. Brice and Emma had bought their new home in the countryside together. And then she disappeared.
Stacking the Shelves
So even though I’ve been in my sick-bed the books have continued to roll in – amazing!
I ordered myself the The Man Booker shortlisted book His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
The year is 1869. A brutal triple murder in a remote community in the Scottish Highlands leads to the arrest of a young man by the name of Roderick Macrae. A memoir written by the accused makes it clear that he is guilty, but it falls to the country’s finest legal and psychiatric minds to uncover what drove him to commit such merciless acts of violence. Was he mad? Only the persuasive powers of his advocate stand between Macrae and the gallows.
Graeme Macrae Burnet tells an irresistible and original story about the provisional nature of truth, even when the facts seem clear.
His Bloody Project is a mesmerising literary thriller set in an unforgiving landscape where the exercise of power is arbitrary. Amazon
And because I can’t ever just order one book I decided my stock of books about poisoning wasn’t nearly huge enough I also have a copy of Poison Panic by Helen Barrell.
Blurb
For a few years in the 1840s, Essex was notorious in the minds of Victorians as a place where women stalked the winding country lanes looking for their next victim to poison with arsenic. It’s a terrible image – and also one that doesn’t seem to have much basis in truth – but this was a time of great anxiety.
The 1840s were also known as the ‘hungry ’40s’, when crop failures pushed up food prices and there was popular unrest across Europe. The decade culminated in a cholera epidemic in which tens of thousands of people in the British Isles died. It is perhaps no surprise that people living through that troubled decade were captivated by the stories of the ‘poisoners’: that death was down to ‘white powder’ and the evil intentions of the human heart.
Sarah Chesham, Mary May and Hannah Southgate are the protagonists of this tale of how rural Essex, in a country saturated with arsenic, was touched by the tumultuous 1840s. Amazon
From NetGalley I was approved for The Blood Card by Elly Griffiths as I’m a big fan of this series featuring Stephens & Mesphito with their historical mysteries.
Blurb
On the eve of the Queen’s coronation, DI Stephens and Max Mephisto uncover an anarchist plot and a ticking bomb at the same time as solving the murder of a man close to them – from the author of the bestselling Dr Ruth Galloway mysteries.
Elizabeth II’s coronation is looming, but the murder of their wartime commander, Colonel Cartwright, spoils the happy mood for DI Edgar Stephens and magician Max Mephisto. A playbill featuring another deceased comrade is found in Colonel Cartwright’s possession, and a playing card, the ace of hearts: the blood card. The wartime connection and the suggestion of magic are for Stephens and Mephisto to be summoned to the case.Edgar’s ongoing investigation into the death of Brighton fortune-teller Madame Zabini is put on hold. Max is busy rehearsing for a spectacular Coronation Day variety show – and his television debut – so it’s Edgar who is sent to New York, a land of plenty worlds away from still-rationed England. He’s on the trail of a small-town mesmerist who may provide the key, but someone silences him first. It’s Edgar’s colleague, DS Emma Holmes, who finds the clue, buried in the files of the Zabini case, that leads them to an anarchist group intent on providing an explosive finale to Coronation Day.
Now it’s up to Edgar, Max and Emma to foil the plot, and find out who it is who’s been dealing the cards . . . NetGalley
I also was lucky enough to win a copy of The Devil’s Work by Mark Edwards from Abbie at Bloomin’ Brilliant Books, a blog full of reviews of just the kind of books I love, in fact, they are Bloomin’ Brilliant so if you haven’t already done so!
Blurb
It was the job she had dreamed of since childhood. But on her very first day, when an unnerving encounter drags up memories Sophie Greenwood would rather forget, she wonders if she has made a mistake. A fatal mistake.
What is her ambitious young assistant really up to? And what exactly happened to Sophie’s predecessor? When her husband and daughter are pulled into the nightmare, Sophie is forced to confront the darkest secrets she has carried for years.
As her life begins to fall apart at work and at home, Sophie must race to uncover the truth about her new job…before it kills her. Amazon
TBR WATCH
Since my last post I have only read 3 books, and gained 4 and so my TBR now totals 181 books!
92 physical books
69 e-books
20 books on NetGalley
What have you found to read this week?
Sorry to hear you’ve been unwell, but thankfully you’re on the mend. I like the sound of Poison Panic and will also be heading over to NetGalley to look at the Elly Griffiths as I’ve been enjoyuing that series too.
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Thank you Jill and I’m very glad the worst has passed! The Elly Griffiths series is great so I hope you manage to get a copy too 🙂
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The Devil’s Work… I need to read this one! I hope you’re feeling better!
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Hope you’re well again v soon 😘 Indeed it was truly serious if you were unable to read! I do hope you’ll enjoy His Bloody Project; I’ve written my review for the paper but I want to add a little more for the blog. It’ll be very near the top of my year’s round-up of books – it’s currently joint 1st (but with what…?!) unless a stream of absolutely fantastic books come out! I should read Eileen before the Booker winner is announced; must check when that is. I got the thumbs up for the Elly Griffiths too. Mark Edwards’ Follow You Home was seriously creepy, so I fancy this one. I bought We Have Always Lived In The Castle, which I’ve always wanted but it’s always been full price, then I spotted it at £1.99 on Kindle. I’m working on equipping myself for Hallowe’en!
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So sorry to hear you’ve been so ill, Cleo! I hope you’re feeling a lot better soon! Take care and keep getting lots of rest. In the meantime, that new Elly Griffiths looks fabulous. She’s a really talented writer, and I do like her Max Mephisto character.
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Sorry to hear you are ill. You’re right, ya know it’s bad when you don’t even want to read.
sherry @ fundinmental My Sunday Memes
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I picked up a copy if His Bloody Project in the library yesterday- I often find the Booker shortlisted books I read can be a bit hit and miss but I’m really looking forward to this one!
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Feel better! When you are reading again, it looks like you’re in for a treat.
I have only read a couple of Elly Griffiths books (Ruth Galloway). Should try this other series. Enjoy!
Here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES
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Oh no! Sorry to hear you’re not feeling well. I’m doubly impressed and honoured that you manage to post about the FFB at such late notice now.
I hope you feel better soon! Thanks again 🙂
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No worries you were good to have made it so easy 😊
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Sorry to hear you have been unwell. I prescribe “His Bloody Project” to be read asap. It’s my favourite of the Booker reads and is going to be well up there when it comes to choosing my book of the year- (I see Crimeworm is very much on the same wavelength as me on this!)
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Yes I absolutely loved it! I was worried it might be too readable for the Booker Prize (LOL) but so far so good – fingers crossed!
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Oh I hope you feel better. It must be bad if there was no reading done. Some good books to read this week though by the looks of it. Hope this week is less sickly.
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I’m so sorry to hear you were sick! That’s never fun, and it seems to be attacking everyone lately! I’m glad you are feeling better -or I hope you are! Hopefully you can get some awesome reading in.
-Lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com
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Thank you Lauren 😊
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Sorry you’ve been sick! Get well soon. 😀
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Get better soon (but some time to read while you recover?!).
I’ve just got my hands on Hannah Kent’s new book, The Good People.
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Oh Kate lucky you!! 😊
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Hope you’re feeling better soon. I’ve been reading English Civil War fiction. The Seeker by S. G. MacLean and then Traitor’s Blood by Michael Arnold. The hero in the first is a spymaster for Oliver Cromwell and the hero in the second is a royalist soldier so I’m getting both perspectives which is interesting and learning a lot about 17th Century weaponry!
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I hope you feel better very soon! 😘 Whenever I am sick or can’t read, I can’t help but order new books. I find it helps to feel better faster, because the smell of a new book makes me want to devour it right away!
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I’m so sorry to hear you were laid low by a lurgie, Cleopatra – indeed you came up with my own definition of a proper lurgie – a good heavy cold, where you are too aahTISHOO and snotty to impose your hankies and sneezings on work colleagues, is a marvellous treat for the inveterate reader, tucked up with a hottie, endless lemon, honey and ginger drinks and a pile of delicious comfort reading.
Real savage lurgies are the ones which make reading an impossibility, and there is nothing to do except lie very still and wait for the storm to pass. No fun at all!
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Aw thank you – yes it was a proper bug but thankfully I’m much improved now although still coughing which is delightful for everyone! I’m glad to say I’m reading again, it’s so disconcerting not to be able to that I knew I was really ill!
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