Weekly Wrap Up (June 11)

Mum’s last trip to Jersey July 2010

 

This has been a sad week as my Mum who had been suffering with dementia for the last few years, had a massive stroke and passed away a few days later on Friday. Mum wasn’t a huge reader but she did encourage my love of books, she was the one who taught me to read before I started school and took me to the library from a young age where I would sit happily choosing my latest haul, some things never change!
So because I tend to write and schedule my posts at the weekend, the content has been there but I haven’t been responding as usual…

This Week on the Blog

On Monday I posted my review of Love Like Blood by Mark Billingham a superb book which has the subject of honour killings at its heart. This, the fourteenth book in the Tom Thorne series got the full five stars from this reader.

My excerpt post came from Each Little Lie by Tom Bale, a psychological thriller which will be published on 29 June 2017.

This Week in Books featured the authors Beryl Bainbridge, Jane Corry and Nicci French… unsurprisingly I haven’t got too far through the list this week.

My review on Thursday was of my first read for my 20 Books of Summer 2017 challenge, What Remains Behind by Dorothy Fowler which is set on an archaeological dig in New Zealand. A different type of mystery to many with the storyline split between two, one hundred years apart.

Next I reviewed the fantastic second book by Fiona Barton, The Child. Her storytelling style had me hooked with the mysterious burial of a baby decades earlier and three unconnected women who react to a brief news item about the find.

Sadly I wasn’t as enamoured with Beryl Bainbridge’s novel Winter Garden which is set in Soviet Russia in the early 1980s, which was reflected in my last review of the week, although I will continue to explore this author’s other books.

This Time Last Year…

I was reading An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge. I adored the setting of a theatre in 1950s Britain where we meet Stella a sixteen year old who is a stage hand. The story of Stella and her infatuation with an older man is at times painful to read but I loved the darkness, the cleverness, the period details and the sardonic humour.

You can read my full review here or click on the book cover

Blurb

It is 1950 and the Liverpool reporatory theatre company is rehearsing its Christmas production of Peter Pan, a story of childhood innocence and loss. Stella has been taken on as assistant stage manager and quickly becomes obsessed with Meredith, the dissolute director. But it is only when the celebrated O’Hara arrives to take the lead, that a different drama unfolds. In it, he and Stella are bound together in a past that neither dares to interpret. Amazon

Stacking the Shelves

This week I gained two new reads courtesy of NetGalley:

Frost at Midnight by James Henry who has written the three previous prequel’s to R.D. Wingfield’s series and for me the tone has been consistent with the originals. I have a soft spot for Jack Frost in 1980s Denton.

Blurb

August, 1983. Denton is preparing for a wedding. Detective Sergeant Waters should be on top of the world with less than a week to go until he marries Kim Myles. But the Sunday before the big day, instead of a run-through with his best man, the church is sealed off. The body of a young woman has been found in the churchyard, and their idyllic wedding venue has become a crime scene.

Detective Sergeant Jack Frost has been homeless for the past three months, ever since his wife’s family sold the matrimonial house. He’s been staying with Detective Constable Sue Clarke but with a baby to take care of and the imminent arrival of her mother, she’s given him his marching orders.

But as best man to Waters, he’s got a responsibility to solve the mystery of the dead girl in the churchyard. Can he put his own troubles aside and be the detective they need him to be? All in all, August looks set to be a wicked month in Denton… NetGalley

I was exceptionally lucky to be approved for a copy of The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham, a psychological thriller that sounds like it will indeed thrill! The Secrets She Keeps is due to be published on 11 July 2017.

Blurb

Everyone has an idea of what their perfect life is. For Agatha, it’s Meghan Shaughnessy’s.
These two women from vastly different backgrounds have one thing in common – a dangerous secret that could destroy everything they hold dear.

Both will risk everything to hide the truth, but their worlds are about to collide in a shocking act that cannot be undone. NetGalley

Do let me know what you’ve found to read this week?

Since my last post I’ve read 3 books and gained 2

The current total is therefore 181 
Physical Books – 106
Kindle Books – 62
NetGalley Books – 13