A couple of cosy crime yarns

I seem to have been reading a bit of cosy crime recently so this post will focus on two books from that genre. In all honesty, it's not my 'go to' section of crime fiction, I prefer mine  slightly more edgy, but I'm nothing if not contrary, so here are two cosies.

First up, The Cat Who Caught a Killer by L.T Shearer.

Lulu Lewis, recently widowed and a former police detective, now lives alone on a canal boat in the area of Maida Vale in London. Conrad is a calico cat... 'calico' being a colouring which is black, white and ginger. But that's not what is really unusual about him... the really strange thing about him is that he can talk. So, Lulu's mother-in-law is in a carehome. She has Alzheimers but otherwise is very healthy, so when she dies suddenly Lulu cannot believe it's not a suspicious death. Of course, no one believes her - old people die, it's a sad fact of life. But something isn't right, her other son is back from Spain with his new wife and acting suspiciously, the carehome might've been negligent over a lost watch. Things mount up and, with Conrad's help, Lulu begins to investigate. This was one of those 'okay' reads. I didn't think the writing was any great shakes, too much explanation, dialogue guilty of being not quite how people speak, that sort of thing. But Conrad the cat was a fun character and I liked the canal setting in Maida Vale although we did not need to hear the name of every surrounding street, over and over. It was a decent enough case and kept me reading to the end but I doubt I'll be reading any more of this four part series. 

Next, The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood.

Judith Potts lives in Marlow, a very pretty, historical town in Buckinghamshire in the UK. She's 77, lives alone, but is very happy with that situation. She sets crosswords for a living and likes whiskey and nude swimming in the Thames. One night, while out doing exactly that, she hears what she thinks is someone being assaulted or murdered but because she hasn't got anything on, she can't get out and investigate. Eventually, a body is found and it's the owner of an auction house who was an acquaintance of Judith's. The police do not really take Judith's ideas on the case seriously so Judith ends up enlisting the help of the Vicar's wife, Becks, and a dog walker, Suzie. They're a bit reluctant to get involved but Judith manages to convince them that there's more to life than their everyday, rather humdrum, lives. I enjoyed this and although I called it a 'cosy' it's a bit more than that with its good writing, humorous tone, and 'real' people with real foibles. I didn't guess who the culprit was but then I am quite easily fooled by murder mysteries. I suspect I enjoy the journey more than arriving at the destination. I think I will read on in this series and there is a TV adaptation which I'll try to take a look at. 

So those are actually the only two books I've read this month, having dnfed a couple quite far in. And sometimes, 'shock-horror', books take second place to some other thing you suddenly discover. For me it's a 'new to me' Star Trek series, Strange New Worlds. I had absolutely no idea it was so brilliant and have been devouring the first two seasons. And am now reading this:

The story, that of several crew members of The Enterprise being stranded on a planet where technology is banned and the Luddite rules enforced by rulers from yet another planet, is an interesting one, and the world-building quite good too. The execution of said intriguing tale is, sadly, a little mundane. Strange New Worlds has a huge amount of humour and it's lacking in this book. The cover's nice though. :-) 

I hope the August heat is not too unbearable if you're in the northern hemisphere. In the UK we're in the middle of our 4th. heatwave this summer, although our heat in no way compares in ferocity to many other parts of the world. Stay cool and I hope you're finding some good books to read and keeping well. 

Books Read in July

 Where did July go? I don't mind... it's not my favourite month by any stretch of the imagination... but it just whizzed by. Possibly because I had two lots of visitors? Which is always nice but means I'm behind with reviews and also commenting on my favourite blogs. I will try catch up. 

So, I read six books in July. Some I reviewed, some I did not. I wish I had the time to review everything, but I can at least mention them all here.

32. The Half Bird - Susan Smillie. This is a non-fiction book about a woman who sailed from the UK to the Med. and around it. Well, supposedly. She didn't actually get going until about halfway into the book, and the first half just felt like a load of waffle. The actual sailing around the Med. bit was quite good - there just ought to have been more of it. 3 stars

33. An Act of Foul Play - T.E. Kinsey 4 stars

34. Not to Be Taken - Anthony Berkeley 4stars

35. Godmersham Park - Gill Hornby.  

Thirty one year old Anne Sharpe is from a genteel family, until her mother dies and Anne suddenly realises she has no home and nowhere to go. She has to resort to being a governess and gets a job at Godmersham Park, the home of Edward Knight (formerly Austen) and his family. Her charge is Fanny Knight, aged 12, an enthusiastic, likeable, intelligent girl. Things could be worse. But a governess holds a strange position in a large household, neither a fully paid-up member of the servants, nor a proper family member. Things are difficult, made even more so when the servants take against her. Still, she is very much liked by Edward's brother, Henry Austen, who has charm aplenty and the sort of personality that wishes to know about everyone. So is this a good thing or a bad thing? I thoroughly enjoyed this fictional account of the life of Anne Sharpe. In real life her and Jane Austen really were friends but not a lot more is known about the friendship. Sadly, Jane herself does not appear until halfway through the book. Until then the book concentrates on the indignities Anne suffers and you feel very sorry for her. Henry Austen takes centre stage quite a lot and he is full of ambivilence, something he was in real life apparently. His charm made him popular but the target of said charm needed to be careful. This is Gill Hornby's second book about the Austen family, Miss Austen, which concentrates on Cassandra Austen, was very good too. And now there's a new book out - The Elopement - how that fits in with the family I don't know, but I assume it does somehow and I will be reading it. 5 stars

36. Hyperion - Dan Simmons. This was a reread for me. I read it first in 2016 and my review is HERE. I saw mention of the whole series of four on Youtube recently and decided I wanted to read the next three, but would need to refresh my memory by rereading the first book. It was every bit as good the second time around, if not better. I see I reserved book 2 from the library but clearly never read it, I have bought it now and plan to read it in the autumn. 5 stars (I gave it 4 in 2016.)

37. Walking the Woods and the Water - Nick Hunt. The author plans to follow in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor who walked from The Netherlands to what was then Constantinople, back in the 1930s. How much have the countries he passed through changed, are people's attitudes the same? Some very interesting answers ensue. Enjoyed this one a lot. 4 stars 

So, I was pleased with my July reading month. I read 4 fiction novels and 2 non-fiction travelogues and they were all quite varied. Only The Half Bird was a bit disappointing, the rest were all top-notch. And now we're into August, another of my least favourite months, roll on September! Hopefully there will be some more good books read during August but as yet I'm not sure what they will be. 

 Happy reading and I hope you're all keeping well.