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.