Catching up

I am, as usual, a bit behind with reviews so it's time for a quick catch-up. First up, The Blood Gospel by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell. 

Dr. Erin Granger is an archaeologist working with a team of students on a dig in Israel. She's suddenly yanked away from that by the military to look at something that's come to light on a mountain top at Masada. It seems there's the entrance to a tomb and they need her to accompany the expedtion into the mountain to see what the tomb contains. Unfortunately, while they're down there a massive earthquake occurs, plus they're attacked by powerful forces unknown. It leaves only three of them alive, Erin herself, an American sergeant, Jordan Stone, and a priest, Father Rhun Korza. Korza admits they are down there to find a book, a gospel in fact, and that the forces who attacked them are after it too. But what is this unique gospel and why is everyone so desperate to get hold of it? And who are their enemies in this? Erin's safe, scientific world is about to be turned right on its head by the discoveries she's about to make. Well now, I think this is the first James Rollins book I've read. And as it's co-authored by Rebecca Cantrell I've no idea how typical this is of his work. I thought he wrote adventure books with a touch of the supernatural, I didn't know he wrote this kind of religion based horror novel. It was actually quite nice to be 'so' surprised by a book! 'But' I think some people would not like this one as a huge suspension of disbelief is paramount to enjoyment. There's a strong Roman Catholic background to the story, much speculation, and quite a big reveal as to the character of Rhun Korza which I'm not going to spoil. It's definitely an armchair travelling kind of book. It starts in Israel, trots off to Germany, thence to Russia (more big reveals) and from there ends in the Vatican City in Rome. It should be said here that I love a good 'weird' book and this is 'so' weird. I wouldn't say the characterisation was amazing, some characters are a bit wooden, I did like Erin but then I'm a sucker for archaeologists in books. For me this was a hugely fun romp of a book which I loved. I know others might think it ridiculous and that's fine, each to their own. I gave it five stars and as it's the first in a series of three main books I'm already deciding when to read book two. 

And next, as they say, for something completely different - Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand. This is my April book for my Read Around the USA challenge which this month covers the US overseas territories of American Samoa, the North Marianna Islands, Puero Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Winter in Paradise is set mainly in the US Virgin Islands. I wanted to read something from the North Marianna Islands as I remembered Martin Clunes going there in his doc. series about Pacific Islands, and how rugged and beautiful those particular islands are, but I couldn't find a book that appealed. No matter. 

Irene Steele lives in Iowa City with her husband, Russell. They have two sons, Baker and Cash, both grown up with lives of their own, and live in a beautiful, large Victorian house which Irene has renovated herself and is very proud of. Russell is not home very much. He changed jobs some years ago and suddenly they became mega-rich... but she isn't really sure what he now does and where all the money comes from. When she gets a phone call telling her that Russ has died in a helicopter crash along with the pilot and an unknown woman, in the American Virgin Islands, she has no idea what to think. She was not aware Russ had ever been to these islands but when she's told he owned a huge villa there she has to do some serious readjusting of her thoughts. Irene heads to the islands along with her two sons, determined to find some answers. But some answers inevitably throw up more and more questions, especially when there's a campaign of silence among the people who have said answers... So, another book I couldn't put down. First of all I will say that I wasn't mad about Irene or her sons. I found them tricky to identify with but I'm a sucker for the 'husband with a secret other life' trope. Probably because it's a mystery and secrets are involved and I love a slow reveal of the truth, especially if it's quite shocking. It was also interesting to watch the family integrate into the island, getting to know the people Russ knew, the house where he lived, but also strive to keep their own secrets from each other. As to the American Virgin Islands, I knew they were in the Caribbean but not where exactly. Well the sequence goes, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic,  Puerto Rico, The American Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands... all in row across the Caribbean. So there you go. They sound absolutely beautiful. I gather Elin Hilderbrand has a home there and this series of books, known as the 'Paradise' trilogy, is a homage to the islands and places mentioned, even bars and restaurants, are real. So, this book could be read as a standalone but it doesn't give all the answers. There's another phonecall right at the end. And yes, I do want to know what transpires and have already bought book two. Like I said, I'm a sucker.

So two five star reads in row. That's always nice. And now I can't decide what to read next in that way that happens when you've read a couple of good books in a row, quickly, both pageturners. Neither of them were particularly intellectual or challenging, just great, fun reads and that suits me fine. 

I hope you're all keeping well, and enjoying your reading as much as me.

Bleeding Hooks by Harriet Rutland - #1940 club

So, it's the week of the 1940 Club this week, which is being hosted by Simon at Stuck in a Book and  Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings.

Sadly, I've been a bit busy this week so reading more than one book has not been possible. I didn't even intend to read this one, I'd chosen something else, but The Dean Street Press people put a list of 1940 books on their twitter feed and Bleeding Hooks by Harriet Rutland sounded intriguing and is only 99p, so I grabbed it for my Kindle. 

 

The book is set in Wales in an inn beside a lake where fishing is very popular. But it's October and the end of the season, so catches are irratic and uncertain: in the summer this is a fisherman's paradise. A motley group of people have gathered, all addicted to fishing, apart from several women who are sisters or sweethearts of the men. One other woman, middle-aged Mrs. Mumsby, is something else entirely. She claims to be an ardent fishing fan too but the others suspect she's not and that the only thing she wants to catch is a new man. They make her a figure of fun, she's despised by all to be honest, and doesn't help matters by flirting with all the men and making them feel uncomfortable.

Thus, it's no surprise when she dies by the side of the lake. It's an odd death... she's found with a salmon fly embedded in her hand and at first it's thought she died of the shock. But a few people are not happy. Among them an engaged couple 'Pussy' Partridge and 'Piggy' Gunn. Both suspect foul play but it's not until they come across another of the group, Mr. Winkley, examining the crime scene at night, that they realise they're not alone in their suspicions. Winkley works at Scotland Yard and is ideally placed to help them investigate. Everyone thinks Mrs. Mumsby's death is an accident but why would she have been messing around with a salmon fly when the salmon season is over?

Harriet Rutland was the pen name of Olive Shimwell. She wrote three books, Knock, Murderer, Knock!, Bleeding Hooks and Blue Murder. The first two have Mr. Winkley as the detective, but possibly not the third. From reading a couple of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads it appears Bleeding Hooks is the least poular of the three. I can see why. Partly, it's because I don't fish so a lot of the terminolgy was lost on me. But also there were a lot of characters and I struggled a bit to remember who was who and what they had done to make them suspects. It was also, in my opinion only, quite easy to guess the culprit.

A book published in 1940 is going to be 'of its time' of course. Piggy seemed to have no problem with calling herself 'stupid' or with the boyfriend doing the same. The other thing was that they weren't a particularly charming lot. I realise Mrs. Mumsby did not help herself but equally they were horrible to her. And not much better to each other really. A very odd and unpleasant lot and I kept hoping someone would knock off a few more of them... Mr. Winkley, who was investigating, could've been quite interesting I felt. He was not an actual detective with Scotland Yard, more an ideas man in an office that people went to for solutions to problems, but not a lot was made of that, which I thought was a shame.  

What was very good was the sense of place. Welsh lakes are exactly as the author described them and I loved the descriptions of the scenery and the unpredictable weather. The inn sounded gorgeous too, I would happily stay there. I wondered if it was based on Bala Lake which is a gorgeous spot in Gwynedd, Wales. There are plenty of other possibilities though as Wales is full of lakes and reservoirs.

Anyway, for me Bleeding Hooks was a solid vintage detective story, made interesting by the Welsh setting and by not being a police procedural with a traditional detective. And the fishing background was something a bit different too. For the princely sun of 99p I was quite happy.

A quick catch-up before Easter

I've finished two books since my March wrap-up post. First up, The Wizard's Butler by Nathan Lowell.

Afghanistan veteran, Roger Mulligan, is desperate for a job. He applies for a position as a butler-come-carer to an elderly man, Joseph Shackleford. His neice thinks the old man has dementia because he thinks he's a wizard. And indeed he is showing signs of that horrible disease, not always knowing who people are, not remembering recent events, that kind of thing. And then a friend lets slip about an amulet and Mulligan discovers that Shackleford is indeed wearing such a necklace and is told by him in his more lucid moments that it is stealing his mind and if he takes it off he will die. Mulligan is not inclined to believe him of course... until he realises that the massive house he's living in never needs cleaning and the garden is neat and tidy without the aid of a gardener. 'Pixies', he's told. The niece has hired Mulligan for one year after which she wants her uncle in a care home with his house razed to the ground and the land sold for condos. The big problem with that plan is that Mulligan has become rather attached to the old man... So, this was a recommendation from a friend that I was very pleased to get as it was something a bit different: not your usual fantasy offering. We follow Roger quite closely as he learns how to do his new butlering job. There's a lot of detail and you might think it would be tedious, but it's not at all. The book certainly isn't 'high' fantasy, it's more based on everyday life where ordinary people don't know that there are a few people with 'talent' who can do unusual things. Sometimes the people who have a talent are not aware of it either. The setting is a big city somewhere, I don't think it was actually stated, and the house is old, old, old and quite a character in its own right. The main plot is that of the awful niece and her shenanigans but there were a lot of other things to enjoy in this first book of a new series. I look forward to book 2. I gather Nathan Lowell is known more for his sci-fi so I'll try those at some stage. 

Next, The Horned God: Weird Tales of the Great God Pan edited by Michael Wheatley.

This is another of the British Library's 'Weird Tales' collections. There're 16 contributions altogether, a mix of short stories and poems. Authors include Arthur Machen whose story The Great God Pan, from 1894, is thought to be the one all the subsequent stories sprang from. A mad scientist type opperates on a young woman's brain and the story meanders around telling what happened to various men when they married a predatory woman. It's an odd tale, very well told and I discovered it was best not to jump to conclusions. I found the rest of the collection to be a bit patchy, some good stories, some I was not as keen on, and various poems which are not really my thing. An exerpt from The Wind in the Willows, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, was well worth a reread even though I only read it back in November. Very atmospheric. The Music on the Hill by Saki was a creepy tale along the lines of 'Be careful what you wish for'. I'd read The Story of a Panic by E.M. Forster before but it's well worth a reread this story of a group of people staying in a villa in Italy and an outing they go on to the forest. The atmosphere of oppressive heat is almost tangible. I usually like Algernon Blackwood's weird tales but I thought, A Touch of Pan was not one of his best. The Golden Bough by an unknown author to me, David H. Keller, was very good, recounting a newly wedded couple's search for a house the wife has seen in a dream. They find it eventually in the midst of a forest and what happens makes for an atmospheric, claustrophobic tale. As I said, I found this collection to be a bit mixed - the writing was never less than excellent though and it was interesting reading various authors' take on The Great God Pan.

We're having visitors for a few days over Easter so not a lot of reading will get done I suspect. I won't be choosing a new fiction book but will just meander along with these two non-fictions for a while.

Mail Obsession: A Journey Around Britain by Postcode by Mark Mason tracks the author's quest to visit all 124 postcode areas in the UK. This is perfect for anyone who loves quirky facts and I've laughed a 'lot'. 

Sorry I'm Late, I didn't Want to Come by Jessica Pan charts what happens when a shy introvert tries to get herself out of her comfort zone for a year. I've only just started this but so far it involves starting conversations with strangers (trains, buses etc.) and speaking in public to an audience. I bought this because I thought it sounded interesting and it is. I am an introvert too, but not a shy one, I have no problem talking to strangers though having to give a speech would terrify me as much as it terrifies the author. I must admit I do like this kind of psychology, non-fiction read. 

Anyway, I hope you're all well, finding lots of good books to read and if you celebrate Easter then - Happy Easter!

Books read in March

Goodness me, these monthly wrap-up posts seem to come around quicker and quicker. I'm certain time is speeding up! Anyhow. Reading. March was quite a nice, casual month of books. I'm slowly getting out of - or trying to - devouring books like there's no tomorrow. It's senseless. I'm never going to be able to read 'everything' and need to accept that and move on. 

So I read seven books in March. And I feel fortunate because, apart from one which was a bit average, I enjoyed all of them.

20. Foundation by Isaac Asimov. This book comes into the category 'I thought I would love it so why the heck didn't I?' Excellent concept, monotonously executed. Oh well, it's nice to know which series you do not need to continue with. 3 stars.

21. A Killer Read - Erika Chase 4 stars

22. A Year of Living Simply - Kate Humble 4 stars

23. The Mad Ship - Robin Hobb 5 stars

24. Murder in the Mill-Race - E.C.R. Lorac 5 stars

25. Camino Island - John Grisham 4 stars

26. Deadly Appearances - Gail Bowen

This one is set in and around Regina, in the Canadian prairie province of Saskatchewan. A politician, Andy Boychuk, dies on stage just before he's about to give an important speech. One of his aides, Joanne Kilbourne, witnesses it and even manages to save the life of someone else who's about to go the same way. So who killed him? His strange wife, Eve, is a possibility but so are a number of other people, aides, supporters, members of a church he had links with, political competitors within the party they all supported. Jo is drawn into the investigation but it's difficult as she's still raw from the loss of her husband three years ago, plus has three kids in their teens to keep an eye on. One thing she quickly discovers - Andy's life was far more complicated than any of them realised. I thought this was incredibly well written and the sense of place very strong. I had no idea there was such a Ukrainian presence in that area (this book was published in 1990) and learnt quite lot as regards that. I liked Jo a lot but found in the last few chapters that I wanted to shake her for her attitude towards her own wellbeing. I also had a strong idea of the culprit and was proved right but that didn't spoil my enjoyment at all because it was so interesting watching what this person did. There was a very real sense of menace which I loved, but this is also a book about secrets, family, politics (not overwhelming thank goodness) and how your past behaviour can eventually catch up with you. Excellent. And thanks to Margot Kinberg for bringing the book to my attention. 4 stars

So, quite a good reading month. When you have that proportion of 4 and 5 star books you have to be grateful. Favourite book? The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb. But all of the other 4 and 5 star books were not far behind. And there were some nice discoveries - that I don't mind John Grisham's books at all, that some cosies can keep my attention, and a book about Canadian politics can make a good whodunnit.  Happy Days.

The In and Out Book Tag

 

So this is a book tag I saw a few days ago on Fanda's blog, HERE. It looked like fun so I thought I'd give it a go... you have to answer 'IN' or 'OUT' obviously.

Reading the Last Page First: OUT

I used to do this quite a lot but realised it was not the best idea when I took up reading murder mysteries some years ago.

Enemies to Lovers: IN

Not that I read a lot of romance books these days but when I do I don't mind any of the tropes to be honest.

Dream Sequences: OUT

Definitely. Confusing and there's nothing more boring than other people's dreams. 

Love Triangles: IN

It all adds to the spice of a romantic novel.

Cracked Spines: IN

I assume this means do I mind? No, I don't, I read quite a few second-hand books so I'm used to books being in all kinds of conditions. And as to cracking the spines myself, I try not to but have arthritis in my hands and so holding large books open can be tricky... which is why I love my ereaders so much.

Back to my small town: IN

Yeah, that's fine, it crops up quite a lot in all sorts of fiction and I don't mind it.   

No Paragraph Breaks: OUT

Big-time!

Multi-generational Sagas: IN 'ish'

I don't read many at all but when I do I quite enjoy them, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides springs to mind, but I don't tend to read those 87 book series following one family from when they built their first mud hut to the present day, no.

Monsters Are Regular People: IN

Love this kind of weirdness! 

Re-Reading: IN

But I'm not a huge re-reader. That said, I do more these days than I used to.

Artificial Intelligence: IN 'ish'

I love sci-fi but AI books are not my favourite sci-fi sub-genre. That said, Martha Wells' Murderbot series and Becky Chambers' books and you know, 'Data', so...

Drop Caps: IN

I had to look this up :-). It's when they use a huge capital letter to start a new chapter and yes, I'm fine with that.

Happy Endings: IN

Prefer them but can deal with the reverse as long as there's hope or more books to come.

Plot Points That Only Converge at the End: IN

Er... I think that's called 'a book'.

Detailed Magic Systems: IN

It's all fine by me although not always well done of course.

Classic Fantasy Races: IN

Although it's always nice when the author can be a bit different.

Unreliable Narrators: OUT

Not at all my favourite thing...

Evil Protagonists: OUT 'ish'

But I can cope occasionally.

The Chosen One: IN

'In' because I love Harry Potter and Tolkein but in some books it can become a bit tedious.

When the Protagonist Dies: OUT

No, no, no, no, nooooo... Listen, I'm someone who wailed inconsolably when 'Dobby' died!

Really Long Chapters: IN

Not fussed, although short chapters always make you feel like you're getting somewhere faster even if you're not.

French Flaps: IN

Again, not fussed.

Deckled Edges: OUT

Can't see the point.

Signed Copies by the Author: OUT

I suppose they're nice to have but it's not something I lust after. 

Dog-Earing Pages: OUT

It never used to bother me eons ago but these days it really does. Plus my massive collection of bookmarks has to be 'used'!

Chapter Titles Instead of Numbers: IN

But sometimes they can give away the plot when they do that 'Where so and so does this and where so and so does that' old fashioned sort of thing.

Well that was great fun so I hope others will have a go because these are very important issues to us book nerds! 

Catching up - a couple of crime titles

A couple of crime titles to catch up on today and a couple of good'uns too!

First up, Murder in the Mill-Race by E.C.R Lorac, this is one of the BLCC reissues dating from 1952 so just a little bit older than me. I wonder which of us has aged best. (No need to answer that...)

So, a young doctor, Raymond Ferrens, moves to a small village in North Devon, very close to Exmoor. With him goes his wife of four years, Anne. The village is Milham-in-the-Moor and lies on a hilltop about ten miles from the nearest town. It's a stunningly pretty place but it doesn't take long for the couple to realise how isolated it is and how insular the villagers are. The new neighbours trot along to introduce themselves, among them Sister Monica, the nun who has run a small orphanage for many decades. Anne takes an instant dislike to the woman although she's not really sure why, something about her feels malign. So it's no surprise when, some months later, Sister Monica's body is found floating in the mill-race at the bottom of the hill, below the village. The local policeman, Sergeant Peel, does his level best with the villagers but he's from the local town and therefore 'not one of them'. It's decided to call in Scotland Yard and Chief Inspector MacDonald is consequently dispatched to Devon, along with Sergeant Reeves, to find out who could possibly want a nun, so beloved of the village, dead. And it's no easy task for them either. All they can get out of people is, 'Her come over dizzy, poor soul. That be it. Terrible dizzy Sister's been these weeks past'. That and how wonderful she was, what a saint and so on. But somebody clearly did not agree... So this is actually book 37 of Lorac's Inspector MacDonald books and I have not read the previous 36 in order, I've read 4 or 5 completely out of order. It doesn't matter, MacDonald is not a tortured soul and neither is Reeves, so there's no backstory to keep up with. I love how down to earth both of them are too and most of the humour that runs through the book is down to those two, particularly as regards the villagers and their, 'Her come over dizzy, poor soul'. I laughed quite bit having lived in Devon for many years. The village is a beautiful setting and it jumps off the page at you, and Lorac clearly knew her village mentality 'very' well. Parts of the book are almost creepy, taking place as they do in the dark and one scene near the end in a dark house was really quite edge-of-your-seat. E.C.R. Lorac (Edith Caroline Rivett) was a top-notch crime writer and why she was ever forgotten is as much of a mystery as you'll find in any of her books. A really excellent read.

Next, Camino Island by John Grisham. I thought he only wrote court-room, lawyer type books until Lark mentioned that she might read this for the Bookish Books challenge, back at the beginning of January. Intrigued, I looked it up and then reserved it from the library. It then languished on the shelf and I forgot what it was about and was very pleasantly surprised when I found it was about 'books'. *Head-desk* I'm 70 in May... that says it all really.

Anyhoooo. Mercer Mann is an author who's had one literary book published that did very well and a book of short stories that did not. She's been working in a uni, teaching, but is losing her job due to cuts. She's approached by a mysterious woman who knows all about her, even down to the fact that she spent a lot of her summers as a child on Camino Island off the coast of Florida. Why is that of interest? Well, five valuable original manuscripts of the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald have been stolen from the vaults of Princeton university. The woman, Elaine, works for an insurance company and is conducting her own enquiry into the whereabouts of the stolen manuscripts. She thinks a bookseller, Bruce Cable, who lives on Camino Island has them and she wants Mercer to return to the island on the pretext of trying to finish her next book and of having writer's block, which she actually does have. But really she wants Mercer to infiltrate the writing and book-selling community on the island to try and find out if Bruce actually does have the stolen works. So, John Grisham is not an author that generally appeals to me as I'm not a huge fan of court-room, lawyer types of books (although The Client is a great film so I should probably try the book). This is nothing like that. I wasn't sure what to expect of his writing and found it spare, not many frills, although the island is very real and I could picture it beautifully so the writing is not that spare. I absolutely loved the authors on the island, especially the couple, Myra and Leigh, one of whom writes sexually charged pot-boilers which have made a fortune and the other, literary novels, which have not. It was also an excellent glimpse into the world of rare book selling and the wheeler-dealing which goes on in a very shadowy sort of underworld. The heist at the start of the book was exciting and ruthless and I didn't know I liked that sort of thing so there you go... you never can tell. A pageturner, I read it in two sittings and ignored pretty much everything yesterday until I'd finished it. The end fizzled out a bit weakly I thought but no matter, I thought this was an excellent read and there is a another book about Bruce Cable I gather, Camino Winds. I'll get that as soon as my library reopens after renovations. If anyone has any other Grisham recommendations that are not set in court-rooms I would welcome them.

I have been reading...

I fully admit I've been a bit AWOL lately but thankfully it's not down to anything nasty... I've been reading a book that's 900 pages long and concentrating on it fully rather than reading something else alongside it, as I would normally do. So, lots of reading going on but no posts so I'll try to make up for that today.

So, after A Killer Read by Erika Chase I finished off A Year of Living Simply by TV presenter, Kate Humble.

The author is quite famous in the UK as a sort of wild-life TV person who also did travel docs on the side. She used to present programmes such as Springwatch, but over the last few years she's taken more to documentaries about walking stretches of UK coastal paths and about people who've upped sticks and gone to live in the wilds of, say, the Welsh countryside or Orkney, to start small holdings or holiday lets. She's very personable and I thought this book, with ideas of how to simplify your life and live greener, might be interesting. And it was, to an extent. She talks a lot about going out walking for your mental health, starting a garden, moving to a quieter area, in her case rural Wales. She's also bought a house in a remote part of France. These are not things most of us can do to be frank. Even going out for a walk is not easy for some. The other thing is that I'm not sure jetting off to New Mexico to look at Earthship houses is particularly carbon footprint-friendly. All that said, I did find this gentle book, about simplifying your life, quite interesting, and Kate Humble's writing is delightful: I've already bought her book about walking, Thinking on My Feet, for my Kindle. 3.5 stars upped to 4 for the writing. 

My fourth book for March was a 900 page door-stopper of a book, The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb. This is book two in her 'Liveship Traders' fantasy trilogy: I reread book one last month.

Not sure how to make this spoiler free, it being a second book in a trilogy. Basically this continues all of the stories featured in book one, Ship of Magic, which concentrated heavily on the doings of the Vestrits, a family of Traders based in Bingtown on The Cursed Shores. Ronica is the matriarch, when she lost her husband it was thought his live-ship, The Vivacia, would go to Althea, their youngest daughter, because she's been sailing with him for years. But it doesn't, it goes to her sister and her horrible husband, and Althea goes off to prove herself elsewhere. She's back in Bingtown in book two, for a while, patching things up with her family. The ship, meanwhile, with Althea's nephew, Wintrow, a novice monk, aboard, is having plenty of adventures of its own. And then there's Malta, Althea's neice, whose antics in book one brought her all kinds of trouble especially with the Rainwild Traders who live up river in a city in the trees where the water is so poisonous it has 'changed' these humans in some very odd ways. Very hard to describe these epic saga type books in a cohesive manner, but I can assure you they're not hard to read, in fact quite the opposite. 900 pages fair cracks along, I had it read in 8 days and loved every single page. This is very much a book about family, what people will do to protect them and also how certain members are prepared to sacrifice other members for gain or as a result of jealousy. Hobb's first connected trilogy, 'Farseer' is about Fitz, a royal bastard, and his life is all you hear about - the Liveship Traders trilogy is a sea-going romp and you get all kinds of points of view, even down to sea serpents and dragons. It's suspenseful, wierd, political, completely adventurous, one heck of a journey to be honest. And the writing is sublime. A five star read for me, no question whatsoever. I want to read book 3 very soon but think I should give myself a couple of weeks to get my breath back first!

Here's a brilliant graphic showing all of the Realm of the Elderlings books in order of pubication, which is how I'm reading them:

 

 

 So, my current read is this which is slightly less of roller-coaster ride.

Murder in the Mill-Race by E.C.R. Lorac is set in a very small, isolated village in North Devon, close to where I live as a matter of fact. A young doctor and his wife move to the village and, although friendly enough, find it ruled over by Sister Monica, the nun who runs a small orphanage. They don't like her one little bit and they're not alone... but most of the village inhabitants call the woman 'wonderful', 'a saint'. But is she? I love E.C.R. Lorac's murder mysteries, so well written and convoluted.

Anyway, I hope you're all well and finding loads of good books to read.