"Well, there’s so much to read, and I’m so far behind." Wallace Stegner
'Right son, this one's going to the address in Leverstone Road - you go over Vauxhill Bridge and after a few lefts you're almost there. Know where that is?' The porter pointed to the handwritten address on the envelope as he handed it across the desk to the boy, who grasped it, ready to leave … Continue reading Maisie Dobbs #16 The Consequences of Fear | Jacqueline Winspear
Kuldesh Sharma hopes he's in the right place. He parks up at the end of the dirt track, hemmed in on all sides by trees, ghoulish in the darkness. We are now up to the fourth installment of The Thursday Murder Club Mystery with The Last Devil To Die and less and less is the … Continue reading The Last Devil To Die | Richard Osman
It was in 1927 or 1928. I have no memory for dates, and I am not one of those people who carefully keep written records of everything they do: a not uncommon activity in our profession, and one that has proved quite useful to some, even occasionally profitable. Maigret may not remember the dates exactly, … Continue reading Maigret’s Memoirs | Georges Simenon
Detective Chief Inspector Maigret of the Flying Squad raised his eyes. It seemed to him that the cast-iron stove in the middle of his office with its chimney tube rising to the ceiling wasn't roaring properly. Maigret the first! I began my Maigret/Simenon journey back in 2017 with #43 of 75, Maigret's Mistake. Every year … Continue reading Pietr the Latvian | Georges Simenon #ParisinJuly2023
Back in 2020 when I was given my very first proof copy of Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club and devoured it one rainy long weekend, I knew he was on a winner. Writing in the genre I call #cosycrime, Osman had nailed the easy-to-read, funny, heart-warming murder mystery. No forensic jargon or gory details … Continue reading The New Thursday Murder Club Mysteries | Richard Osman
When I told Julian that I would write this book, the first intention was that it should be about my grandparents, but we agreed that it should also be an exploration of Dominic's immediate forebears to discover what influences had made him what he was, and above all to discover what in fact he was. … Continue reading A Difficult Young Man | Martin Boyd
One grey morning the first snow began to fall in Moomin Valley. It fell softly and quietly, and in a few hours everything was white. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to read this pocket-sized, yet delightful children's book. Finn Family Moomintroll is the first Moomin book translated into English, and at only … Continue reading Finn Family Moomintroll | Tove Jansson #NordicFINDS23
Opening Lines: Like many others, I did not see it coming. But William is a scientist, and he saw it coming; he saw it sooner than I did, is what I mean. Like many others, I did not see another Lucy book coming! But, in the end, I was glad. Lucy by the Sea brings … Continue reading Lucy by the Sea | Elizabeth Strout #USAfiction
Some people HAVE to finish every single book they start. I'm looking at Mr Books here! I used to be like that, but that was before I started working in a bookshop. In fact, I can think of only two books I bailed on pre-bookshop. One was Gillian Mears' Grass Sister, which was given to … Continue reading #MiniReviews – the DNF edition
Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantlepiece, and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocca-case. The Sign of the Four was my latest lucky spin for the Classics Club and my second Sherlock Holmes story. There's not a lot to be said about another Sherlock Holmes story that hasn't already been … Continue reading The Sign of the Four | Arthur Conan Doyle #CCspin
As always when he returned home at night, Maigret paused at the same place, just past the gas lamp, and looked up at the lit windows of his apartment. Every July since 2017, there has been one rainy, cold, miserable weekend that becomes my Maigret weekend. This past weekend was it! There is nothing sweeter … Continue reading Maigret and the Minister | Georges Simenon #ParisinJuly
Some images you record unconsciously, with the precision of a camera, and when you find them later in your memory, sometimes you rack your brains to recall where you saw them. Maigret Goes to School is my ninth Maigret. I'm well and truly hooked! This story sees Maigret leave Paris to help out with a … Continue reading Maigret Goes to School | Georges Simenon #ParisinJuly
Chapter 1: How Edith Campbell Berry Ate Six Courses and Practised the Seven Ways in the Dining Car on the Train from Paris to Geneva On the train from Paris to Geneva, Edith Campbell Berry, at twenty-six, having heard the gong, made her way to the first sitting and her first lunch in a railway … Continue reading Grand Days | Frank Moorhouse #EdithReadalong
The President of the Chamber remained standing until the faint stir caused by his entry subsided. Then he took his seat, saying rather nonchalantly, in a quiet voice: 'The sitting is open.' As always, I am facsinated by translation choices. Above are the opening lines from Brian Nelson's recent 2018 translation of Son Excellence Eugène … Continue reading Son Excellence Eugène Rougon | Émile Zola #Zoladdiction
182 years ago today, Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola was born in Paris and for the past nine years, Fanda @Classiclit has hosted Zoladdiction throughout April. I joined in the first two with the only Zola's on my TBR pile - Germinal (1885) and Nana (1880). At that point I didn't really understand how the whole Rougon-Macquart thing … Continue reading Zoladdiction 2022
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