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A Journey into Botswana in The Kalahari Typing School for Men

October 18, 2022 / 2 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

I’m not sure how many of the books I have read in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. Maybe just one other one. The Kalahari Typing School for Men is number four in the series. It can, of course, be read as a stand alone. The mysteries dealt by the ladies are not suspenseful and thrilling, but instead take you on a journey into the culture and streets of Botswana. It is a slower pace, with lots of domestic details and carefully drawn characters. It is easy to find yourself pulled into these books even if you are used to the faster-paced mystery thrillers.

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Learn about The Other People

October 11, 2022 / 2 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

I am nearly finished The Other People by C.J. Tudor, and it has been an interesting journey! A well-built psychological mystery, with a bit of the supernatural thrown in, you’re never quite sure what is real and how much can be explained logically.

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Checking out a new series with Gone

September 27, 2022 / 2 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

I am just finishing up Randall Wayne White’s Gone, the first book in his new Hannah Smith series. This is a difficult one for me to review. I am all for books that expose trafficking and predatory practices to the light of day, and inform people in an entertaining way, I had difficulty with the characters in this first in series.

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Explore a Highland Mystery in Plaid and Plagiarism

September 20, 2022 / 2 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

This is a nice little cozy set in the Scottish Highlands. Four friends arrive to set up house and open up a bookstore, teashop, and bed and breakfast, but all of their plans go out the window when a body is discovered in the shed. Fun characters, lots of interesting developments, and beautiful covers make this a series I am sure I will be returning to.

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Nero Wolfe in The Battered Badge

September 6, 2022 / 3 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

I have just finished The Battered Badge, a Nero Wolfe Mystery by Robert Goldsborough. This is the first of Goldsborough’s series that I have read, but I am familiar with the original Nero Wolfe Mystery series by Rex Stout (although noting that it is 45 books long, I suspect I have not read all of them!

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Come back to Booktown for: Not the Killing Type

August 30, 2022 / 2 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

I have read several of Lorna Barrett’s Booktown cozy mystery series in the past, so was happy to return to the fictional village full of bookstores (what kind of a dream town would that be?) with Not the Killing Type, book #7 in the series. So nice to get back to Tricia, her employees Mr. Everett and Pixie, and of course her cat, Miss Marple in the Haven’t Got a Clue mystery bookstore.

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Something New: I Owe You One

August 23, 2022 / 3 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

I don’t usually read romance, so this one is a bit of a divergence from my usual. I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella is a rom com with a unique plot-line, focused as much on Fixie’s relationships with her brother and hilariously vague sister and managing the family store. Being a rom com there are, of course, two men in her life, one that’s right for her and one that’s not. The storyline is interesting and the characters not the run-of-the-mill.

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Get your noir fix with Crashed

August 16, 2022 / 2 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

Junior Bender is a burglar, not a private investigator, so maybe I can’t properly classify it as hard-boiled or noir. But the atmosphere and the colorful language and descriptions are as familiar as any Sam Spade. The characters are colourful, fun, and described well. This twisty little mystery is a great read so far, I will definitely read more of the series.

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A Great Read – Darius the Great is Not Okay

July 26, 2022 / 2 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

I just finished reading Darius the Great is Not Okay, by Adib Khorram. A great showcase of Persian culture, family relationships, and depression, this YA book would definitely be on my recommended reads. The descriptions of the buildings and historic sites in Iran, Persian cuisine, and tea are rich and fascinating. As a teen living in a dual-culture home suffering from mental illness, the relationships are often fraught as Darius tries to find his way in the world.

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Feast on A Banquet of Consequences

July 19, 2022 / 3 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

A Banquet of Consequences is book #19 in Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley series. I have read a few other books in this series and they are always full of interesting characters with complex backstories, and a good murder you can really dig into. Though they are police procedurals, there is a lot of information given about the characters before the murder, similar to an Agatha Christie like Death on the Nile. You don’t really hear a lot from the police detectives to start with. In a lot of police procedurals you only view the crime through the eyes of the investigator, but that is not the way the Inspector Lynley books are written.

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