What we have read in October 2023

Shocking month numbers-wise - I really don't seem to be spending enough time reading!  Both were very enjoyable though.

Born in a Burial Gown by MW Craven (Avison Fluke #1) MrW and I really enjoyed this which was written before his Washington Poe series. I can’t help thinking that Avison was the prototype for Poe as there are lots of similarities. Very entertaining with the usual mix of serious crime and humour. 9/10


The Plague Maiden by Kate Ellis (Wesley Peterson #8) Wesley and the team need to revisit an historic case when the person convicted wins an appeal at the same time a supermarket is threatened for no obvious reason. There are a lot of characters and, in turn, suspects which meant slow-going for me. I enjoyed catching up on this series all the same. 8/10

Several disappointing ones this month, including a few that were on my wishlist for ages, but there were also some good ones!

The Dive by Sara Ochs (8/10) Set on a beautiful (and beautifully portrayed) Thai scuba diving island of Koh Sang, everything is serene until a scuba diving lesson discovers a dead body – that of one of their students who’d failed to show up that day – and what follows resembles the falling of a house of cards. A solid debut by the author although I thought it was a bit too slow out of the blocks, and towards the end I felt that she’d written herself into a corner.

The Amber Fury by Natalie Haynes (8/10) Grieving Alex Morris moves from London to Edinburgh, and finds herself a job in a “Pupil Referral Unit” where she teaches Greek mythology to a bunch of troublesome students. It took me awhile to get to grips with what was going on, thankfully before the mystery element started to kick in, and I did think it came together quite well in the end.

The Herd by Emily Edwards (9/10) A white lie with far-reaching consequences leads to a falling out between previously best friends Bryony and Elizabeth. I liked the exploration of the theme of vaccination in this one, thought it is one of the more balanced portrayals that I have seen.

Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (10/10) Third book in the series, we’ve now moved to a different café but following a similar plot of allowing visitors to travel in time. I think I’ve done a good job of spacing out my reading of the books in this series, they would probably be same-y otherwise, but this way I get to enjoy that warm feeling that I always seem to think warrants full score.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling & John Tiffany (10/10) Read this right after seeing the play so was familiar with the story and zoomed through it, although I thoroughly enjoyed being in the Hogwarts world once more. It was fun to experience the story through a book, there are nuances that can be interpreted differently to what was portrayed by the actors, and I never thought I would ever love someone with the last name “Malfoy”.

Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella (7/10) After being together for 10 years, Sylvie and Dan decide to spice up their marriage by Plan Surprise Me, where they arrange surprises for one another, with hilarious consequences. Ms Kinsella never fails to make me laugh and this was no different, although I did find the characters really annoying in parts.

Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher (5/10) It’s hard to give a summary of this one because different versions of the book have wildly different blurbs, and what is on the blurb of one would be a spoiler for another. Just to say that I thought the concept was interesting, but it could have been a bit clearer and it would have helped if the writing were less stilted.

After I Do by Taylor Jenkins-Reid (9/10) Finding their marriage is running a bit stale, Lauren and Ryan decide to take a year-long trial separation to assess things. This turns into quite a cute story of falling back in love, though I realise some of their actions were controversial. Only misses full score as I thought it was thematically mainstream for TJR’s standards.

How to Be a Footballer by Peter Crouch (7/10) Peter Crouch narrates this book where he goes through the steps to becoming a (Crouch-approved) footballer. I was expecting more of a biography and personal experiences rather than what this was, which I found a bit preachy and biased in parts, but I do always like hearing famous people share their part of the world and overall it was quite well written.

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Sutanto (10/10) Sassy teashop owner Vera Wong wakes up one morning to find a dead body in her shop and, unimpressed with the rate at which the police work, decides to take things into her own hands. This was a hilarious cosy mystery, I adored Vera and her four “suspects” (she isn’t shy to tell the either that they are suspects!) and while I did sort of work out the whodunnit, finding out the full backstory was still pretty satisfying.

Every Day is Mother’s Day by Hilary Mantel (6/10) Social services struggle to access and give help to Muriel, who is “half-witted” and lives with her rather peculiar mother in a run-down house. I found this one much more readable than I was expecting, but the premise is very depressing and one really needs to be in the right mood to appreciate.

17 Church Row by James Carol (7/10) To try and have a fresh start after the unfortunate death of their daughter, Ethan and Nicki move to a state-of-the-art new property in West London designed by a renowned architect. A slightly different take on cutting edge technology + mystery that I enjoyed more than I was expecting to, though I thought the reveal was overly drawn out.

My Name is Selma by Selma van de Perre (8/10) An honest and actually quite sobering account by a Holocaust survivor, different from others that I have read in that Selma actually posed as Aryan instead of going into hiding, and she chronicles her participating in the resistance here. These books are always difficult listens but I thought this was very well written.

Control by Adam Rutherford (8/10) Geneticist Adam Rutherford covers the history of eugenics and how it affects not only research but also political elements in universities today. Being from the same university as him I found a lot of the historical coverage fascinating, and he writes very well so this is a very readable account despite the heavy material.

The Last Resort by Susi Holliday (7/10) Seven people end up on an abandoned island… standard trope with a tech-ey twist as they are fitted with trackers that apparently can read minds. I think I would have liked it more if the writing were a bit more straightforward and I didn’t spend the first half of it just utterly confused, ending rescued it slightly though.

Mr Two-Bomb by William Coles (4/10) Based on the true story of a man who survives both atomic bombs of WWII despite being in the afflicted cities on the day of the bombing. I liked the premise but didn’t like the writing style, I thought the author (as a foreign reporter) tried too hard to imitate a Japanese writing style which just didn’t come off very well.

Find Her First by Emma Christie (9/10) Paramedic Stef Campbell has gone missing, and husband Andy is also behaving properly oddly. This book does a great job of raising questions in the reader’s head as to what actually happened along 3 main plotlines. Enjoyed it though I wish that there were a few more clues (both real and red herrings!) dropped along the way rather than it being just creating question after question, though to her credit the author ties it up very well in the end.