A good month for me! Especially pleased to have started the year with a 5* read, and to have rediscovered the joys of Enid Blyton.
Eye for an Eye by M.J. Arlidge (10/10) Follows several characters who have one thing in common – they had previously committed crimes and have been granted a new start under a new identity, until the system appears to fall apart. I thought this was an interesting discussion into the different possible outcomes following crimes committed as children, a well-written and gripping story too.
Murder Under the Christmas Tree by various authors (6/10) A collection of crime/mystery Christmas-themed short stories, featuring some prominent authors. I’m not a huge fan of short stories in general, though I did like a couple in this collection e.g. the Sherlock Holmes one.
Genesis by Karin Slaughter (5/10) Will Trent and Faith Mitchell find themselves hunting down a serial killer, even when the relationship between the victims was not obvious initially. I didn’t realise this was part of a series, I may have liked it better had I related to the characters a bit more, as it stood I thought it was too long for the amount of plot it had.
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (5/10) After a failed relationship, Takako goes off to live with her uncle, who runs a bookshop in the suburban region around Tokyo. I liked the first half that was based in the bookshop, but the second half was a bit disappointing as I found it was minimally related to the first and wasn’t anywhere near as interesting.
It Started With A Tweet by Anna Bell (8/10) After a huge gaffe leads to her losing her job, Daisy’s sister convinces her to go off on a digital detox. She agrees, not realising that Rosie has an ulterior motive of needing help doing up a run-down Cumbrian cottage that she’s purchased. This was a fun listen and the narrator was fantastic!
A Vicarage Christmas by Kate Hewitt (8/10) A short story about Ana, the third daughter of the Vicar, returning home for Christmas for the first time in several years. She’s had her fair share of struggles and it was nice to see the family opening up to each other – this mini series is touted as something similar to the Bridgertons and I do see the potential.
The Silent Treatment by Abbie Greaves (4/10) Married couple Frank and Maggie haven’t spoken to each other in the last 6 months, and only when Maggie is found unconscious and hospitalised does the truth of the situation come to surface. I found this an utterly ridiculous novel of two people behaving childishly, and while there was some explanation to be had, it came nowhere to justifying the titular silent treatment.
The Hive by Scarlett Brade (5/10) Streaming from The Hive, Charlotte Goodwin has taken former partner Lincoln Jackson hostage and is asking viewers online to vote on whether or not he should be killed. We then flash back to see how the characters got into this situation in the first place. Brilliant concept, but I thought the execution fell short as it felt like we were only told part of the story – and then are parachuted to the ending.
The Fine Art of Invisible Detection by Robert Goddard (9/10) Working for a private detective, Umiko Wada finds herself travelling from Tokyo to London to figure out the truth behind an old picture. The case takes her to several other cities as things are much bigger than she had anticipated, but I liked her stoic character and she was quite fun to investigate with. I was happy to find at the end that this is a series and there is already a book 2.
The Dead of Winter by Stuart MacBride (6/10) An ex-cop turned gangster ending up dead in his own house, plus a blizzard, and a new boss, makes life quite difficult for Edward Reekie. A good concept but literally the first thing that happens in the book distracted me for a good part of it, and I struggled with the accents written into the dialogue.
Edible Economics by Ha-Joon Chang (10/10) Economist Ha-Joon Chang covers the basic principles of economics, using different foods from all over the world as means of describing said principles. I thought this was a brilliant concept, loved it as he segued so beautifully from discussing food to discussing economics in each chapter, it made so much sense!
The Twist of the Knife by Anthony Horowitz (9/10) Book #4 in the Horowitz and Hawthorne series, which cuts a bit closer to home as Horowitz himself is implicated in the case. While I love being with these characters and it was largely the case, I thought Hawthorne was a bit too irritating here, and I didn’t like the ending either.
With or Without You by Drew Davies (7/10) Wendy Dixit has to contend with life after her taxi driver husband Naveen ends up in an accident that lands him unconscious in the hospital. I largely enjoyed this story of finding herself, but I thought Naveen’s mother was written too annoyingly stereotypically.
How to Kill Men and Get Away With It by Katy Brent (6/10) Kitty is addicted to killing men that she feels has wronged fellow women. A tongue-in-cheek dark humour book that was okay, but I didn’t like Kitty’s character. I was also, given the title, expecting a little bit more cleverness which never seemed to come.
The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton (10/10) A foray back into my childhood visiting the Faraway Tree, this time on audio brilliantly narrated by Kate Winslet. This was my favourite fictional world as a child and, while for the longest time I was scared to experience it as an adult as I worried the magic would disappear, this didn’t happen and instead I was drawn into this beautiful world that I so love once more.
Emotional Ignorance by Dean Burnett (7/10) A well-written public science account on emotional “ignorance”, which I thought was a good counterpart to many of the emotional intelligence equivalent books out there. Burnett is clearly struggling from the loss of his father during the pandemic, and I liked how systematically he organised his thoughts into the different chapters. Several of them went a bit too rambly/diary-esque though, and this reduced my score.
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (6/10) Two young people meet in London, each having got there through different paths, though they share struggles as Black people. I liked the concept, and feel their pain in several things that happened, but in the end there was too much of a victim mentality in Samuel that I thought diminished the power that this story could have had.
Between Us by Clare Atkins (5/10) The story of Jono, a mixed-race Australian high schooler, falling for Ana, a refugee from Iran who still lives in a detention camp. Told from three points of view (the two kids, plus Jono’s dad who himself came from Vietnam), this plot device worked well but I hated Ana’s character as the stereotypical ungrateful refugee.
Show Me the Bodies by Peter Apps (6/10) NF about the Grenfell fire and the research that the author has done into the causes. The book isn’t structured well though, interspersing the more technical research with survivor testimonies, coupled with the specialist vocabulary I found made it hard to follow.
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall (8/10) A brief tour around the world, describing the political situation of different countries across the globe and how some of these arose as the consequence of their geography. A solid book and I can see why this series is so popular, but the objectiveness of the narrative varies from chapter to chapter (each corresponding to a country/region) that I didn’t like.
Adventure of the Goblin Dog by Enid Blyton (8/10) A second foray into the Enchanted Wood, this time on a mission to rescue a princess. This one is written differently in that it is a single adventure for the whole story, and I quite liked that although I was disappointed by how little the tree featured.
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager (7/10) After her father’s death, interior designer Maggie returns to the house that her family abruptly left when she was a child, with the view of doing it up before putting the house up for sale. Sinister happenings follow in this story, which is told in split timeline between Maggie in present day and her father Ewan in past. This book creeped me out for a large part of it, and although I did like how things came together in the end, there were one too many holes in logic.
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett (6/10) Tasked with investigating the case of the “Alperton Angels”, which culminated in a baby going missing 18 years ago. As with all of Hallett’s books, the reader is presented with a variety of case-related material to work out for themselves what has happened. I thought this was weaker than her Fairway Players books, the case was actually a bit silly. I did enjoy buddy reading this with a friend though, her books are generally great for that and this was no different.
