I've already read more books in January than I did in the whole of December and by coincidence there are 3 books of short stories.
Edited by Martin Edwards - Lessons in Crime. These 15 short stories are all set in schools or university and range from Arthur Conan Doyle to a surprise modern story from Jacqueline Wilson.
Sylvia Townsend Warner - Winter in the Air. Some of these short stories are so short and very weird. I read this for my 'Reading the Seasons' Thing.Elizabeth Anthony - Dramatic Murder. This was originally published in 1948 and lost until the BLCC reprint in 2024. Playwright Dimpsie McCabe has invited all his friends from the theatre world to join him at his castle in Scotland for Christmas. However, the festivities haven't even started when two latecomers find Dimpsie dead amongst the branches of his Christmas tree that he had been decorating. The death seems to be accidental caused by faulty electrics but when another member of the party dies a few weeks later the police and some of Dimpsie's friends become suspicious.
Edited by Vaseem Khan - Murder in Harrogate; Stories inspired by the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival. All these stories are by modern crime writers and are set in Harrogate in Yorkshire. Some are set in the early part of the twentieth century and others are up to date.
Evie Woods - The Story Collector. A two time-line book although the 1911 part is read from a diary. In 1911 Ireland, Anna, a young farm girl, volunteers to help an intriguing American visitor translate the old stories of the fairy world for his university studies. In 2011 USA Sarah Harper boards a plane for the west coast of Ireland, she was supposed to be heading to her parents home in Boston and is running away from sadness and a failed marriage.
That's 5 library books read and returned.
Before Christmas I changed my pick up point for library books to Stowmarket as there was a book almost on it's way that I wanted to get before the January library van visit. Then I forgot to change it back when I reserved some other books so these were picked up from town yesterday.
I was reminded about the book about the shipping forecast when Deb in West Wales wrote about some radio programmes/ podcasts about the shipping forecast and thought I'd take another look at this book.
The other two are both crime fiction, one old republished and the other not quite so old from 2019 by an author who's been writing this Sloan and Crosby police series since 1966.
Plenty to read now.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
