The July list copied from my Books Read 2026 Page...............
- Dorothy L Sayers - The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. Crime Fiction (Published 1928) Lord Peter Wimsey finds the body of ancient General Fentiman. How did the General die, who is Mr X why is he difficult to find and which of the General's heirs, also members of the Bellona Club, is lying.
- Heather Peck - Death on the Norwich Express. Crime Fiction Novella. (Published 2024) A DCI Greg Geldard story. The sudden death of the passenger in the seat opposite seriously disrupts DS Chris Matthew's journey home.
- Carlos Whittaker- Reconnected. Non Fiction (Published 2024) In the summer of 2022, podcaster and author Carlos Whittaker spent 7 weeks entirely screen free splitting his time between a monastery, an Amish Farm, and home with his family. A mix of experiment with guidance ideas.
- Heather Peck - Secret Places. Crime Fiction. (Published 2021) This is the first in the DCI Greg Geldard Series and is set in Yorkshire and then in Norfolk. A chance visit by archaeologists to her smallholding uncovers an old secret bunker and a skeleton. Tristan Smith , goat farmer, cheese maker and weaver knows it is nothing to do with her but tracking down the previous owners takes Greg down to the Norfolk broads.
- Sara Woods - Bloody Instructions. Crime Fiction. (Published 1962) The first in a long series of books about barrister-sleuth Antony Maitland and his Uncle Sir Nicholas Harding. Who stabbed mild mannered solicitor James Winter and why do two accounts of people seen entering the building seem to differ?
- Rhys Bowen - The Rose Arbor. Crime Fiction (Published 2024) It is 1968 and a village, abandoned since the war, seems to hold a memory for Liz Houghton, a journalist who accompanies her police friend Marissa to Dorset in the hopes of finding a missing girl or details of other children missing since wartime evacuations.
- D.E.Stevenson - Kate Hardy. Fiction. (Published 1947) The arrival of writer Kate Hardy to the Dower House in Old Quinings has the whole village talking. Kate bought the house without visiting and is escaping from her selfish sister and niece. She is welcomed by many including Mrs Stack who helps with the cleaning. When Mrs Stack's son Walter returns from the war he finds readjustment to village life very difficult but finds a friend in Kate.
- Jessica Mann - Funeral Sites. Crime Fiction (Published 1981).Phoebe Britton dies in an accident in the Swiss Alps but that doesn't stop her husband, Aiden, on his progress to being Prime Minister. After her funeral her sister Rosamund realises just how far her brother-in-law will go to secure his ambition. Rosamund has to go on the run as she has information about something that happened when Aiden was at university twenty years earlier.
You've been busy reading :) I like the sound of the Heather Peck novels.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the Carlos Whittaker book like? It sounds an interesting experiment.
Interesting but he was a bit of a wimp about it all!
DeleteHave you read any of Gillian McAllister's books? I'm reading Wrong Place, Wrong Time and enjoying it. I've read most of her's and like her style, stories, and characterisation.
ReplyDeleteLooked for her books on library website - not sure they are my sort really.
DeleteI like the sound of the final one in the list so have taken a note of it. My brain is so overheated that I ‘m not even enjoying books! Catriona
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a really good selection. I've been trying to read through some of my lighter Summer fiction books, but some were so bad they went straight back to the charity book table at the supermarket. 🫤
ReplyDeleteI’ve allowed the heatwave to addle my brain somewhat, hoping my reading mojo comes back soon
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
Reading for enjoyment is so important, especially with the ongoing high heat.
ReplyDeleteIt rained last night here and today the humidity is high, but there is no smoke in the air, and I am thankful for that. The smoke comes and goes as the winds shift.
What really annoys me is the way they print stuff with new covers , constantly picking up the same books twice
ReplyDeleteYou've been reading a lot! Sounds like some good reads there.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy Dorothy Sayers - fell for Lord PW as a teenager I recall! Now I enjoy her writing for its rich language and less chaotic world. I read D E Stevenson as a teenager too I tried again a while back but found her writing style a little pedantic.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mention of a D.E.Stevenson book I haven't come across, when the world's crazy her books are a welcome break.
ReplyDeletePenny
Lots of reading happening.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I have been following your blog for a quiet a few years now and you gave me the inspiration to become a bookworm again something I was when I was a child but sadly once I went out to work at fifteen then getting married and life getting in the way, reading books took second place but I was determined to make up for lost time especially after seeing how many books you manage to read each year so January 1st 2026 I made a start and up to today I have managed to read 44 books and have even managed to read a little after a recent cataract procedure. Wendyx
ReplyDeleteI am saving this post for when I get back to England in the spring. I'm not familiar with Heather Ward or Sara Woods. What were your feelings about these two? Well done, good mysteries? Worth reading more of their series?
ReplyDelete