Category Archives: Mystery

Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith

Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith

I have very much enjoyed listening to this. I watched the first two series of C.B Strike, so I have been picturing the actors as I have been listening.

Here’s the blurb …

When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.

Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible – and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them…

A fiendishly clever mystery with unexpected twists around every corner, Career of Evil is also a gripping story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives. You will not be able to put this book down.

I haven’t got much to say about this novel. It was a really enjoyable crime novel, and I didn’t pick the culprit. There is a lot of what I think of as world building – I felt like I was walking the streets of London, going to the office on Denmark Street, etc. It adds to the enjoyment of the novel for me.

Now to watch the the third series.

A review.

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Filed under 4, Audio, Crime, Fiction, Mystery

Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead – Barbara Comyns

Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead – Barbara Comyns

I have wanted to read Barbara Comyns for a while and then I listened to a Slightly Foxed podcast about a Comyns biography and I was even keener. I found this one as an audio book from Borrowbox.

Here’s the blurb …

This is the story of the Willoweed family and the English village in which they live. It begins mid-flood, ducks swimming in the drawing-room windows, “quacking their approval” as they sail around the room. “What about my rose beds?” demands Grandmother Willoweed. Her son shouts down her ear-trumpet that the garden is submerged, dead animals everywhere, she will be lucky to get a bunch. Then the miller drowns himself . . . then the butcher slits his throat . . . and a series of gruesome deaths plagues the villagers. The newspaper asks, “Who will be smitten by this fatal madness next?” Through it all, Comyns’ unique voice weaves a narrative as wonderful as it is horrible, as beautiful as it is cruel. Originally published in England in 1954, this “overlooked small masterpiece” is a twisted, tragicomic gem

This was more like a novella – I think it was about 4 hours. And yet, there is so much packed in it. The characters – the horrible Grandmother, selfish son, put upon maids. The scene setting is fabulous – the sodden garden, various animals floating in the flood. It’s funny, but also terribly sad, and despite the seemingly happy ending does anyone get what they want?

A review.

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Filed under 5, Audio, Fiction, Miscellaneous, Mystery

The Late Mrs. Willoughby – Claudia Gray

The Late Mrs Willoughby – Claudia Gray

I was given this book for mothers day. I have already read the first novel The Murder of Mr. Wickham. I was keen to read this one and I see there is also a third one.

Here’s the blurb …

The suspenseful sequel to The Murder of Mr. Wickham, which sees Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney reunited, and with another mystery to solve: the dreadful poisoning of the scoundrel Willoughby’s new wife.

“An absolute page-turner full of well-plotted mystery and hints of simmering romance. . . . More of the Jane Austen characters we love (as well as those we love to hate).” —Mia P. Manansala, author of Arsenic and Adobo

Catherine and Henry Tilney of Northanger Abbey are not entirely pleased to be sending their eligible young daughter Juliet out into the world again: the last house party she attended, at the home of the Knightleys, involved a murder—which Juliet helped solve. Particularly concerning is that she intends to visit her new friend Marianne Brandon, who’s returned home to Devonshire shrouded in fresh scandal—made more potent by the news that her former suitor, the rakish Mr. Willoughby, intends to take up residence at his local estate with his new bride.

Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley are thrilled that their eldest son, Jonathan—who, like his father, has not always been the most socially adept—has been invited to stay with his former schoolmate, John Willoughby. Jonathan himself is decidedly less taken with the notion of having to spend extended time under the roof of his old bully, but that all changes when he finds himself reunited with his fellow amateur sleuth, the radiant Miss Tilney. And when shortly thereafter, Willoughby’s new wife—whom he married for her fortune—dies horribly at the party meant to welcome her to town.

With rumors flying and Marianne—known to be both unstable and previously jilted by the dead woman’s newly made widower—under increased suspicion, Jonathan and Juliet must team up once more to uncover the murderer. But as they collect clues and close in on suspects, eerie incidents suggest that the killer may strike again, and that the pair are in far graver danger than they or their families could imagine.

This is a fun crime novel set amongst the characters of Jane Austen novels with a bit of Jane Austen style in the writing. I think if you’re a fan of Jane Austen and/or crime, then you will enjoy this novel.

Willoughby was suitably caddish, Mrs. Jennings enthusiastic, but kind, Colonel Brandon thoughtful, and Lady Middleton thoughtless. The characters are how you think they should be.

A review.

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Filed under 4, Crime, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Paper, Romance

Tell Her Story – Margot Hunt

Tell Her Story – Margot Hunt

We were looking for something shortish for our drive home and found this one. This is my second audible only read (listen), the first being Geneva – I have liked them both.

Here’s the blurb …

From the author of Buried Deep and The House on the Water comes a shocking thriller about a young podcaster who’s investigating a cold case in her hometown and determined to uncover the truth at any cost.

Paige Barrett was living her dream as a journalist in New York City, racking up bylines as a staff writer at The Razor, a cutting-edge online magazine. But when she’s suddenly fired from her job and dumped by her boyfriend, she finds herself back home in the quaint seaside town of Shoreham, Florida, waiting tables and living in her sister’s guesthouse.

Restless and itching for something meaningful to occupy her time, she decides to launch a true-crime podcast about the death of Jessica Cady, a beloved teacher who died mysteriously 20 years earlier. The case went cold with no leads and no suspects, but the more Paige digs into the woman’s death, the closer she comes to a killer. In a small town like Shoreham, it’s impossible to keep a secret forever.

Tell Her Story is performed by Dakota Fanning and features the voices of LJ Ganser, Vikas Adam, Emily Bauer, Ann Osmond, Fred Berman, Jonathan Davis, and Laura Darrell.

I found this to be compelling. It was well-written and plausible (although I wasn’t sure of Paige’s sister’s reaction – I don’t want to spoil the story, so I won’t say anything more). The audio narration was great.

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Filed under 4, Fiction, Mystery, Short Stories

A Keeper – Graham Norton

A Keeper – Graham Norton

We listened to this while driving to our holiday destination (and while we were there). It’s read by Graham Norton.

Here’s the blurb …

When Elizabeth Keane returns to Ireland after her mother’s death, she’s focused only on saying goodbye to that dark and dismal part of her life. Her childhood home is packed solid with useless junk, her mother’s presence already fading. But within this mess, she discovers a small stash of letters—and ultimately, the truth.

Forty years earlier, a young woman stumbles from a remote stone house, the night quiet except for the constant wind that encircles her as she hurries deeper into the darkness away from the cliffs and the sea. She has no sense of where she is going, only that she must keep on.

I enjoyed it. I am not sure how to describe it? Mystery, thriller, family drama, maybe a bit of romance. It is well-written and the audio version is great.

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Filed under 4, Fiction, Mystery, Thriller