Weekly Reading Round-Up
Happy Friday, all! It’s been a whirlwind week in the double deadline vortex: working on both the Team W book and my own current book. But it was also a week of some highly satisfying light reading.
After finishing a particularly grim thriller last weekend, I felt in need of some happy comfort reads, so I went back to my Charlotte MacLeod collection for two mysteries that feature Emma Kelling, one of my favorite characters in the Kellingverse (she’s the grande dame of a Gilbert & Sullivan troupe, so, clearly, my people): The Plain Old Man and The Gladstone Bag, in which, respectively, a production of The Sorcerer is marred by (you guessed it) murder, and a priceless diamond necklace is secreted in a bag of old stage jewelry and murder and mayhem ensue. There’s nothing like a bit of light murder with a side of G&S to soothe the nerves.
I may possibly have worked a bit of The Gondoliers into the WIP. Just possibly….
I took a break from mysteries to indulge in an ARC of Julia Kelly’s upcoming book, The Last Dance of the Debutante, about the 1958 Season, the last official season in London in which debutantes were presented to the Queen.
After that, I was feeling sufficiently restored to try another thriller on the Buzzy Releases pile– and bounced off it hard. Very hard. So it was back to the comforting world of mid-century Britain with Catherine Aird’s His Burial Too, which has a rather bizarre premise, a variant of the locked room mystery in which a man is found crushed under a piece of statuary in a locked church tower, but I thought was one of the better of her 1960s mystery series, the Calleshire Chronicles.
And now I really to knuckle down and read The Betrayal of the Blood Lily in time for next week’s Read Along meeting!
What have you been reading this week?
The Last Summer at the Golden Hotel was a great read! Dysfunction, hilarity, an aging resort in the Catskill…laugh out loud funny in spots, but parts did tug at the heart strings.
I’ve been sucked into a Star Wars vortex… this happens every once in awhile. I used to watch the films on a loop and I’ve embedded myself in the new “Bounty Hunters” saga, aka, like a billion comics coming together from May to October all about Bounty Hunters… prior to that I read ‘Rules for Vanishing’ that ended up being less about urban legend and more YA Annihilation… so didn’t quite do it for me. And now I’m reading ‘Black Sun’ for book club, it’s like Mesoamerican Game of Thrones… Not loving it, but strongly liking it. Then ‘Betrayal of the Blood Lily’ which I prepared for by getting Indian Takeout last night.
I just fRinished Little Black Book which is the latest bibliophile mystery by Kate Carlisle. This one has a Rebecca theme and partly set in Scotland. An enjoyable series. Next up is the latest Dianne Freeman Countess of Harleigh mystery (the 4th I think).
Reading Daniel Silva’s newest, “The Cellist” and it is pretty good. Love the music references as I am a pianist myself. The whole series is WONDERFUL, and if you are looking for spy fiction that is thrilling, but is also more well-rounded (the main character has interesting backstory and is a restorer of old, rare paintings). It’s superb and I highly recommend it to everyone. The first in the series is the weakest, and actually doesn’t have to be read. I would start with the second. You will be hooked!!!