Happy Friday, all!

There’s something very special about getting to read, in all its shiny bookish glory, a book you saw in progress.  I was lucky to be a member of the magical Deer Mountain Writers Retreat a couple of years ago (fighting my way through the early chapters of What Happens at Nightfall).  One of my fellow Deers was Laura Zigman, whose The Author Weekend just came out last month.

In this twisty thriller, an aging thriller writer whose sales are falling sets up a fan weekend on a secluded island off the coast of Massachusetts (what could possibly go wrong??), inviting, among others, her greatest author rival.  Who will live?  Who will die?  Who will write the sequel?  This locked island mystery is a biting satire of the publishing industry and perfect for fans of books like Jessa Maxwell’s The Golden Spoon.

I’d like to point out that the Deer Mountain Writers Retreat was a week, not a weekend, and no one was killed.  No one who wasn’t fictional, that is.

Just for fun, here we all are at Deer Mountain back in spring 2024!

After that, I went back across the Pond and back about thirty years to England in the 90s for more of Hazel Holt’s Mrs. Malory series.  I’m having to pace myself and make myself intersperse these with new books because otherwise I could just live with Mrs. Malory for weeks.  She is my person.

Did I mention that book 2, The Cruelest Month, takes place in Oxford and contains many references to Gaudy Night?  Currently, I’m on book 4, The Festival Murder, and trying not to gobble it up too quickly.

What have you been reading this week?