Last Nocturne by M.J. Trow Book Review

Synopsis

Private detectives Grand & Batchelor's latest case draws them into the arcane world of high art and high society in this compelling Victorian mystery.

London. May, 1878. Private enquiry agents Matthew Grand and James Batchelor have been hired by the artist James Whistler to dig into the past of outspoken critic John Ruskin, with whom he has an ongoing feud. Not particularly optimistic of success, the two detectives are sidetracked from the investigation by the murder of a prostitute in nearby Cremorne Gardens. Her body posed on a park bench, a book on birth control sitting on her lap, Clara Jenkins is not the first young woman to have met a similarly grisly fate - and she won't be the last.

The French for Murder by Verity Bright Book Review

Publication Date: May 30, 2022
Publisher: Bookouture
Series: A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #10
Format: ebook, print and audio
Genre: Historical Fiction/Cosy Mystery

Synopsis

A grand villa, croissants for breakfast and a dead body in the wine cellar… Lady Swift can’t seem to take a vacation from murder!

Summer 1923. Lady Eleanor Swift is finally persuaded by her butler, Clifford, to take a villa in the south of France for the season. She plans to do what a glamorous lady abroad should: long lunches on the balcony followed by lazy afternoons lounging by the pool. Even Gladstone the bulldog is looking forward to a daily paddle in the ocean.

But when Clifford examines the wine cellar, he discovers there are no decent reds but there is a very dead body. The victim is famous American movie star Rex Armstrong. Poor Rex seems to have been stabbed with a sword

Six Degrees of Separation: from Sorrow and Bliss to Windyridge

It's the first Saturday of the month and time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason. Once again, I've not read the book we are starting with and, as last month, time is not my friend due to various committments, the highlight of which was a four-day family get-to-gether to celebrate my father's 96th birthday (which I'm still recovering from).

As Sorrow and Bliss has been shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022, I thought I'd look at previous winners. This wasn't very helpful, but at least it gave me a starting point. The only author I was familiar with was Helen

Northbridge Rectory by Angela Thirkell Book Review

I'm still way behind in Reading Thirkell's Barsetshire Series in Order Challenge, but hopefully I will catch up at some point.

Synopsis

Barsetshire during wartime finds Mr Downing, Miss Pemberton, and Mrs Turner engaged in a love triangle; a chorus of officers raucously quartered at the rectory; and village ladies with violent leanings.

In Mrs Major Spender, Thirkell offers a devastating sketch of the good-natured egoist, and readers will be pleased that the less-than-articulate Betty finds a soulmate in Captain Copham.

My Thoughts

Northbridge Rectory, its inhabitants and those

20 Books of Summer (Winter) 2022

I'm hoping that this reading challenge hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books will provide a boost for my reading and reviewing year, which is not going too well to-date.

The challenge will run from June 1st to September 1st, the winter months here in Australia and the ideal time for me to catch-up, now that work has finally quietened down after the prolonged and hectic tourist season and the weather will, no doubt, keep me housebound.

Unlike Any Other By Edward LonderganRead an Excerpt

Publication Date: 1st March, 2022
Publisher: White River Press
Page Length: 270 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

The Story of An 18th Century Woman from A Prominent New England Family Who Went from A Life of Privilege to The Gallows

Bathsheba Spooner was the daughter of Timothy Ruggles, a general in the French and Indian War, president of the Stamp Act Congress, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and a leading loyalist in Massachusetts during the Revolutionary War; the epitome of upper class.

Like her father, Bathsheba was smart, strong-willed, and a staunch British loyalist. Forced

The Colour of Rubies by Toni Mount Blog Tour - Read an Excerpt

Synopsis

Murder lurks at the heart of the royal court in the rabbit warren of the Palace of Westminster. The year is 1480. Treason is afoot amongst the squalid grandeur and opulent filth of this medieval world of contrasts. Even the Office of the King’s Secretary hides a dangerous secret.

Meeting with lords and lackeys, clerks, courtiers and the mighty King Edward himself, can Seb Foxley decipher the encoded messages and name the spy? Will Seb be able to prevent the murder of the most important heir in England?

All will be revealed as we join Seb Foxley and his abrasive brother Jude in the latest intriguing adventure amid the sordid shadows of fifteenth-century London.

Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner Blog Tour - Read an Excerpt

Publication Date: May 17, 2022
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Length: (368) pages
Format: Hardcover, eBook, & audiobook
ISBN: 978-1250276698

Synopsis

Natalie Jenner, the internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society, returns with a compelling and heartwarming story of post-war London, a century-old bookstore, and three women determined to find their way in a fast-changing world in Bloomsbury Girls.

Bloomsbury Books is an old-fashioned new and rare bookstore that has persisted and resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the general manager's unbreakable fifty-one rules. But in 1950, the

Six Degrees of Separation: From True History of the Kelly Gang to Jack and the Beanstalk

It's the first Saturday of the month and time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang. Ive only read one book by this Australian author and that is Jack Maggs, which I liked.

As I'm pressed for time, this book is my first link and sets the theme for my quick, pictorial post: books with the name Jack in the title.

My Six Degrees of Separation includes a popular maritime series, an Australian classic, a military series, an infamous historical figure and a well-known fairy tale.

Where the Gulls Fall Silent by Lelita Baldock Blog Tour - Read an Excerpt

Publication Date: 28th October 2021
Publisher: Independently Published
Page Length: 231 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

A small fishing village, a shunned healer, her daughter, tradition, superstition and a world set to change.

Kerensa lives with her mother, the healer Meliora, on the edge of a small fishing community on the Cornish Coast.

The townsfolk, who work the fish runs of pilchard and mackerel that make their way up the Atlantic coast, call on her mother for help with their ailments, but never for her company.

Bribery for Peace During the First World War A Guest Post from Alan Bardos, Author of The Dardanelles Conspiracy

Anzac day vector created by freepik - www.freepik.com

 

 

Today, in Australia and New Zealand, it is Anzac Day, a national day of commemoration and rememberance of those who served and died in all wars.

Foremost, we commemorate the military campaign of World War I, where Australian and New Zealand forces at dawn on April 25, 1915 landed on the Gallipoli peninsula, Turkey. This campaign, if it had been successful, would have allowed Allied vessels to pass through the Dardanelles, see the capture of Constantinople (present day Istanbul) and take Turkey out of the war. Instead, it ended in a defeat for the Allies, with horrendous losses on both sides.

Alan Bardos' guest post asks a significant question:

Could the Ottoman Empire have been bribed to make peace, during the First World War?

Cheerfulness Breaks In by Angela Thirkell Book Review

Synopsis

It is summer 1939 and the social event of the year is about to take place: Rose Birkett, a flighty beauty with a penchant for breaking engagements and hearts, is finally getting married, and the whole village - especially her parents - breathes a sigh of relief.

By autumn, however, summer weddings seem a distant memory as war reaches Barsetshire. While the younger generation throws itself into the war effort with cheerful aplomb, older residents remember the last war keenly, and are fearful.

When an entire London school of evacuees arrive, as well as a number of refugees, the village rallies round to accommodate them. Some inhabitants, though, fail to welcome the newcomers with open arms.