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.