Christmas on the little Cornish Isles by Phillipa Ashley – the Driftwood Inn – is a book I picked at random from the library’s Christmas display. It was a light and fun read, but a bit slow at times, hence the 4 stars. This is…
There is a funny story on how I picked the book I am reviewing today, The Christmas secret by Karen Swan. Back in 2020, a picked a random book from the library, The Christmas Party by Karen Swan, see my review for it here. I…
Still Life by Louise Penny is the first book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series. I enjoyed the mystery and the ending was really interesting too. The pace of the book was a bit slow, so I gave it 4 stars for this reason.…
Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon is the first book I read by her and the first book in the Brunetti series. I enjoyed the book, but gave it 4 stars because I felt there is a bit too much on the private life…
Lord Edgware dies by Agatha Christie is a murder mystery solved by Hercule Poirot. I saw the review for it on Kelly’s blog, so I’ve decided to borrow and read it. I’m very glad I did that because the book was very good. I enjoyed…
The Hunger Angel by Herta Müller is a fantastic novel. I see why it received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The story is just under 300 pages and it is wonderful to read. I highly recommend this book. This is the story of Leo, a…
Murder in the Mews by Agatha Christie is a compilation of 4 novellas with Hercule Poirot. I liked some better than others, hence my 4 star rating, an average of the 4 individual ratings. The four novellas are: Murder in the Mews, The Incredible Theft,…
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson is a short, fiction book, which I bought from a charity shop because it was a Penguin Modern Classic. The book is dark and interesting and strange. Mary Katharine or Merricat, 18, lives with her…
I bought Three Little Birds Burning in the Flames of War by Julia Peters at the book launch event in Liverpool last month. This is an interesting book, available also as an e-book. I prefer paper books and I had my copy signed. This is…
Hallowe’en party by Agatha Christie was a book I saw reviewed on Kelly’s blog and decided to read it in the run-up to Halloween. While the book has very little connection to Halloween, which is a shame, it is still a murder mystery, so suitable…
Evil under the sun by Agatha Christie is a Hercule Poirot murder mystery. I am not usually keen on Hercule Poirot, but I enjoyed this one very much, thus I gave it 5 stars. The blurb of the book is simple, a beautiful woman’s body…
Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter is a murder mystery I wanted to read because it was happening in Oxford. I thought it would be fun to read something specific. The book had that, the local things which I found amusing. For example he…
One Life, One Kopeck by Walter Duranty – is a fiction book published in 1937. It’s rather dark and I gave it only 2 stars. As I am studying Duranty and have a very low opinion of him I might be biased, but I don’t…
A Song of Silence by Steve N. Lee* is the second book I read by him. The first one was To Dream of Shadows. Both stories take place during WWII and both are inspired by real events. Blurb for A Song of Silence by Steve…
Search for a key by Walter Duranty – a novel based on his life, but has quite a few details fictionalised. I read it for my studies, it is not a book easy to get and it doesn’t seem to be particularly interesting either. While…
The review for Winter in Moscow by Malcolm Muggeridge will be short, mainly because it is a book hard to find, published in mid-1930s, and I doubt there will be many readers interested in reading this book. Which is a shame because I liked the…