My 4- to 5-star reads for April 2023. Note, some of these books may only be available from Amazon and/or as Kindle ebooks. April was a busy reading month, and I also pored over a number of yarn craft books. I posted about those on my other blog, Swatches Yarns and Frogs.
Tag: mystery
March 2023 favorite reads
I can’t believe it’s late April already. This year is speeding by so far. Here — finally — are the books I rated as 4- or 5-star reads in March 2023. Note, these aren’t necessarily new or even new-to-me books. I read lots of older books, and I tend to reread favorites. Some may not…
January 2023 favorite reads
Brief reviews of my favorites of the books I read in January 2023, including mystery fiction, nonfiction, and several Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) variations.
The Flame Ignites
I just finished reading The Flame Ignites, by Donna Fletcher Crow. I enjoyed this novel a lot, and it’s a departure from the typical novel, in that it combines some fact with fiction in an unusual way.
Agatha Christie An Elusive Woman
I’m more intrigued than ever by Agatha Christie. This is a biography that has been thoroughly researched and is even-handed as far as sensitivity, respect for the subject, and for truth-telling. It doesn’t turn a blind eye to Agatha Christie’s failings, but presents her as a whole human being, a brilliant creative person as well as a product of her time and social class. It maintains a balance that feels solid and well thought out, sympathetic and at the same time objective, scholarly and fair. It’s also a delightful read.
Shadows Fall
An invitation to read the blogger’s own book, Shadows Fall by Barbara W. Klaser, available as an Amazon Kindle ebook.
One for Sorrow
Review of One for Sorrow, the first in the John the Lord Chamberlain mystery series, by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer, which is set in sixth century Constantinople, also known as Byzantium.
Verse of the Vampyre by Diana Killian
Verse of the Vampyre opens with Grace Hollister hiding in a graveyard, late at night, waiting for — well, spying on — Peter Fox, who’s to meet with a mysterious woman. Grace has been anxious to know why Peter has distanced himself from her, at the same time a series of robberies have occurred in the vicinity of Innisdale. Is Peter up to his old pursuits? And if so, which? Women or jewels?
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Robert Langdon is an American expert on symbolism and art, visiting France to speak before The American University of Paris. He’s wakened in his hotel room late at night and summoned to the Louvre Museum by the French Judicial Police. The museum’s esteemed curator, Jacques Saunière, has been murdered in the Grand Gallery, where many of the Louvre’s masterpieces reside, particularly the Mona Lisa….
High Rhymes and Misdemeanors by Diana Killian
Grace Hollister is there on vacation from her teaching position at St. Anne’s Academy for Girls in Los Angeles, and to do research for her doctoral dissertation on the poets of the Romantic period. If you think that sounds like a tame, pastoral and rather too academic stroll, this mystery will surprise you from the first sentence, when Grace Hollister finds a man lying face down in a stream, left for dead by an unknown assailant.