The Grasse Grudge

Simmy and Christopher return to the Lakes District after a week's holiday abroad. But the holiday feeling does not last long when a business associate of Christopher asks for his help. When Christopher discovers Jonathan's body, Christopher becomes the main suspect. Simmy works with her friends, Ben and Bonnie, to solve the crime and clear her fiance's name, but there is the feeling that he has not told them the full story.

The Grasmere Grudge by Rebecca Tope is set in England's Lake District. One of the features of this series of books (this is number 8 in the Lake District Mysteries) is the descriptions of locations within the Lake District, many that we visited in 2011. 

In this book it soon becomes obvious that many people hold a grudge against the murdered man and are not sorry that he is dead. Although the book is easy to read, events in the plot appear to become confused and after a time some of the characters become annoying. It is not a bad book but not one of the best cosy mysteries that I have read.

The Shadow District

When an elderly man is found dead in his flat, suspicious circumstances are not suspected until the post mortem. Retired detective, Konrad, agrees to assist in the enquiry, especially when newspaper cuttings were found in Stefan Thordanson's (Thorson) flat referring to a murder that had occurred during the war when Konrad was a young boy.

The Shadow District by Arnuldur Indridason, published originally in 2013 then translated into English to be published in 2017, is set in two time frames as the muder of Thordanson is investigated as well as the murders of two young women in the 1940s. 

Thorson and Flovent are the two officers investigating the war-time crimes until they are forced to discontinue the investigation. Their main suspect died in a car accident when he was attempting to escape police custody. However Thorson knows that something had been missed. As Konrad investigates the circumstances of Thordanson's death he becomes convinced that the death is connected to events that occurred 70 years earlier. The files relating to the murders have disappeared. Why and who has ordered the cover-up?

Much of the book is set in Reykjavik during the Second World War when Iceland was initially used as a base by British troops and then by Americans. Distrust of the American forces by much of the population is evident in the novel, especially when American soldiers fratenize with local women. Iceland is also about to become a republic, severing ties with Denmark. This historical background provides another dimension to the story.

Ambleside Alibi

Persimmon Brown (Simmy) has moved to Windermere to establish a florist shop. When she is requested to deliver a bunch of flowers to an elderly lady in Ambleside from a granddaughter the lady did not know existed, Simmy is unaware of the hostility that will be incurred by this simple task, not to mention that  her life will be in danger.

Ambleside Alibi is the second book in the Lake District Series by Rebecca Tope involving Persimmon Brown. Each title in this series is set in part of the Lake District, a picturesque part of England. The author has also written a series of crime novels set in the Cotswolds.

In this series Simmy helps the police with their enquiries assisted by her young shop assistant, Mel, and Ben, a seventeen year old student who wants to study forensic archaeology. When an elderly lady is murdered Simmy is able to provide an alibi for the main suspect. However this also brings Simmy to the attention of the murderer who attempts to eliminate her. The plot in this cozy mystery becomes convoluted in places but eventually all is revealed.

Lying beside you

Lying Beside You is another excellent crime novel in the Cyrus Haven series by Australian author, Michael Robotham. 

Cyrus, a forensic psychologist, is called in to assist in a police investigation when an older man is murdered and his daughter disappears. Her body is later found in a drain. A short time later another woman disappears from a hotel where Evie is working. Investigations show that the two women once worked together as nurses with a third woman who was attacked eight years previously. The man arrested for that attack has just been released from prison but the nurse who was originally attacked is beginning to doubt that Mitch was the person who attacked her.

Elias, Cyrus' brother is given occasional day release from the psychiatric home where he was imprisoned twenty years earlier after mudering his and Cyrus' parents and two sisters. Cyrus has agreed to allow Elias to stay with him with some misgivings. He is also concerned as to how the presence of Elias will affect Evie who also lives at the house.

Evie continues to have problems relating to other people, especially people her age, and continues to have flashbacks to events in her past. However she does strive, sometimes reluctantly, to follow Cyrus' advice and also uses her ability to be able to identify when someone is lying to assist Cyrus in his investigations.

How events from the past affect the thinking and reasoning of people in the present is one of the book's themes as well as providing a study as to how some people attempt to cope with grief many years after the event.

Stone Town

Stone Town by Margaret Hickey is the sequel to Cutters End published last year. Twelve months have passed and Detective Sergeant Mark Artri has returned to Booralama, the small rural town where he grew up in outback South Australia. Mark and his wife are divorced and he is living in his late mother's former home.

One Friday night three teenagers discover the body of property developer, Aidan Sleeth, in the bush. Two detectives arrive from Adelaide to investigate the case but it is soon obvious they are more interested in investigating the disappearance of Detective Sergeant Natalie Whitsed who was thought to have been in the area near Stone Town, close to Booralama. Then Mark is alerted by police headquarters in Adelaide that one of the detectives is thought to have connections with a cime syndicate. A short time later a young cyclist is knocked from his bike in a hit and run incident.

Mark knows the area and the people well and it is soon obvious that the death of Aidain Sleeth has connections to a move to purchase local land for property development, a lucrative activity. 

As he investigates the the cases Mark comes to a better understanding of the importance of community and the support of neighbours prevalent in the small town and the role and the esteem in which his mother was held in Booralama. 

As well as being a crime novel set in an outback Australian environment Stone Town is about the necessity of accepting and understanding grief in order to move on with life.

Treacle Walker

Alan Garner's new novel, Treacle Walker, has been nominated for the short list of the 2022 Booker Prize. I first discovered the work of Alan Garner when I worked as a children's librarian in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I later introduced his children's books to my children and last year my grandson and I read Weirdstone of Brisingamen. I have also read Alan Garner's adult novels.

Treacle Walker is another work of folk tale and fantasy which also explores time and dimensions. Joseph Coppock is a young boy whose vision of the world is flawed due to a lazy eye. His good eye is covered by a patch in an attempt to strengthen the problem  eye. Joe is also recovering from an illness. He wiles away his time reading comics (especially Knockout), collecting birds' eggs and playing with his marbles. Joe' favourite strip in Knockout is Stonehenge Kit the Ancient Brit whose characters Kit, Whizzy the Wicked Wizard and the Brit Basher make appearances in this novel. One constant in Joe's life is that each day Noony, the train passes his house at noon.

One morning the rag-and-bone man, Treacle Walker, appears and he and Joe swap a pair of Joe's old pyjamas and a sheep bone for an old jar which once held cure-all ointment and a donkey stone. A friendship develops between Joe and Treacle Walker. When Treacle Walker allows Joe to play his special musical bone it sounds like a cuckoo, a bird that Joe has wanted to find, and the whistle's call is answered by the call of a cuckoo outside. Joe's quest to locate the cuckoo leads him to pool of water where he meets Thin Amren, a bog creature.

Throughout the novel Joe experiences the intertwining of real and magical encounters, at times through the illusion of a mirror world.

Treacle Walker is a short novel - 150 pages - and readers of other Alan Garner books will recognise illusions to events and objects in some of his other works and also to events in the author's early life. This adds another dimension to the novel but Treacle Walker can lead readers into the fantasy world of Alan Garner without this previous knowledge. This is a book to read slowly and enjoy.

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner a phenomenal late fable - The Guardian 30 October 2021  

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner - the book of a lifetime - The Guardian  1 November 2021

The critic and the clue: tracking Alan Garner's Treacle Walker - Strange Horizons 5 September 2022

Knockout - UK  Comics Wiki

Stonehenge Kit the Ancient Brit - Yesterday's newspapers

Donkey stones - Eli Whalley & Co

The Miniaturist

Petronella Oortman is eighteen when she marries the successful merchant Johannes Brandt and moves to his family home in Amsterdam in October 1686. Her vision of a happily living in a rich househouse soon disappears when Nella is introduced to her new environment and realises that her prescence is not welcome. She rarely sees her husband who is always involved in his business interests and her husband's sister, Marin, ensures that Nella knows her place in the house. The saving grace is the occasional support from the two servants, Cornelia and Otto.

Then Johannes presents Nella with a wedding present - a large cabinet with nine rooms representing their house. Nella sets out to furnish the rooms of the house with the help of the Miniturist who creates the required minature items. But when strange events begin to occur in her life Nella begins to wonder whether the Miniaturist has powers to warn her of future events or whether the Miniaturist is controlling the events that occur in the house.

Petronella Oortman did live in seventeenth century Amsterdam and did have a large doll's house which she decorated. The doll's house is now in the Rijks Museum. However the rest of the story is fiction based on life in Amsterdam during the second part of the century. Amsterdam was a city of trade and merchants, especially those involved with the VOC - Dutch East India Company. The power of the church was also paramount and this affected the lives of the population, especially those who chose to live a different lifestyle.

A three part television series based on this novel was released in 2017.

More about the doll house of Petronella Oortman:

Hidden women of history - Petronella Oortman and her giant dollhouse - The Conversation.com

Petronella Oortman - Wikipedia

 The true story behind the cabinet doll house in the Miniatruist - Town & Country

A Shock

Set in Camberwell, London, A Shock by Keith Ridgway is a collection of inter-connected short stories usually involving people from the LGBT community. Most of the stories appear to be independent but characters from different stories appear throughout the book and often reveal part of a previous story from a different perspective. The Party and The Song are two such examples. The interwoven stories form a novel. This book won the 2022 James Tait Black Award for Fiction.

The Body in the Library

Recently when watching Pointless, one of the answers on the board was The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie, a title that I knew well but hadn't read, so I borrowed a copy from the library. The book was first published in 1942 and features Miss Marple as one of the characters. Needless to say Miss Marple does solve the crime before the police work out who committed it.

Colonel and Mrs Bantry wake one morning to be told by their staff that there is a body of a young woman lying on the floor in their library. The police are immediately called and Dolly Bantry also contacts her friend, Miss Marple, for her assistance. There is a long list of suspects, especially when it is discovered that the victim had been befriended by Conway Jefferson who had ammended his will leaving her a large sum of money. Then the body of another young girl is found in a burned out car in a quarry. The police and Miss Marple work together to solve the mystery.

An A-Lost for Death

An A-List for Death is the second book in the Poppy McGowan series by Pamela Hart. When visiting her Aunt Mary, Poppy is asked to check on Mary's neighbour, Daisy, who had said that she would visit Mary that morning. When Poppy entered Daisy's appartment she discovers Daisy unconcious in the bathroom. Initially it is thought that Daisy had had a fall but Poppy is not convinced and when Daisy's family arrive on the scene Poppy begins to ask questions.

Poppy finds herself in the media when she is photographed talking to rock star, Nathan Castle (Jonathan Montgomery - Daisy's son), and the tabloids have a field day. Shortly afterwards the photographer is found murdered and Poppy's boyfriend, Tol, is a prime suspect. Then there is the box of poisoned chocolates.

Poppy tries to find out who is responsible for these crimes as well as carrying out her work researching children's television programs for the ABC, ensuring that the renovations on her home are finished and trying to raise money so that she can spend time on an archaeological dig in Jordan with Tol. She also has to decide how she really feels about Tol who leaves for Joran in three weeks.

Pamela Hart has written another action packed, amusing Australian mystery with lots of twists and turns. I look forward to reading the next book in this series.