Just 4 of us logged into Zoom today.
Enjoyable catchup - we meet again on the 2nd Tuesday of February - hopefully f2f.
Many thanks for everyone who supplied lists hereunder
Merry Christmas, have a good break and lots of reading.
Cheers
Kerrie
Barbara
A
THE GLASS HOUSE by Eve Chase
also titled THE DAUGHTERS OF FOXCOTE MANOR.
Another suspenseful mystery by the author of Black Rabbit Hall. ☆☆☆
THE
FORGOTTEN SISTER by Nicola Cornick
1560
An entertaining fictional account of Amy Robsart, and her plan to escape from
her husband, Robert Dudley, who is obsessed with Elizabeth Tudor.
Present Day
Lizzie Kingdom encounters a young man, Johnny Robsart whose fate will combine
with hers. Johnny is convinced Lizzie is linked to a terrible secret dating
back to Tudor England. Most enjoyable ☆☆☆☆
ONE BY ONE by Ruth Ware, Author of THE TURN OF THE KEY
Suspenseful thriller about 10 people who go to a ski lodge for a company
retreat. There are disagreements within the group concerning a buyout offer.
Then one of the directors disappears, feared dead. An avalanche isolates the
group, there are more deaths, who is the killer?
Reminiscent of THE HUNTING PARTY by Lucy Foley., which I enjoyed more than ONE
BY ONE ☆☆☆
Gwenyth
WALKING ONE STEP AT A TIME (well worth reading)
THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LAWRENCE ( Maggie O'Farrel )
THE ASSASSINATION OF MARGARET THATCHER ( Hilary Mantel ) short stories good for
tea or coffee break.
Audio Good For Car Trips
ALWAYS
LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE (Eric Idle)
CHOCOLATE WARS (Deborah Cadbury)
Heather
THE AMBLESIDE ALIBI Rebecca Tope
After losing a baby and a becoming divorced. Simmy (Persimmon Brown) begins a
new life as a florist in a small village near her parents’ B & B home. She
delivers a bouquet of flowers with a mysterious message to an old lady and then
becomes embroiled in secrets, danger and attempts on her life. While trying to
unravel the mystery she is thrown off a bridge into a river and her battered
body arrives downstream in a carpark. She survives with a cracked skull, fractured
pelvis and hypothermia. She is aided by her part time assistant and a young
friend (a teenaged boy) and must convince a detective that one or two previous
deaths were murder.
BLOOD ON THE ROSARY Sue Smethurst and Margaret Harrod reread
True story of Margaret, an Australian survivor, who is abused, manipulated and
controlled by her father from aged two to twenty-two. Her father is a
well-known and well-respected member of the local community who later boasts to
her that he has abused other children including a member of her family. As a
teenager she is also abused by a priest while on a youth camp. Her reason for
joining the convent is twofold: her strong faith and to escape her father who
still manages some control as she stays a nun for seven years. While vulnerable
after leaving the convent, she admits the abuse to another priest who advises
counselling and gives sympathy then he also abuses her. Within a few years she
meets a wonderful compassionate and caring man, marries and has two children.
Although a happy family, Margaret experiences PTSD, depression, mental health
issues and hospitalisation as she tries to bury the trauma. Fighting for
justice against a closed system she eventually exposes her own, loved, twin
brother as a paedophile priest splitting her family and carrying much guilt.
Her brother has moved around and risen to positions of authority and power in
education in several states. He eventually confesses and at the first trial is
sentenced to nine months!!! imprisonment and seven years at a subsequent trial
on different charges.
Horror, heartbreak, sorrow, despair, suicide, anger and injustice. (I know that
this is not a grammatical sentence.)
BRUNY Heather Rose
Astrid, a sixth generation Tasmanian and a conflict resolution consultant for
the UN, is called home from the Northern Hemisphere war zones to help settle
things in Tasmania. For four years the building of a bridge from the Tasmanian
mainland to the island of Bruny off the south east coast, has caused much
debate and opposition from activists, environmentalists, the Greens and other
protest groups. Astrid’s family has been involved in local politics for three
generations and currently her twin brother is Premier of the State and her
older sister is Leader of the Opposition. How far does loyalty stretch (and in
which direction)? The bridge must be completed by 4 March, the day before the
state election, however, several weeks before the event the bridge is blown up
at night and a great span of it must be replaced. Three hundred Chinese workers
are flown in to assist in the bridge’s completion. Thought provoking ideas
about ownership and what lies in our future. I enjoyed this novel.
THE PEPPERMINT TEA CHRONICLES Alexander McCall Smith
One of the Scotland Street Series. I thought this a little disjointed and
whilst I love language and enjoyed some of the references, I think that the
words and thoughts attributed to Bertie, a seven-year-old boy were quite
unrealistic.
DEADLY INTENT Lynda LaPlante reread
CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION Peter Robinson
DCI Banks is trying to solve the murder of an old man (Ex college professor)
fell/ thrown from a railway bridge. Is it an accident, suicide or murder? The
man was ill, a suspected drug user, undernourished, and deeply in debt, yet in
his pockets were £5,000. After interviewing the local ‘Lady of the Manor’,
Banks is warned off by his superiors but continues to investigate quietly.
Events from forty years ago puzzle banks and there is an attempt on his life
and the Lady’s life before the mystery is concluded.
DAED WATER Anne Cleeves
Another in the Shetland series. This is an earlier one after Jimmy Perez’s
partner Fran has been murdered and he is still suffering depression and only
just beginning to return to police work part time. A new DI questions Jimmy’s
methods as they investigate several murders including the murder of a
journalist, a former resident of the Islands whose parents own and operate a
large swanky hotel. Local environmentalists are very much against the further
development of the newer wind, tidal water and existing coal and gas industry
in the North Sea.
LIES THAT BIND, Stella Cameron
Alex Duggan owner of the Black Dog pub again becomes involved in a murder while
hoping to protect and care for two young boys who have been isolated in a
cottage outside the village while their father is absent in dubious long
distance truck driving. With the help of her mother, her Vet boyfriend, his
father a retired doctor and several pub staff they care for the boys after one
discovers the brutally murdered body of a female out in the field at the edge
of the woods behind the boys’ cottage. Alex with holds information from the
police as she has come up against the Chief Inspector before in other murder
cases.
PARIS BY THE BOOK, Liam Callahan
An American mother of two young girls loses her writer husband, (who leaves
tickets to Paris when he vanishes) Leah goes to Paris for a short visit,
something her husband had always promised her they would do. While staying in
an apartment over a small and rather unsuccessful bookshop the elderly
landlady, grandmother of very young twins, agrees to let them stay and rent the
bookshop if they also look after her grandchildren which has become too much
for her. In the mornings after the children are all in school Leah wanders
around Paris looking for and thinking she sees her supposedly dead husband
(there has been no body found) in the men she follows. Visas are extended, the
girls settle into school and learn more of the language which Leah finds
difficult to speak. She makes friends with her few regular customers in the
bookshop including a young man who would like to be more than just friends.
I wish all a very safe and happy Christmas and a safe, happy and healthy new year.
Jan
THE CHAMPAGNE WARS – Fiona McIntosh
A CHANGE OF ALTITUDE – Anita Shreve (Set in Kenya - climbing Mt Kenya!!)
THE FAMILY INHERITANCE – Tricia Stringer
Cindy
THE GODMOTHERS Monica McInerney
GRANDMOTHERS Sally Vickers
YOU DON'T KNOW ME Sara Foster
MEANT TO BE Fiona McCallum
BECAUSE OF YOU Dawn French
MAO'S LAST DANCER Li Cunxin
Valerie
THE SPINSTER DIARIES, Gina Fattore
THE WOMAN WHO CRACKED THE ANXIETY CODE, Judith Hoare
Kerrie
4.5, FAIR WARNING, Michael Connelly
4.6, THOSE PEOPLE, Louise Candlish
4.4, THE SECOND SLEEP, Robert Harris
4.8, A ROOM MADE OF LEAVES, Kate Grenville
4.3, THE HOUSE ON FRIPP ISLAND, Rebecca Kauffman
4.8, THE SILENCE, Susan Allott
4.6, SILENT KILL, Jane Casey
4.4, THE MAN WITH A LOAD OF MISCHIEF, Martha Grimes
4.8, A SONG FOR DARK TIMES, Ian Rankin
Annie
THE DRESSMAKER'S SECRET, Rosalie Ham - quirky
WILD FIRE, Ann Cleeves (Shetland)
THE GODMOTHERS, Monic McInerney
THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS, Michael Robotham
TRIO, William Boyd
CONSOLATION, Garry Disher
THE SCHOLAR, Dervla McTiernan
BarbW
THE GOVERNESS – Wendy Farrell. Young teacher Marion Crawford becomes the
governess to young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. It’s a lovely story and
worth reading.
THE CHAMPAGNE WARS – Fiona McIntosh. This was a very engaging audio book about a French family who produces Champagne. The story begins at the commencement of the 2nd World War but interestingly it is told from the French aspect. The basis is a love story but there are a lot of twists and turns throughout the story. A good read.
THEIR LOST DAUGHTERS – Joy Ellis. This was another audio book. It’s a detective story set in Ireland. Several young girls go missing in a remote area and the local detectives are engaged to find them. This was a very intense story which kept me very involved and there were some interesting twists & turns.
MISS BENSON'S BEETLE – Rachel Joyce. I selected this book because it was another author I hadn’t read before and the title intrigued me. It was a fascinating story of Miss Benson, a middle-aged teacher who had never been married, but had an obsession with beetles which her Father had instilled in her as a child. He used to talk about a gold beetle which lived in New Caledonia. On a whim one day she decides she wants to try to find the beetle and proceeds to interview a few people to accompany her as her assistant. There are some very funny incidents and some tragedy as well. It was a really enjoyable story.
Meredith
RETURN TO TASMANIA, Alan C. Williams
THE CHAMPAGNE WARS, Fiona McIntosh
THE WEDDING DRESS, Danielle Steele
WEDDING BELLS FOR WOOLWORTHS, Elaine Everest
THE SURPLUS GIRLS, Polly Heron
