So it is time again for a review of the month’s reading, a post to contribute to the what’s on your bookshelf challenge is hosted by fellow bloggers Deb, Sue, Donna and Jo. The idea is to share what you’re reading, what you’ve enjoyed lately share – why they resonated with you, how they made you feel, who are your favourite authors and what you recommend. Posting a day early on Thursday evening NZ time as it suits my schedule a bit better.
First up, Devils’s Garden by Aline Templeton, a detective story set in a fictitious town in the Scottish borders. This is number three in the series, but it was easy enough to pick up on regular characters. DCI Kelso Strang hears that an old friend from his police college days suspects there is corruption in her local station, and sends down an undercover policewoman from Edinburgh to investigate. It was a decent story with enough intrigue to keep me interested to the end. If I see another in the series in the library I might pick it up.
I had been recommended Stella Rimington’s books and luckily found one in the library. For those of you who don’t know, she was Director General of MI5, and brings her knowledge of the world of espionage to her novels. The Devil’s Bargain starts in 1988, where a policeman takes a brive and let’s in a man called Igor into the UK. Many years later he recognises the man who is now an MP. He has been a sleeper agent, and with the changes in the country he comes from, his handler is no longer around, but one man knows his secret… Anyway, it was a good and there were some great little details.
Elly Griffiths appeared twice this month – fist in the form of an audio book The Outcast Dead, the sixth in the Ruth Galloway Series, which got me through ironing, cooking and other housework – and second The Stanger Diaries, the prequel to The Postscript Murders. This is such a fun book, with lots of humour and a great story. The book is told in several voices: the policewoman investigating a murder, the teacher who is a suspect, and the policewoman’s daughter. It is a great tale of murder, secrets and even better, I did not guess who the murderer was until the end.
In contrast, I really struggled to finish Fourteen Days, a collaborative novel edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston. The book takes place over 14 days during the Covid lockdowns in New York, where neighbours gather each evening on the roof of their building to share stories. Each section was written by various well-known writers such as John Grisham and Celeste Ng. I found this book a bit tedious and over long, and read things in between as otherwise I don’t think I could have finished it.
Are there any Donna Leon fans out there? If so, do you agree that her latest books are a bit dark and have lost their sparkle? Anyway, the 33rd Brunetti novel is here, and centres around teenage gangs, stolen treasures, an historical tragedy and uncovering secrets. I miss the earlier books with their descriptions of food and the family, but it is still a good read.
Finally, when we were up in Auckland, I went to the second hand bookshop in Devonport, and found a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. It was the same edition I had as a child, and I remember the illustrations well, particularly for some reason, the poem My Shadow. I loved that this copy had been awarded as a special prize too.
So that is my most recent reading – what have you read recently? Here are my ratings using the scheme we use in the book club I am part of, items related to the book out of 5.
- Aline Templeton Devils’s Garden 4 Scottish border towns
- Stella Rimington The Devil’s Bargain 4 spies
- Elly Griffiths The Stranger Diaries 5 diaries
- Ed Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston Fourteen Days 3 stories
- Donna Leon A Refiner’s Fire 3 bronze statues
- Robert Louis Stevenson A Child’s Garden of Verses – no rating, just a lot of memories.
Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.
You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis. If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com or lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.com