Karl's Reading List

Published by HarperTeen/HarperCollins Publishers: New York, NY, 2021. This is the fourth book I have read in the relatively recent subgenre of 'Jane Austen Murder Mysteries', having previously read Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James, and The Murder of Mr Wickham and The Late Mrs Willoughby by Claudia Gray. Each author has brought a different interpretation to what exactly a 'Jane Austen Murder Mystery' is, and as a result each author's books have a slightly different feel.   PD James wrote her novel as a sequel to Pride and Prejudice , but still keeping Elizabeth and Darcy as the main characters with the same personalities, meaning that they weren't really 'detectives.' Claudia Gray - whose take I have enjoyed the most - also makes her books sequels but includes new, younger characters who are driven to solve the crimes - it makes sense! Tirzah Price does something very different; she semi- retells the original Pride and Prejudice story but changes ...

Published in an omnibus edition: " Ordeal by Innocence "; " One, Two, Buckle My Shoe "; " The Adventures of the Christmas Pudding " as part of the "Agatha Christie Crime Collection" by Lansdowne Press: Australia, 1985 (1973). First published in omnibus edition 1970. First published individually 1960.   This 'book' is actually a selection of short stories by Agatha Christie, mostly involving Poirot. The first - and longest - in the collection is the titular Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, which involves Poirot trying to determine who has stolen a missing ruby and what they have done with it. It is not a spoiler to say that a Christmas pudding features heavily in this story. This one is fairly straightforward for a Poirot story, partially due to being a short story and partially due to logic: a subplot involving kids pretending to have discovered a murder seems very unlikely to have resulted in an actual death! The second story, The Mys...

Published by Penguin Random House Australia: Australia, 2022. Followed by 'Everyone on This Train is a Suspect.' This odd whodunnit, written by Benjamin Stevenson, stars the character Ernest Cunningham, an author who is writing the whodunnit that we are reading, based on the 'true story' that happened to him at his family reunion - a family that, as the title suggests - is full of killers. Ernest promises that he will not lie to us - the audience - and begins by sharing the 'ten detective commandments' of real-life detective author Ronald Knox, commandments that the character-author Ernest continually refers back to throughout the narrative. Author Cunningham (as opposed to real-life author Stevenson) has mostly written self-help books for people wanting to write fiction - including detective fiction - and as such becomes the family's go-to detective when a stranger is found dead in the snow outside their resort, killed in a way that reminds Sofia (step-sist...

Published as an audiobook by Penguin Audio, 14-09-2023. Narrated by Fiona Shaw. Book 4 in the 'Thursday Murder Club' series. Preceded by ' The Bullet That Missed. ' The final book (for now) in the Thursday Murder Club series, this book also feels a bit more like it could be the last in the series, due to a few storylines having a more 'final' feel to them. The main mystery this time revolves around a shipment of heroin that has been snuck into the country inside an antique box. A friend of our main gang has died while in possession of the heroin, and so tracking down the killer is in order. Returning characters like drug-dealer Connie Johnson, retired KGB agent Viktor, and antique dealer Kuldesh Sharma all have parts to play for better or worse, and new characters - including corrupt antique dealer Samantha Barnes and her imposing husband Garth, all add interest to the proceedings. A secondary crime-plot involves a new acquaintance becoming the victim of a roman...

Published as an audiobook by Penguin Audio, 2022. Narrated by Fiona Shaw. Book 3 in the 'Thursday Murder Club' series. Preceded by ' The Man Who Died Twice. ' Followed by ' The Last Devil To Die. ' The third book in the Thursday Murder Club series begins to shift the status quo a little. Not only does it include a potential love interest for Ron and an old-flame for Elizabeth (there is also a potential love interest for Joyce but that is less unusual), but certain background realities - like Donna and Borden's developing relationship, and Steven's battle with dementia - are made more prominent, and particularly with the latter, begin to impact our characters (and the readers!) more than they have previously. The murder investigation and main subplot are both less important on the whole than the ongoing growth and development of the main characters, and yet both of the plots also have interest. The gang is investigating the murder of Bethany Waites, a rep...

Published in an omnibus edition: " Ordeal by Innocence "; " One, Two, Buckle My Shoe "; " The Adventures of the Christmas Pudding " as part of the "Agatha Christie Crime Collection" by Lansdowne Press: Australia, 1985 (1973). First published in omnibus edition 1970. First published individually 1958. A non-Poirot mystery, unlike the (main stories) of the other two entries in this omnibus, Ordeal by Innocence has an interesting, if slightly complicated, set-up. Rachel Argyle, a woman with five adopted children, has been bludgeoned to death, and her youngest son Jacko was found guilty of the murder. After some time in prison, Jacko has died, still protesting his innocence. Two years have passed, and now Arthur Calgary - a scientist - has arrived back in England after two years in Antarctica. It turns out Arthur would have been able to prove Jacko's alibi, but due to both his absence from the country AND a convenient case of amnesia, Arthur has ...

Published by Viking Press/Penguin Random House: London, UK, 2021. Audiobook by Penguin Audio. Released 16-09-2021.  Narrated by Lesley Manville. Book 2 in the 'Thursday Murder Club' series. Preceded by ' The Thursday Murder Club. ' Followed by ' The Bullet That Missed. ' At the end of my review for The Thursday Murder Club I said "I will definitely be returning to this series." Voila. The Man Who Died Twice picks up soon after the events of Book 1, with our four heroes settling back into 'regular life' in their retirement community. However, the new peace is upended when Elizabeth's ex-husband, Douglas Middlemiss, arrives in the community incognito, hiding from a gangster who wants him dead. Elizabeth and the gang must try to protect Douglas, whilst also solving a few mysteries that arise during the proceedings. Meanwhile, Ibrahim - venturing out to town for an afternoon - is savagely assaulted by a local hoodlum, and the rest of the gang ...

Published by Viking Press/Penguin Random House: London, UK, 2020. Audiobook by Penguin Audio, 2020. Narrated by Lesley Manville. Book 1 in the 'Thursday Murder Club' series. Followed by ' The Man Who Died Twice. ' Richard Osman is a TV personality and comedian in England, and this is his debut novel: a murder mystery set in a retirement community. I am happy to report that The Thursday Murder Club is everything I hoped it would be: humorous in patches, moving in patches, mysterious enough for the genre, and surprisingly sweet.  The four members of 'the club' are Elizabeth (who has a background as a spy, although the book never outright says that), Ron (a quick tempered man who used to be a semi-professional protestor for the trade unions), Ibrahim (a slightly know-it-all ex-psychiatrist), and Joyce (a retired nurse who enjoys the thrill of the case just a little too much, and who also narrates sections of the book in diary form). Basing most of their club meetin...

Published as an eBook by Elle Hartford, 2024. Volume 7 of 'The Alchemical Tales.' This is the second ebook I have received as a free giveaway through LibraryThing, although I'm not sure how often I will apply for them, considering that ebooks really aren't my favourite medium to read in. However, having received A Thousand and One Alibis, I was 'required' to read and review it.  As I said last time, what a sacrifice! It is interesting to jump into a series on Book 7, but I very quickly got the gist of this world: we are in a fairy-tale inspired fantasy world, with each book vaguely inspired by (though not beholding to) the plot of a specific fairy-tale. In this instance, we meet characters called Jasmin, Ja'far and Gene (that one took me a moment), we have the setting of a vaguely Middle-Eastern inspired desert island, and also encounter a mysterious castle that possibly has its source in magic. However, the story that unfolds is not 'Aladdin' at all...

Published by Penguin Books: London, 2017. This book is fairly popular amongst my students presently, and (like many of the books I have read this year, it turns out) is another murder mystery. The gimmick for this one is that the crime happens during a high school detention. Each of our characters/suspects fits a broad stereotype (somewhat like the characters in The Breakfast Club ) and yet, of course, they each have secrets ready to be revealed. The secrets are particularly important in the plot of this book, as the murder victim - Simon - ran a blog in which he would reveal the secrets of his fellow students. It turns out that he had a blog post prepared in which each of our four main characters was going to be exposed in some way, and considering that each of the characters seem to have arrived in detention under suspicious circumstances, it is possible that each of them could have done it. Or is it? As with In the Hall With the Knife (the Cluedo inspired book I read earlier in the...

Published by Penguin Books/Penguin Random House New Zealand: New Zealand, 2024. This is kind of an odd book, with a bit more language in it than I would usually read. It is, however, also quite quirky in one particular way. The book, written by husband and wife duo Gareth and Louise, follow a married couple who run a bookshop in Havelock North. The couple previously used to be detectives in England, and over the course of the book, get embroiled in a mystery in New Zealand. The name of the couple: Garth and Eloise. If you think the names of the main characters bear a striking resemblance to the names of the authors, you should also note that Gareth and Louise also run a bookshop in Havelock North, and also have a background as detectives in England, although it remains to be determined whether Gareth and Louise have also helped solve mysteries in New Zealand! Garth and Eloise also, like Gareth and Louise, have a large rescue dog that they love, and have a number of eccentric employees ...

Published by Zaffre/Bonnier Books: London, UK/Stockholm, Sweden, 2020. Book 1 of the 'Her Majesty The Queen Investigates' series. Followed by 'A Three Dog Problem.' When I first heard about this book series, I loved the concept. As the title of the series reveals, this book follows Queen Elizabeth II as she investigates a crime, "in the vein of Miss Marple." I was recommended this by a friend who is an avid reader, and she told me that she loved the way the book felt true to the late Queen's character; she doesn't go snooping down dark alley-ways herself. Instead, she gathers the information at hand through her trusted advisors (particularly our secondary protagonist Rozie Oshodi), and then helps the investigators do their work, not by telling them where to look, but by subtly pointing them in the right direction. This is absolutely the highlight of the book. As I have said before, I am a fan of the late Queen, and this book manages to (generally) port...

Published by Collins: St James's Place, London, 1960 (1959). My mum has told me at various times that Alistair MacLean writes 'exciting' and 'action-packed' books. I have tried starting one or two at various points, but obviously wasn't in the right space for them. That has now changed, thanks to Night Without End, a book that lives up to mum's recommendation. The book opens at a remote research station in Greenland, where three individuals, including our narrator, are based. Late at night, they hear the sound of an approaching plane, and soon the plane has crashed nearby. The three researchers rush to save as many people from the plane as they can, and then have to figure out how to help them survive, considering their supplies will quickly run out. This would be enough plot to propel some stories, but our narrator, Dr Mason, quickly realises that some of the crew have been murdered, and this changes the feel of the whole story. Now, we are wondering which ...

Published by Amulet Books/Abrams Books: New York, NY, 2020 (2019). I came across this book when I saw a student reading it in class, and was curious enough to get it out after them. As the title may give away, this book is inspired by the game Cluedo (or Clue in America). It is even subtitled 'A Clue Mystery', although it is a fairly loose adaptation, with the characters now almost all being high-school students, and their names and characters being reworked to fit that setting better. So, instead of 'Professor Plum' we now have Phineas 'Finn' Plum, who is a science geek but very much not a professor. And instead of Colonel Mustard we have Sam 'Mustard' Maestor, a relative new-comer to the school with a military school background. Mrs White, however, remains pretty much identical to her character in the game. The setting is much closer to the game, with the house in question - Tudor House - being an old accommodation building in the school grounds, with ...

Published by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc./Academy Chicago Publishers: USA, 1991 (1986). Volume 3 of 'Academy Mystery Novellas.' Preceded by 'Police Procedurals.' Volume 3 of the Academy Mystery Novella collection is focussed on 'locked room puzzles', the fun sub-genre of mysteries that involves figuring out how a crime could have taken place when elements in the story suggest it to be impossible that it could have.  I like these puzzles, and this has been my favourite volume so far as a result. The collection of novellas this time are: 'The Third Bullet' by John Dickson Carr.  This is the longest entry in this volume by far, taking up almost half the volume on its own. It is also the most complex and detailed - which makes sense. Judge Charles Mortlake is found dead, with the man who had threatened to kill him standing in the room with him, and holding a gun that had just been fired. It seems open and shut, but the man - Gabriel White - appe...

Published by Futura Publications/Macdonald & Co (Publishers) Ltd: Hampstead Road, London, 1986 (1984). First published 1980. Brother Cadfael is a monk in an English monastery in the 1100s. He tends to his garden, makes poultices and various other medical concoctions, and honours his vow of obedience to the abbot. He also, apparently, solves murders. This is the first Cadfael book I have read, but there are apparently about 20 of them (I think this is book 3). Having read this one and liked it, I imagine I'll hunt out some of the others before too long. In this particular book, Cadfael is horrified when a particular oil he has made, with one ingredient being the poisonous Monks-Hood plant, is used to commit a murder. Because of this connection he is keen to find the culprit, and more so because the widow of Gervase Bonel, the man murdered, turns out to be Richildis, the woman Cadfael considered marrying years earlier before taking his vows. Richildis's young son, Edwin, is t...

Published by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc./Academy Chicago Publishers: USA, 1991. Volume 2 of 'Academy Mystery Novellas.' Preceded by ' Women Sleuths. ' Followed by ' Locked Room Puzzles. ' The second volume of a box set of four novella collections, Police Procedurals contains another four novellas, each focussing on a different detective. The four in question this time are: 'The Empty Hours' by Ed McBain. In this novella, the detective Steve Carella (not to be confused with modern actor Steve Carell) tries to solve the mystery of a woman found dead in her apartment, who has been making strange withdrawals and deposits of her own money into her own accounts. There are a number of elements to this case, and it feels the most like one that could become its own full novel. The ending is also odd in that it resolves the case nicely, while still feeling a little like a 'cheat' for this genre. 'The Sound of Murder' by Donald Westla...

Published by Fontana/Collins: Great Britain, 1973. First published 1948. A classic twisty Poirot investigation, with the murder in this one not taking place until almost halfway through the book.  In air-raids during World War 2, a newly married woman (Rosaleen) is widowed (for the second time), and her new family shut out of the inheritance due to a legal technicality. Knowing that their late brother always 'intended' for them to inherit a share of the estate, these relatives begin pressuring Rosaleen and her irritating brother (David) for money. A wrinkle emerges when a stranger arrives in the village, informing Rosaleen that her first husband may still be alive - a fact that, if true, would nullify her claim to the estate of her second husband and return all the money to his relatives. When the stranger turns up dead, suspicion naturally falls on Rosaleen and David. Poirot, however, is brought into the case, and has his doubts.... I enjoy looking for the clues in books like...

Published by The Reader's Digest Association, Inc./Academy Chicago Publishers: USA, 1991. Volume 1 of 'Academy Mystery Novellas.' This is a collection of four novellas (longer than a short story; shorter than a novel) bound together in a single volume, each on the theme of - you guessed it - women sleuths. The four novellas here are each quite different, with the only common elements being their mystery fiction genre and their use of a female protagonist. Even their time periods are different; the first three were originally published in the 1930s while the fourth was published in the 1980s. This means that the first three seem a bit dated at times - one case would have been easy to solve if DNA testing had been available. To give a brief review of each novella: 'The Toys of Death', by G.D.H. Cole and Margaret Cole, has a famous (and fairly unpleasant) author found dead in his study. Although a well-known detective is on the scene to begin with, and is able to prove...

Published by Vintage Books/Penguin Random House LLC: New York, 2023. 'A Mr Darcy and Miss Tilney Mystery' Book 2. Preceded by ' The Murder of Mr Wickham. ' As mentioned above, this book is a sequel to The Murder of Mr Wickham and is the third book I have read (counting its predecessor and the un-connected  Death Comes to Pemberley ) in the growing sub-genre of 'Jane Austen murder mysteries.' Jonathan Darcy (son of FitzWilliam and Elizabeth Darcy from Pride and Prejudice ) and Juliet Tilney (daughter of Henry and Catherine Tilney from Northanger Abbey ) reunite in the village of Barton and once again are faced with a murder to solve, this time of Sophia Willoughby (from Sense and Sensibility ).  Suspects include many of the characters from that novel, along with some of the school friends of Sophia's husband John Willoughby, a trio comprised of Jonathan Darcy himself, Mr Follett and Mr Bamber. With Willoughby being a very unlikeable figure, the investigation...