Total Books: 5 Total Pages: 2107 Longest: 592 Shortest: 272
Genres: 2 (Historical Fiction – 1, Mystery – 4)
Anthony Horowitz – Marble Hall Murders
Horowitz is back with another Susan Ryeland murder mystery (Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders).
Susan is back in England and looking for a new job as an editor. She takes a freelance position only to discover that the book they want her to edit is by a new writer, Eliot Crace, continuing the Atticus Pünd series. Just like the former writer, Alan Conway, Susan begins to suspect that Eliot has hidden clues in the book about the death of his grandmother, a famous children’s books writer, whom he believes did not die of natural causes 20 years ago, but was instead poisoned. Real-life and the novel begin to overlap and the next thing Susan knows is that she is the #1 suspect in a new murder!
Bonnie Blaylock – The Water Women
This work of historical fiction, promoted as an Amazon First Reads selection earlier this year, pulled me in with its multi-generational story line about a small community of Jewish women weaving beautiful tapestries from a fine thread collected from mollusks called byssus on the island of Sardinia. Blaylock weaves a fine tale of relationships, tradition, honor, and duty through the wars of the 20th century and the changing times.
Louise Penny – A Better Man
Penny’s 15th installment of her Chief Inspector Gamache series appeared in my Kindle Unlimited notices, so I quickly downloaded it and read it almost faster than I downloaded it! I love this series and the quirky, yet relatable characters living in Three Pines.
Gamache has returned to the Sûreté du Québec, temporarily sharing the role of head of homicide with his former second-in-command and current son-in-law, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Catastrophic flooding is expected across the province when a distraught father pleads for help to find his missing adult daughter. Thinking of his own daughter, Annie, Gamache can empathize with the father – and when the worst is realized – he also finds himself pondering how he would react and if he can indeed be “a better man”.
And, then as usual, I finish one Gamache book and don’t want to leave these characters just yet…(there are currently 21 Gamache books).
Louise Penny – All the Devils Are Here
So, I downloaded and paid for #16, since it isn’t on Kindle Unlimited yet.
Jean-Guy and Annie have moved to Paris for Jean-Guy’s new job. Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, are in Paris visiting them and their son Daniel and his family while waiting for Annie to give birth to a daughter, when Gamache’s godfather, Stephen Horowitz, is seriously injured in a hit-and-run, right in front of all the family.
Gamache begins investigating as he does not believe it was an accident and uncovers a conspiracy that involves corporate and family secrets that could both endanger and tear his family apart. The dynamics of the relationships between Gamache and Stephen, Gamache and Daniel, and Gamache and Jean-Guy as well as misunderstandings that have impacted those relationships lay at the heart of this emotionally gripping novel.
Cynthia Ellingsen – The Cut of the Moon
Having gotten my Gamache fix for the time being, I returned to another author whose novels I’ve greatly enjoyed via my Kindle Unlimited membership.
From the Amazon book description: Jewelry designer Lindsey McKenna is thrilled to be working at an antique exhibit at a local landmark that has been her obsession: the Wind Thorne estate. During the 1920s, it roared. Until an unsolved murder shadowed its legacy. Today, restored as a museum, Wind Thorne draws crowds of visitors to upstate New York. When one of them approaches Lindsey with an old diary, Lindsey is drawn deeper into Wind Thorne’s storied past.
Similar to Ellingsen’s The Lost Letters of Aisling, The Cut of the Moon ties the past and the present together as Lindsey tries to unknot her past while discovering the secrets of the old diary’s writer and of Wind Thorne.
Until next time, read what pleases you!
Notes By Nancy 
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