Total Books: 5 Total Pages: 1693 Longest: 426 Shortest: 251
Genres: 4 (Biographical Historical Fiction – 1, Fiction – 1, Mystery – 2, Thriller – 1)
Kate Quinn – The Diamond Eye
Kate Quinn wrote one of my favorite historical fiction novels, The Rose Code (see Note 52), which revolves around the lives of women who worked at Bletchley Park during WWII.
In her 2022 work, The Diamond Eye, she presents an intriguing look at the life of a WWII Russian female sniper in the trenches and beyond.
Based on the life of Mila Pavlichenko, who became known as Lady Death, the novel follows her from her days as a quiet graduate history student through the interruption of her studies in Kyiv by approaching German forces, and her difficult decision to leave her young son with her parents and fight for her homeland.
In the days before the United States joined the Allies, Pavlichenko was sent as part of a Russian delegation to Washington, D.C., to appeal for aid. She and Eleanor Roosevelt became friends, and she ended up extending her trip to travel all over the United States telling of the Russian people’s struggles.
Most chapters begin with a Communist Party propaganda statement followed by Mila’s counter-statement of her actual experience. Also, the depiction of her experiences as a Ukrainian fighting alongside others from different regions of the USSR and their trust and distrust of each other added to the understanding of the times then and today. And, yes, as usual when reading a semi-historical book like this, I chased down many intriguing rabbit holes!
I’ve already got another Kate Quinn book on my future reading list, stay tuned!
Louise Penny & Mellissa Fung – The Last Mandarin
If you’ve been reading my book posts, then you know that I absolutely love Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series.
In The Last Mandarin, she teams up with Mellissa Fung, award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker, in a thriller of truly global proportions. It’s a winning writer combination, as I couldn’t put it down.
In an all too real scenario, security and fire alarms are triggered around the world simultaneously, with the signal traced to China. First-generation Chinese-American food blogger, Alice Li, and her Tiananmen Square dissident mother, Vivien Li, now a human rights activist, are pulled into the search for the true origins and who is behind this unsettling global panic. As Vivien Li states, if it is not the Chinese, then an even more dangerous foe is behind the events and could strike again any time.
Jo Leevers – The Museum of Second Chances
After the last two heart-thumping books, I needed a visit with a cozy book – enter The Museum of Second Chances.
Every morning for decades, Evelyn Silver has walked the beach collecting whatever has been left by the tide – from broken cups to miscellaneous trinkets – because everything and everyone deserves a second chance. She then places the items in her Museum of Maritime Curiosities. When her lease is threatened to be terminated so that the city council can lease the building out as a restaurant to a big-name chef, the town rallies around her and the collection of oddities – which brings the townspeople together in surprising ways to solve the unknown stories behind many of the objects.
Robert Thorogood – The Queen of Poisons and Murder on the Marlow Belle
I got on a roll after reading Death Comes to Marlow last month (Note 131) and decided to continue with the 3rd and 4th books in Thorogood’s Marlow Murder Club series this month. I’ve really enjoyed the Masterpiece adaptations of the first two books and I’m hoping these two are added as well.
In The Queen of Poisons, the popular mayor of Marlow dies suddenly during a council meeting that Suzy was attending and it appears that he was poisoned. The Marlow Murder Club of Judith, the crossword puzzle expert, Suzy, the dog walker, and Becks, the vicar’s wife, are back to sleuthing and hired immediately by DS Tanika Malik as official consultants to the police this time. It appears that the murderer must be one of the other council members, but finding anyone who had a grudge against the mayor seems next to impossible. However, someone had a motive and managed to get the poison into his coffee in clear view of the other council members – and Suzy.
In Murder on the Marlow Belle, the victim, Oliver, is far from popular and everyone who was on the vessel for a private party had motives. Oliver was the founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society and the host of the party for select society members aboard the Marlow Belle. The Marlow Murder Club gets involved when Oliver’s wife comes to Judith the morning after the party after realizing Oliver never came home. Oliver’s body is found along the banks of the Thames – with two bullet holes in him – and DS Tanika Malik is under pressure to not involve her favorite civilian consultants. But, of course, that will not keep the Marlow Murder Club from doing their own investigation.
Until next time, read what pleases you!
Notes By Nancy 
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