How are you all? I, personally, have had a pretty lousy week. Largely because I had to spend it all at work and, after a brilliant vacation the week before, I am maudlin and self pitying and in a bit of a dip motivationally. Not going to lie – the constant muggy nights are not helping, but lack of sleep, tiredness after work and a basic lack of motivation have really put a dent in my reading and reviewing ability. Managed to write a few reviews but am falling woefully behind again, and I am very glad I made such a dent in my reads already as I read a rather pathetic two books this week. Good books, lousy reader.
Still, I have my memories to cheer me so (instead of reading) I’ve been ploughing through pics of the second full day of our trip to keep you all amused. This was our only real grey day of the week so we stayed local, visiting Chain Bridge Honey Farm , the newly refurbished Union Chain Bridge which connects England to Scotland over the Tweed, and then took in Berwick where, unusually for us, we did not eat cake. Still managed a walk and went to Lowry’s at the Chandlery which is one of our faves when in town.
The Union (Chain) Bridge, Berwick Lighthouse and various birds and scenes around Berwick upon Tweed
I’ve not ordered any new books this week (slacking), but did receive a few (lots of) preorders. First up was my Orenda Books subscription which saw Bert’s Books delivering The Fascination by Essie Fox (look at those spredges and the very beautiful cover with lots of gilt embossing). I also had a preorder of The Moose Paradox paperback, by Antti Tuomainen which arrived at the same time. Yay. On top of that were my orders of Five Little Pigs and Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie (HarperCollins special hardback editions) and After That Night by Karin Slaughter, the latest in the Will Trent series. Very happy bunny here.
The Fascination and The Moose Paradox
Dead Man’s Folly & Five Little Pigs (Front and read covers)
After That Night – special edition hardback with gilt cover depicting dominoes falling
Just the one Netgalley – Reykjavik by Ragnar Jónasson and Katrín Jakobsdottír (17 August). I see this as a win as it is inly a single book …
Reykjavik
Books I have read
The Unforgiven Dead by Fulton Ross (25 July)
You could have saved her.
Sure as the tide against his Highland shores, the refrain beats into Constable Angus ‘Dubh’ MacNeil’s mind. For years it has haunted him, accompanied by the faces of those he could not save—the Burned Man, the Strangled Woman, the Drowned Boy. All witnesses to a secret he cannot share and a gift he now refuses to embrace.
You could have saved her. The refrain drives Angus to the seashore at dawn, where a girl lies on the unblemished sand. She wears a green cloak and cradles a corps creadha, a Highland voodoo doll. She has suffered a ritualistic, three-fold death—her head bludgeoned, her throat cut, and symbolically drowned.
It is Faye Chichester, daughter of an American billionaire whose mission to reintroduce wolves to the Highlands has embroiled the village of Glenruig. But even as media and police swarm the area, that refrain—you could have saved her—echoes in all Angus’s thoughts. For he carries a burden, a blessing, a curse, a secret—dà-shealladh, the second sight of Gaelic lore.
Gills MacMurdo, noted folklorist, academic, and Angus’s oldest friend, confirms what the dà-shealladh is warning. Just as Faye’s death was three-fold, so must the murder victims fulfil the ancient pattern. More will die, unless Angus does what he must—close his eyes and see.
Death of a Lesser God by Vaseem Khan (10 August)
In the fourth rip-roaring thriller in the award-winning Malabar House series, Persis and Archie travel to the old colonial capital of Calcutta, where they collide head-on with the prejudices and bloody politics of an era engulfed in flame. ‘Beautifully written and a fascinating insight into the turbulence of post independence India’ PETER MAY ‘A sumptuous, brutal, heart-stopping thriller. Vaseem Khan writes with charm and wit, and an eye for detail that transports the reader entirely. I couldn’t love this series more’ CHRIS WHITAKER Can a white man receive justice in post-colonial India? Bombay, 1950 James Whitby, sentenced to death for the murder of prominent lawyer and former Quit India activist Fareed Mazumdar, is less than two weeks from a date with the gallows. In a last-ditch attempt to save his son, Whitby’s father forces a new investigation into the killing. The investigation leads Inspector Persis Wadia of the Bombay Police to the old colonial capital of Calcutta, where, with the help of Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, she uncovers a possible link to a second case, the brutal murder of an African-American G.I. during the Calcutta Killings of 1946. Are the cases connected? And if Whitby didn’t murder Mazumdar, then who did?
I aim to do better this week, but I’m also off to a book launch tonight, so that is one evening I won’t be reading this week (although maybe a few chapters on the train). Busy enough week on the blog with lots of reviews – recap below:
#Review – The Trial – Rob Rinder #Review – Voices of the Dead – Ambrose Parry #Review – The Moose Paradox – Antti Tuomainen (Jen) #Review – Let Me In – Claire McGowan #Review – The Fascination – Essie Fox #Review – The Moose Paradox – Antti Tuomainen (Mandie) #Review – The Curator – M.W. Craven
The week ahead is pretty full too with a mixture of reviews. Just the one blog tour – The Girls On Chalk Hill by Alison Belsham which is on the blog today.
The Girls on Chalk Hill
And that is my lot. A slow week and a low key post to match it. Loving my bookage though so not all bad, right?
Have a fabulously bookish week all. See you next time when I will bore entertain you with day 3 photos …)
Jen
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