Welcome in the new year
Happy 2019 everyone and lots of lovely reading!
31 December 2018
Review: KINGDOM OF THE BLIND, Louise Penny
- format: Kindle (Amazon)
- File Size: 3777 KB
- Print Length: 416 pages
- Publisher: Sphere (November 27, 2018)
- Publication Date: November 27, 2018
- Sold by: Hachette Book Group
- Language: English
- ASIN: B07DCXRRRS
- #14 in the Armand Gamache series
When Armand Gamache receives a letter inviting him to an abandoned farmhouse outside of Three Pines, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a complete stranger has named him as an executor of her will.
Armand never knew the elderly woman, and the bequests are so wildly unlikely that he suspects the woman must have been delusional - until a body is found, and the terms of the bizarre document suddenly seem far more menacing.
But it isn't the only menace Gamache is facing. The investigation into the events that led to his suspension has dragged on, and Armand is taking increasingly desperate measures to rectify previous actions. As he does, Armand Gamache begins to see his own blind spots - and the terrible things hiding there . . .
My Take
What better way to end my year's reading than with an excellent novel in a much loved series by a much loved author? I was worried that I wouldn't remember enough of what happened in the previous title in the series, which had brought Armand Gamache to his current situation, suspended from his position of head of the Sûreté du Québec. But the author takes such good care of the reader, with gentle reminders and subtle re-capping.
As with so many books in the series, we have a dual headed plot. At the end of the previous novel Gamache had taken the decision not to prevent the release of a new drug into North America and Canada. The cartel which has possession of the drug has not yet released it and Gamache has been suspended and is undergoing investigation. Most of the drug shipment has been recaptured but there is still some in Montreal still to be found. Its release will have disastrous consequences.
Almost a light relief, the second main plot sees Gamache and two others named as "liquidators" (executors) in the will of a woman whom he is convinced he has never met. "Baroness", Bertha Baumgartner, has left a bizarre will, based on a family legend that involves millions, some property, and a title, none of which seem to exist. In the process of investigating the background to the will, Gamache uncovers embezzlement and corruption at breathtaking levels.
An excellent read. I'm not sure whether there will be another in this series. If not, what a fitting conclusion!
As you'll see from the list below, I have read all the novels in this series.
My recommendation - read them in order! You won't regret it.
My average rating is just under 5.0.
Part of what has kept me reading the series is the excellent characterisation. Each of the characters has been built up carefully with wonderful descriptions, not hte least Gamache himslef.
My rating: 5.0
I've also read
1. Still Life (2005)
2. Dead Cold (2006)
The above were read before this blog was begun.
4.8, THE CRUELLEST MONTH
4.9, A RULE AGAINST MURDER
4.9, THE BRUTAL TELLING
5.0, BURY YOUR DEAD
5.0, A TRICK OF THE LIGHT
4.5, THE HANGMAN - a novella
4.9, THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY
5.0, HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN
4.9, THE LONG WAY HOME
4.9, THE NATURE OF THE BEAST
5.0, A GREAT RECKONING
4.9, GLASS HOUSES
29 December 2018
Review: THE VIRGIN IN THE ICE, Ellis Peters - audio book
- audio book from Audible
- Narrated by: Vanessa Benjamin
- Series: Brother Cadfael, Book 6
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Release date: 01-24-12
- first published 1983
The winter of 1139 will disrupt Brother Cadfael's tranquil life in Shrewsbury with the most disturbing events. Raging civil war has sent refugees fleeing north from Worcester. Among them are two orphans from a noble family, a boy of thirteen and an 18-year-old girl of great beauty, and their companion, a young Benedictine nun. But the trio, never reaching Shrewsbury, have disappeared somewhere in the wild countryside.
Cadfael feels afraid these three lost lambs, but another call for help sends him to the Church of Saint Mary. A wounded monk, found naked and bleeding by the roadside, will surely die without Cadfael's healing arts. Why this holy man has been attacked and what his fevered ravings reveal soon give Brother Cadfael a clue to the fate of the missing travelers. Now Cadfael sets out on a dangerous quest to find them. The road will lead him to a chill and terrible murder and a tale of passion gone awry. And at journey's end awaits a vision of what is best, and worst, in humankind...in Ellis Peters's most stunning depiction yet of love and war.
My Take
If you've not yet embarked on these historical mysteries, take my advice and read them as far as possible in publication order. That way you will be aware of political developments on the larger canvas of the Maude/Stephen civil war, and also of character development within the novels themselves.
A group of three has disappeared on the way from Worcester to Shrewsbury and there is an alert out for them. To make matters worse the weather is getting cold and the snows are coming. Bands of brigands are roaming the countryside, and travellers are not safe.
My rating: 4.4
I've also reviewed
THE PILGRIM OF HATE
4.3, A MORBID TASTE FOR BONES
4.6, A CORPSE TOO MANY
4.6, MONK'S-HOOD
4.4, THE LEPER OF SAINT GILES
28 December 2018
Review: THE BOTANIST'S DAUGHTER, Kayte Nunn
- this edition published Hachette Australia 2018
- ISBN 978-0-7336-3938-8
- 387 pages
- source: my local library
Discovery. Desire. Deception. A wondrously imagined tale of two female botanists, separated by more than a century, in a race to discover a life-saving flower . . .
In Victorian England, headstrong adventuress Elizabeth takes up her late father's quest for a rare, miraculous plant. She faces a perilous sea voyage, unforeseen dangers and treachery that threatens her entire family.
In present-day Australia, Anna finds a mysterious metal box containing a sketchbook of dazzling watercolours, a photograph inscribed 'Spring 1886' and a small bag of seeds. It sets her on a path far from her safe, carefully ordered life, and on a journey that will force her to face her own demons.
In this spellbinding botanical odyssey of discovery, desire and deception, Kayte Nunn has so exquisitely researched nineteenth-century Cornwall and Chile you can almost smell the fragrance of the flowers, the touch of the flora on your fingertips . . .
My Take
The novel is a romantic mystery, not my usual fare of crime fiction: written with a dual time frame, with over a century between them.
Anna is renovating a house in Paddington in Sydney, left to her by her grandmother when the builders find some intriguing objects sealed up in the wall. Anna has a gardening business, and has a "botanical" background. Intrigued by what she has found she tries to find out something about their provenance. As she reaches back in history, so the other narrative in the story reaches forward.
The second chapter takes us to Cornwall in 1886, where, at Trebithick Hall, Elizabeth's dying father requests that she goes to Chile, to carry out a task that he had intended to do himself.
The two narratives are interlaced throughout and gradually Anna pieces together a family history that she had no idea about.
A good read.
My rating: 4.5
About the author (website)
Kayte Nunn is a former book and magazine editor, and the author of two contemporary novels, ROSE'S VINTAGE and ANGEL'S SHARE. THE BOTANIST'S DAUGHTER was Kayte's first novel of transporting historical fiction, followed by THE FORGOTTEN LETTERS OF ESTHER DURRANT, set largely in the atmospheric Isles of Scilly.
I now live in the Northern Rivers of NSW and am also a mother to two girls. When not writing, reading or ferrying them around I can be found in the kitchen, procrasti-baking.
I love nothing more than a generous slice of warm cake, a cup of tea, a comfortable place to sit and a good book to read!
24 December 2018
Review: THE SHADOW SISTER, Lucinda Riley
- format: Kindle (Amazon)
- File Size: 3048 KB
- Print Length: 608 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan; Air Iri OME edition (October 25, 2016)
- Publication Date: October 25, 2016
- Sold by: Macmillan
- Language: English
- ASIN: B01KLO2Z4S
- The Seven Sisters #3
Following on from the bestselling The Seven Sisters and The Storm Sister, The Shadow Sister is the third book in Lucinda Riley's spellbinding series, loosely based on the mythology of the Seven Sisters star cluster.
Star D'Aplièse is at a crossroads in her life after the sudden death of her beloved father – the elusive billionaire, named Pa Salt by his six daughters, all adopted by him from the four corners of the world. He has left each of them a clue to their true heritage, but Star – the most enigmatic of the sisters – is hesitant to step out of the safety of the close relationship she shares with her sister CeCe. In desperation, she decides to follow the first clue she has been left, which leads her to an antiquarian bookshop in London, and the start of a whole new world . . .
A hundred years earlier, headstrong and independent Flora MacNichol vows she will never marry. She is happy and secure in her home in the Lake District, living close to her idol, Beatrix Potter, when machinations outside of her control lead her to London, and the home of one of Edwardian society's most notorious players, Alice Keppel. Flora is pulled between passionate love and duty to her family, but finds herself a pawn in a game – the rules of which are only known to others, until a meeting with a mysterious gentleman unveils the answers that Flora has been searching for her whole life . . .
As Star learns more of Flora's incredible journey, she too goes on a voyage of discovery, finally stepping out of the shadow of her sister and opening herself up to the possibility of love.
My Take
The plot pattern of this book is very similar to the earlier two in the series: a work of fiction set in a historical background, embedded in an enormous amount of research. The reader time travels from Star's current life to the past. Once Star decides to follow the clues that Pa Salt has left her about where she was born and her familial history, then her life is changed forever.
Other people in my reading group who have been progressing through this series seem to have been able to move on from one book to another almost straight away. But, as at the end of the previous two, I now feel that I need a little bit of a rest. THE SHADOW SISTER is a long book and demanded concentration so that I got all of the plot elements in place. One of the disadvantages of not going on to the next book in the series will be, as I have found with the earlier two, that some of the finer details will drop out of my memory.
Having said that, I found this a compulsive read. I read it on my Kindle, which helpfully told me how much further to the end of the chapter, and I found myself reluctant to put the book aside with a chapter unfinished.
If you are contemplating beginning, then you must read the series in order!
You will note also that I have labelled it "not crime fiction."
There is an interesting blend of historical detail in the story, but not really political history.
My rating: 4.5
I've also read
4.5, THE SEVEN SISTERS #1
4.5, THE STORM SISTER #2
20 December 2018
Review: MURDER AT THE FITZWILLIAM, Jim Eldridge
- this edition published by Allison & Busby 2018
- ISBN 978-0-7490-2366-9
- 316 pages
- #1 in the Museum series
1894. After rising to prominence for his role investigating the case of Jack the Ripper alongside the formidable Inspector Abberline, Daniel Wilson has retired from the force and now works as a private enquiry agent. Having built a reputation for intelligence and integrity, Wilson is the natural choice for the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, which finds itself in need of urgent assistance.
The remains of an ancient princess and her entourage are to be unveiled as the centerpiece of the museum's new Egyptian collection, but strange occurrences have followed their arrival in Britain: a dead body is discovered in a previously empty sarcophagus, one of the mummified bodyguards seemingly goes 'walkabout' and another man is found strangled to death with three-thousand-year-old bandages. Aided by the talented resident archaeologist Abigail Fenton but hindered by the dismissive local police force, can Wilson unravel the mystery and preserve the reputation of the museum ahead of its public launch?
My Take
There is a comfortable almost old-fashioned feel about this book set in Cambridge at the end of the nineteenth century. A body has been found, recently murdered, in a sarcophagus in the Egyptian room at the famous Fitzwilliam museum.
The manager of the Museum decides to use a private enquiry agent, Daniel Wilson, a young man who became famous as part of Scotland Yard's Abberline team who solved the Ripper case. (There is some back story here as the principal members of that team have now left Scotland yard and are all working as private detectives). The investigation into the murder brings Daniel into contact with Abigail Fenton who discovers the body.
The story proceeds at a good pace, another two murders occur, but I found it a relatively unchallenging read. Perhaps attractive to those who look with nostalgia at the Golden Age who-dunnits.
My rating: 4.3
About the author
Jim Eldridge has had ninety-five books published, which have sold over three million copies. He is also a radio, TV and movie scriptwriter who has had 250 TV scripts broadcast in the UK and internationally. He lives in Sevenoaks, Kent.
Author's Website: www.jimeldridge.com
Jim Eldridge has had a long writing career but this appears to be the beginning of a new detection series, with two more titles promised in 2019.
19 December 2018
Review: PRESERVATION, Jock Serong
- this edition published by Text Publishing 2018
- ISBN 9-781925-773125
- 352 pages
Preservation, based on the true story of the wreck of the Sydney Cove, sees master storyteller Jock Serong turn his talents to historical narrative.
On a beach not far from the isolated settlement of Sydney in 1797, a fishing boat picks up three shipwreck survivors, distressed and terribly injured. They have walked hundreds of miles across a landscape whose features—and inhabitants—they have no way of comprehending. They have lost fourteen companions along the way. Their accounts of the ordeal are evasive.
It is Lieutenant Joshua Grayling’s task to investigate the story. He comes to realise that those fourteen deaths were contrived by one calculating mind and, as the full horror of the men’s journey emerges, he begins to wonder whether the ruthless killer poses a danger to his own family.
My take
Told by 5 main narrators, with the reader often having to determine the identity of the narrator through the content, and written as part of a PhD in Creative Writing, Jock Serong brings to life a little known episode in the early history of the colony of New South Wales.
The Sydney Cove has come from India via a route that takes her around the western most tip of the continent, down the western side of Van Diemen's Land, and then up the eastern coast of the island, only to be wrecked in what would become known as Bass Strait. The boat has a valuable cargo of rum and tea which are stored on Preservation Island when the crew takes to the long boat only to be wrecked again on the southern coast of New South Wales. (A lovely set of maps has been provided to orientate the reader)
Those from the wrecked long boat, 17 of them, begin the walk to Sydney Harbour, over 500 miles to the north, but only 3 arrive. One of the Europeans keeps a journal but it is obvious from the re-telling of the tale once they reach Sydney Harbour that each of the survivors has seen the events very differently.
An interesting story, graphically told.
My rating: 4.8
I've also read
5.0, THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET
5.0, ON THE JAVA RIDGE
16 December 2018
Review: THE GIRL IN THE ICE, Robert Bryndza
- this edition published by bookoutre 2016
- ISBN 978-1-910751-77-0
- 391 pages
- #1 in the Erika Foster series
Her eyes are wide open. Her lips parted as if to speak. Her dead body frozen in the ice...She is not the only one.
When a young boy discovers the body of a woman beneath a thick sheet of ice in a South London park, Detective Erika Foster is called in to lead the murder investigation.
The victim, a beautiful young socialite, appeared to have the perfect life. Yet when Erika begins to dig deeper, she starts to connect the dots between the murder and the killings of three prostitutes, all found strangled, hands bound, and dumped in water around London.
What dark secrets is the girl in the ice hiding?
As Erika inches closer to uncovering the truth, the killer is closing in on Erika.
The last investigation Erika led went badly wrong...resulting in the death of her husband. With her career hanging by a thread, Erika must now battle her own personal demons as well as a killer more deadly than any she's faced before. But will she get to him before he strikes again?
A pause-resisting thriller packed with suspense. If you like Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott, and Karin Slaughter, discover Rob Bryndza's new series today.
My Take
This is the debut novel in what is quite a long series (see below). I read DARK WATER first and that made me determined to follow this author, and indeed I plan to read all the series.
This debut novel begins with Detective Erika Foster returning to work, so there is quite a bit of back story to catch up on.
In some ways it is typical police procedural with plenty of noir thrown in. At one stage Erika crosses her boss who is having strings pulled by some influential people, and she is taken off the case. Erika feels an obligation to the victims she has discovered and continues her investigation unofficially, putting herself in great danger.
My rating: 4.8
I've also reviewed
4.6, DARK WATER
Detective Erika Foster
1. The Girl in the Ice (2016)
2. The Night Stalker (2016)
3. Dark Water (2016)
4. Last Breath (2017)
5. Cold Blood (2017)
6. Deadly Secrets (2018)
About the author
Robert Bryndza was born in the UK and lived in America and Canada before settling in Slovakia with his Slovak husband Ján. His debut novel The Not So Secret Emails of Coco Pinchard became an Amazon bestseller.
When he's not writing Rob is learning Slovak, trying to train two crazy dogs, or watching Grand Designs all in the hope that he'll be able to understand his mother-in-law, build his dream house, and get the dogs to listen.
Review: THE LEPER OF SAINT GILES, Ellis Peters - audio book
- source: audio book from Audible
- Narrated by: Joanna Ward
- Series: Brother Cadfael, Book 5
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Release date: 06-21-01 (originally published 1981)
- Language: English
- Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Setting out for the Saint Giles leper colony outside Shrewsbury, Brother Cadfael has more pressing matters on his mind than the grand wedding coming to his abbey. Yet as fate would have it, Cadfael arrives at Saint Giles just as the nuptial party passes the colony's gates. He sees the fragile bride looking like a prisoner between her two stern guardians and the bridegroom, an arrogant, fleshy aristocrat old enough to be her grandfather. And he quickly discerns this union may be more damned than blessed.
Indeed, a savage murder will interrupt the May-December marriage and leave Brother Cadfael with a dark, terrible mystery to solve. For the key to the killing - and a secret - are hid among the lepers of Saint Giles.
Now Brother Cadfael's skills must ferret out a sickness, not of the body, but of a twisted soul - in the fifth Brother Cadfael Chronicle, a work that displays Ellis Peters' special genius at her best.
My take
The war between Maude and Stephen fades into the background and other social elements absorb our attention: the presence of leprosy in England, the legacy of the Crusades, and the convention of marrying young women to elderly men.
The plot was a bit predictable although when the murder occurred the identity of the murderer was not obvious. Cadfael uses both his skills of deduction and a little intuition to solve the case.
The narration was a good solid effort but at times the voice was a bit soporific.
My rating: 4.4
I've also reviewed
THE PILGRIM OF HATE
4.3, A MORBID TASTE FOR BONES
4.6, A CORPSE TOO MANY
4.6, MONK'S-HOOD
10 December 2018
Review: MAN AT THE WINDOW, Robert Jeffreys
- this edition published by Echo Publishing 2018
- ISBN 978-1-76068-330-6
- 343 pages
- copy supplied by publicist
When a boarding master at an exclusive boys’ school is shot dead, it is deemed accidental. A lazy and usually drunk detective is sent to write up the report. Cardilini unexpectedly does not cooperate, as he becomes riled by the privileged arrogance of those at the school. He used to have instincts. Perhaps he should follow them now…
With no real evidence he declares the shooting a murder and puts himself on a collision course with the powerful and elite of Perth. As he peels back layers, the school’s dark secrets being to emerge. But is his dogged pursuit of justice helpful or harmful to those most affected by the man’s death?
Man at the Window is the first in the Detective Cardilini series, set in 1960s Western Australia.
My Take
It is 12 months since Detective Cardilini's wife died and he has well and truly dropped his bundle. Before Betty's death he had the reputation of hard bitten excellent detective but no more. Even his son Paul can't keep him sober and on track.
St. Nicholas school has supplied Perth with many fine citizens, upstanding and successful businessmen, and it is the school that the police hierarchy attended. But the way in which they try to push any investigation of the death of the boarding master late one night, shot as he stands at the window of his room, does not sit well with Cardilini. Is it perversity or gut instinct that makes him declare he thinks the death is murder?
There are threats to the continuance of Cardilini's career, already on the rocks, but he continues to follow tiny threads and eventually thinks he has worked out who did the shooting. Meanwhile his personal life appears to be getting back on track as he works on the garden that he has neglected for 12 months. Eventually his discoveries lead to an understanding of what caused the shooting, but also a dilemma about who to punish.
This is a very topical story, considering the moral dilemma that has recently faced our society, particularly related to institutionalised sexual abuse.
A very engaging start to what promises to be an excellent classic noir series.
My rating: 4.9
About the author
Robert Jeffreys has worked as an actor, teacher, builder, labourer, cleaner, real estate agent, personal security agent and playwright of the professionally produced stage plays Cox Four, Covert, The Simple Truth, and The Messenger. ABC Radio National featured his radio plays, Covert, which received an AWGIE award, and Bodily Harm. He has also published a poetry anthology, Frame of Mind. Robert's debut novel, Man at the Window, is the first in the Detective Cardilini series, set in 1960s Western Australia.
9 December 2018
What I read in November 2018
A fairly light reading month mainly because of a couple of longish readsThe stand out was THE LOST MAN by Jane Harper
- 5.0, THE LOST MAN, Jane Harper - Australian author
- 4.0, MURDER IN MURLOO, Brigid George- Australian author
- 4.6, A CORPSE TOO MANY, Ellis Peters - audio book
- 4.8, THE DEATH OF MRS WESTAWAY, Ruth Ware
- 4.5. INTO THE LIGHT, Sarah Bailey - Australian author
- 4.5, THE STORM SISTER, Lucinda Riley
review: THE MURDER WALL, Mari Hannah
- this large print edition published by AudioGo through PanMacmillan 2012
- ISBN 978-1-4458-9299-3
- 415 pages
- source: my local library
- #1 in the Kate Daniels series
Eleven months after discovering a brutal double murder in a sleepy Northumbrian town, Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels is still haunted by her failure to solve the case.
Then the brutal killing of a man on Newcastle's Quayside gives Daniels another chance to get it right, and her first case as Senior Investigating Officer.
When Daniels recognises the corpse, but fails to disclose the fact, her personal life swerves dangerously into her professional life.
But much worse, she is now being watched.
As Daniels steps closer to finding a killer, a killer is only a breath away from claiming his next victim...
My Take
Being appointed as SIO on this murder case gives DCI Kate Daniels an opportunity to give her reputation a boost after her failure to solve a double murder case from 11 months earlier. But her boss seems very reluctant to let her loose, besides which he has problems of his own.
In addition Kate recognises the victim and should report that it, but she is afraid that will take her off the case. As time goes on more murders occur and it seems there must be a connection and the team desperately searches for it.
The reader is made privy to the mind of the murderer so we work desperately too to discover his identity.
A police procedural with a few twists.
My rating: 4.4
About the author
Mari Hannah, author of the Kate Daniels series and the Matthew Ryan series, has won the CWA 2017 Dagger in the Library.
Mari was declared the winner at a reception at the British Library on Saturday 17 June by Martin Edwards, Chair of the CWA. Martin said:
At a time when the CWA is expanding its support for public and independent libraries, I am delighted to congratulate Mari. Her DCI Kate Daniels books, set in the North East, are tremendously popular and we know they’re eagerly devoured by library goers and book groups.
Series
DCI Kate Daniels
1. The Murder Wall (2012)
2. Settled Blood (2012)
3. Deadly Deceit (2013)
4. Monument to Murder (2013)
aka Fatal Games
5. Killing For Keeps (2014)
6. Gallows Drop (2016)
Matthew Ryan
1. The Silent Room (2015)
2. The Death Messenger (2017)
Stone and Oliver
1. The Lost (2018)
2. The Insider (2018)
3. The Scandal (2019)
2 December 2018
Review: THE HONOURABLE THIEF, Meaghan Wilson Anastasios
- this edition published by Pan Macmillan Australia 2018
- ISBN 978-1-76055-262-6
- 440 pages
'Achilles? Because...?'
'Obsession of mine. Half man, half god - and his own worst enemy.
My kind of man.' He laughed.
Istanbul, Turkey 1955
Benedict Hitchens, once a world-renowned archaeologist, is now a discredited - but still rather charming - shell of his former self.
Once full of optimism and adventure, his determination to prove that Achilles was a real historical figure led him to his greatest love, Karina, on the island of Crete and to his greatest downfall, following the disappearance of an enigmatic stranger, Eris.
He has one last chance to restore his reputation, solve the mystery of Eris and prove his Achilles theory. But it is full of risk, and possibly fatal consequences...
In her breakout novel, Meaghan Wilson Anastasios weaves an action-packed tale of honour, passion, heroes and thieves across an epic backdrop of history.
My Take
The structure of this novel turns it into demanding reading. It chops backwards and forwards across multiple time frames, designed to show the reader how Benedict Hitchens is brought low, but in actual fact disrupting the flow of the story. The time frames bring with them a number of plot strands with issues that did not always resolve.
The final chapters of the novel read like an episode from an Indiana Jones movie and for me did not sit comfortably with the Benedict Hitchens I met in the first part of the novel. And then the final element of where Achilles' shield ends up is just pure foolishness.
My rating: 3.5
About the author
Meaghan Wilson Anastasios spent her formative years in Melbourne before travelling and working as an archaeologist in the Mediterranean and Middle East. She holds a PhD in art history and cultural economics, has been a lecturer at the University of Melbourne and was a fine art auctioneer. Meaghan now uses her expertise to write and research for film and TV. She lives in inner-city Melbourne with her husband and their two children. The Water Diviner was her first novel, which she co-wrote with her husband Andrew. The Honourable Thief is her first solo novel.
Review: MONK'S-HOOD, Ellis Peters - audio book
- source: audible.com
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Series: Brother Cadfael, Book 3
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Release date: 12-01-11
- Language: English
- Publisher: Hachette Audio UK
- Book originally published 1980
Gervase Bonel, with his wife and servants, is a guest of Shrewsbury Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul when he is suddenly taken ill. Luckily, the Abbey boasts the services of clever and kindly Brother Cadfael, a skilled herbalist. Cadfael hurries to the man's bedside, only to be confronted by two very different surprises.
In Master Bonel's wife, the good monk recognises Richildis, whom he loved many years ago before he took his vows. And Master Bonel has been fatally poisoned by a dose of deadly monk's-hood oil from Cadfael's herbarium. The Sheriff is convinced that the murderer is Richildis' son Edwin, who had reasons aplenty to hate his stepfather. But Cadfael, guided in part by his tender concern for a woman to whom he was once betrothed, is certain of her son's innocence. Using his knowledge of both herbs and the human heart, Cadfael deciphers a deadly recipe for murder....
My Take
Another excellent narration by Stephen Thorne who brings Cadfael to life. Unfortunately it appears that he has only narrated three of the Cadfael series, so this is the last.
A little more of Cadfael's past is revealed and there is a lovely assessment of the impact of the civil war on the Abbey as Father Heribert goes off to find out whether he will keep his position or whether Prior Robert will take over.
Cadfael discovers who was responsible for the poisoning of Gervase Bonel and eventually administers his own form of justice.
What an excellent writer Ellis Peters was, bringing this periods of English history to life.
My rating: 4.6
I've also reviewed
THE PILGRIM OF HATE
4.3, A MORBID TASTE FOR BONES
4.6, A CORPSE TOO MANY
1 December 2018
PICK OF THE MONTH, November 2018
 |
| Crime Fiction Pick of the Month 2018 |
This meme is an attempt to aggregate those summary posts.
It is an invitation to you to write your own summary post for November 2018, identify your crime fiction best read of the month, and add your post's URL to the Mr Linky below.
If Mr Linky does not appear for you, leave the URL in a comment and I will add it myself.
You can list all the books you've read in the past month on your post, even if some of them are not crime fiction, but I'd like you to nominate your crime fiction pick of the month.
That will be what you will list in Mr Linky too -
e.g.
ROSEANNA, Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - MiP (or Kerrie)
You are welcome to use the image on your post and it would be great if you could link your post back to this post on MYSTERIES in PARADISE.