My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Her performance was so wooden I half expected termites to start a union.

I don’t trust that woman. She’s an executioner who uses blood for fountain-pen ink.

‘Sounds like he chased after money like a dog after sausages,’ Opal commented. ‘He did. Relentless, single-minded, and with a fair bit of drool involved,’ Virginia added.

There is a lot of pride in getting older. It comes with the perk of feeling the veil of hogwash lift, all the societal pressures that you’re supposed to believe in and adhere to becomes piffle. You wish your younger self had the same level of clarity and confidence.

My Review:

This was an entertaining, amusing, and easy-to-follow cozy read, populated by a clever pooch and a copious cast of largely unlikable yet uniquely authentic and quirky secondary characters. I had not read the previous book, but I didn’t feel that this hampered my understanding or enjoyment, as Opal’s relevant history was provided in ample detail. The storylines were well-plotted and smartly merged, just in time for our eagle-eyed heroine to save the day.

One Snowy Day
by Shari Low

‘I’m surprised you’re not doing a Joan Collins, luxuriating in your bed until lunchtime, wrapped in white fake fur, with thirty-year-old oiled-up bodybuilders feeding you grapes. Actually, I don’t know that Joan Collins does that, but I like to imagine it that way.’ ‘I’m not having oiled-up bodybuilders anywhere near my bed, thank you.’ Jessie countered. ‘I’d need to boil wash my sheets and it would take the pattern right off my duvet cover.’

…the little devil on her other shoulder hadn’t been able to get past hoping that Monica would dump him on his arse and he’d wither away, loveless and sexless until his penis fell off. The devil watched too many crime shows.

Eve, it’s been three years. And in that time, the only hot hip action in my life has been watching Strictly.

Being a lawyer must be like being a doctor, she imagined. As soon as people at dinner parties knew what you did, they wanted to ask your advice on their speeding ticket or their piles.

My Review:

This was a fun and wryly amusing read that was stuffed to the gills with engaging and entertaining storylines that converged in a brilliant and highly satisfying manner. Shari Low is a clever wordsmith and weaves absorbing, well-honed, and insightfully written tales that are laced together with witty humor and perceptive observations, while populated with admirable and endearing characters doing their best to get ahead while handling problematic family members. Every time I pick up one of her books, I want to stop time and rearrange my schedule to do nothing else but read her entire listing.

Three former friends. One last request. The journey of a lifetime!

In life, Norman George – passionate knitter, excellent friend and secret youtube sensation – liked nothing better than a good laugh. And, it seems, he gets the last laugh even in death, because at his funeral, he invites his three closest friends to scatter his ashes in a place close to his heart, the Shetland Islands. The only issue is, while Bridget, Gloria and Derek might have loved Norman, they can’t stand each other.

So it’s with trepidation that the eclectic trio set off in their minivan on the ferry to Lerwick, each harbouring their own reason for wanting to grant Norman this last request. But as storm clouds roll in over the Shetland Islands, all of them are about to discover that some secrets are best shared, and that even after death, good friendship can change everything…

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Making sweeping statements is unkind. Judgement without knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Derek was a pensioner and absolutely could not hold his own in a fight. He’d never tested that theory, to be fair, but he was pretty sure he was right.

My Review:

For a human on the other side of 60, I found this to be cleverly amusing as well as acutely and sometimes painfully perceptive on the effects and attitudes of aging by those in the throes of the process. I remember my grandfather groaning (what I mentally labeled as old man noises) and, on more than one occasion, remarking to me as a child, “It takes a lot of courage to get old.” I now know what he meant. The writing alternated between humorous and reflective, and then on to observant and poignant. I will be looking for more of this author’s storytelling.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Aye, as a kid Jamie had known anger and fear, as well as the impulse to protect others, and it had made him determined as an adult to see the best in people, for the sake of his own well-being as much as theirs. You never knew what someone was going through, so it was best to be kind where you could.

‘Anonymous keyboard warriors posting comments in their underpants on the other side of the world aren’t the people who matter,’ insisted Ally, giving her brother a stern look. ‘Half of them will be bots, anyway.’

Angus was an elderly hillfooter who spent all day splattered with droppings in a hut with his beloved homing pigeons. He lived off his homegrown veggies and stinky roll-ups and was often in the local paper for threatening hillwalkers who strayed onto his land with various antique shotguns which the police seized one at a time, only for him to somehow acquire another.

Kenneth would begin his shift here at nine p.m. and end it at two when he’d walk down the lane to the dairy and stock up his milk van ready for his rounds which he, famously, did in his doorman tux. Nobody questioned it round the town. It was just the way things were.

There seemed to be a moment where she was searching his face for a reaction. He couldn’t help feeling some kind of test that he hadn’t revised for was being sprung upon him. He fixed his face into a delighted smile.

…he was hanging on a shoogly peg (which is the Scottish version of skating on thin ice, only much, much more fun to say, usually).

Party cannons shot confetti in her cerebral cortex.

My Review:

This was a fun, light, entertaining, and easy-to-follow read. I always enjoy reading Kiley Dunbar’s cleverly amusing tales, and I revel in her sneaky, wry humor. Her new series is set in a small Scottish village, populated with a large cast of quirky, flawed, and authentic characters.

And I gained an entry to my British Isles Words and Phrases List with swither, which Mr. Google tells me means to hesitate, vacillate, or be perplexed, particularly in making a decision or choice.  I certainly will not swither if asked if I’d like to read another of Kiley Dunbar’s books.

The Case of the Body on the Orient Express
(The Detection Club #2)
by Kelly Oliver

Paris, 1928: Agatha Christie and fellow writer Dorothy L Sayers board the Orient Express, bound for Constantinople. Christie in particular is looking forward to a break from recent dispiriting events in both her work and private life – the finalisation of her divorce from her philanderous husband Archie, and the miserly reception of her latest book.

But before the duo can settle in to enjoy the luxuries of their first-class journey, their journey is derailed when a fellow guest drops dead during the dinner service. And as the last person to speak to the victim, Dorothy finds herself a prime suspect in his murder.

As the train hurtles East, Sayers’ resourceful assistant Eliza and her friend Theo must navigate a maze of suspects. But with each passing mile, the stakes rise, and when another body is discovered, their search to find the killer before they reach their destination becomes increasingly complicated.

Can Eliza and Theo stay one step ahead, crack the mystery and clear Dorothy’s name? Or will this be one journey too far for the amateur sleuths?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

For a large woman, Dorothy L. Sayers was quick on her feet. The only things quicker than her feet were her wit and her temper.

Why would anyone pretend to be poor? She knew from experience that poverty wasn’t romantic, but an unfortunate condition to be avoided at all costs.

Didn’t people read to escape the horrors of life rather than wallow in them? Theo was all for verisimilitude, but he had to draw the line somewhere: namely, sharing a toilet with someone who hadn’t bathed since the nineteenth century.

Apparently, MI5 suspected one of the writers, probably Agatha Christie, had access to classified information. From what Eliza had seen, the mystery writers had access to nothing more classified than overactive imaginations.

Like a moth between panes of glass, he was stuck between what he was and what he wanted to be.

My Review:

I adore Kelly Oliver’s smooth and amusing writing style. I so covet her word craft. She weaves an entertaining, easy-to-follow, and engaging tale that never fails to hold my interest with her well-plotted mysteries and clever arrangements of words that put a smile on my face with her colorful descriptions and authentic and quirky characters.