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.

A police transcriber-turned-novelist returns to Black Harbor to help solve the case of her ex-husband’s murder in the next riveting Black Harbor, featuring the return of characters from Hannah Morrissey’s breakout debut, Hello, Transcriber.

Black Harbor is a tinderbox. Temperatures and violent crime have both risen to all-time highs, a new drug razes the city, and the scene to which Sergeant Nikolai Kole responds is anything but a rote homicide. In the back of a clubhouse lies a body wrapped in garbage bags and doused in bleach.

It isn’t just any body. Tommy Greenlee, the ex-husband of Kole’s former lover, Hazel, has been shot several times and left for dead. What’s more…the killer left what appears to be a calling card.

Elsewhere, Hazel is haunted by her memories of Black Harbor. Lured there after eight years, she returns to find out who killed Tommy and why. Now back in Kole’s orbit, their love affair can hardly pick up where it left off. They both used each other to their own ends before, which begs the question: would they do it again?

With the atmosphere growing more volatile by the second, Hazel and Kole call a truce, and as they work together to solve this murder, they will not only unearth Black Harbor’s deepest, darkest secrets–they’ll each have to face their own

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Not a lot of good comes out of there, but a lot of bad passes through.

While turning a funeral into a bender isn’t a crime, it is frowned upon, like driving naked or marrying your stepsister.

We always remember our firsts and lasts, don’t we? It’s everything in the middle that ends up in one congealed mess.

He takes that as his cue to get out of the car, skirting around a patch of fake hair flattened to the asphalt like roadkill. Tumbleweave comes with the territory. It’s all fun and games until someone’s wig gets yanked off.

I’ve finally accepted that some feelings are only meant to be felt, not explained.

My Review:

I consistently peruse over a hundred or more books a year and can’t recall but a few storylines from most of them soon after. However, even several years later, this dark and gritty series has stayed with me, far beyond the salient details. Hannah Morrissey has strong word voodoo and has mastered the craft of storytelling. She pulls me into an absorbing vortex with her compelling tales and paints complete and startling movie reels with her descriptive word choices, which are most often simultaneously heart-squeezing, consuming, and brain-tickling. I had been longing for Hazel and Cole to reconnect with each other since the first installment, and had cracked open each new addition to the series with that eager anticipation. Now my fervent hopes are for yet more installments of Ms. Morressey’s addictive missives.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I’m sure we’ll barely get out of the car before she’s upon us, like one of those cloaked things out of Harry Potter.’ ‘Cloaked thing? Like a wizard?’ ‘No… You know, the big flying hooded things that suck the joy out of everyone they touch.’

Zoe was at once captivated by the tranquillity of narrow roads, so clean and ordered there had to be an army of elves patrolling when everyone was asleep, keeping it tidy.

‘Magnus,’ Geoff said. ‘Put the shovel down– you’re only digging deeper every time you open your mouth.

They looked normal enough, if it helps. I only counted one head on each of them, so that’s a good sign.

‘You didn’t move here because you were drawn by some mystical force?’ she asked wryly. ‘Were you?’ ‘Oh yes, it was called a job offer.’

Are there any village weirdos? There must be, right? Anyone with six fingers married to their sister?

Some men can be grown-up about these things, and then there’s Ritchie.

My Review:

Tilly Tennant is one of my favorite go-to authors for a relaxing, easy-to-fall-into, and gentle read. And I need those between the tense heart-pounding thrillers I alternatively pick up. The Village Midwife is a continuation of the Village Nurse tales and features the same quaint Lake District village and its eccentric villagers of Thimblebury. The storylines are thoughtful, colorfully detailed, relevant, and easy to follow while populated with authentic and knowable characters. It was a leisurely paced and pleasant read.