Robertgreaves ROOTING again in 2023 2nd Part

Part 1 was here.

All books I own as of today now become ROOTs. I have 30 treebooks and 68 ebooks on the TBR shelf, making a total of 98 ROOTs, down from 124 ROOTs this time last year, which means I may run out of books in 2027, a worrying thought.

Nevertheless, since ebooks are always available and always tempting I am as usual going to limit myself:

1. 2 books as a reward for each kg I lose;
2. next in a series;
3. bookclub/reading group books.

Starting my No. 165, Pod by Laline Paull. This book is not a ROOT. i borrowed it from my sister while she is visiting here.

My review of The Last Herald-Mage:

Magic's Pawn:
Exasperated by his musical, dandy-ish, unmartial son Vanyel, Lord Withen sends him to stay with Savil, the boy's aunt at the court in Haven, as a punishment.

A quick, enjoyable coming-of-age, if rather overwrought, story set in a magic world. I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I'd read it when it first came out and was closer to Vanyel's age.

Magic's Promise
12 years later, Vanyel is now a seasoned Herald-Mage in desperate need of rest and recuperation and so returns home to Forst Reach where he has to deal with some unresolved issues from his childhood and a dangerous political situation across the borders.

A quick read which kept me turning the pages to see what happened next without it being particularly emotionally engaging.

Magic's Price
Can the singing of a young Bard help ease the pain of the King of Valdemar, who is slowly dying?

I felt this one dragged a bit in places and there seemed to be a lot more typos in the text. But it was still a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.

Starting my No. 166, A Death to Record by Rebecca Tope. This book is not a ROOT.

My review of Pod:

Ea, a dolphin elder, the last of the Longi, looks back on her life.

An interesting story illustrating the different social customs among different types of dolphin and just how brutal they can be, and the impact of "anthrops" on the oceans.

Well done for getting Mt TBR down to two figures! My Mt TBR is going in the other direction - I have completely lost all discipline and am buying books with glee and abandon.

Starting my No 167, Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight by Aliette de Bodard. This ebook is not a ROOT but it does fit the SeriesCAT and SFFKIT.

My review of A Death to Record:

When a herdsman is found dead in a barn, the most reasonable suspect is the man who DS Den Cooper's girlfriend jilted him for just a month before the wedding. Unfortunately there is not a lot of evidence to say he or anybody else actually did it.

An interesting take not on whodunnit but on did he really do it.

Starting my No. 168, The Princess and the Pirates by John Maddox Roberts. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight:

A collection of 12 short stories from her Xuya universe and a novella and short story from her Dominion of the Fallen series.

I preferred the Xuya stories - there seemed to be too much background I was missing about the Dominion of the Fallen back story. The Xuya stories explored themes of mourning, memory, and cultural transmission in a fascinating if not always easy to follow way.

Starting my No. 169, The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths. This ebook is my seventy-third ROOT for 2023. It fits the AlphaKIT.

Starting the next in the series, The Locked Room, as my No. 170. It is my seventy-fourth ROOT for 2023. The treebook TBR count remains at 30 because of the arrival of a late birthday present.

My review of The Night Hawks:

A group of metal detectorists exploring a beach find a washed up dead body as well as what may be a Bronze Age hoard. Nelson and Ruth swing into action.

I mainly read these for the combination of mystery and archaeology and am not so keen on the soap opera elements so could have done without Nelson's mother's cryptic advice as a cliffhanger at the end. The afterword says that this book was written and readied for publication during lockdown and there are enough winks to the reader to guess the background to the next one in the series, which I would have thought would provide enough drama without soap opera histrionics.

Starting the next and last in the series. The Last Remains, as my No. 171. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of The Locked Room:

When the Covid lockdown is imposed, Nelson's team are looking into the suicide of a woman who apparently put a meal in the microwave and then took an overdose of sleeping pills. Examination of the records showed a string of similar suicides with mild discrepancies.

I found the mystery and its solution improbable and was far more interested in the affects of Covid and lockdown on the characters.

My review of The Last Remains:

Builders renovating a cafe find a bricked-up skeleton, recent enough to have a metal plate in its ankle and hence of interest to Nelson and his team. Ruth has problems of her own as the university wants to close down her department.

The last in the series and it shows, as characters from earlier books pop up all over the place and there is a lot of reminiscing. The actual mystery was intriguing and suspenseful enough to keep me up way past my bedtime.

Starting my No. 172, Book Boyfriend by Kris Ripper. This ebook is my seventy-fifth ROOT for 2023.

My review of The Princess and the Pirates:

Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger is sent to Cyprus in 50 BC to look into rumours of a resurgent pirate problem. But who is backing the pirates? The governor? An exiled Roman general? Cleopatra, daughter of the King of Egypt?

The murder and the solution are rather cursorily dealt with, which doesn't really matter since the wheeling and dealing, discussions about piracy, the frankincense trade, etc. were far more interesting.

Starting my No. 173, Six Cats A Slayin' by Miranda James. This ebook is my seventy-sixth ROOT for 2023.

My review Book Boyfriend:

When PK's BFF Art turns up on his doorstep having broken up with his boyfriend, PK is unable to declare his true feelings but instead pours them into a romance novel, which looks like being a bestseller.

PK as narrator was irritating enough in the early parts for me to nearly DNF the book. It was only when we got into the mechanics of book production and the build up to publication that I found it interesting enough to keep me going through a romance which was less than compelling because I had absolutely no investment in the characters.

Starting the next in the series, The Pawful Truth as my No. 174. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Six Cats A Slayin':

Gerry Albritton throws a Christmas party to introduce herself to the neighbourhood, and collapses and dies in the middle of it after some blazing rows in the run-up to the party and at the party itself.

The murder doesn't take place till halfway through the book but really the murders in these books are just an excuse to spend time with Charlie and Diesel and their family and friends, so who cares?

Starting the next in the series, Careless Whiskers, as my No. 175. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of The Pawful Truth:

Charlie signs up to audit a class at his university. By the second session one of the students has been murdered and by the third session the lecturer has also been murdered.

Despite references to Jessica Fletcher in the book, nobody has drawn the obvious conclusion: if Charlie enters your social circle, get out fast.

Starting my No. 176, That Woman by Anna Sebba. This ebook is not a ROOT. I am reading it now for my book club.

My review of Careless Whiskers:

Charlie's daughter Laura is playing the female lead in a new play put on by the campus dept. of theatre studies. When the obnoxious male lead is poisoned on stage Charlie has to get involved in the investigation. Supposing it had been Laura who drank the fatal glass of tea?

Another quick, enjoyable read, this time with added imposters. Will the real Finn Zwake please stand up?

Starting my No. 177, Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix. This is my seventy-seventh ROOT for 2023 and leaves 29 on the treebook TBR shelf. It fits the AlphaKIT and is also seasonally appropriate.

Starting my No. 177, The Building of Jalna by Mazo de la Roche. This ebook is my seventy-eighth ROOT for 2023. It fits the GeoCAT and ClassicsCAT.

My review of Horrorstör:

In a downmarket knockoff of IKEA, manager Basil picks Amy and Ruth Ann to investigate things that go bump in the night.

It wasn't as funny as I thought it was going to be, but nevertheless I enjoyed the first half where the characters were investigating the shop at night. The second half was certainly dark but I didn't feel particularly creeped out, just wanted the story to get a move on.

My review of That Woman:

A biography of Wallis Simpson.

A mixture of very interesting facts (I had no idea she was still married to Mr Simpson at the time of the abdication, I always had the impression he was long gone) and wild speculation (she was flat-chested and a graphologist said her handwriting was masculine so she could have been a man with a hormonal disorder). Read with a large dose of salt handy.

Starting my No. 180 Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. This is my seventy-ninth ROOT for 2023 and brings the treebook TBR shelf to 29. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Building Jalna (repeated from when I read the omnibus in 2019):

Captain Wakefield of the British Indian army inherits a property in Canada in the 1850s, so he and his Irish wife decide to emigrate.

A good, soapy, read. The Atlantic crossing was very well done -- although I knew they had to stay safe for the book to continue, it was still very atmospheric, showing that a safe voyage was by no means guaranteed. There were several parts later in the book that felt we were building up to some disaster which didn't happen.

Possible reading for November:

Starting my No. 181, The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF, edited by Mike Ashley. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the AlphaKIT and SFFKIT.

My review of Stolen Focus:

Reasons why attention spans and the ability to focus are declining on an individual and social level.

Well-argued and convincing book about an important problem. It's not just that I'm getting older. There are social factors similar to those why the quality of a lot of people's diet in developed countries is declining. It deserves all the stars.

As one of the stories in the anthology is a sequel to The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, I've decided to re-read that as my No. 182 and my eightieth ROOT for 2023. It's short enough to be considered a novella, so it fits the SFFKIT as well as the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Time Machine:

The creation of a subgenre, if not a genre. The tale does suffer a bit from over-familiarity - this must be my fourth or fifth reading and if I remember rightly I've seen the film version at least twice. Having said that, it can still be recognised as an achievement.

Also reading my No. 183 Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. This is my eighty-first ROOT for 2023 and brings the TBR shelf to 28. It fits the GeoCAT, ClassicsCAT, and the AlphaKIT.

My review of the Tao Te Ching:

The way that can be reviewed is not the way

Starting my No. 184, Katherine of Aragon The True Queen by Alison Weir. This is my eighty-second ROOT for 2023 but the TBR shelf remains at 28 as I bought a book over the weekend.

My review of The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF:

A collection of 25 stories, one of which (by Fritz Leiber) I had read before, two of which I gave up on, and only one of which (by Christopher Priest) inspired me to look for the author's other works. There were also a couple of authors whose work I was already familiar with. The rest were so-so merging on meh but not actually bad.

>26 Robertgreaves: Chapeau! That review made me laugh!

Also reading my No. 185, The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood. This ebook is not a ROOT but it fits the MysteryKIT.

My review of Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen:

Fictional life of Henry VIII's first wife from when she first arrived in England to her death.

Interesting story of her life between the death of Prince Arthur and the death of Henry VII. Rather slow at times in the middle (all the does he/doesn't he still love me?) but excellent once the King's Great Matter got started and the story of the last part of her life was heartbreaking. Having read this I do wonder how the author can possibly make Anne Boleyn a sympathetic character.

Starting my No. 186, Death Comes To Marlow by Robert Thorogood. This is my eighty-third ROOT for 2023 and brings the treebook TBR shelf down to 27. It fits the MysteryKIT and the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Marlow Murder Club:

While swimming in the Thames, Judith Potts hears a shot from a neighbour's house. Although the police can't find anything wrong, Judith finds her neighbour's body the next day.

Fun, twisty cozy. This Murder Club has a better mystery but the other Murder Club's characters are better at engaging the reader's interest and affections.

Starting my No. 187, Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brien. This ebook is not a ROOT but does fit the SeriesCAT.

My review of Death Comes to Marlow:

Judith Potts receives a phone call asking her to attend a party on the eve of Sir Peter Bailey's wedding to his nurse. During the party his crushed body is found under a fallen heavy display cabinet inside his locked study. Sir Peter had hinted that he felt his life was in danger. So, was he murdered, by whom, and above all, how?

Another good, twisty story. I found it funnier than the first one in the series, and the characters are starting to grow on me, though I still think they are there in the service of the plot rather than interesting in their own right. >

Also reading my No. 188, The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier. This ebook is my eighty-fourth ROOT for 2023 and fits the RandomCAT.

My review of The Illumination:

A series of linked stories, each focussing on a different character, set in a world where pain starts showing as light shining from the diseased/injured part of the body.

This change didn't have the effects I (and at least one of the characters) expected nor did the book go in directions I thought it might, but it was beautifully written. This is the second of the author's books that I've read and I'm really looking forward to reading others of these lovely and unexpected explorations of unlikely premises.

Starting my No. 189, Deadly Inheritance by Janet Laurence. This ebook is not a ROOT but it does fit the AlphaKIT and the SeriesCAT.

My review of Master and Commander:

Jack Aubrey invites Stephen Maturin to become his ship's doctor/surgeon in 1800.

It is certainly a steep learning curve as the author makes no concessions to readers' ignorance of naval terminology and practice of the period. There were definitely times when I had no idea what was going on. it certainly throws into relief how much other authors play down the strangeness of the past.

Starting my No. 190, The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard. This ebook is not a ROOT. It fits the AlphaKIT and the SFFKIT.

My review of Deadly Inheritance:

Taking a short cut to the village through the woods, Ursula Grandison stumbles across the body of a nursery maid presumed to have left for another post but who had drowned in a stream. The inquest rules her death suicide due to her unfortunate condition, but was it?

The book had its moments and the final revelations put an interesting twist on things, but really it was much longer than it needed to be and could have been reduced by a third or even a half without losing too much.

Starting my No. 191, Execution by S. J. Parris. This ebook is not a ROOT but it fits the SeriesCAT.

My review of The Tea Master and the Detective:

Chau Long, a scholar researching the effects of deep space on dead bodies, asks a shipmind for help retrieving a body but they both have backstories which will complicate retrieval.

Despite having read some of the author's other works in the Xuya series, I had problems understanding the setting for this story and what was going on.

Also reading The One by John Marrs. This ebook is my eighty-fifth ROOT for 2023.

My review of The One:

We all have a genetic match who is our soul mate but that doesn't guarantee a happy ever after. Five people's lives get more complicated when they find out who their Match is.

The first half seemed an entertaining piece of fluff if rather predictable but then all sorts of interesting twists took off.

Starting my No. 192, The Tiger That Isn't by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of Execution:

Bruno is assigned by Walsingham to infiltrate the Babington plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne.

It's been a while since i read the previous one in the main series of these books (2016!) so I struggled a bit with all the back references in the first 1/3 or so of this one. The story had some exciting moments but also some parts where I thought the author was trying too hard to find contemporary resonances - to the point where I was thinking Bruno couldn't have said that.

Starting my No. 193, Winter's Gifts by Ben Aaronovitch, which is my eighty-sixth ROOT for 2023. It brings the treebook shelf books down to 26. It fits the SFFKIT.

My review of The Tiger That Isn't:

How the numbers bandied about in the news can be very wrong, due as much to ignorance and carelessness as any intent to deceive.

Starting my No. 194, A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie, which is my eighty-seventh ROOT for 2023. It brings the treebook TBR shelf down to 25. It fits the MysteryKIT.

My review of Winter's Gifts:

Kimberly Reynolds is sent to Wisconsin to investigate a report from a former FBI agent of a case with unusual characteristics only to find that the area is in the grip of freak weather conditions and the former agent has apparently been abducted.

Good to see another expansion of this world to incorporate magic and the demi-monde beyond the UK.

Starting my No. 195, The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain, which is my eighty-eighth ROOT for 2023. It brings the TBR treebook shelf to 24. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of A Pocket Full of Rye:

Rex Fortescue collapses and dies in his office, poisoned with taxine from yew trees. Within a few days his wife and maid are also killed. Baffled, the police ask Miss Marple to infiltrate the household.

I fastened on the wrong suspect fairly early on. No little grey cells or village experience to help me out. Sigh.

Starting my No. 196 The Hidden Life of Trees: The Illustrated Edition by Peter Wohlleben, which is my eighty-ninth ROOT for 2023. It brings the TBR treebook shelf to 23. It fits December's RandomKIT.

My review of The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle:

As postman Albert Entwistle approaches compulsory retirement memories haunt him of the love he lost as a teenager. After all these years can he reconnect and find forgiveness?

The book does come close to suggesting that if you are not much of a people person it's because of bullying or other bad experiences. Nevertheless it is a feel-good romance that wears its heart on its sleeve and sucks you in, so I had a good time reading it.

Also reading my No. 197, Kamusari Tales Told At Night by Shion Miura. This ebook is my ninetieth ROOT for 2023. It fits the GeoCAT and the AlphaKIT.

Starting my No. 198 (ETA should be 199), Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction by David DeGrazia, which is my ninety-first ROOT for 2023.

My review of Kamusari Tales Told At Night:

Yuki Hirano does some more growing up in Kamusari.

A quick, engaging read. I'm curious how much is based on genuine Japanese folklore and custom and how much the author just made up.

Starting my No. 200, Death At the Chase by Michael Innes. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction:

After a quick glance at attitudes to animals in various traditions around the world, the author goes on to discuss approaches in the modern Western tradition, focussing on moral philosophy and then applying the ideas to various practical matters such as animal husbandry, pets and zoos, and animal experimentation.

Interesting but mainly serves as an introduction to one perspective rather than the idea in general.

My review of Death At The Chase:

Martyn Ashmore believes that on one day each year an attempt is made on his life and one year it will be successful. On the day in question he meets Sir John Appleby, invites him to lunch and as they are about to enter the house a heavy piece of masonry falls between them. Although sceptical at first, Appleby decides to investigate further.

I had a big grin while reading this thoroughly enjoyable excursion into one of Sir John's loopier adventures which every now and then burst into a fit of giggles.

Possible December reading:

Starting my No. 201, Disappearance of A Scribe by Dana Stabenow. This ebook is not a ROOT. I am reading it for my online reading group. It also fits the SeriesCAT.

Starting my No. 202, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. This ebook is my ninety-second ROOT for 2023. I am reading it now for my book club.

My review of Disappearance of A Scribe:

Reviewing her predecessor's files, Tetisheri comes across the case of a young scribe who had vanished a couple of years before. Her first enquiries into the matter are interrupted by two fishermen's discovery of a skeleton whose feet are encased in cement, the semi-legendary Rhakotis sandal.

Despite the occasional appearance of contemporary preoccupations, this was a procedural mystery with what seemed to me a good sense of time and place for the setting - Cleopatra's Alexandria after Caesar left to return to Rome.

My review of The Hidden Life of Trees: The Illustrated Edition:

Gorgeously illustrated abridged version of the author's work on trees and forests. The prose seemed a bit clunky in places with abrupt transitions and unclear references but I'm not sure whether this was due to the author, the translator, or the abridgement. Even so, the main points on the complex life of forests as communities of trees come across.

>49 Robertgreaves: Adding The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime to the TBR list. I hope it ends up being good!

Starting my No. 203, Yesterday Is History by Kosoko Jackson. This ebook is my ninety-third ROOT for 2023. It fits the AlphaKIT.

My review of The Silent Patient:

A psychotherapist wants to treat Alicia Berenson, believing only he can help her, and transfers from Broadmoor to a small private clinic, The Grove, in order to do so.

This didn't really work for me. Theo's wish to transfer to The Grove from Broadmoor felt so incongruous that I knew something was up right from the start and wondered if he had something to do with Gabriel's murder but I couldn't get it to click not realising Theo's narrative was in a dual timeline. Without a lot more clues to that, it just felt gimmicky.

Starting my No. 204, Olympiad by Tom Holt. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Yesterday Is History:

17-year-old Andre Cobb from Boston develops the ability to travel in time after receiving a liver transplant. The time comes when he must choose between a romantic interest in the 1970s and his present-day (2021).

I think the author did well with what he set out to do and I enjoyed the romances but I would have liked more about other times Andre visited (the only one mentioned was the Titanic). Perhaps it was just a symptom of how long it took from the author's laptop to publication, but since Andre was a transplant patient in 2021 and his parents were medical researchers I was surprised there was no mention of Covid.

Starting my No. 205, The Red House by A. A. Milne. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of Olympiad:

The story of the first Olympics.

DNF. The author's stylistic quirks to show we are in a semi-legendary period just got on my nerves.

Hi Robert, Second thread! You are moving right along with reading and posting. I should do better keeping track of the ROOTers. I promise I will next year.

Thanks for dropping by Connie.

Starting my No. 206, The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime, edited by Michael Sims. This ebook is my ninety-fourth ROOT in 2023.

My review of The Red House Mystery:

Locked room mystery by the author of Winnie-The-Pooh.

Written at a time when only one Poirot had appeared but continually harking back to Sherlock and Watson, it really wasn’t that complex but still quite enjoyable.

Starting my No. 207, More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon. This ebook is not a ROOT.

My review of The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime:

An anthology of mystery stories by male and female authors featuring women sleuths mainly in Victorian times but continuing down to the dawn of the classic mystery age shortly after WWI, mostly in the UK but some in the US.

As with most anthologies, a mixed bag. Definitely some authors I would like to follow up on. Good informative intros to the stories from the editor.

Starting my No. 208, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley. This book is not a ROOT.

My review of More Than Human:

A new species comes into existence, Homo Gestalt.

This struck enough chords for me to recognise that I probably read it about 40 - 50 years ago at a time when I was reading a lot of SF with similar themes. This time round though, my head being in a different place, I struggled with it and just found it baffling for much of it. It wasn't bad, but I had no particular impulse to pick it up again after doing other things and was forcing myself to finish it just to get it out of the way.

Starting my No. 209, My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. This ebook is my ninety-fifth ROOT for 2023.

My review of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street:

Somebody breaks into Thaniel's room to give him a watch. After the watch sounds an alarm which saves him from a bomb attack on Scotland Yard, Thaniel tracks down the watchmaker, a Japanese immigrant to London.

An entertaining adventure except for the final resolution for Thaniel, Mori, and Grace, during and after the performance of "The Mikado", which felt a bit flat.

Starting my No. 210, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This is my ninety-sixth ROOT for 2023 and fits the ClassicsCAT.

My review of A Christmas Carol (unchanged from last time I read it):

We all know the story, it's been adapted for films and TV goodness knows how many times. Scrooge's name has become part of the language. And yet, even after having read it three or four times, I still found the story of Scrooge's reformation moving.

Also reading Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham as my No. 211. This book is not a ROOT.

Starting my No. 212, Not That Complicated by Isabel Murray. This ebook is my ninety-seventh ROOT for 2023.

I'm going to retire My Name is Red and try it another time rather than DNF it.

My review of Trouble With Lichen:

Francis Saxover and Diana Brackley discover a compound in a rare lichen that can extend the human lifespan to two hundred years or more. They take different approaches to coping with the inevitable social disruption a limited supply is going to cause.

Not as well known as Wyndham's other books, but still an interesting exploration of ideas.

Starting my No. 213, Breakup by Dana Stabenow. This ebook is not a ROOT but does fit the SeriesCAT, GeoCAT, and RandomKIT.

My review of Not That Complicated by Isabel Murray:

Workmen renovating Ray Underwood's bedroom find a dead body buried under the floorboards. Meanwhile Ray has two possible romantic interests, but one is the detective assigned to the case and the other is the guy his ex cheated on him with.

The premise of this mix of romcom and mystery sounded good but the execution really didn't live up to it. The com was limited to a couple of quite funny scenes around the half way mark, the rom was just rather boring smut, and the mystery was barely there, just shrugs all round and an I guess we'll never know.

Currently reading the next in the series, Killing Grounds as my No. 214. This ebook is not a ROOT but fits the SeriesCAT and GeoCAT.

My review of Breakup:

As the spring thaw comes bears wake up hungry but is a bear responsible for this death?

The first 2/3 of this book was absolutely hilarious to the point where I didn't really care about the mystery element.

Also reading Death Below Stairs by Jennifer Ashley as my No. 215. This ebook is my ninety-eighth ROOT for 2023. It fits the MysteryKIT.

I also read the next in the series, Scandal Above Stairs as my No. 216. This ebook was not a ROOT.

My mum went into hospital on Thursday night and died yesterday, so I'm not really in a place to make reading plans or start a new thread at the moment, so I'll carry on this one for a while.

Starting the next in the series, Death in Kew Gardens, as they don't need a lot of bandwidth which I just haven't got at the moment.

>68 Robertgreaves: Oh Robert, I'm so sorry for your loss. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

The new group and threads will still be here when you're ready. Take care.

>68 Robertgreaves: My condolences on the loss of your mother, Robert.

Robert we will wait patiently for you to be ready to join us.

I send my sympathies and understanding at this sad start to the new year. Hopefully you will find peace knowing that she has.

>68 Robertgreaves: I am so sorry for your loss. Take care

Thank you Jackie, rosalita, Cheli, and Caramel

>68 Robertgreaves: I'm so sorry, Robert. Thinking of you. Take care.

Thank you, RP

My 2024 thread is here