What are you reading November 2024?

It is November already - let us know what you have been reading :)

Recent reads:

Death at Dyke's Corner by E. C. R. Lorac - pleasant , easy read.
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson - quite good, I can see why it is popular, but a bit too meta for me :)

Currently reading: The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey - am really enjoying this - it is well written, and the point-of-view of the main character is utterly believable.

I just finished Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson. Funny, farcical and clever, as usual. Kate Atkinson is one of my very favourite writers.

Just started Necessary as Blood by Deborah Crombie, my first Gemma James book. It's way deep in the series, but the backstory is provided in a way that doesn't make you feel like you're the new kid at school who can't open your locker.

Over the weekend I finished two classic crime novels. The first was Fear Stalks the Village by Ethel Lina White. It's set in a rural English village described as "perfect" apparently with a complete lack of irony, until nasty anonymous letters causes strain to the social fabric. The rector calls in a clever friend to try to discreetly figure out the solution, even though no one appears to actually want him to do so, preferring to deny that there's a problem. My personal reaction to the characters was so very much at odds with the author's description of them that it was an odd reading experience. The only likeable character in the book to me was the one the the rest of the villagers thought was awful, and the lady everyone described as a saint was utterly lacking in personality. The solution was quite convoluted, of course.

I also read Accident by Design by ECR Lorac. From a modern perspective it had some interesting things to say about how British society didn't deal with the trauma of the world wars. Set a few years after the war, the patriarch of the family is in failing health so they recall the only surviving son back from the colonies, along with his Australian wife and their son. The locals despise the wife for not being English, and no one is sorry when the couple are killed in an auto wreck. The police suspect it wasn't really an accident, and there are multiple people who benefit from the deaths.

Just finished A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie. I've been reading the Kincaid and James series for years now, but had somehow missed the 1st one.

I've finished The Exchange by John Grisham, a sequel to The Firm. Apart from some action at the beginning and at the end of the novel, it's basically about a bunch of meetings. Although lawyers haven't discovered Zoom yet so they travel a lot to go to those meetings. Could've been an email.

Just finished Verdict of Thirteen, a compilation of short stories by members of the Detection Club.

I'm reading Philip Kerr's riveting La mort, entre autres (The One From the Other).

I couldn't stop reading all of Freeman Wills Crofts Dr. French's mysteries.

I'm reading a collection of Dorothy Sayers' short stories in Lord Peter. The topics are wildly different from grisly murders to blackmail, but all have Sayers' signature humour.

Just finished (and enjoyed) The Last Word by Elly Griffiths. # 4 in her Harbinder Kaur series

I finished Missing Pieces by Heather Gudenkauf, a solid read with an unbelievable ending. I still enjoyed the book, however.

Over the weekend I finished what time the sexton's spade doth rust by Alan Bradley.

Raided my stock of thrillers and finished The Trojan Horse, by Hammond Innes.

I'm late to discover Deborah Crombie, but I made a special pre-Thanksgiving run to pick up a couple of hers: All Shall Be Well and Leave the Grave Green.