Carol's Notebook

Haunting and Homicide by Ava Burke

January 16, 2025January 16, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

I love catching a new series at the beginning and Haunting and Homicide is a fun read and a good introduction to Tallulah “Lou” Thatcher and her family and friends, both living and dead. Lou lives with her grandmother in New Orleans and has a business doing ghost tours which makes perfect sense since she has been able to see and talk to ghosts since she was little. When a rival ghost tour guide dies Lou is unfortunate enough to stumble across his body. But now he's a ghost who begs her to make sure the police find out who killed him. She wants to help and she wants to clear her own name - she found the body, they were clearly not friends, and the murder weapon came from her store. The mystery is well-written with several twists and surprises. This is Lou's first outing as an amateur sleuth and she's not great at it yet, but she does...

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin

January 14, 2025January 14, 2025 by Carol2 Comments

Paul, still grieving after the loss of his partner and not in a steady job, takes over a cookery class from his old friend, Christian, who has broken his arm. It's a residential cooking school held in an old mansion in Belgravia, just a short walk from Paul's own house. Paul is not thrilled with the situation, not only because he has no idea what he'll be paid, but all of the students are major Christian fans and are disappointed that Paul has taken his place. And then he discovers Christian's body, clearly murdered, and Paul becomes one of the main suspects. The mystery's good enough. Each of the students and even the cooking school owner have secrets and possible motives for wanting Christian dead. We have several clues and a few red herrings. It's a bit like a house party mystery, especially when Paul ends up having to stay there too. The suspects are limited to those in the...

Murder at Raven’s Hollow by Louise Marley

January 12, 2025January 13, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

I love visiting Raven’s Edge, a lovely English village that leans into its history and folklore. The series is a bit cozy, a bit police procedural, and a bit Gothic. This time around, DS Harriet March and DI Ben Taylor are called in when a skeleton is discovered behind the florists. Actually, Harriet is already on the scene- she rents the apartment upstairs. Of course, the discovery leads to the reopening of a cold case involving a man who was reported missing over 25 years ago. At the same time, Iris Evergreen, a novelist with a mysterious past, has moved into Raven’s Hollow, a fascinating old mansion, and is asking questions around town about a photo of a man she found in her dead mother's belongings. Murder at Raven's Hollow focuses on Harriet. The case is intricately connected Harriet's past and her family and what she has always believed about her father. But Iris too is connected. We get glimpses of...

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

January 8, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

I do love a good Poirot mystery and this one is interesting because each of our potential suspects gets to tell their story exactly as they remember it. Poirot is asked by a young woman to solve the murder of her father, Amyas, a famous painter who was killed 16 years ago. Although her mother, Caroline, was tried, convicted, and died in prison, she left her daughter a note claiming she was innocent. Poirot agrees to look into it and happily, the five other people at the house at the time are all still alive. Poirot visits each of them and asks them to write down how they remember the events of that time. They all oblige. Through those accounts, we learn more about Caroline and Amyas Crale, but also about everyone else concerned. Everyone sees the others just a bit differently and layers and layers are added to the timeline and the characters, some obvious, others surprising. We do...

Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old by Brooke Shields

January 7, 2025January 7, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

Brooks Shields has been a well-known actor/model my entire life. She's 9 years older than me and this book about growing older resonated with me in several ways. Yes, Brooke Shields is famous and beautiful and can afford fancy clothes, but she's also funny and down to earth and relatable. She shares personal anecdotes and mixes in observation on society and statistics that back up her points. She discusses gaining confidence as she gets older, about worrying less about others' opinions and finding joy in middle age. But also about being overlooked and undervalued as a "woman of a certain age." Shields discusses her recent interactions with the healthcare system and how we need to advocate for ourselves, even if we're sometimes (often) seen as difficult. She points out, from personal experience and research studies, that there is a definite lack of knowledge surrounding perimenopause and menopause and considering how many women are in those life stages, that's ridiculous. Shields narrates the...

Read Christie 2025

January 3, 2025January 15, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

I am a huge Agatha Christie fan and have participated in the Read Christie reading challenge before, but I don't think I've ever posted about it here before. It's hosted at agathachristie.com. This year it's about characters and their careers. Every month features a character type and the book selected for that month features them - from artists and performers to detectives and spies. There are "official" selections, but you can also choice to read alternatives. The hashtag is #ReadChristie2025. January - Artists (Five Little Pigs)February - Authors (The 13 Problems)March - Performers (Three Act Tragedy)April - Butlers (The Seven Dials Mystery)May - Detectives (Cards on the Table)June - Amateurs (Crooked House)July - Archaeologists (Come, Tell Me How You Live)August - Medics (One, Two Buckle My Shoe)September - Religious Figures (At Bertram's Hotel)October - Lawyers (Towards Zero)November - Spies (Cat Among the Pigeons)December - Military Men (N or M or The Sittaford Mystery) Books read:...