Book Reviews – Carol's Notebook

Arsenic and Old Lies by Benedict Brown

November 5, 2025November 5, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

I enjoy this series a lot, but don't seem to have much to say about this one. Marius Quin, mystery writer and amateur detective, finds a dead man in his study. The man has obviously been murdered and was Bella's fiancé. Bella is Marius' friend, sleuthing partner, and the woman he's been in love with forever. He's too close to the situation to help the police, so distracts himself with the case of Felicity Mortimer, a woman imprisoned for poisoning her husband fifteen years earlier. Marius is convinced Felicity is innocent and he and Bella set off to the Mortimer country estate to prove it. I like Marius. He's not the best detective or writer or the most sensitive man, but he tries. I love how well he and Bella work together and their friendship is well done. The plot moved along at a nice pace with plenty of clues, suspicious characters, and family secrets. The next in the series takes...

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

November 4, 2025November 4, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

The Hacienda will probably be my last spooky story of the year. Newly-married Beatriz has just moved to her husband, Don Rodolfo's, hacienda, San Isidro, where she will live with her husband and sister-in-law. It's not long until Beatriz realizes something is wrong with the hacienda, aside from neglect. She begins hearing voices, having vivid hallucinations, and constantly feels like she is being watched. Fearing the house is haunted, she turns to a local priest, Padre Andrés, for help. The writing is beautiful and descriptive. The atmosphere is "hauntingly lovely" and oppressive. I listened to the audio and having two narrators worked well with the two viewpoints, Beatriz' and Andrés'. In print, I'm not sure their voices would have been as distinct. Overall, it was an enjoyable read: a bit of supernatural, a unique (for me) setting, a touch of romance. It did touch briefly on some tough topics but ended up skirting around them....

Murdered on Halloween by Daisy Landish

October 31, 2025October 31, 2025 by Carol1 Comment

This is a short read at only 50 pages, so not much time to develop the characters or plot. Jane and Kennedy attend a fancy Halloween party and someone wearing a similar costume to Kennedy is killed. Kennedy is later attacked and realizes who the culprit is. My main complaint is that I wanted it to be longer. I wanted to get to know Jane and Kennedy better and have an actual mystery rather than Kennedy just recognizing them. Also, while it was set in London, its language is very American....

Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie

October 31, 2025October 31, 2025 by Carol1 Comment

This is at least the third or fourth time I've read Hallowe'en Party. Christie books are my comfort reads and this one is perfect for October. A girl is drowned in the apple bobbing bucket at a Halloween party after declaring that she once saw a murder. Ariadne Oliver, a guest at the party, turns to Poirot for help. Poirot begins with the question of what murder the girl could have witnessed, and turns up several potential cases. The plot moved along at a good pace and there were several turns. I knew the who the killer was, but it was fun getting there. I love the dialogue between Ariadne and Poirot....

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny

October 30, 2025October 31, 2025 by Carol2 Comments

I loved A Night in the Lonesome October. It's the late 1800s and a group of strangers have gathered in a village outside of London for The Game. We know them, of course: Jack (the Ripper), Larry Talbot (The Wolfman), the Great Detective (Sherlock Holmes), the Count (Dracula), the Good Doctor (Frankenstein) and others, along with their familiars. Our narrator is Snuff, Jack's mathematically-inclined dog, who is a very good boy. There are 31 chapters, one for each day in October, but I listened to most of it on a long car ride. We are dumped right in the middle of the action and left to kind of figure stuff out on our own. It's a light, fun book, but chockful of literary and cultural references and amazing dialogue. It's clever and funny and the characters, including the critters, are so well drawn. And the showdown at the end is fabulous. I will say i should have boned up on...

Play Nice by Rachel Harrison

October 29, 2025October 29, 2025 by Carol3 Comments

I don't read a lot of horror, and when I do, I tend to prefer the lighter side, and the horror aspect of Play Nice was fairly light. The family drama and unresolved childhood trauma were the heavier parts here. Clio is an influencer who seems to have the world at her feet. When she and her two sisters inherit their mother's house after her death, Clio insists on taking on the rehab and selling of the property, a house their mother always insisted was demon-possessed, thinking it will make great content. Clio is a difficult person to like. She is deeply affected by her past, no matter how much she believes she's past it. She's self-centered, stubborn, a bit chaotic, probably an alcoholic, but her character makes sense, given the family dynamics and I found myself rooting for her. Yes, I wanted her to make different choices, but that's part of the horror genre, isn't it? The relationships between her and her sisters...