Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: Murder at Mallowan Hall

Author: Colleen Cambridge

Publication: 26 October 2021

Format: Kindle ebook

Amazon Description

The first in an exciting new historical mystery series set in the home of Agatha Christie!

Colleen Cambridge's charming and inventive new historical series introduces an unforgettable heroine in Phyllida Bright, fictional housekeeper for none other than famed mystery novelist Agatha Christie. When a dead body is found during a house party at the home of Agatha Christie and her husband Max Mallowan, it's up to famous author's head of household, Phyllida Bright, to investigate...

Tucked away among Devon's rolling green hills, Mallowan Hall combines the best of English tradition with the modern conveniences of 1930. Housekeeper Phyllida Bright, as efficient as she is personable, manages the large household with an iron fist in her very elegant glove. In one respect, however, Mallowan Hall stands far apart from other picturesque country houses...

The manor is home to archaeologist Max Mallowan and his famous wife, Agatha Christie. Phyllida is both loyal to and protective of the crime writer, who is as much friend as employer. An aficionado of detective fiction, Phyllida has yet to find a gentleman in real life half as fascinating as Mrs. Agatha's Belgian hero, Hercule Poirot. But though accustomed to murder and its methods as frequent topics of conversation, Phyllida is unprepared for the sight of a very real, very dead body on the library floor...

A former Army nurse, Phyllida reacts with practical common sense--and a great deal of curiosity. It soon becomes clear that the victim arrived at Mallowan Hall under false pretenses during a weekend party. Now, Phyllida not only has a houseful of demanding guests on her hands--along with a distracted, anxious staff--but hordes of reporters camping outside. When another dead body is discovered--this time, one of her housemaids -- Phyllida decides to follow in M. Poirot's footsteps to determine which of the Mallowans' guests is the killer. With help from the village's handsome physician, Dr. Bhatt, Mr. Dobble, the butler, along with other household staff, Phyllida assembles the clues. Yet, she is all too aware that the killer must still be close at hand and poised to strike again. And only Phyllida's wits will prevent her own story from coming to an abrupt end...

 

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

You may have figured out by now that I am a huge Agatha Christie fan. Perhaps even moreso than Jane Austen. I don't have any Jane tattoos, after all, but I do have Poirot, Marple, Tommy & Tuppence ... I think that counts as a win for Agatha.

Much in the same way that I spent years avoiding Austen "spin-offs" and "inspired by"s, I was a bit skeptical about Murder at Mallowan Hall. Maybe even more-so because they few that I have attempted so far have largely been complete garbage. This one, however, is so not. It is the story of a fictional murder investigation by the fictional housekeeper at the fictional estate of the definitely not fictional Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller Christie Mallowan and her also not fictional second husband, Max. It has been on my radar since before it was released and now that I have the second in the series waiting on my NetGalley shelf, I figured it was a good time to grab it and see if the second was worth the "Request Now" click.

I was hooked by the end of the first page. By the end of the first chapter I was seriously debating waiting to read the rest until I could have a hardcopy in my greedy little hands. I decided, though, to keep going with the ebook because, well, I didn't want to have to wait even for Prime's two-day shipping. It has been an absolutely crazy week at home and at work and my last attempt at a book was a bust (hence no Tuesday post), so I lost myself at Mallowan Hall whenever I could and, thankfully, had a significant amount of time to do so Thursday. 

I may not be able to wait until October to dive into the next one. 

 

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Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

I'll Sleep When I've Read... The Girl Who Survived by Lisa Jackson

 

Title: The Girl Who Survived

Author: Lisa Jackson

Publication: 28 June 2022

Format: Kindle eArc via NetGalley & Kensington

Amazon Description

In this deviously volatile, deliciously creepy thriller from the #1 New York Times bestseller, the lone survivor of a brutal family massacre must uncover the awful truth about the fateful night that left her forever marked…

Has she already had her last chance to be the final girl?

All her life, she’s been the girl who survived. Orphaned at age seven after a horrific killing spree at her family’s Oregon cabin, Kara McIntyre is still searching for some kind of normal. But now, twenty years later, the past has come thundering back. Her brother, Jonas, who was convicted of the murders has unexpectedly been released from prison. The press is in a frenzy again. And suddenly, Kara is receiving cryptic messages from her big sister, Marlie—who hasn’t been seen or heard from since that deadly Christmas Eve when she hid little Kara in a closet with a haunting, life-saving command: Don’t make a sound.

As people close to her start to die horrible deaths, Kara, who is slowly and surely unraveling, believes she is the killer’s ultimate target.
 
Kara survived once. But will she survive again? How many times can she be the girl who survived?

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

Mid-day Saturday I got notification via NetGalley that Kensington had made Lisa Jackson's The Girl Who Survived available to me.

I started reading about 2:30pm. I went to bed, book finished, about 1am. I did make dinner, watch some tv, and snooze a little on the couch between times, but all in all this was most definitely an "I'll Sleep When I've Read..." kind of book!

It wasn't as "on the edge of the seat" as some suspense/thriller, and I felt like I could have probably edited out at least a quarter of it from repetition without missing a beat, but I still couldn't bring myself to put it down for more than a few minutes -- and not because I wanted to have something to post this morning. I needed to know what happened twenty years ago when the book began. Towards the end there were several audible "holy heck" moments which got me some strange looks from the 16 year old sitting across the room from me (I think he was waiting to sleep until I'd read, also). 

These were the moments that jumped my rating from 3 stars to 4 ... and will make me look for more Lisa Jackson books to read as this was my first.

If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.

Longbourn by Jo Baker (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

  

Title: Longbourn

Author: Jo Baker

Publication: 8 October 2013

Format: Vintage Books

Amazon Description

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK • The servants take center stage in this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice.

While Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters fuss over balls and husbands, Sarah, their orphaned housemaid, is beginning to chafe against the boundaries of her class. When a new footman arrives at Longbourn under mysterious circumstances, the carefully choreographed world she has known all her life threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended. Mentioned only fleetingly in Jane Austen’s classic, here Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Regency England and, in doing so, uncovers the real world of the novel that has captivated readers’ hearts around the world for generations.

 

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

There was quite a long time that I shied away from any sort of Jane Austen "reimagining." Those days are quite obviously over and I am quite thrilled that at least one of my regular hotel guests knows me (and likes me) well enough to know that if they see something that has anything at all to do with Jane, it's worth at least mentioning to me. It comes in handy that his wife is also quite the prolific Austenite. She recently read Jo Baker's Longbourn ... and made sure that the husband in question not only mentioned it, but brought me her copy to read. 

This is definitely worth reading and savoring and, probably, not loaning out to anyone else so it can sit in my collection to be read and re-read (which is okay with the wife in question as she bought herself a hardcover as soon as he agreed to bring me the paperback).

Longbourn is a behind-the-scenes take on Pride & Prejudice -- or, more accurately, a below-the-stairs take. The Bennets et al from P & P are there, but they aren't the focus. Instead their housemaid Sarah is the heroine of the tale and she is well on her way to becoming one of my favorites and I'm not even half-way through.

 

(This week's "56" is from page 156 of the paperback.)

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Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

The Last Dress from Paris by Jade Beer (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

 

 Title: The Last Dress from Paris

Author: Jade Beer

Publication: 21 June 2022

Format: Kindle eARC via NetGalley & Berkley

Amazon Description

The secret is hidden within a collection of Dior dresses...

London, 2017. There’s no one Lucille adores more than her grandmother. So when her beloved Granny Sylvie asks for Lucille’s assistance with a small matter, she’s happy to help. The next thing she knows, Lucille is on a train to Paris, tasked with retrieving a priceless Dior dress. But not everything is as it seems, and what Lucille finds in a small Parisian apartment will have her scouring the city for answers to a question that could change her entire life.

Paris, 1952. Postwar France is full of glamour and privilege, and Alice Ainsley is in the middle of it all. As the wife to the British ambassador to France, Alice’s job is to see and be seen—even if that wasn’t quite what she signed up for. Her husband showers her with jewels, banquets, and couture Dior dresses, but his affection has become distressingly elusive. As the strain on her marriage grows, Alice’s only comfort is her bond with her trusted lady’s maid, Marianne. But when a new face appears in her drawing room, Alice finds herself yearning to follow her heart...no matter the consequences.

The City of Light comes alive in this lush, evocative tale that explores the ties that bind us together, the truths we hold that make us who we are, and the true meaning of what makes someone family.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I decided to take a little break from Anansi Boys until I have more time and energy to focus on it and jumped on the next book on my NetGalley shelf -- which happens to be getting released today! The time and energy is still sorely lacking, so I figured I would just do the "Intros" segment of Tuesday since I could use the Prologue and Chapter One and have a good little tease to post from those with the description from Amazon.

Dual timeline books don't always click with me, but Beer wrote both stories which such passion and detail that I was instantly hooked. I'm just over half-way through now and what I thought would be a simple story about the search for a dress has become so much more -- and not just because there is more than the one dress. It has been a heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking adventure full of mystery and romance and self-discovery and when I hit 60% I saw what I knew had to be the Teaser :

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"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. 

"Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two from anywhere in the book currently being read.

 

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: Anansi Boys

Author: Neil Gaiman

Publication: 20 September 2005

Format: Kindle ebook & paperback

Amazon Description

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Neil Gaiman returns to the territory of his masterpiece, American Gods, to once again probe the dark recesses of the soul.

God is dead. Meet the kids.

Fat Charlie Nancy’s normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn’t know his dad was a god. And he never knew he had a brother. Now brother Spider is on his doorstep—about to make Fat Charlie’s life more interesting ... and a lot more dangerous.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I absolutely loved American Gods once life settled down enough for me to actually devote the time and energy that it took. That's the thing ... one of many things ... about Gaiman. You really can't just half-ass reading his stuff because it will become all-consuming. Anansi Boys is definitely no exception. Work was crazier than expected this week so I haven't made as much progress as I had been expecting to by now, but I grabbed the blips and blurbs before really diving in so I would have something to post today and I have the next two nights off so hopefully I'll get in some quality time with Fat Charlie ... and, I suppose, Spider.

 

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Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader