The New Sonia Wayward by Michael Innes (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: The New Sonia Wayward

Author: Michael Innes

Publication: 1960 (and many reprints)

Format: ebook

Wikipedia Description

The New Sonia Wayward is a 1960 thriller novel by the British writer Michael Innes. It was published in the United States by Dodd, Mead under the alternative title The Case of Sonia Wayward. It is an inverted detective story with comedy elements, with the focus on the murderous protagonist. It was one of several standalone novels by Innes, who was best known for his series featuring the Golden Age detective John Appleby. Maurice Richardson writing in The Observer felt it "rather light for a suspense story but most pleasingly written."

Synopsis 
A retired colonel is married to a bullying tyrant who also happens to be a bestselling novelist. While on a sailing trip with his wife in the English Channel he throws her overboard. However, well-practiced in her style of writing, he continues to produce her novels to considerable success.

 

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

Michael Innes doesn't get nearly enough praise -- especially not his standalone novels like The New Sonia Wayward. In fact, the only reason you're seeing it today is because I'm killing two challenge stones with one book -- my "I" author and a title that features a name. I kind of knew that I would be going back to Innes for the author angle, but I had figured that I would be continuing his Inspector Appleby series and, therefore, the name would have been Hamlet as I still have only read the first out of thirty-six (not at all daunting a task). I checked my library app before Kindle, for some reason, and I'm awfully glad that I did. At least most of the Appleby series is on Kindle Unlimited, but I've only seen The New Sonia Wayward digitally via NYPL and archive.org

"Sonia Wayward" was the pen name of Colonel Ffolliot Petticate's wife, a popular romance novelist. She died while the two of them are alone on a yachting trip and rather than try to explain to the authorities what happened (which was natural causes and not murder), Petticate put a swim suit on her and rolled her into the water for a "burial at sea" of sorts. Her latest novel was a work-in-progress and she was actually mid-sentence when her heart gave out. He decided to finish it ... and continue writing under her name ... and to not tell anyone anything. 

She was a famous author with fans and publicists and staff so you can probably imagine how easy of a charade that was.

Let me tell you, you might be able to imagine, but I doubt you would be able to put it into words as well as Innes. Hence, get the book. Read the book. Then get more Innes and read those, too. [Digitals may be few and far between, but used paperbacks are not.]

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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 Turncoat's Widow by Mally Becker (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

 

Title: The Turncoat's Widow

Author: Mally Becker

Publication: 16 February 2021

Format: Kindle ebook

Amazon Description

Recently widowed, Rebecca Parcell is too busy struggling to maintain her farm in Morristown to give a fig who wins the War for Independence. But rumors are spreading in the winter of 1780 that she’s a Loyalist sympathizer who betrayed her husband to the British—quite a tidy way to end her disastrous marriage, the village gossips whisper.

Everyone knows that her husband was a Patriot, a hero who died aboard a British prison ship moored in New York Harbor. But “everyone” is wrong. Parcell was a British spy, and General Washington—who spent that winter in Morristown—can prove it. He swears he’ll safeguard Becca’s farm if she unravels her husband’s secrets. With a mob ready to exile her or worse, it’s an offer she can’t refuse.

Escaped British prisoner of war Daniel Alloway was the last person to see Becca’s husband alive, and Washington throws this unlikely couple together on an espionage mission to British-occupied New York City. Moving from glittering balls to an underworld of brothels and prisons, Becca and Daniel uncover a plot that threatens the new country’s future. But will they move quickly enough to warn General Washington? And can Becca, who’s lost almost everyone she loves, fight her growing attraction to Daniel, a man who always moves on?

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I don't know how I missed this when it was first released. I am awfully glad that I noticed the second in the series on NetGalley, though, which made me go hunt this one down. There's so much to love about this -- history, intrigue, romance, and characters that I love to love -- and a handful that I love to hate -- and more than a few surprises along the way as to which characters fell into which category. 

I'm quite thrilled that I didn't have to wait to continue the story ... and I already have the teaser set to autopublish Sunday morning for this week's I'll Sleep When I've Read post. [I'll be on vacation in just over 24 hours so autopublish is my friend this week.]

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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.

The House on the Lake by Holly Hill Mangin (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: The House on the Lake

Author: Holly Hill Mangin

Publication: 16 March 2021

Format: Kindle ebook via NetGalley & BooksGoSocial

Amazon Description

An island is the last place Eve Beckett ever thought she’d end up. Deathly afraid of water, she has no memory of arriving at the foreboding Lakeview Manor on the Isle of Esse. Her love for a good mystery, however, especially when it comes to strange houses and the paranormal, has her second-guessing her desire to leave.

But there’s something odd going on at Lakeview. Dark and dusty rooms shift location, and there’s a mysterious woman only Eve seems able to see . . .

When Eve’s mirror twin shows up, also with no memory of how she arrived on the island, and the property manager warns them away from his brother — one Eve has no wish to avoid — the number of mysteries surrounding Lakeview becomes too much. As she learns more about the manor and its inhabitants, the question becomes not just how but if Eve will ever leave the island.

 

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I had absolutely no intention of buying any books or making any sort of ARC requests or grabbing any "Read Now"s on NetGalley until after I return from my upcoming mini-vacation next week. 

That cover, though.

All the gothic feels and heebie-jeebies and I just had to have it.

I haven't had a ton of luck with NetGalley picks lately. For every one that I've really loved, like Deanna Raybourn's Killers of a Certain Age (yes, that is a shameless plug for my own post), there have been several more that I've given up on ... or, have at least wished that I had given up on. I hesitated clicking the button for this one for a split second.

That cover, though.

Once I let myself stop swooning over the cover long enough to begin actually reading, the awe continued. 

By 5% I had already highlighted 7 passages.

I do so love gothic heebie-jeebies and this has them oozing out of the dark and musty woodwork from the secret passageway to the creepy attic right out of a Dickens tale. 

Holy crap I love this book.

I even switched from the Kindle to the phone and back depending on whether I would be stationary or mobile while reading. I didn't want to put it down until I had gone through every twist and turn. There were times when I thought I knew what was going on. I love that I was horribly wrong.

[Have I mentioned that cover yet?]

The highlighting of passages became few and far between shortly after I hit this at 16%:

One would think I would turn around and find Lyn immediately. But no. I'm the girl in the horror flicks running up the stairs instead of running out the front door, the girl who picks up the stranger in the middle of nowhere after hearing there is a maniac on the loose killing everyone in his path, and in this particular case ... yeah, I'm the one who follows the creepy dripping girl like an idiot.

I did not stop highlighting because I wasn't completely enthralled, but because I was so enthralled I didn't want to pause reading long enough to even highlight. Besides, I had already decided that it would be a Book Beginnings & Friday 56 post (and grabbed a random 56% blip) because there was absolutely no way I would be able to narrow it down for a Tuesday Intros/Teaser Tuesday or even an I'll Sleep When I've Read...

That cover, though.

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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 Unkindness of Ravens by M.E. Hillard (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

Title: The Unkindness of Ravens

Author: M.E. Hilliard

Publication: 13 April 2021

Format: Kindle ebook

Amazon Description

Librarian Greer Hogan matches wits with a deviously clever killer in M.E. Hilliard's chilling series debut, ideal for fans of Louise Penny and Dorothy L. Sayers.

Greer Hogan is a librarian and an avid reader of murder mysteries. She also has a habit of stumbling upon murdered bodies. The first was her husband's, and the tragic loss led Greer to leave New York behind for a new start in the Village of Raven Hill. But her new home becomes less idyllic when she discovers her best friend sprawled dead on the floor of the library.

Was her friend's demise related to two other deaths that the police deemed accidental? Do the residents of this insular village hold dark secrets about another murder, decades ago? Does a serial killer haunt Raven Hill?

As the body count rises, Greer's anxious musings take a darker turn when she uncovers unexpected and distressing information about her own husband's death...and the man who went to prison for his murder . She is racked with guilt at the possibility that her testimony may have helped to convict an innocent man.

Though Greer admires the masters of deduction she reads about in books, she never expected to have to solve a mystery herself. Fortunately, she possesses a quick wit and a librarian's natural resourcefulness. But will that be enough to protect her from a brilliant, diabolical murderer?

And even if Greer manages to catch the Raven Hill killer, will living with her conscience prove a fate worse than death?

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

“It’s dangerous to underestimate people. One never knows what they’re truly capable of.”

This was a great start to a series featuring small-town librarian and Trixie Belden wanna-be, Greer Hogan. I have the third  in the series on my NetGalley shelf thanks to Crooked Lane Books. I was drawn to the gothic feel of the cover ... and then to find out that the lead character is a librarian ... and then to find out that the small town with the gothic manor-turned-library is in the capital district of my fair state (an area I know and love and where I went to college once upon a time)? I knew it was one I would need to request and then play catch-up with and I am, so far, very pleased with that decision.

The description on Amazon, of course, does a more than adequate "this is what it is" so I'm not going to waste precious reading time retelling the tale. I will say, however, that there are many questions left about Greer's background and her fellow Raven Hill residents and it will be difficult to stagger the next two books and not just fly through them immediately in hopes of getting some more answers -- or, at the very least, some more classic mysteries to add to my read or re-read list. 

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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.

I'll Sleep When I've Read... Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

 

Title: Killers of a Certain Age

Author: Deanna Raybourn

Publication: 6 September 2022

Format: Kindle eArc via Berkley & NetGalley

Amazon Description

Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon.
 
They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire – it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller by New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.
 
When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death.
 
Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman—and a killer—of a certain age.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

The original intention was to have this be the Book Beginnings & Friday 56 post on the 2nd. I had the graphic made and the post started and then realized that I just couldn't do it. I couldn't limit myself to trying to adequately tease Billie, Helen, Natalie and Mary Alice in just two blips. I could have waited for a hard copy to appear (since I'm fairly certain that this will end up on my actual bookshelf) so then I could do a p56, p156, p256, etc ... but ... nope. One, I don't want to wait to share. Two, I'm on a "random buying freeze" for the next couple of weeks until my much needed vacation. Three, even then I would only have at most five blips to share and that still wouldn't be enough and there's no telling if any of the blips that I have highlighted in my Kindle and copied into my notebook would fall on any of the 56es.

Besides, this actually does fall into the "I'll Sleep When I've Read..." guidelines even if it wasn't just for the weekend. It was pretty much every day from Saturday to Wednesday. 

It's a darling tale of four women on the brink of retirement.... after being international assassins for forty years. The books seamlessly flips between stories of their early years with the Museum to what may be their final days.... anywhere. Period. End of. Kaput. They've been set up and it's become a case of kill or be killed and these ladies have absolutely no intention of being killed. It's the perfect blend of humor and intrigue and the past and the present. I, for one, would very much like to see what's in store for the future.

 

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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.