The Thursday Murder Club

  

By: Richard Osman
Narrated by: Lesley Manville
Series: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery, Book 1
Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Library Loan

 

 

 

Publisher's Summary

Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves.
A female cop with her first big case.
A brutal murder.
Welcome to...
The Thursday Murder Club

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together, they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. 

When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. 

As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it's too late?

©2020 Richard Osman (P)2020 Penguin Audio

 

Characters Like Me

No doubt about it, I am a Boomer. I live in 'over 55' housing, down the street from a rehab facility and two different assisted living facilities (not that I expect to end up in either of them because when the kids pick my nursing home, they will pick something much closer to them). So why is it that these days, I seem to be reading a lot of old fart fiction -- Deacon King Kong, The Reading List, Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series and when you get right down to it, Papa Poirot. Is this my way of preparing for the future? of starting to deal with the fact that, yup, I'm not as young as I think I am? Oh, gawd, I hope not! In the meantime, I will just continue to make fun of my predilection for the genre.

I really enjoyed the book and it had nothing to do with the fact that main characters were my age. I liked the book because I like the characters themselves; they are people I would want to hang out with. They were good people, aging gracefully. I liked the book because it was a damned good mystery--and would have been regardless of the age of the sleuths. I'm already on the waiting list for book two and looking forward to it.

If you read the audio version, stick around for the interview with Richard Osman.

Another four star read.

Owls Well That Ends Well

 

by Donna Andrews (read by Bernadette Dunne) c. 2005

Meg Langslow, Book 6

24 Festive Tasks 2021: Door 5

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 10-24-16

Language: English

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

ASIN: B01M675VLK

Publisher's Summary

Meg Langslow was actually looking forward to  renovating the old Victorian mansion she and her boyfriend Michael  bought. But she wasn't thrilled by the lifetime of junk accumulated by  the house's eccentric previous owner, Edwina Sprocket. The easiest  solution: hold the end-all and be-all of gigantic yard sales. But when  the event attracts the late Miss Sprocket's money-hungry heirs, the  over-enthusiastic supporters of some endangered barn owls, and customers  willing to go to any lengths to uncover a hidden treasure, Meg suspects  things have gotten a little out of hand. Then, an antiques dealer is  found stuffed in a trunk with his head bashed in - and the yard sale  turns into a days-long media circus.

Another series to keep me happy!

This is my first "Meg Langslow" and I've jumped in to the middle of things but I have wanted to try something from this series for a long time -- and for half a credit, I could be a sport.  Author has a light-hearted touch and populates her world with zany, larger than life characters (kind of like the zoo I have lived with all my life). Right now, she is getting 9 hours of mileage out of a yard-sale and the weirdos who frequent them. Any book that starts with the MC dumping a jug of water on a yard-sale early bird ringing her door bell before dawn can't be all bad. This is cozy done well and you bet I will be visiting again.

Three and half stars

Death of a Village & The Skeleton in the Closet

 

M.C. Beaton (read by Graeme Malcom & Clive Anderson, respectively)

 

 

       

Necessary roughage

M.C Beaton was a prolific writer who cranked out short, light-hearted novels like sausages that I am now gobbling up like candy.  Well not like candy because if I were I would have read them all already. She is great to read when I'm in a slump or to clear the cobwebs after too much heavy reading.

However, I have reached the point where I just don't want  to write a review about each and everyone that I read because how many times and in how many different ways can I say how much I enjoy the Haimish MacBeth stories and that next I will work my way through Agatha Raisin? 

So unless I come across a Beaton story that is out of the ordinary, this is my last word on the subject.

Low Country Boil

 

by Susan M. Boyer (read by Loretta Rawlins)

First in the Lowcountry /Liz Talbot series

Necessary Roughage (see https://peregrinationsbooksand.blogspot.com/2021/04/bookish-quote-of-day.html)

I may talk about it but I won't go out on a limb to recommend it; this is one you will have to decide for yourself.

Think: if Kinsey Milhone were raised a southern belle - hard drinkin', pistol packin', sweet talkin' private eye.

This one clocks in at just about 3 stars. I don't like the MC but the setting was delightful. The writing is tolerable, not distracting.

Charm City

 

By Laura Lippman (read by Deborah Hazlett)

Book 2: Tess Monaghan

AudiblePlus 

 

I like everything about this book except the reader, who, it seems, would not recognize a Baltimore accent if it bit her in the ass; the Baltimore accent does not include a southern drawl or a Texas twang, so why does every character in the book talk with a drawl or a twang? Really, really annoying.

Otherwise, I liked the story. I liked the multiple mysteries that had to be solved. I liked the twists and turns . I like that it was a cozy mystery with a slightly hard-boiled main character -- tough and down to earth but missing the Kinsey Milhone baggage. It was an easy, light read, good for those days when you don't want to have to think.

In a few years, I'll be able to read another one of this series, when I have forgotten all about the terrible narrator.

Three stars for the author and her book -- a good middle of the road read.

Murder Comes to Call

 

By Jessica Elliott (read by Barbara Rosenblat)

Book 4, Beryl and Edwina mysteries

 

 

Necessary roughage

 

Sorry to say, seasoned audiobooks reader Barbara Rosenblat does a less than convincing English accent. She is not the right narrator for this series.  Should be a Brit who can also do an American accent, instead of vice versa.

This is another one of those Golden-Age wannabes that confirms my feeling that if you want to read a book set in the past, read a book that was written in the past. Some authors can make this period work and other come across as modern novels dressed up for Halloween. This series is not for me.

Just short of 3 stars. What's next?

On Her Majesty's Frightfully Secret Service

 

By Rhys Bowen (read by Katherine Kellgren)

Book 11 of the Royal Spyness series

 

Am I missing something?

The reviews love this book, up to and including "best book yet. " I, on the other hand, am a bit disappointed in it. It feels like the author cannot decide whether she is writing a farce or something a bit less over the top. I'm fine with the basic plot of the story. I can live with the coincidences that bring the recurring characters together again for this story. I don't mind the humor, when it is in the right place. What I can't get past are some of the details, the window-dressing that helps set the tone. For example, how seriously can you take an Italian countess who shares a name with a cocktail or a police officer who, besides being somewhat incompetent, is saddled with a name that seems to come from an Italian cookbook -- *Straticelli (stracciatelli)? Once you start giving your characters clown names, you have moved into farce territory. A man has been killed and you send a cop named Straticelli to investigate? Sorry, this isn't the time for a laugh; it is the wrong tone for the moment. There were other missteps.  The ending for one. Why choose to layer heart-warming with farce when heart-warming was all that was needed?

All of this leads me to give this book just three stars. Okay to read but be ready for some really sour notes in an otherwise well crafted story.

N.B.: this was the last Royal Spyness novel that Katherine Kellgren narrated. She passed away in 2018. She is sorely missed; she put such a stamp on the series that she is a hard act to follow. In particular, I will miss her Bebe Neuwirth-like rendition of Wallis Simpson (yes, the future Duchess of Windsor). Perfect in every way!

*Good chance I have the name wrong here because whatever it was actually, it still sounded like stracciatelli (which means torn rag) and that is what my brain kept hearing.

To the Land of Long Lost Friends

No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Book 20

by Alexander McCall Smith (read by Lisette Lecat)

 

 

I so enjoy this series. Maybe it is because I listen to it rather than reading it and instead of having a panoply of characters who all speak with a distinct US accent (because that is how all characters sound in my head),  I have a cast of characters who sound as if they might actually be from Botswana.  Narrator Lisette Lecat was born in South Africa. Not only is her accent spot on but her reading pace matches that of the book, slow and deliberate. Her voice brings these books to life; she is the perfect narrator. I love the peace and tranquility, a book filled with kind, giving people. I love the slow, meandering pace that eventually brings everything to a satisfying conclusion. 

 

The Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder

 

by Dianne Freeman (read by Sarah Zimmerman)

 

A cozy mystery, first in a series.

I picked this one up in an Audible sale. One of my bookish buddies had read it and so I grabbed it.

There are somethings that are driving me crazy.  A narrator who doesn't know how to pronounce Haverhill--it is two syllables and not three - hay-vrill. An MC who is supposedly smart but makes stupid choices -- like agreeing to send her daughter to visit the in-laws who are suing her. But I am trying to ignore the stupidities and focus on the mystery.

In spite of the stupidities, this turned out to be an enjoyable, cozy read. When the murderer was revealed, I never saw it coming. If more in the series end up in the sale pile, I may well buy more of them.

A solid 3 stars.

Villa in Italy

By Elizabeth Edmondson (Nicolette McKenzie)

(c) 2006

Delightful! A 'country house' mystery with no bodies and a happy ending. Just what I needed.

In the end, this turned out to be a solid 3 and half star read -- right where it should have landed.  I am sure that I will be back for more books by Ms Edmondson.