Murder and Mayhem - Fall Reading, Watching, Learning, and Playing

I didn't do the R.I.P. challenge this year. Not from not wanting to, or not trying. I simply couldn't figure out the logistics based on Instagram posts. I tried searching for a hosting blog, but that seems to be old school. I guess I am feeling my age, but I couldn't figure out how to sign up. post, etc. So, I punted and just read a bunch of mysteries sans challenge.

The Last Devil to Die, by Richard Osman - 4th in the fantastic Thursday Murder Club series, I gave this 5 stars on GoodReads as there is some seriously beautiful, heartbreaking, breathtaking writing that isn't part of the overall whodunit but puts this book outside the realm of a simple mystery novel. And the mystery part of the book is really good--we dive into the world of antiques, antiquities, fraud, and heroin smuggling, and there are some wonderful characters in this world, some of whom end up dead and some don't. And the fab four are as wonderful as ever. I am so looking forward to the Netflix movie that just finished production.

The Zig-Zag Girl, by Elly Griffiths - I have been hearing good things about Griffiths's Ruth Galloway series but decided (mainly because my library had a copy) to start with book 1 of her Stephens and Mephisto series. Set in Brighton in the 1950s, not long after WWII has ended, the book features a police detective and a famous (on the UK vaudeville circuit) magician who have to figure out who is murdering people using magician's acts horribly gone wrong. Good writing, good setting, good characters--I will definitely be reading more by this author.

Vanishing Edge, by Claire Kells - I've gotten burnt out on the Nevada Barr series, so when Lark from Lark Writes blogged about a mystery series based in National Parks, I knew I had to check it out. This is the first book in the series--set in Sequoia NP in CA. The main character, Felicity Harland, is a former FBI agent now working as a detective with the NPS and her sidekick in this novel (and hopefully into the future) is the brawny, sweet park ranger known as Hux. They are a wonderful pair, with some chemistry, but lots of smarts and wilderness skills. I enjoyed the mystery, setting, and characters and already have the next book in the series on my nightstand.

The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware - I picked up this book on vacation in WA state and devoured it while traveling. I had heard lots of buzz about it earlier in the year, and it was a "can't put it down" thriller. Lo, the main character, works for a travel magazine in the UK and is lucky enough to get chosen for a major perk--a berth on a luxury cruise in the North Atlantic. She stumbles into a mystery and finds herself in grave danger in her attempt to figure out who she saw in the supposedly empty cabin next to hers, and what happened to her.

Murder in Chianti, by Camilla Trinchieri - book 1 of yet another mystery series, and this one was also recommended by Lark. Again, I have found a new series to love, as I really enjoy reading books set in Italy, and in this case, we have a former NYPD cop who has relocated to Tuscany and gets roped into helping solve a murder. Again, great setting, interesting set of villagers and side characters, and lots of discussion of great food and drink.

Fatal Pursuit, by Martin Walker - finally, not a new series! This is book 9 in the fabulous Bruno series set in the Dordogne valley in France. One of my absolute favorites in the entire series so far -- we have another WWII mystery, this time involving a gorgeous racing car (only 1 of 4 made) that went missing with a French resistance driver on his way from Alsace to the Dordogne. We also have a rally car event with Bruno as a reluctant participant, as well as the usual horses, dogs, friends, baguettes, fabulous food and drink, and cultural history.

I'm halfway through Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz, which I am loving and will wax poetic about in a later blog post.

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Still reading up on the Civil War--1/3 of the way through another Bruce Catton, this time The Coming Fury, which covers a lot of the same ground as The Demon of Unrest, but terrific nonetheless. I also watch Manhunt on Apple TV about the search for John Wilkes Booth and the other conspirators involved in the Lincoln assassination. Tobias Menzies was excellent as Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, sometime political rival, and friend and champion. Definitely worth watching.

Also, just started watching The New Look on Apple TV about Christian Dior and Coco Chanel during WWII in Paris and afterwards. Absolutely riveting. Honestly, I am glad I no longer use Chanel No. 5. Coco should have been prosecuted as a Nazi spy.

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Still harvesting tomatoes--what a bumper crop. My freezer is full of tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes,  and we've been eating a lot of tomato soup, salsa, bruschetta, and tomato sandwiches. And I have given away so many bags to friends, neighbors, and the food share.

I just started piano lessons--I haven't played in >30 years and I was mostly self-taught, so this is great fun and challenging.

Gearing up for quilting season. I have a king-size quilt that I am almost done quilting, and then there is a Civil War era quilt that I would love to make this winter.

And that's a wrap. Hope everyone is doing well, staying healthy and reading lots!

Bruno's Cookbook: Recipes and Traditions from a French Country Kitchen

As I have shared in more than one post, I am a big fan of Martin Walker's crime series featuring Bruno Courrèges, policeman of fictional St. Denis, a small village in the Dordorgne in France. More than a policeman, Bruno is completely comfortable in the kitchen, and every book features several occasions in which Bruno prepares wonderful meals for his friends and colleagues. The mysteries themselves are usually pretty interesting, but honestly, it's the food and the cooking, gardening, harvesting, canning, and foraging that are the real reasons I love these books.

For Xmas, my husband gave me a copy of Bruno's Cookbook: Recipes and Traditions from a French Country Kitchen, written by Martin Walker and Julia Watson. I am slowly reading the cookbook, not only for the recipes but for the anecdotes, excerpts from the books, and insights into life in the French countryside.

The book is organized differently from most cookbooks--each section focuses on the source of the type of food featured, so the first section is on the vegetable plot and market, so there are recipes for haricots verts (green beans), Sarlat-style fried potatoes, leek/potato/sorrel soup, and a red onion tarte tatin, which I am dying to make, among lots of other tasty veggie dishes. 

There are also sections for the fisherman (Walker and his fictional Bruno live along a river and just a couple of hours from the Atlantic), the hunter (featuring duck, goose, pigeon, boar, etc.), the butcher, the cheesemaker and dairy man, the baker, the forager (truffles, anyone?), and the all-important winemaker, which has wines, liqueurs, as well as entrees and desserts cooked in wine.

It's a very snowy day in Colorado today, and I am thinking that I need to jump ahead and read about Pot Roast Chicken Henri IV-Style. That just might be what's for dinner tonight.

Midsummer Roundup

It's time for a roundup of what I've been reading but haven't yet posted about.

Fool Errant, by Patricia Wentworth - I liked Dead or Alive so much that I immediately downloaded another to read during my May travels. Sadly, Fool Errant was not nearly as good, primarily because I simply couldn't stand the heroine, Loveday Leigh, who was breathless, dim, completely self-absorbed, and aggravatingly coy.  Just a 3-star read, but I'm not giving up on Wenthworth and will try again.

The Resistance Man (Bruno, Chief of Police, #6), by Martin Walker - another solid 4-star treat with arm chair traveling to the Dordogne in France where Bruno keeps the peace. This plot was particularly appealing to me as it dove headfirst into the Resistance during WWII and the modern-day search for the spoils from a train robbery near the end of the war. Seriously good reading!

If We're Being Honest, by Cat Shook - another recommendation from Joann at Gulfside Musing. An interesting foray into a family grappling with a myriad of issues, secrets, etc. Nothing earth-shattering but fun to read and well put together.

Homo Sapiens Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution Rewriting Our Origins, by Paul Pettit - absolutely outstanding nonfiction. I started it in March and finished it June--not bad considering it covers roughly 80 thousand years of human evolution. The same brother who gave me Sapiens a few years ago also gave me this book, and I loved it. 

I Have Some Questions for You, by Rebecca Makkai - I heard an interview with the author on an NPR show a few months ago and knew I wanted to read this. It ended up being terrific, but initially I had some serious issues with the 1st person narrator, Bodie Kane. She reminded me so much of the awful main character, Ann, in The Cloisters, by Katy Hays, which I tried to read but abandoned because I simply could not spend any more time with this stupid woman. I think the stereotype of the smart, poor girl from a small town who is plagued by insecurity around more affluent, beautiful people is so tired and fundamentally flawed. Anyway, initially Bodie was annoying me, but then I got caught up in the story as she matured and didn't mind her so much. I thought the plot was good and the writing decent.

Call for the Dead (George Smiley, #1), by John le Carré - I figured it was high time I gave this author a try and so decided to begin with the first in his George Smiley series. It was good, and I think George and I will get along just fine.

March Madness - finally another roundup

February is always a long month and this year's was no exception. But, we are just over 3 weeks away from the equinox and I can already feel my equilibrium being restored and my fingers have beeen itching to tell you about what I've been reading.

Mysteries

Black Diamond, by Martin Walker - #3 in this marvelous mystery series set in the Dordogne in France and featuring the lovely Bruno as police force of one in a little village in France where he cooks for his friends, hangs out with his dog, and tries his best to keep the peace. In this story, we get a glimpse of the rival Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants who compete for business, both the legal and the illegal kind. I love these books because they aren't just edge-of-your seat stories but provide historical, cultural, and regional sidestories that I like as much, if not more, than the actual mystery plot.

The Madness of Crowds, by Louise Penny - I enjoyed State of Terror (the co-authored thriller by Hillary Rodham and Louise Penny) so much that I just wanted more of Penny and Armand Gamache and Three Pines, so I read #17 in her wonderful series. It was excellent, of course, and delved with the aftermath of Covid and the ethics involved in medical decisions. This is the first novel I've read that references Covid, and I thought Penny handled the subject deftly.

Raven Black, by Ann Cleeves - I've been enjoying this prolific author's Matthew Venn series so much that I thought I would read some of her other series. My library had this one handy, so now I am reading her Shetland series. It was absolutely excellent with many of my favorite elements: small, tight community with secrets, harsh but compelling environment (the Shetland islands are not for the feeble), and well-written plot that kept me guessing until the end.

The Lost Man, by Jane Harper - I've enjoyed Harper's Aaron Falk series, but this was head and shoulders above them. An absolutely outstanding thriller about life in the outback of Australia. Again, love those harsh environments with a closed, tight community carrying a load of baggage and secrets. Harper did an outstanding job painting a stiflingly hot, pressure-cooker story that had a glorious ending. 

Not Mysteries

A Civil Contract, by Georgette Heyer - my JASNA bookclub is reading Heyer for our March meeting, and my friend Maxene recommended this Regency Romance as a bit atypical with a hero and heroine cut from different cloths than the usual Heyer fare. I loved it--absolutely loved it. Adam is a spare whose older brother manages to die, making him the heir, and then his father dies leaving him a mountain of debt. The solution? That's right--accept the civil contract offered by a parevenu who wants his plain daughter to marry a lord. I loved practical, sweet Jenny who tries hard to make Adam happy, and I especially loved her dad, Mr. Chawleigh, who is the definitive bull in a chinashop but with a heart as big as his bank account. The side characters were interesting and added zest to the story. All in all, a wonderful way to get through the doldrums of February.

The Maid, by Nita Prose - another out-of-the-park novel. Loved it so much. Molly Gray, the hotel maid cum detective, has a very literal approach to life, not unlike Elizabeth Zott in Lesssons in Chemistry and Elinor Oliphant. It's frustrating to watch her not "get it" but then marvelous when the penny finally drops and she sees her way clear. Her moral compass is finely polished and this was a fun, interesting read. I believe this is Prose's debut novel, so I am eager to see what she does next.

Celebrating Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen's Masterpiece, by Susannah Fullerton - I gave this 3 stars on GoodReads mostly because I loved the first half and was bored to skimming in the second half. The first half retold the tale as old as time of how P&P came to be published and the impact its publication made on the oh-so-short life of Austen, and then she dived into commentary about all the major and minor characters, which was fun to read, insightful, and just like a JASNA meeting. The second half explored the various translations, adaptations, sequels, prequels, and Austenmania ad nauseum. I think the book would have garnered another star had it been shorter. Short books can still be good and sell...just saying.

White Teeth, by Zadie Smith - I've heard of this book for years but wouldn't have picked it up and read it without it being the selection of  the GoodReads True Book Talk group. It is a story of life in London during the 1970s to the turn of the millenium, focusing on the lives of Archie and his Jamaican-born wife, Clare, and Samad (an immigrant from Bangladesh) and his wife Alsana, and their children. I just found out that there is a four-part mini-series available on Amazon, so I might watch it. The book was excellent and thought-provoking.

Hope you are all well, discovering great books to explore, and finding your own equilibrium as we approach the equinox. That's something we can all celebrate, worldwide.

Wrapping up Fall Reading

I'm just wrapping up my Fall reading before diving into Holiday books, so here's a quickie look at what I read this Fall.

I Am the Chosen King, by Helen Hollick - read this one with the GoodReads True Book Talk Group. November was historical fiction month, and while this wasn't the book I voted for, I really enjoyed it. It's about Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, who was defeated by William the Bastard in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings. Having visited Bayeaux last summer and viewed the Bayeaux Tapestry and listened to the French side of the story, it was a story fresh in my mind and was cool because I had visited many of the places in Normandy mentioned in the book. It was well-written and detailed and covered a period of history that I want to learn more about.

An Infamous Army, by Georgette Heyer - this was my second time listening to the audio version of this incredible book. It is a mashup of a Regency Romance and a very detailed narrative of the Battle of Waterloo, with definite overtones of Vanity Fair. I really need to read it next time with a map in hand because listening to it in the car means I can't research all the place names. Thoroughly enjoyable, though.

Varina, by Charles Frazier - an exceptionally creative and well-written novel about Varina Davis, wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and the African-American child who was part of her household during the Civil War but who was taken from her when the Union Army captured the Davises after Richmond fell. Varina reminded me of Frazier's Cold Mountain in that both books are journeys--in Cold Mountain, Inman is going home after the Civil War whereas Varina is fleeing Richmond and trying to reach Florida so she can escape to Cuba. One of the best books I read this year.  Now, I am very eager to read A Diary from Dixie, by Mary Chesnut, who was one of Varina's closest friends before, during, and after the war.

To Die but Once, by Jacqueline Winspear - the most recent (#14) in the excellent Maisie Dobbs series. I love these books, always listen to them as the actress is so good who reads them. It's set during the Dunkirk evacuation, and is an absolutely first-rate mystery. Loved it!

The Caves of Perigord, by Martin Walker - I really wanted to visited the Dordogne region of France on my trip last summer so I could go to the Lascaux caves, but I just couldn't fit it in. So, I did the next best thing...read a novel about the region. Martin Walker writes lovely mysteries set in the Dordogne region, but this one was a stand-alone that bounced between pre-historic times when the cave paintings were done, WWII (when British, American, and French soldiers were prepping for D-Day and encounter the caves), and modern-day (when a fragment of one of the paintings is part of theft). It was okay--I loved the pre-historic story about how the paintings were done, what they meant--all conjecture, of course, but fun to read. The WWII part was also good, but the modern-day was pretty weak in terms of story and characters.

At Home: A Short History of Private Life, by Bill Bryson - another second listening of this favorite book. All about how the stuff we take for granted--light, toilets, kitchens, essentially everything in a house including its structure--came to be.  I love listening to Bryson read his own works.

Drums of Autumn, by Diana Gabaldon - I'm 75% done with this reread, which I am doing while watching season 4 of Outlander. I'm a fan of the whole series and never tire of reading about the adventures of Clarie and Jamie and their family that literally spans the centuries. Gives new meaning to the term "extended family."

Now, on to Holiday reading!

Bruno, Chief of Police: A Novel of France

Bruno, Chief of Police: A Novel of  the French Countryside by Martin Walker is the last of my R.I.P. mysteries, bringing my total for the month to 5!

As expected, I really enjoyed this mystery and will be a devotee of Bruno from henceforth. Thank goodness there are a number of books in the series already, so I can read the next one whenever the mood strikes.

In a nutshell, Bruno is sweet single policeman taking care of a little rural town, St Denis, in the picturesque Dodorgne valley in southwest France. We are tentatively planning a trip to Paris next summer, and now I am finagling how to spend an extra week exploring this region, which btw is where the famous paleolithic cave paintings were discovered.

Bruno not only is the sole policeman for the town, but he also plays tennis and teaches kids at the tennis club, makes his own vin de noix (a walnut liqueur), cooks heavenly meals, and has a sad romantic backstory.

The story itself was well-crafted and interesting--involving racial tension, neo-Nazis, remnants of WWII and French colonialism, as well as hedonistic teens and indulgent parents.

But, you don't read Bruno for the mystery, you read these stories for the atmosphere, the ambiance, the recipes, French rural life and landscapes.

If this at appeals to you, you might want to check out Martin Walker's website on his beloved Bruno. Here's how Walker describes Bruno:

Who is Bruno Courreges?

Bruno cooks, he hunts, he builds his own house and grows his own food. He organizes the parades and festivities and fireworks displays and keeps order in his fictional home town of St Denis. A pillar of the local tennis and rugby clubs, he teaches sports to the local schoolchildren.

Bruno finds lost dogs, fights fires, registers births and deaths, and enforces the parking regulations. But he maintains a sophisticated intelligence network to outwit the interfering bureaucrats of the European Union in far-off Brussels. The country folk of the Perigord have been making their foie gras and their cheeses and sausages for centuries before the EU was ever heard of, and see no reason to bow to its rules and regulations now.

Bruno also catches criminals.

But Bruno applies his own sense of justice in doing so, which sometimes put him at odds with the local Gendarmes, with the professional detectives of the Police Nationale, and with the politicians in distant Paris.