‘Tis the season of long weekends, it is a truly South African experience, week after week of recovering from a hot summer, before we hibernate into winter. It is the season of mostly warm days and crisp to cold nights, which are perfect for hours and hours of reading in a sunny spot. Here is a book stack of my latest reads and listens, because audible is literally a lifestyle for me.
Se7en Great Reads
The Summer Guests
The second in the Martini Club Series, quite quite different and you can definitely read these independently. Absolutely love this series, the Club is a group of retired spies… expecting a quiet life in the country, with quiet evenings and a little canasta. But, crime seems to follow them around and of course with all their collective training and expertise, it is hard to let things go. Our lovely local policewoman, who is battling away at the coalface, so to speak, is outwitted and outflanked by the local retirees, at every turn. The only way forward is to work together. In this cosy crime thriller a local teenager disappears within the first few chapters. The reader is taken on a trip down memory lane as the old and well-kept secrets of country Maine are cracked open, as our spies go digging and diving, they literally find a skeleton in the local lake. The question is, will this help to find our missing girl, or is it just another murder in Maine? Loved this, its a fantastic read… a great series with elderly spies outwitting the police force. Both books so far have been completely different to each other… so really can be read independently.
From London With Love
Is it even an Autumn long weekend, without a new Katie Fforde to read. Honestly, with all the long weekends on the calendar, a Katie Fforde read is as good as a trip to the country. Settle down and enjoy the journey, I love Katie Fforde’s gently paced books, literally the comfort food of books. Set in the late 60’s, Felicity arrives from the French countryside to stay in London with her somewhat sophisticated mother. Felicity is sweet, young, practical and altogether lovely. She bumps (quite literally) into a very muddy Oliver, who has been mudlarking in the River Thames. She is intrigued, and Oliver appears to be somewhat oblivious… nothing like unrequited love to keep you reading on. This is the perfect read, the ins and outs of friendships and the navigating life in a new and big city, the complications are all typical Katie Fforde problems. The characters follow on from a previous book, A Wedding in Provence, which I loved. You can totally read these books independently, only the characters overlap and none of the story, but I honestly think it would be nice to read them together.
Welcome to Glorious Tuga
Of course I am going to read a book about a one way ticket to a remote island, called Tuga. Charlotte Walker is a London Vet, that needs to get away. She applies for a research post to study the highly endangered golden coin tortoise, only to discover a small community with may animals need ing attention, her attention. Not to mention, the golden boy of the island has returned home as a medical doctor and while there is a local girl that has been waiting for him, Charlotte can’t help giving him a second glance. Meanwhile, Charlotte has her own hidden agenda for visiting the island, she has a secret regarding her roots, and she is determined to figure out where she belongs in the world. If you off on a summer vacation, then toss this into your bag, it’s light, it’s interesting and well worth a little easy reading.
The Cleaner
Wow, surprisingly dark… not your typical murder mystery, this has loads of psychological thriller rolled into it. This it the story of Esmie, a cleaner, who makes her way into the elite Woodlands Estate, to “clean.” Esmie is a poor immigrant, used to finding her own way in life, she negotiates her way into the estate in order to figure out exactly what happened to her beloved brother, who had been on the road to success, until he came crashing back to the home country. This is a rollercoaster read, the twists and turns will literally leave you spinning. Turns out Esmie is not just out on a fact finding mission, she is not just there to determine who owes who what, who’s marriages are not what they seem to be, and who in the Estate has some extremely expensive bad habits. She is there for revenge and she will get it, at any cost. None of the characters are very likeable, and the twists and turns will have you thinking “what’s next” throughout. This is a good read, if you want to completely step off and escape, you will not want to put it down.
Raised by Wolves
James Patterson has written hundreds of books, and loads of series… they are short sharp reads and great for getting back into reading after a little slump, or even for weekends away. The book opens with two “wild” kids raiding a grocery store. And they are wild, feral indeed. The town is not sure what to make of these two, who appear to have been raised by wolves. Clearly there is a back story, but they have committed a crime, and in this small town, that crime needs to be paid for. The local policeman and his wife, try to break through the barriers and decide to foster these kids, even getting them into the local school. Small towns being what small towns are, someone is out to get these two into trouble… and there is a bit of a rush on to see where they have come from, who they are and what their story is. This is a wild ride, true James Patterson reading: fast paced, unputdownable and a twist in the finish, so an unexpected outcome… what more could you ask for from a weekend read.
Holmes is Missing
Another Patterson and this is the second in the Holmes, Margaret and Poe series. Go back and read the first one, before you read this one. Basically, Holmes, Marple and Poe are extremely good detectives, they work somewhat off the grid on cases the police cannot solve. They are not loved, but extremely needed by the local police because they are always at least a few steps ahead of them. In this book, several babies go missing from a local maternity ward. Margaret and Poe, are on the case, but Holmes is either missing or extremely distracted. Something just isn’t sitting right, and of course a fast and furious page turner. There are babies at stake, and what appeared to be a random kidnapping turns out to be something much more sinister and global. To solve the case our three detectives will have to pull together as a team, but can they. Typical Patterson paced read… this would make a great TV series!!!
Karla’s Choice
This book took me forever to get into, I got stuck in the author’s note and prologue… don’t do that! Instead persevere and get into the story, it is totally, totally worth it. This is a George Smiley novel, written by John Le Carre’s son, and set between The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy… books that really epitomised the Cold War and everything and defined a lot of Twentieth Century thinking. Just when you think spy fiction is a forgotten genre, a book emerges that will literally catch you out of breath. In the slow mind numbing way of grey raincoats, misty meanderings and the eastern block this book feels slow going. And yet, in typical cold war style, the story will speed along at an alarming speed. Our favourite spy, Smiley, is “called” out of retirement, and we are quickly reminded that a good spy is never allowed to retire.
A lot of these books were given to us for review purposes by Penguin Random House South Africa, a few of them I bought myself, and a couple of them I bought the audible version as well. This is not a sponsored post and opinions expressed are entirely my own.