I was really looking forward to Other People’s Houses. I ended up getting an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher but I had pre-ordered it because my local libraries don’t always carry her books. I really enjoyed the first (and second!) book in this series (and her other books) but this one was a little … Continue reading
This may be my favorite book of 2025 so far! I loved the New Zealand setting. I felt like I was eating sausages right along with them. It did a great job of having a child narrator without it feeling childish or too all knowing. It really hit all the parts of childhood—family dynamics and … Continue reading
Laura Lippman’s fixation with weight is in full effect in Murder Takes a Vacation. It was brought up so many times. It was a major feature of her Tess Monaghan books as well but it seems to have escalated. Who talks about their weight that much to strangers? And friends? She had virtually no other … Continue reading
The plot of The Death of Us isn’t bad idea—the body of woman who may be the birth mother of your not quite adoptive teenage son is found in the quarry behind your house—but the execution was kind of slow. Not much happened for many chapters at a time beyond the main character talking about … Continue reading
I listened to all of the Ann Cleeves Vera, Shetland and Two Rivers novels and then moved to the Karen Pirie series by Val McDermid. Some themes, like fatphobia re: the main character are similar and for both Vera and the first book barely mentioned the detective until most of the book was over and … Continue reading
I have watched the Vera show for years along with Shetland and the short lived The Long Call. I had read the first book years ago and Vera Stanhope is only in it briefly and the book was long and the writing a little stilted so I didn’t pick up more. Then I thought to … Continue reading
I liked the idea of The Summer She Vanished but it could have done with some editing. There was a fair amount of repetition—for example the main character, Maggie, thought things like “why didn’t I think of that” about nearly every revelation. The American characters also used a lot of British terminology like “smallhold” that … Continue reading
I’m not sure this is my usual genre but it looked cute and if Susanna Hoffs can’t write about a one hit wonder than who can? I found This Bird Has Flown to be a little off. Not horrible but some core parts, to me, made little sense. I liked the premise; one does wonder … Continue reading
I have some mixed feelings about Confessions. It looks like it’s just coming out here in the US after the sitcom that is based on it finished airing. It’s coming out in September so maybe they are trying to get it out before the second season airs? The show was a mid season replacement and … Continue reading
A Stolen Child was a little different than the previous three Maggie D’Arcy books. There is a big time jump between the last one and this one so Maggie is now completed training to be an Irish police officer, living with her boyfriend, his son and her daughter after spending much of the training apart. … Continue reading
Rachel Reads Books 