bookswithlydscl's Reviews (639)

Found this dull unfortunately

One i should have read as a child (I was a 'Little Women' girl instead) because I found Anne to be probably one of the most irritating characters I've encountered.

Bumped up because of Rachel McAdams wonderful narration but I'll stick to Little Women when I need coming of age stories of keen and eager girls striving to do their best whilst fighting temptation and handling troublesome situations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for a digital review copy of "A Body At The Dance Hall" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

Mabel Canning and her London Ladies' Murder Club is fast becoming a firm favourite of mine in the historical fiction/cosy murder mystery genre and this one is for me the best in the series so far. This time Mabel is pulled into a murder investigation when a simple task to act as companion to a young American woman is interrupted by a murder at a fashionable dance hall.

There are complicated connections and hidden backstories galore in this book all pushed forward by the straight forward, no nonsense Mabel and her wonderfully supportive gang of friends. This time we see some progress in Mabel's personal life and all of the characters are continuing to grow and develop (though I would like to see a bit more of Park's story - I feel there's something else lurking below the surface waiting to come out!). The supporting cast of characters this time round is much better fleshed out with more individual personalities making it easier to distinguish characters and care about them. It provides many more red herring opportunities as well which add to the twists and turns of the story.

I read this book in one sitting due to its fast pace and fun yet intriguing story which sucked me in from page 1. I enjoyed the ultimate case conclusion and found it wrapped up very satisfactorily and can't wait for the next installment in the series!

Not as fun as the last one and Phyllida Bright felt more like a caricature this time, clearly trying to give her the characteristics of Poirot but without the charm.
The case was weak as well, usually I get an idea but don't figure it all fully out, but this time I knew the who and the why which made most of the middle feel repetitive.
The touches of drama amongst the household are fun to read but the rest of the story wasn't the strongest this time.

Not my favourite from MM as I didn't really connect or care about most of the characters, and it felt repetitive and vague at times. Took ages to get into it, and then it rounded up really quickly. As always, it is an easy read thriller, lots of secrets, lies, and a sense of an unreliable narrator - standard MM and was a fine read overall.

I'm not hugely well versed in Greek mythology, I know the basics, and I've encountered the stories of several of the women mentioned in this collection in the huge variety of retellings currently on the market. For me, this collection was a fantastic introduction into the more classic versions of these women, but given a more feminist interpretation, which I greatly enjoyed and appreciated.
This sits alongside the Mythos collection by Stephen Fry for me as an accessible and highly enjoyable introduction to classic Greek myth stories and has given me plenty of ideas of how to spin off to get more in depth information for the women I've encountered here.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for a digital review copy of "Murder at the Island Hotel" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

First and foremost - Welcome back to the action Alice. I was so glad to have her back investigating and ably supporting Kitty on the case rather than being a minor figure in the story as she has been in the last few books.

In this installment of the Miss Underhay series we've gone from the wilds to Scotland to an island off the South Coast. Still a classic Christie-esque isolated/locked room setting with our core investigative team which sees Kitty and Alice assessing a new luxury hotel on Bird Island. The owner, Sir Norman, wants to join the local hoteliers association and Kitty will be the one to determine his suitability for membership. However, what should be a more restful trip is interrupted by the mysterious death of Sir Norman, and the storm whirling around the island is hindering investigations and keeping everyone trapped on the island, with the killer. 

This series is reliably fun and fast paced and I love the core group of characters, they never let me down! The overall mystery was solid - twisting with secrets to uncover, but it felt a little thin on the ground resulting in some repetitive scenes which didn't always push the story forward. Usually this wouldn't bother me but this time I found that the supporting cast of characters/suspects didn't quite gel for me in the way they usually do and the story felt like it was missing something, especially in comparison to the last book which was one of the best in the series.

Irrespective of these niggles, I enjoyed the read as I always do and I eagerly await the next case to come Kitty's way and to find out how Alice and Robert's future is going to unfold!

I think this is my favourite Grady Hendrix so far. Not the best. That's still Southern Book Club, in my opinion, but definitely my favourite. I really enjoyed the audiobook (audible plus catalogue) and I can see myself listening to it again in future.

This story works well as a haunted house horror and also a commentary on the horrors of capitalism (a little on the nose sometimes, but it worked for me). I generally liked the characters, though Amy did grate sometimes, but I liked how she developed, and I enjoyed the interactions with Basil. The horror was a good mix of scares, tension and playing in fears (Drowning  enclosed spaces etc).

This series has got stronger and stronger, and I really enjoyed the various strands of the story all woven together. The ending of the case and the epilogue are both very satisfying, and at no point did I guess the who or the why! I like that each book in this series is very distinct with Book 1 being a gothic mystery, book 2 a cosy mystery and this one your more traditional police procedural crime novel with a touch of locked room mystery to it. Thankfully, here there's none of the old school tropes of your usual UK police procedural books, and the style and narrative feel fresh and modern.

Harbinder is a cool and collected DI - on the surface at least, ably leading her team whilst trying to figure out her new life in London, and dealing with a crush on one of her flatmates, the wonderful Mette.

Looking forward to The Last Word which I know is a companion story being led by our intrepid trio from The Postscript Murders but I hope we get an appearance from DI Kaur and if we get no more novels with her as a leading character I'm very happy with how the story had been left in this installment.