The 10:12

The 10:12 by Anna Maloney, 320 pages

Retired art professor Claire was on the titular train between Manchester and London when it was hijacked by a group of armed men. When she encounters one of the hijackers near the restroom, she's faced with a choice: stand by passively or fight back. Claire chose to fight, and for the first half of the book, we have a fast-paced thriller akin to Speed in a train. But once the train reaches London, the pace slows down as Claire navigates the legal proceedings afterward in which she is seen as both a hero and a villain, depending on who's talking. It's an interesting way of presenting a hijack story, and one that I'm not sure I fully enjoyed, especially with the rapid slowdown. Meh.

This book will be published Oct. 20, 2026.

How To Seal Your Own Fate

How To Seal Your Own Fate by Kristen Perrin (2025) 309 pages

Like the first book in the Castle Knoll Murder Mystery series, How to Solve Your Own Murder, this book alternates between the past (1960s) and the present day. In the first book, Annie solved the murder of her mother's aunt Frances, a woman Annie never met, and was bequeathed the estate that Frances and her husband had lived on, Gravesdown Hall.

Annie is now trying to figure out how to fit into the village better, and is approached by Peony Lane, an old woman who had given Frances a fateful fortune years ago. When Peony Lane is later found murdered in Gravesdown Hall, Annie and her friend from London try to solve this case too. Meanwhile, Annie is learning from Frances's diaries about another murder that happened in the past, one which has some connections to the present.

The characterizations are mostly good, although a few are a bit stereotypical. Also, the wrap-up of the murder was a bit too drawn out for my taste. 

There is another book in this series now and I'm a bit torn whether to read it. However, some ureconciled tidbits in Annie's life are tempting me, so it'll probably happen eventually.

A Single Thread

 A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier (2019), 336 pages

Violet Speedwell finds herself, at 37, to be a "surplus woman". The year is 1932 and many young men have lost their lives in the Great War. Instead of remaining home with her difficult, embittered mother, she strikes off on her own as a typist in a neighboring town. Life is difficult and lonely and Violet finds herself drawn to a society of broderers (women who embroider kneelers and cushions for churches). There she finds friendship and company. 

This was an interesting book as I knew very little about broderers and found the subject quite interesting. The novel also delves into Cathedral bell ringers and the mechanics behind that trade (also interesting). The story itself, though, was just ok. While I appreciate Violet's struggle for autonomy and self-sufficiency in a time where women were expected to be married, she wasn't that likeable of a character. But, if I had survived the Great War and lost so many people I loved, I might not be particularly likeable either. 

Emma

 

Emma by Jane Austen (1816) 484 pages

Until recently, the only book of Austen's which I had read was Pride and Prejudice, along with many take-offs using the Bennett family as a starting point. I have been thirsting for something substantial to read, something that would be a sure winner, and Emma was that sure winner.

Possibly everyone reading has long been aware of the plot of this novel: Emma is a twenty-one-year-old woman from a family of means, determined to care for her elderly father rather than to marry. She does relish the idea of trying to match up other available young people and she takes credit for the successful marriage of her former governess and a local widower. When Emma meets Harriet Smith, a young woman of unknown parentage, Emma is determined to keep her from marrying a farmer who has caught her eye, but instead wants to match her up with a man who is higher up in society. Things don't always work out the way she expects.

The reader meets all sorts of people in the small town of Highbury, some 16 miles outside of London, many of whom are just regular folks, and some who are more in the "gentleman's" class of people, such as her neighbor, Mr. Knightley, who is the brother of Emma's sister's husband. Sometimes Emma has a streak of classism and other times we see a more humanitarian side of her. Her inclinations evolve as time goes on and as she tries to assuage her father's negativity. This work is a fine, classic story.

Murder at Gulls Nest

 

Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd (2025) 324 pages

Nora Breen has left her Carmelite monastery after 30 years, in large part to find out what happened to Frieda Brogan, a young woman who had intended to bcome a sister, but whose health issues had forced her out. Frieda had taken up residence in a rather rundown boarding house called Gulls Nest, writing regularly to Nora until her letters abruptly stopped. Nora took what little stipend she had and is staying in Frieda's old room at the same boarding house.

There are a handful of other residents, plus the requisite crabby housekeeper (with horrible cooking), along with Helena, the owner, who defers to the housekeeper, always has headaches, and has a small wild child who won't speak (hmm, connected?). There is an old puppeteer and a secretive photographer, as well as a young married couple. The mystery of what happened to Frieda gets shelved a bit when a resident is found dead in an outbuilding. Nora tries to get the local detective to see that he may have been murdered, but this is a handful of years after WWII, and the local thought is that it's not uncommon for former soldiers to commit suicide.

Nora is a determined woman who is not going to back down to anyone, whether it's an uncooperative desk sergent, the detective who sees things differently, or the local womanizer. When even more bad things happen, will they ever find out what's really going on? Everyone, even Nora, has secrets. For a slow starting novel, the pace picks up quickly and the book is hard to put down.

The Murder at World's End

The Murder at World's End by Ross Montgomery, 336 pages

It's 1910, and Halley's Comet is about to pass Earth once again. Like any astronomical phenomenon, the conspiracy theories about the end of the world are running rampant. But Viscount Conrad Stockingham-Welt thinks he has a plan to survive the coming apocalypse — he will seal all of his guests, family members, and staff into their rooms at Tithe Hall, making the island-based manor airtight, and they will all emerge unscathed after the comet has passed. Everything goes to plan at the beginning, but when the rooms are unsealed in the morning, Conrad is dead, shot through the eye with a crossbow bolt. With no way for investigators to access the manor and the murderer still afoot, new footman Stephen Pike teams up with the viscount's oft-ignored Aunt Decima to solve the murder.

This book was just plain delightful. The murder could not have happened to a more deserving fellow, the sleuthing was well-paced and intriguing, and the set-up for the whole thing was fantastic. And the sleuths themselves! Foul-mouthed and science-minded Decima was an excellent partner to wary Stephen (whose past stint in jail makes him a prime suspect, and thus spurs him to solve the crime), and they were an excellent contrast to Inspector Jarvis, the bumbling fool sent to officially investigate. This was a light and fun take on the classic locked-room mystery, and I can't wait to read more from Montgomery.

Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block

Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block by Jesse Q. Sutanto, 304 pages

At 63, Mebel has been a trophy wife to a successful Singaporean businessman her whole life. So when he leaves her for their much-younger private chef, Mebel's despondent and desperate to get him back so that she can continue living the life to which she's become accustomed. Best way to do that? Enroll in culinary school (the one closest to the Hermes store in Paris, of course) and learn to cook, which can't be that hard, right? Armed with Louis Vuitton trunks full of designer clothes and a bit of chutzpah, Mebel heads to Paris... only to learn that she's accidentally enrolled in the school's British campus, which is in a tiny village near Oxford.

This was a charming book full of humor, nuance, and great character development for Mebel. I loved her relationship with her fellow culinary students and the way she connected with them, despite differences in age, race, and skill. I also really appreciated the way Sutanto showed the relationship with Mebel's son and his family, and the way that gender roles expectations can be passed down generationally, just through observation. For such a funny book, this took on some fairly serious topics quite well. Highly recommended!

*This book will be published April 28, 2026.

How to Solve Your Own Murder

 

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin (2024) 358 pages

Annie Adams has a great aunt Frances whom she has never met, but the aunt is helping support her and her mother in a house in Chelsea that she owns, while the aunt lives on her large estate in the English village of Castle Knoll. When Annie is summoned to Frances' home for a meeting, along with Frances' attorney and her late husband's nephew Saxon, no one expects to find Frances dead. She has a sizable estate and her will stipulates that it will all go to either Annie or Saxon if either of them can solves Frances' murder within a week. If that does not happen, the estate will be sold off and the proceeds given to the government. The job of selling the property goes to the attorney's grandson Oliver, who will presumably reap commissions from the sales. If the village detective solves the murder first, the estate still goes to the government.

Yes, Frances was so sure that she would be murdered that this information was in her will. And the evidence shows that she was indeed murdered—by an megadose injection of iron. When she was a teen, Frances had been told by a fortune teller that she would be murdered, and Frances was a believer. She kept a room in her house filled with information about everyone she came into contact with who might possibly become her murderer. There was even one of those murder boards that are seen in police shows, with photos and strings.

The race is on, to see if one of the possible heirs can solve the murder in time. The story dips back into Frances' younger life, via her diary, which Annie found. The diary was immensely helpful in following Frances' thoughts. There are lots of characters to consider, and some surprises, as well as danger. Recommended.

The Pie & Mash Detective Agency

The Pie & Mash Detective Agency by J.D. Brinkworth, 368 pages

Jane Pye and Simon Mash are a fairly bored and fairly weird couple that signed up for a private eye class on a whim. Their classmates and instructor certainly don't take them seriously, though when their instructor gives them a case that not even he could solve as homework, Jane and Simon attack it with the same misguided enthusiasm with which they approached the class. As they consider everything from serial killers to coincidence to a ghostly urban legend, Jane and Simon bumble their way through the investigation and attempt to stay out of hot water.

I don't mind hapless amateur investigators in mystery novels, but there's something annoying about the way Jane and Simon are characterized. So much of what defines them are the stereotypes of "millennial," which they are derogatorily called so many times throughout the book that I considered creating a drinking game (I did not, as I didn't want to pass out after two chapters). It was distracting from a story that went in so many different directions (probably too many directions) and needed careful concentration to crack. All in all, it was a miss. 

How to Get Away with Murder

How to Get Away with Murder by Rebecca Philipson, 368 pages

Detective Inspector Samantha Hansen is reluctant about going back to work following a traumatic experience more than six months ago. But when a teen girl is murdered in a park near Samantha's house, she's determined to help solve the crime. Complicating matters is of a "self-help" book called How to Get Away with Murder by a man going by the pseudonym Denver Brady that is found with the body. Brady professes to be a serial killer, and chapter by chapter, tells his readers how to kill and not get caught. Was the girl's murder another one of Brady's? Is it the work of a copycat? Or is the book's presence at the crime scene simply misdirection?

This was an intriguing premise, especially as Samantha's investigation is interspersed with chapters from Brady's book, and kept my interest through the bulk of the story. However, the end got a bit convoluted for my taste, and honestly, kept it from sticking in my brain for more than a week or so after reading it. OK, but nothing amazing.

Murder at Gulls Nest

Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd, 336 pages

Novice nun Frieda was released from her vows, but kept up correspondence with her fellow novice Nora for quite a while afterward. But after sending a letter claiming that all of the residents of the long-term hotel where she lived were hiding something, Frieda's letters simply stopped, and Nora knew that something was wrong. Following her friend's footsteps, Nora also asked to leave the convent and her vows, and travels to that same hotel, Gulls Nest, to see if she can track down Frieda. She's met with a quirky group of residents, and before long, a series of murders to add to her investigation.

Set in Kent in the 1940s, this series-starting mystery introduces a winning amateur detective in Nora Breen, and the supporting characters are just kooky enough to make all of them suspects. It kept me guessing and took me directions that I didn't expect — but as I read it a while back, I can't remember whodunnit. Which perhaps gives this reread potential, but also shows that it didn't stick with me particularly well. However, if you dig WWII-era mysteries with plucky female detectives, this one is right up your alley.

The Impossible Fortune

The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman (2025) 352 pages

Osman keeps the activity fresh in his fifth installment of the Thursday Murder Club mysteries, starting with the wedding of Joyce's daughter, Joanna, where Nick, the best man, confides in Elizabeth that someone is trying to kill him. He hopes that the retired spy can help him. This case helps bring Elizabeth out of the numbness she has felt since her husband died. Nick and his partner Holly run a secretive underground cold storage facility utilized by people trying to keep information safe. Nick and Holly are trying to cash in on a risk they took long ago to take cryptocurrency in lieu of cash as a rental fee, and the value of the cryptocurrency has soared to 350 million. When one of them dies and the other disappears, the Thursday Murder Club members fan out to visit possible suspects.

Meanwhile, Ron's daughter has finally had enough of her abusive husband, pulling a gun on him. Now she's in hiding, and has left her precocious son, Kendrick, in the care of her father and brother, while her husband plots against her.

Another storyline has to do with Connie, a cocaine seller whom we met previously. Ron is responsible for her getting prison time, and she would like to kill him now that she's out. But she's been working with Ibrahim, Ron's best friend, who is trying to get her to mentor young people to keep them from going afoul of the law. Little does Ibrahim know that Connie's mentoring has encouraged a young woman to plan a heist!

The action keeps moving, while the characters that we know and love from this British series are on the hunt for a killer. Even some of the "bad guys" are lovable in their own way. The seemingly unrelated plots converge at times in this hard-to-put-down-book.

The Locked Room

 The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths (2022), 368 pages

I love this series. I love the characters and I love the cozy mysteries that take place in coastal Norfolk, England. If you are new to the series (which has been around since 2019), it follows forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway and the interesting cast of characters that live in the fictional town of King's Lynn. Sadly, this is the penultimate book in the series and I am not sure what I will do when it ends. Probably start a campaign for Griffiths to re-start it, maybe do a time-jump and have Kate, Ruth's daughter, be the new focus. I am flexible on this. 

 A huge bonus to having a forensic archeologist as the protagonist is that you get to learn a lot of interesting history about very early England. The novel includes old castles and locked rooms, but is set during the Covid pandemic. It is a pet-peeve of mine when authors completely ignore the pandemic while setting a book right in the middle of it. I appreciate Griffiths for tackling it head-on. As usual, the mystery is fine, but what I really appreciate is how Griffiths moves the character's lives forward. When we first met Ruth in 2019, she was a late thirty-something. Now she is in her early fifties with a child. Her friends and friendships have also come and gone, but the core group has matured and grown. It feels like we have been on a journey together and I will miss it. If there is a downside to the novel, it is the revelation of a trope that is just unnecessary. 

Death at the White Hart

Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall, 352 pages

When the owner of the White Hart pub is found dead — and gruesomely tied to a chair in the middle of the road with antlers affixed to his head — the small town of Fleetcombe is shaken to its core. On the case is Detective Nicola Bridge, who has just returned to her hometown after years working for the Liverpool police department in an attempt at a slower life. Too bad this murder and subsequent investigation into the secrets of the whole community won't let her do that.

I'm going to be completely honest and say that while I remember reading this and thinking it was a solid police procedural mystery, nothing really stuck out to me as either particularly fantastic or problematic. So solid but forgettable in my eyes. However, fans of Broadchurch will probably enjoy a complex mystery novel by the creator of that show.

The Killer Question

The Killer Question by Janice Hallett, 448 pages

Sue and Mal Eastwood are living out a second career as proprietors of The Case Is Altered, a struggling, off-the-beaten-path pub. The only thing that's really helping them thrive is a weekly pub quiz, with bespoke questions created by quizmaster Mal (none of those "from a book" questions for him!). Business seems to be improving until a body turns up in the nearby canal, and it's a man who had been kicked out of the pub quiz earlier that evening. Around the same time, a mysterious new trivia team shows up and starts beating the locals EVERY TIME with nearly perfect scores, baffling Sue and Mal and frustrating the other teams to no end. So there are two mysteries here — who killed the guy in the canal and how the heck is this new team winning??

Told in a modern epistolary style — emails, texts, transcripts of interviews and recordings — and presented as a pitch for a Netflix true crime documentary series, this is a fast-moving book that doesn't necessarily follow a linear timeline. Rather, it pops back in time to give more details the same way that one of those, well, Neflix true crime documentaries does. There are definitely some elements that didn't work for me (why did the conversations between spouses have to be via text?) and the final twist didn't seem to have a whole lot of clues leading up to it, but overall it was a lot of fun.

Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace by Jo Callaghan, 400 pages

Previously focused on cold cases, Detective Kat Frank and her AI assistant Lock are given their first "live" case: the murder of a man crucified at the top of a hill in a highly contaminated crime scene. Kat's superiors hope that by allowing the human-AI detective pair to investigate will be a PR boon, showing how the police department is using state-of-the-art technology to assist in the solving of crimes. However, Lock's lack of tact and humanity causes problems as the case explodes into a serial killer situation.

This was a surprisingly nuanced look at technology and policing, considering the pros, cons, and gray areas in a way that I didn't expect in a murder mystery. The characters, including Lock, are all three-dimensional and compelling, and the inherent mystery kept me guessing. This is the second book in the series (after In the Blink of an Eye), but stands well by itself even if you haven't read that one (I haven't yet, though I certainly will).

Also, this has nothing to do with the content of the book, but there is a note that the cover was created with AI. Leaving aside all the problems with AI art, I found it somewhat apropos that it was used for this particular book.

Homework: a Memoir

Homework: a Memoir by Geoff Dyer  (2025) 276pp
Dyer is first and foremost a writer and at times this rollicking (do they rollick in the UK?) coming-of-age memoir reads like Dickensian fiction. I keep expecting Miss Havisham and Estella to make an appearance. But Dyer would put Havisham in a caravan and Estella would be dressed in a mini skirt and drive a Mini Cooper. A literary polymath, Dyer can write about anyone and anything and he does not disappoint here. Certainly, an argument could be made that he is too stylish and too detailed, but the writing is snappy and his ability to put the reader in the setting is uncanny (of course this is not autobiography, it is memoir, much license given). Fair warning – once you read a book by Dyer you will read another and another and another.

How To Age Disgracefully

How To Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley (2024) 337 pages

Daphne lives in an apartment that has a wonderful view of London, but she's tired of feeling imprisoned there by some secret from her past. It's been 15 years, but now that she has had her 70th birthday, she wants get back out and meet people. She is outspoken and feisty, and if she wants to make friends at this late stage of life, she's got some learning to do. 

Art is an actor who has been mostly out-of-work, but he finds himself stealing things without ever needing or using what he's taken, probably because of his own sad history. 

Daphne and Art, along with a handful of other characters who have their own odd stories, meet at a senior citizen program that Lydia has been hired to run. Poor Lydia is low on self esteem, and if she thinks these seniors are going to be happy making macramé plant holders, she's got another think coming! When part of the ceiling collapses on the first day of the senior program, the building is at risk of being sold and torn down. The various groups who use the building‒a daycare, AA, and pregnant women‒are doing all they can to save the community center, with the seniors taking the lead. The seniors team up with the children in the daycare to get some good PR, which leads to their newfound group expanding. You can't go wrong with eccentric old people, babies, and dogs, can you? Fun story.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, 277 pages.

London is recovering from the devastating effects of World War II, and author Juliet Ashton is at a loss for what to write about. That is, until a stranger happens to write her a spontaneous letter after finding her name in one of her used books, and she is drawn completely into the story of the German wartime occupation of the English-owned isle of Guernsey. She is soon exchanging correspondence not only with Dorsey (the original letter writer), but also many other eccentric residents of the island, who she soon considers food friends. Soon Elizabeth is completely enthralled by the allure of the isle of Guernsey and its residents. 

I like a good epistolary novel, and I found the characters in this novel very charming. It was a little light on plot for me personally, and I think it didn't help that this isn't a period of history that is particularly interesting to me. However, I do think that fans of WWII historical fiction, especially centered on women and relationships, would probably like this book a lot. 

Knife Skills for Beginners

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin (2025) 313 pages

Paul is a chef who has been contacted by an old friend, Christian, a well known TV chef who is also known for restaurants he has operated. Christian is also involved in a cooking school that brings in small groups of people to learn to cook various types of foods. However, Christian has a problem: he has injured his arms and cannot teach the class, and he asks Paul to fill in for him.

Paul's not that keen on the idea, but decides to go ahead, with the proviso that Christian will be there to help manage the class. The class has 8 participants who are to live in the mansion that houses the school for the intense week of classes. When Christian doesn't show up for the first class, Paul is steamed but handles it the best he can.

A day later when someone is found dead, with his head almost chopped off with a cleaver that Paul used the day before, things look bad for Paul. Paul decides to learn all he can about Christian—whose life has some details Paul has never known—as well as the students, in order to save his own hide.

Paul is a relatable character in many respects. As a benefit, he gives the students—as well as the reader—cookery tips. The book is written by a British chef with a writing style I found unique and enjoyable. (A second book featuring Paul is set to be released this year.)