Hi guys – I can’t believe I am here again with another weekly update! I hope you all had a good week?
I shared just the one post with you this week, aside from today’s Sunday Summary update that is. Earlier in the week, I published my review of City of Stairs, a novel I read back in January this year. Writing this review was more challenging than I expected. Me being me, I didn’t take any notes. In my defence, I wasn’t expecting for it to be this long between reading and reviewing… but there we are. It’s my own fault.
Nevertheless, I managed to get all my thoughts together in the end. If you haven’t read that post yet, you can find it here.
Books Read
With taking the time to write my review earlier in the week, amongst other things, I have been light on reading this week. I have picked up Rags of Time again and I am very close to the conclusion now. I’m hoping to finish this imminently. Instead, I’ve been doing some other bits and pieces with my evenings.
I’ve brought my old 3DS out of retirement and been playing a game I loved and invested many hours into as a teenager. Of course, I’ve wiped the game history and started again… you have to, right? I’ve also been watching a bit of TV. That might not sound like anything special to you… but it’s a bit of a rarity in my house. The TV series I’m watching at the moment is called For Life. Four episodes in and I’m really enjoying it!
Lastly, the most time-consuming hobby of the week has been knitting. Some of you may know that I’ve taken up knitting in the last few months. Recently, I’ve taken on the ambitious project of knitting a jumper. I wasn’t sure how well I’d get on, being so new to it, but I’m pleased with how it looks so far! Fingers crossed it fits when I’m finished! Here’s a picture of my progress so far.
Books Discovered
As above, I’ve not really had the time to discover anything in the way of new books this week! My TBR will thank me later!
Coming Up…
Next week is certainly going to be busier in terms of the blog posts I have lined up for you all. I have no less than two blog tours this week.
On Wednesday I am taking part in a blog tour for Glimmer of Hope by J. A. Andrews. You may remember I read and loved the book at the beginning of this month. I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts with you on this particular novel. In terms of subject matter, it was a bit out of my comfort zone, but I still enjoyed it!
There’s no rest for the wicked, as my next blog tour post goes live on Thursday. This time I will be sharing a review of The Dark Chorus by Ashley Meggitt. I also adored this book. As a huge fan of psychology and thrillers, The Dark Chorus was really up my street. I hope you can join me and check out my review later in the week.
So, I have two fabulous reviews coming up this week, but that’s not all! I’ll also be sharing my reading list for December towards the end of the week. My last reading list of 2020 – I can’t believe it! Where is this year going?!
So, you’ll be hearing a lot more from next week! Fingers crossed I’ll see you around!
Hey everyone and welcome to today’s Sunday Summary post! I hope you have all had a good week? It feels a little strange to be back here I have to say. Having just had a week off blogging (my first of the year!), I almost feel a little out of practice – haha! I can’t lie though; I did actually enjoy having the evenings to myself this week. When you are in the habit of it, you don’t think about how long it takes to prepare a post.
Instead, I have spent the week catching up with a job or two around the house and even starting to knit a jumper. Of course, I’ve kept up with my reading too!
Books Read
AS of last week’s Sunday Summary update, I was just starting The Dark Chorus by Ashley Meggitt. I had literally read the first few pages to get a feel for the book before starting in earnest. It has been my main read of the week and I actually finished this fantastic book yesterday. It has been really easy to pick up and read. It’s not very often you come across a novel told from a child’s perspective. I personally really enjoyed this aspect of the book and it was done really well! I’ll be publishing my full review at the beginning of next month, so if you want to find out more that’s when you can expect my thoughts on the book in full.
I’ve also picked up and read another 10% of Rags of Time by Mike Ward this morning. You may recall that I started this book a couple of months ago, but I had to put it aside to fulfil some more time-sensitive reviews. Well, I have picked up the book again and read a decent chunk in one sitting. It’s been on my mind that I needed to pick this up again, so it feels good to have finally gotten back around to it!
Books Discovered
Yet another week goes by and there are no new additions to the TBR. It’s long enough, so I’m grateful to have my nose buried in other things at the moment!
Coming Up…
I’m back to blogging next week, and I am planning on throwing myself back in the deep end with a review of a book I picked up at the beginning of this year. I think my getting around to reviewing a book read in January now says a lot about 1) how behind I am on reviews and 2) how many blog tours I take part in (which effectively jump the queue!) Oh well, at least I am round to it now! I plan on sharing this particular post midweek, so keep an eye out for that!
I’ll round off the week as usual with another Sunday Summary weekly update!
Hey guys! I’m back with another Sunday Summary post! How are you all doing? I hope you have had a good week regardless, and that you are all keeping safe.
My first blog post of the week ended up being posted a little later than I expected. I had planned to publish my review of Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson on Tuesday or Wednesday this week, but it actually went live on Thursday. I’m glad I took the extra time to get it right – a fantastic book deserves a good, well-written review!
On Friday I shared a Shelf Control post. It has been a little while since my last one, so it was nice to look back at my TBR, check out the next book on the list and get to tell you a little of why I’m looking forward to reading it!
Books Read
This week I picked up Glimmer of Hope by J A Andrews again. As of last week I was 20% of the way through the book. I finished this over a couple of evenings this week. It was a really easy read, and not too long either. It’s more risqué than a lot of stuff I’ve read before… and the ending wasn’t what I expected at all! It was a good read!
I’ve also just started reading the first few pages of The Dark Chorus by Ashley Meggitt. I’ll be starting this in earnest once this Sunday Summary post goes live.
Books Discovered
Once again, I haven’t added any books to the list this week. It’s funny how I can be so polar opposite and add 3-4 books some weeks, and then not at all for weeks on end!
Coming Up…
I’m only planning on sharing one blog post next week, which is my Sunday Summary post next weekend.
In the course of a normal year, I step away from the screen for probably a couple of weeks. Naturally in the current climate, I haven’t been going on holiday and taking a break. I didn’t even step back from blogging around the time I moved, or the times I’ve been off work and working on the house. I’m starting to feel it now. I actually toyed with the idea of taking a week off a couple of months ago, but I didn’t in the end.
I was actually planning on taking this break in a couple of weeks so it coincided with a week off work, but now I have a couple of blog tours so that plan is out the window. I’m reading the material for that now, so I might be able to prep the posts in advance and still have my week off. We’ll see.
So, anyway, I’ll be back again this time next week!
Hello everyone and welcome back to another Sunday Summary post from me! I hope you are all doing and keeping well?
This week’s first post was a blog tour review for Sherlock Holmes & The Ripper of Whitechapel. If you are a fan of historical fiction, mystery novels, or like me, stories about Jack the Ripper then this is definitely recommended to you!
Later in the week, I shared my reading list for this month. I still can’t believe we are in November already… but there we are! If you haven’t checked out my post yet and found out which books I plan to pick up this month, take a look!
Books Read
Before I was able to share my blog tour post on Tuesday, I had to finish Sherlock Holmes & The Ripper of Whitechapel by M K Wiseman. As of writing my Sunday Summary post last Sunday evening, I was around 25% of the way through the book. Timing was a little tight as I had just read and completed another book for a blog tour a couple of days previously. I did manage to complete the book on Monday night and so draft my post ready for Tuesday.
After that, I picked up Glimmer of Hope by J A Andrews, which is my first read of November. I’m currently around 20% of the way through the book, and it’s proving a nice, easy read so far! I expect I’ll have this read in the next few days, nice and early for the tour next month.
Books Discovered
There aren’t any new additions this week again, I’m pleased to say!
Coming Up…
My first post of next week is going to be another review. I recently reviewed The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson, and this week I intend to review the next book in the series, Shadows of Self. As with every single Brandon Sanderson novel I’ve read, expect a glowing review for this instalment to the Mistborn series!
Later in the week I’ll be returning to my regular Friday features and sharing a Shelf Control post. It has been a good few weeks since I posted one of these and I’m looking forward to going back to my TBR and revisiting my old additions to the list and telling you why I want to read them! I hope you can check-in for that post later in the coming week.
In the meantime, that’s all from me folks! Keep safe wherever you are, and I look forward to seeing you next time!
I am sharing my penultimate reading list of 2020. I just need a moment for that to sink in. Literally, WHERE HAS THIS YEAR GONE?! It’s crazy! And yet, here we are! I can’t believe it, but that doesn’t change it.
This month’s reading list features a couple of blog tour reads, as well as a couple of reading requests I previously accepted and last, but not least, a read off my never-ending TBR. One of the reading requests is a tidy up as well, as I have actually read most of the book already. I just need to finish it off!
Shall we get into what I am reading this month?
Glimmer of Hope – J. A. Andrews
Sometimes chasing a dream can become a nightmare…
Alecia Preen is living in poverty and desperate to make a better life for herself. Having moved to a new area for new beginnings after being disowned by her family, money was fast running out. She is struggling to make ends meet.
With the intention of charging lonely men online for her services, Alecia realises she can supplement her income by being unscrupulous. In meeting Jake Parker he requests that she role-plays as a psychiatrist, but he makes her aware of an underground millionaires playground called Sordida. He warns her to stay away.
As Alecia’s curiosity gets the better of her, she is amazed by the wealth and decadence on offer. Sordida is not the club she had anticipated because behind the legendary name lurks a very dark secret. A secret that could cost her everything.
He pays by the hour and Alecia pays in ways she had never imagined.
I love the sound of this particular read, which is why I’ve signed up for the blog tour! I’m not actually taking part until December, but I want to give myself plenty of time to pick the book up. It sounds sinister and intriguing, so I can’t wait to read this!
He has never questioned the fact that he can see them. He thinks of them as the Dark Chorus. When he sets out to restore the soul of his dead mother it becomes clear that his ability comes from within him. It is a force that he cannot ignore – the last shard of the shattered soul of an angel.
To be restored to the kingdom of light, the shard must be cleansed of the evil that infects it – but this requires the corrupt souls of the living!
With the help from Makka, a psychotically violent young man full of hate, and Vee, an abused young woman full of pain, the Boy begins to kill.
Psychiatrist Dr Eve Rhodes is seconded to assist the police investigation into the Boy’s apparently random ritualistic killings. As the investigation gathers pace, a pattern emerges. When Eve pulls at the thread from an article in an old psychology journal, what might otherwise have seemed to her a terrible psychotic delusion now feels all too real…
Will the Boy succeed in restoring the angel’s soul to the light? Can Eve stop him, or will she be lost to realm of the Dark Chorus?
The Dark Chorus is the second blog tour I am taking part in next month. Both blog tours are at the beginning of the month, and also on consecutive days too. This is why I am reading them nice and early this month. The Dark Chorus sounds like a really dark psychological thriller, which you guys know I love. I feel like I should have read them last month – they have a Halloween-y vibe – never mind! There isn’t a wrong time to read a book like this… at least not in my house!
Thomas Tallant, a young and ambitious Spice Merchant, returns from India to find his city in turmoil.
A bitter struggle is brewing between King Charles I and Parliament, as England slides into civil war. The capital is simmering with dissent. The conflict is ready to boil over.
But Thomas soon has other troubles to contend with. A wealthy merchant, Sir Joseph Venell, is savagely killed; then his partner Sir Hugh Swofford plunges to his death, in the Tallant household.
Suspicion falls on Thomas, who is sucked into a mire of treachery and rumour within the City of London. As the merchant struggles to clear his name, he becomes captivated by the enigmatic Elizabeth Seymour, whose passion for astronomy and mathematics is matched only by her addiction to the gaming tables.
Pursued by the authorities, Thomas races to unmask the real killer who claims a third victim to implicate him further, toying with his future in a deadly cat and mouse game.
In a desperate race against time, Elizabeth applies her powers of logic and deduction to unearth the clues that will point to the killer, but her way is barred by a secret message from the grave.
Can she crack its code before Thomas, now a wounded and exhausted fugitive, succumbs to the chase?
And, if she succeeds, has Thomas the strength to face his tormentor and win his life and reputation back?
Rags of Time is the first book in an engaging and entertaining new historical crime series, set during the upheaval of the 17th Century.
You may remember I picked this book up a couple of months ago. I read a good deal of the book then, but other time-constrained commitments meant I had to set the book aside at that time. Well, now I have a lot more time to finish the book, I’m going to wrap this up this month.
The silicon revolution left Dremmler behind, but a good detective is never obsolete.
London is quiet in 2039—thanks to the machines. People stay indoors, communicating through high-tech glasses and gorging on simulated reality while 3D printers and scuttling robots cater to their every whim. Mammoth corporations wage war for dominance in a world where human augmentation blurs the line between flesh and steel.
And at the center of it all lurks The Imagination Machine: the hyper-advanced, omnipresent AI that drives our cars, flies our planes, cooks our food, and plans our lives. Servile, patient, tireless … TIM has everything humanity requires. Everything except a soul.
Through this silicon jungle prowls Carl Dremmler, police detective—one of the few professions better suited to meat than machine. His latest case: a grisly murder seemingly perpetrated by the victim’s boyfriend. Dremmler’s boss wants a quick end to the case, but the tech-wary detective can’t help but believe the accused’s bizarre story: that his robotic arm committed the heinous crime, not him. An advanced prosthetic, controlled by a chip in his skull.
A chip controlled by TIM.
Dremmler smells blood: the seeds of a conspiracy that could burn London to ash unless he exposes the truth. His investigation pits him against desperate criminals, scheming businesswomen, deadly automatons—and the nightmares of his own past. And when Dremmler finds himself questioning even TIM’s inscrutable motives, he’s forced to stare into the blank soul of the machine.
Auxiliary is gripping, unpredictable, and bleakly atmospheric—ideal for fans of cyberpunk classics like the Blade Runner movies, Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon, William Gibson’s Neuromancer, and the Netflix original series Black Mirror.
A few months ago I accepted a review request for this book and I love the sound of it. I’m a huge fan of science-fiction and I am always vowing to read more of it. I like the crime element to the narrative as well. I think this will be a really interesting read!
Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, inhabited by genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story’s protagonist.
My last book on today’s list has been on my TBR for three years now. I’ve decided to read it now as I recently watched the TV series currently on Now TV. I loved the dystopian vibes (let’s face it, I don’t think I’ve discovered a dystopian read I didn’t like!) and so I’ve bumped it up the list and I’m reading it this month.
So, that’s what you can expect me reading and talking about this November. Have you read Brave New World or any of the other books on my list?
Hello everyone and welcome to today’s blog post! Today I am reviewing Sherlock Holmes & the Ripper of Whitechapel by M K Wiseman as part of the current publication day push tour. I have a bit of a morbid fascination with Jack the Ripper and so I practically snatched Rachel’s hand off when she sent me the invite for this tour! I doubly wanted to take part as I really enjoyed another book by M K Wiseman earlier this year. If you like fantasy novels as well, check out my review of Magical Intelligence published in April this year.
Before I jump into sharing my thoughts on Sherlock Holmes & the Ripper of Whitechapel, please allow me to say a huge thank you to the author and to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for organising the tour!
Sherlock Holmes & the Ripper of Whitechapel – M K Wiseman
I am afraid that I, Sherlock Holmes, must act as my own chronicler in this singular case, that of the Whitechapel murders of 1888. For the way in which the affair was dropped upon my doorstep left me with little choice as to the contrary. Not twelve months prior, the siren’s call of quiet domesticity and married life had robbed me of Watson’s assistance as both partner and recorder of my cases. Thus, when detective inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard required a lead—any lead—I found myself forced to pursue Jack the Ripper alone and without the aid of my faithful friend. And all for the most damnedable of reasons:
Early on in my investigations, Dr. John H. Watson, formerly of 221b Baker Street, emerged as my prime suspect.
Regardless of how much you know about the Jack the Ripper murders, Sherlock Holmes and the Ripper of Whitechapel is a really approachable fictional read on the subject. I have a little prior knowledge of the murders that plagued London in that fateful year, but I’m also by no means an expert. The narrative has been written very well so that it is easy to read and caters to all readers. I don’t think anyone exceptionally knowledgeable on the subject would find the details repetitive. Equally, the narrative doesn’t rely on prior knowledge. I personally found the balance comfortable to read.
The tone of the narrative is very Sherlock Holmes in its portrayal, in my opinion. I confess that I haven’t read any Sherlock Holmes novels to date, however as a famous character I have already formulated an idea of how I expect him to be based on his portrayal elsewhere. The tone/language choice etc definitely lives up to Sherlock’s’ popularised characterisation… which I say is a huge achievement!
As you can probably expect from the synopsis, there is a great deal of tension in the plotline itself. Sherlock’s intense, almost brooding personality couples with his dark suspicions of a valued friend and partner. The damning evidence stacks up against Watson and I found myself caught up in the novel very quickly and easily. I didn’t want to put it down!
Sherlock Holmes & the Ripper of Whitechapel is very easy to read. It is a fairly short book, so easily approachable for anyone to pick up and read without a massive commitment. The narrative style flows well so it’s easy to get lost in the book and before you know it… you’ve read a quarter of it in one short sitting! The concise chapters are also good if you want to be able to pick it up and put it down with ease – although I promise you won’t want to!
I’ve really enjoyed reading this historically based mystery novel. If you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes or, like me, are lured into the mystery of the identity of Jack the Ripper, I cannot recommend this novel highly enough!
Author Bio
M. K. Wiseman has degrees in Interarts & Technology and Library & Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her office, therefore, is a curious mix of storyboards and reference materials. Both help immensely in the writing of historical novels. She currently resides in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Hi everyone and welcome to today’s weekly Sunday Summary post! This week’s post is a little later than usual since I shared a blog tour post this Sunday just gone. Since the rule of thumb with these things is to not post again on the same day, my update is coming to you a couple of hours later.
If you haven’t taken a look at yesterday’s post, which is a publication day push review of Unbroken Truth by Lukas Lundh, please do! I also shared a Hop Tu Naa (that’s Halloween to you) post on Tuesday, listing my Top Ten reads for the spooky season. If you are still in the mood for a sinister read you can still go and check out that post too. If you like horror, psychological thriller or even a humorous take on the holiday… there’s something for everyone on the list. Enjoy!
Books Read
My main priority of the week has been reading Unbroken Truth by Lukas Lundh, as I needed to have the book read in advance for yesterday’s blog tour. As of last week’s Sunday Summary post I had only just started the first few chapters, so I have read pretty much the whole book this week. At just over a couple hundred pages, it wasn’t a long read and so worked well with my schedule this week.
In addition to Unbroken Truth, I have also read about 25% of Sherlock Holmes and the Ripper of Whitechapel this week. This particular book will be featuring on my blog in the next few days. This also is a similarly short read and it feels like I have barely put any effort in to get to 25% through. I’ll be reading a lot more of this in anticipation of my upcoming review – find out below when this is going live.
I’ve spent this week off work and investing some more time into decorating. I’m pleased to say I am VERY NEARLY done now and I’m happy with all my hard work. It’s given me the opportunity to make more progress with audiobooks, which I’ve enjoyed. My first listen of the week involved finishing Jack the Ripper: Case Closed by Gyles Brandreth. I only had a couple of hours or so left, so I wrapped this up on Monday.
I’ve been in a Game of Thrones-y mood these past few weeks. I’ve listened to the soundtracks a lot and toyed with (and dismissed) the idea of reading the books again – I’ve only just finished them! I have, however, decided to listen to the audiobook! I think that’s a fair compromise. I’m enjoying it well enough so far, although some of the narrator’s pronunciation of names etc gets on my nerves as I don’t agree with it! It’s still enjoyable though and I’ll continue to listen to it.
Books Discovered
I’ve been good again this week and not added any books to the TBR. Who knows, at this rate, I might stand a chance of dropping some off instead of my usual breaking even (or adding books!)
Coming Up…
The first post I will be publishing next week is my review of Sherlock Holmes and the Ripper of Whitechapel. This will be going live on Tuesday morning, so I hope you can join me for that. Based on what I have read so far, I expect the review will be a glowing one!
Since it is now November (seriously, where is this year going?!), I’m going to share my next reading list on Thursday. At the moment I only have a couple of books in mind to read, so I’m going to have a think between now and then and by Thursday I should have made my mind up about what I’m going to read.
Last, but not least, I’ll be publishing my Sunday Summary update at the end of the week, as expected.
That’s all from me in today’s Sunday Summary post! What have you been reading?
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday post subject is Halloween themed since we’ll be celebrating Halloween (somewhat differently than most years, I expect) later this week.
We don’t call it Halloween here on the Isle of Man. Instead, we call it Hop Tu Naa. All in all, it is very similar to Halloween, but if you do want to have a skeet (that’s Manx for having a nosey) at the difference between the two celebrations, you can find out more on the Culture Vannin website.
For today’s post, I wanted to put together a list of recommended reads if you are looking for inspiration this Halloween/ HopTu Naa. There are some classic horrors here, as well as a few thrillers if that is more your bag and last, but not least, there’s a bit of a parody read if you want a lighter tone.
It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real …
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name.
The road in front of Dr. Louis Creed’s rural Maine home frequently claims the lives of neighborhood pets. Louis has recently moved from Chicago to Ludlow with his wife Rachel, their children and pet cat. Near their house, local children have created a cemetery for the dogs and cats killed by the steady stream of transports on the busy highway. Deeper in the woods lies another graveyard, an ancient Indian burial ground whose sinister properties Louis discovers when the family cat is killed.
Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley’s chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron’s villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world’s most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.
Based on the third edition of 1831, this volume contains all the revisions Mary Shelley made to her story, as well as her 1831 introduction and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s preface to the first edition. This revised edition includes as appendices a select collation of the texts of 1818 and 1831 together with ‘A Fragment’ by Lord Byron and Dr John Polidori’s ‘The Vampyre: A Tale’.
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides — or are chosen.
In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same.
In 2016, Eddie is fully grown, and thinks he’s put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank . . . until one of them turns up dead.
That’s when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.
Greg Adams, a criminal psychologist at Scotland Yard, specialises in bringing serial killers to justice. He tracks down a spree serial killer nicknamed the Divine, who has already killed six teenage girls and is about to kill a seventh. Greg works out the location where he is hiding and joins a raid. The police capture the Divine and save the girl, but on the very same night, Greg’s wife is brutally murdered by another serial killer, known as the Dreamer.
A year later, unable to bring the killer to justice, Greg has quit his job and is ready to end it all, when he receives a phone call from a man who tells him the Dreamer is dead, and that he didn’t kill Greg’s wife, Kate.
Greg returns to Scotland Yard to work for Superintendent Chief Detective Donaldson in the hope he can re-examine the case with the help of two new detectives, Finch and Matthews.
As Greg delves into the case further, he becomes more convinced that the Dreamer wasn’t the man responsible for his wife’s murder.
But if it wasn’t the Dreamer, who was it?
In order to solve the mystery around his wife’s murder, Greg is going to have to delve even deeper into the mind of a terrifying psychopath. And this time he might not make it back in one piece…
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart Turton
“Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day . . . quite unlike anything I’ve ever read, and altogether triumphant.” – A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. With a locked room mystery that Agatha Christie would envy, Stuart Turton unfurls a breakneck novel of intrigue and suspense.
For fans of Claire North, and Kate Atkinson, The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a breathlessly addictive mystery that follows one man’s race against time to find a killer, with an astonishing time-turning twist that means nothing and no one are quite what they seem.
This inventive debut twists together a thriller of such unexpected creativity it will leave readers guessing until the very last page.
Recommended in The New York Times, The Guardian, Harper’s Bazaar, Buzzfeed, Vulture, BookRiot, and more.
The placid life of a college librarian is plunged into a desperate fight for survival when he witnesses the death of his only friend. Suddenly he is forced to confront disturbing changes in his nature and appetites and their consequences. Suspected of murder and pursued by an implacable police detective he runs – but is he running from the law or from himself?
‘Death has to happen. That’s what bein’ alive is all about. You’re alive, and then you’re dead. It can’t just stop happening.’
But it can. And it has.
Death is missing – presumed gone.
Which leads to the kind of chaos you always get when an important public service is withdrawn. If Death doesn’t come for you, then what are you supposed to do in the meantime?
You can’t have the undead wandering about like lost souls – there’s no telling what might happen!
Particularly when they discover that life really is only for the living…
I hope you found some reading inspiration from today’s Top Ten Tuesday list! If you have read any of these books or have any other suggestions in the comments, please share it with us.
Hi everyone and welcome to today’s weekly update post! I hope you have had a good week, whatever you got up to!
Mine has been a little unusual as I curbed the reading and blogging for a few days in order to finish studying for an exam, which I sat on Wednesday. All went well and I passed the exam, so it was worth the effort! Consequently, though, I only shared one post this week. I decided my one post would be a review since I wanted it to be a more in-depth post. With that in mind, I shared my first audiobook review in three months, which featured Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff.
Books Read
I’ve only made a brief start on a read I am reviewing for another blog tour next week. Unbroken Truth has a definite sci-fi vibe from the first few chapters I’ve read. I like how the introduction has set the scene for the novel and I’m looking forward to reading this over the next week.
I haven’t read so much this week, but I have been listening to audiobooks. I’ve made a bit more progress with Jack the Ripper: Case Closed by Gyles Brandreth. I’ve only got a little way to go to the finish, and I expect to do this in the next day or two.
I have also had the urge to read and enjoy the A Game of Thrones series again this week, and so I have started listening to the audiobook of the first book in the series. I’ve read the kindle and physical copies of the books to date, but not listened to any of the audiobooks.
Books Discovered
I’ve added a book to my TBR for the first time in MONTHS! I watched Des on ITV player earlier this week and loved it – I hadn’t realised there was a book about Des Nilson and the murders. Since I really enjoyed the series I have added the book written about him, Killing for Company, to my TBR.
Coming Up…
Since I have a couple of blog posts scheduled towards the end of the week, I want to take part in another Top Ten Tuesday post. This week’s scheduled post is a Halloween ’freebie’, and so I think I’ll be sharing my Top Ten Chilling Hop Tu Naa reads (Hop Tu Naa is the Manx equivalent of Halloween).
On Sunday I will be taking part in the blog tour for Unbroken Truth and sharing my review of the book. As a result, my usual weekly update post will be published first thing on Monday morning.
That’s all from me in today’s post! I hope you have a good week and I’ll see you in the next one!
Hey everyone and welcome to today’s Sunday Summary post. It only feels like two minutes ago since I wrote last week’s update, but here we are! I hope you have had a good week, whatever you have been up to.
I have shared a couple of posts with you this week, which I hope you have enjoyed reading. The first of those posts was a Top Ten Tuesday post, with a theme of hobbies (other than reading). This post subject has been suggested for the 3rd November so I’ve jumped in a bit early. That’s only because I have another commitment on the 3rd November.
On Thursday I shared a blog tour post for Parasite: The Secret Diary of a Landlord. I really enjoyed this non-fiction account of what being a landlord is really like. It is a real eye-opener, written in an entertaining diarised narrative that’s easy to read. If you haven’t read that post yet, please do! I have a lot more praise for it in my post!
Books Read
As of last week’s Sunday Summary post I had read around a third of Parasite: The Secret Diary of a Landlord. With the blog tour post scheduled for Thursday, my priority at the beginning of the week was to finish this in time for the tour. I finished this early on Wednesday evening ready to write my post for the tour the next day.
Since finishing Parasite I haven’t started anything new as I have focussed my attention towards studying for my exam next week. In my downtime, however, I have picked up listening to Jack the Ripper: Case Closed again. I’ve listened to a few more hours of this and I only have 1hr 40mins left to go. The narrative is definitely getting to the wrap-up part, so I expect I’ll be listening to this next week to find out how it all ends!
Books Discovered
Once again, nothing to report here!
Coming Up…
With my exam on Wednesday morning, I won’t be putting any time into my blog in the first couple of days next week. I am going to try and draft a post on Wednesday afternoon/evening though. Failing that, it’ll go live on Thursday instead.
Since I’m going to be a little lighter than usual on the posting schedule, I have decided to post a review of an audiobook I listened to at the beginning of this year. Darkdawn is the conclusion to the Nevernight Chronicles by Jay Kristoff. I pre-ordered the audiobook last year as I had listened to the other two and loved the series already. You can find out more about my thoughts to the conclusion of the series in my post next week!
As always, I’ll wrap up with another Sunday Summary update post at the end of the week.
That’s all from me for now – have a great week and I’ll see you in the next one!
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M. K. Wiseman has degrees in Interarts & Technology and Library & Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her office, therefore, is a curious mix of storyboards and reference materials. Both help immensely in the writing of historical novels. She currently resides in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
