A Legacy of Murder

Finished June 23

A Legacy of Murder by Connie Berry

This is the second book in the Kate Hamilton mystery series, set around American antiques dealer Kate as she visits the United Kingdom. Here, she is visiting her daughter Christine. Christine is starting an internship at the estate of Finchley Hall in Long Barston, where she will be organizing the archives. Kate will also be visiting with Tom Mallory, a policeman she met on her recent visit to Scotland.

Kate begins her visit with a tour of the estate, but the tour begins late, and ends abruptly when one of the tour attendees, a young boy, discovers a body in the lake. The body is one of the other interns and Kate's observant nature and curious mind have her giving tips to Tom, who is in charge of the investigation, and digging deeper herself. 

She gets to know local antique dealer Ivor Tweedy, who proves very helpful, and becomes friendly with the owner of the estate, Lady Barbara. There is an odd collection of items known as the Finchley Hoard, that was buried to protect them from theft and then rediscovered more than a century later. This collection will be on display for the first time during an upcoming ticketed event at the estate. Lady Barbara's butler Mugg is worried about the possibility of theft and security for the event is ramped up due to the recent death. 

There has also been mention of a 'strange foreign gentleman' hanging about nearby and rumours link him to Lady Barbara's missing son. Christine, Kate's daughter, is also having relationship issues, something common for her, but these issues bleed into other happenings at the estate and bring Christine under suspicion in the investigation. Kate is now motivated more strongly to get to the bottom of things.

I like this series, finding the antique aspect interesting and I like Kate's character for the most part. She is relatable and interesting. 

Death on Beguiling Way

Finished June 19

Death on Beguiling Way by Patricia McLinn

This is the third book in the Secret Sleuth series. Sheila Mackey has started a new life in small town Haines Tavern, Kentucky. She and her new friend Clara go to yoga twice a week. One evening, their usual instructor is away with a more energetic substitute leading the class. When they go to class the following morning they find their instructor from the previous evening was killed just outside the studio and the police are on the scene. 

While the police talk about the murder being random, Sheila and Clara are sure it wasn't and begin to investigate. As usual, their dogs Gracie and Lulu are helpful in engaging with others and in providing a reason to be places. 

Sheila also has new friend Teague reconfiguring the bedroom closets in her house, bringing along his dog Murphy when he works there. Teague, an ex-cop and now teacher and handyman is discouraging of the amateur detective work, but seems to have inside knowledge of his own. 

I enjoyed this plot, with themes of financial fraud, family disfunction, and women trying to restart their lives. A light, engaging read. 

The Breakwater House

Finished June 18

The Breakwater House by Pascale Quiviger, translated by Lazer Laderhendler

This literary novel follows Lucie as she goes through a difficult period in her life, with flashbacks to her past. Lucie grew up with her single mom Aurore, struggling financially. Early on she meets Claire, who is only five days apart by birth, but who lives with her wealthy mother Suzanne. The girls are almost inseparable. Aurore wove stories about her own past and relatives that she told the girls, but when Lucie turned fifteen, Aurore left and began a life elsewhere. Lucie grew even closer to Claire and when Lucie in turn has a child on her own, Claire moves in with her and becomes another parental figure in her daughter Odysśee's life. 

When tragedy comes into their lives, Lucie struggles, and she eventually finds a house by the sea, where an older woman lives, that is for sale. When she moves to the remote house, with no connection to the rest of the world she finds strange occurrences, odd dreams that bleed into her waking life, and time that passes in an elusive fashion. 

This is a story of grief and loss and how one woman experiences it. Captivating. 

Every Time We Say Goodbye

Finished June 18

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner

This is the third book in the series The Jane Austen Society. It is set mostly in 1954-1955 with flashbacks to a related storyline in 1943. The main character is Vivien Lowry, a British playwrights. She's recently premiered her second play on the London stage, but it wasn't well received by critics. Her contacts, which include several well-known women including Peggy Guggenheim, Daphne du Maurier, and Ava Gardner, arrange a job in Italy for her, working on the script of an American director. Many of those working on the film have left the United States due to the McCarthy investigations, including her fellow writer American Jew Levi Bassano, a young man who served with a Field Photo unit in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. The lead actress in the film is American Claudia Jones, a beautiful biracial woman who passes for white. As she engages with the film community in Rome, we see other real people enter the story, including a young Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, and Gina's husband Milko Skofic. Vivien becomes friends with Claudia, who recently starred in a film as a nun and who is making some life decisions of her own. We also see the strong influence the Vatican had on the film industry at the time. 

Vivien is still coming to terms with the disappearance of her fiancé David, who had been captured by Italian forces during the war and then gone missing. She hopes to be able to gather more information while she is still in Italy. 

An Italian director is looking to do a film about a young woman known only as La Scholaretta, who was a partisan during the war and who was executed for the assassin of a Nazi SS Commander. He also has a personal connection to her story. In the 1943 portion of the plot, we see this young woman in the hours surrounding the assassination and her motivations and actions during this time.

I found it interesting to see how these two plots came together and how the repercussions of the war were still being felt during this time. As part of the series, this book centres women who make their own careers and decisions and who support each other doing so. 

I also enjoyed learning that the author is Canadian. 

Wonderland Creek

Finished June 16

Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin

This historical novel is set in 1936. Alice Ripley lives with her parents in a suburb of Chicago. Her father is a pastor and while Alice trained as a teacher, she wasn't good at classroom discipline and went into work at her local public library instead. 

As the book begins, Alice's fiancé breaks up with her, which she has a hard time accepting although she honestly doesn't have strong feelings for him. She also loses her job due to funding. When her aunt and uncle take a road trip to a resort, she gets them to drop her and hundreds of books that she collected for a rural library in Kentucky off at that library, arranging for them to pick her up again a week later. But she finds a situation quite different than she expected. The librarian is a man, which she didn't expect since she'd been corresponding with him and assumed the name Leslie was a female one. There isn't room for her to stay anywhere in the small village without putting someone else out of a bed, and Leslie (known as Mack to his friends) is also looking after the dying black woman who raised him.

When Leslie gets shot and badly wounded, Alice finds herself stepping into his shoes as she manages the household, the library, and even takes on duties as one of the Packhorse Librarians working out of the small library. 

I liked how Alice grew from her experiences, but also had an influence on the community through her love of reading and her dedication to literacy. She overcame many of her prejudices and fears and found real relationships among the hill people as she learned about their struggles, include the union movement, the local feud, and secrets kept close. 

Good Taste

Finished June 16

Good Taste: A Novel In Search of Great Food by Caroline Scott

This historical novel takes place beginning in 1932 and follows writer Stella Douglas. Stella recently finished a biography called The Marvellous Mrs. Raffald about a female cookbook writer. It's doing okay, but isn't a best-seller. She has plans for another biography, but when her publisher Mr. Williamson asks her to take on a more broad-ranging project, a history of British food, she feels both honoured and overwhelmed. She isn't sure how to decide what to include and how to treat the inevitable foreign influences that exist in the nation's food traditions. 

She has a budget that allows some travel, but decides to place advertisements in some regional newspapers asking for recipes. Stella's best friend of many years is Michael, a chef in a French restaurant in London. She lived in London until her mother became ill and she moved back to her home village in Yorkshire. She rents a furnished row cottage called Celandine Cottage and visits her father regularly. When she goes up to London, she often stays with Michael and spends time with him and their mutual friend Lucien, a Frenchman who has unrequited feelings for Michael. 

When Stella's car breaks down on one of her information gathering trips, she is rescued by antique dealer Freddie, and he soon insinuates himself into her life. As she finds his influence affecting her choices, she starts to question herself and decide what she is comfortable with as a writer. 

This is a book that raises a number of things to think about. These include what real friendships look like, the fear of other cultures, anti-immigrant mindsets, and how to move forward from grief. It gave me a lot to think about and was relatable to things happening in the world today. 

I loved the discussions around food and folklore. The inclusion of diary entries and letters responding to Stella's ads gave another layer to the writing. 

Scott was inspired by the real life Florence White, author of Good Things in England, which was published in 1932. White is considered the first female freelance food journalist in England. 

Almost Over It

Finished June 11

Almost Over It by Kylie Gilmore

This is the first in a series, Clover Park Charmers, and a light romance. William (Will) Levi is an orthodontist with a lot of baggage. When he was in college, he drove impaired and put his older brother Charlie in a coma. His brother recovered, but was never the same mentally and walks with a limp. His brother was going to take over their father's orthodontics practice, but dropped out of college and lives a less structured life. Will's former girlfriend fell for Charlie when they went to visit them, and dumped Will. Now, managing the practice with a new orthodontist, Tony, on staff, he takes his job seriously. His retired father, Brian, had him take over the musical portion at the community summer theatre while Brian and his wife went on a cruise. Also involved with the theatre was ex-Broadway dancer Jasmine Davis, and they clashed a lot. Now Jasmine has her dance studio next door to his office and lives in the apartment over it. 

They clash over noise, parking, and other topics, but the chemistry is there. Will finds himself thinking about how both Jasmine and him have perfect bites, and how they would align when they kiss, which seemed a very dentist thing to think about. He also has a feral rescue cat, Sweetie, who torments him, but who he also can't return to the shelter as he knows she'd be put down. 

We see into both their family dynamics, and there are some very spicy scenes. An entertaining read.