France

Is it written like the Montalbano books? I wasn't keen on the style of them though I thoroughly enjoyed the plots.

Here are Ingie and Dino. Both are rescues.

Kevin was found abandoned in the woods aged 7 weeks. I nicknamed him Kevin the Kitten and he was so beautiful that I was sure we'd find him a home (we already had two cats). By the time we all realised the French won't adopt black cats (silly people!) the name had stuck. Despite her looks Sybs is 3/4 chat du rue but she's always been such a little princess that Sybil seemed to fit.

She's gorgeous. I love black cats as you can see from my avatar who is our Kevin.

He's lovely!

Prepare not to do anything until you finish the Chris Hammers, particularly with first.

I'm rather fed up with Goodreads, the listing your books is rather cumbersome (much simpler on a site like this!) and as for the reviews... Far too many gushing ones from those who were given a free copy and one star reviews from people who sometimes object to a single sentence and so slam the whole book. Example being a biography of a 19th woman that happened to mention Irish people living in conditions akin to slavery in the Caribbean which offended somebody who said that nothing could be compared to the slavery of the Africans so the book was rubbish. I think my favourite asinine Goodreads review was for Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin (French writer, about a cemeery keeper in Northern France' was headed 'Too French for me.'

Oh good! I thought it sounded interesting when I first heard about it. I'll have to wait until it comes out in paperback though.

Kevin is the evil one (he's not really!) - I doubt he's as michievous as Pickett but I'm sure he's a lot fatter! Last time he went to the vet he had to go in a laundry basket because he couldn't fit in my old wicker cat carrier! And the little madam is Sybil,

I love Australian crime novels, they have such a brilliant sense of place, and for me Chris Hammer is right at the top of the pyramid, just edging Jane Harper off the top though she's in the automatically read anything she's written section. Dead Man's Creek takes place along the Murray River and starts when an environmental activist blows up a mini dam keeping water out of an ancient forest and a body is discovered at the foot of the dam. The plot ranges between an Army major who went missing in 1943, a young local who disappeared in 1973, a young girl in love with him and newly promoted detective Nell - who is the young man's niece. As ever it cracks along at an incredible pace, there's a thoroughly satisfying ending with not too much tied up neatly and a strong desire that he'll get on with writing the next book.

And here's an equally cosy Dino saying it's far too early to get up!

This sounds fascinating. Thanks.

Oh what a shame! But thanks anyway.

Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths. From the Amazon blurb "DS Cassie Fitzherbert has a secret - but it's one she's deleted from her memory. In the 1990s when she was at school, she and her friends killed a fellow pupil. Thirty years later, Cassie is happily married and loves her job as a police officer. One day her husband persuades her to go to a school reunion and another ex-pupil, Garfield Rice, is found dead, supposedly from a drug overdose. As Garfield was an eminent MP and the investigation is high profile, it's headed by Cassie's new boss, DI Harbinder Kaur. The trouble is, Cassie can't shake the feeling that one of her old friends has killed again. Is Cassie right, or was Garfield murdered by one of his political cronies? It's in Cassie's interest to skew the investigation so that it looks like the latter and she seems to be succeeding." I've never really got on with the Ruth Galloway books, I don't know why, if I come across one I'll read and finish it but I have no incentive to hunt another out. I got this one because it was a Kobo special offer, the reviews were ecstatic and it sounded very different to Ruth Galloway. It is. Harbinder is a hugely appealing character, the plot moved well and I raced though thinking that maybe I'd done Ruth an injustice and should try her again. Then I got to the denouement. It's a huge let down as if Elly Griffiths had got to 90% through the story without knowing who actually did do it and reached for an unexpected twist like Indy bringing out his gun and shooting the sabre twisting opponent in the market place in Raiders of the Lost Ark, except this twist is far more unlikely and not in the least bit funny. The explanation for other goings on relied solely on the baddie being in absolutely the right place at the right time both to realise their ill deeds were about to be revealed and to put their hand on the perfect murder weapon. In other words tosh. I know detective stories are hardly real life but they do need a smidgeon of credibility. Deeply disappointing after such a cracking start. Still loads of other readers don't appear to mind the ending, I'm obviously in the minority.

I'll have to look this out, thanks. Not my cup of tea but I reckon my husband will thoroughly enjoy this.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Levin was OK but didn't manage to tick the boxes I was hoping it would. It's the story of Sam and Sadie who first meet in hospital aged 12, bonding over their passion for gaming, and their turbulent friendship over the next 20 years or so as they make ground breaking games together, quarrel, make up, get the hump, make up etc etc The driving force of the book is friendship, not romance (thankfully) though to be honest Sadie and Sam were frenemies a lot of the time and I got a bit irritated by Sadie who seemed very ready to take offence. I've seen comments in my bookgroups on Facebook from those who didn't get the book because they aren't gamers, I'm not either but I really enjoyed the the parts about creating the games. I think that for me the main problem was that the author writes mostly YA and she didn't seem to be able to shake off the style or being able to resist asides like 'Believe it or not, back then (late 90's) not everyone had a cell phone'. Still, overall not a bad book and it did keep me deeply absorbed.

The Seeker by S G McClean. London, 1654. Oliver Cromwell is at the height of his power, power resented by many, and he has a network of spies watching out for Royalist plotters. Damian Seeker, utterly loyal to Cromwell is one of those spies.In the city , coffee houses are springing up, hotbeds of plots and gossip. Then John Winter, one of Cromwell's most favoured captains is found dead with a radical lawyer, Elias Ellingworth, who openly fulminates against Cromwell's power grab, is found clutching a bloody knife. It seems open and shut but Seeker is not sure... This is absolutely top notch historical fiction, fast moving, believable nuanced characters, great sense of place and the undoubted deep research worn lightly. For me it also had the bonus of being about a period - the Commonwealth - I know a little of but not much. It's the start of a series and I'm searching out the rest of it and also her previous series about Alexander Seaton which are set in Scotland. Very highly recommended. Incidentally I'm also listening to her latest book which came up as an Audible special, The Bookseller of Inverness, set in the aftermath of the 45 which has so far a gripping plot and a sublime narrator.

Yes, I seem to be on a roll. Fingers crossed that I haven't just put the mouth on it! I can't say that either Ask A Historian or A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet were quite as good but they were both books I was happily staying up to read. I love history, biographies and all sorts of historical facts so Ask A Historian by Greg Jenner a collection of questions like 'Did Anne Boleyn have 3 nipples?' 'What was the first joke book?' and 'When did they first start making bread?' seemed right up my street. It's got loads of nerdy facts that I really enjoy like the Bible doesn't say anywhere that Eve gave Adam an apple( that was Milton), but Greg Jenner tries too hard to be funny. He worked on the BBC version of Horrible Histories, everyone in this family, adults and children, adored the books, but he doesn't have Terry Deary's knack for melding humour and fact and making it thoroughly memorable, with Jenner the sometimes heavy handed "jokes" get in the way. Still it's more than worth reading and it's on special on Kindle and Kobo this month. I was just slightly disappointed by A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, possibly because I've heard so much good about it my expectations were too high. It's got much to commend it, it's good old fashioned space opera with lots of nice people of all species - that might be one of the problems, it might have had more oomph if they hadn't all been so nice and it is very episodic so it lacked a certain amount of cohesion. Still I sat up till 1 o clock finishing it which has to say something!

I'll be interested to read your opinion of Fairy Tale.

If you don't get on with Sharon Bolton or only enjoy her Lacey Flint series and shy away from witchcraft and weird happenings The Buried is not for you. If you do then you'll probably enjoy it a lot. It's a companion piece rather than a sequel to The Craftsman as both books have the same main characters, take place in 1969 and 1999 and are set in the same place, a small town in the shadow of Pendle Hill (hence the witchcraft). This book inevitably lacks some of the surprise of the Craftsman which has one of the most chilling endings I ever read but it's still a very good read. However you really need to read The Craftsman first. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twang Eng about a young Straits Chinese woman's efforts to make a Japanese garden in the highlands of Malaya in memory of her sister who died in a labour camp during the Japanese occupation was shortlisted for the Booker and won other literary prizes. I'm not surprised, it's typical accessible Booker fodder; beautifully written, almost poetic, reflective and covers a difficult period in the country's history, both the Japanese occupation and the state of emergency afterwards when the communist party was trying to overthrow the government (Malaya was still under British rule) and launching terrorist attacks, particularly in the Cameron Highlands where Yun Ling wants to make her garden I thoroughly enjoyed it, I love books that open a light into different cultures and times and the writing is exquisite though I have to admit that it's a tiny bit slow in places, partially because of the lush language and partially because both the narrator and the Japanese gardener she becomes increasingly close to are highly reserved characters. I'm going to search out his previous book and I'm delighted to see he has another one coming out this year.

I have to admit to rather running out of steam when I read this. The writing is terrific and much of it has stayed with me but getting to the end was a slog (a teacher friend who is far more more intellectual than me admitted he felt the same).

1. The Buried - Sharon Bolton ++++1/2 2. Ask A Historian - Greg Jenner ++++ 3. The Garden of Evening Mists - Tan Twan Eng ++++ 4. A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet ++++ 5. The Seeker - S G Mclean +++++ 6. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Levin +++1/2 7. Bleeding Heart Yard - Elly Griffiths ++++ (Should have been ++++1/2 but downgraded because of the ending.) 8. Dead Man's Creek - Chris Hammer ++++1/2 9. The Devil and the Deep Water - Stuart Turton ++++1/2 10. The Cutting Place - Jane Casey ++++1/2 11. Ready for Absolutely Nothing - Susanna Constantine DNF 12. Love, Life and Elephants - Daphne Sheldrick ++++ 13. Bloomsbury Ballerina - Judith Mackrell +++1/2 14. The Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu +++ 15. The Close - Jane Casey ++++1/2 16. A Dry Spell - Clare Chambers ++++ 17. Amongst Our Weapons - Ben Aaronovitch ++++1/2 18. See Them Run - Marion Todd +++ 19. Warlight - Michael Ondaatje ++++1/2 20. Parnassus on Wheels - Christopher Morley +++++ 21. Sybille Bedford - Selena Hastings ++++ 22. Agatha Christie - Lucy Worsley ++++ 22. The Skeleton Key - Erin Kelly ++++1/2 23. Murder Under the Tuscan Sun - Rachel Rhys ++ 24. The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudsley - Sean Lock ++++ 25. Selling Hitler - Robert Harris ++++ 26. Shrines of Gaiety - Kate Atkinson +++ 27. Outback - Patricia Wolff +++ 28. Clara and Olivia - Lucy Ashe ++++ 29. Still Life - Sarah Winman +++++ 30. Playing Under the Piano - Hugh Bonneville ++++ 31. The It Girl - Ruth Ware ++++ 32. Heracy - S J Parris ++++ 33. Red Dirt Road - S R White DNF 34. The Words I Never Wrote - Jane Thynne +++1/2 35. The Russian Doll - Marina Palmer +++1/2 36. The Rising Tide - Ann Cleeves ++++1/2 37. The Vanishing of Class 3B - Jackie Kabler DNF 38. What Abigail Did That Summer - Ben Aaronovitch +++++ 39. The Bullet that Missed - Richard Osman ++++1/2 40. Black as He's Painted - Ngaio Marsh ++++ 41. The Poison Tree - Erin Kelly ++++ 42. The Midnight House - Amanda Geard ++++ 43. Femina - Janina Ramirez ++++ 44. The Hands of the Emperor - Victoria Goddard ++++ 45. The Crown in Crisis - Alexander Lerman ++++1/2 45. A Game of Sorrows - S G Maclean ++++1/2 46. Dead Rich - W B Shaw ++1/2 47. About Time - Jodie Taylor +++++ 49. The Bandit Queens -Parini Shroff ++++1/2 50. The Garnett Girls - Georgina Moore +++ 51. Act of Oblivion - Robert Harris +++ 52. The Heron's Cry - Ann Cleeves +++ 53. The Venetian Game - Philip Gwynne Jones ++++ 54. Daughters of Night - Laura Shepherd - Robinson +++1/2 55. Traitor King - Andrew Lownie ++++ 56. The Bear Bit - S J Maclean ++++1/2 Tall Bones - Anna Bailey DNF 57. This Must Be the Place - Maggie O Farrell ++++1/2 58. The Villa Diana - Alan Moorhead ++++1/2 59. The Serpent's Mark - S W Perry ++++ 60. Crucible of Secrets- S J Maclean ++++1/2 61. The Wonderful World of Jane and Oliver Bloke - Rorie Smith++++ 62. Ghost Girl, Banana - Wiz Wharton ++++ 63. The Satapur Moonstone -Sujata Massey ++++1/2 64. The Match - Harlan Coban ++++1/2 65. Lucy By The Sea - Elizabeth Strout ++++ 66. Venetian Masquerade - Philip Gwynne ++++ 67. Blackout -Connie Willis ++++ 68. Exiles - Jane Harper +++++ 69. Skye's the Limit - Janie Millman +++ 70. The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn ++++ 71. Venetian Gothic - Philip Gwynne Jones ++++ 72. The Devil's Recruit - S J Maclean +++++ 73!; Just Kids - Patti Smith +++ 74. The Cartographers - Peng Shepherd ++++ 75. Mortmain Hall - Martin Edwards ++1/2 76.. All The Wicked Girls - Chris Whittaker++++ 77. Thunderclap - Laura Cumming ++++1/2 . Utopia Avenue - David Michell

Wodehouse is like Shakespeare, you can open him at any page and find a brilliant phrase.

The only things we bothered to watch was the Dollshouse programme and Ghostbusters. It left lots of time for reading and as my daughter had brought one of her library books with her for me to read and had to take it back with her I was rather pleased.

Favourite book cover The Feast by Margaret Kennedy, I saw this in a bookshop in Paris and had to have it. The book was as good as the cover. Picture below Favourite book shop/retailer Galignani , one, if not the, oldest English bookshops on the continent and a browsing delight. My go-to every time I'm in Paris. Audiobook La Belle Sauvage by Phillip Pullman, read by Michael Sheen. The narration is so sublime that the audio is almost better than the book. . Most read author Surprisingly Akbir Mukajee's detective novels set in 1920's Calcutta. My husband had the set and I discovered them. Recommended re-read I didn't re-read any books as such though I did read a couple of books that I'd listened to on audio first, I'll be re-reading Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, definitely. Not worth bothering with The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, it sounded absolutely my cup of tea, but the writing was clumsy, the plot ditto and the homosexual element was thrust at you (incidentally that's not a homophobic issue, I dislike banging on about heterosexual themes just as strongly). Really disappointing The book I most wanted to read in 2022, but didn't I've managed to beg, borrow or buy most of the books I really wanted to read this year but not Amongst Our Weapons bu Ben Aaronovitch. Ah well, it's coming out in paperback soon. Biggest literary let-down of 2022! Probably The Magician by Colm Toibin, by no means the worst book of the year but I generally love anything by Toibin, not this one though. It was a slog, far too long and it seemed as if Toibin was stuck between knowing whether to write a biography or a novel and ending up with a lot of the disadvantages of both. Your recommended classic of 2022! I'm ashamed to admit I don't appear to have read any classics this year! Favourite literary character of 2022! Not sure he's my favourite but the most memorable is definitely Barrington (Barry) Walker from Bernadine Evaristo's Mr Loverman. I chose this for my bookgroup who normally like rather soft books and they were all transfixed, if rather appalled by the gay cruising. I used to live by Clapham Common so I barely noticed that part! Favourite genre of 2022! Not exactly a genre but I discovered that I'd gravitated towards reading a lot of books by Black authors, Bernadine Evaristo, N K Jemisin, Octavia Butler and Brit Bennet among others. The funniest book in 2022! Probably Jodi Taylor's Time Police series (I don't like St Mary's anything as much). Jane and Grint's date makes me giggle every time I think of it. Favourite biography of 2022! Elizabeth of the German Garden by Jennifer Walker which I originally got simply because I was presenting Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim to my book club and wanted background material. She was a fascinating woman, very forward thinking and highly intelligent. Non-fiction recommendation of 2022! A Short History of the World According to Sheep by Sally Coultard, how the modern world has been shaped by sheep and their wool (did you know that Viking sails were made of wool or that the earliest woolen garment discovered is a cloak dating back to 6000BC?) Informative, amusing and full of the sort of facts you can't wait to pass on. Fiction book of the year, 2022 Girl, Woman, Other. Just brilliant. Author of the year, 2022 Bernadine Evaristo. Mr Loverman isn't quite as brilliant as Girl, Woman, Other but even so...