Madeleine's Book Log 2025

[Madeleine]

The Man in Black and other stories by Elly Griffiths - I finally finished this one, it's a collection of short stories featuring many of her regular characters plus a few new ones as well,some are spooky, some feature a crime, some are only a few pages long, others a bit longer - the longest story, and one of the best ones, is a Ruth Galloway/Harry Nelson tale where the pair find themselves on a Nile cruise, supposedly won by Harry. Two are Christmas themed, with one again featuring Ruth and her cat, which I read last year for Xmas, and I recently decided to finish the book.  The tales are all very readable, with the author's trademark humour, and it's a good collection for dipping into if you don't feel like tackling a single book, and some are very suited to this time of year.  8/10

[Madeleine]

The Bookseller of Inverness by S G MacLean - this is a stand alone novel by the author of the Alexander Seaton and Damian Seeker series, and is set 6 years after the battle of Culloden, one of the defining events in Scottish history, and, having played dead to survive the battle, Iain MacGillivrary is living a quiet life as the titular bookseller, until a stranger comes into his bookshop and starts to search through his old books, so determinedly that Iain has to force him to leave the shop, but next day, when he opens up, he finds the man murdered, by a weapon bearing the Jacobite symbol of a white cockade. Once the man is identified, it turns out that he is looking for the Book of Lost Names, which contains codes for names of various people who may or may not be traitors, and when people on that list start to also be murdered, Iain finds himself being dragged back into recent history, as well as dealing with the return of his absent father, who has to be kept hidden due to the nature of his own mission - to restore the King to the throne.  This took me a while to get into, and I did find it hard to keep up with the historical details, and who was a Jacobite and who wasn't.  I must admit this is a period in history which I know virtually nothing about (apart from watching Outlander!) and I did find it difficult to follow at times.  It was well-written and thrilling at times, with genuine tension as Iain and his father tried to evade the Redcoats, but I have to say I prefer her historical crime novels. Her research must have been phenomenal. 8/10

[Madeleine]

The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell - this was my Victober read and whilst it's not one of her spookiest or most Gothic books, it certainly caused a few shivers with it's great atmosphere and vivid characters.  It has that favourite Victorian theme of madness or obsession, in this case with a watch supposedly suffused with the essence of Melopemene, the Tragic Muse, which is appropriate given that most of the action (and deaths!) takes place in the Mercury Theatre.  We see the story through the eyes of Jenny, a young woman who's struggling to keep her family (herself and 2 younger siblings) together after their older brother's treachery leaves her without a job.  Until she receives an offer from the seemingly benevolent Mrs Dyer, whose husband owns the Mercury Theatre, and who has a leading actress in need of a dresser.  The pay is excellent and Mrs Dyer offers to help Jenny and her family out in other ways, but Jenny soon finds out that more is asked of her than a simple job.  The main theme of the book is selling your soul to the devil, and it starts and finishes with performances of the play Dr Faustus.  The watch is passed from actor to actor, and whilst the actors may get the role of their dreams, there is an awful price to pay.  Jenny's relationship with her volatile actress, Lilith, is difficult at first but gradually she becomes more protective of the star, as she realised that both are being manipulated, plus strange things happen around Lilith.  But who is controlling who?  At times I wondered if Jenny herself was the unwitting manipulator, and as the book went on it did get more predictable and I did guess how it was going to finish.  I did like Jenny, with her irrepressible attitude and kindness, and even grew to like Lilith eventually.  Well-written and easy to read. 8/10

[Madeleine]

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths - this is the first in a new series by the author of the popular Ruth Galloway books, and it's another crime series, but the twist here is that our small (and secret) team of detectives can travel back in time.  The main character, Ali Dawson, works with the cold case team, and so far the time travelling has been fairly limited, in one instance going back to London just before Covid started to hit, and the visits have been brief.  However, when Ali is asked to clear the name of someone suspected of being part of a sinister group whose initiation ceremony involved killing a woman, she has to go back to 1850, for the "suspect" is the ancestor of a prominent MP, who also happens to be her son's boss.  Almost the first thing Ali sees when she goes into the suspect's house is a dead woman, so she finds herself investigating a historical murder, and even worse, she realises that she is trapped in 1850, as someone else has taken her place to go to the 21st century - is the time traveller another murderer?  And has he/she gone to the future to commit a murder there?  This was a thoroughly enjoyable read, and the characters in 1850 were just as interesting as those in the present day.  Ali's attempts at staying unsuspected in 1850 were good as well.  A promising start to a new series.  8/10