Arsenic and Tea by Robin Stevens - Reread

I read this book back in 2015, and although it's the second in the Detective Society series, I actually read it third. When I was reading Top Marks for Murder recently, there's a lot of mention of what happened in Arsenic and Tea, and I found it was all a bit muddy in my mind, so I decided to reread it.

The book takes place at Daisy's family home, Fallingford, over Easter, and over Daisy's birthday. Hazel and Daisy are there with their schoolmates, Beanie and Kitty. Daisy's brother Bertie is there with his friend Stephen, and their old aunt Saskia is there. There are several domestic staff, and Daisy's parents. And Mr Curtis. It becomes clear that Lady Hastings has been having a dalliance with Mr Curtis, and that he is a very suspicious character. Daisy is outraged, but trying to keep herself in check, and Hazel is just bewildered by the weird behaviour of the English upper classes. Then Mr Curtis dies, and the girls must try to discover what happened to him before the police arrive.

It's interesting, reading this back. I had forgotten exactly what happened, and that Lady Hastings' affair was common knowledge. In Top Marks for Murder she's had to kind of retire from public life, and I couldn't remember why. Nothing really seems too scandalous to me, but I understand that for the time period, it probably was. I also understand why the girls are outraged - they are fourteen after all.

I do feel like I can see that the series has matured a lot between the second book and the most recent one. It's happened so gradually so as to not really be noticeable, but I'm glad it has matured, and I think it's been done well. I loved the reintroduction to Daisy's family and family home, and I hope we get to go back there before the series ends.

The Future Homemakers of America by Laurie Graham - Review

Let me tell you about this book. It's a reread, which is unusual for me. I had put off rereading it in case it didn't live up to how great I remembered it being. But I'm glad to say it did live up to it, and I'm so glad I read it again because I really love it.

It must have been 2002 or 2003 and I went to visit my aunt in Surrey, and crossed London via Tube to get to Waterloo station. On the tube I saw a woman reading this book and I was intrigued by the cover. A couple of weeks later I went on holiday and saw the book in the airport for sale, so bought it and read it.

At uni I lived with a girl called Katie, who is still a friend of mine, and she and her mum had really similar taste in books to me, so I took this and lent it to them. Katie's mum bought lots of books and we had a whole cupboard full in our house. I remember this really fondly as I didn't read much as a teenager (I was too into music and just read Kerrang and the NME) but had fallen in love with reading at university. I'm pretty sure I spent most of my first year curled up in bed reading a novel.

I remembered this being good, and I remembered some of the basic storyline, but I didn't remembers the ins and outs. Then last week I heard that there's now a sequel, called The Early Birds, so I immediately ordered it. I thought I'd better reread this in order to know the story before I read the sequel, but like I say I was slightly cautious because I wanted it to be as good as I remembered!

The story concerns six women. Five of them are Americans, and all married to airmen, and are all living in England, in Norfolk, at the airbase there. There's Lois, from NY, married to Herb. There's Gayle, younger than the others, married to Okey. There's Betty, Ms Homemaker herself, married to Ed. There's Audrey, who has ambitions of her husband Lance climbing the ladder, and finally there's Peggy, our narrator, who's married to Vern. Peggy and Betty were at school together in Texas and they've met the others along the way. It's the early 1950s and King George VI dies, so Betty makes the five of them and their kids go to see his funeral train pass close by. While there, they meet Kath, Norfolk born and bred, and make friends with her.

The novel then takes us through the next forty years of these women's lives. Through phone calls and letters and visits, we see them have children and grandchildren, get divorced, leave the military, get jobs, have careers, and so on and so forth. The book is written in a really chatty way which draws you in while the action dances around. We see pivotal points in history, like the death of John F Kennedy and the first man on the moon. We uncover secrets and make our own assumptions about the people Peggy describes. It's laugh out loud funny at times, and it's always pithy and often moving. I am so glad that I still absolutely loved it and I've recommended it to a few more friends. I am so excited to read the sequel now!