The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths - Review

You know me, I love Elly Griffiths' books and always love when there's a new Ruth Galloway book coming out. I had to wait for this to come out in paperback though, which it did, in August. I picked it up soon after that! I'm aware that it's the penultimate Ruth book, the last one will be out next year! I also knew that this one was set in lockdown in 2020, which puts a whole new slant on things. 

At the beginning of the book it's early 2020 and no one is yet panicking about Covid-19. Ruth is clearing out some of her mum's stuff from her parents' house - her mum died five years previously and her dad, Arthur, is remarried to someone he met at church. Ruth finds old photos and so on, including a photo from 1963 of the cottage that Ruth now lives in. It's a photo with its neighbours, when the cottages painted pink, and the note on the back says Dawn 1963. But why would Jean have a photo of Ruth's cottage, somewhere that she always professed to hate? 

Meanwhile Nelson is investigating an unexpected death. It looks like a suicide, but the victim's bedroom door was locked from the outside. It doesn't feel right to Nelson, so he gets his team to start looking at other deaths where the victim was middle aged or older, and which have been recorded as suicides. They turn up a few, but can't find the link between them all... 

Ruth is called to a body in Tombland, near Norwich cathedral. She thinks it is mediaeval, and properly buried, but her students are obsessed with the idea that it might be a plague body, slung into a plague pit. Two of her students, Eileen and Joe, seem unhealthily obsessed with the body. Ruth also has a new next door neighbour, Zoe, who is a nurse. Lockdown hits, and Ruth is glad to not be alone on the saltmarshes with only Kate for company. Cathbad rises to the challenge of homeschooling the children, and starts doing Zoom yoga with Ruth and Kate and then Zoe too. 

Michelle is away in Blackpool with little George, and has been for weeks, meaning Nelson is by himself at home, so then he ends up staying at Ruth's, because of course. Then someone catches Covid and is extremely ill... I honestly thought this person would die. As a writer, if I was coming to the end of such a long series, I might start killing people off too.... 

I loved this book - it's odd to look back at what is such recent history but what feels like so long ago now. I am so looking forward to the last one, and am giving this five out of five.

The Amazing Edie Eckhart: The Big Trip by Rosie Jones - Review

As soon as I reviewed The Amazing Edie Eckhart back in July, someone told me that there was a sequel coming out, so I ordered it immediately. It arrived on the day it came out in mid August, and I picked it up nearly straight away. I'm so glad this is going to be a series - it really deserves to be. As a reminder, Edie has cerebral palsy and she's in Year 7 at high school. Author, comedian Rosie Jones, also has cerebral palsy. Edie lives in Bridlington with her mum, dad, and baby brother Louis.

At the beginning of the book it's Christmas, and then it's back to school. Edie gets given an English assignment where she must give a presentation about herself, where she answers the question 'Who am I?' But she ends up not completing the assignment because she isn't sure who she is! She is questioning herself, and that includes her relationship with Flora. Does she want to be Flora's girlfriend? If so, how should she ask her?

There's a half term drama trip, and Edie persuades her parents to let her go. She is a bit worried about how she'll get on, but she's determind to be independent. But the school ends up going with a different school, who have a very strict teacher, Mrs Hargreaves. She makes them get up at six am every morning to do a run before they start their drama workshops. She also tells Edie that she speaks too slowly to be given a speaking part in the end of week play, which really upsets Edie. She tries to tell Mr Murphy but can't. 

This experience sours Edie's feelings about drama club so she ends up not going after half term. She does spend lots of time with her friends, including Poppy, Georgia and Chloe, and of course Oscar. I love the friendships shown in these books - they're really cute and supportive. Then there's FLORA! We like her. I won't give any spoilers but I did love the book and am giving it four out of five. 

Heartstopper Vol 4 by Alice Oseman - Review

I read the last book (so far!) in the Heartstopper series back in August. I think this was my favourite so far and really cemented my love of the series. Charlie and Nick go through some rough stuff in this book which brings them closer together, but they also learn that they can't always fix what's wrong with each other. A valuable adult lesson! 

Charlie struggles with an eating disorder in this book, which began in Vol 3 and which comes to a head here. Most of this story is told in flashback by Nick, which worked well as it allowed Nick to sum things up and let the author avoid some things which may have been really triggering. Charlie spends time in hospital and Nick talks to his mum a lot about it. I liked this a lot. 

Nick also wants to come out to his dad, but struggles to see him as he lives in Paris. He visits, at the end of the book, and there's a brilliant bit where Nick does come out and there's all drama. In the meantime, there's more stuff at school of course, and a lot of cute bits. I'm giving this five out of five and now I really want Vol 5 to come quickly! 

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell - Review

I have been seeing the sequel to this book, The Family Remains, absolutely all over the place, and my interest was piqued. I reserved both books at the library and currently I'm 9th in the queue for the sequel. But this one arrived and I quickly picked it up. It is really interesting and kept me turning the pages. I read Lisa Jewell way back in the day when I was at uni. I was quite a fan of 'chick lit' then and read her first few books. Then I hadn't thought about her again until I saw these two books, so I'm surprised she's turned to thrillers, but I was very willing to give it a go. And I'm glad I did!

The story has three separate strands. Firstly there is Libby, who is just turning twenty-five. This is pertinent, because she has been left a house in a trust set up by her parents, Henry and Martina Lamb. If neither her brother nor sister turned up before her birthday, the house got left to her. Libby lives in St Albans and enjoys her job, but it doesn't thrill her. Being left a house in Chelsea worth several million pounds will change her life beyond recognition. She is adopted and lost her adoptive father; she's quite self sufficient. Now she owns this ridiculously expensive house. She visits it a couple of times, and on the second occasion she is certain someone else is there. 

She googles the story and finds an extensive piece by a journalist called Miller Roe, which explains that three people were found dead in the house - Henry Lamb, Martina Lamb, and another man with the initials DT. There was a suicide note and the house looked very much like a cult had been living in it. The bodies had been there for around three days - but there was a baby, Libby, upstairs in a cot. She had been well looked after and clearly not abandoned three days before. Neighbours mentioned that there were teenage children living in the house - but where did they go to? 

The next strand of the story is Lucy. She is living in Nice with her two children, Marco and Stella. They are homeless because Lucy makes her living playing the fiddle to scrounge enough money together for a room in a house, but it's broken so she can't work. Marco mentions that he has seen his dad, Michael. Lucy was abused by Michael and hates him, but she knows she needs his help. She has to swallow her pride and go to him. She has a note in her phone saying "The baby is twenty-five" - will she travel back to London to find Libby?

Then the third strand is Henry Lamb, Henry and Martina's son. Brought up in the house and in the lap of luxury for the first ten years of his life, Henry documents the decline of the family and how Martina, Henry, and David ended up dead. The house turned into an abusive commune and Henry has been left quite damaged by what happened. David, his wife Sally, and their children Phin and Clemecy moved in, and everything declined.

I thought this was such a believable book - I liked how everything happened incrementally. I liked Libby and Lucy a lot, and was intrigued to find out what had happened to Henry and co. I am giving this four out of five. 

Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman - Review

So here's the thing about Carol Goodman: I love her. I read her first three books way back in the mid noughties and loved them. The Seduction of Water is one of my favourite books of all time, and I liked The Lake of Dead Languages and The Drowning Tree a lot too. I made both my parents read The Seduction of Water; I have a very clear memory of reading it while on holiday in Annecy in 2004. But where I had got the book from, I don't know! I know that my uni friend Katie and I shared a lot of books at that time. We had a cupboard in our shared house with books in, so it's possible I picked it up there. 

I read those three books and then I never read anything else by Carol Goodman. I can't explain why! But I had added some of them to my wishlist and recently when I needed to get free delivery, I added this to my basket. I picked it up soon after and although it's very dense, I very much enjoyed it. 

The thing about Carol Goodman's books is that they're always based in New England, usually in upstate New York or similar, and they always feature strong female characters, and there's always a lot of mythology and folklore involved. This one is no different. Our main character is Meg Rosenthal, who is in her mid to late thirties and who is driving to Arcadia Falls, an elite school in upstate New York, to be their new folklore teacher. With her is her sixteen year old daughter, Sally. Meg's husband Jude died less than a year ago. The two met while at art school, but Meg fell pregnant and dropped out, and Jude left art to work for Morgan Stanley and support the family. He had a heart attack and died the previous October, leaving debts that Meg didn't know they had. She has had to sell the huge McMansion they lived in and take any job she could. Hence Arcadia Falls.

She already knows of the school, because she is doing her PhD thesis on the fairy tales written by two of the school's founders, Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhardt. Vera was the benefactor of the school; the old buildings belonged to her family. Lily was her partner, and also the teller of some of the fairy tales, including one about a changeling girl which Meg used to read to Sally. Lily was also the muse of an artist called Virgil Nash; several of his paintings and his sculptures remain in the school. 

Meg and Sally arrive at the school in dense fog, and find their on campus cottage dusty and not cleaned. The severe dean, Ivy St Clare, admonishes two girls she sent to clean it. They are Chloe and Isabel and they have quite a rivalry going on. Isabel has been the May Day goddess in one of the pagan rituals the school enacts, and Chloe is about to take over from her. When the ritual happens, Isabel goes missing from the ridge above the school, which happens to be where Lily died in the late 1940s. 

Ivy St Clare gives Meg Vera's journals and books, to help with her thesis. Meg starts to uncover exactly what happened in the bohemian colony of artists in the twenties, thirties, and forties. 

I found the story intriguing and wanted to get to the end. I liked Meg a lot and I felt for her with the gap that had grown between her and Sally in the months since Jude's death. I guessed some of the twists but not others, which kept me interested. I'm giving this four out of five and I will definitely need to read the rest of Carol's books!

Heartstopper Vol 3 by Alice Oseman - Review

I was really excited to get to Vol 3 of Heartstopper because I don't know this part of the story! Vol 1 and 2 are what has been in the first series that has aired on Netflix, so this was all new. I loved it! First of all Nick's brother comes home from uni and he's kind of a dick towards Nick and Charlie, asking if Charlie has 'turned Nick gay'. Nick is clearly annoyed and very protective towards Charlie. 

They talk about coming out to other people, but decide not to. Charlie also wants to tell Tao about them, but can't seem to find the right time. Nick sits his GCSEs and then they both go on a school trip to Paris, with a bunch of other people. They share a room - but not a bed! - and start trying to have fun. But Nick's worried about trying to meet up with his dad, and Charlie's barely eating, which is worrying everyone. Charlie keeps trying to talk to Tao, too. And Tao is busy with Elle!

I loved the book, it was nice to see some story I didn't know and I loved the trip to Paris. I loved the queer teachers! I loved the slumber party and I loved that Nick and Charlie had some really deep chats. They're both also desperate to say 'I love you' to the other, which is just toooo cute. I'm giving this five out of five! 

The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths - Review

You know I love Elly Griffiths, I've read almost everything she's published under that name, and I've got three new books by her to get to too, which I'll do soon I promise! But I was intrigued when someone in my book club chose The Woman in Blue for us to read. I decided to reread it and I'm excited to see what everyone else thought about this book. I've said I will take my other books of Elly's if anyone would like to borrow them. I wonder if reading just one out of context will make sense to people? I also wonder if the person who chose the book has read the others in the series - unfortunately I can't ask her because she's dropped out of book club, but we decided to meet informally in August anyway to discuss this book.

So, last time I read this book I didn't give it a glowing review actually, but over the years since then I've remembered it as one I liked a lot, so I went into it with that mentality, and have only read my previous review after finishing the book, and I disagree with myself five years ago! I remembered the mystery of this book much more than some of the others, and I'm pleased to have had the chance to reread. 

At the beginning of the book Ruth is contacted by a woman she knew way back when, when she was an archaeology student. Hilary is now a Church of England priest, and she's been receiving some nasty letters about the place of women as priests. She's about to come to Norfolk to attend a course in Walsingham, a place of pilgrimage, and she wants to meet up with Ruth. Ruth is intrigued, but a little wary.

Meanwhile Cathbad is catsitting for a friend near St Simeon's Church when he sees a vision of a woman looking a lot like the Virgin Mary - wearing white and blue. He doesn't think anything of it until the body of a young woman is found the next morning. She was a patient at a local rehab clinic and is a model. She made a couple of friends there, one of whom quickly comes under suspicion. 

There's lots of suspects in this book, a lot of dodgy people, a whole bunch of red herrings. Nelson finds out about Michelle's affair with Tim, and I can't quite remember how that resolves itself, but he's also quite nasty to Ruth which I do not like! I loved the reread and am giving it five out of five.