Winter by Val McDermid - Review

I got this book with one of my Waterstones vouchers, I bought it not long after Christmas in my haul then, and I knew I wanted to read it before this winter was over. I kept meaning to pick it up and finally got round to it at the beginning of March. I don't know about you, but winter returned with a vengeance at the beginning of March - we had sleet, hail, and tons of wind! So it was perfect to read this book then. 

This is only a short book and apparently it's one of a series on each of the seasons, by different authors. I would really like to read the other ones so maybe I'll seek them out. My review won't be very long because it really is a short book, but I really enjoyed it, and recommend it. 

Apparently Val settles down each winter to write a new novel, so it's a time of creativity for her, a time to hunker down and work. I really liked knowing that about her writing structure, it was interesting as I've read a lot of her novels. She also writes a lot about her Scottish childhood and the brutality and beauty of a Scottish winter. I found her writing really evocative of the time and space and learnt a lot about Scotland in the 1950s and 60s. Did you know for example that the puritanical church didn't celebrate Christmas so it wasn't a bank holiday in Scotland until the mid 1960s, which explains why they celebrated New Year/Hogmanay so much more! So interesting. 

I lent the book to my friend Morag, who I go to craft club with, and who is only a couple of years old than Val. She is Scottish herself - obviously, with a name like Morag - and I thought she would find it really interesting and evocative of her own childhood too. 

I'm giving it five out of five and will definitely read it again!

Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles - Review

I of course have heard of Richard Coles' books and I even caught one episode of the TV show and quite liked it, but I wouldn't have picked up the book ever I don't think. But someone chose it for our book club choice in March, so I got it to read. And I didn't rate it at all and definitely won't bother reading any more of his books! Hey, at least I know that now. By the time you read this I will have been to book club and I am interested to see what other people thought of it, because I just didn't like it much.

I know Richard is a Church of England vicar of course and some of the stuff about the inner workings of the church was both interesting and funny, but I felt there was too much of it that it bogged down the book. The main character is Canon Daniel Clement. His parish is semi rural and has a typical parish church. There are the flower ladies and the local archivist and the local teachers etc, and there's also the Lord of the manor up at the big house, who is the patron of the church. Daniel is considering putting a toilet into the church - which was a whole thing in the C of E like thirty five years ago - and the flower ladies are outraged because they want a bigger room and because the pews - oh god, the pews - are historic, blah blah blah. Daniel thinks this will be his biggest problem but then Anthony, cousin to his lordship, is found murdered in the pews (oh god, the pews!!!). 

Daniel lives with his mother, Audrey, who is a gossipy woman who worries about his far too much, and they're also joined by his brother Theo, who is an actor. He's about to be a vicar in a TV show so he's keen to shadow Daniel but he's kind of just in the way. There is a lot about the gossipy old women of the village which I did enjoy; they're very true to life and I loved how they tried to get one up on each other. The manor house was a convalescence home during World War Two, so there's a lot of history there which becomes pertinent to the plot. 

I was confused by the sheer number of characters, some of whom have very similar names, so I think there could have been some cut out there. I was confused about the time period too, I found it very hard to decide when the book was set. I decided on around 1990, but I'm really not sure. I would have liked something concrete about that. 

I'm giving this three out of five ish in general. I didn't hate it but it needed a better edit and the story got bogged down in places. 

The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas - Review

 

I bought this recently when I was browsing in Waterstones with a voucher. The blurb appealed to me so I thought I'd give it a go. I've never heard of Scarlett Thomas and was intrigued; I love to discover new authors so it was worth a shot. 

However, I didn't like the book very much. I thought it was confusing and trying too hard to be better than it was, to have like a twist in the tale to make the reader rethink the whole book. But this didn't happen, so it didn't work. 

The book is told in a few different media, which adds to the confusion. The first, longest part, is a letter from Evelyn to her new husband, Richard. They are on their honeymoon on a Greek island and have arrived at a villa owned by Isabella. Something happened at their wedding that neither of them want to talk about. They spent the first week of their honeymoon with Richard's best friend Paul, and his latest girlfriend, Becky. The four of them had fun together in their cheap hotel, sunbathing all day and then eating at the local taverna all night. But Paul and Becky have left and Evelyn and Richard have gone to the villa. The stay was a wedding present from Richard's parents and Evelyn is not thrilled. 

Isabella is odd, and the honeymoon suite is odd too. Evelyn would like another room but is told only that one is available. One day she leaves a not for Richard which then disappears; things like this keep happening. Isabella gives her the cold shoulder while showering affection on Richard. He gets a full English breakfast and when Evelyn asks for fruit she gets just unripe melon. She's uncomfortable and wants to leave but Richard makes out like she's just overreacting. 

Then there is the story of the sleepwalkers. The year previously, at the end of the summer season, just before the annual storm rolled in, an older couple were staying in the villa. James, the husband, who was experiencing some kind of religious delusion, went for a walk and ended up in the sea, and Claire (I think that was her name) followed him, and they both ended up drowned. Evelyn is disturbed by the story. She's also obsessed with some young people who she keeps seeing around the place; she thinks they're some kind of Turkish pop band. This part of the story just seemed totally irrelevant and although it was resolved at the end I don't think it was done to justice.

The second part of the book is Richard's letter to Evelyn, which reveals what happened at the wedding, which is a massive secret; I liked this part of the book a lot. Richard is unlikeable but his part reveals that Evelyn isn't the innocent she pays herself as either. She used to be the housekeeper for his parents, which adds a different spin on their relationship.

The next bits of the book are some transcripts and some half scribbled notes. I didn't feel like this worked a lot, it just left me a bit cold. The last part is another letter, but how it ended just really annoyed me. I'm giving this two and a half out of five. 

A Spot of Folly by Ruth Rendell - Review

After I enjoyed the Ruth Rendell book Shake Hands For Ever back in October, I thought I would like to read something else by her so I reserved three books by her from the library. I then renewed those loans a bunch of times, but never mind, that's what libraries are for! I did however pick this book up eventually at the end of February. 

I really enjoyed it. It's a book of short stories and they all kept my interest and were amusing. They all seemed typical of the type of people that she would write novels about - posh middle Englanders in somewhat boring marriages in a lot of cases. A lot of the stories had a twist in the tale with unexpected endings, or endings that make the reader go Ohhhh. I love short stories like that. 

There's also a ghost story which I really liked. There's a long story about a woman who steals things from people who have annoyed her. That comes back to bite her in the bum in a really unusual way; I thought it was well done. One of the stories was written under Rendell's pen name, Barbara Vine, which was interesting to read too. 

In general this was a good read, just the kind of thing I needed. I'm giving it four out of five. 

Girls to the Front by Lucy Nichol - Review

I got this book from my Secret Santa at Christmas, but I know who that was! For the past couple of years, Lee's family has done a secret Santa where each adult just buys presents for one other adult, up to the value of £60. It makes things a lot cheaper, and it means each adult can choose things they'd really like. in 2025 Lee and I chose a new toaster and kettle that we wanted for our kitchen, but they were only £30 so we could choose other things we wanted too. I said I would  like champagne because I love champagne. My Santa was Libby, one of my sisters in law, who knows I love books. She got me the kettle, a bottle of champagne that I have not yet drunk, and this book. It's set in the north east where Lee's family is from, and where Libby lives, and I really appreciated that! 

The beginning of the book sees a woman called Roma in police custody. She is lying about what happened with the body she has been found with, but is obviously covering for someone. We then go back to a few weeks ago in Roma's story. She works at a place called Electric Dreams which sells old video games and DVDs and stuff. Roma had some kind of breakdown previously and had to leave her graduate job, so she works there instead of something more stressful. She enjoys the work and her colleagues though. She lives with her two best friends, Jonny and Leila, and they definitely care for each other and all of that. 

At work they often get given boxes of house clearance stuff. In one such box, Roma discovers a home video accompanied by a menacing note. She is intrigued and goes to some trouble to watch the video (which is like thirty years old by the time she finds it). On it, there is a video of a young woman passed out on a sofa in a hotel room, and some men talking about how they're going to assault her. The accompanying note identifies these men as members of the band The Razor Heads, who often played in a local venue. Roma is disturbed by what she has seen and is determined to take the video to the police. She begins to get a bit obsessed with discovering what happened to the woman on the video, and her flatmates are concerned about her. 

In a parallel narrative, Kat is a mature student in 1995. She is friends with a younger student called Alison. They go to see the Razor Heads and while there, Alison decides to crowd surf. As she is doing it, she is assaulted by random hands in the crowd, including sexually assaulted. She is obviously upset and shaken up. Kat realises that there is a problem with the band and with the venue. She starts to investigate, as she's a writer on the student newspaper, and discovers loads of girls with similar complaints. She is a bit of a loner and is a bit witchy and fierce too. 

I liked both narratives and loved how they came together. This book is described as feminist and thrilling with a 90s nostalgia thing, and it definitely did all that for me. I liked it a lot and am giving it four out of five. 

Bog Queen by Anna North - Review

I can't remember where I heard of this book but I think someone I follow on Instagram was reading it. I asked Lee for it for Christmas, and picked it up in February. It's a really lovely novel, it felt like good literature and really interesting to read. 

There are two strands to the narrative. Firstly, in 2018, there is a post graduate student called Agnes who is called to help identify a body that has been found in a peat bog in Ludlow. She is American, and she's kind of a loner, and a bit strange? I liked her a lot, but she is odd. She has left behind her dad and her (ex?) fiance in America; her dad really wants her to go home but she's enjoying her life in Britain, even if she finds the English a bit baffling. She's very clever. 

The body is supposedly that of a woman who was murdered by her husband in the 1960s. He has confessed to the murder and says he buried her in the bog. Her relative (niece I think?) travels from Spain for her, etc. Only when Agnes starts her examination, she realised the body is much older than the 1960s. She is a perfectly preserved bog woman. Agnes realises that she has several injuries to her body, but that she survived most of them - she died from just one of them. Someone cared for her while she was ill.

Some environmentalists are interested in the bog and want to stop the police and archaeologists from digging there, because of the moss (which is kind of a strand in the book too, but I found that bit quite weird so didn't altogether read those little excerpts). Agnes tries to get them on side while also trying to work out who the bog woman is, and what her story is. 

The second narrative strand is of course of the bog woman herself, who remains unnamed which I liked, because she is unnamed in 2018 too. She is an Iron Age woman who is only around seventeen or eighteen. She is the local druid in her village and has been for a couple of years since she took over from her mother. She has a fight going on with her brother and his clan. At the very beginning of the book she leaves her village to travel to one of the Roman settlements in the south east of Britain - I think it's supposed to be Chelmsford - with her brother and a friend, Aesu and Crab. They run into trouble and I really liked their story. 

I loved the book and am giving it five out of five. It was just a really good read. I would definitely read something else by Anna North! 

We Fell Apart by E Lockhart - Review

We're back in the same universe as Family of Liars and We Were Liars! I didn't even know this was a thing! Then I spotted this book in The Works in Ripon just before Christmas, and got Lee to buy me it as a Christmas gift. I picked it up in mid February, still on my mission to read all my Christmas gifts before too long! I loved this, it was so nice to be back in that universe. As a reminder, in We Were Liars we meet the Sinclair family, who are super rich and own an island - of course! - and there has been a devastating fire. I won't spoil We Were Liars but read it, oh my god. I wanted to throw my tablet out of the window when I read it. I can remember so specifically where I was, too, away for the weekend in North Yorkshire and I was lying in bed one morning reading the end of the book. I love it when books stay with you so much. 

This book starts just a week after the fire on Beechwood Island. Matilda is eighteen years old and about to go to college. She is living in LA with her kind of stepdad, Saar, who is an actor. Her mother, Isabela, is living in Mexico with her new boyfriend, having basically abandoned Matilda. Matilda has never known who her father is, but then she gets an email from him. 

He is Kingsley Cello, the reclusive artist. His paintings sell for millions, and in her research Matilda learns very little about him. He changes his back story a lot and is never truthful, so Matilda is just basically confused. Still, he sends her the money for a plane ticket, so Matilda heads out to Massachussetts (I'm not sure I've spelt that right, hey ho). In the airport she meets Holland and Winnie, who come back into the story later, which I won't spoil. She meets a rude taxi driver and follows confusing instructions, but eventually she's at Kingsley's property in Hidden Beach. 

He had built a castle, with four turrets and everything. There's a map in the book which I love, I always love to see things in pictures! There's a pool house and steps down to the beach, and the whole place is basically falling apart. At the house Matilda finds Meer, her half brother, and his mother, June, who is Kingsley's partner. She is thrilled to have a brother, but still wants to meet her dad, of course. June doesn't want her there and makes this very clear.

Also living in the castle is Brock. He is a former child star who went off the rails and who came to Hidden Beach to sober up, to recuperate and relax. He is barely older than Matilda and Meer, who are only a month apart. Then there is Tatum - who is the taxi driver from earlier! He wants rid of Matilda immediately, but as the weeks pass romance builds between them. I loved the romance actually and thought it was very sweetly done. 

Meer is nice to Matilda and wants them to bond, but everyone else wants rid of her and won't answer her questions about Kingsley. They keep fobibng her off and saying he's in Italy and that he'll be back any time, but as time goes on it's obvious that there are so many things going on that Matilda has no idea about. She doesn't know who she can trust or how to make things right in Hidden Beach.

I love the atmosphere of the book, it's hazy and dreamy and very reminiscent of We Were Liars. It feels like the heat of the summer is setting in and everyone is going a bit crazy in the place. I'm giving this five out of five, it's E Lockhart at her absolute best!