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<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\nFirst a quick explanation!<\/strong><\/p>\n Due to some severe health issues over the last few years, and a lingering chronic condition, my planned review schedule went right out of the window and I have been scrabbling ever since to get it back on track.<\/strong><\/p>\n In an attempt to try to regain some lost ground, I have been scrunching some of my (overdue) NetGalley reviews together into one or two posts each week: shorter reviews, but still covering all of the points I intended to.<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s the plan anyway, so let\u2019s\u00a0spring into my latest selection!<\/strong><\/p>\n Title:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0The Potting Shed Murder<\/em><\/strong> Blurb: \u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Welcome to the sleepy village of Pudding Corner, a quintessentially English haven of golden cornfields, winding cobbled lanes \u2026 and murder.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Daphne Brewster has left London behind and is settling into her family\u2019s new life in rural Norfolk, planting broad beans in raised beds and vintage hunting for their farmhouse.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n But when the local headmaster is found dead in his potting shed, amongst his allotment cabbages, the village is ablaze: Who would kill beloved Mr Papplewick, pillar of the community? Daphne soon comes to realise perhaps the countryside isn\u2019t so idyllic after all\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n When the headmaster\u2019s widow points her finger at Minnerva, Daphne\u2019s new friend, Daphne vows to clear her name. Sneaking into the crime scene and chasing down rumours gets her into hot water with the local inspector \u2013 until she comes across a faded photograph that unearths a secret buried for forty years\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n They say nothing bad ever happens in close-knit Pudding Corner, but Daphne is close to the truth \u2013 dangerously close\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n There\u2019s death amongst the dahlias\u2026 A truly unputdownable whodunnit by Paula Sutton \u2013 otherwise known as Instagram\u2019s happiest influencer: Hill House Vintage, the queen of cottagecore \u2013 an unforgettable new voice in cosy crime. Perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Janice Hallett and Richard Coles.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Review:<\/strong>\u00a0This was quite a slow-starter for me \u2013 I struggled to get the hang of the style of writing until I got further into the plot (after the murder). There is lots of description and detailed, meandering sidebars that lead to nothing and nowhere relevant.<\/p>\n Once I did get the hang of main character Daphne and the writing style, I did quite enjoy the mystery, although I did also guess both Minerva\u2019s secret and the identity of the murderer very early on.<\/p>\n The story felt to me like more of a parody of a classic or cosy crime novel rather than a straightforward one. It was an enjoyable enough read but the characters were more caricatures and the pacing a little uneven \u2013 three quarters of slow burn followed by a burst of frenetic action in the last leg.<\/p>\n This may need a little perseverance to start with, but once you get going it\u2019s a fun cosy mystery with a style all of its own.<\/p>\n Title:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0The Madness of Miss Grey<\/strong><\/em> Blurb: \u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Everyone thinks Helen Grey is mad but, despite ten years imprisoned in a crumbling Yorkshire asylum, she\u2019s managed to cling to sanity. When a new doctor arrives, she sees an opportunity. William Carter may seem like an honorable man but she\u2019s sure he\u2019ll prove easy to seduce\u2026and trick into helping her escape.<\/em><\/p>\n Will would never bed a patient, no matter how tempting she might be. But once he realises Helen\u2019s been imprisoned for no good reason, he\u2019s determined to save her. They need to work together but freeing her won\u2019t be easy, not when her mysterious benefactor is determined to keep her locked up and hidden from society forever.<\/em><\/p>\n Review:<\/strong>\u00a0Well, this was surprisingly dark for a Victorian romance, even a Gothic one!<\/p>\n Set in a private insane asylum, we aren\u2019t spared any of the possible horrors \u2013 from careless neglect to deliberate torture, to just the sheer helplessness of being constantly under the control of others and disbelieved so consistently that you start to doubt yourself. I felt agonies of frustration for Helen Gray and was totally sympathetic towards anything she had to do or say to effect her escape from that place.<\/p>\n Luckily, the chemistry between the two main characters was very believable and would have had me rooting for them even if she hadn\u2019t been in such dire straits!<\/p>\n I did think the frater-ex-machina towards the end of the book was a bit of a weak spot in a plot that, until that point had had Helen and Will solving their own problems, but I liked the new character so much that I was willing to wink at it and give them a pass.<\/p>\n This makes for some very<\/em> grim reading at some points and readers not looking for their romance in dark places might not appreciate this story setting much, but I really enjoyed the story, the characters and the romance and would definitely be tempted to read on to the next in this series<\/a> and find out whether the aforementioned sibling lives up to his promise in the role of a main character!<\/p>\n Title: Close to Death<\/em><\/strong> Blurb: \u00a0How do you solve a murder\u2026 when everyone has the same motive?<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>From global bestselling Anthony Horowitz, a brilliantly entertaining new mystery in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series.<\/em><\/p>\n Richmond Upon Thames is one of the most desirable areas to live in London. And Riverview Close \u2013 a quiet, gated community \u2013 seems to offer its inhabitants the perfect life.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n At least it does until Giles Kenworthy moves in with his wife and noisy children, his four gas-guzzling cars, his loud parties and his plans for a new swimming pool in his garden.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n His neighbours all have a reason to hate him and are soon up in arms.<\/em><\/p>\n When Kenworthy is shot dead with a crossbow bolt through his neck, all of them come under suspicion and his murder opens the door to lies, deception and further death.<\/em><\/p>\n The police are baffled. Reluctantly, they call in former Detective Daniel Hawthorne. But even he is faced with a seemingly impossible puzzle.<\/em><\/p>\n How do you solve a murder when everyone has the same motive?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Review:<\/strong>\u00a0I love this series, but this one fell a little flat for me compared to the others so far. One of my favourite aspects of the books is the interplay between PI Hawthorne and author Horowitz as they investigate a mystery, and we get less of that here as it is an old case that Hawthorne investigated with someone else and that Horowitz is now writing up years later.<\/p>\n Another aspect of this slightly changed format is that I found it odd that Horowitz couldn\u2019t simply look up information about the case and suspects himself rather than waiting for Hawthorne to grudgingly dole the pieces out in dribs and drabs \u2013 Hawthorne can always be a bit annoying but this was particularly irritating, knowing that he knew everything but wouldn\u2019t tell us!<\/p>\n As Horowitz wasn\u2019t witnessing events himself, most of the book is written in the third person, as a murder mystery in a closed community with a small, close-knit group of residential suspects. And I found the suspects and their various stories and motives really intriguing and enjoyed following the story, even though I had no clue who actually dunnit on this occasion.<\/p>\n Meanwhile poor Horowitz was limited to the framing sidebars of this case and spent most of our time with him investigating Hawthorne himself \u2013 an ongoing side-plot that gives me anxiety-induced acid indigestion every time it comes up, as I wait for the other ex-police boot to drop and finally crush their odd frenemy-ship for good.<\/p>\n I\u2019m definitely hooked on this series and the main characters generally \u2013 I just found the added distance from the main action a little less engaging, which is a pity because the plot was very good and I could easily picture Horowitz (the author character, not the author author!) bumbling around the Close suspecting and trusting all the wrong people. But as this is Book 5 of the series, I can understand the author wanting to switch things up a bit, instead of Horowitz getting stabbed again! Mystery fans should start from the first book and just keep reading for as long as Horowitz (the real-life one) is willing to write these.<\/p>\n Title: Water Baby<\/em><\/strong> Blurb: \u00a0<\/em>A beautiful coming of age story based on the real settlement of Makoko in Nigeria. Perfect for readers of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n She\u2019s the Pearl of Makoko and the world is her oyster.<\/strong><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n In Makoko, the floating slum off mainland Lagos, Nigeria, nineteen-year-old Baby yearns for an existence where she can escape the future her father has planned for her.<\/em><\/p>\n With opportunities scarce, Baby jumps at the chance to join a newly launched drone-mapping project, aimed at broadening the visibility of her community.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n Then a video of her at work goes viral and Baby finds herself with options she could never have imagined \u2013 including the possibility of leaving her birthplace to represent Makoko on the world stage.<\/em><\/p>\n But will life beyond the lagoon be everything she\u2019s dreamed of? Or has everything she wants been in front of her all along?<\/em><\/p>\n Review:<\/strong>\u00a0 Water Baby<\/em> immerses us in the floating community slums of Mokoko, off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria. Through the resourceful but frustrated eyes of main character Baby, as she begins to struggle with the traditional expectations placed on her and yearn towards a future of her own making, we see the troubles facing the wider community: no sanitation, no waste services or clean water and a government that is ready to turn on them and destroy their homes and lives in the name of urban improvement.<\/p>\n The irony of the lagoon water being so terribly polluted and yet the daily lives of Mokoko residents revolving entirely on and around it is highlighted with every fishing boat, floating taxi, trade boat and fish-smoking huddle and the pervasive poverty that makes Baby strive for more, easily turns others like her cousin to drink drugs or crime to achieve temporary release from the grind.<\/p>\n Baby showcases the resourcefulness, resilience and creativity of the rising young generations (as do her friends), but her inner conflict shows that, while change is needed for the people and environment, it is also feared for the potential loss of community and culture through traditions formed to support within the community where they lack support from without. Baby is torn between her desire for more than marriage and Makoko life and her love for her home, where her memories of mother and her strong bond with her brother form deep roots.<\/p>\n The later part of the novel shows a stark contrast to Makoko and its troubles, as Baby gets to experience a taste of Switzerland and cleaner waters, and attempts to draw international eyes to the plight and pride of her local community, and explores some of the dangers of local people being treated as mere \u2018figureheads\u2019 by well-meaning outsiders wanting to \u2018save\u2019 them without listening to their needs and ideas.<\/p>\n There is loads to think about here. I was inspired, after reading, to take to the internet and find out more about Makoko, and recognised so much of the information from what I had just read, in what is actually a quite simple tale of a young woman coming of age and working out her own path between tradition and change. Watching The Journey\u2019s video on YouTube: \u2018Life in a Floating Slum in Africa \u2013 Makoko\u2019<\/a>, merely confirmed the mental picture that this author had already painted so vividly with her words and brought to life in her characters.<\/p>\n Title: North is the Night<\/em><\/strong> Blurb: \u00a0<\/em>With the dark, mythical magic of the Winternight trilogy, and the slow-burn romance of\u00a0Spinning Silver,<\/em>\u00a0NORTH IS THE NIGHT is a feminist fantasy adventure that shows the power of female friendship and how love \u2013 both romantic and familial \u2013 can conquer even death itself.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n In the harsh interior of the Finnish wilderness, best friends Aina and Siiri are inseparable despite their opposite natures: Aina is gentle and cautious while Siiri is headstrong and brave. But their friendship is put to the test when Aina is kidnapped by a death goddess and taken to the mythical underworld Tuonela.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n Determined to save her friend, Siiri embarks on a dangerous journey north to seek out V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen, the only mystical shaman to travel to Tuonela and return alive. As the dark winter looms, Siiri uses all the strength she possesses to survive her journey, which is plagued by trappers, a band of roving wolves, and a cunning snow witch with her own quest for power. But finding V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6inen is only the beginning. Siiri must convince him to share his magic so she can sneak into Tuonela and save Aina.<\/em><\/p>\n In Tuonela, Aina is forced to play the sadistic games of Tuonetar, the cruel queen of the underworld, alongside other captured maidens. But Aina\u2019s kindness allows her to make allies in the dark, harsh environment. She soon discovers that Tuoni, the god of death and king of Tuonela, is also a victim of Tuonetar\u2019s spells that can only be broken when he remarries. To save him and the other girls, Aina offers herself as his bride.<\/em><\/p>\n As she spends more time in the underworld, Aina falls in love with Tuoni and must make a decision that will alter the course of her fate forever . . . not knowing her fearless friend is on the way and plotting a daring escape.<\/em><\/p>\n
Author: \u00a0Paula Sutton<\/strong>
Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Dialogue Books | Renegade Books<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nPurchase Link: The Potting Shed Murder<\/em>\u00a0on Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Author: \u00a0Julia Bennet<\/strong>
Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Independently published<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Book](\"https:\/\/bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cuq92-the-madness-of-miss-grey-e1741015862945.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nPurchase Link:\u00a0<\/strong>The Madness of Miss Grey<\/em>\u00a0on Amazon<\/a><\/h3>\n
Author: \u00a0Anthony Horowitz<\/strong>
Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Random House UK, Cornerstone | Century<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nPurchase Link:\u00a0Close to Death<\/em>\u00a0on Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Author: \u00a0Chioma Okereke<\/strong>
Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Quercus Books | Quercus<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nPurchase Link:\u00a0Water Baby<\/em>\u00a0on Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
Author: \u00a0Emily Rath<\/strong>
Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Quercus Books | Arcadia<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n