Gemma Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium.
The shop—located at 222 Baker Street—specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also home to Moriarty the cat.
When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body.
I was a bit disappointed to find by the end that Gemma is no Sherlock. The mystery solved by a timely arrival of friends, not sleuthing.
This Was a Man is the seventh and final novel in Jeffrey Archer‘s Clifton Chronicles. This series follows the events of the fictitious Clifton and Barrington families, starting in the 1920s and ending in 1992.
This Was a Man continues the story of the Clifton family.
Karin appears to have been executed by her Russian handler after being found out as a double agent.
Harry sets out to write his literary masterpiece.
The Barrington shipping empire is sold and Emma ends up helping the government of Margaret Thatcher and joins Giles in the House of Lords.
Sebastian gets promoted to run the banking business in which he has worked for years. His daughter Jessica does well as an art student, but nearly loses all in a disastrous change of course.
Giles has a very successful career in the Lords, only to see his future dashed.
Somehow I got through this silly book — though can’t recommend it.
Kitty Collins is a wealthy, spoiled vegan Instagram influencer living in London.
After being followed home from a nightclub by a persistent harasser, Kitty accidentally kills him in self-defense during a struggle.
To her surprise, she feels a sense of empowerment rather than guilt. She decides to use her platform and resources to systematically eliminate “bad men”—abusers, rapists, and predators—who have failed to face justice in the traditional legal system.
She’s inspired by the Dexter TV series — but is totally incompetent, yet (somehow) doesn’t get caught.
Another interesting and entertaining novels by one of my favourite new-to-me authors.
Google AI overview:
The Player (2014) by Brad Parks is a thrilling mystery novel, the fifth in his Carter Ross series, featuring investigative reporter Carter Ross delving into a deadly disease in Newark, uncovering dangerous mob ties to a construction project, and dealing with personal chaos, including an unexpected pregnancy by his former girlfriend, all while navigating a toxic newsroom.
It’s known for its gripping plot, realistic look at journalism, and a compelling mix of crime and personal drama.
But her 2024 V.I. Warshawskinovel has some structure. More than usual, in any case.
V.I. finally gets paid serious money for her time and continuous physical punishment.
Still dealing with the trauma of a previous case and the strain on her personal relationships, V.I. Warshawski travels to Lawrence, Kansas, to attend a college basketball game involving a friend’s daughter.
Trouble soon finds her when one of the young athletes, Sabrina, disappears. V.I. agrees to stay behind and investigate, but quickly finds herself out of her element in a town where she has no established contacts and faces hostility from local law enforcement and powerful figures.
Her search for Sabrina uncovers a local opioid distribution ring and a complex land-use battle with historical roots going back to the 1860s.
When V.I. finds Sabrina close to death in a drug house, and later a dead body in the same location, she becomes a prime suspect, landing in the FBI’s crosshairs.
By day, it sells auto parts to vehicles trundling through town. By night, it sells some of the best damn Pakistani-style BBQ chicken parts I’ve tasted anywhere …
Despite its proximity to the equator, Arusha’s elevation of 1,400 metres (4,600 ft) on the southern slopes of Mount Meru keeps temperatures relatively low and alleviates humidity.
Harry S. Chou, on the Large Print Reviews website, which reviews large-print editions of books, likes the whole Clifton Chronicle series, saying, “I think that The Clifton Chronicles series by is unique among long running fiction series, because it is only getting better with each new volume!”
I’d agree.
The last 2 books in the series are at least as compelling as any of the rest.
Cometh the Hour is the sixth novel in Jeffrey Archer‘s Clifton Chronicles. This series follows the events of the fictitious Clifton and Barrington families, starting in the 1920s.
Cometh the Hour opens with the reading of the suicide note of Alex Fisher, MP. This note has potentially devastating consequences for Harry and Emma Clifton, Sir Giles Barrington and Lady Virginia Fenwick.
Sir Giles must decide whether to divulge the contents of the note to the press. If he does so it could ruin his political career. He also is considering to end this career to try to rescue a lady he met and loves (Karin) who is in East Germany and barred by that government from emigrating to England. He also must consider whether Karin loves him or whether she is a spy for the Russians.
Lady Virginia, the ex-wife of Sir Giles, is facing bankruptcy because she does not know how to wisely manage her money. She seems certain to lose about everything until she is introduced to a wealthy, but gullible, man from Louisiana, Cyrus T. Grant III. Lady Virginia cooks up a scheme to force Grant to pay her a generous monthly sum for years to come.
Sebastian Clifton is now the Chief Executive of Farthings Bank and because he lost his fiancée years before is now a workaholic.
He falls for Priya, a beautiful Indian girl. But her parents have already chosen her future husband and she has no say in the matter. Sebastian also makes contact with his fiancé and their daughter to see whether the old relationship can be patched up.
Sebastian’s ruthless enemies Adrian Sloane and Desmond Mellor are still plotting to take over Farthings and will stop at nothing, legal or otherwise, to achieve their goal.
Harry Clifton, now in his mid-50s, has been working to get Anatoly Babakov, who wrote an unauthorized account of Joseph Stalin, released from a gulag in Siberia and allowed to travel to New York, where his wife had lived for many years following his imprisonment.
Former army intelligence officer Michael Kohler, … has been in hiding for most of his adult life after absconding with $20 million during a mission in Libya.
Rick McCharles 