Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less was Jeffrey Archer‘s first novel, first published in 1976. It was said to have been inspired by Archer’s real-life experience of near-bankruptcy.

He was already a great story teller — even at the start of his career as an author.

Archer was Member of Parliament until 1974.

In this one a conman dupes investors in a North Sea oil drilling rights scam.

Four of those investors decide to get their money back, by conning the con.

Not realistic. But entertaining, for sure.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Excellent. Though some feel it’s not as strong as most of the rest of his terrific books.

Fidelity (2008) is a stand alone novel.

When Phil Kramer is shot dead on a deserted suburban street in the middle of the night, his wife, Emily, is left with an emptied bank account and a lot of questions.

How could Phil leave her penniless?

What was he going to do with the money?

… Jerry Hobart has some questions of his own.

It’s none of his business why he was hired to kill Phil Kramer. But now that he’s been ordered to take out Kramer’s widow, he figures there’s a bigger secret at work — and maybe a bigger payoff.

As they race to find the secret that Phil Kramer so masterfully hid, both Hobart and Emily must question where their true loyalties lie and how much they owe those who have been unfaithful to them.

The Joe Pickett books by C.J. Box are some of my favourites.

The Crossroads (2026) is #26 in the series.

Super entertaining

This novel takes a unique turn by placing Pickett’s three adult daughters in the leading roles while Joe himself fights for his life after a brutal ambush.

• The Investigation: Joe’s daughters—Sheridan, April, and Lucy—refuse to wait for the new sheriff’s investigation and decide to find the attacker themselves.
• The Three Ranches: The “Crossroads” of the title refers to a junction where three different ranches meet, each owned by a family with a motive to kill Joe.
  • The Thompsons: A billionaire couple involved in a top-secret development project.
  • The Bucholzes: Owners of a cattle company that may be a front for more sinister activities.
  • The McElwee Sisters: Rumored to be involved in an illegal drug trade.
• The Daughters’ Roles: The three sisters split up, each investigating one of the suspect ranches simultaneously to avoid tipping off the culprits.

Surprisingly, fan favourite Nate Romanowski is only an incidental character in this one.

Not bad.

Reviewers love this book.

The Murder at World’s End (2025) historical mystery novel by Ross Montgomery, marking his debut in adult fiction. It is the first installment in a new series titled Stockingham & Pike.

Set in 1910 Cornwall, the story revolves around the real-world mass hysteria following the appearance of Halley’s Comet.

• The Premise: Fearing an apocalypse caused by the comet’s “poisonous tail,” the eccentric Viscount of Tithe Hall seals every window, door, and keyhole of his remote island estate to protect his household.
• The Murder: Despite the absolute lockdown, the Viscount is found dead in his sealed study the following morning, shot with an ancestral crossbow.
• The Investigation: With a local inspector determined to frame a young under-butler named Stephen Pike due to his past criminal record, Pike teams up with the foul-mouthed, sharp-witted 80-year-old family matriarch, Miss Decima Stockingham, to find the true killer within the manor.

Love the concept. But the 3rd book in the Jane Hawk series seemed to drag.

Jane Hawk Books

The Silent Corner	(2017)	Description / Buy at Amazon
The Whispering Room	(2017)	Description / Buy at Amazon
The Crooked Staircase	(2018)	Description / Buy at Amazon
The Forbidden Door	(2018)	Description / Buy at Amazon
The Night Window	(2019)	Description / Buy at Amazon

Jane Hawk knows she may be living on borrowed time. But as long as she’s breathing, she’ll never cease her one-woman war against the terrifying conspiracy that threatens the freedom—and free will—of millions.

Battling the strange epidemic of murder-suicides that claimed Jane’s husband, and is escalating across the country, has made the rogue FBI agent a wanted fugitive, relentlessly hunted not only by the government but by the secret cabal behind the plot.

Deploying every resource their malign nexus of power and technology commands, Jane’s enemies are determined to see her dead . . . or make her wish she was.

Jane’s ruthless pursuers can’t stop her from drawing a bead on her prey: a cunning man with connections in high places, a twisted soul of unspeakable depths with an army of professional killers on call.

Propelled by her righteous fury and implacable insistence on justice, Jane will make her way from southern Southern California to the snow-swept slopes of Lake Tahoe to confront head-on the lethal forces arrayed against her.

Arundathi Roy is best known for for her novel The God of Small Things (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the biggest-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author.

BUT she’s actually only written two novels.

Arundathi Roy is more of a political activist than writer.

Mother Mary Comes to Me (2025) is her memoir, critically praised. I enjoyed it, as well, but found it too self-critical.

It’s original in publishing an autobiography much centred on her complex relationship with mother, Mary Roy.

I wish she’d write more novels.

Rubbernecker (2014) is an award-winning crime novel by Belinda Bauer that follows Patrick Fort, a medical student with Asperger’s Syndrome who suspects the cadaver he is dissecting was murdered. Most reviewers describe it as a dark, original, and compelling thriller with a uniquely well-drawn protagonist. 

According to The Sunday Times, “one of the most startling plots in contemporary crime fiction”. 

Patrick Fort: An anatomy student who sees the world through the lens of his neurodivergence. 

The Coma Patient: A significant portion of the book is told from the perspective of Sam, a man in a “locked-in” state after a car accident. 

… detailed accounts of car crashes and anatomy lab dissections may be too gruesome for the squeamish.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I thought I’d read everything written by Robert Sawyer, but somehow missed this excellent story.

AI summary:

Rollback is a 2007 science fiction novel by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer that explores the social and ethical consequences of extreme life extension alongside a first-contact scenario.

The story follows an elderly couple who undergo a rejuvenation procedure, only for it to succeed for one and fail for the other, creating a massive age gap between them. 

Plot Summary

Set in the mid-21st century, the narrative centers on Dr. Sarah Halifax, an astronomer who gained fame decades earlier for decoding the first message from an alien civilization at Sigma Draconis.

When a second, encrypted message arrives 38 years later, a billionaire industrialist offers to fund a “rollback“—a staggeringly expensive medical treatment that reverts a person’s body to age 25—so Sarah can live long enough to decode it.

Sarah agrees only on the condition that her husband of sixty years, Don Halifax, also receives the treatment. The resulting conflict drives the novel: 

• The Rejuvenation Gap: The procedure is a success for Don but fails for Sarah, leaving her in her late 80s while her husband physically returns to his youth.
• Interpersonal Struggles: Don must navigate his newfound vitality and the complexities of being physically younger than his own children, all while remaining devoted to his aging wife.
• The Alien Message: Parallel to the domestic drama, Sarah works to decipher the new transmission, which involves complex moral and ethical questions posed by the extraterrestrials. 

Key Themes and Accolades

• Philosophical Science Fiction: Sawyer explores “intimately human” dilemmas, such as fidelity, mortality, and the societal impact of radical technology.
• Ethics and Evolution: The story examines whether morality changes over generations or across different species.
• Awards: The novel was nominated for the Hugo Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2008.

A Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery

Cute idea.

Elementary, She Read is a cozy mystery.

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.

There are at least 10 more books in the series.