Yet another “cosy” murder mystery — again featuring amateur retired Brits.

J.M. Hall is an author, playwright and deputy head of a primary school. And his characters are 3 retired primary school teachers who unexpectedly turn to sleuthing.

Every Thursday, Liz, Thelma and Pat have their ‘coffee o’clock’ sessions at the Thirsk Garden Centre café.

But one fateful week they bump into their ex-colleague, Topsy.

Topsy was, in her day, a somewhat formidable character, but she’s quickly in cognitive decline.

Topsy’s main care giver is her daughter. A big challenge since the family now has no money. Topsy had been conned out of her life savings, over $470,000 pounds. The conman had convinced Topsy that she needed to move her money out of one bank account to another for security. Of course the second account was in the name of the conman.

As much as an interesting murder mystery, the story looks at the impact of age and declining health.

Geir Tangen is a Norwegian crime fiction writer and blogger.

Requiem is a good book — but I gave up at 55% finding it too bleak. Too dark. 

Nobody to cheer for. 

In fact, I should give up Nordic noir completely.

One of the best thrillers (2020) of the year!

Kepler treats us readers to a nonstop roller coaster of suspense, taking us deep into the hearts and minds of perfectly realized characters.

And, oh, what a villain!

—Jeffery Deaver

This is a very intense novel.

A mysterious killer is brutally murdering Europe’s most loathsome criminals.

When police discover that two of the victims have disturbing connections to Detective Joona Linna, it’s clear that somebody’s trying to send him a message.

As the body count rises, the evidence seems to point to a ghost from Joona’s past… the most terrifying villain he’s ever had to face.

Surprisingly, detective Saga Bauer is the main character in this book.

Joona Linna disappeared in order to protect his daughter from the bad guy.

A concept for YOUR future series of speculative fiction. You can write those books during retirement. 😀

Human kind is going extinct on Earth.

Elon Musk and others launch as many long range space craft as possible. Towards as many remotely feasible planets and moons that might be able to sustain life.

The ships are unmanned — aside from frozen sperm and eggs. This seems far more possible than sending folks cryogenically frozen.

Those (few) ships that survive the trip after hundreds of years at sub-light speed are possible story plots.

After landing, Androids start in vitro humans growing. They attempt to adapt the planet for homo sapiens.

This is something similar to the TV series Silo.

It sounds like Allen M. Steele traveled forward into the future to STEAL this idea from me in his book Arkwright (2016). 

There may have been other literary thieves. 😀

I’m a big fan of the fictional character DC Smith.

Grainger’s 2023 book has the retired detective working on a possible insurance fraud case.

A woman’s husband disappeared 5 years prior. And she wants to make a claim on his estate.

The insurance company believes the man is still alive — and hires DC Smith to find him.

As usual, this Grainger book is a slow-paced, humorous police procedural.

No car chases nor gun fights.

Jeffery Deaver is the master of plot twists & turns. False summits. 😀

Fewer than usual in Watchmaker’s Hand (2023), but it’s still an excellent novel.

16th in the Lincoln Rhyme series.

When a New York City construction crane mysteriously collapses, causing mass destruction and killing several people, Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are on the case.

A political group claims to be behind the sabotage and threatens another crane collapse in twenty-four hours, unless their demands are met.

With New York in a panic, the stakes are higher than ever for Rhyme and his team to unravel the plot before the timer runs out and more cranes crash down, reducing the city and its people to rubble.

Then Rhyme realizes that the mastermind behind the terror is his own nemesis—the Watchmaker.

Once again, it’s a battle of wits between Rhyme and the Watchmaker.

Technology plays more a role in this book. Drones. Artificial intelligence.

It feels like Lincoln is falling behind the times in some ways.

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The 2nd season of Reacher on Prime launched yesterday – Dec. 14, 2023.

This book is an early story of Jack Reacher, when he was still military police. Second chronologically of the books.

Having read them all, I’d call this one average. That still puts it into one of my top 10 novels of the year.

And this is the 4th and last Reacher book where the original author, Lee Child, will still have his name attached. From here on his younger brother Andrew Child takes over 100%.

A string of mysterious deaths. A long-classified mission. ….

1992. All across the United States respectable, upstanding citizens are showing up dead. These deaths could be accidents, and they don’t appear to be connected—until a fatal fall from a high-floor window attracts some unexpected attention.
 
That attention comes from the secretary of defense. All of a sudden he wants an interagency task force to investigate. And he wants Jack Reacher as the army’s representative. If Reacher gets a result, great. If not, he’s a convenient fall guy.
 
But office politics isn’t Reacher’s thing. Three questions quickly emerge: Who’s with him, who’s against him, and will the justice he dispenses be the official kind . . . or his own kind?

Amazon (2023)

Susan Juby, Nanaimo, B.C., teaches creative writing at Vancouver Island University.

Her book set on a Canadian gulf island.

In this comedic (murder) mystery, Helen Thorpe is a former Buddhist nun who is fresh out of butler school. 

When a suspicious death takes place in an upscale spiritual retreat, suspicions turn to a quartet of suspects with a motive for murder. …

Susan Juby’s novel Mindful of Murder is a murder mystery full of humour and compassion

I many times laughed out loud. Though Judy is a Buddhist and clearly sympathetic to all things west coast, she pokes fun at hippies, flower arrangement, spiritual dance, and all things bohemian. 😀

She loves butlers. I wanted to go to butler school myself by the end of the story.

The book is told from the perspective of a number of interesting characters. My favourite was a stoner, slacker local teen brought in last minute as a general dogsbody.

Having spent time in Buddhist and Hindu ashrams myself, I could relate to the mixed feelings of the … inmates. 😀

Though a light read, there is quite a bit of philosophy, as well. I enjoyed reading about the Death Club. And their views on assisted suicide. The conflicts between Buddhist philosophy and the real world.

There will be two more books about Helen Thorpe, the butler who didn’t do it.  Planned for 2024 and 2025.

I made it through 41% of this romance novel — intrigued by the concept of a 5-STAR WEEKEND.

Organizing a get-together with 4 close friends from 4 different eras of your life: High School, College, motherhood, and … today.

Super popular as it is, this is not my kind of book.

I’m turned off by the 6 women constantly complaining about … everything

Actually, one I did like is Dru-Ann, a high level sport agent.

After a tragedy, a food blogger named Hollis Shaw brings four friends from different times in her life to spend a weekend in Nantucket. …

Chronicling the entire weekend is Hollis’s daughter Caroline who is interning with a famous documentary filmmaker.

During this trip, the women rediscover the meaning of friendship and overcome their personal struggles. Secrets are also revealed.

The Five-Star Weekend (2023) by Elin Hilderbrand