The Stranger Diaries by Ellie Griffiths

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A memorable book.

The Stranger Diaries is a 2018 murder mystery thriller by British crime novelist Domenica de Rosa, writing under the penname of Elly Griffiths.  …

The novel is primarily told through the viewpoints of English teacher Clare Cassidy, Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur, and Clare’s daughter Georgia “Georgie“.

Interspersed throughout the novel are portions of the short story “The Stranger”, written by fictional author R. M. Holland, a long deceased author that Clare is researching.

The Stranger Diaries won the 2020 Edgar Award for Best Novel and is the first in a series centered upon DS Harbinder Kaur. …

The short story is set around Halloween.

And before Halloween in the present things start mirroring the tale.

Murders.

In Liverpool, while listening to the audio book. I came across this scene …

Cast Iron by Peter May

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This was supposed to be the final book in the series featuring Enzo Macleod, a half-Scottish, half-Italian Enzo MacLeod who in lives in Toulouse, working as a university professor. In French.

Series: Enzo Macleod / the Enzo Files

Book Number: 6

Read this book for: French setting – rural and urban, good pacing, cold cases, personal/relationship drama, tense thriller, highly readable page-turner

Quick Review: The final instalment (published 2017) of this engaging series, satisfyingly weaving many of the ongoing threads together to create a page-turning last novel.

I was sorry to see Enzo solve the last of his cold cases.

And reviews are good for Cast Iron. It ties the whole series together.

All the books are excellent. The story would make a good TV series.

Happily, Enzo is back in a 2021 book called The Night Gate. BUT it’s not yet available in audio as I hit PUBLISH.

Book #1 is Dry Bones. (Also published as Extraordinary People.)

I recommend it.

The Shooting at Chateau Rock by Martin Walker

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The more books I read in the Dordogne Mysteries series, the more I like them.

Bruno is the Chief of Police in a small French town in the Périgord region.

Bruno’s friends remind me a bit of the folks in Three Pines, Quebec.

Charming.

Each murder is almost incidental to the scenes of rural life. Especially the food!

In this one, after a death seemingly from heart attack, Bruno discovers that both a local retirement home and their insurance company are scams with links to a Russian oligarch.

An excellent tale.

Happy November 2nd 🎈

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I’m 65 years young today.

Give me ALL the pensions. 😀

Last year I was in Lisbon for 64.

For the 62nd I was in Nepal.

53rd was in Porto, Portugal.

I’m usually travelling the world on my birthday.

30 years ago I decided on my far-from-typical philosophy.

Life is short. Too short to waste working. Do what you want.

Financially my plan was to “retire” from age 33 to 65 — then go back to work full-time when I’m no good for anything else. At age-65. Today.

I can do that as a Gymnastics coach. There are plenty of elderly full-time Gymnastics coaches.

Sounded a brilliant plan. But I think I’ll put off un-retirement for a while longer.

Perhaps until I’m medically tied down.

All the best from Liverpool, England. I’m here for the World Gymnastics Championships.

What’s next? … I’m researching sunny European hiking destinations. Azores? Canary Islands?

Work Song by Hozier

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Original and excellent song and video.

“Work Song” (2014) possesses gospel backing vocals and church-like hand-claps, with literary themes of love, sin, and religion returning to the record. …

Hozier shot the video the day after the Grammy Awards, and reportedly woke up with an “outrageous hangover” during the shoot.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

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If you like the Gamache books for the quaint townspeople of Three Pines, this one may not be for you.

It’s set entirely within the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec.

Ironically, for a community that has taken a vow of silence, the monks have become world-famous for their glorious voices, raised in ancient chants whose effect on both singer and listener is so profound it is known as “the beautiful mystery.” …

But when the renowned choir director is murdered, the lock on the monastery’s massive wooden door is drawn back to admit Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec. …

Gamache Series

Personally, I felt it was the weakest of the series I’ve read.

More a psychological study than murder mastery.

Nine Lives by Peter Swanson

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Peter Swanson wrote for 10 years before finally finding an agent who would push his books.

I started with his most recent — Nine Lives (2022).

A group of seemingly unconnected strangers get a list of 9 names. The only one they recognize is their own.

Why?

If you’re on the list, you’re marked for death. One by one they are killed, while investigators rush to find the killer.

I perfected WORDLE

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Instead of doing Wordle online once a day, I downloaded a free app and have now done the challenge thousands of times. It’s relaxing.

I used the same strategy every time:

  1. ADIEU
  2. PORTS

All the vowels — but not “Y”. (I consider going WINGY if it seems a Y might be needed.)

I usually get a good idea of the word at that point. And next guess a word

If not, I go FLOCK or FILCH or FLUKE or FLUNK or some variation.

Most often I can solve it on the 4th guess.

Each time I’ve failed after 6 guesses with the ADIEU / PORTS start I write down the word.

The only words I’ve failed on twice are EERIE AND ENJOY. My brain seems to block words starting with E.

Here are the other words I’ve missed once. Sometimes due to laziness or lack of concentration.

style, humor, raise, relax, kills, maker, visit, maybe, wages, abyss , beard, dikes, years, along, exile, urged, ovary, gaily, gates, media,  shone, cacao, array, robot, gonna, imply, ought, occur, bowed, faces, snoop, eerie, candy, handy, boxer, hedge, stays, outdo, madam, judge, comma, rigid, schwa, grows, hears, hobby, wings, sands, valve, lyric, myths, texts, table

To Kill a Troubadour by Martin Walker

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To Kill a Troubadour (2022) is 15th in the Bruno, Chief of Police series.

Benoît “Bruno” Courrèges is the superhuman village policeman in a small town in the Périgord region of France.

The British author has a home there. Walker is an excellent writer though I found this book somewhat overly complicated and detailed. It slowed down the story which revolves around Russians trying to disrupt Spain around the issue of the Catalan independence movement.

… a wonderful mix of crime investigation, scrumptious food, Périgordian history, Bruno’s friends and colleagues, and of course, Bruno himself.   

And readers also get a healthy dose of Bruno’s basset hound, Balzac, and Balzac’s adorable new pup, “the Bruce”.  …

Review of To Kill a Troubadour

I do recommend the book.