I read five books in May.
Games
and Rituals by Katherine Heiny
This is Katherine Heiny’s second book of
short stories. I’ve been waiting for it and it did not disappoint. Inevitably
some appealed more than others but all had the writing style I’ve come to love
after reading her two novels Standard
Deviation (three times so far) and Early
Morning Riser (twice).
The Crystal Crypt by Fiona Veitch Smith
A fun read with a 1920s amateur sleuth
Poppy Denby. The sixth in a series but the first I’ve read. Here she is asked
to investigate the mysterious death of an up-and-coming female scientist in an
Oxford laboratory known as the Crystal Crypt.
by Val McDermid
Hardly seasonal, I
know, but I bought this very pretty copy in the Christian Aid Book Sale and
just got stuck in to this ‘festive collection of chilling tales’.
Elizabeth Edmondson
I paid my first visit
to Italy (Sicily) in February so the country is on my radar. Four people,
previously unknown to each other, have been mentioned in the will of a woman,
of whom none of them have ever heard. They have to spend time in her villa to find
out why. I did keep reading to find the solution – but the reasons the legatees
were brought together were convoluted and the whole thing pretty unlikely, but
hey, that’s fiction for you.
Far Off in Sunlit Place: Stories of the Scots in
Australia and New Zealand by
Jim Hewitson
Another Christian Aid
Book Sale purchase and a book I’ve wanted to read since it first came out many years ago. I’ve
read other, academic, books on the fascinating subject of the Scottish diaspora
– this one, while undoubtedly involving a great deal of research, is at the
popular end of the history scale and extremely readable.