Books in February
Okay, so this is nuts:
When one of Phryne’s intimate acquaintances, a carousel operator in a carnival attached to a circus, asks her to go undercover to investigate a series of mishaps at the circus, culminating in the death of a performer, Phryne is happy to give it a try. Her maid Dot wonders when Phryne has ever had to do anything entirely on her own, but that question just spurs her on to test her mettle, both as an investigator and in the role of a trick rider in the circus. But even with the aid of a juggler, a dwarf, a clown, a strong man and a bear, Phryne may just find that she has bitten off more than she can chew….This is the sixth entry in the Phryne Fisher series, and one of the more engrossing. The worlds of the circus, carnival and attached gypsy camp are separate and unequal, but all thrive with the inclusion of each other, and that symbiotic relationship is nicely portrayed. Phryne is indeed tested rather more sternly than has been the case up to now, which I enjoyed as she had been becoming rather too ensconced in her very privileged world. I would point out to watchers of the television show that this story bears almost no resemblance to the episode of the same name; some characters and the circus setting are the same, but that’s about it, making this an entirely new story which is a good thing! Recommended.
On their way to the theatre, Phryne and her friend Bunji interrupt a group of Chinese thugs beating up an old lady; they rescue the woman and Phryne is introduced to Lin Chung, the very handsome grandson of the victim. Once at the theatre, not one but two actors playing the same role are felled on-stage by poison, and Phryne’s old acquaintance Bernard who runs the theatre asks her to investigate. Soon, Phryne discovers a theatrical world full of stolen gloves, mysteriously torn-up telegrams and, oh, yes, a theatre ghost. Is history to blame, or is the theatre truly cursed? Phryne races to discover the truth before too many innocents die….The seventh Phryne Fisher book finds our heroine mostly ensconced either at the theatre or at home, with plenty of time to both suss out the bad guys and discover the pleasures of the handsome Lin Chung, with a few discourses on the ubiquity of racism in 1920s Australia thrown in for good measure. I’m reading these books at a rate of about one per evening (when I don’t pause to read something else, that is), so I’m trying to pace myself so that I don’t run out before Spring, lo these many months away yet! Recommended.
John May is slowly recovering from a gunshot wound, Arthur Bryant has disappeared and the PCU has been ordered dismantled, but when the Speaker of the House of Commons is seriously injured in a seeming accident that involves being buried under a bunch of fruit, the team is called back to investigate the man’s state of mind. However, the unit cannot just be left to its own devices, so the Home Office sends in an “observer” to keep an eye on things, and the team is also burdened with an unrequested “intern,” a young woman who is amazingly aggravating, however intelligent she may be…. The lovely conceit in this, the 19th Bryant & May novel, is that the attacker is following an old rhyming song that references various London churches and mentions specific attributes of each that the perpetrator uses to confuse matters. Of course, Arthur isn’t fooled - except that he is, in a very unexpected way. I didn’t see the end coming, which is always good in these books. Really, my only quibble is that as a child growing up in England, I *sang* this rhyme all the time, only I know it as “Orange and lemons,” not “oranges.” Annoyed me half to death, that did! Otherwise, as usual highly recommended, but best if you’ve read the whole series in order.
Even before they reach the country house to which they’ve been invited to stay, Phryne, Dot, Lin and his manservant Li find themselves rescuing a maid from assault in the woods; once at the house, they find an odd collection of guests and servants, and a host who appears preoccupied and afraid. That host, Tom, is a long-time friend of Phryne’s, who knows him as a bon vivant, and she is determined to find the cause of his changed demeanor, but before she can even begin, someone is murdered and urns are showing up all over the place….This is Ms. Greenwood’s homage to Agatha Christie; indeed, one of the guests is an elderly woman named Miss Mary Mead, in case the reader misses that fact! I quite enjoyed it, with its not-quite-cozy setting, the odd assortment of characters and motivations that animate them, and of course Phryne’s ability to survive everything from being thrown from a horse to nearly drowning in a basement. Lots of fun; recommended.
When a young Jewish man dies horribly of poison while at a bookshop, the self-possessed proprietor, Miss Lee, is promptly arrested. But Miss Fisher is certain that the woman is innocent and when she is asked by the father of the young Jewish man who is her current fancy to look into the matter, she is more than willing to help. Her search leads her to strange byways, though, including the search for eternal life and the meanings of the Kabbalah…. I again enjoyed this entry in the Miss Fisher series, although I’m beginning to wonder if our character is going to go through every single ethnic and religious minority in 1920s Australia, complete with a beautiful young male representative; then again, that feeling probably comes from the fact that I’ve been reading them back to back. This time, we get a bibliography describing various obscure historical treatises and a handy list of Yiddish phrases at the end of the book, and Miss Fisher learns a thing or two about comprehensive curses to place on one’s enemies. Recommended.
Phryne is invited to Sydney, to attend a dinner in honour of the Vice Chancellor. While there, two university students ask her to look into the theft of various objects that had been kept in a safe which was burgled; in the meantime, her companion Dot looks up her sister only to find her disappeared and her children neglected by their father. Before too long, Phryne finds herself hip-deep in mystic doings, Sydney’s Bohemian demi-monde, academic in-fighting and far, far too many cricket matches…. As always, I enjoyed this entry in the series, although the “supernatural” bits were a tad overdone and, well, there was far, far too much of the horrifically complicated yet ultimately boring game of cricket. So, recommended but not my favourite by a long shot!
A cozy (and exclusive) retirement village in the beautiful Kentish countryside. A greedy developer. A young female cop who’s inexplicably moved from big city excitement to sleepy Kent. And a quartet of elderly residents whose favourite part of the week is their club meeting, where they discuss unsolved murders and try to come up with the culprit. Until, that is, murders start occurring in their own neck of the woods…. “The Thursday Murder Club” is the debut novel from a well-known (in England) quiz show host, which you wouldn’t think would necessarily mean he’d be a good writer, but Mr. Osman is just perfect, at least with this book, blending humour and pathos with tremendous compassion and just enough acidity to keep things lively. This is one of those books where the reader keeps on hoping that they’ll never reach the end of it, because then it will be over and how sad will that be! Joyce, Elizabeth, Red Ron and Ibrahim are wonderful elders who remind us that people who are old have stories to tell, and Donna and Chris are the most sympathetic coppers one can imagine. I really, really hope there’ll be more adventures from this group; very highly recommended!
When Miss Lavender, a writer and illustrator of children’s fairy stories, is found poisoned in her home, Inspector Jack Robinson asks Phryne to help with the investigation, as she can work with the various women involved better than he can. She obliges, going so far as to take a job at a women’s magazine where Miss Lavender had worked, but her mind is on other things: Lin Chung, her favourite lover, has gone missing while on a buying trip to China. He was supposed to have returned some time ago, and even his fearsome grandmother, matriarch of the Lin dynasty, is worried and afraid…. This is the eleventh book in the series and could it possibly be the one where Phryne discovers love? It certainly seemed that way to me, anyway! I especially liked the way the women’s magazine was depicted, with the various women squabbling away as they all follow the high ideal of a magazine that takes women seriously in a time when that simply wasn’t done. Also, I think I would quite love to live in the type of apartment building that Miss Lavender occupied: your own complete apartment, but somebody to bring you breakfast and coffee, other meals too if you want them, and somebody to clean your place to your specifications, along with a beautiful, peaceful garden that somebody else maintains; sounds like bliss! Recommended, as usual.
When Bert and Cec ask for Phryne’s help in tracking down the unknown person who appears to be murdering their friends with whom they had spent a memorable night in Paris in 1918, Phyrne is thrown back into memories of her own time in Paris, also in 1918, and full of events she has spent 10 years determinedly not recalling. At the same time, she is asked to look into the apparent kidnapping of a wealthy young woman whose father, a horse dealer not known for his probity. As if that was not enough, she must cope with domestic problems in the form of Mr. Butler, who objects to her continuing liaison with Lin Chung because the latter is about to get married, and adultery is where Mr. Butler draws the line…. Once again, Ms. Greenwood’s book is light even when dealing with such serious matters as wife-beating and penury, but in this particular entry, we especially learn a lot more about Phryne's life in Paris a decade before the events of the series, including how she came to be the fearless and street-smart young woman we’ve come to know and love. Recommended!
Phryne accidentally uncovers the mummified body of an unknown man disguised as a funfare dummy, an incident that intrigues her enough to search for the identity of this 70-year-old corpse. Meanwhile, Lin Chung has become head of his family and, whilst resolving a longstanding feud, discovers that missing family gold from 70 years earlier was not stolen by the rival family but instead is, well, missing. Both quests take the lovers, separately, to Castlemaine, a town that grew up around the very rich goldfields of 1850s Australia, where there are more secrets than those to be revealed…. I enjoyed the change of scenery and the history provided in this entry in the Phryne Fisher series, although both “mysteries” were relatively easily solved. More interesting was the introduction of Phryne’s sister, sometimes known as Beth and sometimes Eliza, and how her story dovetails nicely with the mummified corpse. Plus, we get to see an old friend from the circus once again, always a pleasure! Recommended.
When I was 12 or 13, I discovered my mother’s trove of Georgette Heyer Regency novels and I dove right in, unaware of the sexual politics underlying the stories. Decades later we have C. L. Polk’s “The Midnight Bargain,” a sort-of Regency YA fantasy that is all about sexual politics. Beatrice is the 18-year-old daughter of a banking family, not rich but respectable, who must participate in Bargaining Season, where the scions of the mid- and upper classes choose their mates; but in this world, some men and women have magic. Because this magic involves summoning and controlling beings from the spirit realm, who are powerful but very greedy for physical experiences, women with magic are at risk of having a spirit enter the fetus of any child they carry, resulting in mass destruction. So women are “warded” during their child-bearing years, which cuts them off completely from magic and which makes it impossible for them to reach their full magical potential. Beatrice has the makings of being a very powerful mage indeed, but she needs to marry well to save her family’s fortunes; those competing desires are only complicated when she meets the Lavan siblings, very beautiful, very rich and very magical…. I like the world-building here, but I found our main character quite off-putting: she is so polemical in her constant arguments about the unfairness of “the system” that I just got annoyed with her. Of course the system is unfair, of course women are devalued and, essentially, enslaved - we get it, already! Then again, as a book meant for teenage readers (I assume), perhaps that much ranting and raving is to be expected. I’ll definitely read more of this author as I find stories, because “The Midnight Bargain” is well written; I’ll just hope future stories are a bit more in the “show, not tell” vein.
Phryne has a busy social calendar: there’s a circus and carnival in town, the annual Ladies’ Bazaar is on tap, and a big parade culminating in the float of the Queen of the Flowers and her attendants is looming. Of course, Phryne is the Queen, and as such, she must entertain and groom her four young attendants, one of whom goes missing shortly before the festivities. Not only does Phryne have to juggle all of her commitments, but she must find the young lady while also navigating the adolescent yearnings of her young adopted daughter Ruth, who pines for a father she’s never known…. This entry in the Phryne Fisher series shows us much more of St. Kilda and environs, particularly the more unsavory parts of the town, with some extremely sordid situations and some surprisingly graceful ones. Dealing with such matters as pedophilia is not easy to do within a generally light-hearted series, but Ms. Greenwood carries it off - plus she gives us a few rounds of old folk songs that made me glad to have the Child Ballads on my plate! Recommended.
Phryne is asked to try to discover who is stealing valuable jewelry on a cruise ship, all expenses paid of course! Four women on four voyages have each lost an exquisite piece, but all the crew members have been thoroughly searched and proven innocent of the crime. As it happens, there are a number of people who have taken passage on the luxurious ship numerous times, and it’s up to Phryne to get to know each and every one of them, savory or otherwise…. This is a more light-hearted entry in the series; only one person is murdered! We just have Phryne and Dot interacting with each other and the passengers and crew members, as the rest of the usual characters are left ashore. We also get to learn something of the Maori culture of New Zealand, and the story is interspersed with letters, presumably mostly real, of passengers on another cruise ship, one that proved to be doomed. Makes me want to take a cruise somewhere, anywhere; recommended!
Phryne is invited to the Best Last Party of 1928 at the country estate being rented by a pair of golden twins she had known in Paris, twins who had come into a huge inheritance which they seem determined to run through as quickly as possible. As a result, the multi-day party is as sumptuous an affair as can be imagined, but there are snags: two children go missing, Phryne is plagued by a riddler, and, worst of all, someone is planning to kill one of the twins during the event…. I enjoyed this book as with all the other novels in the series, although at times I felt that Ms. Greenwood was simply showing off - all the quotes in French and Latin, untranslated! However, the period details were interesting and the new characters quite entertaining, so recommended.
So this is what happens when one stops drinking wine: time to read is massively expanded! Though, to be fair, all the Greenwood novels are very quick reads (1-2 reading sessions max), and I'll finish them next month, so things should slow down then....
When one of Phryne’s intimate acquaintances, a carousel operator in a carnival attached to a circus, asks her to go undercover to investigate a series of mishaps at the circus, culminating in the death of a performer, Phryne is happy to give it a try. Her maid Dot wonders when Phryne has ever had to do anything entirely on her own, but that question just spurs her on to test her mettle, both as an investigator and in the role of a trick rider in the circus. But even with the aid of a juggler, a dwarf, a clown, a strong man and a bear, Phryne may just find that she has bitten off more than she can chew….This is the sixth entry in the Phryne Fisher series, and one of the more engrossing. The worlds of the circus, carnival and attached gypsy camp are separate and unequal, but all thrive with the inclusion of each other, and that symbiotic relationship is nicely portrayed. Phryne is indeed tested rather more sternly than has been the case up to now, which I enjoyed as she had been becoming rather too ensconced in her very privileged world. I would point out to watchers of the television show that this story bears almost no resemblance to the episode of the same name; some characters and the circus setting are the same, but that’s about it, making this an entirely new story which is a good thing! Recommended.
On their way to the theatre, Phryne and her friend Bunji interrupt a group of Chinese thugs beating up an old lady; they rescue the woman and Phryne is introduced to Lin Chung, the very handsome grandson of the victim. Once at the theatre, not one but two actors playing the same role are felled on-stage by poison, and Phryne’s old acquaintance Bernard who runs the theatre asks her to investigate. Soon, Phryne discovers a theatrical world full of stolen gloves, mysteriously torn-up telegrams and, oh, yes, a theatre ghost. Is history to blame, or is the theatre truly cursed? Phryne races to discover the truth before too many innocents die….The seventh Phryne Fisher book finds our heroine mostly ensconced either at the theatre or at home, with plenty of time to both suss out the bad guys and discover the pleasures of the handsome Lin Chung, with a few discourses on the ubiquity of racism in 1920s Australia thrown in for good measure. I’m reading these books at a rate of about one per evening (when I don’t pause to read something else, that is), so I’m trying to pace myself so that I don’t run out before Spring, lo these many months away yet! Recommended.
John May is slowly recovering from a gunshot wound, Arthur Bryant has disappeared and the PCU has been ordered dismantled, but when the Speaker of the House of Commons is seriously injured in a seeming accident that involves being buried under a bunch of fruit, the team is called back to investigate the man’s state of mind. However, the unit cannot just be left to its own devices, so the Home Office sends in an “observer” to keep an eye on things, and the team is also burdened with an unrequested “intern,” a young woman who is amazingly aggravating, however intelligent she may be…. The lovely conceit in this, the 19th Bryant & May novel, is that the attacker is following an old rhyming song that references various London churches and mentions specific attributes of each that the perpetrator uses to confuse matters. Of course, Arthur isn’t fooled - except that he is, in a very unexpected way. I didn’t see the end coming, which is always good in these books. Really, my only quibble is that as a child growing up in England, I *sang* this rhyme all the time, only I know it as “Orange and lemons,” not “oranges.” Annoyed me half to death, that did! Otherwise, as usual highly recommended, but best if you’ve read the whole series in order.
Even before they reach the country house to which they’ve been invited to stay, Phryne, Dot, Lin and his manservant Li find themselves rescuing a maid from assault in the woods; once at the house, they find an odd collection of guests and servants, and a host who appears preoccupied and afraid. That host, Tom, is a long-time friend of Phryne’s, who knows him as a bon vivant, and she is determined to find the cause of his changed demeanor, but before she can even begin, someone is murdered and urns are showing up all over the place….This is Ms. Greenwood’s homage to Agatha Christie; indeed, one of the guests is an elderly woman named Miss Mary Mead, in case the reader misses that fact! I quite enjoyed it, with its not-quite-cozy setting, the odd assortment of characters and motivations that animate them, and of course Phryne’s ability to survive everything from being thrown from a horse to nearly drowning in a basement. Lots of fun; recommended.
When a young Jewish man dies horribly of poison while at a bookshop, the self-possessed proprietor, Miss Lee, is promptly arrested. But Miss Fisher is certain that the woman is innocent and when she is asked by the father of the young Jewish man who is her current fancy to look into the matter, she is more than willing to help. Her search leads her to strange byways, though, including the search for eternal life and the meanings of the Kabbalah…. I again enjoyed this entry in the Miss Fisher series, although I’m beginning to wonder if our character is going to go through every single ethnic and religious minority in 1920s Australia, complete with a beautiful young male representative; then again, that feeling probably comes from the fact that I’ve been reading them back to back. This time, we get a bibliography describing various obscure historical treatises and a handy list of Yiddish phrases at the end of the book, and Miss Fisher learns a thing or two about comprehensive curses to place on one’s enemies. Recommended.
Phryne is invited to Sydney, to attend a dinner in honour of the Vice Chancellor. While there, two university students ask her to look into the theft of various objects that had been kept in a safe which was burgled; in the meantime, her companion Dot looks up her sister only to find her disappeared and her children neglected by their father. Before too long, Phryne finds herself hip-deep in mystic doings, Sydney’s Bohemian demi-monde, academic in-fighting and far, far too many cricket matches…. As always, I enjoyed this entry in the series, although the “supernatural” bits were a tad overdone and, well, there was far, far too much of the horrifically complicated yet ultimately boring game of cricket. So, recommended but not my favourite by a long shot!
A cozy (and exclusive) retirement village in the beautiful Kentish countryside. A greedy developer. A young female cop who’s inexplicably moved from big city excitement to sleepy Kent. And a quartet of elderly residents whose favourite part of the week is their club meeting, where they discuss unsolved murders and try to come up with the culprit. Until, that is, murders start occurring in their own neck of the woods…. “The Thursday Murder Club” is the debut novel from a well-known (in England) quiz show host, which you wouldn’t think would necessarily mean he’d be a good writer, but Mr. Osman is just perfect, at least with this book, blending humour and pathos with tremendous compassion and just enough acidity to keep things lively. This is one of those books where the reader keeps on hoping that they’ll never reach the end of it, because then it will be over and how sad will that be! Joyce, Elizabeth, Red Ron and Ibrahim are wonderful elders who remind us that people who are old have stories to tell, and Donna and Chris are the most sympathetic coppers one can imagine. I really, really hope there’ll be more adventures from this group; very highly recommended!
When Miss Lavender, a writer and illustrator of children’s fairy stories, is found poisoned in her home, Inspector Jack Robinson asks Phryne to help with the investigation, as she can work with the various women involved better than he can. She obliges, going so far as to take a job at a women’s magazine where Miss Lavender had worked, but her mind is on other things: Lin Chung, her favourite lover, has gone missing while on a buying trip to China. He was supposed to have returned some time ago, and even his fearsome grandmother, matriarch of the Lin dynasty, is worried and afraid…. This is the eleventh book in the series and could it possibly be the one where Phryne discovers love? It certainly seemed that way to me, anyway! I especially liked the way the women’s magazine was depicted, with the various women squabbling away as they all follow the high ideal of a magazine that takes women seriously in a time when that simply wasn’t done. Also, I think I would quite love to live in the type of apartment building that Miss Lavender occupied: your own complete apartment, but somebody to bring you breakfast and coffee, other meals too if you want them, and somebody to clean your place to your specifications, along with a beautiful, peaceful garden that somebody else maintains; sounds like bliss! Recommended, as usual.
When Bert and Cec ask for Phryne’s help in tracking down the unknown person who appears to be murdering their friends with whom they had spent a memorable night in Paris in 1918, Phyrne is thrown back into memories of her own time in Paris, also in 1918, and full of events she has spent 10 years determinedly not recalling. At the same time, she is asked to look into the apparent kidnapping of a wealthy young woman whose father, a horse dealer not known for his probity. As if that was not enough, she must cope with domestic problems in the form of Mr. Butler, who objects to her continuing liaison with Lin Chung because the latter is about to get married, and adultery is where Mr. Butler draws the line…. Once again, Ms. Greenwood’s book is light even when dealing with such serious matters as wife-beating and penury, but in this particular entry, we especially learn a lot more about Phryne's life in Paris a decade before the events of the series, including how she came to be the fearless and street-smart young woman we’ve come to know and love. Recommended!
Phryne accidentally uncovers the mummified body of an unknown man disguised as a funfare dummy, an incident that intrigues her enough to search for the identity of this 70-year-old corpse. Meanwhile, Lin Chung has become head of his family and, whilst resolving a longstanding feud, discovers that missing family gold from 70 years earlier was not stolen by the rival family but instead is, well, missing. Both quests take the lovers, separately, to Castlemaine, a town that grew up around the very rich goldfields of 1850s Australia, where there are more secrets than those to be revealed…. I enjoyed the change of scenery and the history provided in this entry in the Phryne Fisher series, although both “mysteries” were relatively easily solved. More interesting was the introduction of Phryne’s sister, sometimes known as Beth and sometimes Eliza, and how her story dovetails nicely with the mummified corpse. Plus, we get to see an old friend from the circus once again, always a pleasure! Recommended.
When I was 12 or 13, I discovered my mother’s trove of Georgette Heyer Regency novels and I dove right in, unaware of the sexual politics underlying the stories. Decades later we have C. L. Polk’s “The Midnight Bargain,” a sort-of Regency YA fantasy that is all about sexual politics. Beatrice is the 18-year-old daughter of a banking family, not rich but respectable, who must participate in Bargaining Season, where the scions of the mid- and upper classes choose their mates; but in this world, some men and women have magic. Because this magic involves summoning and controlling beings from the spirit realm, who are powerful but very greedy for physical experiences, women with magic are at risk of having a spirit enter the fetus of any child they carry, resulting in mass destruction. So women are “warded” during their child-bearing years, which cuts them off completely from magic and which makes it impossible for them to reach their full magical potential. Beatrice has the makings of being a very powerful mage indeed, but she needs to marry well to save her family’s fortunes; those competing desires are only complicated when she meets the Lavan siblings, very beautiful, very rich and very magical…. I like the world-building here, but I found our main character quite off-putting: she is so polemical in her constant arguments about the unfairness of “the system” that I just got annoyed with her. Of course the system is unfair, of course women are devalued and, essentially, enslaved - we get it, already! Then again, as a book meant for teenage readers (I assume), perhaps that much ranting and raving is to be expected. I’ll definitely read more of this author as I find stories, because “The Midnight Bargain” is well written; I’ll just hope future stories are a bit more in the “show, not tell” vein.
Phryne has a busy social calendar: there’s a circus and carnival in town, the annual Ladies’ Bazaar is on tap, and a big parade culminating in the float of the Queen of the Flowers and her attendants is looming. Of course, Phryne is the Queen, and as such, she must entertain and groom her four young attendants, one of whom goes missing shortly before the festivities. Not only does Phryne have to juggle all of her commitments, but she must find the young lady while also navigating the adolescent yearnings of her young adopted daughter Ruth, who pines for a father she’s never known…. This entry in the Phryne Fisher series shows us much more of St. Kilda and environs, particularly the more unsavory parts of the town, with some extremely sordid situations and some surprisingly graceful ones. Dealing with such matters as pedophilia is not easy to do within a generally light-hearted series, but Ms. Greenwood carries it off - plus she gives us a few rounds of old folk songs that made me glad to have the Child Ballads on my plate! Recommended.
Phryne is asked to try to discover who is stealing valuable jewelry on a cruise ship, all expenses paid of course! Four women on four voyages have each lost an exquisite piece, but all the crew members have been thoroughly searched and proven innocent of the crime. As it happens, there are a number of people who have taken passage on the luxurious ship numerous times, and it’s up to Phryne to get to know each and every one of them, savory or otherwise…. This is a more light-hearted entry in the series; only one person is murdered! We just have Phryne and Dot interacting with each other and the passengers and crew members, as the rest of the usual characters are left ashore. We also get to learn something of the Maori culture of New Zealand, and the story is interspersed with letters, presumably mostly real, of passengers on another cruise ship, one that proved to be doomed. Makes me want to take a cruise somewhere, anywhere; recommended!
Phryne is invited to the Best Last Party of 1928 at the country estate being rented by a pair of golden twins she had known in Paris, twins who had come into a huge inheritance which they seem determined to run through as quickly as possible. As a result, the multi-day party is as sumptuous an affair as can be imagined, but there are snags: two children go missing, Phryne is plagued by a riddler, and, worst of all, someone is planning to kill one of the twins during the event…. I enjoyed this book as with all the other novels in the series, although at times I felt that Ms. Greenwood was simply showing off - all the quotes in French and Latin, untranslated! However, the period details were interesting and the new characters quite entertaining, so recommended.
So this is what happens when one stops drinking wine: time to read is massively expanded! Though, to be fair, all the Greenwood novels are very quick reads (1-2 reading sessions max), and I'll finish them next month, so things should slow down then....