Archive | April 2025

Murder By The Minster by Helen Cox

Apr30

Entertaining

Murder By The Minster by Helen Cox is a fabulous contemporary crime novel and the first book in A Kitt Hartley Yorkshire Mystery series which promises to be entertaining.

Kitt Hartley is a well-read librarian turned amateur sleuth as her best friend is accused of murder. As with all amateur sleuths, Kitt Hartley pokes her nose into some dangerous situations in order to uncover the truth.

As with the fictional Miss Marple, Kitt Hartley also has a friend on the police force. She is urged not to investigate but this falls on deaf ears!

All the characters are well drawn and believable. There was some light-hearted banter, and I loved the inclusion of book quotes and titles by Kitt Hartley.

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The House Of Lost Whispers by Jenni Keer

Apr27

Ripples

The House Of Lost Whispers by Jenni Keer is a compelling historical novel that I thoroughly enjoyed.

This is a very unique novel. It opens as the Titanic sinks, but in another dimension – The Titanic survives! Parallel lives with subtle differences. Only two characters share this unique perspective, and for years, each believes the other to be a ghostly voice!

We see the devastation that World War I brings. A generation of young men, lost forever.

Those who returned home were scarred – physically or mentally or both. In August 1914 young men believed that war was glorious, an adventure. They were soon disillusioned. “There’s no glory in the waterlogged pits of death I walk through.”

The role of women was changing as they demanded the right to vote. Lives were opened up due to war, as the women stepped into the men’s roles. In fact, my own paternal Nanny said that the First World War gave her, her freedom as she worked in a munitions factory examining the shell cases.

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Being Ethel: In A World That Loves Lucy by Michele Olson

Apr26

So Delightful

Being Ethel: In A World That Loves Lucy by Michele Olson is an absolutely charming Christian novel that I adored. It is the first book in the Mackinac Island series and I cannot wait to read the rest.

As the series title suggests, the book is set on Mackinac Island in 1979. The Grand Hotel takes centre stage as a new movie, Somewhere In Time is being filmed. This, as it happens, is one of my all-time favourite movies. I, therefore, found the location easy to picture.

The leading lady has experienced a huge loss. Her emotions are conflicting as she experiences, guilt, anger and grief. Her walk with God has been damaged. “Being mad at myself, and God.” She feels that her father, an evangelist, escaped justice by dying (before the book opened.) “It’s quite a trip to see a person ooze love and acceptance in the pulpit yet act the way he did at our house.” Her father did not walk the walk in private, only when he was in the spotlight.

There is anger at God too, for allowing the deaths of her mother and twin sister (before the book opened.) The leading lady views God as a God of wrath. An encounter with a godly nun, opens her eyes. “I don’t want to fall into a religion trap, I just want to know Him [Jesus], His Father and the Holy Spirit.” It is all about relationship and not religion. After years of living in the shadows, “my self-worth comes from who I am to the Lord.”

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The Lost Story Of Sofia Castello by Siobhan Curham

Apr25

Capturing Your Heart

The Lost Story Of Sofia Castello by Siobhan Curham is a totally gripping dual timeline novel that I adored. It is set in 2000 and during the war years, mainly in Portugal.

We see that secrets that have been kept for over fifty years now need to come to light. Fact is stranger than fiction, and I confess to reading with dropped jaw as the book sped towards its conclusion.

The war years were a time of fear and suspicion. There were agents and double agents, and the Gestapo, all lunching in plain sight. As Siobhan Curham sets the scene, my heart rate and pulse rate rose.

We see that friends are born in adversity as a young singer puts aside all thoughts of personal safety in order to rescue a young Jewish girl from the clutches of the Gestapo.

There are all the wasted years as we ponder on what might have been.

Portugal is a vibrant place, even in times of war. The golden sands and the heat contrast sharply with the grey London skies.

Characters maintain their joi d’vivre even into their eighties, persuading others to abandon their straight way of thinking, throw caution to the wind, and dive into life.

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