The first book in this series was one of my favorite books of 2020
Can’t Wait Wednesday is hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings. This is a weekly meme to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. The books I choose aren’t released yet and usually won’t be published for at least two or three months. So I have a while to wait!
I love finding out about books set to publish in future months and I like to share my excitement about the books. I also like to find out about new books on other people’s blogs and hope they’ll sometimes find something to look forward to on my blog.
Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He’s made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life.
As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn’t that be a bonus?
But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn’t bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. Can The Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?
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I read the first book in this series last fall. It was one of my favorite 2020 books. This second book is one of my most anticipated books for this year.
Connecting with others to talk about books plus a little about our personal lives
Kimberly hosts the Sunday Post each week. I like to take part because it gives me an opportunity to look back at last week and forward to next week in both my personal life and my blog and book life! I also love to see what other people are doing and what books everyone is reading.
Personal life
I didn’t get much done last week.
We had to have our cat Elf put to sleep during the week. It was such a hard decision, but she wasn’t getting any better. In fact, she was losing weight each time she was weighed and had stopped eating.
The above pictures show Elf (calico cat) and Scorch (part Snowshoe cat). They came into our household together though they weren’t litter mates. Scorch got a lot more dark patches of fur as she got older. Scorch died in 2019 when she was 10 years old. Elf was 12 when she died this week. They were both such wonderful sweet cats and both died too soon.
Blog Life
Though I’m late getting this Sunday Post done I’m getting caught up a little on my blog comments and visiting other blogs.
Mysteries, science fiction, time travel, police procedural, dystopian and space opera all appeal to me this month
I keep a list of all the books I might want to read and add to it as the year goes on. As each month comes along I create a list on my blog for others and for me to keep track of as the months go by.
I don’t buy all these books–since I already have way too many books to read and some of the new books are expensive. I’m trying to stick to a budget!
I hope people reading my post may find some new books to read. I also hope these people will point me toward books I might not know about! The links to the following books will take you to the book on Goodreads.
Synopsis: Lieutenant Abby Mullen is no stranger to crisis. As the hostage negotiation instructor for the NYPD, she deals with worst-case scenarios every day. Nothing fazes her anymore.
That all changes when she gets a call from Eden Fletcher, a fellow survivor of the infamous Wilcox cult. The two haven’t spoken since the night of a tragic, fiery massacre, when their paths diverged. But now Eden needs Abby’s help: someone has kidnapped her son and is demanding a $5 million ransom. As Abby throws herself into the case, she can’t help but wonder why the kidnapper has targeted Eden. But Eden refuses to talk. She’s silent about the relics of their shared past hanging on her walls. About the kidnapper’s possible motives. About what’s happened in the years since she and Abby parted ways.
As the truth closes in, Abby realizes that her past may not be as far behind as she thought…and it’s come home to collect.
Synopsis: Gideon Sable is a thief and a con man. He specializes in stealing the kind of things that can’t normally be stolen. Like a ghost’s clothes, or a photo from a country that never existed. He even stole his current identity. Who was he originally? Now, that would be telling. One thing’s for sure though, he’s not the bad guy. The people he steals from always have it coming. Gideon’s planning a heist, to steal the only thing that matters from the worst man in the world. To get past his security, he’s going to need a crew who can do the impossible . . . but luckily, he has the right people in mind. The Damned, the Ghost, the Wild Card . . . and his ex-girlfriend, Annie Anybody. A woman who can be anyone, with the power to make technology fall in love with her. If things go well, they’ll all get what they want. And if they’re lucky, they might not even die trying . . .
Synopsis: Welcome to Silvertown, Washington. Population 602 (for now).
Despite its small size, the small mountain town is home to more conspiracy theories than any other place in America. Officer Mary Whittaker is slowly acclimating to the daily weirdness of life here, but when the chief of police takes a leave of absence, she is left alone to confront a series of abnormal incidents–strange even by Silvertown standards.
An “indoor kid” who abhors nature dies on a random midnight walkabout with no explanation.
A hiker is found dead on a trail, smiling serenely after being mauled by a bear.
A woman known for being a helicopter parent abandons her toddler twins without a second thought.
It’s almost as if the townsfolk are losing their survival instinct, one by one…
As Whittaker digs deeper into her investigation, she uncovers a larger conspiracy with more twists and turns than a mountain road, and danger around every corner. To save Silvertown, she must distinguish the truth from paranoia-fueled lies before she ends up losing her own instincts…and her life!
Synopsis: A thrilling adventure set against an intergalactic war with international bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders at the helm in her YA debut—think Star Wars meets Doctor Who, and buckle your seatbelts.
Tina has always known her destiny is outside the norm—after all, she is the human clone of the most brilliant alien commander in all the galaxies (even if the rest of the world is still deciding whether aliens exist). But she is tired of waiting for her life to begin.
And then it does—and maybe Tina should have been more prepared. At least she has a crew around her that she can trust—and her best friend at her side. Now, they just have to save the world.
Synopsis: What begins as a typical day for Officer Bernadette Manuelito—serving a bench warrant, dealing with a herd of cattle obstructing traffic, and stumbling across a crime scene—takes an unexpected twist when she’s called to help find an old friend. Years ago, Bernie and Maya were roommates, but time and Maya’s struggles with addiction drove them apart. Now Maya’s brother asks Bernie to find out what happened to his sister.
Tracing Maya’s whereabouts, Bernie learns that her old friend had confessed to the murder of her estranged husband, a prominent astronomer. But the details don’t align. Suspicious, Bernie takes a closer look at the case only to find that nothing is as it seems. Uncovering new information about the astronomer’s work leads Bernie to a remote spot on the Navajo Nation and a calculating killer.
The investigation causes an unexpected rift with her husband and new acting boss, Jim Chee, who’s sure Bernie’s headed for trouble. While she’s caught between present and past, Chee is at a crossroads of his own. Burdened with new responsibilities he didn’t ask for and doesn’t want, he must decide what the future holds for him and act accordingly.
Can their mentor Joe Leaphorn—a man also looking at the past for answers to the future—provide the guidance both Bernie and Chee need? And will the Navajo heroes that stud the starry sky help them find justice—and the truth they seek?
Synopsis: Greer Hogan is a librarian and an avid reader of murder mysteries. She also has a habit of stumbling upon murdered bodies. The first was her husband’s, and the tragic loss led Greer to leave New York behind for a new start in the Village of Raven Hill. But her new home becomes less idyllic when she discovers her best friend sprawled dead on the floor of the library.
Was her friend’s demise related to two other deaths that the police deemed accidental? Do the residents of this insular village hold dark secrets about another murder, decades ago? Does a serial killer haunt Raven Hill?
As the body count rises, Greer’s anxious musings take a darker turn when she uncovers unexpected and distressing information about her own husband’s death…and the man who went to prison for his murder . She is racked with guilt at the possibility that her testimony may have helped to convict an innocent man.
Though Greer admires the masters of deduction she reads about in books, she never expected to have to solve a mystery herself. Fortunately, she possesses a quick wit and a librarian’s natural resourcefulness. But will that be enough to protect her from a brilliant, diabolical murderer?
And even if Greer manages to catch the Raven Hill killer, will living with her conscience prove a fate worse than death?
Synopsis: At long last it’s all over. Job done. Max has her life back and everything is set for the traditional happy ending. Except, this is St Mary’s and if something can go wrong it will.
Disaster is piled upon catastrophe. A new Head of Security. A new Director of St Mary’s. Historians lost in time. And Max dishonourably discharged.
Jobless and homeless, she receives an offer she cannot refuse and suddenly finds herself in another time and another place. Just a way to pass the weeks until she can reunite with Leon – or so she thinks. Because events are on the move and, as usual, St Mary’s is at the centre of the storm.
Synopsis: Delta of Dead River has always been told to hide her back, where a map is branded on her skin to a rumored paradise called the Verdant. In a wasteland plagued by dust squalls, geomagnetic storms, and solar flares, many would kill for it—even if no one can read it. So when raiders sent by a man known as the General attack her village, Delta suspects he is searching for her.
Delta sets out to rescue her family but quickly learns that in the Wastes no one can be trusted—perhaps not even her childhood friend, Asher, who has been missing for nearly a decade. If Delta can trust Asher, she just might decode the map and trade evidence of the Verdant to the General for her family. What Delta doesn’t count on is what waits at the Verdant: a long-forgotten secret that will shake the foundation of her entire world.
Synopsis: A hilariously quirky novel that is equal parts murder mystery, rom-com, and a celebration of mothers and daughters as well as a deep dive into Chinese-Indonesian culture, by debut author Jesse Q. Sutanto.
1 (accidental) murder 2 thousand wedding guests 3 (maybe) cursed generations 4 meddling Asian aunties to the rescue!
When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is accidentally shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working, at an island resort on the California coastline. It’s the biggest job yet for their family wedding business—“Don’t leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!”—and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie’s perfect buttercream cake flowers.
But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy’s great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?
Synopsis: No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.
When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)
Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!
Can’t Wait Wednesday is hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings. This is a weekly meme to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. The books I choose aren’t released yet and usually won’t be published for at least two or three months. So I have a while to wait!
I love finding out about books set to publish in future months and I like to share my excitement about the books. I also like to find out about new books on other people’s blogs and hope they’ll sometimes find something to look forward to on my blog.
Synopsis: Electra McDonnell has always known that the way she and her family earn their living is slightly outside of the law. Breaking into the homes of the rich and picking the locks on their safes may not be condoned by British law enforcement, but World War II is in full swing, Ellie’s cousins Colm and Toby are off fighting against Hitler, and Uncle Mick’s more honorable business as a locksmith can’t pay the bills any more.
So when Uncle Mick receives a tip about a safe full of jewels in the empty house of a wealthy family, he and Ellie can’t resist. All goes as planned–until the pair are caught redhanded. Ellie expects them to be taken straight to prison, but instead they are delivered to a large townhouse, where government official Major Ramsey is waiting with an offer: either Ellie agrees to help him break into a safe and retrieve blueprints that will be critical to the British war effort, before they can be delivered to a German spy, or he turns her over to the police.
Ellie doesn’t care for the Major’s imperious manner, but she has no choice, and besides, she’s eager to do her bit for king and country. She may be a thief, but she’s no coward. When she and the Major break into the house in question, they find instead the purported German spy dead on the floor, the safe already open and empty. Soon, Ellie and Major Ramsey are forced to put aside their differences to unmask the double-agent, as they try to stop allied plans falling into German hands.
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I love the cover of this book. It evokes the era very clearly. I like historical mysteries though I don’t usually read ones set in WWII. However, this sounds good!
Connecting with others to talk about books plus a little about our personal lives
Kimberly hosts the Sunday Post each week. I like to take part because it gives me an opportunity to look back at last week and forward to next week in both my personal life and my blog and book life! I also love to see what other people are doing and what books everyone is reading.
Personal life
We are in the final stretch for getting our house on the market on April 2. Our two cats and I are in Illinois with my older daughter so my husband is in charge of getting the yard and house ready. It sounds like he’s doing a great job getting the final details done. My cat is still sick. Apparently it takes a lot of time for the pancreas to heal. We’re still not sure she will get better. I think the next week will tell us more.
New house
The first picture is taken from what will be our driveway. So this is the view we’ll have from the front of our house. I love sunsets! And we’ll have sunrises to see out the back of the house.
The second picture is the front of our house. We finally have a firm move-in date of mid-May. The builders are moving ahead quickly.
Blog Life
Not much on my blog the last couple of weeks. With getting together what I need for the next couple of months, nursing my sick cat, moving to my daughter’s for about six weeks it’s been hectic. At least I’m fully vaccinated now. And I hope I’ll have time to visit more blog friends.
Can’t Wait Wednesday is hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings. This is a weekly meme to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. The books I choose aren’t released yet and usually won’t be published for at least two or three months. So I have a while to wait!
I love finding out about books set to publish in future months and I like to share my excitement about the books. I also like to find out about new books on other people’s blogs and hope they’ll sometimes find something to look forward to on my blog.
Synopsis: What happens when your dream mission to Mars is a reality television nightmare? This debut science-fiction romp with heart follows the tradition of Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, with a dash of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and a hint of The Real World.
For the six lucky scientists selected by the Destination Mars! corporation, a one-way ticket to Mars—in exchange for a lifetime of research—was an absolute no-brainer. The incredible opportunity was clearly worth even the most absurdly tedious screening process. Perhaps worth following the strange protocols in a nonsensical handbook written by an eccentric billionaire. Possibly even worth their constant surveillance, the video of which is carefully edited into a ratings-bonanza back on Earth.
But it turns out that after a while even scientists can get bored of science. Tempers begin to fray; unsanctioned affairs blossom. When perfectly good equipment begins to fail, the Marsonauts are faced with a possibility that their training just cannot explain.
Irreverent, poignant, and perfectly weird, David Ebenbach’s debut science-fiction outing, like a mission to Mars, is an incredible trip you will never forget.
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This sounds like it will be good. However, sometimes weird doesn’t work for me. I hope it will in this case!
Connecting with others to talk about books plus a little about our personal lives
Kimberly hosts the Sunday Post each week. I like to take part because it gives me an opportunity to look back at last week and forward to next week in both my personal life and my blog and book life! I also love to see what other people are doing and what books everyone is reading.
Personal life
Daylight savings time is here (at least in the United States). I wish we would decide to just keep daylight savings time throughout the year.
This has been a hard, stressful week with lots going on. At least lots for us since the pandemic started. Our cat Elf is very sick and we’ve taken her to the vet several times. We’ve thought she was getting better several times and then she would pretty much stop eating again. We took her back in again yesterday and we’ve gotten a bunch of medications for her. She has pancreatitis which I guess is rare in a cat. We’ve got another appointment Monday morning. She’s such a sweet cat and only about 12 years old.
My husband received his second covid vaccine a few days ago and my second vaccine is scheduled for next week. We are both happy to almost have the vaccines done for now and have some protection from covid 19.
I finished clearing my craft room last week. We kept a desk in the room and moved an easy chair in plus a day bed. We’re moving furniture around to see where it looks best in our house and will have our realtor come by soon to take a look at the house.
Blog Life
Another week with only a few other blogs visited. I’m able to get posts done each week plus some reading, but that’s about all.
Police procedurals to cozy mysteries to dogs in mysteries
Connect Five Friday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. (The hashtag is #connect5books) This is a fun and creative way to think about my books and reading. Check out Kathyrn’s blog and link up your Friday Five!
The five book-related items need to connect in some way, but each person who participates can decide for themselves what the book subject and connection is. For example, you could write about five books read last year or five books you want to read. It could even be favorite bookstores or five movies made from books.
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Today I’m writing about the mysteries published during the first half of the year I plan to read. So far I have all but one of these books on hold from my library or have already gotten them from the library.
My library only has the hardbound version of The Hiding Place by Paula Munier on order right now. Because we are moving I don’t have time to get a physical copy of books anymore. I will try to get a copy from the library in the town we move to.
I got the ebook from my library and have already read this. It’s one of my favorite series!
Synopsis: Detective Casey Duncan has noticed fewer and fewer residents coming in to the hidden town of Rockton, and no extensions being granted. Her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, presumes it’s the natural flux of things, but Casey’s not so sure. Something bigger is happening in the small town they call home.
When an injured hiker stumbles from the woods, the sole survivor of a hostile attack, it’s all hands on deck. Even a member of the elusive Rockton council comes in to help. This council member also comes bearing news: Rockton is being shut down due to the hostile situation.
I have this on hold from the library and my library app says I should receive it soon.
Synopsis: Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.
When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.
I have the ebook from the library and I’m reading it right now. Really enjoying it!
Synopsis: The death of a ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition should not be suspicious. Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing out of the ordinary when Peggy’s caretaker, Natalka, begins to recount Peggy Smith’s passing.
But Natalka had a reason to be at the police station: while clearing out Peggy’s flat, she noticed an unusual number of crime novels, all dedicated to Peggy. And each psychological thriller included a mysterious postscript: PS: for PS.
My current library doesn’t have a digital version of this book.
Synopsis: Some people take their secrets with them to the grave. Others leave them behind on their deathbeds, riddles for the survivors to solve.
When her late grandfather’s dying deputy calls Mercy to his side, she and Elvis inherit the cold case that haunted him—and may have killed him. But finding Beth Kilgore 20 years after she disappeared is more than a lost cause. It’s a Pandora’s box releasing a rain of evil on the very people Mercy and Elvis hold most dear.
I have the audio version of this book on hold at my library.
Synopsis: When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She’s tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.
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Are you planning to read any of these books? Have you already read them? How’d you like them? What other 2021 mysteries do you want to read?
Can’t Wait Wednesday is hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings. This is a weekly meme to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. The books I choose aren’t released yet and usually won’t be published for at least two or three months. So I have a while to wait!
I love finding out about books set to publish in future months and I like to share my excitement about the books. I also like to find out about new books on other people’s blogs and hope they’ll sometimes find something to look forward to on my blog.
Synopsis: It’s been centuries since the robots of Earth gained self-awareness and laid down their tools. Centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again. Centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.
One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of “what do people need?” is answered.
But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They’re going to need to ask it a lot.
Becky Chambers’ new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?
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This new series by Becky Chambers looks really interesting. I love the cover and want to know more about the robots. What have they been doing since they disappeared? How were they able to disappear so completely? And the tea monk sounds like he’s part of the series, too.
Kimberly hosts the Sunday Post each week. I like to take part because it gives me an opportunity to look back at last week and forward to next week in both my personal life and my blog and book life! I also love to see what other people are doing and what books everyone is reading.
Personal life
We’ve had temperatures in the 60’s and we’re seeing more and more grass instead of snow in our yard. I can even see my flower beds that have spring bulbs starting to come up.
I got my first vaccine in February and should get the second one in a couple of weeks. I’m so happy I’m getting vaccinated.
Craft room
I’m still working to clear out my craft room. I’m trying to separate the things I would like to use over the next few months before we move and then after we move before my craft room is set up again. That takes more time that if I just shoved things into some boxes! Plus I have way to much stuff. I have thrown some things away and donated some things. When we get moved I plan to do more of that.
At the end of February I attended RootsTech–a virtual conference for genealogy. The hosting organization is FamilySearch International which is operated by the Latter-Day Saints (LDS church) also known as Mormons. A person doesn’t have to be Mormon (I’m not Mormon) to use their website or research records either in person in Salt Lake City, Utah or on the internet.
RootsTech is held every year, but is usually held in person in Salt Lake City. Because of Covid 19 they decided to have a free virtual conference this year. It was really amazing. It was held over three days and there were hundreds of videos available–some only five minutes long and others 40 minutes long. Many of the videos are still available to watch so I’m looking forward to watching more as I have time. Most of the videos I watched were about DNA. I’m wanting to do more with my DNA and DNA matches. I’m really interested in the history aspects of my family so I hope to connect with people who know more about some of the more unknown branches of my family.
Over one million people signed up from all over the world and there were videos in many different languages. One of the most fun aspects of the conference was that you could opt in to connect to others that might be related to you. The connections were made through the huge family tree on the FamilySearch website. According to their statistics over 38,000 of my relatives were signed up for the conference and participating in finding relatives! My closest relative was a second cousin and showed numerous 6th-10th cousins once or twice removed. I only had time to look at a few of these connections, but most of my connections came from my maternal side where I have some ancestors who were Quakers who came to the United States in the 1600’s. I’m fascinated with the family history aspects of genealogy and hope to do more work on my family tree after we move.
Blog Life
I didn’t do much blogging the last couple of weeks and haven’t visited many blogs. My husband is working so hard to get as much of our stuff boxed up, thrown away or donated that I feel I really need to do more than read books or write blog posts.
