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A Murder of Convenience
A Murder of Convenience
Kathleen Buckley | 2025 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I liked that we heard from everyone!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, i was gifted my copy of this book.

When Lydia is found dead in a locked room, Ellen becomes the prime suspect. Lydia is, after all, her husband's mistress. Sir Hugh is sent to investigate. He might be the only one to save her from the hangman's noose.

For the most part, I really did enjoy this. It's a step out my comfort zone, and I do like to step out from time to time. This one, though, was a tad too far. Let me tell you why.

There are hints, and clues along the way as to whodunnit. many clues. MANY MANY hints. So many, that I started to get mighty confused with it all and I could not see the bigger picture, nor who might have committed this crime. I'm still not 100% certain who actually did it, or why! It doe tell you, in the book, but I was so flummoxed by it all, I lost the plot, literally.

What I did like, though, was got to hear from all the major parties. I liked the level of drama (murder suspect notwithstanding!)

I liked the way it was written, and how the story was delivered, apart from the overwhelming amount of things to process. And that was the ony reason I gave it . .

4 solid stars

*same worded review will appear elsewhere.
  
Pinterest
Pinterest
Photo & Video, Social Networking
8
8.7 (242 Ratings)
App Rating
The perfect website/app for your inner hoarder. I have always been one to clip things out of magazines and keep them for future reference, or bookmark ALL THE THINGS on my computer, resulting in a massive system of intricately organized files where you could get lost for days. When Pinterest came along it was like finding home - finally a place where I could keep all the things that caught my eye without me actually having to KEEP them. I will say that due to "improvements" they've made it isn't as good as it once was, I believe that their algorithms really limit what you're shown, while before it was really a smorgasbord. That being said, if you have a search term in mind it is easy to lose hours at a time - proceed with caution.
  
H(
Hunted ( The Warrior Chronicles book 2)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
12 of 230
Kindle
Hunted ( The Warrior chronicles book2)
By K.F. Breene

With a new Chosen coming forward, Shanti has lost sight of her duty. With her plans unraveling, she does the only thing she can think of-- frees her brother and a mysterious stranger from a Graygual camp before heading back to beg for Cayan's aid.

Unfortunately, that stranger was precious to the enemy, guarded by one of the elite. A Superior Officer known as the Hunter, this man always catches his prey, and his focus is now on the elusive, violet-eyed girl and the man she ripped from the his hands.

With danger mounting, and one of the best constantly on her heels, Shanti will learn that running will never be enough.


Well it was ok. Only marginally better than book 1. I stuck with it despite wanting to DNF it a few times.
  
40x40

Nick McCabe recommended Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division in Music (curated)

 
Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division
Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division
1979 | Rock
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"My eldest brother had Closer. I was listening to that from about ten-years-old onwards. Once I started to save money – working on a farm with my other brother, doing the milk round with him – that was the first time I had my own cash floating around and that money used to go on records. Unknown Pleasures was one of my first purchases. That was a key moment for me. It was my record. It hadn't been passed down. It was a completely new record in the household. That was me getting that experience first-hand, and it was such a brilliant record to have that with. The sleeve is another Peter Saville classic. The production on it is incredible. I know the band weren't happy with it, but to me it's a complete masterpiece. The use of space is evocative of Lancashire I think. The whole thing has this dank… I'm going to wheel out all the clichés now about empty warehouses and all that, but it is familiar territory for me where I'm from. Those smashed glasses at the end of 'I Remember Nothing', and the synth drones. I think that was around the time I got my first Roland synthesiser and it was another polarising moment. Something very powerful crystallised about what I wanted to do at that point. All I was capable of doing with that synth was making this huge powerful drone sound. It pointed the way. Having that induction – sat with the headphones on late at night... Music in the seventies was full of opposites. The stuff we heard on the radio was the friendly aspects of music. I wasn't looking for that. I was looking to be disturbed by it and that's something that I haven't really lost throughout my life."

Source
  
The Dumb House: (Scottish Classics)
The Dumb House: (Scottish Classics)
John Burnside | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book was nothing like what I thought it would, and for that reason, it disappointed me.

I believed this novel was going to be a creepy, man-holds-children-captive kind of story, but unfortunately it wasn’t. This was far more intelligent, with lots of complex writing than I had expected, and due to that, I couldn’t really get into it. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed so I feel like a lot of this book went over my head.

There’s no doubt about it, our narrator is one of the most terrifying and disturbed narrators I’ve ever come across, and thanks to my love for the macabre, this made reading his story sometimes enjoyable. When he was simply recalling his actions in the here and now, I was interested, but when he got into his ramblings about his ideas on testing the innateness of language, my mind moved onto different things. Hence it taking me almost a week and a half to read 204 pages.

Burnside is an incredibly beautiful writer, it doesn’t surprise me to see he’s a poetry writer as well as a fiction writer. I’m always one to praise an author for their poetic prose, but sometimes things get a little too complex for me and all meaning is lost on me. This happened a lot throughout reading The Dumb House.

In terms of the story, this wasn’t exactly what I had hoped it would be. It was very slow to get anywhere, and even when we did get to learning his experiment on his children, that whole section was equally slow-moving. It didn’t feel like an awful lot happened other than several uncomfortable sex scenes and some horrifying violence.

Unfortunately, this one didn’t do it for me, which is a shame, because I was so looking forward to reading it. I suppose if you love intelligent fiction that is reasonably ambiguous, this might be great for you. I personally like a book that challenges my mind, but this one went too far for me.