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ClareR (5681 KP) rated The Anniversary in Books

May 15, 2023  
The Anniversary
The Anniversary
Stephanie Bishop | 2023 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is one of those books where I’m glad I commit to the 30% rule. After the first stave (I read it on The Pigeonhole, so it was split up over 10 days), I wanted to give up. I felt pretty much the same after day 2, but at day 3, I wanted to know what had happened. I wanted the Ruth, and I was all in!

It’s a very introspective book, lots of descriptions of places, people, scenes and above all, feelings. JB has a lot of feelings, although she appears to be in a state of shock for a majority of the novel. I mean, her husband falls off the ship they’re celebrating their anniversary on. Not an ideal situation!

And then the truth starts to come out about the reality of their marriage.

The word “marmite” has been bandied around quite a lot regarding this book, and I’ve come down on the “like it” side. It’s certainly a book that gave me a lot to think about - even when I wasn’t reading it!
  
The Valley of Fear
The Valley of Fear
Arthur Conan Doyle | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
8
7.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Sherlock Holmes stories I had previously heard of / knew (even if only a little bit) about:

The Hound of the Baskervilles (natch)
A Study in Scarlet
The Sign of Four
The Red-Headed League
The Final Problem

.. and a few others whose name I cannot currently recall.

None of them, however, were this one.

Like "The Hound...", this was a later-written story, but is also set before Holmes encounter with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls. And like "A Study in Scarlet", it's also very much split into distinct sections: the first section in which Holmes and Watson are called to the English countryside to investigate a murder (or is it suicide?), and the a whole other section set in the United States of America filling in the backgrounds of the principal actor of the first section.

Being new to me, also, I have to say I did wonder - until the reveal! - just how this whole section (and the mention of the Pinkerton Detective Agency) fitted into the first part.

Perhaps because of its novelty (to me), I also fairly enjoyed this.