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Pure Imagination: A Sorta Biography

Leslie Bricusse

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The life and good times of one of the world's favourite songwriters. If you've ever hummed a popular...

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2171 KP) rated Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders in Books

May 29, 2020

Strangler in the Village

Poppy Redfern is the new air-raid warden for her village in England in 1942. This has become an important job since an American Air Force base as recently moved into the area. Some of the young women have started dating Americans, but when two of them turn up dead, it sets up a divide in the village. Even though an American has been arrested for the murders, Poppy doesn’t think he is guilty. She sets out with one of the American pilots to figure out what really happened. But has she just made herself a target?

I’ve been trying to read more historical mysteries this year, and this one was already sitting on my shelf. The author clearly did her research as the details of life at the time came to life. Unfortunately, they tended to overshadow the plot, so the pacing was uneven. Poppy was an interesting main character, and I can easily see her growing as the series continues, but much of the rest of the cast never really came alive for me. While the book wasn’t bad, it wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be.

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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2171 KP) rated Charred in Books

Feb 25, 2023

Charred

GP Gottlieb | 2023 | Mystery

5.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Will Alene Get Charred During the Pandemic’s Early Days?

This book opens in May 2020 and finds Alene Baron trying to keep her café in Chicago opened with a reduced staff and takeout or delivery only. Things are complicated when her long lost uncle returns to town and wants to connect with his brother, Alene’s father. Oh, and there are bodies turning up in burned out buildings owned by Alene’s best friend’s husband.

Since this is the third book in the series, I like the characters. That helped me get on board with the story that is truly the main story in the book, not the mystery that you’d expect in a culinary cozy. While I enjoyed the real main story, that backwards emphasis bothered me, especially how the story of the burned out buildings was resolved. I’m not sure I was ready to read a book set during the pandemic, but the book does a good job of capturing how everyone was feeling about life then. However, it introduces the riots before the event that triggered them happened in real life. The end result was only average.