My Bookish Year 2017 - July to December

This is where my year went downhill... I had an amazing month in July, I read some great books and I went to ComicCon & YALC for the fourth year in a row, and I met HODOR!!! Then in August disaster struck, my knee gave out and ever since I've been waiting for surgery, stuck in the house apart from hospital appointments, x-rays, and blood tests. That's enough of the miserables though, here are some of my favorite reads from July to December, click on the pics to get to reviews or Goodreads for more info.

Death In The Stars - Frances Brody

Yorkshire, 1927. Eclipse fever grips the nation, and when beloved theatre star Selina Fellini approaches trusted sleuth Kate Shackleton to accompany her to a viewing party at Giggleswick School Chapel, Kate suspects an ulterior motive.

During the eclipse, Selina's friend and co-star Billy Moffatt disappears and is later found dead in the chapel grounds. Kate can't help but dig deeper and soon learns that two other members of the theatre troupe died in similarly mysterious circumstances in the past year. With the help of Jim Sykes and Mrs. Sugden, Kate sets about investigating the deaths - and whether there is a murderer in the company.

When Selina's elusive husband Jarrod, injured in the war and subject to violent mood swings, comes back on the scene, Kate begins to imagine something far deadlier at play and wonders just who will be next to pay the ultimate price for fame...

I'm absolutely thrilled to be on the blog tour for the ninth installment of the Kate Shackleton mysteries, Death In The Stars. I've now read five of these wonderful mysteries and I'm completely hooked! Last October I read (and loved) Death At The Seaside but Death In The stars couldn't be in a more different setting.

Selina Fenelli, known to legions of fans as the Silver Songbird asks Kate to accompany her and a friend from the theatre to an eclipse viewing at a local boy's school. At first, Kate thinks nothing of it, that Selina only asked her because she knows she has contacts at the local airfield and can arrange to have the three of them flown to the school. However, Selina has a different reason for asking. Over the last eighteen months two of her fellow stars on the music hall tour have died, seemingly in tragic accidents, but Selina isn't so sure and is terrified that something is going to happen to her or Billy, the chap accompanying them to Giggleswick for the eclipse.

When Billy dies at the school Kate realises that Selina might not be paranoid about the previous accidents after all but as Billy was a known drug user thanks to injuries from the war it's thought his death was either a tragic overdose or simply natural causes. Kate being Kate decides to investigate anyway, albeit reluctantly, and after finding a cigar on the school grounds that might not be an ordinary cigar the investigation picks up steam.

Mrs. Shackleton is once again aided and abetted by her housekeeper, Mrs. Sugden, and ex-policeman Jim Sykes, along with the addition of Alex, the head boy from Giggleswick, who wants to be a doctor but given his help in this case might also have a career as a detective, and her niece, Harriet. Appearances from Selina's fellow performers lend some light relief but it's impossible to get away from the darkness that has settled around the theatre. As in previous books everybody is a suspect, including Jarrod Compton, Selina's elusive husband who, along with Billy, was severely injured in the war. Compton is probably the main suspect from the start as he doesn't seem to like anybody being too involved in Selina's life and because of his facial disfigurement is always covered from head to toe, adding an aura of deceit to his person.

Yet again the 1920's setting is perfect, from the theatre and the music hall stars coming towards the end of their popularity to the simplicity of life back then. The mystery is completely gripping with twists and turns on every page. As usual, I got sucked into the red herrings that Frances Brody so wonderfully included and it wasn't until just before the big reveal of the villain that I realised who that really was. If you like your crime in a more gentle fashion without the blood and guts, then the Kate Shackleton mysteries are definitely worth a read. I mentioned Miss Marple, Daisy Dalrymple, and Phryne Fisher in my review of Death At The Seaside but this time I need to add that Kate Shackleton is definitely up there with the best of them and is becoming a firm favorite.

Death In The Stars - Frances Brody

ISBN - 9780349414317

Publisher - Piatkus

Release date - October 5th, 2017

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository | Wordery

About The Author

Frances Brody is the author of the Kate Shackleton mysteries, as well as many stories and plays for BBC Radio, scripts for television and four sagas, one of which won the HarperCollins Elizabeth Elgin Award. Her stage plays have been toured by several theatre companies and produced at Manchester Library Theatre, the Gate and Nottingham Playhouse, and Jehad was nominated for a Time Out Award.

Website | Twitter |  Goodreads

This Week In Books #1

I have decided to join with the lovely Lipsy from Lipsy’s Lost and Found's feature, 'This Week In Books', which highlights our week in books. Here are the books that I've just read, am currently reading, and just about to start.

Now | Then | Next

Now: Death In The Stars

1920's crime writing from Frances Brody and my fourth Kate Shackleton mystery. I'm on the blog tour for this one so look out for my review next week.

Then: Such Small Hands 

My fourth R.I.P. read, a quirky translated (originally written in Spanish) horror novel. Look out for my review of this on Friday.

Next: Karen Memory

One for the TBR Challenge, this has been sitting on my shelves for about 18 months...

Death At The Seaside - Frances Brody

Nothing ever happens in August, and tenacious sleuth Kate Shackleton deserves a break. Heading off for a long-overdue holiday to Whitby, she visits her school friend Alma who works as a fortune teller there.
Kate had been looking forward to a relaxing seaside sojourn, but upon arrival discovers that Alma's daughter Felicity has disappeared, leaving her mother a note and the pawn ticket for their only asset: a watch-guard. What makes this more intriguing is the jeweller who advanced Felicity the thirty shillings is Jack Phillips, Alma's current gentleman friend.

Kate can't help but become involved, and goes to the jeweller's shop to get some answers. When she makes a horrifying discovery in the back room, it soon becomes clear that her services are needed. Met by a wall of silence by town officials, keen to maintain Whitby's idyllic façade, it's up to Kate - ably assisted by Jim Sykes and Mrs Sugden - to discover the truth behind Felicity's disappearance.
And they say nothing happens in August...

This is the third Kate Shackleton mystery I have read and I have to say, they are rapidly becoming a favorite series! Kate Shackleton is a widow, who after looking for more information about what happened to her husband in the war,  becomes an investigator aided and abetted by Jim Sykes and Mrs Sugden.

In this 8th installment Kate is off to visit an old school friend in Whitby, Alma Turner and her daughter Felicity. What she is not expecting to find is a dead body in the jeweller's or that Felicity has run away with her intended. Soon Kate is up to her neck in intrigue, finding herself under suspicion and locked up in the cells, thinking the worst of her school friend who maybe she doesn't know all that well after all and wondering exactly who might be a killer in the beautiful seaside town.

Death At The Seaside was an absolute pleasure to read, with stunning settings, amazing characters and a mystery that will hopefully bamboozle you as much as it did me! I really enjoyed the chapters that were written from both Felicity's and Alma's points of view. I can't imagine it's a good thing that the thing you're remembered for from school is fainting and Alma strikes me as rather useless unless she has a man! It was nice that all the subterfuge wasn't just happening in Whitby but also in a tiny sailing boat while Felicity desperately tries to find the father who left when she was small.

Favorite characters include Kate herself, her no-nonsense housekeeper Mrs. Sugden, local policeman Sergeant Garvin, Mr Cricklethorpe, and Alma herself - mainly because she just seems so scatty! They're all vividly written and so very lifelike that you almost expect to look up and see them in front of you. I was also very much intrigued to see the return of Chief Inspector Marcus Charles, Kate's love interest for want of a better phrase. Having proposed (and been turned down) in previous books I will always wonder what will happen between them!

I absolutely adore the 1920's setting and Frances Brody's lady investigator is perfect, reminiscent of Miss Marple, Daisy Dalrymple, and Phryne Fisher - some of my favorite period female detectives! There are hints and red herrings scattered all the way through Death At The Seaside and just when you think you've got it worked out? Boom! All your expectations are smashed and it's most definitely not who you think it was. I have the other 5 books in the series sitting in a pile here and I'm waiting for next rainy day where I can curl up and lose myself in the 1920's again! Oh, and if the absolutely stunning covers of the Kate Shackleton mysteries don't make you want to pick up the books to read then I don't think we can be friends anymore....

Death At The Seaside - Frances Brody

ISBN - 9780349406589

Publisher - Piatkus

Release date - October 6 2016

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository

About The Author

Frances Brody is the author of the Kate Shackleton mysteries, as well as many stories and plays for BBC Radio, scripts for television and four sagas, one of which won the HarperCollins Elizabeth Elgin Award. Her stage plays have been toured by several theatre companies and produced at Manchester Library Theatre, the Gate and Nottingham Playhouse, and Jehad was nominated for a Time Out Award.

Website | Twitter |  Goodreads

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.