Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post! I must apologise for missing last week’s. With all that is going on here at the moment, everything became too much for me and I was very ill from Tuesday into Wednesday, so was unable to write. For that reason, I am creating the post a day early!

This week I am going to talk about three of the books that I have managed to finish during this enforced incarceration with Lovely Husband. Here is the first one:

I have read a lot of Helen Fields’ books and thought that this one, The Last Girl to Die, would be worth a look. Anyway, this is the blurb:

“The island watched and wept…

In search of a new life, sixteen-year-old Adriana Clark’s family moves to the ancient, ocean-battered Isle of Mull, far off the coast of Scotland. Then she goes missing. Faced with hostile locals and indifferent police, her desperate parents turn to private investigator Sadie Levesque.

Sadie is the best at what she does. But when she finds Adriana’s body in a cliffside cave, a seaweed crown carefully arranged on her head, she knows she’s dealing with something she’s never encountered before.

The deeper she digs into the island’s secrets, the closer danger creeps – and the more urgent her quest to find the killer grows. Because what if Adriana is not the last girl to die?”

I had found one of her recent books rather annoying, for various reasons, and that should have made me far more cautious! Oh dear…

The Last Girl To Die by Helen Sarah Fields
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

That’s the last book I will read by this author!

View all my reviews

---

I can’t say any more than that because of spoilers, but I suppose this is warning enough!

After that waste of time, things could only improve…

I have read almost every book in C J Box’s Joe Pickett series. This is #23, Storm Watch. Here is the blurb:

“Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett investigates a mysterious death at a secret remote high-tech facility in this riveting new novel from #1 New York Times bestseller C.J. Box.

When a prominent University of Wyoming professor goes missing, authorities are stumped. That is, until Joe Pickett makes two surprising discoveries while hunting down a wounded elk on his district as an epic spring storm descends upon him.

First, Joe finds the professor’s vehicle parked on a remote mountainside. Then he finds the professor’s frozen and mutilated body. When he attempts to learn more, his investigation is obstructed by Federal agents, extreme environmentalists, and Governor Colter Allen.

Meanwhile, Joe’s associate Nate Romanowski is rebuilding his falconry company, financing this through crypto mining. Nate is then approached by a shadowy group of local militant activists who are gaining in power and influence, and demanding that Wyoming join other western states and secede from the union – by force, if necessary. They ask Nate to throw in his lot with them, but he’s wary. Should he trust them, or is he being set up?

As a storm of peril gathers around them, Joe and Nate confront it in different ways – and maybe, for the first time, on opposite sides.”

Well, it was certainly a change from the previous book! This is my review on Goodreads:

Storm Watch by C.J. Box
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What was good about this book: the return of well-known characters, such as Jo, his wife and daughters; the wonderful setting of the mountains and snowy weather; the fact that Mary-Beth works in a library; the animals; some of the plot, particularly the first part.

What was not good about this book: the confusing and weird conspiracy theories; right wing plots; the muddled plot lines; some stereotyped characters; the author’s increasingly paranoid imagination.

Yes, I loved quite a lot about the book, but the latter parts were very unpalatable indeed. Perhaps the series should change direction now or come to an end.

View all my reviews

---

OK, so there was a slight improvement, with some major caveats. I then chose a completely different genre again…

My final book was Winchelsea by Alex Preston. First comes the blurb:

“The year is 1742. Goody Brown, saved from drowning and adopted when just a babe, has grown up happily in the smuggling town of Winchelsea. Then, when Goody turns sixteen, her father is murdered in the night by men he thought were friends.

To find justice in a lawless land, Goody must enter the cut-throat world of her father’s killers. With her beloved brother Francis, she joins a rival gang of smugglers. Facing high seas and desperate villains, she also discovers something else: an existence without constraints or expectations, a taste for danger that makes her blood run fast.

Goody was never born to be a gentlewoman. But what will she become instead?

Winchelsea is an electrifying story of vengeance and transformation; a rare, lyrical and transporting work of historical imagination that makes the past so real we can touch it.”

This was the most successful book for me and I awarded it four stars:

Winchelsea by Alex Preston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It has been interesting reading some of the other reviews on here. This seems to be a rather marmite kind of a book, but I like marmite and I also enjoyed the book. Well, perhaps “enjoyed” is not quite the correct word.

There was much to like: the brilliant main character, unique in many ways; the excellent scene setting; the satisfying conclusion. Some of the very dark scenes were a bit too much at times, but these were dark and terrible times. I found the writing very interesting and I wish there had been a glossary at the end.

Finally, I remember visiting many of the places mentioned in the book when I was a child, so it was intriguing to return to them: the towns of Winchelsea, Rye, Dymchurch and environs and the battle field of Culloden and the Scottish Highlands.

I am sure the book will remain in my thoughts for quite some time.

View all my reviews

---

In actual fact, the book certainly has remained in my thoughts as I have had a couple of nightmares about it since I finished reading it! It is a very strange and atmospheric book.

At present, I am reading and enjoying something very different again and I hope that I am able to write about it next week. Until then…

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

📚📕📚📕📚