I’ve followed this series since the beginning and have thoroughly enjoyed all of the books – this is the fifth. I was delighted to be granted a review copy by NetGalley and couldn’t wait to read about DI James Walker’s latest terrible Christmas.
Because DI James Walker always has a horrific festive season! All the books take place over the Christmas/New Year period and it seems the only time of year that serial killers appear in (usually sleepy, small-town) Cumbria.
This latest book takes place in DI Walker’s home village, making him the first on the scene as the snow starts to pile up. The deceased – dressed as Santa Claus – is someone he knows and someone who oddly hasn’t been reported as missing, even though he’s been in the snow a while. When another body is found, Walker and his team have to face up to the fact that there is another killer loose in Cumbria – and the villagers aren’t at all happy with the fact. Walker needs to keep his neighbours happy while finding the killer among them…
This series is always entertaining and engaging – there’s always lots of twists but also really solid police procedural elements that keep the story moving forward. I did guess the killer slightly ahead of DI Walker, but I’m quite a seasoned armchair detective these days! I liked the village setting as it put the crime scene/possible suspects/police team all in close proximity – something that made the setting quite claustrophobic as the snow fell and the village was isolated from the outside world.
If you’ve enjoyed the previous books in the series, there’s lots to like here – I think this was one of my favourites. If you haven’t discovered DI Walker, these are perfect winter reads and you’ve got 5 to enjoy!
Thanks to Random Things Tours and Laurence King Publishing for my invitation to join the blog tour for this puzzle book based on the Queen of Crime’s best-loved novels.
Opinions, as always, are entirely my own.
From the Publisher:
Can you work out whodunnit, with what and why like Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot? Put your armchair detective abilities to the ultimate test…
Do you have the flair, order and method of Poirot,
or the unassuming, shrewd intelligence of Miss Marple?
You’re going to need it…
A mystery is afoot. With a missing librarian and 100 perplexing clues left behind, can you solve the mystery and follow the trail of the crime?
Brush off your moustache, collect your knitting needles and put your little grey cells to good use with this puzzling series of events.
Immerse yourself in the world of Agatha Christie.
My Review:
What’s not to like? Agatha Christie and puzzles? Sounds like a match made in heaven to me, especially when the book is produced by the brilliant Laurence King Publishing who are also responsible for some beautiful literary jigsaw puzzles (including an Agatha Christie collection).
I was intrigued by how the book would hang together, but it actually works well – there’s little bits of narrative and a selection of puzzles arranged around a number of the most famous and popular of Christie’s books. It’s a book that you can easily dip into whether you know everything about Christie’s writing or whether you know absolutely nothing.
The puzzles themselves are varied and engaging – some (the word searches and gridwords) are quite easy, but there’s some really tricky ones in there too. I love logic puzzles and I was well served with some fiendish tests of reasoning. I liked the fact that the puzzles were themed too, e.g. lots of train-related puzzled for the ‘4.50 from Paddington’ chapter, word puzzles for ‘The ABC Murders’, hieroglyphics and pyramid-puzzles for ‘Death on the Nile’. The puzzles were varied and generally well explained (I only found one where the instructions baffled me!)
There is a final puzzle that brings together a solution to the over-arching story by asking you to revisit some of the puzzles. I love this idea, but haven’t managed to solve it yet because the puzzles themselves are keeping me very busy. There’s certainly plenty to do in this book!
This would make a great Christmas present for the puzzle fans in your life. Obviously, the core audience will be Agatha Christie fans who also like puzzles, but I did a few of these with my teen daughter and they were accessible to her, especially the crosswords, word searches and word grids. There’s so much variety that everyone will find something to enjoy. It’s a nice, gift-able book (and the answers are in the back for those moments when you’re completely stumped!)
Highly recommended!
About the Author:
Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie became, and remains, the bestselling novelist of all time. She is best known for her sixty-six detective novels and fourteen short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation too. Agatha Christie Limited (ACL) has been managing the literary and media rights to Agatha Christie’s works around the world since 1955, when the company was set up by Christie herself. The company is managed by Christie’s great-grandson, James Prichard. Follow Facebook @OfficialAgathaChristie, Instagram @officialagathachristie and X @agathachristie to keep up to date.
M W Craven’s writing is always a cut above, as anyone who has discovered the brilliant crime series featuring Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw knows. This series (of which this book is the second) takes a different genre – the thriller – and proves that Craven can turn his hand to this genre just as well.
A huge thanks to Random Things Tours and Murdoch Books for inviting me onto the blog tour for this funny, engaging and enlightening little gem!
As always, opinions are entirely my own.
From the Publisher:
You’re on date #17 since your last relationship ended in flames and within a minute of meeting Tom at a bar you realise you’ve made a huge mistake. You head to the bathroom to text your friend and complain about how your date says ‘aaaahh!’ after every sip of beer, seems to style himself after Boris Johnson and definitely sniffed your hair. Ten seconds later, you realise you accidentally texted Tom instead. You sit frozen on the loo, wondering if there’s a back exit or if you should fake your own death instead of facing the music. You wonder how you ended up here again, locked in a small room, hiding from a man.
Whether it’s dating someone wearing horns and a kaftan, a relationship where blobs of toothpaste are left smeared in the bathroom sink, or being dumped via text with just one word – enough! – the philosophy of the Stoics can help us all navigate the life cycles of love. Across more than 40 rules, from dating tips like Do your due diligence to relationship advice like Don’t tell your partner to calm down to break-up wisdoms like Resist putting your foot in your mouth, Annie Lawson applies ancient wisdom to the modern world of being in love, out of love, lovesick, love-bombed or just love-tired. She reminds us that life is all about change and to keep our focus on the things we can control – like our thoughts and actions – and to let go of the things we can’t, like finding a date’s living room is a shrine to Manchester United. Love and its rocky pursuit often sucks but fortunately, not always, and Stoic in Love helps us realise that we can all use a little help in getting together and staying together. Or getting the hell out of there.
My Review:
I just really loved the sound of this one – funny, relatable commentary on relationships peppered with sage advice from the ancient Stoics. I can’t admit to being an expert on either relationships or the Stoics, so I thought I’d give it a go!
The first thing that really stood out to me was the quality of the illustrations. Most of the chapters have a full page illustration at the start and they’re really well done and cute – the elephant in the room was my favourite. Each chapter ends with a quotation from one of the Stoics accompanied by a picture, so I got very used to my friends Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus turning up with their words of wisdom.
The book is split into 3 sections, covering Dating, Relationships and Breaking Up. In each section, there are a number of short chapters (there are 45 ‘Rules’ covered in total) and each one follows the same formula – a contextualising/explanation of the rule, then the advice from the Stoics and – finally – the ‘Final Word’ from one of the key philosophers. I enjoyed this format as it was so easy to dip in and out of, plus equally quite addictive once you start reading – I didn’t think this would be a book to read from cover to cover, but I ended up doing just that.
Yeah, the Stoics’ advice mapped onto modern relationships is cleverly done and interesting, but the real joy is in Lawson’s writing. She’s hilarious and packs each chapter with anecdotes, case studies, references to popular culture, research and jokes. Although it tackles some tricky topics – the ‘Break Up’ section in particular – it’s all approached with humour and makes everything seem relatable and manageable.
There’s some really good advice too – some of it is obvious stuff (e.g. ‘Avoid red flags’, ‘Avoid the wrong person’), but there’s some really sensible tips too. I liked ‘Remember that you can be happy or you can be right’ and ‘Remember it’s not you, it’s them (actually, it’s probably you)’ – both made me laugh a lot, but also the Stoic advice about taking responsibility for your own actions and the things you can control were food for thought too.
I’d recommend this if you’re after a fun, entertaining read – there’s also the added bonus that you’ll pick up some advice from the ancients that will be useful in more than love. Read and enjoy – and perhaps become a tiny bit wiser!
About the Author:
Annie Lawson is a former journalist who has had a diverse love life, from a first pash as a teenager with braces to several boyfriends including one who alphabetised cereal packets, and finally to marriage, which ended. This all taught her that the key to a good relationship is not only lots of storage, regular holidays at a nice resort and someone who is funny, but finding a partner to do nothing with. She now works on the dark side of the corporate world and is a devoted student of the Stoics, taking every opportunity to apply their wisdom to life’s hard things – from the workplace to matters of the heart.
