dog Archives - The Quick and the Read

Book Review: ‘Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency’ by Josie Lloyd

Cosy crime isn’t my go-to genre – I usually prefer something a bit darker – but I couldn’t resist this book! A fab and festive cover, a female lead character descended from famous Victorian food writer Mrs Beeton and the promise of a twisty mystery – count me in!

Thank you to Rachel Quin and HQ for my copy of the novel for review. It’s published in hardback on 24th October and would make a great Christmas present for the crime fan in your life.

The story centres on Alice Beeton, an older woman running the Good Household Management Agency – if your most famous relative is famous for the Victorian classic ‘Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management’ then why not capitalise on the connection?! Alice provides the best domestic staff to the poshest families in the UK and is known for her discretion and calm competence. Along with her dog, Agatha (named after the best crime novelist, of course), she lives in a basement flat in Kensington and focuses her efforts on her business.

When a well-to-do family need a housekeeper, Alice sends new hire Enya – a woman with perfect references and fluent French who seems ideal. However, a matter of days later, on New Year’s Day, Enya is found dead at the family home. Feeling responsible for Enya’s death, Alice gets herself involved in the police investigation led by the scruffy but slightly clueless Detective Rigby. Can she uncover the killer stalking through high society?

I absolutely loved Alice Beeton and need to read more about her! Initially, she comes across as someone whose life is very ordered and regulated – she has her dog, her flat and her business and that’s the extent of her world. However, being thrown into a murder investigation forces her to broaden her horizons and take risks – from going undercover to dealing with Detective Rigby and his charms. It’s lovely that Alice is an older woman – ‘the wrong side of fifty’ – as it’s rare to read about protagonists of this age and gender (even though women and older people make up a huge proportion of the book-buying public).

Alice’s connections with her famous ancestor are also used well within the novel – as well as the business name, there are Mrs Beeton recipes at relevant points throughout the book. These are (I think) taken from Mrs Beeton’s famous cookery book and are sometimes tempting, sometimes weirdly archaic, but always interesting.

The plotting of the mystery is well done and kept me guessing for quite a while. I did solve the mystery just ahead of Alice, but more through luck than judgement. There were plenty of surprises along the way, as well as a host of engaging characters (Alice’s co-workers are pretty great) and some luxury settings.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first (but hopefully not last) insight into Alice’s world; it’s cosy and festive, but also immersive and engaging. I really hope Book 2 is on the way…

Book Review: ‘Went to London, Took the Dog’ by Nina Stibbe

As a big fan of Stibbe’s writing (and her previous autobiographical book, ‘Love, Nina’), I requested this without actually knowing what it was about. I don’t regret this at all!

In fact, it’s kind of tricky to pin down what this book is actually about. It’s Nina Stibbe’s diaries covering her move to London (with dog, Peggy, as indicated by the title) in the period of an impending divorce. Leaving her home in Cornwall, Stibbe takes a spare room in the home of author Deborah Moggach (‘Debby’) and spends a year navigating a new life in the city. Surrounded by friends (including lots of other writers) and her grown-up children, Stibbe reevaluates her life and muses on a range of topics – from the big things (life, love, family) to the very small (toads, internet adverts, swimming at the lido).

Blog Tour: ‘Norah’s Ark’ by Victoria Williamson

Thanks to The Write Reads for inviting me on the blog tour for this charming and thought-provoking Middle Grade novel. Thanks to The Write Reads and Neem Tree Press for my review copy – opinions, as always, are my own.

This is a story about an unlikely friendship forged in difficult circumstances. Norah Day is a sweet, nature-loving girl – one who lives in temporary accommodation with her father and often goes hungry. In contrast, Adam Sinclair seems to have it all – caring parents, big house, his own treehouse. However, Adam is recovering from cancer and is being given no freedom by his overprotective mother – he’s not even allowed outside his own garden. These two children bond over rescuing a nest of baby birds – but their rescue efforts don’t stop there, especially in view of the coming flood.

Book Review: ‘The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings’ by Dan Jones

Curiosity brought me to this book. In particular, I was curious about whether a story written in the early fifteenth century would stand up to modern day expectations of a ghost story. I also wondered about the ‘translation’ of the book – not only from the original Latin in the 1920s but what Dan Jones would bring to the retelling. Finally, I wanted to know whether it would be entertaining, or more a curio of literature from the past.

Book Review: ‘Walking the Invisible’ by Michael Stewart

Thanks to HQ Stories for my proof copy of this book – and grovelling apologies for not having reviewed this earlier. As always, opinions are my own regardless of how I acquired the book.

This book was published in June 2021 in hardback – there’s also an (excellent) audiobook version available which I listened to alongside reading.

When I read the blurb for this book, I was instantly intrigued. While I’m no lover of nature and have no desire to wander the Yorkshire moors in all weathers (as this writer has done), I do love literary heritage. So of course I want to know about the buildings and villages and landscapes that inspired the Brontes.