TBR Thursday 369…

Episode 369

I seem to be in a bit of a reading slump at the moment – too much politics going on in my neck of the woods! So the TBR has increased again, but only very slightly – up 1, to 170! I’m sure the bounce will only be temporary though…

Here’s a few more that should bounce off my list soon… 

Fiction

The Sea by John Banville

One that I’ve dug out from the deep recesses of the TBR, on the grounds that it would be suitable for Cathy’s Reading Ireland challenge. That is, if I finish it in time to review it this month, and if I enjoy it – I’ve had a somewhat mixed experience with John Banville to date…

The Blurb says: WINNER OF THE 2005 MAN BOOKER PRIZE

When art historian Max Morden returns to the seaside village where he once spent a childhood holiday, he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distant trauma.

The Grace family had appeared that long-ago summer as if from another world. Mr and Mrs Grace, with their worldly ease and candour, were unlike any adults he had met before. But it was his contemporaries, the Grace twins Myles and Chloe, who most fascinated Max. He grew to know them intricately, even intimately, and what ensued would haunt him for the rest of his years and shape everything that was to follow.

Vintage Crime

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

Courtesy of HarperCollins. As I’ve mentioned before, HarperCollins sometimes randomly send me an Agatha Christie novel, and it’s always a pleasure to go back to reading a paper copy every now and again as opposed to my beloved Hugh Fraser and Joan Hickson audiobooks. I won’t be reviewing this one because I’ve reviewed it already on the blog, but since it’s one of my all time favourites I’m looking forward to yet another re-read!

The Blurb says: ‘Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe,’ declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef, ‘would be doing the world at large a favour!’ It was a careless remark for a man of the cloth. And one which was to come back and haunt the clergyman just a few hours later – when the colonel was found shot dead in the clergyman’s study. But as Miss Marple soon discovers, the whole village seems to have had a motive to kill Colonel Protheroe.

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Crime 

Exiles by Jane Harper

Courtesy of Macmillan via NetGalley. A new Jane Harper is always an anticipated treat, and it’s good to see that this one stars Aaron Falk, the detective from her earlier books…

The Blurb says: A mother disappears from a busy festival on a warm spring night. Her baby lies alone in the pram, her mother’s possessions surrounding her, waiting for a return which never comes. A year later, Kim Gillespie’s absence still casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather to welcome a new addition to the family.

Joining the celebrations on a rare break from work is federal investigator Aaron Falk, who begins to suspect that all is not as it seems. As he looks into Kim’s case, long-held secrets and resentments begin to come to the fore, secrets that show that her community is not as close as it appears.

Falk will have to tread carefully if he is to expose the dark fractures at its heart, but sometimes it takes an outsider to get to the truth…

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Vintage Crime on Audio

A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh read by Philip Franks

Having recently very much enjoyed my first re-visit in a very long time to an old favourite, Ngaio Marsh, I’m looking forward to listening to more of them. This is the first in her long-running Inspector Alleyn series…

The Blurb says: At Sir Hubert Handesley’s country house party, five guests have gathered for the uproarious parlor game of “Murder.” Yet no one is laughing when the lights come up on an actual corpse, the good-looking and mysterious Charles Rankin. Scotland Yard’s Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives to find a complete collection of alibis, a missing butler, and an intricate puzzle of betrayal and sedition in the search for the key player in this deadly game.

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Historical Fiction on Audio

Rizzio by Denise Mina read by Katie Leung

I’ve called this historical fiction, but it might be truer to say it’s a fictionalised account of a real event. It’s novella length, and is part of a newish series called Darkland Tales from Polygon, an imprint of independent Scottish publisher, Birlinn. The publishers say: “In Darkland Tales, the best modern Scottish authors offer dramatic retellings of stories from the nation’s history, myth and legend. These are landmark moments from the past, viewed through a modern lens and alive to modern sensibilities. Each Darkland Tale is sharp, provocative and darkly comic, mining that seam of sedition and psychological drama that has always featured in the best of Scottish literature.” Sounds intriguing, and if this one is a success I look forward to investigating the others in the series so far…

The Blurb says: From the multi-award-winning master of crime, Denise Mina delivers a radical new take on one of the darkest episodes in Scottish history—the bloody assassination of David Rizzio  private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, in the queen’s chambers in Holyrood Palace.

On the evening of March 9th, 1566, David Rizzio, the private secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots, was brutally murdered. Dragged from the chamber of the heavily pregnant Mary, Rizzio was stabbed fifty six times by a party of assassins. This breathtakingly tense novella dramatises the events that led up to that night, telling the infamous story as it has never been told before.

A dark tale of sex, secrets and lies, Rizzio looks at a shocking historical murder through a modern lens—and explores the lengths that men and women will go to in their search for love and power.

Rizzio is nothing less than a provocative and thrilling new literary masterpiece.

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NB All blurbs and covers taken from Goodreads, Amazon UK or Audible UK.

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So…what do you think? Are you tempted?