Book Reviews July 2024

The post Book Reviews July 2024 is part of the #What’sonyourBookshelfchallenge

Hello Everybody,

I hope you have had a good reading month.  Mine has been a little slow, but you can check out my Book Reviews July 2024 below.

I read an interesting article this month that I want to share with you by Sara Foster on Substack.  You should be able to go to it here.

It’s all about the meaty subject of book banning.

What are your thoughts on book banning? 

I didn’t realise that only four states in the US don’t subscribe to some form of pro-censorship laws i.e. book banning! 

And the scary thing is that book banning appears to be spreading with protests and demonstrations occuring here in Australia demanding certain books should be banned from libraries or school libraries.

Now, I understand that some subjects should be age appropriate and that a librarian may need to ensure that certain books are not read by very young readers, however I don’t feel that warrants banning a book completely.  Afterall, kids can gain access to almost anything on the internet these days. 

Some of the books banned in the US include established authors such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes and Beloved by Toni Morrison.  I haven’t read any of these but they have been bestsellers, with some being made into movies/TV dramas. 

How can it possibly be right to ban these books?  

What are your thoughts on this? 

Thanks to the following bloggers for allowing me to take part in the #Whatsonyourbookshelf challenge.

Deb from Deb’s World

Jo from AndAnyways

Donna from Retirement Reflections

Sue from Women Living Well after 50

Please following the link here to check out the other book reviews in this challenge.  I’m sure you are going to discover lots of interesting books to add to your book wish list.

Murder Before Evensong – The Reverend Richard Coles (fiction)

I picked this book up in a local second hand book store. I was sure I was going to love it, thinking it would be in the style of Richard Osman, so I couldn’t wait to get started. 

Sadly, I was quite disappointed by this book.  For some reason it took me a while to get into the writing style.  There is also quite a large cast of characters which took me a while to get straight in my head. 

I found the story a bit slow to get going too – no murder until the end of chapter 9!  However, the overall book was expertly written and I didn’t guess the murderer. 

For me the book was just a little to ‘churchy’ ( the main character is a Reverend so this was probably inevitable I know) but there were lots of ecclesiastical terms and rituals.

I did persevere to the end but I don’t think I will pick up anymore from the series. My feelings about the book are absolutely not due to any fault by the author – it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

The Blurb:

Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton where he lives with his fiesty, widowed mother Audrey, and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda.

When Daniel announces a plan to install a toilet in the church, his parish becomes unexpectedly divided on the issue.  

And then Anthony Bowness, cousin to Bernard de Floures, patron of Champton, is found murdered in the church.  

As the police move in to investigate, more murders occur leaving Daniel as the only person who can help keep his community together and catch the killer. 

Yet again I have managed to find the second book in a series to start with!  I spotted this book in our little street library and was immediately drawn to the title.

This was really well written with an intriguing plot – I didn’t guess the ending at all which was brilliant. 

It is more of a crime book with elements of a cosy crime, in that the main protagonist is dog sitting when she discovers a death. There are no real police procedural parts but the main protagonist does help the police to solve the mystery. 

I shall definitely read more of these books – there seem to be about twenty books in the Cotswold series, plus seven in a West Country series and thirteen in a Lake District series, so plenty to keep binge readers happy.

Rebecca Tope is a former journalist and ghost writer of the novels that the TV series Rosemary and Thyme is based on. 

The Blurb:

Thea Osborne and her spaniel Hepzibah settle into their second house sitting commission with few worries.  Whilst Thea’s first house sitting job involved a murder case, she is convinced that lightening does not strike twice.  

Within in days, she is proved wrong when she finds a body hanging from the rafters of one of the barns where she is staying. 

Was it suicide or murder? 

Mirror Man – Fiona McIntosh (fiction)

This is the third book in the DCI Jack Hawksworth series.  I really enjoyed the other two books.  You can check out my reviews here.

Each book is expertly written, fast paced with lots of twists and turns.  However, I didn’t feel the storyline of this book was quite as twisty – I guessed who the murderer was fairly early on but I think that was probably intentional by the author.  I love the characters in this series, who were their enjoyable selves, with plenty of emotions and tension flying around. 

The Blurb:

A series of brutal and shocking deaths have the police baffled.  DCI Jack Hawksworth is called in to discover whether the murders are linked in case there is a serial killer on the loose. Operation Mirror spins into action full of Jack’s best investigative team.  As more murders are discovered, Jack realises he is in a race against time to keep the murder count down and so he resorts to some unconventional methods to find a link between the deaths. 

Well, that’s it for this month.  Drop me a comment below, and do let me know what you’ve been reading this month. I love hearing about good books!

If you missed my last book review you can catch up here