Review: The Oxford Detective Society

The Oxford Detective Society by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alyssa 'Lyssa' Moore is a widowed Oxford literature scholar turned biographer. She is approached out of the blue with a request to set the record straight about an infamous relative, Amelia 'Monty' Montrose who drowned in her own ornamental fish pond at just twenty-four years old, only a few months after the death by overdose of her famous lover Glen Bannister, lead singer of the Lucky Cuckoos, in 1966. Although not as well known as the Beatles etc, the Lucky Cuckoos had four chart hits and were expected to do even better until Glen's death. Tragically, most of the other band members also died young.

Trying to discover the truth about someone sixty years after their death is hard. Most of their contemporaries are also dead. Contemporaneous records of the time like photographs and videos are hard to find. Nevertheless, Lyssa sets to the task with a vengeance and manages to uncover some interesting facts, but she can't help but feel that her client isn't being entirely honest with her. As the investigation continues Lyssa starts to feel paranoid, as if someone is following her. Then she returns to her flat to find nothing missing but a few things out of place - has someone broken into her flat?

This was very enjoyable, I have commented before that Faith Martin has a weird obsession with constantly harping on about her main character's hair - I don't think it was necessary to mention Lyssa's high ponytail six times for example.

Anyway I digress, although they didn't play much of a part in the investigation, Lyssa's neighbours, a gay couple, and her BFF Frieda lend moral support and dub themselves the Oxford Detective Society. There is (I think) a little hint that there is something either odd about her husband's death, or maybe he had a secret ... I could be reading into things too much.

I can't wait to read the second book in the series.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

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Review: The Shadows of Kensington Gore

The Shadows of Kensington Gore by Ross Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second book in the series featuring former Borstal boy Stephen Pike and Miss Decima Stockingham, an elderly and infirm aristocrat with a foul mouth, recently released from a form of house imprisonment by her cousin.

Stephen and Miss Stockingham are now living in an apartment in Kensington Gore, a very up-market area close to the Royal Albert Hall in London. Its 1911 and London is preparing for the coronation of King George V, but the Suffragette movement is planning disruption. Stephen escorts Miss Stockingham to a Suffragette rally at the Royal Albert Hall, whilst getting some air high up in the gallery he sees three Suffragettes congregating around the statue of Prince Albert in what he thinks is a suspicious manner when all the other Suffragettes are inside the hall. When a policeman shouts at them and starts running towards them with his truncheon out Stephen is afraid that the policeman will beat the women and runs down into the street, only to find the policeman dying in his own blood.

At first it seems obvious that one or all of the three women must have killed the policeman, but Miss Stockingham raises doubts. Then Mrs Pankhurst herself asks Miss Stockingham to investigate the murder and exonerate the Suffragettes by the end of the week - otherwise the government will use the murder as an excuse to declare the Suffragettes an illegal army. What ensues is a convoluted time-pressured investigation where no-one is who they seem, everyone comes under suspicion, and sadly more people will die.

I really enjoyed this, very different to the first book, lots of clues, and also lots of detailed facts expertly woven into the story about how the establishment treated the Suffragettes - and indeed the different treatment meted out to the aristocracy versus commoners.

I can't wait for the next one.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Death by Noir

Death by Noir by Olly Smith
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 27%.

I really wanted to like this book. I love Olly Smith on tv and I was excited about a cosy mystery centred on wine in England. Unfortunately, what I love about watching Olly does not (for me) translate well into writing. This was just too flowery, very much like a wine description, everything was over-described - do I really need to know the year, make, model, and registration number of someone's car? It could have been done more organically, eg Barclay loved his vintage car, even called it the Duke because his number plate started DUK, but not just a turgid recital of "1970 Rover P5B coupe in silver birch with the contrasting roof in burnt grey. DUK 922J has been Barclay's pride and joy ...". Also the book was written from the viewpoint of the omniscient narrator which is, I think, a tricky style to carry off, it comes across as too remote and you don't get to know any of the characters. And everything seemed to be about wine, a wine shop, vineyards etc - even I said too much wine!

Anyway, I should have known after the debacle with the Rev Richard Coles' book which I did at least finish, but wish I hadn't.

One for wine aficionado's I suggest.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Murder at Christmas

Murder at Christmas by T.A. Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Christmas is approaching and Dan and his wife Anna are planning to spend it with her daughter in Northern Italy when Dan gets a call from an old friend inviting them to spend a few days at a luxurious Alpine chalet. The only catch, the host believes that his life is in danger and wants Dan to investigate.

When Dan and Anna arrive at the chalet they discover their host Bartolomeo is the CEO of a famous sports clothing and equipment company, Dan's friend Serena is a famous actress who he is trying to persuade to be the face of their sportwear. The other guests include Bartolomeo's brother and his wife, the finance director of the company and his wife, Bartolomeo's son and his wife, Bartolomeo's daughter, and the widow of Bartolomeo's partner. The staff consist of a husband and wife who cook and look after the chalet and Bartolomeo's assistant.

Bartolomeo believes his life is in danger because he does not believe that his partner's death only a few weeks earlier was an accident, despite the police ruling that way. He is concerned that someone wants to take control of the company by killing him as well. At dinner the first night it is clear that there are numerous tensions around the table and their host appears to be a bit of a letch.

When Dan finds Bartolomeo's dead body in the snow, killed by a blow to the head off a protruding rock it is unclear whether he fell (perhaps when drunk) and hit his head, committed suicide by jumping off a cliff and hitting his head on the way down, or was pushed. The more that Dan delves the murkier things get and it seems he and Anna might be the only ones without a motive for wanting Bartolomeo dead.

Yet another engrossing mystery featuring a former Met Police DCI and his trusty dog Oscar, enjoy the descriptions of the food and try to puzzle out what really happened.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Escape to Lighthouse Cove: The BRAND NEW romantic coastal escape from million-copy bestseller Kate Hewitt for 2026

Escape to Lighthouse Cove: The BRAND NEW romantic coastal escape from million-copy bestseller Kate Hewitt for 2026 by Kate Hewitt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Grace flees New York with her six year old son Jacob after her abusive ex-husband creates a big scandal about her that everyone believes, and takes an unpaid job as warden at a nature reserve on Lighthouse Cove Island in Maine (as an aside, I always have problems typing Kate Hewitt's series names - not sure why). Grace knew it was remote with only twelve inhabitants, but when she finally arrives it is to find that there are even fewer people as one family has left.

Nevertheless, she and Jacob (who has stopped speaking for some reason) settle down, the cottage set aside for the warden has been renovated and the old man who greets Grace, Isaiah, has filled it with food and drink - just as well since there is no shop on the island.

The island is owned by the Lawrence family, although none of the family has lived there for twenty years, or so they say. In fact, Noah Lawrence has been living as a recluse on the island for 18 months, ever since his brother died.

Although Noah has no desire to meet Grace or Jacob fate, and Isaiah, have other ideas and soon Noah is giving Jacob chess lessons. Grace is attracted to Noah, but he is far too similar to her ex-husband (a finance bro) for her to get involved. Noah on the other hand has his own demons and doesn't feel he can get involved with Grace. Can these two help to heal each other?

This was pleasant enough, there were no real surprises but it was an enjoyable read and I raced through it in less than a day. Fans of Kate Hewitt will not be disappointed.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Playing His Game

Playing His Game by Ashlyn Kane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Moritz 'Mo' Du Pont is a poor little rich guy. His absentee parents own the Arizona Canyons, an ice hockey team, and they have wilfully used his being gay to show how liberal they are, particularly when signing Adam Murphy the league's first openly gay player. While Mo embraces his inner queen and loves to camp it up, Adam is the opposite, even when he dyed his hair rainbow for pride it was muted colours. Mo nicknames Adam Captain Cardboard for looking like a superhero and always parroting the party line. For his part, Adam thinks Mo looks down on him. Every time they meet the animosity is palpable.

One night while out with them team celebrating a victory, Adam runs into Mo, very drunk, who blames Adam for Mo's friends going off clubbing with Adam's teammates instead of staying and celebrating Mo's birthday. In his drunken anger Mo stumbles and falls into Adam. The next day the internet is full of pictures of the two of them in what looks like an embrace. Called into his parents' office Mo panics and says they are dating ... surprisingly Adam backs him in the lie. Now the two of them must publish a statement and suffer a series of cute curated dates to help restore the team's reputation.

This is catnip I tell ya. Hot ice hockey players, opposites attract, enemies to love. fake dating? Just take all my money. And THIS DID NOT DISAPPOINT. I loved Mo and I loved Adam. I loved a cute Christmas. Also, there were kittens.

I haven't read anything by these authors before but I would definitely read more.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Twist of Fate

Twist of Fate by Sally Rigby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Sebastian Clifford and his partner Lucinda 'Birdie' Bird are called in by the local police to assist with a series of robberies which are confounding the detectives. Each household had a (different) state of the art security system and CCTV, yet none of the alarms were tripped. The thieves entered the houses when the owners were known to be away from home and only stole selected items, sometimes leaving more valuable pieces behind. Short of an invisibility pill, they can't work how the thieves managed it.

Obvious things like security systems, staff, suppliers etc have all been cross-checked and no similarities are emerging. Even worse, as they probe deeper it seems that several of the victims had hosted events at their homes in the weeks preceding the robberies, potentially widening the pool of suspects.

Meanwhile, Seb's daughter Keira is back from university, distraught because her boyfriend has ditched their travel plans for some work experience. Then she discovers an old school friend has had a social media makeover and is now an influencer - one who attended at least one of the events preceding the robbery. But is her gentle questioning about to get her in too deep?

I enjoyed this, it is only the second book I have read in the series but it is an enjoyable detective story of the cosy variety. I think in the previous book I felt he relied a bit too much on being a member of the aristocracy to gain him introductions, but while he used his father's name to get a meeting there was nothing jarring in this book. Also the fact that the police requested their assistance meant Seb and Birdie had access to forensics and CCTV camera footage.

Overall, a pleasant mystery that had enough red herrings and suspects to keep me guessing.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

I received an ARC from the publishers via NetGalley.

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Review: Secrets of the Italian Guesthouse

Secrets of the Italian Guesthouse by Sue Moorcroft
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Jade has lived with her Scottish grandmother and Italian Nonno since she was a baby. Her mother left immediately and her father Giovanni was always a free spirit, drifting here and there, so his parents looked after Jade. After her Nonno died, Jade and her grandmother ran a small four storey guesthouse in Como, Italy with the help of a few staff. Jade always assumed that she would inherit the guesthouse when her grandmother died, as her father (who his mother called Joey) had agreed to relinquish any claim he might have.

However, when her grandmother does die, Jade discovers that feckless Joey had two other daughters by two different women, her grandmother knew but Joey had forbidden her contacting them. Under Italian law, Jade's two hitherto unknown half-sisters are each entitled to one-third of the guesthouse.

Leo was Jade's first love, his parents run a larger hotel in Como, which they bought from Jade's grandparents. Jade always assumed the two of them would get married and live in Como but Leo felt stifled and wanted to travel, making a name for himself rather than taking over the family business, or working for his parents. Leo spent four years in the UK building up his own hotel with his girlfriend Isabella, until she brought her father Teddy into the business. Since Teddy's arrival Leo has been excluded and overruled two to one so often that in the end, his relationship in ruins, he agreed to let them buy him out and he has returned home to Italy to lick his wounds and figure out what to do next.

Will Jade lose the guesthouse? Will the two old flames rekindle? Will Leo stay in Como?

I have to confess I love Sue Moorcroft's UK-based novels but I am never that enthralled with the ones set overseas. Nevertheless, each time I request an ARC thinking maybe this one will be different. I don't know why I feel so meh about the overseas books ... maybe its that they lack the touch of grit?

Anyway, this was pleasant enough, there were numerous surprises/shocks along the way but overall I was just left with a vague feeling of lovely weather, lovely food, and an inevitable romance that was never in doubt. However, the less cynical will probably love it - recommended for a holiday read (or maybe dead of winter when you fancy reading about an Italian summer).

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: All You Had To Do Was Stay

All You Had To Do Was Stay by Laura Starkey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hannah is a wedding planner, not gifted academically like her twin brother Ed, she has built up a very successful business from scratch. Ed is dating Joe Gibson, a psychotherapist, successful podcaster, author and TV presenter. Joe and his brother Jude were brought up in the same road as Hannah and Ed, in fact when Jude transferred to their secondary school Hannah was given the task of looking after him - not easy when he was a ex-public school nerd. Over the years Hannah and Jude became BFFs, and even something more, then 'the thing' happened and Jude moved to Australia and blocked her on all social media.

Four years later, Hannah is dating other people, but the pain of being abandoned and ghosted by Jude has never truly left, so imagine her shock when she runs into him at a University of Sheffield seminar that she organised, as one of the guest speakers. Not only was it excruciatingly painful to run into Jude without warning, she also had to suffer him pretending he didn't know her when his former mentor introduced them.

Then Ed and Joe announce their engagement, they want Hannah to organise the wedding and for Jude to be Joe's Best Man - now there are several months where the former lovers will have to be in close proximity. Meanwhile, Hannah's ex-boyfriend, a former boyband member who now makes a living DJing weddings, isn't taking rejection well.

As is often the case with novels where 'a thing' happened in the past, the secrecy drags on far too long and becomes (for me) an irritant, then the eventual reveal is just a damp squib because it has been built up too much. Also both Jude and Hannah seemed to be labouring under the belief that they were more in love than the other and therefore they were just protecting themselves from heartbreak. I'm afraid Jane Austen holds the gold medal for this way of thinking (Persuasion) and unfortunately this was a modern day twist on a classic tale.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Conflict of Interest

Conflict of Interest by Zarah Detand
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Finn Hayes moves to New York to start his training at Devon Memorial Hospital, trying to cheer himself up he goes to a gay bar, where one of the patrons mistakes him for an escort. Happy to play along because the guy is hot, Finn thinks a one-night stand might be just the thing to get him over his most recent break-up.

Imagine his surprise when Finn's hot one-night stand turns out to be Doctor Jesse Maddox - his new supervisor. If anyone finds out about the two of them it could be very problematic so they agree to forget it ever happened. But that's easier said than done.

This was okay, but it felt like the plot was laid out early on and pretty much nothing happened after that, they know they shouldn't be anything other than colleagues but the pull is too strong.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Hopeless Romantics

Hopeless Romantics by Mhairi McFarlane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tess and her best friend Carys are on the sleeper train from Euston to Inverness to attend the wedding of a college friend. On the train they befriend two guys, Spencer and Ryan. Spencer and Carys are two peas in a pod and hit it off immediately whereas Tess and Ryan are more reserved. Little do they realise that this weekend will change all of their lives in different ways, Tess in particular will make radical changes.

I don't want to say any more because the entire book is about the repercussions of what did and didn't happen that weekend, for better or worse.

I spent the entire book thinking it was written by a completely different author who is American and I kept thinking how odd this feels like it was written by a Brit! In addition, I am annoyed with myself because I have nine unread ARCs which have already been published and I chose an ARC of a book that won't be published for another seven months!

Anyway. I really enjoyed this, all of the characters were likeable and three dimensional, the plot was good, although I think I could see where it was going from the start, and kept me engrossed.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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