The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi was a fun almost movie like bit of Sci Fi. Perfect for a fan of Godzilla.....and to my Dd the word Kaiju is a huge tip off.😉 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57693406-the-kaiju-preservation-society It wasn’t awesome but it was an entertaining read that I would happily read another installment of. From GR......When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls "an animal rights organization." Tom's team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on. What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble. It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society that's found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too--and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.

I got caught up in a book called The Marriage Lie https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29095401-the-marriage-lie. which all my quilt blogger buddies are loving. It’s not a new book, simply more a case of one person read it/loved it/reviewed it and everyone else seems to be enjoying it too. Goodreads is all over on reviews. Like many I was at the edge of me seat for the first half ……in my case I peeked at the end because I had to go to bed as it was 2am. The second half was anticlimactic but I suspect if you don’t read the end first it would be far more exciting. From GR…… Even the perfect marriage has its dark side… Iris and Will’s marriage is as close to perfect as it can be: a large house in a nice Atlanta neighborhood, rewarding careers and the excitement of trying for their first baby. But on the morning Will leaves for a business trip to Orlando, Iris’s happy world comes to an abrupt halt. Another plane headed for Seattle has crashed into a field, killing everyone on board, and according to the airline, Will was one of the passengers on this plane. Grief-stricken and confused, Iris is convinced it all must be a huge misunderstanding. But as time passes and there is still no sign of Will, she reluctantly accepts that he is gone. Still, Iris needs answers. Why did Will lie about where he was going? What is in Seattle? And what else has he lied about? As Iris sets off on a desperate quest to find out what her husband was keeping from her, the answers she receives will shock her to her very core.

Thank you, Robin! I have to say I have spent awhile with the Clef note lists. I am grateful as that was one of the harder bingo squares for me. So I have moved on to finding a Z book which I always find difficult because I was convinced I didn’t like the many thrillers by Rebecca Zanetti……I tried one years ago and never tried a different one. Her “You Can Run“ popped up on a list recently and I decided to try it. It rates high in the romantic suspense category imo and I am looking forward to the next in this series being released.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57937502-you-can-run From GR….. Laurel Snow wouldn’t call hunting a serial killer a vacation, but with a pile of dead bodies unearthed near her Genesis Valley, WA, hometown, she’ll take what she can get. Yet something about this case stirs her in unexpected ways. Like the startling connection she feels to Dr. Abigail Caine, a fiercely intelligent witness with a disturbing knack for making Laurel feel like she has something on her. Then there’s Laurel’s attraction to Huck Rivers, the fish and wildlife officer guiding her to the crime scene—and into the wilderness… A former soldier and a trained sniper, Huck’s thirst for blood is rivaled only by his fierce pursuit of Laurel. He’s been burned by love, wounded by the government, and betrayed before, and to say he has trust issues is the ultimate understatement. Plus, he might be closer to this killer than anybody knows… Once in the heart of darkness with Huck, Laurel must negotiate her distracting desire for him, her complex rapport with Abigail—and her mission to find a serial killer among a growing list of suspects and a danger that’s far too close to home. So close in fact, Laurel fears she will never find her way back to the woman she once was…

I am reading Patricia Highsmith’s Deep Water. It’s so odd, highly unreliable narrator I suspect. A strange man who raises bed bugs is highly invested in his marriage. His wife cheats literally in front of him. He decides to tell her current lover that he killed one of her former lovers, who really was murdered. This led me to this summery of Patricia Highsmith’s books that I enjoyed so will share here……..https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/63724-10-best-patricia-highsmith-books.html

Thank you, Robin. I love religious characters in mysteries! You picked some good ones to break your buying ban with. Personally I feel a bit of guilt for assisting in the breaking of that ban but making it to June is impressive. I didn’t even try this year because of the Crime Spree. My stack for religious characters consists of my second Rabbi Small, Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16078785-saturday-the-rabbi-went-hungry and a couple of firsts in new to me cozy series. I do not believe I have ever read and of Katherine Hall Page’s Body series which feature a minister’s wife so The Body in the Belfry https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24742107-the-body-in-the-belfryis on my audio list. Christina Summers writes a series that sounds a lot like Julia Spenser Fleming’s beloved series, a woman priest and her cop friend solve mysteries. I will give it a try……. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1469177.Crooked_Heart Nora Robert’s Nightwork has been consumed. I hadn’t expected to enjoy this one but was wrong! I also finished Lisa Gardner’s One Step Too Far and found it to be a page turner. Very like Joe Pickett in terms of the mountain setting. Frankie travels the country solving cold cases as a woman who gives her life to answering family’s questions. In this one she joins a search party who is hoping to recover the body of a hiker gone missing five years before. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58082194-one-step-too-far

Thank you, Robin! I hope your back and ribs are starting to feel a bit better. I finished The Palce Papers and really enjoyed it. It was a great overall book for anyone that is curious about the Royal Family stretching way back to the start of Elizabeth’s reign and not as much about Will, Kate, Harry, and Meghan as expected…….which was a relief as I found them boring overall. Tina Brown was very even handed and I learned a ton. Someplace in the book the sentiment came through that unless you are the direct heir your life is literally in a decline from the moment of your birth as a member of that family. It sort of sets one up for failure. Also most decline enough to lose their police protection……it happens all the time. There is no way on earth that Harry could not have known he couldn’t quit and keep it. Delusional……..for instance Andrew pitched a huge family hissy fit when his daughters (Harry’s good friend’s) lost their protection about 10 years ago……which they had been using as free Uber essentially. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59089872-the-palace-papers I really enjoyed The Murder Rule https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57409438-the-murder-rule Twisty and fun. The Marlow Murder Club was surprisingly great. It was a book that I checked out expecting to abandon and discovered it was a page turner. A 70 something woman who writes crossword puzzles discovers a murder when she is taking her nightly swim in the River Thames …… pretty cool start to a traditional village (Marlow is a village west of Windsor) cozy imo. She feels compelled to solve it and makes friends with the vicars wife and a professional dog walker along the way. Good stuff and I will be reading the next one! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50576230-the-marlow-murder-club I can’t remember if I mentioned the Deadly cozy series when I read the first one or not. The second one Deadly Wedding was a step up from the first. These are set at the start of WWII ……Austria is invaded in this one. I am developing a fondness for the heroine who goes to work for a newspaper after her husband was murdered. Her job is contingent on her making trips to visit the publishers Jewish relatives and smuggle jewelry out of Germany so they can get British visa’s……..they needed assets already in Britain to get a visa. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58090162-deadly-wedding

Thank you Robin! Ouch! I hope your back feels much better soon. I am a bit ahead on the alphabet front. For “V” I read a new release by Paul Viditch called The Matchmaker which was very good and for W I listened to the latest Jacqueline Winspear. The Sunlit Weapon was enjoyable…..it’s more about Maisie at this point for me. I started my X last night, another Inspector Chen.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10970765-don-t-cry-tai-lake I sort of fell down a Grace Burrowes rabbit hole last week and read 3 of her newish historical romances. They were all entertaining. I particularly like the Lady Violet series. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59785005-lady-violet-finds-a-bridegroom I also read one of the Library of Congress Mystery series by CW Grafton. Yes, Grafton, as in Sue Grafton’s father. The Rat Began to Gnaw on the Rope (from a nursery rhyme) was very well done. It was an accounting crime so fun for an old accountant (me) to read. A lawyer has a new client who wants him to figure out why she has been approached by someone who wants to pay a huge amount of money for stock in her father’s estate. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4562656-the-rat-began-to-gnaw-the-rope

Oh No! I had no idea the series might be over. I hope he recovers and is able to continue through Elizabeth 1’s reign.

Absolutely no idea if these are any good but the Brooke Walton 3book set is free today on Kindle, normally a Kindle unlimited item. If you read one first please let me know! Book 1 – EVERETT Perfection has a dark side at Everett College. Beautiful and brilliant Brooke, a transfer student with a mysterious past, aims to graduate first in her class and attend medical school. Only Jessica, a wealthy socialite, senses there’s something not quite right about the perfect student. What happens during a historic blizzard will settle their differences once and for all. Book 2 – ROTHAKER It takes the perfect student to commit the perfect crime. Brooke Walton is a thriving medical student at Rothaker University, until she has a serious conflict with Rachael, a rival classmate. When Rachael mysteriously disappears, detectives descend on campus and the hunt for the truth begins. Book 3 – THE INTERN Two young American tourists are brutally murdered in Cancun. A private investigator in Connecticut is desperate to uncover the truth about a missing coed. At the heart of both matters is Brooke Walton, a young medical student. When her summer internship in a Medical Examiner’s Office exposes a disturbing mystery and her ruthless brilliance, authorities take a closer look. Can Brooke save her own beautiful skin with someone watching her every move? Will one more murder solve her urgent problems, or dig her an even deeper grave? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42407483-brooke-walton-series-1-3?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=TztPgCfL39&rank=4

@StorygirlI think I am the only one who loves The Magicians Nephew best!😉. Enjoy your relisten! Last night I opened a Kindle Prime book called Wolf Girl up to read for 5 minutes before falling asleep and somehow kept reading this morning instead of reading something I had planned to read! 😂 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55939799-wolf-girl It’s done and I enjoyed it even though the cover is so terrible. The cover is why I initially looked at it because I was curious what a book with that cover could be about. It has a slightly different legend to the typical werewolf/vampire paranormal that I found interesting. Quick read. The rest of the series is on Kindle Unlimited so I have added it to my list of what I plan to read whe I eventually subscribe for a month or two. I would contemplate buying them but that would cost more than a month of unlimited and could probably be read in one day!

Thank you for the thread, Robin! Ensemble Cast for bingo is one of those categories while not hard still had me hesitating. The first link I clicked (https://simoneandherbooks.com/2021/03/04/seven-books-with-an-ensemble-cast/ had a picture of The Gilded Wolves which I read earlier this year for a Bookchain idea that stalled. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great........I started listening the next in the series and just wasn’t into it. The book covers are beautiful and the book reminded me of Rachel Caines Ink and Bone series. The Gilded Wolves has now been moved to my Bingo bookshelf over on GR. I also finished The Perilous Perspective by Anna Lee Huber https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58505173-a-perilous-perspective It was simply a satisfying addition to a series I love. I loved the fact that Kiera and Goge are now parents (Sorry, minor spoiler) and the mystery was well done. Lisa Gardner has a newish series featuring a character called Frankie Elkin. Since I kept running in to the newly released second in the series and thinking it looked intriguing I decided to track down the first Before She Disappeared and try it. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55138263-before-she-disappeared I am fascinated by cold cases and this is what Frankie does. She isn’t a dectective, she is a rather broken down character who simply does her best to give family’s of the missing an answer. This book was set in the Haitian community in Boston and it was really well done in terms of atmosphere. It was really good! I can’t wait to read the second! i am currently reading several books including Tina Browns The Palace Papers, the latest in the Rivers of London Series, and a new Cold War type mystery called The Matchmaker that has a great cover! I’m not far enough to really judge the book!

It’s mainly mystery focused but think I have seen non mystery there very occasionally. They seem to review several that are not on my normal lists so I always enjoy the opportunity to explore a bit.

I hope you love it! There are lots of things to like about it so I am really surprised I didn’t. @Kareni One of your above links, Stop your killing me, does a newsletter that I love. About once a month they do a what we are reading section that rarely fails to have something interesting that I have not seen elsewhere.

Happy Mother’s Day everyone! At some point on Friday I fell into a hole of reading Harlequin Suspense novels with service dogs in them on Prime. They are free……for real, my mom would have them all read by now! Prime has kindly sorted several series out for me and I can’t seem to resist. They read quick and are fun…….my mom and I used to read Harlequin’s for days together so it’s oddly appropriate. I am currently reading the last in my series and hopefully will manage to stop as I have other books ready to read! I did do a bit of sewing yesterday so I finished an audiobook that has been around longer than normal. Under Lock & Skeleton Key https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57693382-under-lock-skeleton-key# was in many ways a fun cozy as it was slightly different. The main character was a Los Vegas magician who was living at her family’s home in disgrace after she supposedly intentionally set fire to her stage. Her dad’s business is building magical rooms in houses……hidden staircases etc. Her former assistant turns up dead in one of the rooms. Not sure why but it didn’t quite capture my interest and it should have. It has a U so I am moving onto V with Swiss Vendetta which has been in my Kindle stack for a couple of years. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29503758-swiss-vendetta?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=fOyIbQNEQY&rank=1

I hope everyone feels better soon, Robin! You already know I love Lady Emily so time well spent my friend. I really like The Untold Story btw after being a bit ambivalent towards the two previous books in the series. I had to abandon Smallbone Deceased or waste a ton of time reading it because I kept flipping around the internet every time I tried to read it. So I have ruined my overall love for all Golden Age mystery authors! 😉 I did start a new historical cozy mystery series by Kate Parker this week. Deadly Scandal was quite good in that sort of WW2 way a la Maisie Dobbs. My library has this series so I will keep reading. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58090147-deadly-scandal</p>

The Good Turn was much better than The Scholar. I stayed awake to finish it! I am now waiting for the release of Dervia McTiernan s next book. On the historical mystery front I listened to a book from a pretty long long running British cozy series yesterday for one of the book chains. Mrs. Jeffries Reveals Her Art https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37774125-mrs-jeffries-reveals-her-art was a super light audiobook to have playing in the background while sewing. This is a series that I use for book challenges and just skip around in. The servants lead by the housekeeper in this Victorian mystery secretly assist their Scotland Yard detective employer solve his cases. Rather too cute but not bad in small doses. I used it to connect to Jennifer Ashley’s book Alex Mackenzie’s Art of Seduction https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28408511-alec-mackenzie-s-art-of-seduction. I like a good Flufferton type historical romance and the Mackenzie series is a fun one because it’s a little bit different. Years ago @Karenirecommended I read the first in the series The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie which features an autistic hero. This first book in the series always seems to appear on historical romance “best of” lists and is worth a look if you like historicals. From Goodreads…… The youngest brother, Ian, known as the Mad Mackenzie, spent most of his young life in an asylum, and everyone agrees he is decidedly odd. He’s also hard and handsome and has a penchant for Ming pottery and beautiful women. Beth Ackerley, widow, has recently come into a fortune. She has decided that she wants no more drama in her life. She was raised in drama—an alcoholic father who drove them into the workhouse, a frail mother she had to nurse until her death, a fussy old lady she became constant companion to. No, she wants to take her money and find peace, to travel, to learn art, to sit back and fondly remember her brief but happy marriage to her late husband. And then Ian Mackenzie decides he wants her.

Thank you, Robin! I love historical mysteries! I have the latest Lady Darby in my stack and plan to read it this week. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58505173-a-perilous-perspective I am also near the top on the hold’s list for the latest Maisie Dobbs. So I definately have plans for this category! I just started The Good Turn (my T) this morning. It’s by Dervla McTiernan and part of a series that has been a bit uneven so far……The Ruin was awesome, TheScholar was not so good, and The Good Turn is promising. The fourth book releases soon so I need to catch up.

I finished my last Jane Harper this afternoon and did not care for The Lost Man at all.https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/556546.Jane_Harper It was just plain old depressing and not nearly as interesting as her other books. I started my Jane Harper extravaganza by reading and loving The Survivors last year so have now read them all. So one of my reading goals for 2022 is complete. Btw, Survivors was the best of the bunch imo.😉

@Laurel-in-CAI haven’t read the sea faring series but have read the first few Chloe Neil vampire books several years ago and have always intended to return to the series. Perhaps the fact I never seem to even though my library owns them all speaks volumes.🤷‍♀️ I remember the first one as being quite good and not being quite as enthusiastic about the books that came after.

I just finished a golden age mystery by Dorothy Fielding called Mystery at the Rectory for last week’s R. Who Dorothy Fielding was is apparently a mystery https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/a-fielding/ but she wrote several mysteries featuring Detective Pointer of Scotland Yard. The Rectory Mystery was a bit disjointed at times with some big leaps but overall pleasant. I never suspected the murderer so that was a plus. I also own a cheap collected works of Dorothy Fielding and will at some point try some more of her/his? books.

Thank you for the thread. I read Ringworld last year and really enjoyed it. I decided to finish my Ruth Fielding girl detective book and found it to be very like Nancy Drew (same ghost writer) but this earlier version was apparently very much sold by mail order so the book was very clear which book in the series each past event the story mentioned happened in. As a series reader I am incredibly grateful that tradition has ended as I found it irritating by the end of the book. Ruth Fielding On Cliff Island had lots of quick action and character development in two sentences with very clear cut character traits. Continuous action. Overall a story was delivered that 10 yo me would have enjoyed if I had been reading the book. I found Ruth adoptive parents beyond irritating so am grateful I did not start with the first book in the series. If I was going to read most the ranch on sounds like the place to start. Since I know from my research that the series ages Ruth until she is married with a baby I may go and download the last book just to see who she marries and how it ends. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4029495-ruth-fielding-on-cliff-island-or-the-old-hunter-s-treasure-box

I have fallen into a Jane Harper rabbit hole on audio this week in part because of my bookchains. I have listened to both The Dry and Force of Nature this week. They were good, not great, in terms of a police procedurel type of mystery but the Australian setting made them pretty awesome. I just checked another stand alone out, The Lost Man. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/556546.Jane_Harper

I am a huge Murakami fan but did not enjoy Wind Up Bird Chronicle at all. I was so disappointed in that one and pretty much just that one. I am just saying this in case another occasion ever occurs where you may want to read a Murakami. 😉😂 I am now almost caught up with my alphabet as I finished Q. I finished Kate Quinn’s The Diamond Eye https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58490567-the-diamond-eye?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=BHOtIYK1YE&rank=1 Not as good as The Rose Code but good. From GR.... In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son--but Hitler's invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper--a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour. Still reeling from war wounds and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC--until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness. But when an old enemy from Mila's past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life. Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever. (

Thank you for the thread, Robin! I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter Sunday. @KareniYour CS Harris link is very timely as I finished the latest in her series earlier this week. It was very good and I won’t say more because I know at least one person here is planning to read it soon. @Lady Florida. I’m so glad you are enjoying Shardlake. He is another favorite of mine. I read the first in a new historical mystery series this week by Karen Odden called Down a Dark River. It was good but I am not sure that it’s quite the St. Cyr and Shardlake level so will need to wait for more books in the series.😉. Seriously it came close but I listened to it and I frequently enjoy things more on audio than in print with a good narrator. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57067990-down-a-dark-river I also read Genevieve Cogman’s latest in her Invisable Library series which many here have read some of. The Untold Story wraps up a lot of lose ends and was perhaps better than the last few have been. I enjoyed it and it could be classed as a bit of an end. She says she will revisit the characters in the future but has other plans for now. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57593991-the-untold-story Finally I finished both my O (The Eye of Osiris, Dr. Thorndyke) and P (So Pretty a Problem, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29228523-so-pretty-a-problem) this week. I have a potential books for Q and R in my stack.

@Lady Florida. St. Cyr is possibly my favorite. Glad my book title dump this morning onto GR was helpful! I am finishing my current book so I can start it!😉 I did finish listening to Anne Bishop’s latest Crowbones yesterday. I liked it but maybe not as much as others in that series. I believe @Kareni has already read it. My current book........... I am roughly halfway through my first Dr. Thorndyke mystery. Everywhere I turned during my crime spree research the name R. Auston Freeman kept appearing. Years ago I actually bought a collection of his books for my kindle as “emergency” reading for Caitlin and I expecting them to be sort of a Victorian Quincy in nature. I actually remembered that purchase and managed to recover it for Crime Spree. Freeman is credited with all sorts of firsts in the genre. I decided to start a couple of books in to the series with The Eye of Orisis because I needed an O. That said I haven’t been disappointed so far even though Dr. Thorndyke has been more of an assistant to his young surgeon friend than the main character so far. From Goodreads……… John Bellingham is a world-renowned archaeologist who goes missing mysteriously after returning from a voyage to Egypt where fabulous treasures have been uncovered. Bellingham seems to have disappeared leaving clues, which lead all those hunting down blind alleys. But when the piercing perception of the brilliant Dr Thorndyke is brought to bear on the mystery, the search begins for a man tattooed with the Eye of Osiris in this strange, tantalisingly enigmatic tale. His Goodreads bio….. Richard Freeman was born in Soho, London on 11 April 1862 and was the son of Ann Maria (nee Dunn) and Richard Freeman, a tailor. He was originally named Richard and later added the Austin to his name. He became a medical trainee at Middlesex Hospital Medical College and was accepted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. He married Annie Elizabeth Edwards in 1887 and they had two sons and after a few weeks of married life the couple found themselves in Accra on the Gold Coast where he was assistant surgeon. His time in Africa produced plenty of hard work, very little money and ill health, so much so that after seven years he was invalided out of the service in 1891. He wrote his first book, ‘Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman’, which was published in 1898. It was critically acclaimed but made very little money. On his return to England he set up an eye/ear/nose/throat pactice but in due course his health forced him to give up medicine although he did have occasional temporary posts and in World War I he was in the ambulance corps. He became a writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr Thorndyke. The first of the books in the series was ‘The Red Thumb Mark’ (1907). His first published crime novel was ‘The Adventures of Romney Pringle’ (1902) and was a collaborative effort published under the pseudonym Clifford Ashdown. Within a few years he was devoting his time to full-time writing. With the publication of ‘The Singing Bone’ (1912) hee invented the inverted detective story (a crime fiction in which the commission of the crime is described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator, with the story then describing the detective’s attempt to solve the mystery). Thereafter he used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in his novels. A large proportion of the Dr Thorndyke stories involve genuine, but often quite arcane, points of scientific knowledge, from areas such as tropical medicine, metallurgy and toxicology.