Title: Checkmate to Murder Writer: E.C.R.Lorac Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: August 10th 2020 (first published 1944) Rating: 5 stars As London descends into the familiar darkness of war, a man of questionable morality is murdered. The fog cannot hide the frightened young man who is arrested for the murder of his…
Tag: WWII
The Ghosts of Rose Hill
Title: The Ghosts of Rose Hill Writer: R.M.Romero Publishing House: PeachTree Teen Date of Publication: May 3rd 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Lopez means: son of Lope, son of wolf. But it’s the Lopez women who have always howled the loudest. They had to be fierce and stubborn to survive.’’ ‘’They fled the pyres (the flames…
The Dollmaker of Krakow
Title: The Dollmaker of Krakow Writer: R. M. Romero Publishing House: Walker Books Date of Publication: September 6th 2018 (first published September 12th 2017) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Across the sea, however, was a dark country. Its residents, huge rats whose appetites seemed as great as the ocean itself, had been crafted by a wicked witch…
Murder After Christmas
Title: Murder After Christmas Writer: Rupert Latimer Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: October 10th 2021 (first published 1944) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Anyway, Christmas is a time for forgetting the past and burying hatchets, isn’t it?’’ ‘’What about after Christmas’’, said Frank. ‘’Now you’re making difficulties’’, said Rhoda.’’ The arrival of Uncle…
Murder’s a Swine
Title: Murder’s A Swine: A Second World War Mystery Writer: Nap Lombard Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: December 7th 2021 (first published 1943) Rating: 5 stars ‘’[…] but as Germany is unfortunately the enemy of our country, she must needs, however regrettable this may seem, be our enemy also. After the war…
Captain Tom Moore (Little People, BIG Dreams)
Title: Captain Tom Moore (Little People, Big Dreams) Writer: Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara (illustrated by Christophe Jacques) Publishing House: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books Date of Publication: September 29th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’We’ve fought so many battles and we’ve always won, and we’re going to win again. Please remember tomorrow is a good day and…
The Great Fortune (The Balkan Trilogy 1)
Title: The Great Fortune (The Balkan Trilogy 1) Writer: Olivia Manning Publishing House: Penguin Random House UK Date of Publication: July 30th 2020 (first published 1960) Rating: 4 stars ”A pine forest came down to the edge of the track: the light from the carriages rippled over the bordering trees. As she gazed out into…
The Animals at Lockwood Manor
Title: The Animals At Lockwood Manor Writer: Jane Healey Publishing House: Mantles Date of Publication: March 10th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ”Lockwood had too many empty rooms. They sat there, hushed and gaping, waiting for my mind to fill them with horrors – spectres and shadows and strange creeping creatures. And sometimes what was already there was frightening enough: empty…
The Painted Bird
Title: The Painted Bird Writer:Jerzy Kosiński Publishing House: Grove Press Date of Publication: December 1st 2007 (first published 1965) Rating: 5 stars ”We are here in the company of death.” Jewish concentration camp inmate A young boy finds himself lost, wandering in the countryside of an unnamed Eastern European country during…
Dear Mrs Bird
Title: Dear Mrs Bird Writer: A.J.Pearce Publishing House: Picador Date of Publication: April 5th 2018 Rating: 4 stars ”Μrs Bird says if people get themselves into a silly pickle, they’ve only themselves to blame.” London is trying to survive in the middle of the Blitz. The Londoners are doing their best to go on with their lives, amidst the…
Transcription
Title: Transcription Writer: Kate Atkinson Publishing House: Black Swan Date of Publication: March 21st 2019 (first published September 6th 2018) Rating: 5 stars ”In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” Winston Churchill 1950. Juliet is a BBC producer, responsible for the children’s zone. Intelligent, energetic and a talented writer,…
In the Shadow of Wolves
Title: In the Shadow of Wolves (original title Mano vardas – Marytė) Writer: Alvydas Šlepikas tr. by Romas Kinka Publishing House: Oneworld Publications Date of Publication: June 6th 2019 Rating:2 stars ‘’People appear as if emerging through a mist, a snowstorm, a winter fog; they grow dark, casting a shadow on the trampled, blood-soaked earth, and then are gone.’’…
Belladonna
Title: Belladonna Writer: Daša Drndić (translated by Celia Hawkesworth) Publishing House: New Directions Date of Publication: October 24th 2017 (first published November 1st 2012) Rating: 5 stars ‘’And the wind brought people who had let their plows rust; solitary people tiling the sky, reaping the harvests of summer nights, the fat grain of early straws, leaving it all unwinnowed. Instead…
A Gentleman In Moscow
Title: A Gentleman In Moscow Writer: Amor Towles Publishing House: Penguin Random House Date of Publication: September 6th 2016 Rating: 5 stars ‘’On Saturday, the twenty-first of June 1946, as the sun rose high over the Kremlin, a lone figure climbed slowly up the steps from the Moskva River embankment, continued past St.Basil’s Cathedral, and made his way onto…
A Promise Stitched In Time
Title: A Promise Stitched In Time Writer: Colleen Rowan Kosinski Publishing House: Schiffer Publishing Date of Publication: September 28th 2018 Rating: 5 stars ‘’It was a promise. Promises have to be kept.’’ What can one find in an antique shop…Objects graced with the beauty of a bygone era. Trinkets that once held sentimental value. Expensive creations of the past….
My Real Name is Hanna
Title: My Real Name Is Hanna Writer: Tara Lynn Masih Publishing House: Mandel Vilar Press Date of Publication: September 11th 2018 Rating: 5 stars *Any political comments will be promptly deleted* ‘’As good as life looks now to us young children, there is still a sense of always looking over your shoulder for something to hit you.’’ This is one…
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Writer: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows Publishing House: The Dial Press Date of Publication: July 29th 2008 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Real dyed-in-the-wool readers can’t lie. Our faces always give us away. A raised brow or a curled lip means that it’s a poor excuse for a book, and…
The Opinionated Reader 