Although the Thomases were not initially liked by villagers, Trixie Thomas had become a model of domestic efficiency – the perfect wife. So it came as a great shock to everyone when she was found dead – to everyone but police inspector Hamish Macbeth.

In a nutshell:

I read it in: English

I liked it:     Yes

For people who like: Very cosy mysteries, Scotland

My thoughts: 

After his short stay in Cnothan Hamish is back in Lochdubh now. The murder victim is Trixie, a scrounger par excellence who always needs a few pet projects she can work on only to discard them when she is finished with them. Good riddance! Hamish has got his work cut out and his old nemesis Blair isn’t helping either. A new superior officer has the chance to see them both in action and draws the right conclusions about them both, however, towards the end of the book, we get a hint that Blair’s days might not be numbered still.

Hamish finally goes off Priscilla, which doesn’t please her one bit. Serves her right. The way she is going on, dragging one "fiancé" after the other to Scotland is a shame. Not only has she got a terrible taste in men in general, not only is she weak willed and has no spine, she also changes those men like there was no tomorrow. You get the impression as long as she has ANY man at her side she is validated. I dislike her more and more in each book.

Apart from the annoying women in this book (one of them gets killed fortunately, bless the killer) this is again another pretty good mystery with an enjoyable cosy atmosphere.

Location: The fictional village of Lochdubh, Highlands, Scotland, UK

Images from wikipedia and sxc.hu user theoneill

Movie tip

Hamish Macbeth TV series

If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.

In Leanne Shapton’s marvelously inventive and invented auction catalog, the 325 lots up for auction are what remain from the relationship between Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris (who aren’t real people, but might as well be). Through photographs of the couple’s personal effects–the usual auction items (jewelry, fine art, and rare furniture) and the seemingly worthless (pajamas, Post-it notes, worn paperbacks)–the story of a failed love affair vividly (and cleverly) emerges. From first meeting to final separation, the progress and rituals of intimacy are revealed through the couple’s accumulated relics and memorabilia. And a love story, in all its tenderness and struggle, emerges from the evidence that has been left behind, laid out for us to appraise and appreciate.

In a nutshell:

I read it in: English

I liked it: I loved the idea, I kind of liked the result

For people who like: Fiction that looks like non-fiction, putting two and two together without being explicitly told what happened.

My thoughts: 

I was quite fascinated with the idea of an auction catalogue to tell the story of a relationship. It sounded intriguing, interesting and different. When I started reading this book I realized how much work it must have been to put this together. There are photos of the couple (standing in for Lenore and Hal were Sheila Heti and Paul Sahre), tons of letters and notes, various items, clothes, pictures of cakes and what not. The thought that someone put a part of the lives of two fictional people together in that way is fascinating.

However, I would have liked it better if those people were a little less hip and outstandingly original, but a little closer to everyday people in everyday life. There are a few short conversations that Lenore and Hal had written on brochures during a concert etc. and the dialogue to me sounds just too much of a good thing. Listen to this (about the poodles on the cover):

I can tell you hate them/ No!/ But I love the dogs, the dogs love you, they are perfect pets, as they do not poo./ Dearest Hal, they are not our pal, their breed is a pain, a firm hand must train./ Lenore, Lenore, fear not evermore, these unbroken pups you’ll soon adore./ You win, dark knight, at least they don’t bite.

Often there would be song lyrics scribbled down in books, unfortunately I knew none of the songs, and so couldn’t relate too much. The clothes are mostly vintage clothes, the items are all vintage or artsy. Everything was just a little bit too extraordinary. I mean, who on Earth would go as a litmus test on Halloween? I just couldn’t relate to those two and frankly, I didn’t give a damn whether they would stay together or not (even though, of course, it was clear from the start, they would not). Also, I saw no reason why they would auction off the things they did. Why would you sell on your bathing suits after a break up?

Most of the hints as to what happened in the relationship of the couple we receive from notes to each other, emails, letters (who nowadays writes postal letters from the US to Europe, esp. when the other is only gone for a week or two?) either to each other or from friends or family to either Lenore or Hal. I must be missing something completely because I think that basically the same effect could have been achieved with an epistolary novel of some kind. Maybe in the style of Love Virtually. Somehow I simply expected more of that auction catalogue idea and it didn’t deliver it.

All in all I enjoyed reading this (I love catalogues in general), but the book left me a bit disappointed in the end.

Product info and buy link :

If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.

I got plents of nice and light reading this week…..

I swapped

• Love over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith. I am not going to read it right away as it is the third book in the 44 Scotland Street series, but I found it on my swap site, so I went for it.

I bought

• Death of a Hussy
• Death of a Snob
• Death of a Prankster
• Agatha Raisin and the vicious vet
• Agatha Raisin and the potted gardener, all by M. C. Beaton As you can see I am on a cozy roll.

What was in YOUR mailbox recently?  Check out other In my mailbox participants here.

Agatha has moved to a picture-book English village and wants to get in the swing. So she buys herself a quiche for the village quiche-making contest and is more than alarmed when it kills a judge. Hot on the trail of the poisoner, Agatha is fearless, all the while unaware, that she’s become the next victim …

In a nutshell:

I read it in: English

I liked it:     Very much

For people who like: Cosy mysteries, the Cotswolds, the English countryside, Miss Marple atmosphere with a tougher touch

My thoughts: 

This is the first book in the Agatha Raisin series. After reading some of M. C. Beaton Hamish Macbeth books I decided to give Agatha Raisin a try and I was not disappointed.

Agatha Raisin is not a very likeable heroine, at least not at the beginning. She is a tough business woman who usually gets her way by bullying and/or flattering others and that’s about all she can do. Being nice doesn’t come naturally to her. When she – very uncharacteristically – gives all the credit for a local charity event that she organized to a friend, she immediately regrets it when he benefits from her action.

Obviously she also does not learn any lessons from previous events. She buys a quiche to enter it into a competition, someone dies from eating it which gets her into an awkward position. However, a little later she has no scruples to take a cake from a communal freezer to offer it to someone as her own, even though she has no idea whose cake it is and what might be in it. She just does what gets into her mind, not considering any consequences.

This also brings me to another question. Don’t they have to keep retained samples from food at such occasions? That should be standard procedure on occasions like the competition or even the storage freezer! That way the mystery would have been solved a little earlier.

All characters in the village were interesting and entertaining, and the Cotswolds are a great setting for the whole idea of a hardened ex-PR agent trying to ingratiate herself with the locals. The whole story was a pleasure to read; humour, atmosphere and a cosy mystery all combined to a very nice package.

Oh, the cover! Isn’t that a lovely cover?I don’t read chick lit but always like those illustrated covers and fancy fonts. So I am more than pleased with the covers of these Robinson editions.

Location: The fictional village of Carsely, Cotswolds, England, UK

Product info and buy link :

If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.

You Read to Be Entertained

You remind others to have fun. Life should always be celebrated. You love to dance. You express yourself through movement, and you’re rarely sitting still. You’re optimistic about life. You feel excited about what’s to come… love, work, and new experiences. You feel at ease around others. You are a very socially oriented person.

Your Name is Miss Selina Collins

How quick come the reasons for approving what we like! – Jane Austen

You are a Dreamer

You tend to have your head in the clouds. You love to be drawn in to a whole other world. You are a sensitive person. You find it easy to be emotionally effected by books. You are a person with a few deep interests. If you’re drawn to something, you learn everything about it. You are a person who loves to acquire possessions. You can’t resist a sale, and you own a lot of things.

What are you bookish results at Blogthings?

Blurb:

Murder is a Tasty Dish. The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fishes, or-more accurately-dumped into a tank filled with crustaceans. All that remain of the murdered victim are his bones. But after the lobsters are shipped off to Britain’s best restaurants, the whole affair quickly lands on the plate of Constable Hamish Macbeth.
Exiled with his dog, Towser, to the dreary outpost of Cnothan, Macbeth sorely misses his beloved Lochdubh, his formerly beloved Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, and his days of doing nothing but staring at the sheep grazing in a nearby croft.
Now the lawman has to contend with a detective chief inspector who wants the modus operandi hushed up, a dark-haired lass who has an ulterior motive to seduce him, and a killer who has made mincemeat of his victim-and without doubt will strike again …

In a nutshell:

I read it in: English

I liked it:     Yes

For people who like: the Highlands, cosy mysteries

My thoughts: 

I can’t say I was too thrilled with the murder method. Not that I ever am, mind you, but the corpse in the fishtank being completely eaten is rather unsavory. The whole idea has been done more tastefully (but maybe tasteful was not M. C. Beaton’s intention anyway) by David Wishart in Food for the Fishes.

All that aside, this time the setting was different again. Where in book one there were tourists to be questioned, in book two the local gentry, here they are hostile villagers. There is quite a surprising variety of characters in those books.

One word to Blair. Why this oaf is still leading the investigations is a mystery to me. Why do the “rival” police officers always have to be so mind-numbingly dumb and antagonistic. Instead of securing Hamish’s cooperation (after all, he has solved the last two crimes single handedly and made Blair look rather stupid) he gives him mundane tasks and does everything he can do be an ass. By rights he should have been sent packing after book two.

Priscilla is becoming more and more of a nuisance mystery. She turns up at the end of the book and acts kind of jealous because of another woman’s affection to Hamish. Of course, her own various fiancés and guys she drags up to Scotland are perfectly ok. Strange double standard. Can’t say I like her.

Location: The fictional village of Cnothan, Highlands, Scotland, UK

Images from wikipedia and sxc.hu user arinas74

Movie tip

Hamish Macbeth TV series

Product info and buy link :

If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.

In January:

• I read and reviewed Comeback Love by Peter Golden
• I read and reviewed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis for my Narnia reading project
• I read and reviewed Death of a Gossip by M.C. Beaton
• I read and reviewed The right attitude to rain and The careful use of compliments by Alexander McCall Smith
• I DNF’ed The madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley
• I read and reviewed Death of a Cad by M. C. Beaton
• I read Death of an Outsider by M. C. Beaton
• I read Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M. C. Beaton
• I read Death of a perfect wife by M. C. Beaton

I started to read and put back on the shelf for later:

• Changeless by Gail Carriger. Not at all in the mood for vampires and werewolves. Book beginning can be found here.
• A supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again by David Foster Wallace. Book beginning can be found here.
• The Prague cemetery by Umberto Eco. Wow, the first sentences was almost a whole page. Too much to handle for me right now. Will tackle this one another time.

• I participated in the Dreaming of Books Giveaway Hop
• I received a box full of goodies from Carin

For this month I am planning to:

• participate in the Literary Giveaway Blog Hop
• and read quite a bit as I will be in hospital for a while. Plenty of time for books – I hope! Alexander McCall Smith and M. C. Beaton will be the perfect bookish hospital fare.

What was  YOUR reading month like?

I almost like planners of any kind more than bags – almost! As much as I try to stick to one Filofax and simply change the calendar part each year, I can’t. I NEED a new calendar for variety. Some time ago I found this site where you can design your own calendar either with templates they provide or with your own design for front and back. The inside you can fill with modules that you need, choose your favourite color etc. It’s great. This is my very personal self made pocket planner:

Both cover images I had already made previously, the front is part of a much larger poster that is hanging in our hall (the quote is by Seneca), the back is a smaller one I made for a scrapbooking challenge a long time ago (you had to use wings which were the rage back then. Instead of putting them on a cute kid I decided to put them on Mata Hari).

Want your own custom-made calendar? Go to Mein Taschenkalender!

It’s time for another “Quizzical Monday”!

Question:

What is the title of the last story by Stefan Zweig that he sent to his publisher only days before his suicide?

Leave a comment with your answer. Then, to see whether you got it right,  click on "Show" below.  As usual, there is nothing to be won, this is just for fun!