James Herriot's World via books and television

 If you are a fan of BBC or Masterpiece Theater you may have watched a season or two of All Creatures Great and Small.   The wholesome G-rated shows were inspired by James Herriot’s books. I have read all of his books and enjoyed each and every one. He brought the story to life and I could clearly picture the scenes in Yorkshire as he dealt with his patients – cows, sheep, bulls, dogs and you name it.

While I enjoyed the original series with Christopher Timothy and Carol Drinkwater more than the latest adaption, this is still good entertainment.  Love the scenery and the animal stories.

James Herriot's Yorkshire

This book – James Herriot’s Yorkshire – is written by James Herriot (his real name is James Alfred Wight) and it is a wonderful compilation of photos and stories about the Yorkshire dales. The town of Darrowby in his fictional works is actually Thirsk. That is where he practiced veterinary medicine along with Sigried and Tristan Farnon (Donald and Brian Sinclair). Herriot may be surprised that his books are still so popular today as well as the number of visitors he attracted to the area.

This book is copyrighted 1979 and is one of the original printings purchased in England. I treasure this book. I’ve read that people who travel to Yorkshire with the specific intent of visiting the area Herriot lived bring this book along and it’s an invaluable asset. If you like rural areas and have a plan to hike about in Yorkshire, this book is for you. Flip through and enjoy stories and photos about small villages, ruins and history.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

 

I wish I could remember who blogged about the Elly Griffiths' books because I'd like to thank you.  Please leave me a comment if you've recently reviewed the Dr Ruth Galloway series!

British author Elly Griffiths has moved to the top of my list of books I'll be reading in June and July. Love the style, the plot, character development and the Norfolk England coastal setting.

Bones are found near an ancient henge off Norfolk's coastline.  The saltmarshes can be dangerous to negotiate as the sands will swallow you up if you take a wrong turn.  When bones are discovered DI Harry Nelson contacts Dr Ruth Galloway to ascertain if the bones are ancient or the remains of missing child from ten years prior. Dr Ruth Galloway is a forensic archaeologist, university professor and lecturer.

One of Ruth's discoveries is from the Iron Age but a cold case quickly becomes a murder investigation as more information surfaces. I enjoyed reading about Ruth and the growing friendship with DI Nelson. Planning on reading the next in the series titled The Janus Stone. I'm just hoping the Galloway/Nelson relationship doesn't turn romantic as I love the detective work and mystery parts best.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

 

Recently I read Peter Swanson's book Nine Lives and I thought it was terrific.  This led me to request another of his mysteries, Eight Perfect Murders.

When I started reading this one I felt it had too many similarites to the book Nine Lives.  It's defintely a different mystery, not a rehash, but some of the elements made me think about the previous book.

We start with a bookshop owner named Malcolm and a vivid description of the harsh winter snow storm.  A FBI agent calls Malcolm and asks to speak to him, arriving in the storm as he is about to close up the shop.  

She wants to chat with him about a blog post he'd made years ago called Eight Perfect Murders.  Seems someone is taking that list to heart with bodies turning up murdered exactly as the blog post outlined. Is it a serial killer?  Is it Malcolm?

The plot had possibilities but I found it fairly boring.  Not giving up on this author as Nine Lives was very good, IMO.  If you've read any of Swanson's books which would you suggest? If you've read Nine Lives, did you think about some of the similarities between the plot and ending?

These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

 

This is a moving narrative about a father's love for his young daughter and the sacrifices he has made to keep her with him.  Cooper has PTSD after several tours in Afghanistan but you won't get that backstory right away. He and his daughter Finch live off the grid without electricity, friends or any connection to the world as we know it.

The story begins when Finch is eight years old and you learn of how Finch is quite a capable young girl.  She has never known any life before this one where they live in the Appalachian Mountains.  They prepare for winter and stock food in the root cellar.  Once a year Cooper's friend Jake arrives with loads of supplies.  Cooper and Finch look forward to that time not just for the supplies but the friendship with Jake.

This is a slow start but I loved all the revelations about Finch's mother, Jake and Cooper's back stories and the reason this father and daughter live in isolation.  Cooper is basically a very good man but circumstances drove him to choose the situation he's in and things are about to take a turn for the worse.

Love, friendship, choices, redemption are themes in this book.  I was very invested with the characters and how things played out.

The No-Show and The Switch by Beth O'Leary

 

I liked this book. The author's first book The Flatshare was a nice easy read, chicklit in my opinion, and I knew I would read another as I like her style. 

This book focuses on two women, both named Eileen Cotton. There's the younger called Leena and her grandmother Eileen. Leena is used ot the fast paced corporate world of London but she is burnt out. After an incident at work she is placed on a two month sabatical so she heads up to Yorkshire to visit her grandmother. Leena has always been close to her grandmother and calls her all the time. 

She is barely on speaking terms with her mother Marion and this puts Eileen (the grandmother) in the middle. This is all a result of Leena's sister dying from cancer and decisions made which Leena couldn't come to terms with. It's all explained.

Eileen is 79 years old but don't think she sits around knitting and is all alone. She is very active and is always trying to get involved in new projects, organizing a festival, helping with crime watch and walking other folks dogs....you get the idea. Leena gets the idea to switch households for the two months as it's obvious both women need a change of scenery. Leena would live in Yorkshire and her grandmother would live in her flat in London.

It's nice to read about older people who had vibrant lives in their youth I was enjoying the parts set in Yorkshire as well and honestly, if I could and I had the physical stamina for those sort of cold winters, I would love to live in that area. 

This is a nice easy read that features love, infidelity, grief and life changes. I would read more by Beth O'Leary as she takes you right into the scenes. Love the descriptive parts about Yorkshire.

The No-Show: This book has quite a few surprises.  It appears Joseph Carter is a scoundrel who is juggling three different women, managing to stand them up on Valentine's Day.  As you start the book you will be supportive of these ladies outing him and possibly getting a bit of revenge. Word of warning, don't make assumptions as this is not a cookie cutter romance template.

This is not a story about a man cheating on his girlfriends.  There is a back story to each of the relationships which the author deftly weaves to a surprising conclusion.

There is heartbreak but I assure you, it won't be a scenario you're expecting. Somehow Beth O'Leary writes a light hearted story while interjecting real life hardships and situations.

There is more than one emotionally significant event to experience here. 

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday

The Seagull and The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves

 It's been a week of cathcing up with the latest Ann Cleeves book about Inspector Vera Stanhope. 

The Seagull is book eight in the Vera Stanhope series and I hate to say it but, it didn't thrill me.  I found myself skimming after a bit and this is unusual as I love the detective series and have read them all in order.  Maybe that's just me.

Vera is irritated by her new boss as he's given her an assignment for a speaking engagement at the prison.  There she meets up with John Brace, a former detective superintendent, who is serving time for corruption and a death.  Vera had a hand in his arrest and sentencing so no love lost there. Brace is in poor health and in exchange for favors, he is willing to impart information on an unsolved case.  It was plain out hard to like anyone or feel sympathy toward anyone in this novel. The investigation part was great, as always, but the characters lacked a connection for me.

FYI - I had read book nine The Darkest Evening last year as an ARC from NetGalley.

The Rising Tide is book ten in the series and this one has grabbed me completely.  I was fortunate enough to win an advanced reader's copy from Goodreads.  This plot had me reading whenever I had opportunity.  The story involves a group of friends who meet up for a reunion every five years.  This time it's the 50th anniversay/reunion and as you may imagine, all of the former students are close to 70 years old.

They meet on Holy Island, the same place where they first met up for a school function over fifty years ago.  The island and causeway deserve to be considered characters on their own as you are immersed in the atmosphere. There is a murder during the reunion and this naturally brings Vera and her team to investigate. 

Interjected into the plot is the fact that one of the students died on the causeway as the tide came in, dragging her car away and drowning the lovely Isobel so many years ago.  They pay tribute to her memory when they get together.

The end was so very sad for me and without spoilers I will say a scenario about a favorite character brought tears to my eyes.  I did not realize I was that invested with them! 

The Rising Tide will be published September 6, 2022. Much thanks to Goodreads for the ARC.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy

 

The setting is Lough Glass in Ireland and it's the early 1950s. The story follows Mary Katherine McMahon's life as a child and the approximately ten years after her mother Helen disappears. It's thought her mother drowned but Mary (known as Kit) worried her mother killed herself.  She had a note from her mother but burned it without reading as if it was a suicide note she couldn't have a church burial.

Kit misses her mother very much and leans on friends and distant family to help her. She gets into a pen pal relationship with a woman named Lena Gray who claims to have known her mother.  There is certainly a surprise lurking for Kit in that relationship!

If you want to submerge yourself into 1950s Irish culture this will be a good book for you. It's dated in references but I liked it. The themes are loss and love.  I liked the comparison of English life vs Irish life from Kit's perspective.

 This is another book I am clearing from the shelves in my mission to read more books from the stacks at home.  It's already in the mail to a friend who may enjoy it!

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday and Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction challenge.

Nine Lives by Peter Swanson

"If you're on the list someone wants you dead."

The beginning of the book starts with a cast of characters and a small biographical introduction.

 For instance: 

Matthew Beaumont - a suburban father stressed by the complexities of family life in Dartford, Massachusettes.

Ethan Dart - a singer songwriter in Austin, Texas.

Caroline Geddes - an English professor at University of Michigan, lives in Ann Arbor with two cats.

Each person receives a letter without a return address and a simple list of nine names, their name included.  The individuals seem to have nothing in common.  They mostly live in different geographical parts of the country from Massachusetts, California, Michigan, Texas, Maine, Connecticut and New York City.  They don't know one another.

One of the characters is Jessica Winslow.  She is a FBI agent and her name is also on this list. Obviously the FBI does a search to see if the names are connected in any way from arrests, previous cases or relationships.  There isn't a connection yet one by one the people on this list are killed.  Some have police protection yet the killer finds a way.  The final few chapters reveal the slim thread of connections and I certainly had not figured it all out.  That's always fun if you're a frequent reader of mysteries and the ending is a surprise.

I would defintely read more by this author.
 

The River and The Guide - two books by Peter Heller

“They had paddled many rivers together in the two years they’ve known each other, and climbed a lot of peaks. Sometimes one had more appetite for danger, sometimes the other. There was a delicate but strong balance of risk versus caution in their team thinking, with the rules often fluid, and that’s what made them such good partners.”

This is the first book I'd read by Peter Heller.  I was initially attracted to The Guide but Beth Fish Reads made the suggestion I start with this one. Great suggestion as you need the background of Jack and Wynn for the followup book.

They are two adventuresome young men, friends with so much in commmon and a bond that makes them feel like brothers.  A disaster happens while they are fishing, away from civilization and phone contact.  There is a possible murder, a missing woman and  a forest fire rapidly approaching their area. Jack has already experienced tragedy in his life and the way his character is written, you can just feel it.  Loss, grief, love and endurance are themes here.  Excellent book. I then grabbed a copy of the next book, The Guide.

The Guide - You can read it as a stand alone novel because the tragedy Jack had experienced is rehashed a little bit.  But, would highly recommend starting with The River.

Jack is contracted as a guide at an exclusive fishing lodge and his assigned client is a famous singer. She is down to earth and grew up in the country fishing and hunting so, no diva behavior from Allison.

It's soon apparent this is a very expensive lodge where the very rich come to relax, be it fishing or enjoying the country setting.  The rules are rather strict about leaving the property and where the boundaries of the property end.  There is a point near a bridge where you could get shot by the adjacent land owner or mauled by dogs.  

Something sinister is going on and Jack unwittingly gets himself caught in the middle. There is quite a bit about fly fishing and descriptions of the natural beauty surrounding the property.  Not a fast paced book until the very end but I enjoyed it.

The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

 I am so happy to have discovered this author as I now have a new-to-me series to catch up on.  Police procedurals and mysteries are one of my favorite genres as are books set in Ireland.

Cormac Reilly was once a detective at an elite Garda station in Dublin.  He transfers and demotes in rank to a police agency in Galway as his partner Emma relocates for her work. For someone with his experience and skills the Galway posting is wasting his talents on cold cases.  One case in particular is a blast from his past.

The prologue tells how twenty years earlier Cormac was young officer sent out to a rural home for a domestic violence call.  What he found was Maude, a neglected thin 15 year old girl who was taking care of her 5 year old brother Jack.  Their mother was dead in an upstairs bedroom, liquor and drugs surrounding her.  

Then chapter one starts us in present time when Jack, now 25 years old, has commited suicide.  His partner Aisling is not convinced Jack took his life. The past has a way of being interjected in this investigation. There are so many facets of this story that are interesting and Cormac is now one of my favorite detectives.  I am very much looking forward to the next few books in the series and seeing the character development.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday and Marg at The Intrepid Reader for the 2022 Historical Fiction challenge.

Hatchet Island by Paul Doiron

 

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The setting is Puffin Island off the Maine coast and I enjoyed reading about the area and the bird colonies. Mike Bowditch is a game warden and investigator but off duty, taking a kayak vacation with his girlfriend Stacy. 

Stacy did an internship on the island and is very careful about docking where the endangered species are nesting.  A friend who works on the island asked Stacy to come see her as the founder of the project is missing. The tension between the volunteers and head of the research project is tangible. Stacy hopes to connect with the founder and mentor who is currently missing.

Camping off another island one night they hear a gunshot and that's when the action begins.  Three researchers are found murdered and posed in odd positions.  (This is not a spoiler but in the description).  Bowditch starts working with a few former coworkers in Marine Patrol, Coast Guard and Environmental Protection and some of those men have secrets. 

I liked the slow reveal on many mysteries and plan to read more in this series.  I did not know this was #13 in the Mike Bowditch series so I have catching up to do.  Publication date is June 28, 2022 by St. Martin's Press.  Genre: Mystery and Thrillers.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book.  I was not compensated for the review, all opinions are mine.