Month: December 2015

Mystery review: The Shadow at Greystone Chase by Clara Benson

Mystery review: The Shadow at Greystone Chase by Clara Benson

The tenth and final outing in the Angela Marchmont series of murder mysteries set in the twenties. Most of the books of this series can be read independently of each other, but this one is the exception: it follows on almost directly from The Scandal at 23 Mount Street and has many spoilers for that story, so if you haven’t read the ninth book yet, read on at your peril. After the sombre courtroom drama of the previous book, things are almost back to normal here, with ladylike amateur sleuth Angela and her aristocratic reporter sidekick Freddy investigating a murder from several years ago. But it isn’t quite normal, because the murder in question is the wife of Angela’s love interest, jewel thief Edgar Valencourt. And because she feels guilty about the events of book nine, she agrees to try. The mystery isn’t particularly complicated. I guessed the identity of […]

Posted December 31, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Mystery review: The Scandal at 23 Mount Street by Clara Benson

Mystery review: The Scandal at 23 Mount Street by Clara Benson

The ninth and penultimate outing in the Angela Marchmont series of murder mysteries set in the twenties is a complete change of pace. After the light-hearted, almost flippant, tone of the last few books, suddenly life takes a very grave turn for Angela, when her past comes back to haunt her and she has a fight for her very life on her hands. The mystery this time isn’t so much in whodunit, which is almost incidental, but how on earth Angela is going to get out of the mess she’s in. I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler if I say that I never doubted that she would get out of it, but even though I guessed something of how it would go, there was a surprise in store at the end. In fact, there were a lot of revelations about the past, although one of them I’d guessed […]

Posted December 31, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Mystery review: The Trouble at Wakeley Court by Clara Benson

Mystery review: The Trouble at Wakeley Court by Clara Benson

The eighth outing in the Angela Marchmont series of murder mysteries set in the twenties sees our heroine drawn into her most preposterous case yet, as a foreign princess is threatened with assassination at the private girls’ school attended by Angela’s god-daughter, Barbara. I won’t attempt to describe the plot – let’s just say it’s convoluted, and leave it at that. I’m pleased to report that I guessed the identity of the villain right from the start here, but it didn’t hamper my enjoyment in the slightest. For those who enjoy boarding school stories, complete with middle-of-the-night chases across the lawn, creeping about with torches in the attic and teachers who are not all they seem, this will be right up your alley. I particularly enjoyed the games mistress’ robust attitude towards dealing with intruders. Angela solves the case, as usual, and all the loose ends are neatly resolved. This […]

Posted December 31, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Pauline’s self-published gems of 2015

Pauline’s self-published gems of 2015

This is the third year running that I’ve cobbled together a list of self-published gems from my reading over the year. For anyone who’s not tried self-published books before, it can be difficult to find quality reading among the morass of poorly-edited and derivative junk out there. I’ve learned to be very selective about what I spend time on, but even so, there are still a lot of not terribly good books around. BUT if you look carefully, there are plenty of gems around. The best self-published books bring a freshness and vitality to their genres that make them a delight to read. These are some that I loved wholeheartedly. PART 1: FANTASY: The Proving series: Marina Finlayson Urban fantasy at its best – dragons and a whole panoply of shifters, a heroine who’s a mother of a young son (a refreshing change from the usual teenage kickass protagonist), a […]

Posted December 31, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 3 Comments

Authors Answer 5: Have you read any foreign language novels?

No. Next question… But seriously, this is one of those issues where you feel you probably should do it, but life’s too short. I’m British, so naturally I’ve never mastered any foreign language well enough to attempt anything more taxing than ordering a beer and a pizza. I’ve tried, believe me, I’ve tried, but I just don’t have the right receptors in my brain. Even at school, after several years of daily lessons in French, I never felt competent to read a book in the language. And besides, there are so many books to read in English, where I understand the nuances of the words (most of the time), why would I struggle to read something that’s not in English? Struggle may be good for the soul, but I read for pleasure and entertainment and to be taken out of the everyday world for a time. So English it is, […]

Posted December 26, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in AuthorsAnswer / 0 Comments

Mystery review: ‘The Problem at Two Tithes’ by Clara Benson

Mystery review: ‘The Problem at Two Tithes’ by Clara Benson

Another bundle of fun in the Angela Marchmont series of murder mysteries set in the twenties. This is the seventh, and the author is absolutely on top form. After the wonderful outing in Italy in The Imbroglio at the Villa Pozzi, here we are back in the heart of England, at the very respectable village home of Angela’s brother, Sir Humphrew Cardew and his wife Elisabeth, two of the most pompous, stuffy and dull people imaginable. They disapprove of Angela and everything about her, and although she sets out not to ruffle their feathers, naturally she can’t help getting into trouble almost immediately. The village setting, and the murder that takes place against a backdrop of the village fete, is redolent of Midsomer Murders, or perhaps the Miss Marple series of Agatha Christie. There are eccentric characters in abundance – an elderly lady on a bicycle, the gossipy vicar’s wife […]

Posted December 20, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Mystery review: ‘The Imbroglio at the Villa Pozzi’ by Clara Benson

Mystery review: ‘The Imbroglio at the Villa Pozzi’ by Clara Benson

Good grief, that was the most amazing fun. The sixth Angela Marchmont amateur detective series, set in the twenties, sees Angela holidaying in Italy, tangling with spiritualists and meeting an old acquaintance, a certain jewel thief by the name of Edgar Valencourt, last seen charming Angela in The Treasure at Poldarrow Point, book 3 of the series. I always hoped he’d turn up again, but his reappearance was even better than I could have imagined. The mystery this time is nothing terribly convoluted, but I enjoyed trying to puzzle it out, getting it wrong and watching Angela resolve everything with an airy wave of her hand. But the murder takes a back seat to the characters, and their personal lives. The mysterious Duchessa, for example, who pops up from time to time. The fidgety English clergyman and his long-suffering wife. The almost-convincing medium and the daughter who ‘sees’ things. Even […]

Posted December 18, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Authors Answer 4: If you could interview any author, who would it be and what would you ask?

Ooh, another interesting one. I’d love to talk to Jane Austen. I’d like to know how she wrote her books in the days of quill pens. How much editing did she do? Did she plan it all in advance? How many drafts? Did she have the Regency equivalent of a beat sheet tucked away under her blotter? Or did she plan the whole thing in her head before she started writing? And did she have to keep a list of characters written down somewhere so that she could remember their ages and incomes (those all-important aspects of high-born life)? Her books are so perfectly constructed, and conform so well to modern ideas about structuring novels, yet she was writing two hundred years ago. She was one amazing lady. If I could have a second author to interview, I’d love to sit down and have a chat to Australian author Glenda […]

Posted December 18, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in AuthorsAnswer / 0 Comments

Urban fantasy review: ‘Twiceborn Endgame’ by Marina Finlayson

Urban fantasy review: ‘Twiceborn Endgame’ by Marina Finlayson

This is the third part of the Proving Trilogy, and there were big reveals in the first two parts which it’s difficult to avoid mentioning in this review. If you haven’t read them yet and don’t want to spoil the surprise, don’t read on. Werewolves are part of my unholy trinity – along with vampires and zombies – which I will NOT read about, no matter what. Or so I thought. But this is the series that made me love werewolves. Who’d a thunk it? But then this is an unusual urban fantasy in many ways. The main character, Kate, isn’t a badass teenage girl snarking her way through life, and doing nothing but drool over the hot blokes. She’s the mother of a young boy, and heaven knows that makes a refreshing change. Now, there’s a certain amount of snark (she’s Australian, so that goes with the territory), and […]

Posted December 11, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Authors Answer 3: How difficult do you find it to write characters who have vastly different beliefs than you?

I find this a slightly odd question. Any author of fiction is going to be writing characters who are very different from themselves in scores of ways. I’ve written characters who are male, good with a sword, live in multi-couple marriages, rule a nation, can ride a horse, summon eagles or speak many languages, none of which can be said of me. And then there’s magic: my characters can spout fire from their fingertips, bend metal with mental power, manipulate emotions in other people and read memories. Their beliefs are the least of it. As far as religious belief goes, my world has a slightly uneasy relationship with it, since one group of people likes to use religion as a tool: to keep the population under control, or to disseminate a useful idea. And they create religions wholesale, simply making up gods and mythology and rituals, as it suits them. […]