A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie

 

What was your last read of 2025?  A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie was my last read of 2025.

Miss Marple’s nephew, Raymond, has paid for her to vacation in the Caribbean for her health.  She arrives alone but gets to know the people at the resort she is staying at.  She is intrigued by an old soldier’s story.  When he is found murdered, will she be able to connect the story with the crime?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       A Caribbean Mystery is my December pick for the Read Christie 2025 Challenge.  This challenge explored Christie’s stories through her canon of characters and their careers.  December was novels featuring military characters.  A Caribbean Mystery featured “the old major whose habit of storytelling puts him in grave danger.”

·       It cracked me up that just like Poirot, there really is no vacation for Miss Marple. Murder finds her wherever she goes.

·       Fellow guest, Mr. Rafiel and Miss Marple team up to solve the murder.  I liked their partnership.

·       This was a perfect read for Christmas break.

·       There were a lot of shenanigans going on with couples at the resort. 

·       The poor couple that owned the resort know that murder is bad for business and want the case resolved quickly.

·       Nemesis is apparently a sequel to this novel. I hope to get to it this year!

·       Miss Marple has great powers of observation.  When she knits or putters around, people tend to ignore her and say incriminating things in front of her.

·       This novel kept me guessing.

A Caribbean Mystery is a perfect cozy mystery to keep one dreaming of sunny days in the midst of a snowy winter.

Book Source:  Purchased from Amazon.com

Golden Age Christmas Mysteries Edited by Otto Penzler

 

Title:  Golden Age Christmas Mysteries

Author:  Otto Penzler

Narrated by:  Jonathan Sleep

Publisher: Highbridge Audio

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 4 minutes

Source: Review copy from NetGalley.  Thank-you!

What is your favorite holiday decoration?  My favorites are the ceramic decorations my Grandma made me through the years.

Golden Age Christmas Mysteries is a collection of Christmas stories.  My thoughts on these stories:

·       I loved the little biographies about each author before the stories.  I felt like I was learning more about classic mystery authors. 

·       These were all new Christmas stories to me.

·       There were 14 stories with a mix of authors and styles.  Some more famous classic mystery authors such as Mary Roberts Rinehart, and John Dickson Carr, etc. were included.

·       I was surprised watching the new Knives Out movies that the author John Dickson Carr was prominently featured, and I had just read his Christmas story in this collection.

·       I really enjoyed this collection, especially as I got more into the book.  I’ve since downloaded eBooks/audiobooks of a few of the authors.

·       The narrator was great and did excellent voices.  His voice sounded like a Golden Age mystery narrator.

·       My favorite story in the collection was The Reversible Santa Claus by Meredith Nicholson.  It was a delightful and fun story.  The Hopper is a reformed thief who is trying to live an honest life when he feels the call to steal an automobile with a large purse inside.  He soon finds himself in a pickle as he as inadvertently kidnapped a child.  Hilarity ensues as he tries to figure out how to return the child without getting into trouble.  I want to read more of this Indiana author’s works.

Overall, Golden Age Christmas Mysteries Edited by Otto Penzler was a delightful collection of all new to me Christmas mystery stories.  I greatly enjoyed it and recommend it.

Under the Netherfield Mistletoe by Abigail Reynolds

 

Do you hang up a mistletoe in your home?  My kids make sure ours is up over our staircase every Christmas.

Elizabeth Bennet is searching for mistletoe at Netherfield when she meets Georgiana Darcy who has come with her brother to Netherfield to escape from the Christmas season and mend her broken heart.  As Elizabeth and Georgiana’s friendship grows, Darcy and Elizabeth find that their feelings and chemistry does as well.  Will these two end up together for Christmas?

My thoughts on this book:

·       I love Regency Christmas stories and must enjoy at least one every year!

·       This is a cute Pride and Prejudice variation.

·       It’s a short novella length which is perfect for the holidays.

·       I loved the Gardiners and their children in London.  It was a fun family and wonderful to see the Darcys get to know them.  I also enjoyed that Darcy had been childhood friends with Mrs. Gardiner’s brother.

·       Georgiana’s growth throughout the story was a joy to read about.  I was happy that she was able to finally stand up for herself.

·       I loved the sparks and chemistry between Darcy and Elizabeth – especially under the mistletoe!

·       This was a clean romance.

Overall, Under the Netherfield Mistletoe by Abigail Reynolds was a sweet Pride and Prejudice Christmas variation and romance.  It was a fun read for the holidays!

Book Source:  Purchased from Amazon.com.

Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne Du Maurier

 

Title:  Frenchman’s Creek

Author:  Daphne Du Maurier

Narrated by:  John Castle

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 47 minutes

Source: Purchased from Audible.com

What is your favorite pirate novel/movie/TV show?

Lady Dona de Columb leaves London with her children for her remote estate in Cornwall.  The excesses of the restoration court have worn on her.  While there, she discovers that her butler has been working with a mysterious pirate who has been using her estate as a place to hide.  Dona soon finds herself in love with pirate Jean Benoit Aubery and loving the adventures they have together.  Will she sail off into the sunset with him or stay with her family?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I read this as part of the Classics Buddy Read with @dees.reads in November.

·       My former high school English teacher, Mrs. Smith, recommended this book to me in high school as I enjoyed Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.  While this is a very different type of book than Rebecca, I loved it.  This is my first time rereading it since high school.

·       I also enjoyed the 1944 feature film and 1998 TV movie.  I am going to watch them again now that my Christmas movie viewing is winding down.

·       This historical fiction novel is set during the reign of Charles II.

·       The novel was published in 1941. 

·       This novel is more of a historical romance with adventure and is a different genre than Du Maurier’s most famous novel, Rebecca.

·       William the devoted butler was my favorite character.  I loved the banter between him and Dona.

·       Dona’s husband, Harry, shows up with his friend Rockingham.  Harry is not the smartest and is easily fooled by Dona.  Rockingham on the other hand, knows that something is up.  He is a scary individual – it seemed like part of Dona’ s flight was to get away from Rockingham and his pursuit of her.

·       Dona has a free spirit and loves adventure.  There are some tense moments in the story, but she makes it through.

·       I think every busy mother of young children would like to run off with a handsome, well-educated pirate, but also knows that you are a mother and have to settle down. Dona ultimately understands this.  This book seemed to really make one ponder what it is to have dreams and be free, and what ultimately must be sacrificed to be a mother.

·       I liked the somewhat open ending and hope that Dona finds her pirate in the future after her kids are grown.

·       The writing in this novel is beautiful and it has a lovely opening.  It worked very well as an audiobook.

Favorite Quotes: 

“And perhaps one day, in after years, someone would wander there and listen to the silence, as she had done, and catch the whisper of the dreams that she had dreamt there, in midsummer, under the hot sun and the white sky.”

“All this, is only momentary, is only a fragment in time that will never come again, for yesterday already belongs to the past and is ours no longer, and tomorrow is an unknown thing that may be hostile. This is our day, our moment, the sun belongs to us, and the wind, and the sea, and the men forward there singing on the deck. This day is forever a day to be held and cherished, because in it we shall have lived and loved, and nothing else matters but that in this world of our own making to which we have escaped.”

Overall, Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne Du Maurier is a beautifully written historical romance novel.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

 

Title:  The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

Author:  Stephen Graham Jones

Narrated by:  Shane Ghostkeeper, Marin Ireland, Owen Teale

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 15 hours and 29 minutes

Source: Purchased from Audible.com

What is the best book you’ve read in 2025?  The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones is one of the best books I’ve read this year or ever. 

In 2012, Etsy discovers her ancestor’s private journal which has been hidden in the walls of a parsonage.  She decided that she will translate and analyze the journal as she works towards tenure at a university.  Inside the journal, she discovers at first the mundane life of a Lutheran pastor in a western town until he writes of the confessions of Good Stab, a native American turned vampire who has sought him out.  She will discover the true meaning of horror is not always the supernatural.

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I went in blind to this novel, and it worked great as I was continually surprised.

·       This was a weird, but brilliant novel.  It’s really a vampire story told through the lens of American history and the annihilation of Native tribes.

·       Reading this novel made the destruction of the buffalo herds so real and so disturbing.

·       It was a powerful book and reckoning on how the tribes were treated in the United States.

·       This was a horror novel, but what is the horror?  Is it a vampire feeding on the people he finds, or he feels are deserving of punishment?   Or of the white people who indiscriminately kill Good Stab’s village by brutally slaughtering old people, women, and children in their winter camp while the man are away hunting.

·       The horror was really brought home when I discovered it was based on the very real Marias Massacre in Montana in 1870 which I had never heard of before.

·       Good Stab’s search for truth, reckoning, and honesty that the natives were killed as they were thought of as less than human, the whites wanted their land, and they enjoyed the killing. . . haunted me.  It’s the truths that are never said out loud.

·       The fact that men massacred people brutally and then went on living their lives as ordinary citizens is disturbing to think about.  I had this same thought after reading All the Light We Cannot See and realizing Nazis that brutally killed and tortured people, could be your plumber.

·       Good Stab’s part of the novel was a revenge narration that reminded me at times of The Count of Monte Cristo.

·       The book detailed Blackfeet culture and gave us an inside look into a world that once existed that we destroyed.

·       This was told as a story within a story withing a story.  Etsy Beaucarne is in the present day reading a diary written in 1912 of her ancestor Arthur “Three Persons” Beaucarne who wrote confession of Good Stab.  I loved, loved, loved the narration of this audiobook and the tone of the narrative.  Arthur Beaucarne sounds like a stuffy old timey pastor while Good Stab sounds like someone just learning English.  Etsy sounds like a modern-day person.  I also enjoyed the sound effect.  It was fascinating to listen to.  My 17 year old son also listened to this audiobook and greatly enjoyed it.

·       As a vampire, Good Stab is able to watch the destruction of his family, tribe, and way of life as an outsider over time.  He also participates at times in part of the destruction as he is not able to stop his thirst and he kills fellow natives.

·       Good Stab was difficult to follow at times as he talked like a person just learning English and he didn’t know the English words for all of the animals (example – “Long Legs,” etc.)  I guessed some for the animals and was not sure about other animals.  It still worked for me.

·       There is a lot of death blood, and horror to both people and animals in this novel.

·       I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

Favorite Quote: “What I am is the Indian who can't die. I'm the worst dream America ever had."

Overall, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones is a beautifully written, complex, haunting, and multilayered story.  It is a masterpiece that I soon won’t forget.  I read a lot of books, and I am always struck by books that are creatively different and that have a message that keeps me thinking.  Buffalo Hunter Hunter was just such a book.

 

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

 

Title:  The Diamond Eye

Author:  Kate Quinn

Narrated by:  Saskia Maarleveld

Publisher: HarperAudio

Length: Approximately 12 hours and 51 minutes

Source: Purchased from Audible.com

How many languages can you read in?  I can only fluently read English, but I still remember enough high school Spanish to translate it in books.

Mila Pavlichenko is a young single mother and history student. When WWII reaches Russia, she uses her hobby of sharpshooting to become a renown sniper.  She finds love and horror while fighting for her country, but she may find her most wily enemy yet when she goes on a propaganda tour of the United States and is in the path of a potential presidential assassin.  Will she be able to thwart him?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was the November selection for the Rogue Book Club.  Sadly, I was the only member who read it, so we didn’t have a good discussion.  One of my other book clubs will be reading it soon so I’ll get to finally discuss it.

·       Author Kate Quinn is one of my favorite historical fiction authors.  I love all of her books.

·       It is amazing that Russia had women sharp shooters in WWII.  It’s especially amazing at a time when women in the military are being demeaned in our own country.

·       The novel is told through three point-of-views.  One is Mila in the past as she becomes a sniper. Another is an unknown assassin in 1942 trying to assassinate President Roosevelt.  The third is Eleanor Roosevelt in 1942 in her notes on hosting Mila and the Russian contingent.

·       The audiobook had a great narrator with voices and accents for all the characters.

·       Over halfway through the book, the two timelines caught up with each other.

·       I loved Eleanor.  She was an independent woman with a mind of her own that also helped Mila.

·       I enjoyed the train trip from Ann Arbor to Albion to Kalamazoo.  I was born in Kalamazoo!

·       The Golden Age of Hollywood Easter eggs were a lot of fun.

·       Mila is Ukrainian but considers herself Russian.

·       I was surprised to find out at the end that Mila and most of the characters in this story were real people and that most of the story was true.  I was amazed.  There is a great author’s note at the end describing all of this.

·       The book had a bit of a slow start, but there was much suspense at certain parts of the book especially at the end.

Overall, The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn was a fascinating novel about a famous Russian sharpshooter in WWII.    

A Song in the Dark by Kimberley Woodhouse

 

Title:  A Song in the Dark

Author:  Kimberley Woodhouse

Narrated by:  Liz Pearce

Publisher: Recorded Books

Length: Approximately 11 hours and 53 minutes

Source: Thank-you to @kimberleywoodhouse @bethanyhousefiction @austenprose

for the hard copy of this book as a part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour. Audiobook was purchased from Audible.com

Do you have a favorite Christmas song?  I love so many Christmas songs.  One favorite is “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

Chaisley Frappier is a prodigy and a blind concert pianist.  In 1938, she travels through Europe.  While becoming Hitler’s favorite pianist, she also helps as many people as she can.  She travels with her best friend Melanie and driver Rick Zimmerman.  Rick is a spy for the British government.  As Rick and Chaisley fall in love, will their secrets drive them apart?

My thoughts on this book:

·       The book has a riveting prologue that explains Chaisley’s blindness and the loss of her parents in WWI.

·       I loved the buildup of Chaisley and Rick’s romance. It was a good slow burn romance.

·       I enjoyed the great friendship between Melanie and Chaisley.

·       This novel is a clean read and is inspirational. 

·       There are many moments of suspense throughout the novel.

·       This book was a good look into Hitler’s atrocities to the handicapped, including the blind.  He forcibly sterilized blind and disabled people to “protect” the “perfect” race.  It was horrifying to event think about. 

·       The cover of this book is beautiful.

·       I loved that Chaisley, and crew were a light during a very dark time in history.

·       There are great discussion questions at the end of the book to use for a book club.

·       Liz Pearce was a good narrator of the audiobook.

·       I read this book back in October.

Overall, A Song in the Dark by Kimberley Woodhouse is a very engaging and inspirational WWII historical fiction novel. 

At Morning’s Light by Lauraine Snelling (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

Are you a morning person or a night person?  I am more of a night person.  Although now that I’m older, I’m definitely not staying up as long.

Einar and Maya Bredesen plan to immigrate to the United States from Norway.  Einar goes on one last fishing trip before they leave and is lost at sea.  Maya travels on to America with her brother to stay with her cousin Amalia in Green Creek, Iowa in 1890.  Amalia runs a boardinghouse and has recently married.  Will Maya be able to find a new life and potentially love in America?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       Maya had a hard time adapting to America. She doesn’t speak much English and feels like a fish out of water. It was a good reminder of what most Americans (besides indigenous) ancestor’s felt when they first arrived.

·       This is the second book in the Home to Green Creek series.  I read this as a standalone, but I wish I would have read the first book, so I had more of Maya’s background and story.  It took me a bit to get used to characters.

·       This novel had great characters.  I really liked Amalia who is always trying to help everyone and Maya who goes through so much.

·       This was a clean read and a Christian read. There are references to their Lutheran faith throughout.

·       This was a second chance romance novel.

·       The new love interest for Maya, Eber, starts as a friend and enters about halfway through the story. Therefore, this is also a friends to lovers’ story.

·       There are good book club discussion questions included at the end of the book.

Overall, At Morning’s Light by Lauraine Snelling was a beautiful story of second chances and friendship.

Book Source:  Thank-you to @laurainesnellingauthor @bethanyhousefiction @austenprose for a review copy of this novel as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour. 

Murder at Cottonwood Creek by Clara McKenna

 

Do you prefer standalones or series?  I enjoy both, but always love when I find a new series to enjoy like the Stella and Lyndy Mystery series.

British Lyndy, Viscount Lyndhurst, and his American wife Stella, Lady Lyndhurst, have traveled to Montana to visit Lyndy’s father, Lord Atherly, who is working on a paleontology dig on the horse ranch of Stella’s mother and stepfather.  Soon after their arrival, a death amongst the dig team occurs and things spiral after that.  Will Stella and Lyndy be able to solve this mystery?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This is the seventh book in the series.  It can be read as a standalone, but I recommend reading this delightful series.

·       This is a cozy mystery.

·       I’ve always found paleontology fascinating, and I loved the setting of this story in 1906 Montana during the search for fossils.

·       Stella and Lyndy are a great couple.  It was fun with this new setting in America to have Lyndy out of his element in this book rather than Stella in England.

·       There were a lot of red herrings in this mystery, and I was surprised by the ending.

·       I enjoyed that Stella got to enjoy time with her mother and getting to know her.  Stella was raised by her father and didn’t really know her mother.

·       It was also nice that Lyndy’s abrasive mom was not in America, but she still put the pressure on to have a child from afar.

·       This was a fun read.

·       Interesting author’s note on the end with tidbits and sources on the real history during this time period.

Overall, Murder at Cottonwood Creek by Clara McKenna was a fun cozy historical mystery with great characters.

Book Source:  Thank-you to author Clara McKenna for a review copy of this novel. 

 

Murder at Donwell Abbey by Vanessa Kelly (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

What is a book that you couldn’t put down?  I couldn’t put down Murder at Donwell Abbey by Vanessa Kelly!

Emma Knightley is surprised to discover that her reclusive father is engaged . . . to the always talkative Miss Bates!  While hosting an engagement party for the couple, a person is discovered dead.  Did they fall out of an upper story window or were they pushed?   Emma is on the case to solve this crime.

My thoughts on the novel:

·       This is the second novel in the Emma Knightley mystery series.  You can read this novel as a standalone, but I think it adds to the story to read both books.

·       This was a delightful mystery that was very readable.  I read it quickly and didn’t want it down.

·       I loved that the characters from Jane Austen’s Emma have their stories continued in this novel.

·       The characters are true to Austen’s creations.

·       Emma is a good sleuth with her eye for detail and for knowing everyone’s business.  She doesn’t leave things alone until she gets an answer.

·       I liked that Miss Bates becomes Emma’s mystery solving assistant.  This character was fleshed out more in this novel while remaining true to the original.

·       Emma and Mr. Knightley (George) make such a cute couple.  I enjoyed their interactions.

·       There were plenty of red herrings in this mystery to keep one guessing.  It had a great climax and conclusion.

·       It was a witty and fun book.  I enjoyed the reference for “excellent boiled potatoes’ that I felt was an Easter egg for Austen fans (in particular fans of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice adaptation).

·       This is a historical cozy mystery set during the Regency period.

·       It is a clean read.

·       This story is set during the Christmas season.

Overall, Murder at Donwell Abbey by Vanessa Kelly was a very entertaining cozy historical mystery novel and a great continuation of Emma by Jane Austen.

Book Source:  Thank-you to @vanessakellyauthor @kensingtonbooks @austenprose for a review copy of this novel as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour.