The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie

 

Title:  The Seven Dials Mystery

Author:  Agatha Christie

Narrated by:  Emilia Fox

Publisher: Blackstone Audio

Length: Approximately 7 hours and 46 minutes

Source: Checked out with Hoopla through the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!

What book are you excited about seeing as a movie or TV series this year?  The Seven Dials Mystery is going to be a new Netflix movie this year which should be interesting.

I am participating in the #ReadChristie2025 Challenge.  The challenge this year is exploring Agatha Christie’s works through her characters and their careers.  The theme for April was butlers and I read The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie for the first time.  Tredwell the butler at The Chimneys keeps our main characters updated on the investigation. This book was published in 1929 and is the second book to feature Superintendent Battle, although he is more of a side character.

A practical joke goes wrong at a house a party at the Chimneys estate, which is being rented by Sir Oswald and Lady Coote.  Gerry Wade has a hard time getting up in the morning.  His friends set up eight alarm clocks to wake him up on morning . . . only he doesn’t wake up.  He has been poisoned! Why is one clock missing?  Will the killer be found before the next victim is murdered? 

My thoughts on this novel:

·       Eilleen “Bundle” Brent is the main investigator and a very independent and spirited young women.  She is an amateur sleuth.

·       This novel was different than typical Christie mysteries and was more of an espionage thriller focusing on secret societies.  I do like how Christie was always trying out something new with her writing.

·       I usually love when Emilia Fox narrates novels, but this narration was just okay to me.   I think it was more the storyline which didn’t capture my attention as much as other Christie novels.

·       This novel can be read as a standalone or together with The Chimneys.

·       I loved Lord Caterham and his daughter Bundles’ conversations.  They were very funny.

·       I felt claustrophobic when Bundle hid in a cabinet in the Seven Dials club to observe the secret society.  It was especially creepy that the Secret Society members wore hoods with clocks faces on them.

·       The ending was very surprising.

Overall, The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie was an interesting read, but not my favorite Christie read.

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

 

Title:  Broken Country

Author:  Clare Leslie Hall

Narrated by:  Hattie Morahan

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 57 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank-you!

What has been your favorite read of 2025 so far? I’ve read a lot of great books so far this year. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall was one of the best and will be on my top books of the year list.

One spring day in rural England, Beth, her husband Frank, and her brother-in-law, Jimmy, are tending to their sheep when a dog appears out of the blue killing the lambs.  Jimmy shoots the dog, but the owner of the dog, a sad young boy, Leo, and his father, Gabriel, appear.  Gabriel was Beth’s teenage love. Beth and Frank are in love, but there are some strains in their relationship because of the tragic death a couple years before of their young son, Bobby.  As Beth spends more time with Leo, her love starts to reignite for Gabriel.  As the Beth, Frank, and Gabriel become part of a love triangle, tragedy strikes.  What will become of them all?

My thoughts on this novel:

 

·       This was a nonlinear story set in the present of 1968 and flashing back to 1955.  There is also a setting slightly in the future at a murder trial.

·       I usually don’t like tales of infidelity, but it was a really good story, and I couldn’t stop listening to the audiobook.

·       I do love a good love triangle, especially when it makes so much sense as this story did.  Beth was really conflicted and there was a lot that happened in their lives.

·       Nonlinear story line made this a brilliant telling of the story.  As facts came out from the earlier timeline, it changed the readers entire understanding of the present timeline.  I loved the way this was written.

·       The symbolism of the family oak tree was interesting.  When it stood the family was together, when it fell, the entire family was splintered.

·       There were shades of the classic novel, Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, in this story.  Frank was like Gabriel Oak and Beth is Bathsheba Everdeen.  It was interesting after having recently read Far from Madding Crowd with my Classics Book Club.  They were both fascinating, well-developed characters.  I felt like I knew them and their world.

·       As the novel neared its conclusion, there was more to the court trial.  It was riveting and reminded me a bit of the courtroom drama of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.

·       This was a Reese’s Book Club pick.

·       Hattie Morahan was a great narrator, and it was a fascinating audiobook to listen to.  There were many twists and turns, and very surprising moments that kept me wanting to continue with the audiobook even after I reached my destination.

Overall, Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall was a beautifully written drama with extremely well developed and complicated characters.  I could not stop listening to this audiobook.  It’s one of the best books of 2025.

 

The Starlets by Lee Kelly & Jennifer Thorne (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

Title: The Starlets

Author:  Lee Kelly & Jennifer Thorne

Narrated by:  Gail Shalan

Publisher: Harper Muse

Length: Approximately 9 hours and 17 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Harper Muse & NetGalley.  Thank you!

Do you have a favorite epic movie from the golden age of Hollywood?  Gone with the Wind is my favorite epic classic movie.

In the summer of 1958, Vivienne Rhodes, has traveled to the Italian island of Tavalli, to star in the new epic movie, A Thousand Ships, about Helen of Troy and the Trojan War.  She is surprised to discover that she will not be the star, but her nemesis, Lottie Lawrence will be the star.  Lottie “stole” Vivienne’s fiancé and Vivienne is still reeling from the heartbreak.  Vivienne and Lottie inadvertently discover a murder on the island and are soon on the run.  Will they be able to find help and solve this mystery?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I read about half of this on audiobook and half in the physical book.  I enjoyed both media formats and read this book quickly.  The narrator was engaging.

·       The storyline moved very quickly and kept me on my toes.  I really wanted to know what was going to happen.

·       I loved all the nods to real Hollywood movies and stars from that time period.  I love classic movies and old Hollywood.

·       I enjoyed how the two women were enemies, but were able to put aside their differences, get to know each other, and work towards a common goal.  They became friends by the end.  I loved how their relationship developed.

·       The characters were great.  I loved Vivienne and Lottie, but the other characters on the set were fun and interesting as well.  The villains were very dastardly.

·       I liked the adventure too as the two women fled through Europe. There is a scene involving Ben Hur and a race car that I will never forget.

·       There were great moments of humor in the book as well.

Overall, The Starlets by Lee Kelly & Jennifer Thorne was a fast-paced historical fiction novel set in the golden age of Hollywood with unforgettable characters.  I loved it and highly recommend it!

 BOOK DESCRIPTION

One perfect island. Two rivals. A star-studded cast. But underneath the glitter, disaster is brewing.

Summer, 1958. Vivienne Rhodes thinks she’s finally landed her break playing Helen of Troy in Apex Pictures’ big-budget epic, A Thousand Ships, an anticipated blockbuster meant to resurrect the failing studio. Naturally, she’s devastated when she arrives on the remote Italian island of Tavalli and finds herself cast as the secondary character, Cassandra—while her nemesis, the fiancé-stealing Lottie Lawrence, America’s supposed “sweetheart,” is playing the lead role instead.

The tension on set, though, turns deadly when the ladies discover that members of the crew are using the production as a front for something decidedly illegal—and that they are willing to kill to keep their dealings under wraps. When the two women find themselves on the run and holding key evidence, Vivienne and Lottie frantically agree to work together to deliver the proof to Interpol, hoping to protect both their lives and their careers.

Staying one step ahead of corrupt cops and looming mobsters, the archrivals flee across the seas. Their journey leads them into Monaco’s casinos, Grace Kelly’s palace, on a road trip through the Alps—even onto another film set, before a final showdown back on Tavalli, where the lives of the entire cast and crew hang in the balance. Vivienne and Lottie finally have the chance to be real heroines—to save the day, the film, maybe even each other—but only if they can first figure out how to share the spotlight.

ADVANCE PRAISE

“A spry and suspenseful crime novel set just after Hollywood’s golden age”— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A sheer delight! This fast-paced caper is fresh, fun, and exactly the escape readers need right now.” — Marie Bostwick, New York Times bestselling author of Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly

AUTHOR BIOS

Jennifer Thorne is an American author of books for adults and young readers who writes from a nineteenth-century Cotswold cottage in the medieval market town of Minchinhampton alongside her husband, two sons, and various other animals.

Born in a small town in Tennessee, Jenn grew up bouncing between her parents’ homes in various other states and countries, with books as her constant companions, before returning to New York as a teen to study drama at NYU. Though acting had been her lifelong dream, she found that she was more fulfilled by writing performance vehicles for her friends than acting in them herself. After a move to Los Angeles, she detoured into writing and never looked back. Connect with her online at jenniferthorne.com.

Lee Kelly is the author of City of Savages, a Publishers Weekly "Best of Spring 2015" pick and a VOYA Magazine "Perfect Ten" selection; A Criminal Magic, which was optioned and developed for a television series by Warner Bros.; The Antiquity Affair, co-written with Jennifer Thorne; and With Regrets.

Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Gingerbread House, Orca, and Tor.com, among other publications, and she holds her MFA degree from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. An entertainment lawyer by trade, Lee has practiced law in Los Angeles and New York. She currently lives with her husband and two children in New Jersey, where you'll find them engaged in one adventure or another. Connect with her online at leekellyauthor.com.

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

Title: Bright Young Women

Author:  Jessica Knoll

Narrated by:  Sutton Foster, Imani Jade Powers, Corey Brill, Chris Henry Coffey

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 12 hours and 58 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank you!

Do you like true crime stories?  Bright Young Women is a historical thriller that tells a fictionalized version of the killings involving Ted Bundy.

In 1978, a serial killer attacks a sorority at Florida State University killing two and severely wounding two others.  The sorority president, Pamela Schumaker briefly sees the killer when she goes to investigate a sound.  Will she be able to help put the killer behind bars?

Tina Cannon has been looking for her friend Ruth since she disappeared.  She feels her disappearance has something to do with the serial killer.  Will she be able to find out what happened to Ruth?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I thought this novel was very interesting.  I liked how the story focused on telling the victims story rather than focusing on the killer.  This is a fictional account of the Ted Bundy murders and trial.  It shows how the press and public made Ted Bundy a “sexy” character and imbibed him with smarts and charm that he did not possess.

·       A Florida judge called Ted Bundy a “Bright Young Man.”  The title of this book is a play on this.

·       I had a feeling of dread while reading this novel.  This eventually turned to hope by the end of the novel.

·       I also felt frustrated while reading the novel.  Tina and Pamela were often dismissed because of being women or because of relationships they had in the past.

·       The story is told through multiple point of views which I enjoyed.  The audiobook had different narrators for the different point of views which I thought really added to the audiobook experience.

·       The story also is told in the past in the 1970s when it was experienced as well as in the present as Pamela and Tina work to uncover what happened to Ruth.

·       I thought the overall message on how a crime is portrayed by the media may be vastly different than reality was very powerful.

Overall, Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll is a historical thriller that tells the story of the victims that are often behind in the media portrayal of a crime.

The Enemy at Home by Kevin O’Brien (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @kensingtonbooks for the review copy of The Enemy at Home by Kevin O’Brien.

What is your favorite fall color?  Orange, dark red, yellow, brown, other?  I love them all!

In Seattle 1943, Nora is a mother of two teenagers with a doctor husband that is serving overseas in World War II.  She has decided to help supplement their income and the war effort by getting a job as a riveter at the Boeing B-17 plant.  As she makes new friends, she is horrified when one of her new friends is found strangled.  She seems to be a part of a disturbing pattern of women war workers that are being murdered.  Nora starts to suspect that the murderer may be someone close to her. Will she be able to figure out who the murderer is before it is too late?

I couldn’t stop reading The Enemy at Home.  It was a gripping historical thriller novel.  I’ll admit I did get annoyed at first thinking that the killer was very obvious from the beginning of the novel, but luckily it was a red herring.  There were many red herrings and it kept me guessing on who the real murderer was.  I really wanted to know how this was going to end up and I loved how all of the pieces fell together completely at the end.  The book brought up a lot of interesting topics: racism, sexism, and homophobia that aren’t standard in World War II fiction.  It was an interesting look at the time period.  I enjoyed learning about the home front experience on the west coast.

This was my first book by Kevin O’Brien and I need to check out more by him.  I really loved how it was a mystery thriller set during a fascinating period of history.