31st December 2025

The Dahlias return for a fourth mystery, this time set in a classic setting of a remote Scottish castle, snowed in for the winter, and thus providing a neat set of suspects to investigate.

It's a challenging mystery with a lot going on amongst all the suspects, and within our group of stars. For the first time all three of their partners have been brought along for the ride too, adding some interesting new elements to the dynamic but also supplementing their number in a convenient manner.

Some very distracting red herrings popped up along the way, one in particular that distracted me away from what was really going on, but which was seemingly never actually followed up on by the characters.

An enjoyable adventure, and I look forward to many more.

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29th December 2025

The sixth book of the Wheel of Time - and I've left it a little while since the fifth - and it does remind me of why I thought this was where it started to drag before.

The book covers a significant set of moments in the ongoing story, but does feel a bit like it's dipping into soap opera territory.

There are two really strong segments of the book - one in the middle and one at the end. Both of these feel vital to everything and switch into really compelling reading, and only the first was something I'd remembered from my previous reading.

But everything else feels a bit slow and draggy. The narrative moves between characters and locations at pace, which I remember being something that differs from later books. In one case however, there's a brief section near the start and then those characters seem entirely forgotten about until suddenly needed later.

Still a great series, but I'm less inspired to immediately pick up the next book.

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6th December 2025

I bought this after seeing the subsequent book by the author advertised as coming soon, and being intrigued by the cover and blurb. So to some extent maybe went into this one unprepared.

This is the story of Hana, who inherits a special pawnshop from her father, where customers pawn choices from their past that they have always wondered about, to stop them weighing on their minds.

The cover quotes repeatedly describe this book as Studio Ghibli-esque, and that I can strongly agree with. The problem for me is that I'm not particularly a fan of those films, and equally the book didn't really work for me.

It's a journey of metaphysical wonder through a fantasy world that's built short chapter by short chapter, but this means it feels like we're flicking around from concept to concept at such a rate that it's hard to take in any of the characterisation or believe in the relationships between the characters.

I can quite imagine that other readers will love it, but it's not for me, and so I've decided not to pursue the other book by the author that had originally caught my attention.

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30th November 2025

In this James Bond spin-off, a recently redundant Q finds himself back in the town where he grew up, surrounded by memories and ruined relationships, and investigating the recent death of an old friend.

As a Bond spin-off, it's filled with great references to both books and films, and features various guest spots from the wider canon. Q does seem rather obsessed with Bond, referencing him seemingly more often than maybe normal for a former colleague.

The narrative is fast paced, but with really short chapters - many of them feeling like, if not actually, just three pages long. As a reader, this briefness always feels distracting to me - like it's giving me too many dropping off points to put the book down, and not hooking me into the developing story.

I found it slow to read, and had to really commit myself to finishing, although the final third did feel like it picked up a bit. There's a second book coming, and I think based on the end of this one, I'll likely pick it up.

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16th November 2025

This is a fairly-cosy crime story set mostly during WW2 at a hotel in a Sussex village, and based on the creators of the board game Cluedo, and shows a fictionalised tale of them encountering a murder and inventing the game.

It's fairly short, but with substantial chapters. The plot moves quickly, introducing a lot of familiar concepts and references to the board game.

However there's some dark stuff comes up that for me rather took the fun out of it. It felt quite at odds with the "cosy" genre, and stopped my enjoyment of the final few chapters.

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15th November 2025

The Enterprise crew return for a story set mid-season three. Captain Pike is dispatched to help a scientific research station, has to face a tragedy from his own past, and of course it turns out that things aren't what they seem.

The book makes great use of many of the characters from the series, but I particularly enjoyed seeing Ortegas and Scotty get decent page time. There's a lot going on in all their lives and it's nice seeing that weaved amid the specific story plot.

It's also interesting to see how elements from the wider canon slip in, as well as the occasional nod and a wink to the audience in the form of an easter egg joke.

A good adventure that kept me reading at a good pace throughout. More of this sort of thing please!

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15th November 2025

A great non-fiction work told in the comic style of the Map Men's YouTube videos.

Each chapter covers a different map, and many of them in a totally different style of storytelling, which means that you never get stuck in drudgery of the same over and over again.

It's really reminiscent of the way they present their videos, and yet goes into so much more detail. I enjoyed reading chapter by chapter, which also chunked the book into convenient parcels of information delivery.

There was however one chapter that I didn't like.

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