Down the TBR Hole #21

This meme was created by Lia at Lost in a Story as a way to tackle the gargantuan To-Read shelves a lot of us have on Goodreads.

The rules are simple:

1. Go to your Goodreads To-Read shelf.
2. Order on ascending date added.
3. Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
4. Read the synopses of the books
5. Decide: keep it or should it go?
6. Repeat every week until the entire list has been filtered (hmm, quite a few weeks then!)

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We’re now on to books I added to my To-Read shelf in 2017. Yes, I know, big deal! Nevertheless, we plod on, and here are the next ten to come under scrutiny.

Samuel Pepys and the Stolen Diary by M. J. Lee (added 11th March 2017)

Samuel Pepys has been keeping a diary for ten years; a diary that tells of his life at the court of Charles II. And of his own marital indiscretions. Now it has been stolen, along with his wife’s favourite locket. Samuel must get it back, or he might lose his head in the Tower. He will certainly lose his wife, who thinks he’s given her locket to his latest mistress.

Together with his best friend, Will Hewer, he embarks on a quest to recover the lost items, leading him to the dark heart of a treacherous and corrupt Restoration London.

Verdict: Keep – I love a good historical mystery and the idea of Samuel Pepys turning detective is an amusing one. I’ve also enjoyed several books in the author’s Jayne Sinclair genealogical mystery series.  

The Huntingfield Paintress by Pamela Holmes (added 12th March 2017)

Plucky and headstrong Mildred Holland revelled in the eight years she and her husband, the vicar William Holland, spent travelling 1840s Europe, finding inspiration in recording beautiful artistic treasures and collecting exotic artifacts. But William’s new posting in a tiny Suffolk village is a world apart and Mildred finds a life of tea and sympathy dull and stifling in comparison.

When a longed-for baby does not arrive, she sinks into despondency and despair. What options exist for a clever, creative woman in such a cossetted environment?

A sudden chance encounter fires Mildred’s creative imagination and she embarks on a herculean task that demands courage and passion. Defying her loving but exasperated husband, and mistrustful locals who suspect her of supernatural powers, Mildred rediscovers her passion and lives again through her dreams of beauty.

Verdict: Keep – This is based on a true story which is always a point of interest and I love the cover so it stays.  

Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys (added 13th March 2017)

England, September 1939. Lily Shepherd boards a cruise liner for a new life in Australia and is plunged into a world of cocktails, jazz and glamorous friends. But as the sun beats down, poisonous secrets begin to surface. Suddenly Lily finds herself trapped with nowhere to go …

Australia, six-weeks later. The world is at war, the cruise liner docks, and a beautiful young woman is escorted onto dry land in handcuffs.

What has she done?

Verdict: Keep – Well, this is going well isn’t it? I recall seeing lots of positive reviews of this when it was first published and I still like the sound of it. 

The Body in the Ice (Hardcastle & Chaytor #2) by A. J. Mackenzie (added 22nd March 2017)

Christmas Day, Kent, 1796. On the frozen fields of Romney Marsh stands New Hall; silent, lifeless, deserted. In its grounds lies an unexpected Christmas offering: a corpse, frozen into the ice of a horse pond.

It falls to the Reverend Hardcastle, justice of the peace in St Mary in the Marsh, to investigate. But with the victim’s identity unknown, no murder weapon and no known motive, it seems like an impossible task. Working along with his trusted friend, Amelia Chaytor, and new arrival Captain Edward Austen, Hardcastle soon discovers there is more to the mystery than there first appeared.

With the arrival of an American family torn apart by war and desperate to reclaim their ancestral home, a French spy returning to the scene of his crimes, ancient loyalties and new vengeance combine to make Hardcastle and Mrs Chaytor’s attempts to discover the secret of New Hall all the more dangerous.

Verdict: Keep – Most of the books I’ve looked at so far as part of this exercise have been ebooks, which seem much easier to decide to get rid of. This is a hardback, and the period and the setting really appeal.  

The Summer House Party by Caro Fraser (added 24th March 2017)

In the gloriously hot summer of 1936, a group of people meet at a country house party. Within three years, England will be at war, but for now, time stands still.

Dan Ranscombe is clever and good-looking, but he resents the wealth and easy savoir faire of fellow guest, Paul Latimer. Surely a shrewd girl like Meg Slater would see through that, wouldn’t she? And what about Diana, Paul’s beautiful sister, Charles Asher, the Jewish outsider, Madeleine, restless and dissatisfied with her role as children’s nanny? And artist Henry Haddon, their host, no longer young, but secure in his power as a practiced seducer.

As these guests gather, none has any inkling the choices they make will have fateful consequences, lasting through the war and beyond. Or that the first unforeseen event will be a shocking death.

Verdict: Keep – Oh dear, another lovely looking hardback with a story that sounds enticing, albeit it is over 500 pages and I’m not that good with “big” books.  I was on the blog tour when it was first published but could only fit in a Q&A with the author.

The Married Girls (The Girl with No Name #2) by Diney Costeloe (added 24th March 2017) 

Wynsdown, 1949. In the small Somerset village of Wynsdown, Charlotte Shepherd is happily married to farmer Billy. She arrived from Germany on the Kindertransport as a child during the war and now feels settled in her adopted home.

Meanwhile, the squire’s fighter pilot son, Felix, has returned to the village with a fiancée in tow. Daphne is beautiful, charming… and harbouring secrets. After meeting during the war, Felix knows some of Daphne’s past, but she has worked hard to conceal that which could unravel her carefully built life.

For Charlotte, too, a dangerous past is coming back in the shape of fellow refugee, bad boy Harry Black. Forever bound by their childhoods, Charlotte will always care for him, but Harry’s return disrupts the village quiet and it’s not long before gossip spreads.

The war may have ended, but for these girls, trouble is only just beginning.

Verdict: Dump – At last, I hear you cry! Although the period it is set in appeals, it’s the second in a series and I haven’t read the first. I do feel slightly guilty though as this was another blog tour I took part in, hosting a Q&A with the author.  

The Dog Walker (The Detective’s Daughter #5) by Lesley Thomson (added 24th March 2017)

January, 1987. In the depths of winter, only joggers and dog walkers brave the Thames towpath after dark. Helen Honeysett, a young newlywed, sets off for an evening run from her riverside cottage. Only her dog returns.

Twenty-nine years later, her husband has asked Stella Darnell, a private detective, and her sidekick Jack Harmon, to find out what happened all those years ago. But when the five households on that desolate stretch of towpath refuse to give up their secrets, Stella and Jack find themselves hunting a killer whose trail has long gone cold.

Verdict: Keep – Starting to get a feeling of déja vu? I am. This is another book that I took part in the blog tour for when it was first published. And, once again, I hosted a Q&A with the author. My husband is in crime mode at the moment (when it comes to reading, I hasten to add) and read this recently. He enjoyed it but thought there were too many dogs in it. The clue was in the title perhaps? 

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley (added 26th March 2017)

The rich are different. But fate is blind.

A private jet plunges into the sea. The only survivors are down-on his luck artist Scott Burroughs and JJ Bateman, the four year old son of a super-rich TV executive.

For saving the boy, Scott is suddenly a hero. And then, as the official investigation is rapidly overtaken by a media frenzy, it seems he may also be a villain.

Why was he on the plane in the first place, and why did it crash?

Verdict: Keep – This is one of the books on my list for the 20 Books of Summer 2022 reading challenge and it’s on there because I’m trying to work through some of the paperback books I’ve accumulated, from oldest first. Therefore it should get read in the next couple of months. I’m planning to be ruthless and stop reading any of the books on the list if I’m not enjoying them. 

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrick Backman (added 27th March 2017)

Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She is not one to judge others – no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be. It’s just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes.

When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg – of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it – she finds work as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center. The fastidious Britt-Marie soon finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?

Verdict: Keep – This a bit of a no-brainer because I really enjoyed A Man Called Ove and this has received thousands of positive reviews. 

The Phantom Tree by Nicola Cornick (added 27th March 2017)

“My name is Mary Seymour and I am the daughter of one queen and the niece of another.”

Browsing antiques shops in Wiltshire, Alison Bannister stumbles across a delicate old portrait – supposedly of Anne Boleyn. Except Alison knows better… The woman is Mary Seymour, the daughter of Katherine Parr who was taken to Wolf Hall in 1557 as an unwanted orphan and presumed dead after going missing as a child.

The painting is more than just a beautiful object from Alison’s past – it holds the key to her future, unlocking the mystery surrounding Mary’s disappearance, and the enigma of Alison’s son.

But Alison’s quest soon takes a dark and foreboding turn, as a meeting place called the Phantom Tree harbours secrets in its shadows…

Verdict: Dump – I have a mixed experience with timeslip novels and although the mention of Wolf Hall catches my eye, I don’t feel sufficiently enthusiastic to keep this one.  

The Result – 8 kept, 2 dumped. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this… Oh well, see you next time. You never know, we might reach April 2017!