On What Cathy Read Next last week
Monday – I published my review of Homeseeking by Karissa Chen.
Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Bookish Goals for 2025.
Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading.
Thursday – I published an extract from The Tudor Prophecy by Julie Strong.
Friday – I made an attempt to predict the books that might appear on the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2025.
New arrivals
The Mouthless Dead by Anthony Quinn (eARC, Abacus via NetGalley)
One night in 1931 William Wallace was handed a phone message at his chess club from a Mr Qualtrough, asking him to meet at an address to discuss some work. Wallace caught a tram from the home he shared with his wife, Julia, to the address which turned out, after Wallace had consulted passers-by and even a policeman, to not exist.
On returning home two hours later he found his wife lying murdered in the parlour. The elaborate nature of his alibi pointed to Wallace as the culprit. He was arrested and tried, found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang, but the next month the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the verdict and he walked free.
Fifteen years on, the inspector who worked the case is considering it once more. Speculation continues to be rife over the true killer’s identity. James Agate in his diary called it ‘the perfect murder’, Raymond Chandler said ‘The case is unbeatable. It will always be unbeatable’. And on a cruise in 1947, new information is about to come to light.
The Midnight Hour by Eve Chase (Penguin)
Present day Paris: Maggie Parker receives a call. The new owners of her family’s old Notting Hill home are digging up the basement. They’ve no idea what might lie beneath . . .
London, twenty-one years earlier: teenaged Maggie, babysitting her little brother, waits in vain for her mother to come home after a night out. Seeking clues to her mother’s mysterious disappearance, she’s drawn away from the neighbourhood’s grand terraces and into its hustling backstreets – and the arms of someone else living on their wits.
Over two decades later, the clock is ticking on a secret set to shatter Maggie’s grown-up life. But the draw of the past is irresistible . . .
A Maigret Christmas And Other Stories by George Simenon, trans. by David Coward (Penguin)
It is Christmas in Paris, but beneath the sparkling lights and glittering decorations lie sinister deeds and dark secrets…
In ‘A Maigret Christmas’, the Inspector receives two unexpected visitors on Christmas Day, who lead him on the trail of a mysterious intruder dressed in red and white. In ‘Seven Small Crosses in a Notebook’, the sound of alarms over Paris send the police on a cat and mouse chase across the city. And ‘The Little Restaurant in Les Ternes (A Christmas Story for Grown-Ups)’ tells of a cynical woman who is moved to an unexpected act of festive charity in a nightclub – one that surprises even her…
A Year in a Small Garden by Frances Tophill (BBC Books)
A Year in a Small Garden follows Frances Tophill as she creates her new garden in a terraced house in Devon. Working in a small space, the book documents her journey to bring life to her garden, including tips and tricks for you to achieve similar results in whatever spaces you have at home.
The book is structured around the stages of building her small garden, and branches out to include small community gardens Frances works with, as well as projects to create in small spaces at home – with a focus on growing food and planting in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way.
Featuring new photography shot throughout the year, as well as Frances’s own journal and garden notebooks, this book will not only give you an insight into Frances’s journey creating her first garden – but will help you create a beautiful, productive, garden at home.
On What Cathy Read Next this week
Currently reading
Planned posts
- Blog Tour/Book Review: The Bookseller by Tim Sullivan
- Book Review: The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
- Book Review: Another Man in the Street by Caryl Phillips
- Book Review: Start A Religion, Stay Out of Jail by Logan Medland
What Cathy Read Next... 