On the blog last week
Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was a freebie on the theme of summer and I shared the first ten books on my list for the 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge 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 my review of Secrets of the Bees by Jane Johnson as part of the blog tour.
Friday – I shared my Top 3 May 2025 Reads.
Saturday – I took part in the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a book chain from All Fours by Miranda July to The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell. I also shared my review of The Book of Days by Francesca Kay, one of the books shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.
New on my shelves
A Gentleman’s Murder by Christopher Huang (Inkshares)
The year is 1924. The streets of St. James ring with jazz as Britain races forward into an age of peace and prosperity. London’s back alleys, however, are filled with broken soldiers and still shadowed by the lingering horrors of the Great War.
Only a few years removed from the trenches of Flanders himself, Lieutenant Eric Peterkin has just been granted membership in the most prestigious soldiers-only club in London: The Britannia. But when a gentleman’s wager ends with a member stabbed to death, the victim’s last words echo in the Lieutenant’s head: that he would “soon right a great wrong from the past.”
Eric is certain that one of his fellow members is the murderer: but who? Captain Mortimer Wolf, the soldier’s soldier thrice escaped from German custody? Second Lieutenant Oliver Saxon, the brilliant codebreaker? Or Captain Edward Aldershott, the steely club president whose Savile Row suits hide a frightening collision of mustard gas scars?
Eric’s investigation will draw him far from the marbled halls of The Britannia, to the shadowy remains of a dilapidated war hospital and the heroin dens of Limehouse. And as the facade of gentlemenhood cracks, Eric faces a Matryoshka doll of murder, vice, and secrets pointing not only to the officers of his own club but the very investigator assigned by Scotland Yard.
A Pretender’s Murder by Christopher Huang (eARC, Inkshares)
The year is 1925. A labyrinth of roads and rails spirals out from the bones of a nearly forgotten settlement. Londinium. Once the far-flung edge of the vast Roman Empire, it is now the seat of a greater one.
Few have given more for the Empire than Colonel Hadrian Russell. Robbed of his four sons by the Great War, he now holds court as the acting president of The Britannia, a prestigious soldiers-only club in London. But when the Colonel is shot and thrown out the club’s front window, it seems the shadows of the Great War may extend further than previously thought.
Lieutenant Eric Peterkin, newly installed secretary at The Britannia, finds himself thrust into the role of detective after Scotland Yard points fingers at friends he knows are innocent. But is the true murderer an unknown spy? Or a recently resurfaced friend of the Colonel’s dead sons? Or is it one of the Colonel’s four widowed daughters-in-law, who by all appearances paid him complete devotion
Accusations from personal betrayal to wartime espionage mount among the suspects as Eric’s investigation draws him back to scenes and sites of a war he’s sought to leave behind. From the greening fields of Flanders and the springtime streets of Paris to the sterile wards of a Swiss sanatorium, and back to The Britannia itself, Eric finds that even myths leave behind bones.
Dominion of Dust by Matthew Harffy (Head of Zeus via NetGalley)
AD 797, Cyprus. Warrior-monk Hunlaf and his crew are on a voyage to acquire an important Christian relic before it falls into the hands of the Byzantines and their scheming Empress Eirene.
Hunlaf’s crew receive unexpected help as they seek their treasure, but soon find themselves betrayed. About to leave for home empty-handed, the adventurers instead sail further east: to Jerusalem, the Holy Land, abundant in relics. And dangerous intrigues.
Hunlaf and his friends will face a deadly race against time as they attempt to secure a holy treasure, outwit the zealous agents of Byzantium, and avoid a grisly death at the hands of the local rulers.
What I’m currently reading
I’m reading The Mare by Angharad Hampshire (on the shortlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction), I’m listening to Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (the first book on my 20 Books of Summer list) and I’m reading The Surgeon’s House by Jody Cooksley from my NetGalley shelf.
Look out for…
- Q&A with Jolie Tunnell, author of Shadows in Chinatown
- Book Review: Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
- Book Review: The Mare by Angharad Hampshire
- Book Review: A Beautifu Way to Die by Eleni Kyriacou
What Cathy Read Next... 