whatcathyreadnext

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my reviews of Sword of Bone by Anthony Rhodes as part of the blog tour and of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson, the book chosen for me in the latest Classics Club spin.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was a freebie and I chose to post a progress update on My Bookish Resolutions for 2021.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to have a good nose around what others are reading.

Thursday – I shared my publication day review of Two Women in Rome by Elizabeth Buchan, the first book from my list for the 20 Books of Summer 2021 Reading Challenge.

Friday – I posted My Five Favourite May 2021 Reads.

Saturday – The first Saturday of the month means it’s time for the #6Degrees of Separation meme.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media.

New arrivals

Kyiv by Graham Hurley (eARC, courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

On Sunday 22nd June 1941 at 03.05, three-and-a-half million Axis troops burst into the Soviet Union along a 1,800-mile front to launch Operation Barbarossa. The southern thrust of the attack was aimed at the Caucuses and the oil fields beyond. Kyiv was the biggest city to stand in their way.

Within six weeks, the city was under siege. Surrounded by Panzers, bombed and shelled day and night, Soviet Commissar Nikita Krushchev was amongst the senior Soviet officials co-ordinating the defence. Amid his cadre of trusted personnel is British defector Bella Menzies, once with MI5, now with the NKVD, the Soviet secret police.

With the fall of the city inevitable, the Soviets plan a bloody war of terror that will extort a higher toll on the city’s inhabitants than the invaders. As the noose tightens, Bella finds herself trapped, hunted by both the Russians and the Germans.

As the local saying has it: life is dangerous – no one survives it.

For Lord and Land (The Bernicia Chronicles 8) by Matthew Harffy (eARC, courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

Greed and ambition threaten to tear the north apart. War rages between the two kingdoms of Northumbria. Kin is pitted against kin and friend becomes foe as ambitious kings vie for supremacy.

When Beobrand travels south into East Angeln to rescue a friend, he unwittingly tilts the balance of power in the north, setting in motion events that will lead to a climactic confrontation between Oswiu of Bernicia and Oswine of Deira.

While the lord of Ubbanford is entangled in the clash of kings, his most trusted warrior, Cynan, finds himself on his own quest, called to the aid of someone he thought never to see again. Riding into the mountainous region of Rheged, Cynan faces implacable enemies who would do anything to further their own ends.

Forced to confront their pasts, and with death and betrayal at every turn, both Beobrand and Cynan have their loyalties tested to breaking point.

Who will survive the battle for a united Northumbria, and who will pay the ultimate price for lord and land?

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Book Review: Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré
Top Ten Tuesday
Waiting on Wednesday
Blog Tour/Book Review: This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech
Book Review: The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
The Walter Scott Prize 2021 Shortlist
Blog Tour/Book Review: The Serpent King by Tim Hodkinson

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for the 6 Degrees of Separation meme!

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post. You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees.

This month’s starting book is winner of The Stella Prize 2021, The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld. Once again, it’s a book I haven’t read but from the blurb I understand it features three women from different periods of time all of whom are linked to the place of the title, a landscape feature off the coast of Scotland.

The Stella Prize is a literary award that celebrates Australian women’s writing. Its UK equivalent is the Women’s Prize for Fiction. This year’s winner won’t be announced until 7th July 2021 but the 2020 winner was Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

Hamnet involves the death of the son of a man who is never referred to by name but is clearly William Shakespeare. Martyr by Rory Clements is the first in the author’s historical crime series featuring William Shakespeare’s older brother John, who turns detective to investigate a murder and an assassination plot.

Another character combining their usual occupation – in this case, cleaner – with that of detective is Stella Darnell (yes, another Stella) the protagonist of Lesley Thomson’s ‘The Detective’s Daughter’ crime series. The latest addition to the series is The Distant Dead.

Staying with characters named Stella, Stella by Takis Würger is set in wartime Berlin. Although the story is fictional, Stella herself is based on a real historical character.

A real-life Stella who turned author in later life is Dame Stella Rimington, former head of MI5. Present Danger, the fifth book in her series featuring MI5 intelligence officer Liz Carlyle, sees Liz despatched to Northern Ireland to monitor breakaway Republican groups who never accepted the peace process.

An earlier period in Ireland’s history features in Dublin’s Girl by Eimear Lawlor in which its heroine witnesses events such as Sinn Féin’s victory in the 1918 election, the establishment of an independent parliament (the Dail Eireann) and, eventually, the birth of the Irish Free State.

My chain this month has taken me on a tour of the United Kingdom with a brief detour to Berlin, finishing with a visit to the Emerald Isle. Where did your chain take you?