Category: 20 Books of Summer

Book Review – Dwell by Rue Baldry @northodoxpress #20BOS26

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About the Book

January 1919. A new gardener at a snowbound boarding school catches everyone’s attention. It’s rumoured he is a war hero.

He’s nineteen-year-old Albert, haunted by Great War experiences and fighting the temptation of one particular prefect. What they want is illegal. Being caught would ruin them. 

Then Albert’s past finds him, making their quest for a place where love can safely dwell look impossible.

Format: Paperback (336 pages) Publisher: Northodox Press
Publication date: 11th June 2026 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Dwell is an exquisitely told love story about two people whose attraction to each other is so strong that no obstacle must stand in the way of them being together, even though that brings with it great risk.

Despite being similar in age, Albert’s and Edgar’s life experiences couldn’t be more different. Edgar’s life so far has been one of privilege. His father is a successful solicitor and it’s expected Edgar will eventually join the family firm and marry well. His mother and his sister are already on the lookout for suitable candidates.

Albert grew up in poverty and joined up to escape his violent home life. Now the war is over, he’s adrift. The terrible things he experienced during his time on the front line, not all of which were perpetrated by the enemy, continue to haunt him. He suffers nightmares in which he recalls harrowing scenes. He has catatonic episodes and flashbacks, sometimes triggered by seemingly innocuous things. The reader shares Albert’s experience of these sudden shifts from present to past. In vividly drawn scenes we witness the horror of the battlefield, the ultimate demands of comradeship and the malevolent actions of those with power over life and death.

From their very first encounter, Edgar and Albert seem destined for each other. For Edgar, his attraction to Albert confirms the sense he’s had about his sexuality but has been unable to act on before. Albert is equally smitten but is conscious of Edgar’s innocence and inexperience. He also has a secret he fears would change how Edgar feels about him.

Both are aware of the risks they’re taking. Edgar knows discovery of their relationship could result in prosecution and disgrace, including for his family. Albert’s war experiences have left him with the notion that others have been punished for his ‘sin’ of being attracted to other men. What if Edgar too is punished because of Albert’s actions?

Ironically it is the difference in their social class that eventually provides a ‘cover’ for their relationship. Hidden in plain sight, if you like, but still not without risk because that thing in Albert’s past could still bring everything crashing down. It’s why Albert’s instinct is to remain in the shadows, to resist Edgar’s desire to venture out into the underground gay community. As it turns out, Albert was right to be wary.

I loved that, as well as the passion of Albert’s and Edgar’s relationship and their delight in each other’s bodies, we witness moments of tenderness and domestic intimacy: a reassuring embrace when awakening from a nightmare, the gentle application of lotion to inflamed skin, the drawing of a bath to soothe aching limbs, the preparation of an early morning cup of tea.

The author writes with real compassion and insight. By the end of the book I was totally invested in Albert and Edgar’s story and left with the profound hope they would be able to make a future together. It’s Albert though who will really stay with me.

Dwell is an emotionally charged, tender and compelling story of a love that must remain hidden. It’s one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.

I received a proof copy courtesy of Northodox Press. Dwell is book 2 of my 20 Books of Summer.

In three words: Intense, intimate, moving
Try something similar: The Two Roberts by Damian Barr

About the Author

Rue Baldry has a BA in English Literature from York University and an MA in Literature with Creative Writing from Leeds University. She still lives in York, where she met her husband and they raised their five children. In 2015 she was a Jerwood/Arvon mentee, in 2017, the The Bridge Awards/ Moniack Mhor Emerging Writer, and in 2021, a Women’s Prize Discoveries longlistee.

Her novel, Dwell, won the 2024 First Novel Prize. Other work of hers has won the 2023 Canada and Europe region of the Commonwealth Prize, come second in the Yeovil Prize, been longlisted for the BBC NSSA, and placed in the Caledonian, Bridport, Reader Berlin, First Page, Odd Voice Out, Retreat West, and Flash 500 competitions.

Thirty of her short stories have been published in journals such as Granta, Ambit, MIR Online, Mslexia, The Honest Ulsterman, Fairlight Shorts, Fictive Dream, Litro, Postbox, and The Incubator. Her plays have had amateur performances and professional workshops. (Photo/bio: Publisher website)

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Book Review – A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie #ccpin #20BOS26

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About the Book

Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his “counting house” when he suffered an agonizing and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals.

Yet, it was the incident in the parlour that confirmed Miss Marple’s suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme….

Format: Hardback (191 pages) Publisher: Collins
Publication date: 1954 Genre: Crime

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My Review

A Pocket Full of Rye was the book chosen for me in the latest Classics Club spin.

As I was reading the book I realised that most of my knowledge of Agatha Christie novels comes from watching TV adaptations. I vaguely remembered some elements of A Pocket Full of Rye but luckily not enough that I was able to work out the culprit, the motive or the way the crime was carried out.

Assigned to investigate the sudden death of businessman Rex Fortescue, Inspector Neele of Scotland Yard soon discovers it was not due to natural causes. But how the crime was carried out eludes him although there is no lack of possible suspects who might have possessed a motive. Fortescue was a rich man but not particularly liked even by members of his own family. Estranged for many years from one of his sons, he had recently remarried a much younger woman. Perhaps the motive was money or, as his elderly sister-in-law hints, perhaps the answers lies with events much longer ago. What really puzzles the Inspector is a curious feature of the crime: that there was rye in the dead man’s pocket.

I don’t think it’s giving too much away when I say there are more crimes to come, just as inexplicable as the first one. The prime suspect, the person who might have benefited most, couldn’t possibly have done it. Or could they?

Miss Marple doesn’t come on the scene for a while but when she does her talent for observation, insight into what makes people tick and ability to coax information from people without them noticing is of immense help to Inspector Neele who, by this point, is rather floundering. He’s interviewed lots of people, gathered what evidence he can, checked backgrounds, established a timeline but still there’s something not quite right. He can’t put his finger on it. Perhaps after all, they’ve got everything the wrong way around.

At one point, a character remarks, ‘The whole thing seems so wildly improbable. Like a detective story.’ But of course that’s the point. The story is improbable but it’s hugely entertaining trying to get anywhere near the right solution. As Christie’s other famous detective would say, it gets the little grey cells working. However in my case it was to limited effect. I think I probably suspected every character of being the culprit at some stage proving the author’s genius for misdirection and red herrings.

Of course, a theory – even one of Miss Marple’s – is just a theory until there’s proof to back it up, which is why the ending is so brilliant.

A Pocket Full of Rye is book 3 of my 20 Books of Summer 2026. I alternated between my lovely secondhand copy and the audiobook superbly narrated by Richard E. Grant.

In three words: Ingenious, entertaining, classic
Try something similar: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie

About the Author

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

She also wrote the world’s longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the “Golden Age of Detective Fiction”, Christie has been called the “Queen of Crime”. She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott.

In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

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