books – Page 18 – What Cathy Read Next…

On the blog last week

Monday – I published my review of Country People by Daniel Mason.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Was Excited For But Still Haven’t Read… plenty of scope there.

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. I also shared my review of The Draw of the Sea by Wyl Menmuir.

Thursday – I published my review of The Eagle & the Wolf by Gordon Doherty.

Friday – I shared my July 2026 Wrap Up.

Saturday – I joined other gardeners for #SixonSaturday sharing six things from my garden this week. I also participated in the monthly #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a book chain from Land by Maggie O’Farrell to Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz.

New on my shelves

A Shroud of Snow (Bradecote & Catchpoll #14) by Sarah Hawkswood (ARC, Allison & Busby)

December, 1145. Hamelin Isenmongere, a trader in iron and charcoal from Gloucester, is considered by many to be the most popular man in Worcester. Why then is he found on the quayside near his warehouse with his head beaten in?

As winter bites, Undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, Serjeant Catchpoll and Underserjeant Walkelin are on the trail of a killer. However, they must tread cautiously when the trail of evidence leads them back to Worcester Castle itself where William de Beauchamp is more concerned that they seek out a spy within its walls. It is up to the Sheriff’s men to discover whether the murder was an act of betryal by someone close to home, or one that casts a shadow over the fight for England’s crown.

Switzy by Emma Cline (Viking via NetGalley) Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2026

A private plane cuts through the winter night, somewhere over Greenland. David, a retired executive, sits back in his leather seat, playing solitaire on his phone. Click. Click. Drag. Click. The notebook in his jacket pocket is filled with familiar phrases, urgent reminders to himself, but he struggles to recognize his own handwriting.

A mystery, among many mysteries. The world, once so knowable, has been rendered inscrutable.

This is what David Cody, his assistant, asleep in the seat next to him, will shepherd him along the voyage. A stopover in London. Dinner with his adult daughter. A meeting in France with an old friend, estranged for decades.

His final destination is Zurich.

David glides through hotel rooms and airports and foreign cities, running out the clock on his mortal life. His grasp on the present slips away, and the past rushes the Sunday roasts of childhood. The stiff clothes meant only for church. A summer at a school friend’s house. The losses and missteps that punctuate a life.

As David’s arrival in Zurich looms, an exquisitely rendered portrait of an unravelling mind emerges, both darkly humorous and profoundly moving. Hypnotic and startlingly original, Switzy probes the depths of human consciousness, revealing what a man is left with when the accomplishments and compromises that have defined him, and the illusions he’s relied on, vanish.

What I’m currently reading

I’m reading Trials of the Heart by Stephen Wade and The Knife Maker of Venice by David Gilman from my NetGalley Shelf.

Look out for…

Book Review: Land by Maggie O’Farrell
Book Review: Little Spark by Jess Kidd

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

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 #6Degrees 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 X using the hashtag #6Degrees.

This month’s starting book is Land by Maggie O’Farrell. For once it’s a book I’ve read although not yet reviewed. Links from each title will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

Land is set in 1865 and follows the struggles of a family in the years after the Great Hunger. Fair Play by Louise Hegarty is also set in Ireland and involves a family tragedy. It’s a real puzzle of a book, the plot of which is impossible to say more about without spoilers – so I won’t. What I can say is that part of it is set in a mansion called Yew Tree House, which takes me to my next link.

The Mystery of Yew Tree House by Lesley Thomson is the ninth book in the author’s ‘The Detective’s Daughter’ series. Soon after cleaner turned detective Stella Darnell begins her holiday at Yew Tree House, a skeleton is found in a pillbox at the bottom of the garden.

Another daughter in the detection line features in The War Widow by Tara Moss. It’s 1946 and former war correspondent Billie Walker is back home in Sydney with her husband missing, presumed dead. Unable to find employment, she reopens her late father’s private investigation agency.

Another war widow features in The Visitors by Caroline Scott. It’s seven years since Esme’s husband, a man she knew for only seven months, was killed in the First World War. Now she’s travelled to Cornwall, the place where he grew up, hoping to find out more about his early life.

When you think of books set in Cornwall your mind may turn to the novels of Daphne du Maurier, such as Jamaica Inn. The opening line of The Magpie Tree by Katherine Stansfield is ‘The day I went to Jamaica Inn was the day I saw a man hanged’. In the book Anna and Shilly, both with secrets in their past, form an unconventional crime detecting partnership.

More of the black and white bird in Magpie Murders by Anthony Quinn, a story within a story not unlike Fair Play the first book in my chain.

My chain has taken me from a Maggie to a magpie. Where did your chain take you?