Three Card Murder - Impossible Crimes #1

Three Card Murder is an appealingly convoluted locked room mystery series opener by J. L. Blackhurst. Released 31st Aug 2023 by HarperCollins on their HQ imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook format. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. 

Locked room/impossible mysteries are perennially popular. There are classic examples from the golden age (John Dickson Carr, Fredric Brown, Craig Rice, Ellery Queen) straight through to the modern day (Tom Mead, Gigi Pandian, Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley). This is a promising start to a new series full of impossible crimes. 

The author has a very deft hand with characterization and the settings and pacing are well done (albeit a bit choppy in the back-and-forth time jumps... but once readers find their feet, it's mostly smooth sailig). 

The main protagonists, who are a sister duo, one a cop, one a criminal, are appealingly clever, sharply intelligent and intriguingly convoluted; in a lot of ways, con-artist Sarah is more straightforward and uncomplicated than her detective sister, Tess. 

The ending is surprising, but somewhat unsatisfying, since it ends on a huge cliffhanger which foreshadows the next book in the series. In the plus column, there are now two books extant in the series, so readers can progress to the second book to find out what comes next without any delay.

The unabridged audiobook format has a run time of 9 hours 49 minutes and is capably narrated by Candida Gubbins. She has a classically trained, well modulated alto voice and handles the disparate regional character accents of both sexes and a range of ages very well. Sound and production quality are high throughout the read. Ms. Gubbins also narrates book 2 for those who enjoy continuity in their series reads.

Four stars. Well written and engaging. It would be a good choice for public or home library acquisition, or for a short binge/buddy read.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.  

Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive

Custodians of Wonder is a fascinating look at the living ancient cultural traditions and the last practitioners/guardians of that knowledge curated and collected by Eliot Stein. Released 10th Dec 2024 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.

This is a collection of disparate traditions and crafts from different cultures with the common thread that the practices are under threat or actively being lost to the ravages of modern life.  There are 10 chapters, each covering a different cultural art and the artisan(s) who are keeping it alive. They range from hand painted film posters in Taiwan to the last engineers maintaining the astounding ancient Incan roads, to living repositories of oral tradition in Africa.

The author has an engaging and respectful voice and brings these disparate cultural traditions to life. The book is well annotated throughout and the chapter notes and bibliography alone are probably worth the cost of the book.

Five stars. Very interesting stories. Written like mini travel documentaries, this would also make a superlative series for BBC or NatGeo or the like. The book would be an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition, home use, or for gift-giving purposes for a nonfiction / culture fan. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes 

The Ultimate Guide to Houseplant Propagation: Step-by-Step Techniques for Making More Houseplants . . . for Free!

The Ultimate Guide to Houseplant Propagation is a colorful and accessible guide to propagating some of the more common houseplants written by Lindsay Sisti. Released 31st Dec 2024 by Quarto on their Cool Springs Press imprint, it's 208 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. 

The author is active in the aroid community (with some of the big, eye-wateringly expensive showy plants like special varieties of philodendron and alocasia) and she really knows what she's talking about. This book is, interestingly, both a beginner's guide and a much more in-depth intermediate-expert guide. It will suit readers of all levels and will be sufficient to most needs. 

She shows the different methods of propagation (leaf cuttings, divisions, air layering, offsets, rhizome and root cuttings, and lots more. The book contains one of the better tutorials on artificial lights and propagation setups (as well as cleanliness and tools) that I've seen. Readers are invited to use as much or as little of the techniques as they wish of course, but her success with a lot of tricky species and varieties is unquestionable. 

The author uses proper nomenclature throughout, happily, and the book is beautifully photographed and illustrated clearly and in color.

Five stars. It would make an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition, home use, gardening groups, activity groups, and home reference.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

A Conventional Boy: A Laundry Files Novel (#13)

A Conventional Boy is the 13th Laundry Files novel by Charles Stross. Due out 7th Jan 2025 from Macmillan on their Tor imprint, it's 240 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.

Fans adore the sense of gonzo out-of-control wall-to-wall hysterical madness for which the Laundry Files are well known. For readers who adore paranormal bureaucratic fantasy, this is the top shelf good stuff. For fans of Aaronovitch, Doctorow, Simon Green, and the other boys in the band - this is not derivative at all, but ticks the same boxes as the aforementioned. It's funny, full on chaos, darkly humorous, and absolutely full of malicious compliance and government incompetence, with the added bonus of an eldritch horror or three, satanic panic D&D groups, and stopping the end of the world. There's deep nerdiness in the form of a math/physics/programming component to magic and that the agents are really smart (and very very nerdy). Stross has a talent for sarcastic/exasperated/desperate deadpan humour and this is a pretty strong entry in a very strong perennially entertaining series.

For readers who are not already invested in the series, it's convoluted, but this one does work moderately well as a standalone, since it is a prequel and gives readers the backstory for Derek the DM (forecasting ops guy). The series is up to 13 books plus tie ins in the form of the New Management series, a bunch of shorter fiction (stories and novellas) and uses a large ensemble cast of characters, so it's a great candidate for a very long binge/buddy read.

Four stars. Recommended unreservedly to humorous SF/UF fans. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

The Good Slug Guide: How to tackle the slugs and snails in your garden and help save the planet

The Good Slug Guide is a well written accessible monograph on slugs/snails/general biodiversity written and curated by Dr. Jo Kirby. Released 19th Nov 2024 by Gemini Books, it's 144 pages and is available in hardcover format. 

This is a layman accessible guide that takes the accepted advice about slug and snail control and turns it on its head in a lot of ways. The author uses current, accepted, peer-reviewed scientific research to refute (to a degree) the idea that attracting hedgehogs, toads, and frogs are always the gardener's best first line defense against gastropod (slug & snail) damage in the garden setting. It's true that they eat snails and slugs, but they also eat vast numbers of their natural enemies (beetles and predatory species of gastropod). 

The author has a chatty and warm style of writing and there's nothing dryly academic about the presentation. It's well annotated throughout and the chapter notes with reference links are likely worth the price of the book on their own. It's sparsely (but clearly) illustrated throughout. The author/publisher have also included some appendices, including a comprehensive species list, a cross-referenced index, and an abbreviated bibliography. 

It's important to note that this volume is slanted -very- heavily toward the various species (including introduced ones), growing conditions, and garden culture of the UK. It certainly has valuable relevance to gardeners outside the UK, but this must be taken into consideration by readers situated elsewhere. 

Five stars. It would be an excellent choice for public (or post-secondary school) library acquisition, for allotment/community garden groups, for the smallholder and home gardener, and for gift giving. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes. 

Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman

 

Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman is a well written personal memoir by Callum Robinson of his experiences as an artisan craftsman, his upbringing, and his journey as a woodworker. Released 3rd Dec 2024 by HarperCollins on their Ecco imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is a beautifully written, honest (often brutally so) memoir detailing the difficult, frustrating, and most often precarious existence of artists given the economic landscape of the current day. It's a difficult balancing act to acquire tools and materials, run a business, and still manage to be a conduit for artistic expression on a meaningful level, to stay true to artistic vision. 

The author is gifted with his prose, which flows evenly and readably. The writing is lush and painterly, surprisingly evocative and moving in places. (Surprisingly because at the end of the day, the guy is a woodworker of bespoke high end items, but still a craftsman and not chiefly a writer). The book contains some rugged language, but the f*cks are not used egregiously, and work in context. 

Four stars. This would be an excellent choice for library acquisition, home reader use, or for gifting to a woodcrafter who enjoys memoirs. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes. 

The Lost Ones - Moonwind Mysteries #3

The Lost Ones is the third Moonwind mystery, in a very well written YA historical mystery series by Johan Rundberg. Originally published in 2023 in Swedish, this English language translation is due out 7th Jan 2025 from Amazon on their Children's imprint. It's 222 pages and will available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free, along with the previous books in the series.

Set in the summer of 1880 in Stockholm, Mika's name is finally cleared after the occurrences from books 1 and 2. She has honed her powers of observation as a survival skill. She's soon helping Detective Hoff with his investigation and is determined to bring the notorious serial killer the Dark Angel to ground. The partnership is -very- well written and sensitively handled. He doesn't ignore or denigrate her contributions, and they develop a good working relationship despite the age difference. 

It's aimed at young readers (Lexile 680, grades ~5-9), but there are many difficult themes in the book, threatened and actual violence, physical abuse and starvation of vulnerable children, extremely austere living standards for the poor of the period, working conditions for the lower classes (including/especially children). Some parts are scary for sensitive readers. The denouement and resolution are exciting and satisfying. There are currently three books released in English in the series, with 5 books extant in the original Swedish.

The English translation work by Eva Apelqvist is well rendered and seamless. It flows very well and is accessible and doesn't get in the way of the story at all. This is a different translator from the first two volumes, but it's not noticeable (which is, after all, the point).

Four and a half stars. Possibly too dark for a younger middle grade audience (school library acquisitions folk should read it before ordering). It would make a good choice for public library acquisition, for home use, or for YA readers who enjoy more dire/suspenseful/tragic mysteries.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes. 

Brownies & Bogles: A Compendium of Enchanting Fairy Lore

 

Brownies & Bogles is a charming and well researched and grounded monograph on the fey folk by Louise Imogen Guiney. Originally published in 1888, this reformat and re-release is due out 7th Jan 2025 from Crossed Crow Books as part of their Texts of Antiquity series. It's 200 pages and will be available in paperback format. 

There's a spectrum of lore about fairies and supernatural creatures, from the utterly fluffy and harmless/humorous, to the very serious and scholarly. This book falls toward the latter classification on that sliding rule. The terms and descriptions as well as the classifications are presented seriously, utterly devoid of snickers and winks. It's a product of the Victorian era, and it does show its age in some ways, but otherwise is charmingly written and presented in a straightforward, serious manner. It's annotated throughout and the author makes an effort to trace the history, etymology, and lore throughout literature and linguistics (there are LOTS of really interesting tidbits to glean here).

It's annotated throughout with copious footnotes, but there are no chapter notes included in this edition. There is a very abbreviated bibliography, but this edition also lacks an index, which is slightly more problematic for a paperback format. 

The book is charmingly illustrated throughout with incidental half page illustrations, margin details, and chapter headings by Edmund H. Garrett. This edition also includes an erudite and well written foreword by Chris Allaun. 

This is absolutely not a cute/silly collection of tales, but a serious scholarly presentation of a supernatural subject within the lore. Whatever readers' personal beliefs are about other realms and beings, it has value as a fairly thorough evaluation and historical snapshot of the fair folk during the late Victorian period. The same care is evident in this volume as other translations and records of similar works (c.f. Evangeline Walton's translation of the Mabinogion). 

Five stars for the execution and care, and for bringing otherwise lost works to a new generation of readers. It would be a good choice for library acquisition, readers' home use, or possibly as a support or supplemental text for allied studies (history, literature, fantasy, speculative fiction, religious studies, etc).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Murder at Raven's Hollow - An English Village Mystery #3

Murder at Raven's Hollow is the third English village cozy mystery in a series by Louise Marley. Due out 3rd Jan 2025 from Storm Publishing, it's 356 pages and will be available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free (at publication). The first books in the series are also currently available on KU. 

It's told in a dual timeline scattershot format with glimpses of the past interspersed as they play into the current day (human remains discovered in the course of an abandoned greenhouse renovation). It's a hybrid village cozy and credible procedural with a likeable and competent lead investigative duo. The author does a great job with the setting, and there's a sort of creepy, gothic vibe to the village which is less than jump-scare territory and more vague uneasy dread. 

The prologue scene is moderately terrifying and it takes a long while for the story to circle back around to resolution. There are twists and surprising interconnections aplenty and amateur armchair sleuths will likely not guess all the wrinkles before the end. The denouement and resolution are not 100% finished in this volume and strongly foreshadow at least one more book to come.

It's the third book in the series with developing characters, but it works well enough as a standalone, with the codicil that there will be slight spoilers from the earlier books if read out of order.

Four stars. Very well written and engaging story, well told. It would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, cozy(ish) procedural fans, or a nice binge/buddy read. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Robins in My Kitchen

Robins in My Kitchen is a beautifully written, often meditative, enchanting diary by Bryony Hill of her experiences having a breeding pair of robins (Erithacus rubecula) raise and fledge a family in her kitchen over a number of months. Released 28th Nov 2024 by The Book Guild, it's 88 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. 

The author has such a gentle and direct, honest and unvarnished way of writing and description. She does a great job of recording and conveying the personalities of the small birds who, for a while, were a big part of her daily life. In addition, the book is enhanced by her simple drawings, picturing the small moments she experiences with her little feathered housemates. 

Four and a half stars. It's a very short book, but would make a delightful choice for public library acquisition, or a gift for a nature loving friend. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Learn to Timber Frame: Craftsmanship, Simplicity, Timeless Beauty

Learn to Timber Frame is a very well organized and understandable tutorial guide for planning and building timber framed structures written by Will Beemer. Originally released in 2016, this reformat and re-release is due out 21st Jan 2025 from Hachette on their Storey imprint. It's 192 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats. (Other earlier edition available in hardcover). 

Especially during and after covid, given the frenetic pace under which most of us are forced to live our lives, reconnecting with handwork and having something tangible to show for our efforts is a huge and important source of mental and physical health. This author really *gets* that, and does a great job of making the theory and process of timber framing a basic structure accessible to most readers. It's full of information and people with some "handy" experience should be able to create a small timber framed structure with the information and illustrations contained in the book.

The author does a good job of presenting the basics: design, tools, safety, layout systems, cutting and layout, a *full* step by step tutorial to a small build, variations on the design, raising a frame, and foundations & enclosing the building frame. 

The author and publisher have also included an abbreviated resources and links list (slanted toward readers in North America), as well as a glossary, bibliography, and cross referenced index. The book is beautifully photographed in color throughout.

Five stars. It would make an excellent choice for public or secondary school library acquisition, for a handyperson's reference library, or possibly for activity or community gardening/self sufficiency groups. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.