Little Brown Book Group Archives - Debbish Archive

Book review: Legacy by Nora Roberts

Friday, May 28, 2021 Permalink

I was a tad worried Legacy by Nora Roberts would be a bit saga-ish. I love her romantic suspense novels and ADORE her JD Robb series, but the blurb here sounded a bit more Barbara Taylor Bradford circa 1990ish.

Thankfully it wasn’t. We do meet our lead Adrian at various stages of her childhood then on a few occasions during her adult life but it’s less about generations of women or families and their legacies and more about Adrian herself.

It takes a little while to get to the ‘suspense’ part of this book but I liked Adrian and the fact her ambition is balanced with a sense of humanity, so was happy to be along for the ride.

Book review: Cry Baby by Mark Billingham

Thursday, August 13, 2020 Permalink

I’m a fan of Mark Billingham and Detective Tom Thorne. I read the sixteenth in the series (Their Little Secret) last year and assumed this would pick up where it left off. In fact, I didn’t read the backcover blurb at all before I started the book and found it a little strange that the series was set in the past and I didn’t remember that being the case.

I knew I disliked his partner or girlfriend and was relieved she seemed to be moving on; and here Tom’s separated from his wife. So it made sense but it didn’t. And, as it happens, there’s nothing in the book until the very end that references that this is a flashback of sorts*. It meant that I read the book amidst some puzzlement worrying that my memory was even worse than it is and that I’d just not remembered the books were set in the 1990s.

Book review: The Mitford Scandal by Jessica Fellowes

Wednesday, September 25, 2019 Permalink

This is the third in the Mitford Murder mysteries and I’m probably enjoying each new release more than its predecessor/s. In my review of The Mitford Murders I mentioned that author, Jessica Fellowes wrote companion books for Downton Abbey so is obviously passionate about this era and knows her stuff. And in that book, as well as the second in the series, Bright Young Dead, the research she undertakes and the way she weaves facts and true events into fiction makes more interesting – and surprisingly educational – reading.

Book review: How The Dead Speak by Val McDermid

Wednesday, September 4, 2019 Permalink

I try hard not to write reviews with spoilers. Or ones that give away too much of the plot. Of course it also means I sometimes re-read a review of a book before starting the next book of the series and – unless it’s ingrained into my mind for some reason – I rarely remember the detail.

So, given two years has passed since Val McDermid’s last Tony Hill / Carol Jordan novel Insidious Intent was published (and I can’t believe it’s that long!), I’d completely forgotten Tony had gone to jail. I can’t remember any of the specifics, but that’s kind-of a good thing as newcomers to the series won’t be lost, suddenly introduced to characters – many of whom have been around now for 11 novels (and 24 years).

Book review: The Puppet Show by MW Craven

Tuesday, June 12, 2018 Permalink

Early in The Puppet Show, as we meet Washington Poe – our host for this ~~evening~~ series – there’s reference to a backstory. He’s been suspended and he and his former DS, now his boss-to-be (as they switch jobs) DI Stephanie Flynn talk about the fallout from a previous case. I wondered if in fact there was something I was missing.

I’d checked the front of the book jacket – though I guess they’re more just covers now than jackets – for any previous books by MW Craven and saw none listed.

Thankfully a page or two explains the history to us, however… I discovered Craven has had a previous series published centred around a fictional detective and also set in Cumbria…. published as Mike Craven. Which probably explains some of the confidence with which he writes the first in this new series.

Book review: Devoted in Death by JD Robb

Thursday, September 10, 2015 Permalink

There are a stack of series I love: John Sandford’s Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers books; Martha Grimes’ Richard Jury/Melrose Plant series; Sue Grafton’s alphabet series’; Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books; and Robert B Parker’s Spenser series. And so forth. And possibly at the top of that list is JD Robb’s In Death series, which I’ve already raved about ad nauseum.