This charming and heart-warming story celebrates everyday life in a small village for a group of family and friends whose traditions and habits are both unique and universal. Viewed through the eyes of Luisa, a young girl growing up, it shows how a caring community can help deal with loss and support a better understanding of one’s self. The characters were my friends who I came to love and when the book ended I felt bereft.
View What You Can See From Here
An unpublished novel is discovered which goes on to become a French literary sensation. But who is this author Henri Pick? This is the question that, like a gentle breeze, lifts you up and sends you on a playful journey that amuses and teases the reader from start to finish. Quirky and deliciously French, anyone who enjoys a story about the world of books will likely find pleasure in unravelling this charming mystery.
View The Mystery of Henri Pick
This book is hilarious, I loved it. Take a hypochondriac book dealer with OCD and combine him with Miss Marple and what do you get? The manic owner of a mystery bookshop in Belfast, next door to a missing private detective, who finds that cases keep walking in on him. So does his new girlfriend, with adventures he is too timid to enjoy. And if you are a vintage film freak, watch out for the last line.
View Mystery Man
Meet the most bizarre drug trafficking matriarch in the Parisian underworld. Darkly comic and surreal, the sardonic narration in the distinctive voice of the protagonist is mixed with snappy streetwise dialogue and acerbic social commentary on racism and exclusion in the banlieues. It's an offbeat and seductive portrayal of a nihilistic skewed morality which will have you checking your own moral compass.
View The Godmother
If you like the themes and talk of the 'new India' spelled out for you in a gentle, funny, accessible way, and if you want the goondas to meet their just desserts, then this is for you. Vish Puri, founder and managing director of Most Private Investigators Ltd makes his debut in what will surely be the first of many cases.
View The Case of the Missing Servant
Charity Mupanga must be a distant relative of Precious Ramotswe, but instead of rooibosch tea there is Tusker Lager and a bizarre encounter with a London lawyer. He's up against a religious shebeen queen, and two street boys. And there's the Aid worker, the journalist, the President, the co-operative banker, and a madman with a bicycle. A joy!
View Last Orders at Harrods
This book took me straight to Florence in 1963 and kept me there. And what a pleasure to read Euro crime with less angst and more eccentric, likeable characters. A refreshing change - and one for those looking for a first outing into this type of fiction as well as fans looking for a breath of fresh air. The location is spot on and won't disappoint.
View Death in August
Dandy Gilver is a delightful addition to the ranks of lady female detectives, with a wonderfully sardonic view of the world, a sidekick who thinks he should be in a Boys' Own adventure, a police inspector who is so gloomy that he puts Eeyore to shame. And, of course, a murder in a circus, with a cast of suspects to keep you guessing to almost the last page.
View A Winter Ground: A Dandy Gilver Mystery
I found this a genuinely funny crime novel, in which a Bavarian Mma Ramotswe meets Commissario Montalbano. A perfect feel good read, especially recommended for older women (like me) not yet ready to give up on romance.
View Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
Israel has hardly set the library world alight since his graduation and the new job in Northern Ireland seems just the stepping stone he needs. But when he arrives in Tumdrum he finds that the library has closed and not only is he blackmailed into working on the mobile library, he is also held accountable when all the books appear to be missing. Light and easy to read with lots of quirky characters. First in a series.
View The Mobile Library: the Case of the Missing BooksYou won’t find the biggest bestsellers on Whichbook as everyone knows about them already. But you can use your enjoyment of a current bestseller to see titles with a similar mood that you might try next.
