Books
Stone and Sky, by Ben Aaronovitch. Most recent of the Rivers of London books, in which the gang goes to Aberdeen to find out what’s up with a mysterious sheep-eating cat, and ends up involved with merfolk, selkies, North Sea oil, and Scottish independence. I’ve actually been to Aberdeen once and it felt right to me. I really enjoyed the Abigail/foxes subplot more than usual, and I was fascinated by Beverly and the babies. Also, kudos to Ben for getting around Brexit.
Last Call at the Nightingale and The Last Drop of Hemlock. First two books in a 1920s set mystery series centering on a jazz bar in New York. Our heroine is an Irish orphan who stumbles into two mysteries. The supporting cast is diverse and the mysteries are interesting: the first one involves a body found outside the club and gets into whiskey runners and gangsters; the second involves the demise of our heroine’s (Black) best friend’s uncle and has some great twists. There are 2 or 3 more in the series and I’m definitely down for the lot of them.
Picks & Shovels by Cory Doctorow. I’m glad he writes from the perspective of a (sometimes really dumb even though he’s really smart) man, because the story he’s telling in this one would be unbearable if he were trying to write from a woman’s POV. Third in the Martin Hench series, this one tells a story about Marty’s arrival in San Francisco in the 1980s and his involvement in the quarrel between a religious computer company and the women who left them and tried to take them down. I like these books a lot; I just don’t like the protagonist very much even when he’s theoretically doing the right thing. Also, the overall ending was strong, even the parts I didn’t like.
Death by Misadventure, by Tasha Alexander. 18th in the Lady Emily series. Lady Emily and her husband do a locked room mystery in the Bavarian Alps. I correctly predicted the killer but not the reasoning, which was well-done. This series has the annoying past-history interspersions but this time I figured out the significance about halfway through the book and thought it was much more interesting than the previous books: it explained a lot more about the current mystery than the interspersed stories have in the past.
The Lily of Ludgate Hill and The Muse of Maiden Lane by Mimi Matthews. Third and fourth in the four-hander Regency romances in the Belles of London series, in which four horse-riding friends get paired off. Book three involves one of the girls calling in a favor from an old flame. Timewise this is interspersed with events from the previous books in a very clever way. Book four involves the aftermath of those events and ties in with them the same way. This time the clergyman’s sister has to forsake her home to get her independence and her man, who’s a disabled artist (he can’t walk after a bout of scarlet fever). The way the series ties the books together is really clever.
Miss Caroline Bingley: Private Detective, by Sharmini Kumar & Kelly Gardiner. Inspired by the side characters in Pride & Prejudice, this one uses a Regency mystery as a jumping-off point to get into the history of the East India Company and subcontinental Indians in Regency London. By the end of the book we have Caroline set up with an Anglo-Indian lady friend, a possible romance/foil in the Company, friends and allies and enemies, so I expect there to be another one.
A Daughter’s Guide to Mothers and Murders, by Dianne Freeman. 8th in the Countess of Harleigh series. This time Frances and her husband are in 1900-ish Paris, at Longchamps and dealing with a mystery in which the Divine Sarah (Bernhardt) is a suspect. I like the expansion of the family in the B-plot and the resolutions with Frances’ mother and personal friends, and while I did see one of the twists coming, there was one that surprised me, so that was good.
Movies & TV
Murderbot, Episode 10. I’ve really enjoyed this series even if most of the finale was predictable (they weren’t going to destroy the protagonist!) I liked the ending and look forward to S2.
Music
Apple Essentials: Wet Leg and Wet Leg, Moisturizer. None of the other stuff is as droll as Chaise Longue but I do like me a little female fronted rock music. Of the new stuff I think I like CPR (the new single) best.