Claire Ladds

Crime and suspense author

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Spell the Month in Books: May

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Welcome to my Spell the Month in Books for May. With only three letters in the month, this is going to be a pretty short post!

Once again, I couldn’t resist including an Agatha Christie book. The film adaptation of the novel I have chosen is one of my favourites. I’ve also included a book from a lovely series of hard-to-get and forgotten mystery novels, brought back to life by the British Library Crime Classics series. And blimey, who knew I’d still be having problems finding paperbacks on my shelf beginning with a ‘y’?! Anyway, without further ado, here are my choices for this month.

Murder in Piccadilly – Charles Kingston

Bobbie Cheldon’s ideas of love and marriage vary greatly from the woman who captures his heart in a Soho nightclub. Whereas he is looking for the perfect marriage, Nancy the dancer is much more interested in the money that Bobbie will inherit from his wealthy uncle. But there is a problem – Bobbie’s uncle isn’t going to hand over ten thousand pounds a year to make Nancy’s life more comfortable, just because she thinks it’s a great idea! But there may be a solution, and it leaves the way open for murder. Chief Inspector Wake of Scotland Yard has to untangle all sorts of scandalous Soho shenanigans in order to get to the truth.

This was my first British Library Crime Classics purchase and since then I have gathered a number of them and have really enjoyed all the ones I have read so far. It’s wonderful, being able to gain access to stories through the British Library Classics editions that you struggle to get hold of otherwise. I’m gradually working through the collection. In fact, I remember mentioning that I fancied collecting them, and, come Christmastime, found myself unwrapping half a dozen of them from my kids. If you enjoy Golden Age mysteries you may well love these books.

Appointment with Death – Agatha Christie

The American Lady Boynton is a widow, ridiculously wealthy – and also a hideous human being. So when she is discovered by members of her dysfunctional family, sitting there, surveying her surroundings, and with a puncture mark on her wrist as the only sign that she has been murdered by a lethal injection, there are plenty who are in the frame as suspects. Even Poirot thinks she was a dreadful woman, but he has just 24 hours to discover her killer.

I really loved this novel, for its characters, its plot and for the many possible reasons the truly hateful Mrs Boynton could have been murdered. It kept me guessing at every turn. I remember reading this book when I was in my twenties, and being thoroughly absorbed by it, so much so that I dreamt about the characters for weeks. I’ve also watched the film of the book starring Peter Ustinov several times. I re-read it more recently after watching the film adaptation starring David Suchet on countless occasions, and was fascinated by the differences between the original novel (and the Ustinov film) and the TV film starring David Suchet as Poirot. For me, the changes in location, plot and the motivations driving various events are just brilliant, but I won’t spoil it for you. I do believe, however, that you will get very different experiences from reading the book and watching the more recent Suchet film (and if you happen, like me, to like John Hannah, then you’ll definitely get an experience from watching the film!)

You Let Me In – Lucy Clarke

Since Elle rented her house, things have seemed strange. There is a weird atmosphere, and she has this really creepy feeling that someone is watching her. She tries to convince herself that it’s her writing job, her imagination, that is causing the problems. But as threats come in that are all too personal, and she becomes more and more paranoid, everything about her new home becomes a prison she can’t escape. Just who has found a way into her head and is doing this to her?

I still can’t tell you from personal experience what I think of this book, as it’s stuck in my TBR pile, and likely to be there for some time yet. But I bought it because it sounds creepy, and brilliant, and I can definitely tell you that I’ve read some fantastic reviews about it from book reviewers on Instagram. I’m very much looking forward to reading it.

There you go – short(ish) and sweet! Or at least short and crime-filled. 😊 Have you read any of the books I’ve mentioned this time round, or do you have any crime books that you’d love to recommend to others? Do feel free to pop them in the comments, if so.

Read Christie 2021: my April book choice – The Seven Dials Mystery

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Read Christie 2021 April: The Seven Dials Mystery

This month I have chosen to read The Seven Dials Mystery as part of the Read Christie 2021 challenge. The remit for this month was to read a story which was written before World War II. There are a number to choose from but I chose The Seven Dials Mystery because I haven’t read this book for decades. I have to say that I absolutely loved revisiting it and read it in one day, which is something I hardly every do!

This is very much a ‘young person’s adventure’ plot and also sees Christie returning to some of the characters who had their first adventure in The Secret of Chimneys. If you have read Chimneys, and recognise the mansion, you’ll probably also recognise the name of Lady Eileen Brent, commonly known as Bundle, who lives at Chimneys with her father and is irrepressible in her pursuit of the truth.

This time, Bundle and her father come back from a holiday abroad to find that a man belonging to a party of people who were renting Chimneys has died in one of their bedrooms. It certainly makes Bundle’s father give second thoughts to renting out their home while they are away in future!

It doesn’t take long for Bundle and her adventurous friends to decide that this man was murdered. The situation becomes graver when another friend dies, his last words being the mysterious ‘seven dials’.

This phrase takes Bundle and her crime-busting friends to Soho, and the discovery of masked members of The Seven Dials Society, who meet in a secret room. Who are they, and what are they planning? And were they responsible for the killings?

This book also reintroduces Superintendent Battle, who occurs in several Christie novels as the presiding investigating officer. Battle is a large man but with a very astute, softly-softly approach to getting things done. Battle acts as an enabler to Bundle’s wish to act as sleuth by giving her permission to do so, and often both of them are present as events pile up and things get most and more mysterious – and dangerous. But Bundle proves herself extremely capable of figuring out what’s been going on, surprising Battle on more than one occasion with her capabilities.

This is very much a relatively fast-moving adventure with plenty of intrigue, secrets and shenanigans. There are also some very wry twists in the plot that couldn’t help but make me smile. So much of this story is like real life in that whatever we see and believe is based on what we expect to be the case and on our preconceptions about people.

If you love Christie’s light-hearted adventure mystery novels then I think you’ll enjoy this one. Next month’s Read Christie book has to be one which features tea. I’m going to return to my favourite of Christie’s sleuths – Poirot – in After the Funeral.

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One step closer to my next book release…

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My next book is finished

Yay! I am very excited to tell you that my next book is done. Well, at least the current draft of it is, so I’m taking that as a win!

This has been a bit of a shock book to me, in that I wrote it in about six weeks – or maybe I should call it a pleasant surprise as it’s a little bit different from my previous two books which both took a decade to write and let loose on the world.

I absolutely loved writing the first draft of this novel. It’s everything I’ve been wanting to write for ages: a dark and suspense-filled crime novel, complete with some seriously evil twists and turns. Crime fiction is the thing I love writing best, so I’m floating on cloud nine at the dastardly deeds I’ve created.

I’m also not a fast writer at all, so I’m actually a bit astounded that this book landed on the screen (or was dragged there, kicking and screaming) in such a short space of time. I put this down solely – or at least, mostly – to a little strategy of planning each ‘beat’ of the book on bits of paper and sticking them to my fridge. Every time I went in there for the milk, I moved things around or added another strip until the ideas were pretty much in the right order. There are advantaged to being a serial tea drinker! I use Scrivener and love the way I can move chapters and scenes around so easily. But I’m a visual planner still a pen and paper girl at heart, so bits of recycled paper stuck on the fridge that I could keep shifting as I had new ideas definitely indulged that part of me. If it works, who am I to knock it?!

As I look down at my desk now, there’s a neat stack of paper, pages mounting up into the hundreds, all covered in perfectly printed words. It won’t be like that long, though. Soon it’ll be covered in aqua ink as I put the book through its paces. There was a time that I swore by editing in pink, but I must be getting old because I find it too difficult to see what I’ve written anymore.

More news to come on this book. For now, though, I’m truly looking forward to the next couple of months because I really love editing. Luckily!

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Spell the Month in Books: April

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I’m back once more with my Spell the Month in Books titles, once again bringing you some of the crime and mystery books on my bookshelves. There are some fantastic authors in this little stack, and one or two of my favourite contemporary authors who write historical mysteries here.

Here’s my list for April:

Angel with Two Faces – Nicola Upson

Poor Tom is Cold – Maureen Jennings

Return of Sherlock Holmes (The) – Arthur Conan Doyle

Incomplete Revenge (An) – Jacqueline Winspear

Last Seen Wearing – Colin Dexter

I really do enjoy Nicola Upson’s novels. Angel with two Faces is another of her mysteries set in the interwar period. While Josephine Tey recovers from a trauma, she is invited to Cornwall, to the family home of Inspector Archie Penrose. She is delighted as there is an open air theatre right next to the cliffs. When she arrives, the place is coping with a young man’s funeral. His horse leapt, strangely, into a lake, and the man was drowned. This is odd enough, but when another young man disappears and the curate also falls from the clifftop Josephine likes so much, it becomes apparent that there’s a murderer on the loose. This is another of Nicola Upson’s books that I became totally immersed in. While it’s classified as a cozy mystery, what I love about this series are the undertones of darkness that lurk just near the surface.

Poor Tom is Cold is the third of the Murdoch Mysteries. If you’ve read any of my other Spell the Month in Books posts then you’ll already know that I am a huge fan of these stories in book and TV series format. The story is set in 1895 Toronto. Murdoch is not convinced by the apparent suicide of Police Constable Oliver Wicken, discovered in an abandoned house, even more so when he encounters Wicken’s mother and invalid sister and realises that the constable was the family’s only means of financial support. Why on earth, when he was needed so much, would he commit suicide? Nearby, Murdoch sees one of the Wickens’ neighbour being taken to a lunatic asylum. When he starts wondering if the woman has actually been driven insane, it makes Murdoch think that the two events are linked in some sinister way. As always, this is a fabulous mystery and Murdoch’s incredible brain weaves its intrepid way through the clues to get to the truth.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle in response to the public outrage that the author had previously killed off Sherlock. This collection of stories sees Holmes returning from his supposed death to recount the adventures that happened to him during those ‘missing’ years. I think that, whether you love the character of Sherlock Holmes or find him obnoxious and irritating, the stories are always great Victorian mysteries. I personally find Holmes exasperating (except in the TV version with Jeremy Brett as the star – totally brilliant!), but my feelings about Holmes are counteracted by the lovely, down-to-earth character of Dr Watson. I always have a very soft spot for Watson, who is often as baffled as the reader at the antics and puzzle-solving of Holmes. The parallels between these two and Christie’s Poirot and Hastings decades later are clear.

Anything by Jacqueline Winspear is a hit with me. An Incomplete Revenge is another Maisie Dobbs book, set in a Depression-filled 1931. Maisie accept a commission from a friend who wants to buy an estate in the village of Heronsdene, Kent. The problem is, the place has been denying all knowledge of the thefts, arson and vandalism that have been going on for a decade. Maisie has to find out what on earth has been going on and why the culprits have never been caught, so her friend can buy his estate with an easy mind. It’s not made easier, however, by the way that the villagers close ranks on outsiders and seem steeped in the past. This is a beautiful, entertaining mystery, which deftly reflects class and social differences of interwar Britain. I’ve not yet come across a Maisie Dobbs story that I didn’t enjoy.

Last Seen Wearing is a Morse book I haven’t read, but I’ve no doubt that I’ll enjoy it when I do. The story centres around the disappearance of Valerie Taylor, a teenage schoolgirl. After over two years, her disappearance has become a cold case. But then new evidence is revealed and Morse is asked to reopen the case. I’d love to be able to talk more about it. If you’ve read it, or manage to before I do, I’d love to know what you thought.

I hope that you might feel encouraged to try something on my April bookstack – and you’ll note that, aside from my mug in the picture, there’s no Agatha Christie here this time (which may shock you. It did me – although I did still manage to squeeze in a reference, you may have noticed!). As always, any affiliate links I use here (which apply to the US only) are for books and products that I have personally used and loved, so you know it’s a genuine recommendation from me.

Happy reading!

Read Christie 2021: my March book choice – Death in the Clouds

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I am back once more with my #ReadChristie2021 challenge choice, this time for March. This one was under threat all month due to my fingers being slavishly glued to the keyboard in an attempt to complete the first draft of my next book by the end of the month. Somehow, though, I’ve managed to squeeze in my reading through some matchstick-propping of eyelids. 🙂

The remit for this month was a book containing a society figure. The recommended read was Lord Edgware Dies, but I chose to read a story that I haven’t read since I was about fourteen. I picked Death in the Clouds, partly to see how much of the original story I remembered, and partly to see how it differed from the film version starring David Suchet as Poirot.

#ReadChristie2021 my March read

The setup for the story is as follows: After a visit to France, Poirot and others, some who have been to watch the tennis, some who had other reasons to be there, head to England on a plane. Poirot is among a small group of passengers in the first class compartment but, as he hates flying, he wraps himself up and tries to block out the trip altogether. As they approach the end of the flight, one of the stewards discovers one of the passengers is dead. At first glance, it appears she has been stung by a wasp, but on closer examination, it’s blatantly clear that a poisoned dart has stabbed her in the neck and a blowpipe is discovered in the back of one of the chairs, right near where Poirot had been sitting. And poor Poirot isn’t trusted, then, by most of his fellow passengers or by certain members of the authorities.

It turns out that the dead woman is a notorious money-lender, publicly known as Madame Giselle, and who targeted people with secrets which she could hold over them in order to ensure repayment of their loans. One of the passengers in that first-class compartment must have killed her somehow, even though it seems impossible that anyone could have blown a dart at the woman without being seen. But someone did, and there are a number of distinctly likely candidates. Poirot is determined to help Inspector Japp solve the case – if only to reclaim his respectability!

The trail leads them back to France to discover the secrets of Madame Giselle – including any information they can find out about the secret daughter who inherits everything. Back in England, and with the aid of two of the younger passengers, Jane grey, a hairdresser, and Norman Gale, a dentist, (and who form the beginnings of a romantic attachment as a nice little sideline) the plot gradually unfolds, despite the many attempts to misdirect and misinform Poirot, until the culprit is revealed.

So, where does the society figure come it, then? Well, of course, she is one of the suspects. Lady Horbury is an addicted gambler – and she’s also addicted in other ways, too. She really is one of those characters who make me ‘bristle’. I struggle to find anything at all in the way of a redeeming feature. And she is, as you can well imagine, a strong suspect. Whether she did a very clever job on the woman to whom she was in debt and who knew way more about her than she wanted leaking to the press or other members of her society circle, I shall not tell you – obviously!

I’m going to be honest and say that this is not one of my favourite Christie stories, but as ever with books, this is just my subjective opinion. I do, however, think that the plot device used to enable the perpetrator of the crime to do their dastardly deed was very clever. It is one Christie used several times, for example in the short story ‘The yellow iris’, which she extended and which also became the novel Sparkling Cyanide. If you’ve read them, you’ll know what I’m talking about. If not, I’m not going to spoil it for you!

As ever when I use affiliate links I let you know. Links in this post will take you to Amazon.com. I may earn a tiny commission if you choose to purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you (if you shop on Amazon US, that is).

Have you decided to join in the Read Christie challenge this year? If you have, I’d love to hear about what you’ve been reading. If not, I’d still love to hear about what you’ve been reading – I’m always happy to add to my ‘to be read’ pile! Feel free to add your recommendations in the comments.

Happy reading!

Spell the Month in Books: March

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<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I have five crime-filled stories to share with you in my Spell the Month in Books post for March. This time they span the centuries in their settings, from the medieval to the twentieth century.

I have five crime-filled stories to share with you in my Spell the Month in Books post for March. This time they span the centuries in their settings, from the medieval to the twentieth century. The books I have chosen this time around are:

Mistress of the Art of Death – Ariana Franklin

Alienist The) – Caleb Carr

Remorseful Day (The) – Colin Dexter

Coroner’s Pidgin – Margery Allingham

Holy Disorders – Edmund Crispin

Every one of these is available in audiobook, so I’ve linked to that version, although available ebooks, paperbacks and hardcovers are all listed as well.

We begin with the Middle Ages. Children have disappeared and one murdered in Cambridge. Blame is placed on the Jews who go into hiding, much to the displeasure of the king, who relies on them for revenue. In desperation, he enlists Simon of Naples to help him, and he brings with him Ariana Aguila. She has a secret for fear of being accused of witchcraft – her skill in the study of corpses. In the course of her investigations, it becomes clear that the killer has noticed her involvement. Will the killer strike again – and this time, at her?

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