Sheila Deeth's Blog

A very bad thing by JT Ellison

 Another day, another book. I picked this one up simply because I was curious about the title. Then I found that the murder victim was an author, and one of the protagonists wants to write a book, and... and I was hooked.

A very bad thing by JT Ellison

The death of author Columbia Jones leaves her daughter andher biographer reeling. But secrets that come out later will shake their worldseven more. Because Columbia was murdered, and the list of suspects that startswith them just keeps growing....

In Our Likeness by Bryan Vandyke

 The dangers of AI are much in the news, especially among authors concerned that our works might be used to "train" AI to write like us, and artists concerned about their art. Will we really be overtaken by the machines - not if the things I've read are anything to go by. New, but not so new.

This book postulates AI that doesn't just write or paint - it changes reality. Trained to recognize fakes, it fakes everything, and now the "real" people are in a race against time to put the genie back in t...

Of Wizards, Ghosts, and Natural Selection

So why did I choose to read these books. Witches and Wizards - I love the way the author creates strange worlds, and I wanted to see what she made of the Wizard of Oz. Haunting of Ashley Masterson - the cool haunted cover drew me in, and it felt like a story made to be made into a movie. Natural selection - because I couldn't resist reading about the Galapagos island.

They're all romances, and all fun reads. Enjoy

Of Witches and Wizards by Nicole Zoltack

A mother wants the best for her daughter, ...

Of Bookshops and Libraries

 I love bookshops and libraries, and I love books about bookshops and libraries, so here are two that I read recently, one set in a Tokyo library and the other in a Dublin bookstore... maybe.

What you are looking for is in the library By Michiko Aoyama

A charming book of books, the librarian in this novel offersreading lists to her customers, always including one surprise book, and a gift.Book and gift work together on the recipient, causing them to see their problemsdifferently and find new ...

Fantasies in the not so very distant past

 Steampunk powers its machines with steam and resides in a moderately convincing real-world past, often Victorian, but other times work too. So it's fantasy, with a touch of mechanical realism (as opposed to magical realism I guess, though there's plenty of that too).

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The magical Night Circus is magically depicted in ErinMorgenstern’s beautiful novel, the Night Circus. It’s a Victorian world ofclever tricks and amazements. But it hides a different world of ...

Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin

 A friend recommended a Russian scifi novel to me. So I thought I'd give it a try. Not sure I recommend it, but it was well worth the read.

Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin

In a scarily believable, near-future Russia, a distantmonarch rules with the aid of oprichniks, who ease their own trials withstrange new drugs and violence. Rape is punishment, collectively carried outwith nauseous obedience. And the evil West is walled away, blamed safely forall ills. Could it happen here? There...

The Running Grave and the Cormoran Strike mysteries

 I watched the first couple of series of Cormoran Strike on TV before I read any of the books. The TV series was fun, but my husband was beginning to get frustrated with the relationship between the protagonists, and couldn't see what it had to do with the plot. So I started reading the books.

The relationships are much stronger in the books, and make much more sense in terms of the mysteries to be solved as well. The author adds intervening cases - more and more as the novels progress - which ma...

Who Were You?

 Sometimes I get prerelease copies of books to review, and always these are a treat. Especially when they come from the Permanent Press who seem to publish several of my favorite authors.

This book is from an author that's new to me. I very much enjoyed it, and hope you will too when it comes out later this month. The title, Who I Thought You Were, is intriguing. The premise--a young widow finding out more about her husband after his death--seemed dark, but not too dark. And the setting--New Mexi...

The Grey Wolf and the Three Pines Mysteries

 I love the Three Pines novels and will happily reread them over and over. Luckily many of the characters, locations and ideas came back into mind as I read the latest novel, The Grey Wolf. But perhaps that's not luck. Perhaps it's the clever way the author reminds you gently of past events without making you feel wrong for not knowing straight away. I'd recommend you read the first book first and work your way up. But this book's great and I kind of suspect it might almost stand alone for a new...

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

 We found a Ben Aaronovitch novel in, not surprisingly, London while we were visiting family. It caught my husband's eye. As Harry Potter addicts, how could we resist the Harry Potter grows up and becomes a policeman vibe written on the piece of paper advertising the book? So we bought it, brought it home on the plane, and were hooked.

I have to wait for my husband to finish one before I can start, so I'm following the series slowly, and these are the ones I read in 2024 while my broken wrist was...