LJ Conrad (Editor of The Dark Forest Of Mysterious Evils)

LJ rated a book really liked it How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1) by Kristen Perrin (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Picked this up at the library with no prior knowledge, it just had a cool title. Briefly panicked that I had been tricked into reading a holiday romance book as our artistic middle class heroine moved to quaint English village and met hunky man but a ...more
Feb 13, 2025 01:11PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
LJ and 1 other person liked Gareth's review of Cold Comfort Farm: "I don’t think this quite lived up to “probably the funniest book ever written” — quoted on the back cover — but then, that’s an insane sales pitch. Cold Comfort Farm still is funny, gleefully ribbing the rural romances popular at the time by punctur" Read more of this review »
Feb 13, 2025 01:07PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
LJ and 1 other person liked Gareth's review of Doctor Who: Unnatural History: "Writers Blum & Orman delivered a third and final book for the Eighth Doctor, and it’s another triumph of characterisation for Sam Jones in particular — which is quite a feat since, technically, she is hardly in this one. The plot concerns the fallout" Read more of this review »
Feb 13, 2025 01:06PM · see review
LJ liked Teresa Bower's review of The Whalebone Theatre: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Feb 13, 2025 01:06PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
LJ rated a book liked it The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Five Parts by Douglas Adams	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
In a way, I wish I could have read these novels separately rather than in one big omnibus-mush so I could rate them individually. Clearly the first novel is a 4-star book, despite the issues I had with it (to be revealed later in this review) but I'm ...more
Feb 13, 2025 12:59PM · 6 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
LJ marked as shelved Heartstream by Tom Pollock (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 05, 2025 06:43AM · like
LJ rated a book really liked it Here's to Us by Becky Albertalli (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I listened to the first book as an audio and was swept along more by the actors than the story, so I knew that reading the sequel as a book would not have the same appeal. However, I still enjoyed it and finished in one weekend. It was refreshing to r ...more
Feb 03, 2025 05:57AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Here's to Us by Becky Albertalli. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Here's to Us by Becky Albertalli <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
LJ rated a book really liked it The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Wooden Horse is a work of fiction, based on a factual event. I read the 30th anniversary edition which the author edited to be closer to the truth as he regretted some of the fictional excitement he added to the tale, particularly involving the m ...more
Feb 03, 2025 05:15AM · 1 like · like · see review
LJ is currently reading The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 03, 2025 05:11AM · like
LJ finished reading The Upside of Unrequited (Simonverse #2) by Becky Albertalli (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 27, 2025 01:55PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1)
by Kristen Perrin (Goodreads Author)

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Picked this up at the library with no prior knowledge, it just had a cool title. Briefly panicked that I had been tricked into reading a holiday romance book as our artistic middle class heroine moved to quaint English village and met hunky man but a Picked this up at the library with no prior knowledge, it just had a cool title. Briefly panicked that I had been tricked into reading a holiday romance book as our artistic middle class heroine moved to quaint English village and met hunky man but after that initial wobble it settled down into the murder mystery it had promised. The premise is that a young woman is named in her Great Aunt's will - she will inherit if she can solve who killed her relative within a week. She becomes convinced that the murder is tied to another murder that was committed in the 1960s.

It is an Agatha Christie style of whodunnit where there are about a million suspects so there's no investigation to get your teeth into, it's just piles of motives. Our narrator doesn't even properly investigate the murder, very noticeably not questioning key characters for most of the book. She finds her aunt's teenage diary and so half the book is devoted to telling us this story from the 60s. The narrator fails to read the diary through in the way that a real person would, instead leaving it to increase the dramatic tension of the story. I spent the first part of the book blissfully unaware of where it was going because the scope was so huge, but once a key item came into the story I began to dread where it was going. But actually the resolution was fairly tame and not at all what my imagination was dreaming up. Like an Agatha Christie, the reveal wasn't particularly satisfying, it really felt like it was chosen at random.

One thing that particularly bugged me was how one character is constantly blamed for his behaviour when he was ten years old. No adult should be accountable for their actions as a child and he didn't even do anything wrong as a child anyway. However the actions of all the teenagers are not held accountable because they were so young. This is a weird discrepancy.

The story focuses so strongly on the 1960s plot that the modern day story and characters feel a little washed out and it definitely felt like it was building towards something more than it actually achieved but it was still a compulsive read. ...more

LJ and 1 other person liked Gareth's review of Cold Comfort Farm:

"I don’t think this quite lived up to “probably the funniest book ever written” — quoted on the back cover — but then, that’s an insane sales pitch.

Cold Comfort Farm still *is* funny, gleefully ribbing the rural romances popular at the time by punctur" Read more of this review »

LJ and 1 other person liked Gareth's review of Doctor Who: Unnatural History:

"Writers Blum & Orman delivered a third and final book for the Eighth Doctor, and it’s another triumph of characterisation for Sam Jones in particular — which is quite a feat since, technically, she is hardly in this one. The plot concerns the fallout" Read more of this review »

LJ liked Teresa Bower's review of The Whalebone Theatre:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

LJ rated a book liked it

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Five Parts
by Douglas Adams

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In a way, I wish I could have read these novels separately rather than in one big omnibus-mush so I could rate them individually. Clearly the first novel is a 4-star book, despite the issues I had with it (to be revealed later in this review) but I'm In a way, I wish I could have read these novels separately rather than in one big omnibus-mush so I could rate them individually. Clearly the first novel is a 4-star book, despite the issues I had with it (to be revealed later in this review) but I'm not sure if any of the sequels reached that level. Oddly enough though, the stories haven't all merged into one big unidentifiable story in my head, despite reading them in quick succession, because they are all totally different in style. I mean, obviously still Adams, but very much each bringing a different type of story to the table.

So first of all we have The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, which is something like the spray cream equivalent of a novel. Lots of fun, light and fluffy to digest, with no substance at all and it dissolves before you're done with it. Well actually, Adams often puts in a lot of weird SF ideas and pseudo scientific or mathematic concepts that completely go over my head, so I feel like I am missing out on about a fifth of each book because I don't understand a word he is saying. But that aside, the first book is motivated not by plot or character, like every other novel I have ever read, but by comedy. The characters have almost no depth at all, Arthur is confused, Ford is a jerk, Zaphod is a cad with a weird brain thing, Trillian is deadpan and smart and Marvin is unbearable. There's barely a plot, and Adams purposely removes all instances of drama to insert more laughs. It's fun and well written, but it's all pudding and nothing to get your teeth into. There are two interesting concepts, that everything that happens is because Zaphod is being motivated subconsciously by a part of his brain he can't access and was sealed off from him by his earlier self, and that part of this plan involves him using a spaceship that is powered by improbability which means that the random coincidences happening are all meant to happen and a part of this plot. Also there are the two questions - the meaning of life and the ruler of the universe - which at least hint at more to come. Because this book just stops part way along.

I liked The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe a lot more, to start with. Zaphod was by far the most interesting character with the only plot going in the first book, so his (and Marvin's) adventures, actually featuring real drama and thrills, were an absolute relief for me. Shame that the other characters literally sit around doing nothing during this. However, this came to an abrupt halt. Suddenly they all go to the actual restaurant at the end of the universe for no reason and nothing of interest happens here. For some reason this whole sequence is the part I remember most from the TV show, so it was particularly uninteresting to read about. Then we get all that rather disheartening stuff with Arthur and Ford (neither of whom I particularly like) on prehistoric Earth. The intrigue of those two questions set up in the first book are both deliberately flushed down the toilet towards the end of this one, which means that everything that was interesting about this series is completely over now. Also Trillian does absolutely nothing in this book.

Life, The Universe And Everything is the real odd one out in the series because it has almost nothing to do with the characters. Slartibartfast (and there is no reason it is this random character from book 1) is trying to stop some aliens getting hold of five artefacts (yes this does feel like a computer game plot) that will allow them to destroy the universe. For no reason at all (I genuinely assumed this was plot-relevant, but none of the characters even notice it happening) 4 of the 5 artefacts are in the direct vicinity of our five heroes. The fifth one we only find out about in an epilogue. So that's frustrating and disappointing, but far worse than that is the fact that the characters do nothing for almost all the book. Arthur and Ford have joined up with Slartibartfast kind of against their will, and Ford, who has always been an apathetic selfish jerk, is worse than ever and has zero interest in saving the universe. So our three leads just stand around, arriving too late and doing nothing at each scene. Literally the plot could continue perfectly well whether they were there or not. Meanwhile, Trillian is reduced to being unsympathetic, Zaphod remains by far the best thing in it for the two scenes or so that he gets, and Marvin shows up again, being surprisingly nice. Trillian, who has barely been in it, randomly solves the problem right at the end in a very poorly set-up manner and we move on with our lives.

Book 4, So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish, is different. When I listened to this as the radio version back when I was at uni (and it was newly adapted) I actually liked it the best because it was the least SF so I was able to almost follow what the hell was going on for once. But 15 years later, clearly my tastes have changed. Because this one is boring. It's entirely about Arthur having one of those impulsive instant love affairs with a woman called Fenchurch and I really hate that kind of love story. Also Ford is in the book, doing some gibberish I wasn't able to follow at all. Marvin gets a cameo, but Zaphod and Trillian don't feature at all, getting a brief mention from Ford that they settled down and had kids. It's probably the nicest of the books. The Earth is restored and Arthur is happy. Ahhh.

Book 5, Mostly Harmless, seems only to exist to take a big poop on book 4. So some of you liked all that niceness, did you? You liked that the story had ended, did you? Let me ruin it for you! This book focuses on parallel universes, except not, and I was absolutely, completely never sure what was going on because of that. It also directly contradicts a few things already established, although occasionally sort of pooh-poohs the ideas, as if ol' book 5 knows better than all that stuff that came before. Arthur has never, NEVER, been an interesting lead. A character whose only trait is that he never knows what is going on is not a motivating lead. Book 4 and 5 have focused more on him as a person, but following on from three books of him being nothing, it's a bit late, and the fact that he has given up on Fenchurch in this one and is only obsessed with Earth is really jarring, although I liked that he cared about poor psychologically-damaged Random, although she never gets a chance to be anything more than a catalyst for the ending. Ford has the exact same role as he had in book 4, that is that we cut to him doing some exciting harebrained schemes that are totally out of character for this apathetic jerk and are clearly the realm of Zaphod in books 2 and 3. Trillian is absolutely ruined forever, and is a heartless awful person, plus there is a random other version of her now; one regrets leaving with Zaphod and the other regrets not leaving with Zaphod. Zaphod himself is nowhere to be seen. Neither is Marvin but that's because that's one piece of continuity from book 4 we are keeping. Anyway, everything that happens escalates to the climax, in which you discover that once again forces beyond the characters' control have been controlling them (view spoiler) Hard to find a more disheartening way to end the book. And yet it is annoyingly 'neat' and 'ties in'. Clever and utterly horrible. I really wish I had not read book 5 because it offers nothing but a series of adventures that turn out to only exist to kick you in the gut.

(view spoiler)

Also, a kind of nasty or sad note to these books is that it doesn't seem to value friendship at all. It is never explained why Ford saves Arthur from the destruction of the Earth. Neither particularly like each other (or anyone) and by book 5, they actively despise each other. Arthur repeatedly chooses to live alone, with no contact with the other characters between books. When he loses the woman he loves, he doesn't even try to seek out the only people he knows in the universe. The five heroes of the original book simply don't like each other and only seem to spend any time together because of the outside forces driving them. The only times you get any hint of warmth from characters is that Zaphod likes Trillian and Arthur and Fenchurch love each other, but these are romantic relationships - friendship doesn't exist in this universe.

So, overall, the SF humour of these books pretty much completely bypasses my brain. Oddly the very particular humour of the first book is notably absent from the others. The plots (infuriatingly deliberately) don't go anywhere, end in anti-climaxes and are propelled by seemingly relevant coincidences that are hardly ever explained. And the characters are shallow and unlikeable. Except for Zaphod, who I love. And ultimately each book (not including 3 which really doesn't fit with the rest of it) is slightly more depressing than the last (okay book 4 was happier, but less eventful, so it still had a downer feel to it), finally ending in utter misery. The first book is fun but too insubstantial on its own, unfortunately nothing it sets up goes anywhere satisfactory in the later books. The only part of the omnibus that I really enjoyed was the first third of book 2. And when you read an entire series waiting for 'The Adventures Of Zaphod Show' to come back and then he's not even in the last two books... I guess I'm just not the intended audience here. ...more

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Heartstream
by Tom Pollock (Goodreads Author)

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Here's to Us
by Becky Albertalli (Goodreads Author)

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I listened to the first book as an audio and was swept along more by the actors than the story, so I knew that reading the sequel as a book would not have the same appeal. However, I still enjoyed it and finished in one weekend.

It was refreshing to r ...more

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The Wooden Horse
by Eric Williams

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The Wooden Horse is a work of fiction, based on a factual event. I read the 30th anniversary edition which the author edited to be closer to the truth as he regretted some of the fictional excitement he added to the tale, particularly involving the m The Wooden Horse is a work of fiction, based on a factual event. I read the 30th anniversary edition which the author edited to be closer to the truth as he regretted some of the fictional excitement he added to the tale, particularly involving the murder of a guard. But how much of the story is 'real' I now have no clue.

It is an interesting story, though the structure is rather odd. This is explained somewhat by the author in the prologue because he couldn't clearly remember certain parts of his escape (the final part) and that really comes across in this story. We start in the prison camp, watching the excruciating progress of a very unpleasant escape tunnel. Then we follow two of the three escapers as they travel by train away from the camp to the port, where their plan falls to pieces because it is all very well to say 'escape to the port and jump on a boat for Sweden' but it turns out in practice HOW are you supposed to do that? Half the book is following these two English guys wandering aimlessly around a German port for a week, somehow not getting caught despite the fact that they keep conversing in English. It's actually an enlightening part of the story that is often skipped in escape tales. It's one thing to get outside of a prison but THEN WHAT. Once they do actually get on a boat and lose most of their agency, the story skips about in an oddly disjointed fashion and I found it difficult to follow. A few blanks have been filled in from the memories of other people involved, but these sections are so brief I'm not sure they add anything. Overall it is a fascinating read.

My only real issue with the book, and it is unfortunately a big one, is that I could not tell the characters apart. Partly because within the camp there are a lot of names mentioned and partly because most of the names are common dull British names, but perhaps at the end of the day the characters themselves just aren't that different from each other. Our main characters are Peter and John. One of them is from the army, one from the RAF, one of them speaks French and German, the other does not, one is in his twenties, the other is ten years older. But remembering which one is that and which one is not in any given scene was lost on me. I'd probably follow it all better if I reread it. ...more

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The Wooden Horse
by Eric Williams

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The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

The Upside of Unrequited (Simonverse #2)
by Becky Albertalli (Goodreads Author)

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	The Dark Forest Of Mysterious Evils (Dragons In Dungeons Book 1) by D. Heyman (Goodreads Author), LJ Conrad (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.18 avg rating — 11 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Spear Of Irinden (Three Crowns, #3) by D. Heyman (Goodreads Author), LJ Conrad (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2021 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Old Stones & Broken Bones (Three Crowns, #4) by D. Heyman (Goodreads Author), LJ Conrad (Goodreads Author) (Editor) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2022 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The First Trinity (Three Crowns, #5) by D. Heyman (Goodreads Author), LJ Conrad (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2023	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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