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It is beautiful from the first page, then suddenly becomes relatably modern, personal, and very funny! If this is a classic sample of New Zealand talent and style, I love it! Thank you for the birthday present, my dear friend, Kerri!

I am jogging along in this short but juggernaut historical story nicely.

This 1886 classic novel only has 114 pages, even if they are the dense sort with no spacing between chapters. It is dense 1800s writing of the most advanced English language skills, even though I share that level of skills. There are few words new to me and I delight in finding them. In many cases, their use is rare and the sentence style long, which I know from Henry James. I absorb and reread every page slowly.

I am enjoying my return to Ellery Adams's forty year-old heroine tremendously. One thinks these are "cozy mysteries" in tone only, not in depth and writing quality. Then get to a sex scene and oh my, it is good and adult! Haha. I especially praise that Ellery is pretty close to the pure, non-crime mysteries that I favour. There is a present day murder spurring an investigation but the rest is entirely a mystery.

I am happy to return to an appropriately aged heroine, Olivia and a dog who is so sweetly and intelligently behaved, that I adore him too. Even though I had my Mom until last year, I always felt for anyone who didn't have theirs. You will always reach my emotions with stories about missing a Mom or other family figures who are important to the storyteller. Ellery is on the cusp of the non-crime mysteries I favour!

I am returning to a wonderful series, with a gorgeous, confident heroine in her 40s, which we need to see a lot more of in adventure stories. I like the possibility for enchantment, that this mystery pertains to a witch and getting to know something about Olivia Limoge's dear Mom. Those are the most poignant moments for me.

Not the best novel but it is pleasant to glean what I need next in the series.

The first mystery for Precious is why her fiancé is blowing-off his work day, whose first name I wish she would use.

I see that I have read the first three of Alexander's novels two years apart at the beginning of 2017, 2019, and now. I will step that up. It is nice to return to Precious, her fiancé, and whatever she is going to relate to us about Botswana! A look at how to free up finances in personally owned and run businesses, is good too.

I am enjoying Colin's book so much, I have realized that he is a literary and humour genius! He teaches us about culture-clashing 1970s Laos bureaucracy without an information dump. He has mastered the art of smoothly showing a story through characters we love. Chapter titles are sheerly original and laugh-inducing all on their own. I won't forget the shamans at their obligatory council meeting scaring officials!

A wonderful novel! I must order the third paranormal, richly cultural mystery right away! Ignore anyone whining that there is "too much paranormal in these stories". It is about time! Most mysteries are plain old, boring crime mysteries. Many of us have awaited paranormal mysteries and stories about spirits and mysticism! Leave these rarities to us. Criticize the crime genre that there are too many of already.

It is my pleasure to return to the wonderful, profound, intelligent, original, and funny Colin Cotterill.

This story spirals into triple layers again: something Kay and Pete are working on while mourning Benton, something Lucy is working on, and a trip to Interpol in France! A quadruple story layer is the wide scope of police divisions and medical examiner office firings the new lady police chief is trying to organize with unknown people.

Initial reaction: I enjoy Ian's writing and think I will like his protagonist, John Rebus! Except the post traumatic stress syndrome from an untold military experience; his day to day city life is relatable. So is 1987, recent enough for me to recall it. Computers and telephones had jobs to do. No one was hooked on them.

After collecting around 30 of his books, all physical piled high atop a shelf, it is time I give this well-liked Scotsman a try! I like Ian's writing style in the opening first chapters. His introduction in the "Early Years" omnibus I have was a friendly explanation that he had not intended to pen mysteries. I am happy to be trying this series début of 1987, together with my friend, Shirin.

Suddenly we are discussing cancer: what it is in one paragraph, why it is harder to stop and cure than other ailments. What needs to be done to cure it. By God, let's get cracking doing that. It is a concern and prayer for the world overall but had not entered my radar personally until January. I suddenly found out a cat who is a son to me had stomach cancer. He died at home two weeks after. A well timed book.

Another engaging reading session that clopped along until I fell asleep.

One-hundred pages were well absorbed: pretty good progress for a first reading session of a new author. I am certainly eager to continue the story tonight.