Some excellent reads this month.

Greed and other dangers by TJ Nichols***** Sequel to Lust and other drugs which I reviewed last month. Just as good. Edra and Jordan are a fascinating couple and both the crime investigations and the UST are really gripping, as is the human/mytho world building. There’s at least one more to come! This is dragon shifter mm romance with a difference. I already have the next in the series.

Dearest Milton James by NR Walker***** Malachi goes to work at the Dead Letter Office (renamed The Mail Distribution Centre). His own mm romance is beautifully interwoven with one from fifty years ago that comes to light in some undelivered mail. The team pull together to find the sender. The ending was superb and, like Malachi, I almost cried for happiness. I believe there’s a short sequel.

Cursed: Ride or Die by Eden Winters**** Exciting mm story involving shifters, witches, sorcerers and curses. A sort of modern fairy story with bikers instead of wings and brooms.

And some others that are readable but forgettable:

How to catch a vet by Ana Ashley*** Sweet mm romance but not very interesting though the Great Dane who adopts ducks and kittens is amusing.

Hot Seat by Eli Easton*** Sweet mm romance. I might read the sequel because there’s a background family saga that’s worth following. (A whole family of macho firefighters and strong women.) Well written, as is usual for this author.

Don’t forget that three stars merely indicates a less than intensely good plot.

Nothing poor or abandoned, but then I knew what I would be getting with these writers. Abandoned reads are usually by authors new to me.

Fanfic (only one this month)

Tigger Holmes and the Case of Elsinore’s Ghost by Small_Hobbit**** Wonderful spoof story combining Winnie the Pooh, Hamlet, Sherlock Holmes and slash (not explicit). Only 1480 words so worth trying! https://archiveofourown.org/works/38264944

Blossom everywhere!

The recommended:

The Green Book ***** Excellent film that explored American racism through the relationship between a musician and his driver. Watched on BBC – no idea if it’s still available.

Dogs Behaving Very Badly***** (My5) It’s usually the owners who are behaving cluelessly but Graham Hall sorts them out. Our weekly comfort viewing.

Ridley Road BBC***** (iplayer) It might have vanished by now but if you get a chance, watch it. The basis is a true story about a (mainly) Jewish fight against Colin Jordan’s fascists, turned into a novel and then a TV series. Apparently there may be a second season.

Official Secrets***** (iPlayer till 14^th May) Star studded cast in a dramatised reconstruction of the GCHQ whistle blower case from the Iraq was. I loved the legal scenes.

The 1975 Queen Concert***** We’ll watch/re-watch almost anything with Queen. Possibly BBC

The World’s End***** A re-re-re-watch. I love all the so called ‘Cornetto’ trilogy though I think Hot Fuzz is my favourite. However, this has the unforgettable moments when Martin Freenman’s head explodes (and is empty) and Rosamund Pike acting all ‘ditzy’ before driving through fire like an F1 racer. Pegg and Frost are brilliant, as usual. I think it was on BBC4

The fairly interesting:

The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe *** (itv hub)I only watched because husband was watching so it was on. Some people (both the thief and his wife) can be so stupid it hurts. Again, based on a true story and later we watched a long interview with the people involved.

The poor:

The Spy Who Dumped Me** (Film4) Well, it was on, so instead of being driven from the room I half watched it but didn’t like what I saw. Very OTT humour and lots of predictable violence.

And the (for me) unwatchable:

The Canefield Killings Abandoned (All 4). An 8 part South African crime series. Subtitles, in use when characters were speaking Afrikaans or an African language, were too small and too quickly removed to be helpful. I got the gist of the story so far but also got tired of the somewhat pretentious photography.

I usually start the month with TV reviews but as the first day starts on a Sunday, and a friend has a ‘newly discovered booka’ day on his Sunday FB I thought I’d post this today.

Recommended:

Salt in the Wounds by Mark Richards**** Beautifully written novel that also happened to be a crime story set on part of the Yorkshire coast familiar to me. I grabbed the next in the series, The River Runs Deep**** Another really good crime story and I love the way the author brings ‘my’ part of the world to life with a lot of detail. Very slow burn romance between the lead detective and a colleage (mf) adds to the pleasure.

The Flesh of Trees by Kath Middleton**** Modern fairy tale with echoes of Red Riding Hood and a nod to eco-warriors. Well written and quite intriguing.

Relatively Strange by Marilyn Messik**** Stella, living a very ordinary childhood in mid twentieth century London, discovers she has abnormal abilities. She gets involved with a group of similar ‘strange’ people and helps rescue a child from a doctor who is carrying out psi experiments. Alternating angsty and hilarious. An exciting read and I have the sequel lined up.

The readable:

Carillon’s Curse by Sionnach Wintergreen *** Gripping paranormal/historical/mm romance and crime. I thought the ending was rushed and not altogether believable. And the crimes were too gruesome (children murdered in a totally bestial fashion). However, it was well written and held my interest.

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton *** This came highly recommended. Lots of gratuitous violence to children plus growing up in a dysfunctional family among drug dealers in Brisbane then the author’s notes suggest a lot of the story is autobiographical which makes it worse. Interesting and well written but I hated it.

The Wolves are coming by E.Broom *** Quite an exciting introduction to a series about a pack with mixed species. I loved the story but the quality of the proof reading was dire and kept throwing me out of the book.

The Corfe Castle Murders by Rachel McLean*** Reasonably competent police procedural with ff potential but I didn’t like any of the characters – police, victims or criminals – so I didn’t care about the case.

An outline of abnormal psychology edited by Murphy and Bachrach.*** Intriguing collection of articles written just after WWII – some could have been written today and others showed how far our thinking on mental health has changed since then.

The poor:

A history of costume by Carl Köhler** Disappointing. It only covered western Europe from the Greeks to the mid nineteenth century, and there was little or no attempt to relate change to social conditions apart from the French Revolution. Since patterns were given alongside pictures, it might be a useful book for a theatrical costumier. For a general reader it was less than stellar.

And the ones that didn’t appeal to me at all:

Withershynnes by Susanna M Newstead Abandoned. A shifter historical crime story should have appealed but as Mabel could shift into anything she fancied it seemed like a magical solution to crime investigation and didn’t really appeal.

Missy the Werecat by P G Alison. Abandoned. I gather it’s a long series and to be honest I couldn’t be bothered with teenage Missy and her sudden discovery of her shifter nature.

No-one likes humans by Clare Solomon. Abandoned. Detectives in space. Includes humour and possible mm romance. Poor world building, character development etc. Technically competent writing but the story lacks detail and I lost interest.

I did watch quite a lot of TV and will report my findings shortly!