I've decided to join in with The Year in Books blogging challenge organised by Laura at a Circle of Pine Trees. I noticed this reading challenge on Kathy's Amanda's and Louise's blogs and thought that it sounded like a good idea.
I've read four books so far this month so I thought I'd share some of them with you and tell you more about one of them. I will also continue to place the books I have read in my sidebar and list the whole year's books as separate pages at the top of the blog.
At the moment I have three books on loan from the local library, two of which I requested the third, the Secrets of Armstrong House, I saw on their 'quick choice' shelf near the check in/out machines and thought that it looked interesting.
I'm still reading the A. O'Connor book but the other two I've read and thoroughly enjoyed. I love the DI Vera Stanhope books by Ann Cleeves Harbour Street is the latest and it didn't for one moment disappoint. I found it intriguing, atmospheric and hard to put down.
In contrast The Secret Rooms is non-fiction (but still very much a detective story) and is written by Catherine Bailey author of the equally interesting and readable book Black Diamonds. The author went to Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire initially to research the lives of the men from the Belvoir Estate who volunteered to serve in the Midlands Regiments at the outbreak of WW1. What she found and eventually wrote about was an intriguing mystery surrounding John, the 9th Duke of Rutland. What was in those secret rooms? Why had they been closed up for so many years? Why had the 9th Duke elected to spend his final days in there destroying huge swathes of correspondence from three distinct periods of his life? Follow the author as she gradually pieces together, using the Belvoir Castle and Haddon Hall archives as well as many other sources, a story that is both astonishing and ultimately quite tragic.
Next month I'm hoping to read The Outcast Dead the latest novel in the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths. I have it reserved at the library and I'm sixth in the queue so hopefully I'll be able to read it in February.
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