Sandy's Book a Day Blog

Friday Favorite – A Question of Trust by Penny Vincenzi

Looking for something to read over the weekend ?

Nothing on your book radar that is screaming ‘read me’?

Take a look at my Friday Favorite. It may be new. It may be old. It may be written by a famous author, or by someone you have never heard of. But wherever in the spectrum it falls, it will be a book that is special to me, one that has captured both my imagination and my heart.

EXCERPT: ‘I should never have married him,’ said Diana sadly. ‘It was very wrong of me.’

Tom looked at her sharply. ‘Why do you say that?’

‘Because I didn’t love him,’ said Diana. ‘….And should I go to Paris, do you think? It really would cheer me up.’

‘Absolutely not,’ said Tom, sounding as stern as he could. ‘You’d wipe out any goodwill at a stroke.’

She sighed, then managed a watery smile.

‘All right. I’ll do my best. But I can’t promise anything. You’ve no idea what it’s like living with someone who hates you. Or at best dislikes and mistrusts you. That hurts. Oh, Tom, dear friend Tom, I know you’ve got to go, but thank you so much for coming and listening to me, and advising me. Just talking to you has made me feel better. I just hope I can do the same for you one day. Contrary to what you might think, I’m very good at keeping secrets. Go on, home to Alice the angel and I’ll hope to see you very soon.’

She was very tall, hardly had to reach up to kiss him, but she did, a long, gentle kiss on the lips. It was confusing, that kiss, albeit not in the least carnal. Tom said good luck, and half stumbled out the front door and down into the perfectly groomed Padster Mews, where he stood for a while, taking deep breaths and steadying himself.

She was danger, was Diana Southcott. He was more aware of it with every meeting. He started to run, hoping for three things. That Alice wouldn’t be too cross with him; that he had no lingering whiff of Diana’s heady, heavy perfume about him; and that she would not go to Paris.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: A Question Of Trust is vintage Penny Vincenzi: rich with characters, life-changing decisions, glamour, love, desire and conflict.

1950s London. Tom Knelston is charismatic, working class and driven by ambition, ideals and passion. He is a man to watch. His wife Alice shares his vision. It seems they are the perfect match.

Then out of the blue, Tom meets beautiful and unhappily married Diana Southcott, a fashion model. An exciting but dangerous affair is inevitable and potentially damaging to their careers. And when a child becomes ill, Tom is forced to make decisions about his principles, his reputation, his marriage, and most of all, his love for his child.

MY THOUGHTS: I read the final chapter of this book with tears trickling down my face. When I finished, I sat with it clutched to my chest like I was hugging an old friend before parting for who knows how long. Vincenzi has this effect on me every time. This time was even more poignant, with A Question of Trust being the last book she published before her death.

Vincenzi has a vast cast of characters, she even lists and explains their role in the book, but they are never hard to keep track of. I know the extract I chose may read like a particularly nauseating soap opera. But it’s not. It is warm, touching, rich and heart-breaking. It is full of glamour, and struggles, both personal and professional. No one can write like Vincenzi.

So, no more sweeping sagas. No more characters who feel like family and friends by the time I reach the end of the book. I will just have to go back to her first book and read them all over again.

😍😍😍😍😍

THE AUTHOR: Her family, Headline and her agent Clare Alexander are sad to announce the death of their beloved Penny Vincenzi who died peacefully on February 25th.

At the launch of her 19th book, A Question of Trust, last year, Penny said: “If nobody buys it, it will be my last book; otherwise, no, I don’t want it to be my last book … I still love writing and the whole process.” And at the time of her death Penny was several chapters into a new book. We would urge those who haven’t discovered all of her books yet to explore the backlist, and we look forward to publishing A Question of Trust in paperback this year.

Penny Vincenzi, who died in 2018, was one of the UK’s best-loved and most popular authors. Since her first book, Old Sins, was first published in 1989, she went on to write sixteen more bestselling novels and two collections of stories. She began her career as a junior secretary for Vogue magazine and went on to work at The Daily Mirror, Tatler, and later as a Fashion and Beauty Editor on magazines such as Woman’s Own, Nova and Honey, before becoming a Deputy Editor of Options and Contributing Editor of Cosmopolitan. Over seven million copies of Penny’s books have been sold worldwide and she is universally held to be the ‘doyenne of the modern blockbuster’ (Glamour).

DISCLOSURE: I own my copy of A Question of Trust by Penny Vincenzi, published by Headline Publishing Group. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my Goodreads.com page https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2473050928

How Does Your Garden Grow? and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

EXCERPT: Dear M. Poirot,
I have been recommended to you by an old and valued friend of mine who knows the worry and distress I have been in lately. Not that this friend knows the actual circumstances – those I have kept entirely to myself – the matter being strictly private. My friend assures me that you are discretion itself – and that there will be no fear of me being involved in a police matter which, if my suspicions should prove correct, I should very much dislike. But it is of course possible that I am entirely mistaken. I do not feel myself clear-headed enough nowadays – suffering as I do from insomnia and the result of a severe illness last winter – to investigate things for myself. I have neither the means nor the ability. On the other hand, I must reiterate once more that this is a very delicate family matter and that for many reasons I may want the whole thing hushed up. If I am once assured of the facts, I can deal with the matter myself and should prefer to do so. I hope that I have made myself clear on this point. If you will undertake this investigation perhaps you will let me know to the above address?
Yours very truly,
Amanda Barrowby

ABOUT THIS BOOK: A classic collection of Agatha Christie short stories, taken from Poirot’s Early Cases and read by David Suchet.

David Suchet, Poirot to perfection, returns with five further short stories taken from the collection entitled Poirot’s Early Cases.

The short stories included in this audiobook are:

‘The Plymouth Express’
‘The Submarine Plans’
‘Problem at Sea’
‘How Does Your Garden Grow?’
‘The Market Basing Mystery’
Each story is entirely self-contained and shows all the essential Poirot qualities. Again we find Poirot’s maxim – ‘one must seek the truth from within, not without’ – proves highly efficient in his pursuit of the truth.

MY THOUGHTS: I was excited to discover this little gem, of which I had never previously heard. The fact that it is narrated by David Suchet, only added to my pleasure.

The four stories are all shortish, but none the less intriguing. Hastings makes a welcome appearance, as does Chief Inspector Japp.

Several hours of listening pleasure. 😍😍😍😍😍 Highly recommended to all Christie fans, or as a starting point for anyone wanting an introduction to Hercule Poirot.

THE AUTHOR: Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

Agatha Christie is the best-selling author of all time. She wrote eighty crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and several other books. Her books have sold roughly four billion copies and have been translated into 45 languages. She is the creator of the two most enduring figures in crime literature-Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple-and author of The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theatre.

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, England, U.K., as the youngest of three. The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, who was eleven years Agatha’s senior, and Louis Montant Miller (1880–1929), called Monty, ten years older than Agatha.

During the First World War, she worked at a hospital as a nurse; later working at a hospital pharmacy, a job that influenced her work, as many of the murders in her books are carried out with poison.

Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, came out in 1920. During this marriage, Agatha published six novels, a collection of short stories, and a number of short stories in magazines.

In late 1926, Agatha’s husband, Archie, revealed that he was in love with another woman, Nancy Neele, and wanted a divorce. On 8 December 1926 the couple quarreled, and Archie Christie left their house Styles in Sunningdale, Berkshire, to spend the weekend with his mistress at Godalming, Surrey. That same evening Agatha disappeared from her home, leaving behind a letter for her secretary saying that she was going to Yorkshire. Her disappearance caused an outcry from the public, many of whom were admirers of her novels. Despite a massive manhunt, she was not found for eleven days.

In 1930, Christie married archaeologist Max Mallowan (Sir Max from 1968) after joining him in an archaeological dig. Their marriage was especially happy in the early years and remained so until Christie’s death in 1976.

Christie frequently used familiar settings for her stories. Christie’s travels with Mallowan contributed background to several of her novels set in the Middle East. Other novels (such as And Then There Were None) were set in and around Torquay, where she was born. Christie’s 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express was written in the Hotel Pera Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, the southern terminus of the railway. The hotel maintains Christie’s room as a memorial to the author. The Greenway Estate in Devon, acquired by the couple as a summer residence in 1938, is now in the care of the National Trust.

Christie often stayed at Abney Hall in Cheshire, which was owned by her brother-in-law, James Watts. She based at least two of her stories on the hall: the short story The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, which is in the story collection of the same name, and the novel After the Funeral. Abney Hall became Agatha’s greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all the servants and grandeur which have been woven into her plots.

During the Second World War, Christie worked in the pharmacy at University College Hospital of University College, London, where she acquired a knowledge of poisons that she put to good use in her post-war crime novels.

To honour her many literary works, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1956 New Year Honours. The next year, she became the President of the Detection Club.

DISCLOSURE: I listened to the audiobook of How Does Your Garden Grow? and Other Stories by Agatha Christie, narrated by David Suchet, published by HarperCollins Publishers via OverDrive. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

The Proposal by S E Lynes

EXCERPT: My heart pounded. Sweat salty on my top lip. He was a stranger. He was a man. Men overpowered women. That was why I raced home from the station at night, why I half died of fright every time I grabbed a minicab, why my pulse ran wild whenever I followed some guy I barely knew back to his flat.

Heart thumping, chest tight, I grabbed the envelope and squeezed it in my fist. Fingertips to the handle of the cutlery drawer, I pictured the carving knife in its protective sheath. The light darkened, a fraction of a shade. I looked up to find him standing in the doorway, backlit by the hall light, in shadow.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: The first thing you should know, dear reader, is that I am dead…

Teacher Pippa wants a second chance. Recently divorced and unhappy at work, she uproots her life and moves to the countryside, determined to make a fresh start. But Pippa soon realises: your troubles are never far behind.

When Pippa meets blue-eyed Ryan Marks, he is funny and charming. He is haunted by his past – but insists he is a changed man.

He might just be the answer to all of her problems. And Pippa can tell the truth from lies. She’d know if she were in danger. Wouldn’t she?

MY THOUGHTS: A brilliant page turner (I couldn’t put this down) about perception vs reality. Ms Lynes has written a unique and disturbing take on how greatly the reality of our lives can differ from what we present to other people, what they perceive about us from what we choose to share with them.

The Proposal is an excellent example of how it is possible to not like, in fact to detest, the characters in a book, but to love the book. Pippa is self-absorbed. Totally. She uses people then discards them until they may be of some use again. Ryan/Gary is criminally insane. When these two meet, the shock waves are far reaching and unimaginable.

I can’t describe how this book made me feel, other than I couldn’t get enough of it. The morning after finishing, I am sitting here shaking my head. The Proposal is two sides of the same coin. One bright and sunny and living the dream, the other dark and disturbing, haunting. Where does the reality lay?

This, in my humble opinion, is Lynes’ best book yet. It certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste. But I loved it.

💖💖💖💖💖

THE AUTHOR: S E Lynes is the Amazon best selling author of psychological thrillers, VALENTINA, MOTHER, THE PACT and THE PROPOSAL.
After graduating from Leeds University, S E Lynes lived in London before moving to Aberdeen where she worked as a programme producer at the BBC before moving with her husband, Paul, and two young children to Rome.
In Rome, she began to write while her children attended nursery. After the birth of her third child and upon her return to the UK, she gained an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University.
She now combines writing with lecturing at Richmond Adult Community College and bringing up her three children. She has also published two children’s books in Italy.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Bookouture via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Proposal by S E Lynes for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

In Harm’s Way by Owen Mullen

Let me be the first person in the world to wish Owen Mullen and Bloodhound Books ‘happy publishing day’ for In Harm’s Way. While it might still be 15 October where you are, here in New Zealand a cloudy dawn is just breaking on October 16. If you haven’t yet read anything by this author, I really can’t recommend him highly enough. If you have already read some or all of his other books then, like me, you will have been eagerly awaiting the publication of his latest, and here it is . . .

EXCERPT: She shut her eyes as her clothes were ripped from her body. The last thing she remembered was lying naked on the bed with the man in the black coat standing over her, breathing hard, turning the belt in his hands.

He smiled for the first time. ‘Think of this as your reward. Enjoy it. I will.’

ABOUT THIS BOOK: What if you were being stalked and no one believed you?
What if you were abducted in broad daylight?
What if you were chained to a bed and held captive in a cellar? What would you do?
Mackenzie Crawford screamed.

What if your wife went out at night and wouldn’t say where she was going?
What if she admitted she had a lover?
What if you came home one day and discovered she’d left?
What would you do?
Derek Crawford went to pieces.

What if a woman with an alcohol problem disappeared?
What if there was no evidence of a crime?
What if her brother asked you to help?
What would you do?
In Glasgow, DI Andrew Geddes put the case to the top of his list.

What if someone you loved was in harm’s way?

MY THOUGHTS: I am so pleased to meet up with DS Andrew Geddes again. I first encountered him in the Charlie Cameron series, and if anyone deserves a series of his own, tis Andrew. On the force for more than twenty years, he loves being a policeman.

Now I have to admit to having just read In Harm’s Way for the third time, and it’s not even been published yet, (October 16, 2018), and I have enjoyed it more with each read, even though I loved it on the first read.

Family dynamics. . . families are strange things. We love to disparage one another, and yet when it comes down to the wire, who do you really want by your side? We envy one another, not that we would ever admit it, we put one another down, we purport to detest family gatherings which we claim to attend only out of ‘duty’, but we always have one another’s backs.

MacKenzie Crawford is a spoilt youngest child, the ‘surprise’ baby, now married to a man twenty years her senior who appears to worship her and who gives her everything she desires. Why then is she an alcoholic? Why is she making such ludicrous claims? Is it just attention seeking, or is there really something to it?

In Harm’s Way starts off slowly, focusing on the complicated dynamics of MacKenzie Crawford’s family of two sisters and a brother, their spouses and children. But soon it becomes apparent that there is much more going on with this family than what appears on the surface, and it becomes a full- blown thriller. By half way through, I couldn’t put this book down, even on the third read!

Mullen writes with a gritty realism and wry sense of humor that I enjoy. Having read and loved everything he has written, I am eagerly awaiting his next offering.

💖💖💖💖💖

THE AUTHOR: Owen Mullen graduated from Strathclyde University, moved to London and worked as a rock musician, session singer and songwriter, and had a hit record in Japan with a band he refuses to name; Owen still loves to perform on occasion. His great love for travel has taken him on many adventures from the Amazon and Africa to the colourful continent of India and Nepal. A gregarious recluse, he and his wife, Christine, split their time between Glasgow, and their home away from home in the Greek Islands where the Charlie Cameron and Delaney series’, and soon to be released psychological thriller were created.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Bloodhound Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of In Harm’s Way by Owen Mullen for review. Thank you also to Owen Mullen for bestowing on me the honor of being one of his beta readers. It has been a wonderful journey seeing In Harm’s Way evolve into its present form.

All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

A Little Bird Told Me by Marianne Holmes

Hi honey, I’m home!

EXCERPT: What Kit knows and what I know is not the same. I have become my own secret curator of the facts. It’s all in the suitcase I keep under my bed along with all the other monsters.

Matthew and Kit think they can protect me even now by keeping the past hidden. But they’re wrong. I already know more than they think.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Besides, if you were one half evil, wouldn’t you want to know about the other half?

In the scorching summer of 1976, Robyn spends her days swimming at the Lido and tagging after her brother. It’s the perfect holiday – except for the crying women her mum keeps bringing home.

As the heatwave boils on, tensions in the town begin to simmer. Everyone is gossiping about her mum, a strange man is following her around, and worst of all, no one will tell Robyn the truth. But this town isn’t good at keeping secrets…

Twelve years later, Robyn returns home, to a house that has stood empty for years and a town that hasn’t moved on, forced to confront the mystery that haunted her that summer.

And atone for the part she played in it.

MY THOUGHTS: This is one of those reads which is not going to fit neatly into any one category. The story is told over two timelines, 1976 and 1988. Historical fiction? Not to me, I lived those years, but I suppose to some they may qualify A Little Bird Told Me as historical. There is family drama, mystery and crime. But just what happened and to whom is not made clear until the final chapters of this intriguing book.

A Little Bird Told Me is beautifully written. The characters are ‘real’. I could feel Robyn’s fear and her anger, her confusion and determination. The author writes in a determinedly vague fashion, so that at times the reader is also confused. But remember, you are seeing parts of the book through the eyes of the child Robyn was at the time. And she doesn’t understand a lot of what she sees and hears.

This is a slow burner of a book. It is a book that is, in places, eloquent and lyrical, in others, brutal and raw. It is a book that I enjoyed immensely, and I will be watching for more from this author.

And please don’t skip the publisher’s foreword. It is a delightful story about how they came by the book and published it. I’m glad they did. 😍😍😍😍

THE AUTHOR: Marianne Holmes was born in Cyprus to RAF parents but is now firmly based in London. After a sensible career in marketing, Marianne is now focusing on her love of language and writing.

A Little Bird Told Me is her first novel.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Agora Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of A Little Bird Told Me by Marianne Holmes for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

This will be my last blog until sometime next week, as I am well behind on my packing and cleaning as we prepare to move house this weekend.

EXCERPT: Charlie – May 1947 – Southampton

The first person I met in England was a hallucination. I brought her with me, on board the serene ocean liner that had carried my numb, grief haunted self from New York to Southampton.

I was sitting opposite my mother at a wicker table among the potted palms in the Dolphin Hotel, trying to ignore what my eyes were telling me. The blonde girl by the front desk wasn’t who I thought she was. I knew that she wasn’t who I thought she was. She was just an English girl waiting beside her family’s luggage, someone I’d never seen before – but that didn’t stop my mind from telling me she was someone else.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: In an enthralling new historical novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She’s also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie’s parents banish her to Europe to have her “little problem” taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she’s recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she’s trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the “Queen of Spies”, who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy’s nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn’t heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth…no matter where it leads.

MY THOUGHTS: The Alice Network is a book that drew me in and captivated me from start to finish. Parts of it are true, parts are based on truth, and parts are pure fiction. Purists would argue that it has been sanitized, diluted. And they are probably right. But this book lays no claim to being a historical record, it is marketed as a work of fiction, and it’s a damned good one.

The parallel story lines work well, with Eve Gardiner the link between the two, Charlie St Clair the catalyst for what unfolds.

Although this is a somewhat long book at a little over 500 pages, it didn’t feel long. I have read books with far fewer pages that felt much longer. The audio version lacks the authors afterward which defines what who and what events were actual people or happenings, and so at some stage I will pick up a copy of the actual book for a reread and this information. Saskia Maarleveld does a wonderful job of narrating.

I must admit to having more than a touch of car envy, with the wonderful description of Finn’s beautiful motors!

💕💕💕💕.5 All up, a wonderful experience.

THE AUTHOR: Kate Quinn is a New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction. She attended Boston University, where she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Classical Voice. A lifelong history buff, she has written seven historical novels, including the bestselling “The Alice Network,” the Empress of Rome Saga, and the Borgia Chronicle. All have been translated into multiple languages.

Kate and her husband now live in San Diego with two black dogs named Caesar and Calpurnia, and her interests include opera, action movies, cooking, and the Boston Red Sox.

DISCLOSURE: I listened to the audiobook of The Alice Network by Kate Quinn, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld and published by Harper Audio via OverDrive. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Noah’s Compass by Anne Tyler

EXCERPT: In the sixty-first year of his life, Liam Pennywell lost his job.

It wasn’t such a good job, anyhow. He’d been teaching fifth-grade in a second-rate private boys’ school. Fifth-grade wasn’t even what he’d been trained for. Teaching wasn’t what he’d been trained for. His degree was in philosophy. Oh, don’t ask! Things seemed to have taken a downward turn a long, long time ago, and perhaps it was just as well that he’d seen the last of St Dyfrig’s dusty, scuffed corridors and those interminable after school meetings and the reams of niggling paperwork.

In fact, this might be a sign. It could be just the nudge he needed to push him on to the next stage – the final stage, the summing-up stage. The stage where he sat in his rocking-chair and reflected on what it all meant, in the end.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.

Liam Pennywell, who set out to be a philosopher and ended up teaching fifth grade, never much liked the job at that run-down private school, so early retirement doesn’t bother him. But he is troubled by his inability to remember anything about the first night that he moved into his new, spare, and efficient condominium on the outskirts of Baltimore. All he knows when he wakes up the next day in the hospital is that his head is sore and bandaged.

His effort to recover the moments of his life that have been stolen from him leads him on an unexpected detour. What he needs is someone who can do the remembering for him. What he gets is well, something quite different.

We all know a Liam. In fact, there may be a little of Liam in each of us. Which is why Anne Tyler’s lovely novel resonates so deeply.

MY THOUGHTS: This was my first Anne Tyler. I went into it with great expectations, and came out of it depressed. Somewhere in the second half of this book, there is a passage about misery that summed up my feelings about Noah’s Compass very well. Unfortunately, I forgot to mark it. It is a miserable book. I must have missed the gentle humor. . .

The man is only sixty-one, for goodness sake! He is morose, has basically cut all ties with his family, he has poor self-esteem and nothing to look forward to. Whose fault is that? His own. He is capable of making a life for himself. He chooses not to. I wanted to tell him to get a grip, to grab life with both hands. . .

Not a recommendation from me. 😩😩.5

THE AUTHOR: Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated at nineteen from Duke University and went on to do graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University. She has published 20 novels, her debut novel being If Morning Ever Comes in (1964). Her eleventh novel, Breathing Lessons , was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

DISCLOSURE: I listened to the audiobook of Noah’s Compass by Anne Tyler, narrated by Arthur Morey and published by Random House Audio via OverDrive. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.

This review and others are also published on my Goodreads.com page https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2517865248