Welcome to Litsy!

Val is always a solid 4 star read for me.
I love her characters, their relationships and the very realistic growth they show.

Karen and her cold cases are quickly becoming my most favourite. The way Val structure these stories makes it page turners even knowing there's no life to save at the end.

This installment had a very intriguing plot and is set during COVID, so every normal thing had to be done slightly differently.

He really believed it was a madcap game. A joke. A dare, played out between old friends.

#FirstLineFriday @ShyBookOwl

June
#BookSpin - Past Lying (Val McDermid)
#DoubleSpin - Master of Revels (Nicole Galland)

@TheAromaofBooks

Catching up in the Karen Pirie series, which I really enjoy. This one finds Karen and her team trying to investigate a case during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. It has a book with a book element too. You can‘t ever tell how everything is going to come together in the end, which works for me in a crime novel.

Latest Karen Pirie was good fun. Set in lockdown a librarian at the national archives links a crime writers manuscript to the disappearance of a young woman. With lots of nods and winks to the Scottish crime writing community, I think val macdermid enjoyed making the villains fellow crime writers. I enjoy the characters in the series, + it also still feels strange remembering lockdown. Hopefully, a new one soon + maybe a further TV adaptation

#unpopularopinion I just can‘t get into this one. The personal lives of the detectives feel like needless distractions. I don‘t care about the case. I know it can‘t be as easy a solve as the current set up, so there has to be a big twist coming, but I find that I simple don‘t care. Plus, I almost cried when I saw how much of the book I had left to listen to. That‘s never a good sign.

#bookreport
With the exception of two, all the “finished “books were in various stages of reading in other words. I didn‘t read them all this week.
Currently reading: Starting audiobook,Crocodile on the Sandbank #blameitonlitsy, #SebastianStCyr mystery, #libraryfind #poetry #nunlit #serieslove2024

Edinburgh is in total lockdown due to Covid-19.DS Jason Murray gets an unexpected phone call from a librarian who finds a chilling unfinished manuscript in the archival material of a dead author,Jake Stein.The manuscript has eerie parallels to the real life disappearance of a EU student,Lara Hardie one year earlier.DCI Karen Pirie & her team of the Historic Cases Unit decide to investigate.Also highlighted are personal challenges for the 3 team 🔽

I tore through this book in two days. It was a visceral reminder of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic: although the world seems to have moved on, we must not forget how terrifying those early days were and how little we knew about the virus (and we don't know that much more now, especially about long Covid). The details were just right and accurate. I liked too that each squad member got some airtime in the story.

Love the characters in these stories. Great writing . Love the descriptions of one of my favourite cities, Edinburgh. Only criticism, I thought the ending a little too drawn out. Looking forward to the next one. Glad the Karen Pirie character has been picked up as a TV series. Long may she live and Daisy too.

The new book in the Karen Pirie series is another excellent read, although a very different book. This is set at the height of the lockdown and that makes the job of investigating a cold case much more difficult. I love how Val McDermid managed this with great aplomb. I‘ve fallen more in love with this series as it has progressed.

Surprise Book Mail is awesome. 🥳