Tag Archives: Mystery

February 18, 2026 · 2:23 pm

When Will There Be Good News? (That’s the book title, but also)

Did I choose Kate Atkinson’s When Will There Be Good News for its title? Maybe. Because don’t we all want to know? When. Will. There. Be. Good. News.

Until that day we can read charming mysteries with well drawn characters and (what’s the opposite of graphic?) engrossing plots. Jackson Brodie is a decent detective, but I prefer his counterpart (and why isn’t she the #main detective?) Louise because she takes no shit and has seen some things.

Anyway it’s a mystery that is also literary fiction, or maybe literary fiction that is also a mystery? In this instance I kept waiting for the ‘gross murder’ to happen because that’s how mysteries have trained me, and there was some of that, but not really – more about suspense and secrets and building of connections and how does it all fit together. All while being well written! What a win.

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December 26, 2025 · 9:28 pm

The Black Wolf: I hate to say a bad word about Louise Penny, but.

I usually just say I love Louise Penny for the comforting and cute the Gamache mysteries. But I have to say The Black Wolf is pretty bad. Ack, it feels like such a betrayal to say so. But it is – a plot that doesn’t really hang together and/or is so hard to follow that you can’t be bothered, characters that are so underdeveloped they have to continually be reintroduced as ‘the one who Gamache is responsible for ruining’ or ‘the one who Gamache hates because he ruined his son’ etc, and an effort at being Relevant so ham-fisted and obvious (the Americans are coming for Canada) that you just can’t stop being annoyed the whole time you’re reading it. Like really – nothing much in this book that I’d recommend – it’s even short on the usually fantastic descriptions of casseroles and croissants.

I know you’ll probably read it – if the waiting list at the library or the tables inside Chapters are any indication – because there’s something about a familiar and comforting series that is hard to resist, but if I were you (and what am I doing here if not giving you unsolicited book reading advice) I’d absolutely skip it in favour of just about anything else.

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March 15, 2025 · 10:14 pm

Listen for the Lie: Such a fun audiobook

If I had read Amy Tinera’s Listen for the Lie instead of listening to it as an audiobook I’m not sure I’d have liked it so much. As it was, the audio version had the podcast-within-the-novel fully narrated with ridiculous podcast theme music and I got utterly absorbed in a novel that was a true-crime podcast that was also a mystery novel. Like look forward to my commute kind of fun.

Oh don’t get me wrong. The book is ridiculous. Lots of clenched jaws and amnesia and cellphones going missing at just the right moment to make the plot plausible and men rescuing women who don’t need rescuing but like it all the same. Very, very silly.

And if you can put aside (as all true crime podcasts ask you to do) that there’s a murder motivating the romp through investigations and red herrings and sordid backstories and *gasp* revelations then you can just have a great little read.

In sum: middling to poor writing, barely any complexity to characters, and an all out absorbing plot especially so when in audio. Cue it up for your next long car trip and you won’t be sorry.

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January 5, 2025 · 2:25 am

The Grey Wolf: Weird with time and maybe place

I won’t dwell on my love of Louise Penny, nor recapitulate my reasons for enjoying the Gamache character and mystery series. Suffice to say it is comforting and I will never be critical of the books because they are warm tea and cozy socks.

The latest instalment takes on political corruption, international and domestic terrorism in aid of political instability and the church. So here we are, 2025.

It was – as the books always are – engrossing and fun and cozy. There were, however, some odd experiments with bringing the reader forward and back in time and place – within single chapters – that were – I think – unsuccessful. Maybe a tired editor. Maybe an effort to be more Literary. But for this reader ultimately confusing and strange.

That’s all I’ll say because you are not really here to find out whether you should read a Louise Penny mystery. If you don’t know by now: you should.

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