Hello fellow Bookdragons! I’m here to share my April readings! In addition to books for my multiple book clubs, I managed to squeeze in a few extras this month. Here’s what I took off my reading shelf in April:
Close to Death – Anthony Horowitz (Hawthorn & Horowitz – book 5)
I first heard the name Anthony Horowitz many years ago when I began watching Midsomer Murders. His name showed up in the credits as series director. I have since observed that he has also directed Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Foyles War, and several other miniseries. He is the author of the famous Alex Rider children’s book series, and quite a few series for adults including James Bond, The Power of Five, Diamond Brothers, Sherlock Holmes, The Moonflower Murders, and Hawthorne & Horowitz. He also has over half dozen stand-alone books. (And people think I’m busy!!!)
I just finished the fifth book in his Hawthorn & Horowitz series – Close to Death. If you’ve ever read Horowitz (or have read or watched his Moonflower Murders series), you know that his plots are quite tangled. The story line reminded me of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile in the fact that everyone had a motive to kill the victim – an obnoxious, wealthy man who disrupted the quiet, orderly lives of the people in the gated community of Riverview Close. P.I. Hawthorne must sift through a community full of motives before he can even start to tie up the loose ends of the case. Horowitz navigates the tangled web of lies quite well and wraps up the story in a satisfying conclusion. –4.5 stars
Murder Backstage – A Murder She Wrote Book by Jessica Fletcher and Terry Farley Moran
I truly love Jessica Fletcher. I can’t decide if I want to be her or Jane Marple when I “grow up.” Even though the original author of the Murder She Wrote series, Donald Bain, passed away in 2017, various writers continue to faithfully churn out more books several times a year. Although the series is a quick, easy read, it’s still fun to see what intrigue Jessica will find herself in the middle of this time.
As the title suggests, the story takes place during a theatre drama. Jessica’s cousin, Emma, who is an actress you might remember from the Murder She Wrote TV series (Angela Lansbury played both Jessica and Emma), is once again on the set of a murder. As usual, Jessica outwits the local authorities and brings the case to its rightful conclusion. We expect nothing less. A solid 4 stars
The Only One Left – Riley Sager
If you’d have asked me halfway through the book what I thought of this thriller, I would have told you that it was a well-written page turner. Most of the book was intriguing, and thought-provoking. Nobody was who they seemed to be, and the secrets they were keeping were a matter of life and death. I was greatly disappointed by the “coincidental” way the loose threads were tied up in the end. The author had so many missing puzzle pieces by the last ten pages of the book, she had to start randomly wedging the story together – or at least it felt that way. 4 stars for the first half of the book—3 stars for the ending.
Other Books I’ve Read This Month: The Case of the Missing Bronte – Robert Barnard, Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely, The Companion – Ann Granger, Murder at Maddingly Grange – Caroline Graham, and Books 1-3 of the Bunburry cozy mystery series by Helena Marchmont
