2016 books, #81-85

Bringing in the sheaves: wheat and chaff from my years as a priest, by Richard Coles.  London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2016.

This is a lovely book.  It's based around the church's year, and mixes serious spiritual stuff with the comedy and tragedy of human life as seen by a parish priest.  Coles's compassion shines through, and there's some extremely funny stuff which is instantly recognisable to anyone who's been part of a church community.  Highly recommended.

Fool me once, by Harlan Coben [audiobook]. Read by January LaVoy. [S.l.]: Bolinda Audio, 2016.

What do you do when you've just buried your husband after his brutal murder in Central Park, but then see him on your nanny-cam?  Maya is convinced that Joe is dead, but she also wants to believe the evidence of her own eyes.  Joe's family has many hidden secrets; and Maya's not short of those herself.  This is another real brain-twisting thriller from Coben, who's the specialist in convincing you you haven't a clue what's going on...

Requiem Mass, by Elizabeth Corley [audiobook]. Read by Jonathan Oliver. Bath: Oakhill, [n. d.]

Andrew Fenwick has just returned to work after the death of his wife; he's assigned a missing persons enquiry which initially he feels is beneath him.  Then a teacher is murdered, and it turns out that there is an old link between the two women, and with two or three more.  Fenwick becomes convinced that someone is taking revenge for an old tragedy, and he and his colleagues start to hunt the killer.  This is a bit long, and not all that tightly-plotted; but Fenwick is well enough drawn that I'll look for more by this author.

A mortal curiosity, by Ann Granger [audiobook]. Read by Laurence Kennedy and Maggie Mash. Rearsby, Leics.: WF Howes, 2011.

Lizzie Martin is sent off to Hampshire to be companion for a teenage woman, Lucy Craven, who has just lost her baby, and whose husband is in China.  She is living with two maiden aunts in an isolated house, and Lizzie is worried about Lucy's mental state. So is the mysterious Dr Lefebre, and this opinion seems to be confirmed when Lucy is found crouching over the body of a murdered man, covered in blood; the murder weapon is a knife from the aunts' kitchen.  Lizzie calls on Ben Ross, who comes down from London, and the two investigate again.  This has a cliffhanger of an ending...

The Green Mill murder, by Kerry Greenwood. London: Constable, 1993.

Phryne Fisher is at a dance marathon with goopish Charles Freeman when a man is stabbed right beside her.  Charles vanishes before being questioned by the police, and Phryne is left both to find Charles and to investigate the murder.  This is set squarely in the Jazz Age, with the wonderfully named Tintagel Stone and his band, and Phryne's little plane comes into its own here when she has to track down a shellshocked War veteran who has made his home in an isolated part of the Australian bush.  Wonderfully entertaining, as ever...