This update hasn't been happening recently - I've been dealing with a tsunami of elderly animal health challenges which have just chewed up every available waking hour, to say nothing of creating a severe dose of frazzled brain syndrome.
This time the temptations are made up of soon to be released, quite a way off release, and things I recently lucked upon.
There are SO MANY tempting books around at the moment it's panic inducing in a happy, but equally challenging way - it would be so nice to be able to read / comment on everything but here we are.
Still juggling, still not getting enough books read. Not the worst problem, I've got, but apologies, as always to the authors and publishers wondering why I'm always so far behind!
I think I'm reading too many books at once - so nothing in the just finished pile in the last week but quite a few in the currently reading which are nearly there.
Still juggling, still not getting enough books read. What a "dreadful" problem to have.
The Bookshop Detectives: Tea & Cake & Death by Gareth Ward and Louise Ward (2026 Ngaio's)
The days are definitely shortening now which means the Spring Classics bike racing is in full swing, which means no sleep and a freaked out dog from all the ooing and jumping every time a rider gets into some risky trouble.
This update is bought to you in the aftermath of an Easter break where not enough reading got done. To be honest, not a lot of anything much got done, I started wading through a recently deceased relative's boxes of photos and disappeared down some very nostalgic byways.
This update is bought to you a day early because of the Easter Break which, this year, I hope will be focused on reading, in the spirit of the Norway Easter Crime Tradition. Fingers crossed the weather co-operates and nobody sets fire to anything for a change.
Three Reasons for Revenge by Dervla McTiernan
Still managing to not read enough books. The silver lining of the current fuel price / shortage problems is for us that may mean less callouts to illegal / improperly extinguished fires and a bit of downtime over Easter for ourselves for a change.
Part life story, part inspirational memoir, BLOOM is life from Mary Fowler's point of view. And it's been quite the ride for such a young, talented woman....
I've reviewed this decidedly not crime fiction book over on my Hardcover account.
I hope that, because it's Friday the 13th, my current streak of looking vaguely like I'm catching up doesn't end in a screaming heap.
Took a break over the first week in March so I'll backdate this post but it's not going live until Tuesday the 10th. So the reader need not think they are losing their minds - it's me.
Dark Desert Road by Tim Ayliffe (where does the time go)
Dark Desert Road by Tim Ayliffe (where does the time go)
The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin (2026 Ngaio's submission list & another that's been languishing)
AustCrime Update: end of February - Part 2
Second part of this newsletter - other regions recent arrivals / upcoming releases only. If the first part didn't arrive you can read it online here.
Some snow, some colder climes, some just flat out caught interest.
AustCrime Update: end of February - Part 1
February 2026 and this is the second newsletter from me this month having sent out the Ngaio's submission list already. Rather than include that very long selection here, you can see it on the site or on Hardcover.app if that's more convenient. (I've moved all activity from Goodreads to Hardcover now).
A new idea I'm trying out - Friday Updates of the Reading Queue.
Redbelly Crossing by Candice Fox (pretty well unputdownable)
Old Games by Fiona Hardy (way way too overdue)
Newtown Review of Books recently posted their yearly reader's favourites from 2025, and I was particularly pleased to see Fiona Hardy's Unbury the Dead review in the list.
Which is the perfect excuse to remind everyone that the second book in the series - Old Games is due out late February. Add it to your Mt TBR piles.
In the last few days news of the death of Jean Bedford, after a long illness, has been announced. As a joint founder of Newtown Review of Books, many people will have read her work, or been assisted by her editing skills, over the life of that site, as well as during her time as a much admired author, teacher, lecturer and editor. A wonderful and illuminating tribute has now been posted:
Starting out as I hopefully now mean to go on, a quick mention of my current read - Quintus Huntley: Botany by Royce Leville
When his sole poetry collection is found in the case of a gruesomely murdered violinist, the police think Huntley did it. But he's innocent, and the best way to prove it is to find the killer himself.