20 Books of Summer 2025

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It’s nearly June, which means it’s time to get ready for this year’s 20 Books of Summer! Having been hosted by Cathy of 746 Books for the last ten years, the challenge now has two new hosts: Annabel of AnnaBookBel and Emma of Words and Peace. Emma has designed a beautiful new logo – and for the first time, there’s a 20 Books of Winter one for those in the Southern Hemisphere! As usual, there are also 10 and 15 book options.

This year’s challenge runs from Sunday 1st June to Sunday 31st August and once you’ve signed up for 10, 15 or 20 books, the rules are very flexible. You can make a list in advance or read at whim – and if you do make a list, you can change it at any time.

My list

Books for other events or challenges:

1. Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie (Read Christie book for July)
2. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie (Read Christie book for August)
3. To be confirmed – a book for Mallika’s Reading the Meow

Books for review/NetGalley:

4. A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor
5. The Stepdaughter by Caroline Blackwood
6. The Rush by Beth Lewis
7. These Wicked Devices by Matthew Plampin
8. Sinners by Elizabeth Fremantle
9. Strange Houses by Uketsu
10. The Spiral Staircase by Ethel Lina White
11. The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
12. Love and Other Poisons by Lesley McDowell
13. How to Lose a Lord in Ten Days by Sophie Irwin
14. The House at Devil’s Neck by Tom Mead

The rest:

15 – 20. For the remaining six spaces on my list, I’m going to take advantage of the flexibility of the rules and just pick books at random depending on my mood at the time. However, I’ll only count them towards the challenge if they were already on my TBR prior to January 2025. That should mean I’ll be reading a good balance of newer and older books this summer.

I’m looking forward to getting started! Are you taking part in 20 Books of Summer/Winter this year?

The Edinburgh Murders by Catriona McPherson

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This is the second book in Catriona McPherson’s new mystery series set in 1940s Edinburgh, but if you haven’t read the first one (In Place of Fear) it shouldn’t be a problem as both books also work as standalone novels. Those of you who have read In Place of Fear will remember that it introduced us to Helen Crowther, a welfare officer (formally a ‘medical almoner’) in the newly formed National Health Service. This second novel again follows Helen as she carries out her duties for the NHS and becomes embroiled in another mystery.

The novel opens with Helen taking a patient to the public bath house on Caledonian Crescent. As she helps the woman to wash herself, they become aware of a disturbance in one of the men’s cubicles. A man has been found boiled to death in a bath of scalding hot water – but how? Why would he continue to lie there as the water got hotter and hotter? And how could it have reached such a high temperature anyway? Even more worrying for Helen is the fact that she has spotted her father, Mack, at the baths, but when she speaks to him at home later, he tries to deny that he was there. As the bodies of more men are found around Edinburgh, all killed in equally unusual, gruesome ways, Helen becomes convinced that her father knows more about the deaths than he’s admitting to.

When I reviewed In Place of Fear, I mentioned that the mystery only formed a small part of the book, with more focus being on the historical element and the work of an almoner in the NHS. This book is the opposite – the mystery is much stronger, with the first murder discovered in the opening chapter and several more following soon after. The murders are carried out using imaginative methods and are obviously linked in some way, so Helen needs to decide exactly what the link is in order to identify the killer. It’s quite a dark book, but although the descriptions of the murders are unpleasant, they’re not too gory or graphic.

As with the first novel, there’s a great sense of time and place, bringing the atmosphere of Edinburgh’s Fountainbridge area to life. McPherson uses a lot of dialect and there’s a glossary at the front for those readers who need help with the Scottish words and phrases. I found that there was less time spent describing Helen’s welfare work, though, which was one of the things I thought was particularly interesting in the first novel. Still, I enjoyed meeting her again, as well as the other recurring characters such as the two doctors she works for and her younger sister, known as Teenie. There’s also the beginnings of a possible romance for Helen with her friend Billy, who works at the morgue and helps her investigate the mystery and I’ll look forward to seeing how this develops in the next book.

I still haven’t read any of Catriona McPherson’s other novels, although she seems to have written a lot of them! I should probably investigate while I’m waiting for a third Helen Crowther book.

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books that feature travel

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This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “Books that feature travel”.

This will be an easy topic for those of you who read a lot of non-fiction travel books, but as I don’t I’ve had to stick to fictional travel instead. Here are ten novels that feature people going on a journey, pilgrimage or voyage of some kind. I’ve tried to include several different genres and different methods of travel!

1. Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome – J, Harris and George go on a bicycle tour through Germany’s Black Forest in this lesser known sequel to Three Men in a Boat.

2. The English Girl by Katherine Webb – A young Englishwoman travels to Oman in the 1950s, where she meets a female explorer who crosses the Empty Quarter desert.

3. Wonder Cruise by Ursula Bloom – A single woman in her thirties wins some money and decides to spend it on a Mediterranean cruise, the first time she’s ever been abroad.

4. To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey – Colonel Allen Forrester leads a (fictional) expedition up Alaska’s Wolverine River to chart previously unmapped territory.

5. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks – A dystopian novel in which a group of passengers embark on a four thousand mile train journey aboard the Trans-Siberian Express.

6. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce – A man sets out on foot from his home in Devon to visit a dying friend in a hospice five hundred miles away.

7. Strangers in Company by Jane Aiken Hodge – Marian Frenche is on a tour of major Greek archaeological sites when a series of accidents begins to befall members of the party.

8. A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle – A murder mystery set on a cruise liner crossing the Atlantic in 1924.

9. Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett – Francis Crawford of Lymond travels across Europe and North Africa in search of a child who may or may not be his son.

10. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne – The ultimate travel novel, in which Phileas Fogg attempts to circumnavigate the world in just eighty days.

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Have you read any of these? Which other books featuring travel have you enjoyed?

Historical Musings #90 – Reading the French Revolution

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You may have seen my recent review of The Woman in the Wallpaper by Lora Jones, set during the French Revolution. It has inspired the theme of this month’s Musings post as I take a look at other books I’ve read set during the same period of history, as well as some I still intend to read. Let me know if you can suggest any more!

Books I’ve read and reviewed on my blog:

Many of the French Revolution novels I’ve read are classics, including A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. This is my favourite book by Dickens, partly because I found it quite different from most of his others – less humorous and more tightly plotted – and also because it has such a beautiful, heartbreaking ending. Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel is another famous one and I’m sure many of you will know the story even if you haven’t read the book. The mysterious and elusive Scarlet Pimpernel is rescuing aristocrats from the guillotine and smuggling them to safety, but who is he and will he ever be caught? I’m slowly working my way through the sequels and although they’re all enjoyable, none of them are quite as good as the original.

In Rafael Sabatini’s Scaramouche, Andre-Louis Moreau becomes caught up in the events of the French Revolution after taking the role of Scaramouche the clown in a Commedia dell’Arte troupe as part of an elaborate plan to avenge his murdered friend. From the wonderful opening line (“He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad”) I could tell I was going to love this book!

Audrey Erskine Lindop’s 1961 novel, The Way to the Lantern, sadly seems to be out of print, along with the rest of her books. It’s the story of a disreputable young actor who is accused of being both a French aristocrat and an English spy, despite being neither. It’s great fun and if you can find a copy, I highly recommend it. Farewell, the Tranquil Mind by RF Delderfield is also currently out of print, one of his only novels not to have recently been reissued. It follows David Treloar, who flees England after a failed smuggling operation and arrives in France in the middle of the Revolution.

I love most of Daphne du Maurier’s books, but The Glass-Blowers – based loosely on du Maurier’s own ancestors and set during the French Revolution – isn’t one of my favourites. I felt that it didn’t have such a strong sense of time and place as some of her other books, which was surprising considering the setting. Another author I love is Andrew Taylor, but again his French Revolution novel isn’t my favourite. The Silent Boy features a ten-year-old boy who witnesses a murder on the night the Tuileries Palace is stormed and the French monarchy falls.

The final two books I’m going to mention here are books that weren’t entirely to my taste, but were still quite entertaining. The Time of Terror by Seth Hunter is a nautical novel set during the Reign of Terror, while The Bastille Spy by CS Quinn is a fast-paced historical thriller which I described as ‘a cross between The Scarlet Pimpernel, James Bond and Pirates of the Caribbean‘.

To read:

I’ve enjoyed some of Hilary Mantel’s other novels, including the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, so I’m sure I’ll try A Place of Greater Safety eventually, but the length looks so daunting!

Everyone seems to have enjoyed Little by Edward Carey, about Anne Marie Grosholtz, better known as Madame Tussaud. I’m not sure why I still haven’t got round to reading it – possibly because I tried to read Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran and didn’t get on with it. Maybe Little will be more to my taste.

I’m also planning to continue with the Pimpernel series; Lord Tony’s Wife is the next one on my list!

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Have you read any of the books I’ve mentioned here? Which other books about the French Revolution can you recommend?

Cleopatra by Natasha Solomons

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This is a novel about Cleopatra, as you’ll have already guessed from the title and cover! Beginning with a visit to Rome with her father – the first time Cleopatra, then thirteen, has ever left Egypt – and ending just after the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, it’s a retelling of the life of one of history’s most famous women.

Although I love history and historical fiction, Cleopatra is not one of the historical figures I have a particular interest in and I haven’t read a lot of factual information about her. This means I can’t really comment on the accuracy of the book or how the choices Solomons makes on what to cover or not cover compare with choices made by other authors. Purely as a work of fiction, I found it quite enjoyable, especially the parts of the book dealing with Cleopatra’s personal life – her friendship with her beloved servant, Charmian; the development of her relationship with Caesar; and the birth of her son, Caesarion (depicted here as Caesar’s child). Solomons also delves into the politics of the period, the shifting allegiances and power struggles and the changing dynamics between Egypt and Rome. I found some of this a bit difficult to follow and I think including dates at the start of the chapters may have helped me keep track of the passing of time.

The novel is narrated mainly by Cleopatra herself, which allows us a lot of insight into what she is like as a mother, lover, sister and friend. However, there are also some chapters narrated by another woman: Servilia, sister of Cato the Younger and a mistress of Caesar’s (as well as the mother of his eventual assassin, Brutus). There weren’t enough of these chapters for me to fully connect with Servilia on an emotional level, but seeing things from her point of view did provide a very different (and more negative) impression of Cleopatra. I can understand why Solomons chose Servilia, but it would have been interesting if she had also written from other perspectives such as Charmian’s or maybe one of Cleopatra’s brothers and sisters.

The novel ends soon after Caesar’s death, leaving a lot of Cleopatra’s story still untold – her relationship with Mark Antony and the events leading to her suicide, for example. I haven’t seen any indication that there’s going to be a sequel, but there would definitely be enough material for one. Maybe Natasha Solomons will move on to something else for her next book, though; her previous work has included a novel narrated by the Mona Lisa, a reimagining of Romeo and Juliet, and a saga about a wealthy banking family, so clearly she likes to write about a wide range of topics and characters!

Thanks to Manilla Press for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

The Woman in the Wallpaper by Lora Jones

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The French Revolution is a fascinating subject and I’ve read several novels set during that period. The Woman in the Wallpaper, Lora Jones’ debut novel, is another and is written from the unusual perspective of two sisters working at a wallpaper factory in northern France.

Sofi and Lara Thibault are the daughters of a stonemason who dies suddenly under tragic circumstances early in the book. In need of work to support themselves, the sisters and their mother move to Jouy-en-Jouvant, a town near Paris, where all three have been offered employment at the Oberst factory. The factory produces wallpaper with a unique design featuring a woman thought to be the late Mrs Oberst, who died several years ago and may or may not have been murdered. As they settle into their new jobs, both girls are drawn to Josef Oberst, the heir to the factory, but Josef is soon to be a married man, with an aristocratic young wife due to arrive from Versailles.

With political turmoil brewing in France, Sofi finds herself caught up with the revolutionaries and longs to play a part in shaping her country’s future. Lara, however, has other things to worry about – like the resemblance between herself and Mrs Oberst and the way incidents from her own life seem to be replicated in the pictures on the factory wallpaper. Meanwhile, Josef’s new wife, Hortense, discovers that as a member of the aristocracy she could be in the most danger of them all as the revolution picks up pace.

I enjoyed The Woman in the Wallpaper, although I wish authors would stop writing in present tense! I’ve never read a book set in a wallpaper factory before and it was fascinating to read about the process of making the paper and preparing the coloured pigments, as well as the work carried out in the printhouse, where the designs are carved onto the wooden blocks which are then coated with ink and pressed onto the paper. The parts of the novel dealing with the French Revolution are also interesting. Some of the key events, such as the storming of the Bastille and the arrival of the guillotine, are included, but the main focus is on the role of women and how the Revolution seemed unlikely to bring about the level of change they were hoping for.

The novel is narrated by both of the Thibault sisters and at first, even though the name of the narrator is given at the start of each chapter, I found myself forgetting which one I was reading about as their voices felt very similar. Later in the book, as their stories began to diverge, the two became easier to distinguish and this wasn’t a problem anymore. Lara is the gentler, quieter, more mature sister but Sofi, the impetuous younger sister, was my favourite. However, there’s also a third narrator – Hortense, Josef’s selfish, entitled wife from Versailles. Hortense makes no attempt to adapt to the changes in society or to endear herself to the people of Jouy; in one memorable scene, she deliberately hosts an elaborate birthday party for her pet dog, knowing that peasants are starving and workers are protesting. I thought perhaps I would warm to her as the book went on, but that didn’t happen – I found her cruel and heartless right to the end.

As for the central mystery surrounding the images in the wallpaper and their connection with Lara’s life, I found it easy to guess what was really going on, but it was still quite unsettling! This is an impressive first novel and I hope Lora Jones will be writing more.

Thanks to Sphere for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

That Dark Spring by Susannah Stapleton

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One of my resolutions for 2025 was to read more non-fiction books, so I’m ashamed to say this is only my second one this year. Oh, well – I still have more than seven months to add a few more to that total. I would also like to widen the range of topics I normally choose to read about and try something different, but for now, with That Dark Spring, I have stayed within one of my usual areas for non-fiction – true crime.

The crime in question is the murder – or could it be suicide? – of Olive Branson, an Englishwoman in her forties found dead at her farmhouse in a village in Provence. This happens in April 1929, when she is discovered submerged in a water tank outside the house, a bullet wound between her eyes and a revolver nearby. The local policeman and doctor conclude that Olive shot herself, but not everyone is happy with this verdict. Back in England, Olive’s wealthy, influential cousin demands that the case be reopened, so one of France’s top detectives, Alexandre Guibbal, is summoned from Marseille to investigate.

It’s an intriguing mystery! Could Olive really have lifted the heavy cistern lid, lowered herself in and shot herself – with her left hand, despite evidence suggesting that she was right-handed? Guibbal doesn’t think so and quickly turns his attentions to François Pinet, believed to be a lover of Olive’s for whom she had changed her will to leave him the Monte Carlo Hotel, which she had recently purchased. As evidence mounts up against Pinet, he insists that he is innocent and is defended by many of the villagers who are keen to support ‘one of their own’. There’s eventually a trial, but even then a lot of questions are left unanswered. Susannah Stapleton can’t – and doesn’t – give us those answers, leaving us to draw our own conclusions and try to decide what really happened.

I enjoyed That Dark Spring overall, although it took me a while to get into it due to the amount of background information provided in the first half of the book: a history of the village of Les Baux and the Baussenc people; an account of Olive’s early life and her career as an artist; detailed descriptions of the two rival hotels in Les Baux; and a long and (as far as I could tell) irrelevant biography of the poet Frédéric Mistral. Some padding is to be expected in books of this type, of course, but I found that I only became fully engaged with the story when it returned to the central crime. There are some points that wouldn’t be out of place in a detective novel, such as where Guibbal consults an astronomer in an attempt to decide exactly when darkness fell on the night of the crime or where Pinet tries to use the sighting of a car as an alibi and becomes entangled in his own lies.

It’s frustrating that we still don’t know the truth behind Olive’s death and probably never will. If Pinet was innocent and we assume that suicide was unlikely, that must mean someone else got away with murder – but who was it? Stapleton doesn’t really steer us into one way of thinking or another; she just provides the facts and some possible theories for us to consider. She suggests that the police may have been so determined just to pin the blame on somebody that they ignored or failed to collect important evidence, leaving Pinet’s fate up to the lawyers and the jury.

Stapleton has drawn on a number of primary sources and includes excerpts from Olive Branson’s diaries and letters throughout the text, giving it a more personal touch. There are also notes at the end, a bibliography and a list of Olive’s exhibited artworks. I had never heard of Olive until now, so it’s good to have learned a little bit about her. I’ll have to go back and read Susannah Stapleton’s other book – The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective.

Thanks to Picador for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.