Book of the Month: May 2020

It has been a bit of a slow month on the blog, clocking in a mere 10 reads. Although one of these was a non-fiction title, which took ages to plough through. So perhaps I should not berate myself too much.

9 of my reads were from authors I had tried before, and 6 were from the 1940s. The only new-to-me author was E. P. Fenwick and her book Two Names for Death (1945). Unfortunately, I had quite a few “meh” reads this month, even from authors I have really enjoyed in the past. Though the least recommended read of the month has to go to Edgar Wallace’s The Face in the Night (1924), which achieves the feat of being both deadly dull and overly action focused.

When it came to deciding which read to make book of the month, I narrowed it down to two books: What Dark Secret (1943) by Juanita Sheridan and Anthony Gilbert’s Don’t Open the Door! (1945). Sheridan is an old favourite of mine and I was intrigued to read this non-series title, which predated her Lily Wu novels and to see how it compared. It certainly has it’s laugh out loud moments and Sheridan delivers a strong level of maturity in her depiction of her characters’ relationships.

However, in the end I decided to go with Anthony Gilbert’s novel, as I felt this title was more surprising and harder to predict. I love how Gilbert can take tropes which are familiar and even well-worn yet use them in such a way that they come across as fresh. You certainly have to keep your wits about you to avoid making the wrong assumptions!

My TBR pile is looking a little less podgy, despite a few new additions to the pile shown below:

I hope everyone has had a good reading month and here’s to June’s books. The blog is also turning 5 at the end of June, so keep your eyes peeled for the special post I have planned. Just need to write it now…