Book of the Month: February 2024

I am going to be doing my posts out of order and put up my book of the month post, ahead of my review of the short story collection Crimes of Cymru (2023) and my post on my latest Café and Crime outing. Both posts will hopefully be published in the coming week.

I managed a goodly amount of reading in February; 14 in total. My TBR pile is comfortably fitting on my book trolley and TBR bookcase now, so I think my reading speed is just about quicker than my buying speed at the moment. Within these 14 reads there were:

• 2 short story collections
• 2 classic crime re-reads
• 1 biography
• 4 new-to-me authors
• 3 modern mystery novels
• 9 male authors

This last piece of information surprised me as I usually lean more towards female authors. However, looking at my reading for 2024, I have ended up reading more mysteries written by men. I’m not sure why that is, but I have been trying to dig into my TBR pile more. This inspired my reading of mysteries by Bruce Graeme and C. Daly King, this month, for example.

However, the all-important question is, who has won Book of the Month for February. Fortunately, for me it was another easy decision, with one mystery standing ahead of the rest, which was…

… Sepulchre Street (2023) by Martin Edwards. This is the latest book in Martin’s Rachel Savernake series, which has a captivating and jaw dropping beginning. In keeping with other books in the series, the plotting is hard to anticipate, with the story taking unexpected twists and turns. Moreover, the author offers us a challenging victim, upending notions of victimhood and assumptions over a victim’s personal agency. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long until the next book comes out.

Although this is the February Book of the Month post, I received some exciting news on the 1^st March, which was that my book How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel (2023), was nominated for the H. R. F. Keating award. This was an amazing surprise, and it gave me a much-needed mental boost. Fingers, paws, and wings crossed my book will make it to the next stage and onto the shortlist.

I usually round off my Book of the Month posts with a few predictions on what my upcoming reading will be. But this time you will have to wait, with bated breath, until my next post… (although whilst holding your breath, do feel free to let me know which books you hope to read or buy this month!)