From the Book Elf

A Body in The Banjo  by Elaine Spires A Body in The Banjo by Elaine Spires was published in 2025. My thanks to Elaine for sending me a copy to review  and to Rachel for inviting me on the tour. Synopsis It ’ s November 1958 and Dagenham is excitedly awaiting Bonfire Night. Cissie Partridge isn ’ t too keen on fireworks but she generously donates to the local children doing Penny for the guy. Cissie is content with her lot. She loves her husband Harold. She shops, she cooks, she reads at every opportunity and she volunteers at the Dockland Settlement. Observant and sharp, she gets on with all her neighbours. Then, one morning, she finds a body … My Thoughts For me Elaine’s books are the type of cosy mystery books that you go to when you need to read but don’t want to read anything too taxing. Allowing you to enjoy your “Me Time “ without leaving you traumatised at the end of it. Right from the beginning I envisaged a Hetty Wainthropp style character in Cissy and I wasn’t disapp...

Wayward Women  by Rhonda Carrier and Tracey Davies Wayward Women by Rhonda Carrier and Tracey Davies  is published by Bedford Square. My thanks to the authors and the publisher for sending me a copy to review and to Random Things Resources for inviting me onto the tour. About Wayward Women Wayward Women is a unique, searingly honest, devastatingly raw two-person memoir about the friendship, travels and sex lives of two fifty something women finding their way again after divorce. It’s an entertaining, emotional and geographical journey that bounces around the world from Florida to India, Lapland to Hong Kong, as the authors -both leading travel writers - relay their experiences as midlife women – love, loss, parenthood, divorce, menopause – along with the tales of the inspirational women they meet along the way, and the growth of their friendship. My Thoughts I have to be honest I was drawn to the book by the sentence above the title; Sex, Friendship and the Midlife Reset. For ...

Murder in Moonlit Square  by Paul Waters Murder i n M oonlit  Square by Paul Waters was published on 15th January 2026 by No Exit Press. My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy to review and to  Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the Tour. Synopsis When semi-retired Irish nun Sister Agatha Murphy meets Avtar Mehta round the back of his historic Delhi hotel, they form an instant bond over a sneaky smoke and good gossip. Then a street robbery outside the hotel, a dead body inside it, and the disappearance of a pilgrim guest bring the local police to the hotel, determined to close their cases quickly, and with them the Delhi Haveli Hotel. Sister Agatha and Avtar must race to stay one step ahead of the police, the Indian secret service and a hidden killer – as well as keeping their sense of humour through a terrorism scare in the run up to Christmas on the colourful streets of old Delhi. My Thoughts I absolutely loved Murder in Moonlit Square. It is ...

Solo  by Caroline Swinburne Solo by Caroline Swinburne  was published on 28th September 2025 by The Book Guild . My thanks to the author and the publisher for sending me a copy to review and to  Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the Tour. Synopsis Cate was a top musician in a leading orchestra—until a disastrous solo humiliated her on the world stage. Traumatised, she abandons her instrument, retrains as a language teacher, reinvents herself online, and travels the world. Ten years later, after her mother’s death, Cate returns to her bleak Midlands hometown, where she’s drawn into mentoring Sarah, a talented teenage horn player with no professional training. Sarah dreams of making music her career, but her family can’t afford a decent instrument or lessons. She learns by ear, her talent undeniable but her future uncertain. Cate is the only one who can help. When a local amateur orchestra announces a concert featuring the piece that once destroyed Cate’s car...

  Voices From The Dead  by Tony Bassett Voices From The Dead by Tony Bassett  was published on 17th November  2025 by  The Book Folks Crime Thrillers. My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy to review and to  Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me onto the tour. Synopsis The brand-new gripping crime thriller in the popular Detectives Roy and Roscoe series. A murdered beauty influencer. A buried secret waiting to surface. A killer who’s already one step ahead. In the picturesque Warwickshire town of Queensbridge, a retired nurse escapes to her hotel room looking for peace from the chaos of her great-nephew’s rowdy thirtieth birthday party. But to her horror she witnesses a brutal crime from her balcony — a young woman strangled in the room opposite. Detective Sergeant Sunita Roy — staying at the same hotel after attending a nearby wedding — is first on the scene, and quickly realises this isn’t a random attack. The victim, glamorous be...