A Mystery Medley

No Parm No Foul by Linda Reilly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cheddar Late Than Dead by Linda Reilly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am now caught up on this cozy series by a NH writer. It's a cute cozy series with a dog and a love interest who isn't in law enforcement (just for something different).

The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my penultimate book in this series which is fun and campy and full of fascinating historical detail about Egypt in the the early 20th century. I read the books out of order--to some extent based on which ones were available on audio from my library--and am now reading the ones I missed. Sadly Peters died in 2013 so there won't be any more Amelia Peabody adventures.

The Secrets of Winter by Nicola Upson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have one more book to read  (which came out in 2022) in the Josephine Tey series to be caught up. Hopefully there will be more books to come as this is a really good historical mystery series with interesting characters and well-crafted plots. Josephine Tey was a real person; a golden-age mystery writer who based her detective on a real man she knew. This series includes both Josephine and the detective she based her stories on. The worlds of London theater and film come into the stories which are set in the 1930s.

Series I Would Like to Catch Up On

The Top Ten Tuesday topic this week is "Series I'd Like to Start/Catch up on/Finish."  

I have quite a few series in progress (closer to 50 than to 10) so I don't want to start any more. I thought this week's topic (even though I missed Tuesday completely) was a good opportunity to assess where I am with 10 of my series and try to focus my reading a bit so I complete some of them (at least until new books comes out). They are in order by how many books I have left in each series.

1. Inspector Alan Grant series by Josephine Tey
   There are 6 books in this series and I have read all of them except The Franchise Affair and Singing Sands. [2]
   
   
2. The Josephine Tey series by Nicola Upson
   Upson based her fictional sleuth on the real life of author Josephine Tey and Alan Grant is a character in this series. I have read the first 8 of the 10 books in this series. [2]
   
   
3. Constable Twitten series by Lynne Truss 
   There are only 4 books in this series so far and I have read the first one.  [3]
   
   
4. Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters
   I have been reading this series for years, but have jumped around quite a bit depending on what happened to be available at the library. I have read 17 out of the 20 books and need to get around to #7, #10, and #13. [3]
   
   
5. Vintage Kitchen Mystery series by Victoria Hamilton
   There are 10 books in this series and I have read the first 3. [7]
   
   
6. Commissario Brunetti series by Donna Leon
   Including the one that is expected to come out in 2023 there are 32 books in this series. I have read #1-23 and #27. I have 8 books to read to get caught up with this ongoing series. [8]
   
   
7. Her Royal Spyness series by Rhys Bowen
   There are currently 16 books in this series and I have read the first 4. [12]
   
   
8. Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear
   There are 17 books in this series and I have only read the first 2. [15]
   
   
9. Agatha Raisin series by M C Beaton
   There are currently 33 books in this series and I am only up to #18. [15]
   
   
10. Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson
    There are currently 28 books in this series, with another one expected in 2023.  I have read the first 5. [23]
    
    

I will need to read 90 books to complete all ten of these series. That is basically a full year's worth of reading for me and I like my reading to be more diverse than just mystery novels. If I could finish 20 books from these 10 series by the end of 2023 that would be a good start. 

Review: Fear in the Sunlight

Fear in the Sunlight by Nicola Upson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This novel is a wonderful blending of fact and fiction as Upson takes real people, Josephine Tey and Alfred Hitchcock, and works them into a complex web of betrayals and secrets within a fictional family. The mystery in this novel is a tangle of secrets and identities that kept the pages turning rapidly.

Josephine Tey is the central character in Upson's series. In real life Josephine Tey was the pseudonym of a Scottish writer not known to have had any romantic relationships, with men or women. Upson has created a complex woman whose various entanglements add depth, and often contrast, to the mystery story being told.

"The sun emerged from behind a rare cloud, and Marta watched as the stain of light spread across the hills, transforming each shade of green into a sharper, more intense version of itself. There was no point in saying anything more: it was an argument they had had many times before and would no doubt have again, part of the settling of two lives into one, so she finished her cigarette in silence and got back into the car." (p. 46-7)

I am counting this book toward the Read Harder Challenge in the category of "a book about someone that identifies as LGBTQ." In the 1930s (when the story is set) I don't think the term existed, but there are relationships that are central to this story among several women that today would be identified as LGBTQ.

U: Nicola Upson

Nicola Upson is a British writer whose series of mysteries features Josephine Tey as a major character. The series is set between the World Wars and is a fascinating blending of fiction and biography. I have read and highly recommend the first 3 of the novels and the 4th is on my TBR list now that I know it came out. 

•  An Expert in Murder
• Angel With Two Faces
• Two for Sorrow
• Fear in the Sunlight

 This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise.