Stacking the Shelves #93

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Reality. It's a place to showcase any books I have purchased, borrowed, or been lucky enough to have been given an advance copy of. Hope you find something that looks interesting to you or that makes you remember a favorite book you need to finish. Happy reading y'all!

Murder in Moscow by Kelly Oliver (A Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane Mystery Book Five)

Libby borrow: Free

It's time to see what Fiona and Kitty are up to and I'm excited to start book five of this very unique series. I love the locations, the history Oliver throws in and the humor. Even the name of the "villain" is funny...Fredrick Fredricks. I am sad she isn't continuing after book six but that is because she started a new series which I will probably read as well. 

Death On the Rhine by Vivian Conroy (Miss Ashford Investigates Book Five)

Kindle purchase: 99 cents with points

This is just a nice series set in exotic locations with fun recurring characters. I like the mystery involved in each story and the last one I read set in Tuscany was delightful. I still need to read book four which I already own but this one was on sale so I got it this week.

Ship of Thieves by Douglas Skelton (Company of Rogues Book Five)

Kindle purchase: $1.99 this week

Pirates, kidnapping, a trip to the West Indies....it's hard for me to resist a book like this. Yes it's book five in a series I haven't started but it was on sale and the fact that it is set in the 1700's and heads to the Caribbean has me hooked.  The author has been writing for awhile and won some awards for other books so hopefully it will be well written and exciting. And the main character joins forces with Blackbeard so who can beat that? 

Noteworthy News #11: Tudors Dynasty and Beyond

Looking back in my posts I couldn't believe I hadn't posted one of these since September! I guess there hasn't been a lot of news to impart, but this week I found something I want to share. And I'm finishing three books right now so no time to write a solid review by Friday. This was the perfect week to share about yet another great podcast I've found.

Tudors Dynasty and Beyond is hosted by researcher and historian Rebecca Larson. She has been hosting this show since 2017 and started out exclusively discussing the Tudors. Since then she has branched out, hence the name...and Beyond. It is the beyond part that caught me because I am someone who read and devoured all things Tudors years ago and am more interested in the time periods before them. She has lots of great shows from the last two years centering on other eras.

Her guests have included Matt Lewis and Dan Jones, two of my favorite historians and she has a great style of casual banter with serious content. Books and websites are promoted which I love of course and as I've exhausted the content of some of my other favorite history podcasts this feels like a fresh new start with tons of shows to listen to between audiobooks. 

Her website, tudorsdynasty.com, has great articles, courses, an index of Tudor ancestors, and even a shop where you can buy fun Tudor items. 

If you love medieval history that is presented in an easy to understand way with episodes under an hour to easily finish on a short car ride this is the podcast for you. It's going to cut into my book listening time I'm sure!

Happy listening y'all and happy Friday!!
 

Can't Wait Wednesday: The Case of the Christie Wedding Affair by Kelly Oliver (A Detection Club Mystery Book Four)

 

For this week's Can't Wait Wednesday hosted by Tressa at the book blog, Wishful Endings, I'm featuring, The Case of the Christie Wedding Affair, by Kelly Oliver. I'm still finishing her other series, Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane Mysteries, but want to start on these eventually. 

This series imagines the life of Agatha Christie as a sleuth herself and is all in good fun. In this book, Christie goes to the Isle of Skye in Scotland for a hunting vacation and gets mixed up in a murder. 

Historical Mysteries, Cozy Mysteries

June 24, 2026

Book description courtesy of Goodreads

Scotland, 1930: Agatha Christie is getting married. She invites fellow members of the Detection Club to the windswept Isle of Skye for a quiet break while the banns are read. But tranquility proves elusive when the formidable Lord Blackwood, leader of a hunting party sharing their lodge, vanishes from the moors.

Sharp-eyed assistant to the Detection Club secretary, Eliza Baker, suspects foul play as the strange occurrences pile up: a mysterious grave in the churchyard, a missing rifle, and late-night excursions across the rugged island. There may be no body—yet—but someone at Dunmara Lodge is hiding a deadly secret.

As a storm cuts them off from the mainland, Eliza and her friend Theo must navigate lies, half-truths, and a treacherous landscape... but can they uncover the killer in the stalking grounds… or will the moors keep their secrets forever?

Stacking the Shelves #92

 

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Reality. It's a place to showcase any books I have purchased, borrowed, or been lucky enough to have been given an advance copy of. Hope you find something that looks interesting to you or that makes you remember a favorite book you need to finish. Happy reading y'all!

The Royal Hammer by David Field (Book One of The Wars of the Roses Saga)

Kindle purchase: 99 cents with points

I pre ordered this book a while ago and had forgotten so I was pleasantly surprised when it showed up in my Kindle! This is the first in Field's new series, The Wars of the Roses, and begins where his last series left off....the Battle of Evesham and the fall of Simon de Montfort. I am excited to see how he handles the "three Edwards" and all the drama that goes with them. Book Two is already available for pre-order and is due out in September. It is currently on sale for only 99 cents. 

I love that he is starting in 1265, in chronological order, so that we get a full picture of how things unfold as opposed to starting later on as most books do with this topic. 

Murder at the Pyramids by Jim Eldridge (Museum Mysteries Book 12)

Kindle purchase: Free with points

Put the word pyramids in any mystery novel and I'll read it! This is book 12 so I'd be jumping into a series in the middle but I just might. It looks unique in that each book takes place, well, in a museum setting. And this one happens to really hook me with its location of Cairo and the Great Pyramids. 

Set in 1901 I love that it is historical as well. Abigail and Daniel Wilson, the "Museum Detectives" get involved in the murder investigation of a wealthy American financing an excavation of the pyramids. I'm hoping it's similar to the Peters books from the same setting.

Hastings by Griff Hosker (Conquest Series Book One)

Kindle purchase: 99 cents with points

This author is a former English teacher who has written over 200 books stretching from the early ancient period to modern times. His website, griffhosker.com,  is wonderful, explains the correct reading order and is massive in scope. As someone who loves to read chronologically about historical topics it is a gold mine. This book begins with the Battle of Hastings and all things Norman conquest. I'm not terribly interested in the period before this so I will start with this book. 

Even if you don't want to read them in any particular order, there is so much here running up to World War II, written in narrative form meant to engage and inform. My favorite kind of historical series!

A Sunless Sea by Anne Perry (William Monk Book 18)

 

Publication Date:

August 28, 2012

Genre: 

Mysteries, Historical Mysteries.   

Length:  

373 pages

Series:

William Monk

Book description courtesy of Goodreads

 As commander of the River Police, Monk is accustomed to violent death, but the entrails hanging from the mutilated female body found on Limehouse Pier one chilly December morning move him with horror and pity. The victim’s name is Zenia Gadney. Her waterfront neighbors can tell him little—only that the same unknown gentleman had visited her once a month for many years. She was quiet and dull, unlike the usual fallen doxy; her pillar of support was respectable Dr Lambourn, recent suicide after his government requisitioned report on opium was discredited.

Monk's old superior Runcorn was first on the scene for Lambourn, and now suspects government suppression. Lambourn's beautiful wife Dinah lies about her whereabouts and denies accusations, but Monk must arrest her despite his belief in her innocence. While public, press, government, and a biased judge push for a quick hanging before Christmas, Monk, his spirited wife Hester, and their brilliant barrister friend Oliver Rathbone, search for answers. From dank waterfront alleys to London’s fabulously wealthy West End, the three trail an ice-blooded murderer toward the unbelievable, possibly unproveable truth—and ultimately engage their adversaries in an electric courtroom duel.

My Thoughts

It took me awhile to finish this book. I kept getting sidetracked by shorter or easier reads. I finally buckled down and read the last hundred pages straight through in two days and that made the story more compelling.