Death of a Kingfisher (2012) by M.C. Beaton

🦜 Judged from the title, I had, at first, thought this was a cozy mystery (this was my first introduction to M.C. Beaton's, by the way). But of course, I was wrong. This isn't just a murder of a bird - though it was the first murder victim - but several chapters later, it's proved to be a proper murder mystery. Police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth, our main character; a red-haired and hazel-eyed intelligent officer, with little or no ambition of stepping up the ladder of police office career, but is contented to serve in the remote village of Braikie near Lochdubh. He's quartered in the police station with his partner, a lazy laid-back veteran who's always hungry, Dick Fraser. Macbeth reports to Chief Inspector Blaire, who hates him and doesn't hesitate to sabotage his works if need to. 🦜 The kingfisher lives in the woods, which the current local tourist director renamed The Fairy Glen. It was found one day hung from a tree branch, with a noose around its neck. This was seen as an attack to The Fairy Glen, who would sabotage this tourist attraction? Maybe old and wealthy Mrs. Colchester who'd objected to the beautiful serene glen (which she owned) being monetized. But just as Macbeth planned to interview her, she was murdered in a cruel scheme. Money, then, became the suspected motive. But it proved to be a very trying case as one by one Macbeth's suspects or next leads became murdered. I've lost counting after the third, but someone counts that there were no less than nine murders in total! 🦜 Two third of the story seemed to be promising. A complex case with a cruel murderer(s), with a hint of love interest for Macbeth, not mentioning the "office politics" in the police station. However, near the end, the mystery became wilder and out of control. And when the suspects became lesser in number, Beaton put in new ones with more incoherent schemes. It felt like the writer, having started the book quite lovely, had no idea how to end it. The ending was very inconclusive, and I still didn't know how few of the murders had been committed, nor why, nor by whom. It was a heap of confusing crimes. Needless to say, this was a disappointing book from a promising series (it is the 27th, and has currently been running on to 38!) Maybe it was a wrong choice from the beginning? Maybe I should have picked another title? Well, if this is your favorite series, please tell me which one I'd better start with. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge 2026

hosted by Carol @ Carol's Notebook

The Convenience Store by the Sea (2020) by Sonoko Machida #JapaneseLitChallenge19

🛒 This book brings us to the seaside town in Japan: Mojiko, Kitakyushu, where you'd find one of the convenience store chain called Tenderness. Now, while I might not be able to relate to a library - in which many heartwarming stories have been set - a convenience store is my day-to-day existence. You see, I live in the second biggest city in Indonesia, where you won't find many libraries (except in universities), but convenience stores scattered abundantly on almost every corner of the streets. We have three in my apartment building, and they are, indeed, very convenient. From fresh fruits and (not so fresh) vegetables, to groceries; hot dumplings and coffees, to ATM machine, you'll find everything in these convenience stores. Let's say, you're moving to your new apartment, bringing nothing but yourself, well, you can find practically everything you'd need to survive in a day or two - food & drink, toothbrush, towel, even underwear, from these stores.

🛒 The story has no plot, but constructed from several interconnected short stories, all related to Tenderness and the main characters, who works at the store. In a way, you can say that the convenience store is a character itself. The first and last stories are told from Mitsuri's POV. She's a mother of a teenager, a passionate worker at the store, and quite a successful manga writer. Hers served as a starting point of the story, revealing about the store and its workers, and the conclusive end of it, tying the lose-end bits. The rest are told from third person's POV, usually about patrons of the store or families of the workers. They all have struggles in either self-acceptance or identity crisis, but all found comfort from the convenience store - well, maybe not the store itself, but the workers. 🛒 Two of these are brothers: Shiba and Tsugi. The first is a handsome and affectionate manager, whom Mitsuri called the Pheromone Manager; basically a magnetic creature who seems to attract everyone around him. It would be okay if it stops there. But making this Shiba guy a sort of celebrity with a few fan clubs, always being surrounded by ladies when he's on duty - well, it seems very off. Why must the writer create such a perfect character that seems inhuman? It was one element that made me sick, but apart from that, it's a cute and heartwarming story.
🛒 What I loved most is how the store provides a dining space next door to the store, so that customers can buy ready-to-eat food and eat them on the spot. As the store is located on the lower part of an apartment building for senior citizens, it makes sense that it caters the elderly people with ready-made breakfast or lunch. It provides an amazing space for people to socialize, and indeed, many of the characters find comfort and friendship from the cozy place. The convenience store on my apartment building also recently provided a little dine-in space on its second floor, but only a long table by the window with several chairs. But still, it was an improvement. And while the food they sell are not as varied (and delicious) as in imagined in Tenderness, it is convenient indeed. All in all, this turned out to be a book I could well relate to, but too soppy for my liking.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Japanese Literature Challenge 19

hosted by Dolce Bellezza

Pearly Everlasting (2024) by Tammy Armstrong

🐻 Pearly Everlasting is a Gothic woodland story, inspired by a true account of a woman nursing a bear cub alongside her daughter, which was captured by a photographer. Set in New Brunswick, Canada during the Great Depression of 1930s, the story depicted a logging camp dwellers. Pearly Everlasting is the daughter of the cook, and she had been brought up alongside a bear, whom her mother named Bruno. To Pearly, an only child, Bruno is not just a pet, he's her brother. The result was rather unsettling - at least for me. A bear should be treated as a bear. In this story, Bruno is spoiled by the family, so much so that he resembled more of a spoiled brat than an animal - pet or wild.

🐻 All the residents of the camp has been accepting Bruno as Pearly's pet. But one day, a mean supervisor was in charge to supervise the logging, and he hated Bruno. He attempted to buy and kidnapped Bruno, but failed as all the camp residents stand for Pearly's family. Then one day the supervisor was found dead - by pearly, no less - and Bruno was suspected as the murderer. When someone attempted to poison him, Pearly decided that she can't stay put any longer, and brought Bruno away. Tammy Armstrong brings us to an adventure through the snowy parts of Canada, introduced to some eccentric people such as the Song Catcher - a woman who travels cross country to collect folklore songs, and sells them to public. The adventure is also Pearly's chance to experience life outside the camp. The question is, would she eventually return to the camp? And what would happen to Bruno? Could the world normalize a girl who lives alongside a bear?

🐻 The main attraction of the story, besides Bruno, is the poetic style in which Tammy Armstrong wrote it. Unfortunately, that is also the one that put it off for me. Somehow, I couldn't relate to the story (nor the characters). To me, this is a beautiful narration, but void of a warmth which good stories usually bring to our hearts. The idea of a woman suckling a bear alongside her daughter was too much for me - I mean, why? Why not treat the bear as a bear? Is Bruno meant to be the book's attraction - a cute bear cub behaves like a boy? Well, it fails to do that. He's not cute at all; at time he's even annoying. And I couldn't relate to Pearly either. On the whole the story felt like watching a weird movie from afar. And maybe, the narrator (I listened to the audiobook) failed to enliven the story. Partly due to her droning voice, and partly, I guess, because it's half poem and half prose (which I realized, must be quite difficult to narrate). In the end, I couldn't like it; I even stopped listening after 75%. I felt like I couldn't be bother anymore whether Pearly and Bruno made it back to the camp or not.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Call Mr. Fortune (1920) by H.C. Bailey

🧁 Mr. Fortune is a laidback country doctor called Reginald "Reggie" Fortune, who was left in charge of his father's medical practice when he was away. If the "call Mr. Fortune" in title left you the impression that Reggie is so good and dependable a doctor that he is much sought for - well, you're wrong. Actually, Reggie was much a better detective than he was as medical practitioner. Not that he's not a good doctor, but because he's rather sluggish in his work ethic, but in murder cases, his brain work much faster than the police's.

🧁 This book is the first in the Reggie Fortune series, and consists of six murder cases: The Archduke’s Tea, The Sleeping Companion, The Nice Girl, The Efficient Assassin, The Hottentot Venus, and The Business Minister. My favorite is perhaps the first one, with The Efficient Assassin coming on second. I believe the collection's most appealing element is Reggie Fortune's character and mannerism. Like I said, he's a laidback person, often breaking conventions (even when he's with the police officers), but he's also strict in his conviction about justice. No matter who commits the crime, whether it's royalty or commoners, Reggie would do his best to find the truth. His bantering with Lomas, the Chief of CID, is another attraction that makes this book a charming read.
🧁 On the murder investigation itself, I kinda like Bailey's style, combining Fortune's knowledge of human body, his sharp observation, and wonderful deduction skill. I liked the way Fortune obscured his deduction and actions from Lomas, which looked foolish at first, but then applauded afterwards when the whole thing was revealed. The cases are varied from cold blooded murder to mild cases. I originally do not love short stories, but here Bailey succeeded in maintaining the balance, which resulted a thoroughly enjoyable mystery without excessive triviality. I'd definitely read more from Bailey after this!
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge 2026 hosted by Carol @ Carol's Notebook

Six Degrees of Separation, from Flaslight to Little House in the Big Woods

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme, now hosted by Kate @ books are my favorite and best.

On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

This month we start from yet another book I have not read:

0. Flashlight by Susan Choi
A novel tracing a father’s disappearance across time, nations, and memory. One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is ten years old. Shifting perspectives across time and character and turning back again and again to that night by the sea, Flashlight chases the shock waves of one family’s catastrophe, even as they are swept up in the invisible currents of history. This book's theme reminds me of another book deals with disappearance or missing persons:

1. The Stranger's Companion by Mary Horlock

Excerpt from my review: The Stranger's Companion is a historical mystery and gothic thriller which is inspired by real events in Sark, a small island, part of the British Channel Islands, in 1933. The clothes of a man and a woman was found neatly folded on the edge of a cliff, but no one knew whom they belong to. And that's how this story also begins. Here's the complete review.
I won't spoil the whole story to you, but there is an element of children's amusement turned tragedy in the story. And it's that that reminds me of the next book, which has the same element, also as an important key to the whole story:

2. The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden

Excerpt from my review: The titular greengage summer is the summer when five siblings were staying at Hotel Les Oeilletes in a French seaside village. The complete review is here. To go to the fourth book of the chain, I choose the easiest part, by using the word "Summer" in the title. And it's another book I have just read recently, which, naturally, set in a summer.

3. The End of Summer by Rosamunde Pilcher

Excerpt from my review: Jane is a twenty one year old Scottish girl who has lost her mother in childhood. [...] One day in this titular summer, Jane has a lovely surprise - a family lawyer called David Stewart brings a summon from Jane's grandmother, for Jane to come home to Elvie. Here's the link to my complete review.
Again, I will take the easiest way, and pick the word "End" in the title.

4. Howards End by E.M. Forster

Excerpt from my review: Howards End is either Forster's dream or prophecy of what kind of people who should or would shape England as a nation in the turn-of-the-century (it was published in 1910). You can read the complete review here. In the story, Ruth Wilcox inherited a house (Howards End, that is) - "Ruth is the only Wilcox who loves the house as a home, cares for its lovely garden, trees, and all. She values the 'spirit' of the house; while the others only value Howards End as property; they care more about motors, business, money, and luxury." (excerpt from my review). This reminded me of another book, where another woman inherited a house.

5. The Woods in Winter by Stella Gibbons

Excerpt from my review: The story centers on Ivy Gover, a thrice-widowed char woman, who inherited a cottage in the countryside of Little Warby. Ivy's eccentric character is the backbone of the story. She has a gypsy-strand from her ancestors, and it reflects on her longing of freedom and solitude, now that she is in her fifties. And here's the complete review. For the last title, I'll go with another book with "woods" in the title, and so, here it is...

6. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

And so, from a rather sad book about missing person, my six degrees of separation brought me to a heart-warming children classic.


Have you read those books? If you do #sixdegree, how it worked out for you this time?

A Murder is Announced (1950) by Agatha Christie: A Reread

📰 From the first four (based on publication dates) murder mysteries of Miss Jane Marple, I think this one is my favorite. Miss Marple is less "faded into the background" than the other three. She even arranged a rather theatrical performance to induce the murderer to show themselves, so to speak. Much like what Hercule Poirot often does. It's quite surprising, came from Marple, and I liked that.

 📰 The inhabitants of a little village called Chipping Cleghorn (what a charming name for a village!) were not a little surprised one day, finding an odd advertisement in their local gazette: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.’ The early chapters are about several different houses in Chipping Cleghorn - our characters to be - revealing how the advertisement had stirred them. And believe me, after three of them, I could cite the advertisement by heart! The general reaction was exciting; they took it as an invitation for a soiree with murder game as main entertainment. And so, all of the characters did appear at Little Paddock a little before 6:30 p.m., with their own "reason" to stop by.  

📰 The residents of Little Paddock, however, saw the advertisement, and were half annoyed and half amused. That is a nasty prank, who would have done that?! Little Paddock belongs to Letitia Blacklock, a sixty-ish spinster who had worked as secretary to a wealthy businessman. She lives with her companion, Dora Bunner, an old schoolfriend whom she had taken in the year before. A young war widow, Philippa Haymes, is also boarding there; as well as Letitia's cousins she hadn't seen before: Patrick and Julia Simmons. Last but not least, a foreign girl called Mitzi, a hysterical creature but a splendid cook. Annoyed as they all were, they did their best to prepare for the inevitable visits of their curious and highly excited neighbors.

📰 When the clock chimed at 6:30, a succession of events started: the lights went out; a man with a pistol opened the door and shot twice; then he collapsed after another shot. After the men from the guests fixed the fuse, the lights came, and they found the mysterious man dead, while the bullet from his shot had grazed Miss Blacklock's ear. Is it a an attempted murder to Miss Blacklock? But why did the man then killed himself? Suicide out of remorse? Inspector Craddock, who investigates the case, is as appalled as the Chief Constable, when enters Miss Jane Marple, an old gibberish spinster who's visiting her friend at Chipping Cleghorn. Of course there's no further question, it was a murder after all. And not just one, for two more are following as the investigation is progressing.

📰 I remember the excitement excitement of my first reading of this book many years ago. The premise is a clever one: announcement to a murder, then the murder is committed with an audience as eye witnesses. What a daring and cold-blooded kind of murder! My favorite part is when the two spinsters who were guests at the Little Paddock (Miss Hinchcliffe and Miss Mugatroyd) are reconstructing the event (the scene is a bit funny but also thrilling). Although, as usual, we don't get to know the final answer 'till the end, I guessed the murderer correctly! All in all, this was a perfectly-constructed murder mystery (the proportion of mystery and thriller, action and reflection, are so well balanced). I guess I have just found my favorite Miss Marple mystery!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge 2026

hosted by Carol @ Carol's Notebook

Lost Horizon (1933) by James Hilton

🗻 Every time I hear the word "Shangri-La", my head always produces the famous luxury hotels in South East Asia. I vaguely know that Shangri-La is a kind of mythical paradise-ish place somewhere near China. But I hardly know that that myth was brought to surface by James Hilton's novel: Lost Horizon. It is, indeed, a remarkable book - half mythical, half adventurous. And this Shangri-La is actually a hidden place in Tibet, near the Himalayan, where time stood still, and peace reigned.

🗻 Four passengers were on board a plane from Afghanistan, to avoid the forthcoming civil war. They were Hugh Conway, a British diplomat; his deputy, Mallinson; an American called Barnard; and a missionary woman, Miss Brinklow. Conway had shown himself as brave, calm, and resourceful, either during WW1, or his service as diplomat, as was endorsed by Mallinson. So, it is not surprising that when the passengers found out that they were probably been kidnapped - the plane flew off course, and the pilot knew no English - they were all relying on Conway's resourcefulness to be in charge.

🗻 The plane finally crashed on top of a high mountain near the Himalayan, and the pilot was dead; but not before whispering that they need to find shelter at a monastery up the valley. When they were about to prepare for the journey to the unknown territory, there came a procession of some Tibetan lamas, who introduced themselves as lamas from the said monastery. Thence they were brought and rescued, and soon Conway and his friends found out the unreality, as well as the reality, of this place called Shangri-La. Shangri-La is a kind of paradise, but at the same time, it could be regarded as prison. For Conway, to whom freedom, peacefulness, and nature have absolute charm, it is paradise. But to Mallinson, who adored the comfort of modern city, it is a prison. The problem is, there's almost no way out from that hidden and protected Shangri-La. So, what is this Shangri-La, with its quality of utopian tranquility and immortality? To say nothing of it being a cross-cultured between East and West.

🗻 I loved how the story was told by Conway's friend's, who, in the end, did not get hold of all the facts. It just added the surreal aspect to the whole story. Is Shangri-La real? Or is it just hallucination from Conway's side? Did this peaceful and beautiful place ever exist? Or is it a mere dream? All in all, it's an entertaining adventure story, with a touch of mystery, and the certain atmosphere you'd particularly find in every story about Tibet.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2