Frogs for Watchdogs by Sean Farrell

I fell into this book, charmed by the small boy narrator, my head making his Irish accent.  I loved the countryside life, the single mum struggles, the wise older sister, and the elderly neighbour friend of the boy.  And the boy felt real, which is always difficult to capture I think, but I totally believed in his character.  I also enjoyed the darker side to the story (and felt very anxious for many chapters), and that added mystery/suspense side added a lot to the story, making the final, gentle slow approaching finale hit home with a bigger impact.  It does meander, as a tale, and it doesn't get anywhere quickly, but if you're in the right mood for that then it's just perfect.

With thanks to the publishers, and to Net Galley, for my copy.

October books catch-up

 

When the world is a hot mess, I find safety and comfort in Alexander McCall Smith's stories, so 'In a time of pumpkins' was a nice start to the month.
'How to get away with murder' by Rebecca Philipson was great all the way until the disappointing end, though looking at Goodreads I am in the minority on this so maybe focus on the fact that I raced through the rest of it happily enough!
I thoroughly enjoyed 'The impossible fortune' by Richard Osman, which was much less tragic than the last one. (I have bought into the idea of Celia Imrie as Joyce, but the whole Pierce Brosnan is Ron business is nonsense. But anyway, just read the books!)
'Alea Aquarius, The water's call' by Tanya Stewner was VERY exciting to read because Tanya is my friend! We lived together in London many years ago, and she always said she was going to be a writer, and now she is a hugely popular children's author in Germany. This is the first book to be translated, thank goodness, because my GCSE German was never going to manage a novel. It's an exciting adventure story with interesting characters, and I loved it!
'A body at the Christmas Book Fair' by Helen Cox sounded hugely promising because it is a librarian-turned-private investigator! This is quite some way into the series, though, so I felt a little left out not knowing the characters or the origin story. It was a spooky start, so intriguing and an easy read.
'Love Lane' by Patrick Gale is just gorgeous. I loved the characters, I was completely caught up in their stories. Wonderful.
'The ending writes itself' by Evelyn Clarke. I hadn't realised, as I read it, there was a lot of buzz about this or that it was co-authored. It explains why I sometimes felt like I was reading two stories. It was another where I really enjoyed it until the end. I thought it was going to do something much cleverer than it did. But still, lots of it was good, and maybe my ending expectations are too high!