Stacking the Shelves #30

 

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. Enjoy your reading this week :) 

This looked like an interesting mystery series. Set in WW II in Sydney, Australia with an intriguing main character, I was drawn to the cover, the synopsis, and the setting. I bought book one on sale for Kindle and hope to start it this year. There are ten books in the series so of course I had to pick another set of books I can't possibly read at once! But I'll start here and see if it's good enough to continue with more. The author has won an impressive array of awards for this series as well as previous ones.

Traitor's Arrow by David Field (The Medieval Saga Series Book Two)

 

Publication Date: 

April 25, 2022

Length:

222 pages

Summary:

I have always been interested in what really happened in the forest all those years ago when King William Rufus mysteriously died from an arrow wound. His brother Henry racing to Westminster to seize the royal treasury seemed like a cold hearted act to me. Field portrays this from a new perspective using some real historical people and facts and some fictional ones as well. While no one can ever be sure what really happened, Traitor's Arrow manages to give an entertaining story of the rise of Henry I due to the demise of his wicked brother, while also portraying him as a sympathetic character, only doing what he needed to save England and usher in a new era of stability.

Will Riveracre, or as he is now known in Book Two, Sir Wilfrid de Walsingham, having been knighted and land bestowed to him, is content to live out his days with his family. The current King William Rufus has other plans for him and needs constant support to field off his enemies in foreign and domestic entanglements. Wilfrid is unable to have a moments peace when William is king and longs for the day he can finally be left alone in his advancing years. Trying his best to walk a line between his family and his loyalty to the King, he eventually finds himself a prisoner for two years, scared and alone and far from home. When William Rufus meets his demise in the forest with the mysterious arrow and Wilfrid is brought before the new King Henry, he is amazed to discover he has been tasked with Henry's request of finding out what happened and clearing Henry of any wrong doing in the death of his brother.

Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie (A Hercule Poirot Mystery): Read Christie 2024 March Selection

 

Publication Date: 

March 29, 1928

Length:

296 pages

Summary:

This was the Read Christie 2024 selection for March but I didn't quite get to it in time to review that month. Better late than never though, right? 

The story begins with a prologue that seems to purposefully confuse the reader. Shady characters seem to be discussing jewels and the reader can't quite grasp if these are victims or villains. When Book One begins, Poirot boards Le Train Bleu, the Blue Train, traveling to the French Riviera. So does heiress Katherine Grey and Ruth Kettering, an American who is also wealthy but leaving her husband due to the problems in their marriage. She is also in love with another man and wants to meet up with him. When Ruth is found strangled to death suspicion is immediate due to the priceless jewels she was carrying. Her father, Rufus Van Aldin, had given her an incredibly expensive ruby dubbed "Heart of Fire" and it is found to be missing. He hadn't wanted her to take the jewel with her and is heartbroken that it may have been the cause of her death.