#3. More Than 40 Chapters – Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (Audible)

 

This book was announced as a recommended read as part of the ‘Eurovision-themed book club’ on BBC2 Between the Covers (UK TV program.) It piqued my interest when I realised that, though a work of fiction, the book is based on a real incident in Iceland in 1828, where three people were tried and convicted of a double murder. Kent learnt about Agnes Magnúsdóttir whilst she was an exchange student in Iceland, and this inspired her to write a story of the months leading up to Agnes’ execution. 

“Iceland, 1829 – Agnes Magnúsdóttir is condemned to death for her part in the murder of her lover.

 

Agnes is sent to wait out her final months on the farm of district officer Jón Jónsson, his wife and their two daughters. Horrified to have a convicted murderer in their midst, the family avoid contact with Agnes. Only Tóti, the young assistant priest appointed Agnes’s spiritual guardian, is compelled to try to understand her. As the year progresses and the hardships of rural life force the household to work side by side, Agnes’s story begins to emerge and with it the family’s terrible realization that all is not as they had assumed.

 

Based on actual events, Burial Rites is an astonishing and moving novel about the truths we claim to know and the ways in which we interpret what we’re told. In beautiful, cut-glass prose, Hannah Kent portrays Iceland’s formidable landscape, in which every day is a battle for survival, and asks, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?”

 

1829, Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a 34-year-old servant, became the last woman in Iceland to be beheaded for the murder of two men, one of whom was her employer. Set against the harsh winter landscape of Iceland, this book tells of her final months before her execution. As there were no prisons in Iceland, she was sent to live with the family of an Icelandic district officer, on a farm she had formerly lived on as a girl. 

Despite the subject matter, this is a beautifully crafted book, which has obviously been thoroughly researched. It is a tough read, both emotionally and historically. We become so inhabited by Agnes’s tale, that you can’t help but feel an emotional attachment to a woman who was described as "an inhumane witch, stirring up murder." Kent tries to make this Agnes’s story, but all that research means she is also compelled to use the archival material that has been collected, and so there are chunks of a narrative that cut through Agnes’s voice and confuse the reader as to whether they should be rooting for Agnes or not. 

#2. Bibliosmia – A Smelly Book – The Burning Girls by C. J. Tudor (Audible)

 

There’s something about the smell of books that’s really appealing – especially those old fusty leather-bound volumes in second-hand book shops. Whilst I love the smell of old books, and there’s a plethora of them in the bookcase to pick from, I didn’t want to take this challenge too literally. Instead of reading a book that smells, I’ve chosen a book where a certain smell forms part of the story line. 

“500 years ago: eight martyrs burned

30 years ago: two teenagers vanished

Two months ago: a vicar died mysteriously

 

Welcome to Chapel Croft.

 

For Rev Jack Brooks and teenage daughter Flo it's a fresh start. New job, new home. But in a close-knit community old superstitions and a mistrust of outsiders mean treading carefully.

 

Yet right away Jack has more frightening concerns.

 

Why did no one say the last vicar killed himself? Why is Flo plagued by visions of burning girls? And who is sending them threatening messages?

 

Old ghosts with scores to settle can never rest. And Jack is standing in their way . . .”

After a scandal in Nottingham made the Revered Jack Brooks headline news, it was deemed appropriate to move Jack and daughter Flo to a new rural parish in Sussex where they could enjoy the anonymity of life until things quietened down. Flo like any typical fifteen-year-old is not happy at having to move away from the bright lights of the city and all her friends to the rural parish of Chapel Croft, a back water where nothing happens and there is nothing to do.

#1. Locked-Room Mystery – Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney (Audible)

 

I love physical books, so it is disappointing that my first “read” is actually a book I listened to! Over the last couple of years I have become an audio book convert; I still prefer sitting down with a paperback, but Audible makes for a solid walking companion, especially on those dull days when you really need to do your steps for the day!

From Sheridan Le Fanu and Edgar Allen Poe to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, the locked-room mystery, or “impossible crime” mystery has enthralled readers and continues to do so. The reader is confronted with a conundrum and sufficient clues with which to solve a murder. What seems impossible can be answered by a rational explanation, but only if you can keep your wits about you. 

“Isolated on their private island in Cornwall, the Darker family have come together for the first time in over a decade. When the tide comes in, they'll be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. When the tide goes back out, nothing will ever be the same again. Nothing – because one of the family is a killer . . .

As the leaves of autumn fall, Daisy Darker arrives at her grandmother’s house for eightieth birthday celebrations. Seaglass, the Darker’s ancestral home, is a crumbling Cornish house perched upon its own tiny private island.

Every member of the family has their secrets. Nana, alone for so long. Daisy's absent father, Frank. Her cold-hearted mother, Nancy. Her siblings, Rose and Lily, and her niece, Trixie, full of questions and without a father of her own. Daisy has never had an easy relationship with her family, but some secrets are much darker than others. This will be a gathering that some of them won't remember.”

 

Reading the blurb, I was excited to read this novel. If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” this book will resonate with you as there are many similarities that scream “Agatha Christie.” It’s not just the Cornish Island setting and the fact that events take place during a dark, stormy night, but the fact that there is a poem used as an epigraph weaving throughout the course of the novel.

The 52 Book Club 2024 Reading Challenge

 

Time is a strange concept. You think you’ll take a short break from writing, and before you know it a month has passed, then six months, a year, possibly even more. Then the burning question arises - how do I restart my blogging?

To pull myself out of the writing rut I set myself a challenge – read 52 books in 52 weeks and then if it seems like the challenge will succeed, blog about them all. I’ve been partaking in The 52 Book Club’s 2024 Reading Challenge  but with an added blogging twist!

I’m currently on track to get the challenge completed, and so I’m going to share my thoughts about the books I chose to read throughout the year. (As you can see, there are still a few blanks on my list, but once those blanks have been filled, I’ll update the list and add the reviews!) 

The joy of this type of challenge is reading books you might not normally read, finding new authors you love, and perhaps re-reading an old favorite you’ve forgotten about. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed every book I’ve read during the challenge, but I’ve still learnt something from it. I might not like a book for a certain reason, but someone else will love it. Never be dismissive of a book with a “bad” review, if the subject piques your interest, give it a go; you might find you enjoy something you would never normally read. (Equally, just because the book is by an established author people rave about, you might find the book as dull as dishwater.) 

This is how my 2024 Reading Challenge has panned out, there were so many titles I could have chosen, and some that haven’t made it on the list will be read in the future! I hope that this list inspires you to add some of these titles to you TBR pile!