It’s September? Blast, that means I’ll be back at work tomorrow – not that us teachers don’t do any work over the summer – but at least some things are sorted. For those keeping check. My leg muscle strain.

seems to be getting better, although it’s two steps forward, one back for whatever reason, and finally the situation with my car has resolved itself. I could write a whole post on this, but basically I bought a car, broke down on the way home, took seven weeks of constant pressure to finally get my money back due to some questionable trade practices. Moral of the story – avoid TradeCentre UK

But you’re not here for advice on where not to buy a car near Coventry, you’re here for my round up of my  reading for August, so let’s go…

• Cabaret Macabre by Tom Mead – the third Joseph Spector impossible mystery novel, and the best yet (not that the other two aren’t great too)
• Coffin Island by Kate Ellis – the twenty-eighth (!) Wesley Peterson mystery and it’s another intriguing intricately-plotted murder mystery.
• About The Murder Of Geraldine Foster by Anthony Abbot – the first Thatcher Colt mystery and certainly one of the better ones in the series that I’ve read to date.
• City Of Vengeance by D V Bishop – a beautifully written historical mystery, the first Cesare Aldo mystery, but more of a thriller than a mystery.
• Death At The Sanatorium by Ragnar Jonasson – a cold case mystery with limited suspects, but struggles to find an interesting solution.
• Crooked House by Agatha Christie – so I finally got round to reading this after being spoiled years ago. Knowing the solution, it seems a bit obvious, and I’ll never know if it’s as shocking as it might be…
• Murder At The Matinee by Jamie West – a genuine attempt, like Cabaret Macabre, to replicate the style of the Golden Age mystery novel, not just the setting.
• Death In Fancy Dress by Anthony Gilbert – a surprising murderer and fun read, but takes a while to get going.
• Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert – first rate classic murder mystery with my favourite clue of the year so far…
• Murder’s A Swine by Nap Leonard – interesting but the humour wasn’t on my wavelength, and the Scooby-Doo style villain didn’t work for me.
• The Theft Of The Iron Dogs by ECR Lorac – the second Lunesdale book following Fell Murder, and the beautiful countryside life bits almost hide the obvious murderer… almost.

Eleven books – bit slow for a usual August, but I’ve already mentioned the reasons. It’s almost twelve – I finished The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham this morning – but that’ll be along in a day or so. Last month, the Book of the Month was really difficult and, if I’m absolutely frank, some of the books that didn’t get it last month would probably have won this month. There were plenty of good reads, some very good, but nothing that blew me away like Leave No Trace or The Last Dance. But tempting as it is to give a posthumous Puzzly, rules are rules…

I think it comes down to three books. I tend to lean away from classic crime for the book of the month, so while everyone should read Smallbone Deceased (and Crooked House if you don’t know whodunit), I’m going to decide between Cabaret Macabre and Murder At The Matinee. And you know what, Tom Mead has already won the Puzzly twice. So Jamie West gets the Puzzly for Murder At The Matinee. It may not be particularly flashy, but it’s a well-constructed mystery with engaging characters, a well-drawn theatre setting and a plot thread that wouldn’t have been in a GAD novel but fits in perfectly and is wonderfully told. I do hope this doesn’t go under the radar and gets the readership it deserves, so why not give it (and the previous book, Death On The Pier – coming soon to a blog near you) a try?

Next month, a load of new books – at least five (!) – the aforementioned Death On The Pier, the second Declan Miller book from Mark Billingham, and maybe I’ll squeeze some more in as well, if my students behave themselves…