So, it’s been a weird sort of August. A break to one of our favourite isolated spots in Scotland managed to coincide with Storm Floris, and I’ve spent most of the month waiting for a medical test that, thankfully, produced an all-clear result. I was fairly sure that was going to be the case, but I don’t think I’d realised how much it was weighing on me until that all-clear arrived.

So with the need for distraction first and foremost, let’s see how many books I’ve read this month… Sixteen, in total. It probably would have been more, if I hadn’t started playing Zelda; Tears Of The Kingdom. Pesky Link…

Anyway, the sixteen books were:

• Quiet Bones by Sarah Ward – back to Jericho (no sign of Wednesday Addams though) and a strong second book in the series.
• The Judas Window by Carter Dickson – one of the finest locked room mysteries ever written.
• The Final Vow by M W Craven – Washington Poe and Tilly are back – one of the best partnerships in crime fiction – and it’s even better than expected. Best Epilogue Ever!
• Kiss Her Goodbye by Lisa Gardner – the new Frankie Elkins book, with some serious stuff about Afghan refugees and some fun stuff with snakes.

• The House At Devil’s Neck by Tom Mead – another spot-on Golden Age homage. One too many reveals for my tastes to be perfect but some of my other book buddies disagree.
• Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie – always thought of this as one of the lesser Poirot novels and re-reading it didn’t change my mind.
• Tea On Sunday by Lettice Cooper – a perfectly fine detective story. Didn’t exactly excite me, but perfectly fine.
• A Death In The Parish by Richard Coles – the second in the series, and a really good read, despite the mystery being a bit lacking.

• Human Remains by Jo Callaghan – things crank up a notch or three in the third AI Lock novel.
• Ship Of Thieves by Douglas Skelton – not a mystery in sight, but a cracking continuation of the Jonas Flynt saga with added pirates!
• A Measure Of Justice by Mark Sherry – a new voice in the historical mystery genre as we go to fifteenth century Constantinople. Looking forward to hearing more from Mark.
• The Mysterious Case Of The Missing Crime Writer by Ragnar Jonasson – I do wish this series didn’t keep playing up the ties to classic crime as beyond referencing some titles, the plotting has little in common.

• Deadly Remains by Kate Ellis – Another first rate outing for Wesley Peterson and his team. A series that I always look forward to and never disappoints.
• The Cut by Richard Armitage – A really interesting dual narrative thriller. Could have done with a final twist perhaps, but gripping reading.
• Death Of A Peeping Tom by Belton Cobb – one of his best plots, but with some atrocious attitudes. Worth reading but not a great book.
• As If By Magic ed. Martin Edwards – a collection of locked room mysteries, some better than others, but with The House In Goblin Wood in it, so it’s essential reading.

“Now the wait begins for the Puzzly…“

A cryptic message that I received from one of the authors that I read this month – don’t panic, it wasn’t John Dickson Carr from beyond the grave. But it means that now there are at least two actual authors who actually want to win the thing! And it’s only been twelve years…

There ar e loads of books from this selection that you should read – it’d be quicker to list the books you should skip, but even Death Of A Peeping Tom was worth reading. But despite many great reads, there was one that stood out. And yes, I’m being predictable. And yes, he’s the one who asked about it…

Every Washington Poe novel has won the Puzzly except for The Puppet Show, and that’s only because I read that one in the same month that I read Black Summer, the second book in the series. So to no surprise whatsoever, the Puzzly goes to M W Craven for The Final Vow, a top-notch thriller that had me smiling throughout and for a month when, at times, I needed that smile, it was very much appreciated.

Next month? Some of my favourite authors go head to head – Martin Edwards, Victoria Dowd, Micheal Jecks, Nev Fountain… and plenty more as well.