September, traditionally one of the weakest months for the number of books that I manage to read. Term starts, with its usual plethora of distractions as classes begin again and piles of paperwork cut into my reading time. And buying a PS5 probably didn’t help either, as I run around Japan assassinating people.

Thanks to everyone who chipped in to my attempt to derail AI with some fun lies about crime fiction writers – it certainly cheered me up a bit as the Chinese bots distorted my blog stats. Not everyone found it funny though – there’s some very serious responses in with the silly ones – not everyone gets my sense of humour unfortunately…

Anyway, back to my reading for the month – nine books, which actually isn’t bad for September. And those books were:

• Lies And Dolls by Nev Fountain – the return of Kit Pelham and an absolutely bonkers mystery novel as a series of murders occurs, with the first victims being unltra-rare collectable sci-fi action figures…
• Miss Winter In The Library With The Knife by Martin Edwards – a Christmas mystery with bonus puzzles, which shouldn’t distract from the fact that it’s a really clever whodunnit…
• Death In The Aviary by Victoria Dowd – a shot rings out just after the lights go out in an elevator. Charlotte Blood investigates this Gothic tale, while the truth is revealed about her own past.

• The Organ Speaks by E C R Lorac – a rare MacDonald tale and, in my opinion, you’re not missing a lot – not her best.
• Ashes Of Rebellion by Michael Jecks – France during the Hundred Years War. Not a mystery novel, but that didn’t bother me a bit.
• A Matrimonial Murder by Meeti Shroff-Shah – murder in a Mumbai marriage agency in this slice of cosy crime.

• Murder In The Wild Haggis Bookshop by Jackie Baldwin – even cosier this time, and its murder in an Oban bookshop.
• Invisible Green by John Sladek – stone-cold locked room classic. Difficult, but not impossible, to find a copy, but definitely worth it.
• Mrs Pargeter’s Past by Simon Brett – fans of the series will enjoy it but probably not the best place to start.

So the month started well, but diminishing returns as it went on. I’d say apart from Invisible Green, but I actually read that directly after Death In The Aviary but for some reason took an age to write the review. Ashes Of Rebellion is great – fans of the Baldwin and Puttock series from Mike do need to read this for a reason that I won’t spoil – and it does actually have a little hidden mystery in it too – but probably not enough to qualify for the Puzzly.

It really comes down to the first three which are very hard to separate. Blimey, going to have to think about this one…

OK, there is something about the blurb for Death In The Aviary that annoys me and the first real murder in Lies And Dolls happens quite late in the narrative. Hardly deal breakers, admittedly, but… oh, hang on, there’s a coincidence in Miss Winter that bothers me a bit too…

OK, got to make a decision (and this is twenty-four hours after writing the last paragraph) and it’s still tricky… Just to be clear, I loved all three of these books, but I think, due to the fact it completely pulled the wool over my eyes, the Puzzly goes to Martin Edwards for Miss Winter In The Library With A Knife – but buy the other two as well…