Ah, April. Off it goes, disappearing into the past, taking with it a school inspection, another notch on my “Years Spent On This Planet” chart, and nine books, all read for your delectation, dear reader. I know, it’s an absolute chore reading books in order to tell other people whether they should read them, but someone’s got to do it…

And another nine book month. And while I imagine a lot of people would be pleased to read nine books in a month, it’s the third month in a row that I’ve come short of my target ten books. At this rate, my usual 120 books a year is looking rather iffy… I blame my hectic worklife and definitely not the robot dinosaurs rampaging around my PS5…

Anyway, what were those precious nine books, and moreover, which of them will take home the Puzzly? And before you ask, it’s not necessarily going to be Anthony Horowitz…

• The Case Of The Demure Defendant by Erle Stanley Gardner – the first of two from ESG this month, with Perry dashing to the rescue of a suspect who, rather unwisely, confessed to a murder while under the influence of a truth drug. Awkward!
• Four-Ply Yarn by Miles Burton – A great example of a wartime whodunnit, with Desmond Merrion balancing his duties as an espionage officer with the need to bring a killer to justice.
• The Spirit Guide by Bridget Walsh – the third in a series of murders set around the Victorian music halls. An interesting book, best read, I think, as part of the series.

• The Dead Can Tell by Helen Reilly – the first of two book club reads and definitely the lesser of the two. An irritating narrator really doesn’t help a fairly flat mystery.
• Treaty Of Blood by Michael Jecks – not really a mystery (although there is one) but an absorbing continuation of Jecks’ Vintaine series. Again, best read as part of a series, but still an absorbing read.
• The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver – the first Colter Shaw thriller. I don’t think the ending is his best, but it’s a fun ride getting to it.

• A Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz – of course it’s won the Puzzly. It’s fantastic.
• Beware The Curves by A A Fair – aka Erle Stanley Gardner again. A decent enough intro to Cool and Lam but maybe I need to go back to the beginning of the series.
• A Thief’s Revenge by Douglas Skelton – massively recommended for fans of historical series. Not a mystery per se – hence no Puzzly – but  this series of books is just outstanding.

So, it’s Horowitz’s Puzzly. Easy peasy. A clever mystery that fooled me, despite all the clues being right there. Plus it’s funny. Couldn’t ask for anything more…