June, and the end of term is in sight. Aas is, hopefully, the end of the timetable that I’m producing because otherwise nobody will know where to go and when to go there next year. So as that deadline canters into view, it’s time for a bit of procrastination while I delight you all with my summary of this month’s reading.

Or of course, you could just read the ten reviews and make your mind up – it’s get me ten extra ticks in whatever algorithm our AI overlords use to monitor us – but if you want my thoughts summarised in a one sentence review – fair enough – then read on.

The ten (back to the average but still under for the year) books were:

• Dishonoured Bones by John Trench – a fairly obscure Green Penguin but not worth tracking down. Rubbish.
• Solitary Agents by David Goodman – the sequel to the multi-award winning A Reluctant Spy and, in my opinion, a much better book.

• Dead In The Morning by Margaret Yorke – not a good sign that I need to re-read my review to remind myself about this one – oh yes, pretty good, but could have done without Captain Obvious showing up.
• Killer On The Moors by Priscilla Masters – the first in a long-running series and despite ticking off a few cliches, I enjoyed it quite a bit and will be back for book two soon.
• The Pinnacle by Abir Mukherjee – I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. The lack of sympathetic characters really hurt it for me.

• The Killer In Room Five by Sam Holland – plot holes that you could drive a bus through but an endearing central character and a rather silly but enjoyable plot help carry this. Fun. But messy in places…
• Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney – an absorbing well-written shaggy dog thriller that is mostly all leading the the denouement. One good twist but too many “but surely…” that were answered by “yes, that’s what happened”, rather than surprising the reader.
• Puzzle For Fiends by Patrick Quentin – my book group liked it, apparently (I was ill), so of course that means that I thought it was overlong and a bit dull.

• The Scarlet Circle by Jonathan Stagge – while on the other hand, this one was good, except for the two most irritating children in crime fiction ever!
• The Shadow Step by Mark Billingham – the third outing for the endearing DS Miller. No mystery in sight, but loads of fun regardless…

The Puzzly is a bit tricky as the best books, The Shadow Step and Solitary Agents, were straight thrillers, rather than mysteries – and while there were twists, they weren’t really the “turn everything on its head” sort of twist… The best proper mystery was The Scarlet Circle, but it’s far from perfect.

OK, it’s probably daft, but I think the Right Said Fred joke in The Shadow Step nicks it. It’s a stupid joke – there are a lot of stupid jokes in the book – but they are all told in a funny way. And sometimes you need a bit of fun. And a wobbly dog.