October comes to an end with my least favourite day of the year – Hallowe’en. I’ve moaned before about the fancy-dress-extortion that this encourages, so I won’t again. Hey, I even got into the swing of things with a spooky finale to the month with The Bone Mother.

And before I go on, thank you so much to J S Savage, L C Tyler and Suzy Aspley for taking part in my “Five Books” interview. Very much appreciated, and there are more such interviews to come. And any author with an upcoming book that you think I’d want to review, get in touch if you want an chance to tell the world a bit more about yourself and get a bonus plug for the book in the process.

But without further ado, it’s time for the monthly round-up. Eleven books (so only twelve books in the last two months to hit my annual target) … which will take home the Puzzly?

The books in questions were:

• Death At The Elephant House by Paul Waters – the second Delhi-set Haveli Hotel Mystery. A nice impossible crime, but the pacing was a little slow for my tastes and I felt I’d missed something by coming in at book two.
• Bloodshed In The Bookshop by Simon Brett – another Fethering Mystery. If you like the series, you’ll like this, but perhaps it’s time to shake up the status quo a little, as it felt a little by-the-numbers. But some people do like that…
• Made Up To Kill by Kelley Roos – one of only two non-new releases this month. Not the easiest book to find, unless you have a Kobo, but a lot of fun and I look forward to reading more of Jeff and Haila Troy’s escapades.

• 7 Deadly Sins by J S Savage – seven excellent short mysteries from an author dedicated to play-fair mysteries. And it’s dedicated to me, so please go and buy a copy.
• I’m Not The Only Murderer In My Retirement Home by Fergus Craig – this one came out of the blue. A genuinely amusing and clever mystery with a great central premise. Don’t write this off as another “old folks murder club” mystery…
• The Head Collector by Mark Griffin – ignore the fact that it takes the genius psychologist to point out that guillotining oneself in your basement is an unlikely murder method, and you have a decent serial killer tale, the start of a series.

• The Man With The Golden Compass by Vaseem Khan – Q is back in another spy thriller/mystery mash-up. It probably veers more towards the former than the latter in this case, but it’s a great read nonetheless.
• The Murder Planner by L C Tyler – a great book, easily witty and twisting and turning all over the place. A real winner from Len – who was nice enough to invite me to the book launch.

• The Shadows Of Kensington Gore by Ross Montgomery – the sequel to last year’s Grand Puzzly sees Stephen and Miss Decima in London investigating the apparent murder of a policeman by three disappearing suffragettes. Needless to say, it’s a bit more complicated than this…
• Murder By Prescription by Jonathan Stagge – the second and rarest (?) of the Hugh Westlake mysteries has a central theme of euthanasia and an interesting read, but the murderer is inevitable, despite an attempt to do something clever, and two characters are just… weird.
• The Bone Mother by Suzy Aspley – rebuilding her career as a journalist following the events of Crow Moon, Martha Strangeways investigates the death and disappearance of young women who were walking the Cailleach Trail…

Blimey, I know this was going to be a tricky month – not only a bundle of my favourite authors, but also having not to be swayed by three interviews, one invite to a book launch, two signed books and one actually dedicated to me. Oh, I know none of those were to try and sway the Puzzly – I hope – but it was so nice of those authors, I can’t help but be swayed a tad…

But you know what… I’m really close to giving it to L C Tyler for the outstanding The Murder Planner, but one book really caught me by surprise. I’ve no idea why I pulled I’m Not The Only Murderer In My Retirement Home out of my TBR pile, but it really caught me by surprise. It’s a brilliant read, with characters that you care about, a clever mystery and genuinely funny. So much as you really must read The Murder Planner, The Man With The Golden Compass, 7 Deadly Sins, The Shadows Of Kensington Gore AND The Bone Mother, this month’s puzzly goes to Fergus Craig, mainly because I wasn’t expecting such a delight of a book.

Next month, at least one more Five Books, new titles from Fiona Veitch Smith, Jeffrey Deaver and Andreina Cordani, and it’s probably time to start cracking out the Christmas mysteries…