Claire McGowan’s Paula Maguire series brilliantly portrays the long term consequences of the Irish Troubles through generations. This book also explores social attitudes toward food and hunger. After the temporary Missing Persons Research Unit of Ballyterrin is disbanded, cross-border cooperation between Irish police forces of North and South is “back to being intermittent and suspicious.” Among the population of the North, the willingness to help police is often grudging, sometimes entirely absent.

This novella features one of my favourite Perry characters, the redoubtable and now quite elderly Vespasia. Happily married to Victor Narraway, retired head of Special Branch, she accompanies him to a country house to take part in a Christmas gathering. She is aware that her husband has an assignment to carry out, but at first she does not know what it is.

In the Northern Irish borderlands, police forces from North and South work together with the Missing Persons Response Unit, the MPRU, on past and present cases. Undecided about a critical decision of her own, forensic psychologist Paula Maguire can’t decide whether she’s thinking too much or too little. When in mid-winter her unit must search frantically for missing babies and pregnant women, Paula is forced to face her past.

Tutankhamun took the throne at the age of nine and ruled for ten years. Dead at nineteen, he was buried in an enormous tomb that remained undisturbed until 100 years ago when it was found and excavated by Howard Carter and his team.

Ovidia Yu’s most recent tree mystery is set at the end of World War II. We get to know our delightful protagonist Su Lin better and learn of conditions in Singapore at the time.

This third delectable creation of The Thursday Murder club is a perfect blend of the usual ingredients: charming characters, exciting plot, and reliable touches of humour. There’s never a dull moment in the retirement community of Coopers Chase.

On opening night of this play at the small theatre used by Naked Stage in Surrey, there are only a few rows of chairs. The audience members are chatting among themselves — a lot seem to know each other.

For fans of Phryne Fisher, creator Kerry Greenwood’s new short stories provide a fresh treat. Gorgeous, wealthy, self-confident, and a connoisseur of attractive men, the lady sleuth of 1920s Melbourne is busy at her usual occupation. After uncovering lesser mischief as well as solving murders, Phryne does what she deems best, instituting restoration wherever possible.

Priscilla Tempest is a mini-skirted Canadian twenty-something in the conservative men’s world of the Savoy Hotel in 1960s London.

At first Mortimer doesn’t see himself as a likely candidate to win the rat race to space. Though a few, like Celeste, are not keen on the idea of space travel, most of Mortimer’s fellow-competitors were born in the same lab and named after cheeses. Lacking the status of a native of the lab, he feels like an outside contender.

Alexander McCall Smith’s latest Isabel Dalhousie book is a delight. Many of the remnants in the title concern the ordinary doings of the characters. While the lives of Isabel, Jamie and their young sons are quite ordinary, philosophical questions creep in and must be discussed. How do we answer our children’s questions when we don’t know the answer? What should we tell them about God morphs into What do we really believe about God? Should parents impose music lessons on children inevitably goes back into Jamie’s history. He took the lead in asking for lessons, and he also wanted a bassoon. But then, he now plays for the orchestra, so perhaps his case is not typical.

Mick Herron’s latest spy thriller is up to the minute. The fictional shenanigans he’s woven around COVID, Brexit, and internet hate speech are recognizably close to reality.

On a recent trip to Spain, our group visited Gibraltar. The vertiginous rock at the Pillars of Hercules was impressive. So were the Barbary apes who live up there. Posed before the lofty view, one in particular seemed to be saying. “Here I am with the view behind me. You can take the picture now.”

In today’s world of increasing political, social and religious division, it is doubly heartbreaking to read the lyrical unfolding of a tragedy the reader cannot fail to foresee. Thankfully, the writer leave us with a modicum of hope.

In ancient Mediterranean cultures, bulls implied power and fertility. Spain is famous -- or infamous -- for bullfighting. In Barcelona, the bullring has been transformed into a concert venue and shopping area. "In Catalunya, we are kind to animals," the city guide explained.

In Madrid, bullfighting still goes on.

In the late sixties, Bob Dylan sang his ballad of being left by someone going travelling. When she asks if he’d like her to bring him something back, he responds with the sad and romantic request to “just carry yourself back to me unspoiled, from across that lonesome ocean.”

When she writes from her ship to say her return is uncertain — “it depends on how I’m feelin' — the balladeer changes his mind about her original offer: “Yes, there’s something you can bring back to me, Spanish boots of Spanish leather.”

As Reviews Coordinator for Canadian Authors and the WIBAs, I am seeking additional reviewers. Books will be posted to reviewers. The reading period will commence the first week of June with reviews submitted the end of July. If interested, please contact me through the form on this website and I will send you more details.

Set in 1950 as India forges its national life after Independence, Khan’s second Inspector Wadia novel features many of the characters introduced in Midnight at Malabar House. The only female inspector in the Indian police service, Persis Wadia once more works with and against a motley array of colleagues and dastardly criminals.