2018 historical mystery; fifth in Huber's Lady Darby series (post-Regency amateur detection). Our heroes are plucked from their honeymoon to investigate the murder of a nun in Ireland.
The universal system, the one RPG that could handle any setting you could throw at it, was a popular idea in the 1980s. Why then, and where has it gone since?
1946 Napoleonic naval fiction, fifth written but tenth by internal chronology. Hornblower is summoned to deal with a mutinous crew on the French blockade.
1952 mystery; sixth and last of Tey's novels of Inspector Alan Grant. Suffering from overwork, Grant travels to Scotland for a few weeks' fishing with an old friend. But as he leaves the overnight train, he finds that one of his fellow travellers has died en route…
2024 romance/SF/mystery; 59th novel of Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). At a hen party, one of the prospective brides slips away… and is murdered.
2023 Regency romance, third and last of its series. Josephine Brown is a knife-thrower and freelance covert agent, and Elliot Wingate is an agent for the crown. There will be many stumbles on their road to true love…
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved run-length encoding and knapsack-style fitting. (Note that this ends today.)
2023 mystery, first of a series. Marius Quin wrote a successful detective novel, but he's blocked on his second one; so when an old girlfriend asks him to join a New Year's Eve party, he goes along… Naturally, the host will be murdered.
2020 fantasy, middle volume of its trilogy. Being one of the few hugely powerful sorcerers means everyone wants to lure you onto their side.
More gaming with nearby friends.
2015 SF, one of a loose series but intended to stand alone. Something very strange is happening around the top-secret teleportation project…
Back to the boardgame café.
2024 non-fiction. How can theme be effectively built into the design of a board game, rather than pasted on at the end?
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved tree searches. (Note that this ends today.)
2024 urban fantasy, second of its series. Frankie the necromancer continues to work for her dead clients…
2023 fantasy romance, first of a series. Evie is wondering how to cope without a job when she runs into a wounded man in the woods. She helps him, only to discover that he is the Villain who's terrorising the kingdom. But it turns out that he needs a PA…
More gamers at home as the night drew in and a week of anticyclonic gloom (not to mention the real-world sort) broke in just a few places.
2024 mystery, fourth in the loose Harbinder Kaur series. Two sisters ask the detective agency to look into their mother's death, though it was ruled an accident. And it seems that several other writers have also died recently…
The Oxford Meeples had another quarterly games day, and I had a great time again.
2012 police procedural mystery, tartan noir, first in the Ash Henderson series. A serial killer takes girls just before their thirteenth birthdays, kills them, and sends a photograph of the process every subsequent year. DC Ash Henderson is really not the man to crack the case.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved list searches and permutations. (Note that this ends today.)
1991 SF, first in a series. "Star" Svensdotter is in charge of getting the American Alliance's first O'Neill colony ready for commissioning. Terrorists, bureaucrats and a potential military takeover will get in the way.
2023 epistolary fantastic romance. In 1822, Delphine's lover disappears, and she is forced to marry. Several years later her vile husband dies and leaves her wealthy, but that is by no means the end of her troubles.
More gaming with nearby friends, after some breaks for illness.
2021 romantic fantasy. In 1922, Rathna is sent to look into a transportation portal that's shut down; she's very specialised in her understanding of portals, so an expert in other magics is sent to help her out.
2018 anthology of novellas from Stewart's various universes.
2023 Regency romance, second of its series. Cecile Tremblay is a French emigré turned circus sharpshooter, and had an agreeable interlude with Gaius Darlington on their trip to ransom a missing brother. But then he wrecked it all…
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved checking dominoes and doing some floating-point operations. (Note that this ends today.)
2011 contemporary police mystery, fourth in Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series. Stanhope, reluctantly attending the local gym, finds a woman's body in the steam room.
2022 detective fiction anthology. Twelve modern authors present their takes on Miss Marple. No editor is credited.