RogerBW's Blog

The Armourer's House, Rosemary Sutcliff 22 July 2025

1951 historical fiction for young people. Some time in the 1530s, Tamsyn, an orphan, is sent from Devon to live with her cousins in London after her grandmother dies.

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Dead Last, Annabel Chase 21 July 2025

2023 paranormal fantasy, third of a nine-book series. Lorelei Clay's efforts to keep a low profile are going to be in vain.

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The Weekly Challenge 330: Clear Title 20 July 2025

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved string manipulation. (Note that this ends today.)

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Cajole, Jenny Schwartz 19 July 2025

2022 SF, fourth in a five-book series. Nora's new status leaves her learning to play politics in a hurry.

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The Rest Is Death, James Oswald 18 July 2025

2025 supernatural mystery in modern Edinburgh, fourteenth in Oswald's Inspector McLean series. DCI McLean is tapped to keep the billionaire happy by adding some rank to the investigation of a trivial break-in at a research lab under construction. Meanwhile DI Harrison chases down a casual labourer who's gone missing…

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Neighbourly Games 14 July 17 July 2025 - 2 comments

More gaming with nearby friends.

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Chimera's Star, Glynn Stewart 16 July 2025 - 6 comments

2024 SF, fourteenth of its series. Roslyn Chambers takes one of the experimental scout cruisers out in pursuit of the other, which was stolen at the end of the previous book.

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Paladin's Hope, T Kingfisher 15 July 2025

2021 romantic fantasy. Piper is a lich-doctor, a medical examiner who also has the magical ability to feel what a corpse felt when it died. Galen is another of the dead Saint of Steel's former paladins, now working as a general troubleshooter and bodyguard for the Church of the White Rat.. Both of them are involved in the investigation of bizarrely-injured corpses floating down the river…

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The Shortest Journey, Hazel Holt 14 July 2025

1994 mystery. Sheila Malory regularly visits some of the residents at the local nursing home, and one of them has a daughter who's rather too keen on getting a power of attorney. Then the mother disappears…

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The Weekly Challenge 329: Nice Counter 13 July 2025 - 3 comments

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved various string splitting and analysis. (Note that this ends today.)

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Echoes of the Imperium, Nicholas and Olivia Atwater 12 July 2025

2024 steampunk fantasy. The Imperium was created by the Seelie Gods, but fell apart in civil war twenty years ago. Now, Captain William Blair uses his rackety old ship to run cargo between various unfriendly successor states. Because what a ship really is… is freedom.

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Three Tales of Gabe and Rathna, Celia Lake 11 July 2025

2021 romantic fantasy, side stories surrounding The Fossil Door.

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Summer Stabcon 2025 10 July 2025 - 1 comment

Back to the Masonic Hall for a damp and muggy weekend.

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Wooing the Witch Queen, Stephanie Burgis 09 July 2025

2025 romantic fantasy, first of a new series. Felix is the young, widowed Archduke, cowed by his family and waiting to be murdered in the pursuit of power, until he suddenly realises that there's nobody left that he cares about to be hurt if he runs away. Meanwhile, the villainous Queen Saskia seems to have the one kingdom where his family can't reach him…

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Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, T. S. Eliot 08 July 2025 - 2 comments

1939 poetry, descriptions of various cats-about-town.

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Close to the Bone, Stuart MacBride 07 July 2025

2012 police procedural mystery, tartan noir, eighth in the Logan McRae series. A man turns up burned to death, gangland style; someone's beating up Asian drug dealers; oh, and two teenage lovers haven't been seen for a few days. Logan McRae will, ultimately, solve all of these cases…

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The Weekly Challenge 328: Good Replacement. 06 July 2025

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved string replacements. (Note that this ends today.)

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Rope (1948) 05 July 2025

1948 suspense, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, Farley Granger, James Stewart; IMDb / allmovie. Two students commit the perfect murder, and to prove it host a dinner parry over the corpse.

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Bad Reputation, Emma Barry 04 July 2025

2024 romance. Cole James was the bad boy on a soap opera, bought into the image a bit too much, and has being trying to rehabilitate his life and career ever since. Maggie Niven was a school drama teacher forced out by a parental complaint, now starting a new career as an intimacy coordinator. They're both working on the Bridgerton-esque TV adaptation of The Heart of Midlothian.

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Strangers on a Train (1951) 03 July 2025

1951 suspense, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, Farley Granger, Robert Walker; IMDb / allmovie. Tennis star and political wannaba Guy Haines meets a strange man on a train, who seems to know too much about his private life and proposes that they each commit the murder that the other would find convenient. The price of fame. Then Guy's estranged wife is killed…

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Direct Descendant, Tanya Huff 02 July 2025

2025 horror-romance-fantasy. The town of Lake Argen, deep in rural Ontario, seems quiet and boring. They work hard to keep it that way…

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Chimes at Midnight (1965) 01 July 2025

1965 Shakespearean adaptation, dir. and starring Orson Welles: IMDb / allmovie. Falstaff!

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