I have been doing a lot of reading, which is the great news, but a lot of it is ancient backlist titles of authors I’ve recently gotten into, which is hardly useful to right about. But!

I enjoyed, as ever, the newest Tasha Alexander Secrets of the Nile. It had Elizabeth Peters vibes, which I can only assume was not accidental, and was a good reminder to maybe dip back into that series again. This is the 16th ‘Lady Emily’ mystery and I will confess I don’t particularly enjoy the ‘historical’ mysteries woven in. In fact, I just…skip those chapters. Which is all to say there is no wrong way to read a series you like. The TP of this one is coming in October and book #17, A Cold Highland Wind, will also be released in October.

I always have trouble explaining why I like Will Thomas’ ‘Barker & Llewelyn’ novels since I generally don’t read many books written by men with male protagonists but I keep buying them in hardcover. I was behind on A Fierce Poison, book #13 in the series, but it is good news for you as the trade paperback will be in store mid-April. Book #14, Heart of the Nile, will also be on sale in hardcover mid-April. This one isn’t set in Egypt but the British Museum.

Finally, we were sad at our house to learn of the passing of Ian Falconer, the author and illustrator of the Olivia books. There are eight proper Olivia stories and a few other related books. What I love about these is that there are proper picture books, but also board book versions of many of the stories. That meant they were early favorites at our house and now Penny can read them herself. This is also a great series to invest in the audio books so kids can follow along with the story. This series is narrated by Dame Edna, which makes the audio books fun for everyone. Don’t forget you can support Whodunit through your audio purchases at Libro.fm.