Top Ten Tuesday: Mystery books with a reporter as the protagonist.

On March 3, 2026March 3, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading, top-ten-tuesday23 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today’s prompt is: Genre Freebie (Pick a genre and build a list around it. You could do historical fiction featuring strong female leads, contemporary romance set in foreign countries, mysteries starring unreliable narrators, lyrical fiction books in verse, historical romance featuring pirates, Gothic novels with birds on the cover, etc. There are so many options!)

So today I picked mystery books with a reporter as the protagonist.

And no, I am not going to name my own! Ha! I didn’t even actually think of my book when I thought of the prompt. I was thinking of how my family has been connected to newspapers for more than 25 years now, with me having been a reporter for 14 years and my husband now being a reporter and editor of a newspaper. My brother also used to be an editor and reporter.

None of us has been involved in murder or crime mysteries, but we have had to dig information out for stories. I think that is why reporters can be good main characters for mysteries. They are digging for the truth so they have a reason to snoop — that’s the theory anyhow.

This list includes protagonists in any kind of media/journalist field and there may be books or series I haven’t read yet so I can’t vouch for the clean level of every one of them. I’ll let you know if I haven’t read them yet and you may have to do some research on your own if you aren’t familiar with them. I have a mix of cozy mysteries and regular mystery/thrillers.

Jim Qwilleran of The Cat Who series…

I have to start this list with my favorite cozy mystery series about a reporter as the main character. I absolutely love newspaper reporter/columnist Jim Qwilleran and the mysteries he stumbles into with his cats Koko and Yum-Yum. This series is an oldie but a goodie and comfort reads for me.

2. The Replacement Child by Christine Barber (have not read)

Description: Late one night, Capital Tribune editor Lucy Newroe receives a tip from Scanner Lady, an anonymous reader who frequently calls with police scanner tidbits. When Lucy checks out the tip, she discovers Scanner Lady has been killed. That same night, the body of a seventh-grade teacher, Melissa Baca, is found at the bottom of a local bridge. As Lucy and police detective Gil Montoya hunt down the culprits in each murder, they discover their cases are intertwined in the most intimate ways.

3. The Henrie O. Mystery series by Carolyn G. Hart (have not read but very interested)

An online description: “The Henrie O book series is a cozy mystery series by author Carolyn Hart, featuring retired, tenacious newswoman Henrietta “Henrie O” O’Dwyer Collins, who solves murders while traveling the world. The series, which began in 1993 with Dead Man’s Island, combines travel and murder mysteries, with Henrie O investigating cases in various locations like private islands, resorts, and cruise ships.

4. Puzzle Lady Mystery series by Parnell Hall (have not read, but watched the show)

This one isn’t a reporter but a woman who works as a crossword puzzle writer in syndicate for newspapers. There is a show on PBS/BBC based on this series now.

Online description of the first book: When Benny Southstreet, a small-time hustler with a big-time gift for constructing crosswords, accuses Cora of stealing one of his creations, it’s clearly a case of mistaken identity…until Cora’s own attorney files a plagiarism suit against her. To add to the enigma, when Benny is found dead, the police charge Cora with his murder!

At the heart of the matter is the not-so-little white lie Cora has been living for years: assuming the grandmotherly public face of her publicity-shy niece Sherry, who designs crossword puzzles and publishes them under Cora’s name—aka the Puzzle Lady. It turns out that Sherry’s and Benny’s cruciverbalist paths had recently crossed, resulting in the current incriminating conundrum.

As if Sherry’s wedding engagement jitters and a nasty battle over missing antique chairs weren’t enough to deal with, now Cora has to solve the ultimate mystery: how to keep the secret of her identity without losing her life. Because not only does all evidence point to Cora, but someone seems to want her dead. It looks like a riddle with no answer. Luckily for Cora and Sherry, that’s their favorite kind!

5. Front Page Murder by Joyce Tremel (haven’t read but want to)

Online description: This is a WWII-set mystery about Irene Ingram, whose newspaper publisher father has gone to work as a war correspondent. She’s the editor-in-chief in her father’s absence, and that rankles some men in the newsroom. She also ruffles feathers when she starts asking questions about the death of the paper’s star crime reporter. (source www.crimereads.com)

6. A Dash of Death by Michelle Hillen Klump (have not read):

Description: Laid off journalists are a staple in real life, and it was good to see Klump reflect this reality in her book. Samantha Warren lost her investigative reporting job and her fiancé — but she’s starting a new mixology company and is featuring her homemade bitters at an event. Someone turns up dead and one of Samantha’s drinks was poisoned with oleander. This book features lots of investigation and great descriptions of the Houston food scene. (source www.crimereads.com)

7. Off the Air by Christina Estes (have not read)

Description: Jolene Garcia is a local TV reporter in Phoenix, Arizona, splitting her time between covering general assignments—anything from a monsoon storm to a newborn giraffe at the zoo—and special projects. Jolene investigates the murder of a controversial talk show host, who died under suspicious circumstances. Jolene conducted his final interview, giving her and her station an advantage. But not for long… (source www.crimereads.com).

8. The Poet by Michael Connelly (haven’t read, but just a heads up for more clean readers, Connelly’s books usually have harsh language, violence, etc.)

Online description:

Reporter Jack McAvoy is obsessed with stories about murder and death. But when he comes across the work of a serial killer — a particularly terrifying one — it forces him to investigate a story that might make him the next victim. Incredibly plotted, and really … scary. The killer leaves a calling card with a quotation from Edgar Allan Poe. Yikes. Connolly is the master of suspense.

9. White Collar Girl by Renée Rosen (haven’t read)

Online description: It’s 1955, in the city room of the Chicago Tribune. And in walks a woman. A female cub reporter. Can’t you picture it? If that isn’t perfect enough, she refuses to be relegated to society news and manages to unearth some secret information about Mayor Daley. It’s about ambition, politics, and the struggle of smart women in an antagonistic workplace and it’s completely entertaining.

10. Three Words For Goodbye by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

Amazon Description: Three cities, two sisters, one chance to correct the past . . .

New York, 1937: When estranged sisters Clara and Madeleine Sommers learn their grandmother is dying, they agree to fulfill her last wish: to travel across Europe—together. They are to deliver three letters, in which Violet will say goodbye to those she hasn’t seen since traveling to Europe forty years earlier; a journey inspired by famed reporter, Nellie Bly.

Clara, ever-dutiful, sees the trip as an inconvenient detour before her wedding to millionaire Charles Hancock, but it’s also a chance to embrace her love of art. Budding journalist Madeleine relishes the opportunity o develop her ambitions to report on the growing threat of Hitler’s Nazi party and Mussolini’s control in Italy.

Constantly at odds with each other as they explore the luxurious Queen Mary, the Orient Express, and the sights of Paris and Venice,, Clara and Madeleine wonder if they can fulfil Violet’s wish, until a shocking truth about their family brings them closer together. But as they reach Vienna to deliver the final letter, old grudges threaten their
reconciliation again. As political tensions rise, and Europe feels increasingly volatile, the pair are glad to head home on the Hindenburg, where fate will play its hand in the final stage of their journey.

If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.

On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.

I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Book recommendation: The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham

On February 25, 2026February 22, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn book reviews, books and reading, everyday musings7 Comments

This was my first Margery Allingham book, and I was very impressed with her writing style and storytelling.

This book is called by Golden Age mystery enthusiasts one of her best. It is the fourteenth book in the Albert Campion series, but Campion isn’t really in this book as much as I expected him to be.

First, a little bit of a description that I pulled off Goodreads:

A fog is creeping through the weary streets of London—so too are whispers that the Tiger is back in town, undetected by the law, untroubled by morals. And the rumors are true: Jack Havoc, charismatic outlaw, knife-wielding killer, and ingenious jail-breaker, is on the loose once again.

As Havoc stalks the smog-cloaked alleyways of the city, it falls to Albert Campion to hunt down the fugitive and put a stop to his rampage—before it’s too late . . .

This one is more of a psychological thriller than a detective mystery with Allingham walking us through the story through action but also a lot of mental contemplations of four different characters, Campion being one but on a smaller scale.

Our characters are Havoc, Geoffrey Leavett, Canon Avril, Inspector Charlie Luke, Campion, and Meg Elgenbrodde.

Points of views are offered for most of them but not consistently, which sounds confusing, but it really isn’t.

If you have read detective or Golden Age mysteries from the 1930s to the 1960s, then you know there is a lot of what we writers call “head hopping.” The author hops in and out of various characters heads, telling us what each one is thinking in the same scene. These days we writers are told to never head hop. Stick to one character’s point of view per scene. If you want to show the thoughts of another character, then wait until a scene break of a new chapter.

Back in the old days, there were less rules, so authors just wrote whatever they wanted to and however they wanted to and readers just went with it. Sure, it could get confusing,s but if the story was strong enough no one cared.

I found myself nervous through a lot of this book as characters seemed to put themselves in the most precarious situations.

We start the book with Meg and George in a car together, talking about Meg preparing to go to a meeting with a man who insists he is her husband who died during World War II, which ended several years before. The man has been sending her letters. Meg and George are supposed to be married soon, so of course this development is unsettling to them both.

Meg takes her cousin, Campion, a private detective, and London Police Inspector Charlie Luke to meet with the man.

I won’t tell you if the man is really her husband or not, because I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say that there is a mystery involving her husband and a treasure and it is tied to Havoc, an evil man who has killed many, just escaped jail, and will kill again to get what he wants.

I loved opening this book up on my Kindle when I had time to read it and had a hard time putting it down. I hope to get a paperback copy at some point so I can reread it.

There are some really well-written lines and paragraphs in it.

Here are a few I enjoyed:

“He was watching her, trying to appraise her reaction. The face she turned to him was both disappointed and relieved. Hope died in it, but also hope appeared. She was saddened and yet made happy.”

The rumbling ceased abruptly and a clipped schoolmasterish voice remarked acidly: “Very tood of you to bother about my immortal soul, Chief Inspector. I’m afraid I’d ceased to concern myself about yours.”

“Then he dropped lightly to the ground and a smile split a wide thin-lipped cat’s mouth in which the teeth were regular and beautiful.

‘Dad’s back,’ he said, and his voice was smooth and careful. Only the shadow flitting like a frown across his forehead and his pallor, which was paper-like, betrayed his weariness. His spirit danced behind his shallow eyes, mocking everything.”

His beauty, and he possessed a great deal, lay in his hands and face and in the narrow neatness of his feet. His hands were like a conjurer’s, large, masculine, and shapely, the fingers longer than the palms, and the bones very apparent under the thin skin.”

He was a man who must have been a pretty boy, yet his face could never have been pleasant to look at. Its ruin lay in something quite peculiar, not in an expression only but something integral to the very structure. The man looked like a design for tragedy. Grief and torture and the furies were all there naked, and the eye was repelled even while it was violently attracted. He looked exactly what he was. Unsafe.”

When he came to the part which was most important of all to him that night, he paused and said it twice. ‘Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.’

That was it. That was what he meant. Lead us not into temptation, for of that we have already enough within us and must resist it as best we can in our own way. But deliver us, take us away, hide us from Evil. From that contamination of death, cover us up.”

I am looking forward to reading more of this series.

Have you read any of Allingham’s books?

Also, I just found out there was a movie based on this book made in the UK in 1956. You know that I am going to have to find it and watch it!

Top Ten Tuesday: Five quotes from books and five quotes about books

On February 24, 2026February 23, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading, top-ten-tuesday19 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today’s prompt is: Quotes From/About Books (Share book quotes you love, quotes about being a reader, etc.)

So today I thought I’d share five quotes I enjoyed from books I read and five quotes about books and/or reading.

Five quotes I enjoyed from books I read

“When I first saw you—that day in Pont Street, I knew I was up against something that was going to hurt like fun.” ~ The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie

“Christmas, I tell my wife, is not the time to hold back. It is the bold stroke, the song in the silence the red hat in a gray-suit world.” ~ Christmas in Harmony by Philip Gulley

“The public should enjoy what the experts have decided the public should enjoy. That’s the system we use in this country, and we’re going to stick with it.” ~ Dave Barry Isn’t Taking This Sitting Down by Dave Barry

‘”Isn’t it better to have your heart broken than to have it wither up?” queried Valancy. “Before it could be broken it must have felt something splendid. That would be worth the pain.”‘ ~ The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

“She answered: “All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death.” ~ Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

Quotes about reading/books:

“No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.” – C.S. Lewis

“Classic’ – a book which people praise and don’t read.”

Mark Twain

“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.” – Fernando Pessoa

“It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.” — Arthur Conan Doyle

“Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again.” – Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.

On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.

I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.

If you would like to support my writing (and add to the fund for my daughter’s online art/science classes), you can do so here.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

How to read more classics and enjoy them while you’re doing it (if you don’t enjoy them already)

On February 23, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading12 Comments

I recently saw a YouTube video where a booktuber suggested reading just 12 pages a day of a classic to make it feel less daunting for readers who don’t usually read classics.

There are a couple of reasons he suggested this tactic.

One: it gives you time to read slowly and truly immerse yourself in the story.

Two: it helps you pay attention to the writing, the words connected together, the style of that particular author.

Three: Gives you time to write notes about what you are reading or underline a quote that really stands out to you. This gives you time to really think about that quote or section that really stands out to you.

Four: It gets you off a device. Stops you scrolling on “the attention hog” that has trained you to keep scrolling through 30-second to 1-minute clips. Doing this mentally and physically fatigues us. The makers of social media know how to addict us but our mind biologically loves to dwell on things, to feel like it is learning something and this is done better at a slower pace. Reading instead of scrolling releases the brain from repeated dopamine hits.

Five: Creates a sense of patience, self-control, and a “stick-to-it” attitude. As humans we feel a sense of pride when we push through something and accomplish what we set out to do.

Six: It helps to quell comparison to other readers that we need to do; the fear-of-missing-out tendency, the desire to “have read” certain books. We want to be able to say “I have read…” but don’t want to sit and really read something well. Reading this way, we can focus on reading well — taking our time to really take it in and not worry about rushing on to the next book. Those books will be there when we are done with this one.

Extra tips: Doing this at night can help you feel like you don’t have to rush and “get through” your allotted pages before you have to do something else. You can do this with other books, not just classics.

What do you think of reading some books this way? Yay or Nay? What say you?

Source: Tristan Reads Classics. Video: The One Tip You Need More Classics and Enjoy Them.

If you want a fuller explanation of what Tristan was talking about, you can watch his video here:

Armchair Traveler books I want to read and one I did read

On February 17, 2026February 16, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading, top-ten-tuesday21 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s prompt was: Books for Armchair Travelers (Submitted by Laurie C @ Bay State Reader’s Advisory)

I have not read a lot of travel or adventure or even non-fiction books, but I do have a list I want to read so I thought I’d share that list today.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

I actually had this book in my Libby at the end of last year, but ran out of time to read it. I’ll try again this year.

Description: The Appalachian Trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America—majestic mountains, silent forests, sparkling lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaining guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way—and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).

2. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

I will be reading this one in March for the Christie 2026 Challenge.

Description:

“The murderer is with us—on the train now . . .”

Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Without a shred of doubt, one of his fellow passengers is the murderer.

Isolated by the storm, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of the dead man’s enemies, before the murderer decides to strike again.

3. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

A relative recommended this one.

Description:

The women at the center of The Enchanted April are alike only in their dissatisfaction with their everyday lives. They find each other—and the castle of their dreams—through a classified ad in a London newspaper one rainy February afternoon. The ladies expect a pleasant holiday, but they don’t anticipate that the month they spend in Portofino will reintroduce them to their true natures and reacquaint them with joy. Now, if the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers, the enchantment will be complete.

4. Heidi by Johanna Spyri

I’ve always wanted to read this one but have never got around to it.

Description:

At the age of five, little orphan Heidi is sent to live with her grandfather in the Alps. Everyone in the village is afraid of him, but Heidi is fascinated by his long beard and bushy grey eyebrows. She loves her life in the mountains, playing in the sunshine and growing up amongst the goats and birds. But one terrible day, Heidi is collected by her aunt and is made to live with a new family in town. Heidi can’t bear to be away from her grandfather; can she find a way back up the mountain, where she belongs?

5. Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mays.

I’ve seen this movie but have not read the book.

Description:

Frances Mayes entered a wondrous new world when she began restoring an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. There were unexpected treasures at every turn: faded frescos beneath the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyard under wildly overgrown brambles in the garden, and, in the nearby hill towns, vibrant markets and delightful people. In Under the Tuscan Sun, she brings the lyrical voice of a poet, the eye of a seasoned traveler, and the discerning palate of a cook and food writer to invite readers to explore the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her table.

6. Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

Description: To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck’s goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years.

With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. Along the way he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, the particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and the unexpected kindness of strangers.

7. My Life in France by Julia Child

Description: Here is the captivating story of Julia Child’s years in France, where she fell in love with French food and found “her true calling.” From the moment she and her husband Paul, who worked for the USIS, arrived in the fall of 1948, Julia had an awakening that changed her life. Soon this tall, outspoken gal from Pasadena, California, who didn’t speak a word of French and knew nothing about the country, was steeped in the language, chatting with purveyors in the local markets, and enrolled in the Cordon Bleu. She teamed up with two fellow gourmettes, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, to help them with a book on French cooking for Americans. Filled with her husband’s beautiful black-and-white photographs as well as family snapshots, this memoir is laced with wonderful stories about the French character, particularly in the world of food, and the way of life that Julia embraced so wholeheartedly. Bon appétit!-

8. All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou

In 1962 the poet, musician, and performer Maya Angelou claimed another piece of her identity by moving to Ghana, joining a community of “Revolutionist Returnees” inspired by the promise of pan-Africanism. All God’s Children Need Walking Shoes is her lyrical and acutely perceptive exploration of what it means to be an African American on the mother continent, where color no longer matters but where American-ness keeps asserting itself in ways both puzzling and heartbreaking. As it builds on the personal narrative of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name , this book confirms Maya Angelou’s stature as one of the most gifted autobiographers of our time.

9. A Room with a View by E.M. Forester

I have seen this movie but thought I should read the book some day.

Description:

“But you do,” he went on, not waiting for contradiction. “You love the boy body and soul, plainly, directly, as he loves you, and no other word expresses it …”

Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her, until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters she meets at the Pension Bertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney Signora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate son George.

Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of Edwardian England, personified in her terminally dull fiancé Cecil Vyse. Will she ever learn to follow her own heart?

10. Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan

I have read this one and enjoyed it.

Description:

Over the course of her long, prolific career, Agatha Christie gave the world a wealth of ingenious whodunits and page-turning locked-room mysteries featuring Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and a host of other unforgettable characters. She also gave us Come, Tell Me How You Live, a charming, fascinating, and wonderfully witty nonfiction account of her days on an archaeological dig in Syria with her husband, renowned archeologist Max Mallowan. Something completely different from arguably the best-selling author of all time, Come, Tell Me How You Live is an evocative journey to the fascinating Middle East of the 1930s that is sure to delight Dame Agatha’s millions of fans, as well as aficionados of Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody mysteries and eager armchair travelers everywhere.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them, if you did?

If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.

On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.

I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.

If you would like to support my writing (and add to the fund for my daughter’s online art/science classes), you can do so here.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Book review: Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan

On February 5, 2026February 4, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn book reviews, books and reading, everyday musings5 Comments

I’m surprised more people don’t talk or write about Agatha Christie’s non-fiction books, especially Come, Tell Me How You Live, which reveals so much of her witty sense of humor.

Of course, she only wrote three non-fiction books — this one, her autobiography, and The Grand Tour, a collection of her letters and photographs from her 1922 tour to promote the British empire.

Christie writes this book under her full name of Agatha Christie Mallowen, with Mallowen being the name of her second husband and she’s wrong in her introduction.

I don’t read non-fiction often so I wasn’t sure I would enjoy this one but when the opening pages describe Agatha looking for outfits she can wear on her husband’s archaeological dig in Syria and the clerk lets her know they might not be able to accommodate her larger size, which Agatha handles hilariously, I knew I had to keep going.

As Agatha says in the intro of this book, “This is not a profound book. It will give you no interesting sidelights on archaeology, there will be no beautiful descriptions of scenery, no treating of economic problems, no racial reflections, no history. It is, in fact, small beer — a very little book, full of everyday doings and happenings.”

This book does actually include some beautiful descriptions and a few interesting sidelights on archaeology.

Agatha started writing this book before World War 2 and finished it afterward, sending it out into the world to be published.

As I mentioned already, the book begins with Agatha looking for traveling clothes. Her humor immediately kicks in.

“Shopping for a hot climate in autumn or winter presents certain difficulties. One’s last year’s summer clothes, which one has optimistically hoped will “do”, do not “do” now the time has come. For one thing, they appear to be (like the depressing annotations in furniture removers’ lists) “Bruised, Scratched, and Marked.” (And also Shrunk, Faded, and Peculiar!). For another — alas, alas that one has to say it! — they are too tight everywhere.

So, to the shops and the stores and:

“Of course, Modom, we are not being asked for that kind of thing now! We have some very charming little suits here — O.S. in the darker colors.”

I’m guessing O.S. means oversized because Agatha then writes: “Oh, loathsome O.S. How humiliating to be O.S.! How even more humiliating to be recognized at once as O.S.!”

If I have done my math right, Agatha would have been around 45 at the time this trip was taken.

She and her husband, Max, traveled to Syria and Iraq. Max was an archaeologist and Agatha actually met him on an archaeologist dig in 1930, years after divorcing her cheating first husband, Colonel Archibald Christie.

What’s so fun about this book is how Agatha writes about different she and Max approach situations in life, with her being a bit more high strung and him being laid back and acting like everything will turn out all right. Agatha was about 15 years older that Max, I might add, which I did not realize while I was reading the book. I read that while I was researching for the review. No wonder he seemed so aloof and laid back. He was still young and a bit naïve in some ways.

In addition to sharing details of her marriage, Agatha also writes about the quirky men who travel with her and her husband.

I would not be surprised if some of the people they worked with or met along their travels popped up in Agatha’s mysteries.

Mac, her husband’s architect assistant, gets the bulk of the secondary character playback throughout the book and it is hilarious. His full name was Robin Maccartney.

Mac is extremely serious, a perfectionist, and also lacks any sense of humor.

Agatha and Max traveled off and on between 1935 and 1936, with stays in Syria long enough that they had a house remodeled for them to stay in. Mac, an architect by trade, has been designing blueprints for Agatha’s bathroom.

“I ask Mac that evening at dinner what is fist architectural job as been.

“This is my first bit of practical work,” he replies. “—your lavatory!”

He sighs gloomily, and I feel very sympathetic. It will not, I fear, look well in Mac’s memoirs when he comes to write them.

The budding dreams of a young architect should not find their first expression in a mud-brick lavatory for his patron’s wife!”

Agatha shares some of her most savage lines in the book when she is writing about Mac, who almost seems uptight and perfect to be human at times.

It isn’t until he can’t light a gas lamp that he has a meltdown which Agatha says reveals his humanity.

“I steal a glance at him when another five minutes have gone by. He is getting warm. He is also looking not nearly so superior. Scientific principal or no scientific principal the petrol lamp is holding out on him. He lies on the floor and wrestles with the thing. Presently he begins to swear… A feeling that is almost affection sweeps ove me. After all, our Mac is human. He is defeated by a petrol lamp!”

Agatha writes that from that point on, Mac is one of them, someone who can easily get frustrated and swear about it.

Agatha did take her typewriter and some manuscripts with her and writes about working on a book while there. One of their friends, Louis Osman, an architect and member of the archaeological team, who was affectionately nicknamed “Bumps” by the group, and who Agatha simply calls “B” in her book, came into her office one day to chat, but she wants him to leave because she’s in the middle of writing a murder scene.

“He goes into the drawing office and talks to Mac, but, meeting with no response, he comes sadly into the office, where I am busy on the typewriter getting down to the gory details of a murder.

‘Oh,’ says B. “you’re busy?”

I say, ‘Yes,’ shortly.

“Writing?” asks B.

‘Yes’ (more shortly).

‘I thought, perhaps,’ says B wistfully. ‘I might bring the labels and the objects in here. I shouldn’t be disturbing you should I?’

I have to be firm. I explain clearly that it is quite impossible for me to get on with my dead body if a live body is moving, breathing and in all probability talking, in the near vicinity!

Poor B goes sadly away, condemned to work in loneliness and silence. I feel convinced that, if B ever writes a book, he will do so most easily with a wireless and a gramophone turned on close at hand and a few conversations going on in the same room!”

Agatha also tells about the women of the middle east and how they want to get to know her and learn more about her. I was surprised to learn in this section that Agatha had had a series of miscarriages over the years, which may be one reason she and Archie only had one daughter.

There are some parts of the book I found a tiny bit slow but so much of it was so fascinating that I didn’t mind a little bit of slowness

I really enjoyed Agatha’s recollections and her thoughts about the faith of the people compared to the faith of the people in England.

I also found it interesting to read her views on public education, which would probably surprise people today.

After sharing about watching some of the village children play and experiencing every day life she wrote:

“I think to myself how happy they look, and what a pleasant life it is like the fairy stories of old, wandering about over the hills herding cattle, sometimes sitting and singing. At this time of day, the so-called fortunate children in European lands are setting out for the crowded classroom, going in and out of the soft air, sitting on benches or at desks, toiling over letters of the alphabet, listening to a teacher, writing with cramped fingers. I wonder to myself whether, one day a hundred years or so ahead, we shall say in shocked accents: ‘In those days they actually made poor little children go to school, sitting inside buildings at desks for hours a day! Isn’t it terrible to think off! Little children!’”

Have you ever read this one or any of Agatha’s non-fiction books?

A Good Book and A Cup of Tea (or coffee) Bookish Link Up for February

On February 2, 2026February 24, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Link Party, books and reading7 Comments

Welcome to the A Good Book & A Cup of Tea (A Monthly Bookish Link Party)!! This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!).

Each link party will be open for a month.

My co-host for this event is Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs! You can link up with either of us!

Some guidelines.

1. For Bloggers, you can link unlimited posts related to books and reading. They can be older posts or newer posts. These can be posts about what you’re reading, book reviews, books you’ve added to your shelf, reading habits, what you’ve been reading, about trips to the bookstore, etc. You get the drift.

2. Link to a specific blog post (URL of a specific post, not just your website). Feel free to link up any older posts that may need some love and attention, too.

3. Please visit at least two other bloggers on this list and comment on their posts. Have fun! Interact! Get some book recommendations.

4. Readers can click the blue button below to visit blog posts.

5. If you add a link you are giving me permission to share and link back to your post(s).

Please be sure to visit other posts in the link-up and support each other!

Book review: The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie

On January 28, 2026January 26, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn book reviews, books and reading7 Comments

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie is the first of two books which feature Superintendent Battles and in the autumn my husband picked me up a gorgeous copy of it during a trip to a Barnes and Noble about 90 minutes away.

I had looked at the copy the year before so the gift was exciting and I enjoyed reading it as my third book this year.

Anthony Cade dominated the majority of the story, more so than Battle, and I was fine with that. He was a blast and had all the best lines. For some reason, I kept picturing Cade as Hugh Fraser, who plays Colonel Hastings in the Poirot TV show and movies, as I was reading.

From what I have read about this series, this is also where we Agatha readers meet Bundle – real name Lady Eileen Brent, but I also didn’t feel she dominated much of the story either. I read that she is even more in the second book of this duology, Seven Dials, which was recently released as a mini-series on Netflix. No, I haven’t seen it as I don’t a subscription to Netflix.

Sh was a fun addition who I would have liked to seen more of in the book really. So many Agatha fans seem to love her. This is not a complaint in anyway. Just an observation of a character I liked and wanted more of. I believe I will get that in the second book.

This one features a ton of political intrigue and some call it more of a thriller than a detective/crime fiction book, like many of Agatha’s other books. There is also a bit of romance, though, and I found the romance so sweet and the romantic lines swoon-worthy.

A quick description from the Agatha Christie site: A young drifter finds more than he bargained for when he agrees to deliver a parcel to an English country house. Little did Anthony Cade suspect that a simple errand on behalf of a friend would make him the centerpiece of a murderous international conspiracy.”

Chimneys, by the way, is the name of the house/estate – not an appendage on a roof.

Here are some quotes from the book that I enjoyed:

“Detective stories are mostly bunkum,” said Battle unemotionally. “But they amuse people, he added, as an afterthought. And they’re useful sometimes.”

“In what way?” asked Anthony curiously.

“They encourage the universal idea that police are stupid. When we get an amateur crime such as a murder, that’s very useful indeed.”

***

‘Lord no. It’s the red signal again. When I first saw you—that day in Pont Street, I knew I was up against something that was going to hurt like fun. Your face did that to me—just your face. There’s magic in you from head to foot—some women are like that, but I’ve never known a woman who had so much of it as you have. You’ll marry someone respectable and prosperous, I suppose, and I shall return to my disreputable life, but I’ll kiss you once before I go—I swear I will.’

***

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’ve got a plan. But I’ve got an idea. It’s a very useful thing sometimes, an idea. – Superintendent Battle

***

“You understand well enough, I dare say,” said Anthony, breaking the silence. “You know when a man’s in love with you. I don’t suppose you care a hang for me – or for anyone else – but, by God, I’d like to make you care.”

As for the mystery, I didn’t fully guess the guilty party but was starting to get an idea of who certain people really were toward the end of the book.

Have you read this one? What did you think?

If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.

On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.

I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.

If you would like to support my writing (and add to the fund for my daughter’s online art/science classes), you can do so here.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Top Ten Tuesday Bookish Discoveries I made in 2025

On January 27, 2026January 27, 2026 By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading, top-ten-tuesday29 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s prompt was: Bookish Discoveries I Made in 2025 (New-to-you authors you discovered, new genres you learned you like, new bookish resources you found, friends you made, local bookshops you found, a book club you joined, etc.)

2025 was the year my husband I discovered a small bookstore in a tiny village about 30 minutes from where we live, which is sad considering we’d lived here for five years before we found it.

The store features mostly used books, some antique books, and a few new ones.

There are books from all kinds of genres, including a large history section.

The cozy mystery/mystery mass paperback section was the most exciting for me because they sell those for $1.50 each. I picked up some Murder, She Wrote books that I have enjoyed so far. The ones by Donald Bain anyhow. Not so sure about the Jon Land ones. I started one and … well, it was rife with odd writing in only the first few pages.

We haven’t been back since the end of summer but I think another trip there is due soon. I am hoping to explore their shelves for Nancy Drew books which they’ve had a collection of the last couple times we’ve been.

2. 2025 was also the year I discovered Storygraph to track the books I’ve read. I track my books in my reading journal but liked the idea of doing it via an app too. I don’t use Goodreads to track because my mom is connected to my Kindle/Goodreads account and reads a lot more than I do. I can’t find the books I’ve read in the mass amount she’s read so I wanted a place I could track my reads.

Storygraph does that for me. I enjoy logging on as I progress in a book and marking the progress as I go along. It also helps me keep a list of books I want to read.

I’m not as worried about the other stats it provides at the end of the year. I read to have fun and stats aren’t as important to me as they once were.

3. 2025 was when I discovered P.G. Wodehouse.

I have started with the Jeeves series by Wodehouse and have enjoyed the first two books I read. The dry British humor/sarcasm is perfect to me because it fits my sense of humor. That’s probably I’ve often preferred British shows, sitcoms, and books to American ones.

I’m looking forward to reading more of his books this year.

4. I discovered that my new favorite genre is “gentle vintage fiction.”

I would describe this genre as fiction that takes place in a small village or simple location and is written before the 1970s. They are usually books that are almost about nothing in particular. They detail the everyday lives of the main characters and take the reader on a leisurely walk that doesn’t lead to too much stress or sadness.

I would place the Miss Read books by Miss Read and P.G. Wodehouse books in this category.

I have a list of books in this genre that I hope to read this year, including more by both of those authors.

5. Another new author for me in 2025 was Sharon Mondragon.

I read two of her books in 2025 — Grandma Ruth Doesn’t Go To Funerals and The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady.

I hope to read the sequel to The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady sometime this year.

6. I discovered Murder, She Wrote books by Donald Bain in 2025.

They are actually not bad. The books give a more detailed look at Jessica’s personal life, with a lot of emphasis on her emotions as she solves the murders, and also on her being a widow. In the first book of the series, Gin and Daggers, she remembers her late husband Frank quite a bit, and it’s bittersweet to see her spending time in London in the same hotel she and Frank once stayed in.

Bain also included a lot of history of wherever Jessica was visiting in his books.

I haven’t read any of the books in the series by other authors but I will be trying a couple of them this year while also reading Bain’s books.

The attribution for the books is actually Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain, but…you know…there is no real Jessica Fletcher so Donald really writes them. Other authors took over later because he passed away. line up. I plan to read more of them for fun in 2026.

8. I rediscovered my love for The Chronicles of Narnia in 2025 and decided to re-read the series, which I had not read in 30 years. I read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in 2024, but in 2025 I read The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

I will be reading The Silver Chair and The Last Battle this year.

9. In 2025, I discovered more Golden Age Crime Fiction authors such as Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham. I read one by Dorothy Sayers and enjoyed it and hope to read more of her and Allingham this year as well as discover other authors in this era/genre.

10. In 2025, I let go of reading what I thought others would want me to read or suggested I read – unless it was a super good suggestion. I just mean that I worried a lot less about reading what was popular or everyone else was reading and just read whatever I wanted to. If it interested me, then I read it, even if I hated it later. I also stepped out of my comfort zone several times to try a book that looked interesting to me but that I wouldn’t have tried in the past. I definitely plan to do more of this in 2026.

If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.

On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.

I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.

If you would like to support my writing (and add to the fund for my daughter’s online art/science classes), you can do so here.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.