While Miz Kittling Knits: The Brokenwood Mysteries

With the sound of rain outside my window, I thought now would be a good time to tell you about more of my knitting and watching crime programs on television. It's a much better thing to do than wish we had an electronic gate on our driveway so Denis won't drown when he comes home. (Or get blown away. It's windy out there, too!)

Taking up knitting again after a few decades has complicated something for me. Now I have to plan which books and which knitting project(s) come along with me when Denis and I go on vacation.

Since our recent road trip down to Bisbee meant that we weren't traveling by air, I could take my entire knitting basket along, and it looked right at home by my chair. (We won't discuss the thirty new skeins of yarn that came home with us....)

I've surprised myself. I'm the type of person who's never liked too much folderol. No yards of ruffles and lace for me! Then why have I become fascinated with knitting lace? It doesn't make sense, but I'm doing it and it's all because I found some yarn that I fell in love with. It's Michaels' Loops and Threads Payette yarn in a color called "Mirror." It's a fine weight black yarn with multi-colored metallic threads and sequins. To me, it looks as though a fisherman cast his net across the night sky and brought in a gorgeous catch of stars. It's also difficult to photograph in such a way that you can see what I mean!

It's probably best if you click on the photo so you can see it full size. Even though it doesn't do the yarn justice you'll still be able to see more detail.

The pattern that I'm using is free, and it's called "Little Leaves Lace Wrap." I've learned a lesson or two about these free patterns you can find online: it's not unusual for them to contain mistakes. When you're not yet adept at knitting, you can't always figure out how to correct the mistakes you find. In this instance, I had to rip the thing down four or five times before I finally found the proper needle size to use. Since I'm not known for my patience, this says a lot about how much I love this yarn!

This wrap is quite stretchy and can be used either as a shawl or as a scarf. The only way I could even try to show you the pattern is by putting part of it on my blocking boards to stretch it out to its proper size. By doing this, I learned another lesson: I'm going to have to be very careful when I'm actually blocking the whole thing. It's going to be tricky, but I'm certainly enjoying working on it-- even though I don't have a clue as to whom I will be giving it to!

And what have I been watching while knitting my lace?  It's another program on Acorn TV which advertises itself as showing "the best in British television." You can sign up for a free month if you're interested in this gold mine. (I'm just a very happy customer and not affiliated with the company in any way.) 

I happened across The Brokenwood Mysteries, and when I found out that the series is filmed in New Zealand, I had to take a look. 

In the photo to the right, the man in the suit and tie standing by the white board is Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Shepherd, who's been assigned to small-town Brokenwood. He's divorced and takes a lot of good-natured ribbing from his second-in-command Kristin Sims (the blonde in the photo above) about his love for his ancient (er...make that "classic") car and his passion for country music. Constable Breen (the young man sitting at the desk) and a young Maori named Jared round out the cast of regular characters.

What grabbed me from the start (besides the character of Shepherd) are the stories. There's some very good writing here. Normally I can easily figure out whodunit within a matter of minutes, but not with this series, and you know I have to love that. Watching the way Shepherd solves crimes is a treat, too.

There's some humor, some sadness, and I'm gradually becoming used to hearing Kiwi accents, which were a bit jarring after all the English, Scottish, and Irish ones I've listened to for years.  I will admit to being a bit disappointed with the lack of actually being able to see New Zealand in the first series, but the second rectified that in short order. 

So far, there are two seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries available on Acorn TV, and I hope there are more. If you get a chance to watch this series, I hope you will. I think you'll like it.

Are there any of you out there who've seen this series? What did you think of it? Inquiring minds would love to know! 


 

The One-Armed Paperhanger Weekly Link Round-Up

You know...sometimes there's just not much going on that's interesting enough to talk about, and that's the case here at Casa Kittling. I don't think you want a blow-by-blow of my cleaning, sorting, and reorganizing, and the fact that I've been seeing birds gathering nesting material isn't enough to gab about at length, so...

I hear those links getting restless out in the corral. Head 'em up! Mooooooooove 'em out!

►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• What will libraries be like in 2100?
• Two novelists receive Oscar nominations. 
• Germans still prefer a good book to Netflix and Spotify. 
• When Val McDermid was here in Scottsdale, I didn't realize that she'd just been burgled! 
• Researchers are developing a revolutionary Braille tablet for the blind. 
• Alan Rickman in one of the best films about grief. 
• This library is purging user records to protect your privacy. 
• Egypt is launching a massive digital library. 
• The gap between Star Trek Beyond and the other films, according to Karl Urban. 
• Penguin has ditched the degree requirement for their job applicants. 
• A new CBS television series will have an actress of color play a grown-up version of the teenage sleuth Nancy Drew.
• Amazon is shutting down Shelfari. 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Outstanding Roman relics have been discovered along the side of the A1 roadway in Yorkshire, England. (All those times Denis and I have been on that road and didn't know what we were driving past!)  
• A team of archaeologists in Honduras has unearthed ceramics at the "White City" site. 
• There are several small islands around New York City, and some of them were once for undesirables-- like Roosevelt Island. 
• A fascinating look at the forgotten Art Deco artifacts of the New Yorker Hotel. 
• The earliest evidence of violent human conflict has been discovered.

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• 18 squirrels become supermodels in a man's backyard. 

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• The Salem Witch Trials execution site has been found, and you won't believe where it is.  
• Get a big view of the world's largest miniature train set. 
• Wanted: A royal housekeeper for the Palace of Holyroodhouse. 
• Harry Potter fans can attend a real-life Hogwarts. 
• The unexpected beauty hiding inside America's last fabric factories. 
• Take a trip through Edgar Allan Poe's America.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The German teens who rebelled against Hitler.  
• You just can't make this stuff up: A woman accidentally joins a search party looking for herself.
• Raoul Wallenberg's biographer has uncovered important clues to what happened in his final days. 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 5 things every author needs to understand about book cover design.
• 6 literary characters Alan Rickman brought to life. 
• 10 facts about Zelda Fitzgerald.
• The inspiring homes of 10 legendary artists.
• 5 steps to raising children who like books more than screens. 

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend, and read something fabulous!

 

This Thing of Darkness by Harry Bingham

First Line: Rain.

Fiona Griffiths has been tasked with two things: passing her sergeant's exam with flying colors and logging evidence to help fill in for someone on medical leave. She couldn't be less concerned about her exam, and the monotony of evidence tracking is driving her around the bend. In desperation, she goes to her boss and is given a big stack of cold cases-- anything to keep her quiet.

But as Fiona goes through those cold case files, she begins to piece the tiniest of clues together. A marine engineer found hanged in a locked apartment. A security guard found dead at the base of a cliff in Wales. Artwork that's stolen and then mysteriously returned. What connects the three? Only Fiona believes they are connected, and in her usual inimitable style goes about piecing the facts together to prove that she's right. Her investigating is going to bring her right into the heart of darkness, and her journey is going to be the ultimate test of her mental toughness.

Whenever I see those "all-time favorite" book lists, I avoid them like the plague. I just don't feel like putting all the books that have touched me deeply into an organized and rated row. (Yes, it is a lot like asking a mother to name her favorite child.) However, if someone asked me to name the best mystery series being written today, without hesitation I would say Harry Bingham's Fiona Griffiths. To date, there are four books, and I have given all four the highest possible rating. I can't say that about any other author I've read.

Yes, the setting of Wales adds texture and richness to the books. Yes, the mysteries are some of the most intriguing you'll ever come across. Yes, the pacing draws you inevitably forward, faster and faster. You have to know what happens, and you have to know now. But the best and brightest thing about Harry Bingham's superb series is the main character, Fiona Griffths.

At one time Fiona suffered from Cotard's syndrome, a rare mental illness in which an afflicted person holds the delusion that they are dead, either figuratively or literally. Fiona is one of the brightest people you'll ever run across, but Cotard's syndrome has colored every aspect of her life, and most especially in the way she interacts with other people. As can be seen in This Thing of Darkness, Fiona now has two superior officers who--though they may not really understand her-- can see her almost limitless potential as an investigator. To the best of their ability, they are now trying to groom her for bigger and better things. Will Fiona cooperate? Your guess is as good as mine.

I will warn you that this book does contain scenes of torture, and they do involve Fiona. They are tough to deal with but not impossible because we see these scenes through Fiona's eyes... those eyes that do not see the world as we do. There are also scenes of humor that bring needed warmth and laughter to the book, as when Fiona and Inspector Watkins conduct an interview together.

As different as Fiona is, she can also be very familiar. When she says, "Just when I see a barrier saying Do Not Cross, I have an almost overwhelming impulse to cross it," I understand because I've felt the same way many times.

Harry Bingham is the first writer who's been able to write scenes that take place on board ship that made me seasick, so be forewarned. He also made me nervous about a purchase Fiona made-- an uneasy foreshadowing of what's to come in book five, The Dead House? Unfortunately I'll just have to wait and see.

If you haven't read any of the books in this series, I urge you to do so, and you need to start with the very first book, Talking to the Dead.  If you do that, Fiona will make sense-- and then you will be as hopelessly hooked as I am. Fiona Griffiths is as wild and wonderful in her own way as Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander is in hers. I can't recommend Fiona-- or this entire series-- highly enough.
  

This Thing of Darkness by Harry Bingham

eISBN: 2940152156331
Sheep Street Books © 2015
eBook, 576 pages

Police Procedural, #4 Fiona Griffiths mystery
Rating: A+
Source: Purchased from Amazon.


 

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

First Line: I have often reflected upon the strange series of circumstances that led me to my long association with one of the most singular and remarkable figures of my age.

In the London of 1890, 221B Baker Street is visited by a fine art dealer named Edmund Carstairs. Carstairs is being followed by a man wearing a flat cap, and he desperately wants the help of Sherlock Holmes. Flat Cap Man is a wanted criminal who seems to have followed Carstairs all the way from America, and as the days pass Carstairs' home is robbed, his family is threatened... and the first murder occurs.

After watching Foyle's War, I was already aware that Anthony Horowitz knew his way around historical detail and could tell an engrossing tale. All that I needed to discover was how Horowitz's Holmes and Watson compare to all the other versions I've read.

Very, very good, that's how. Holmes and Watson are true to Doyle's originals without limiting the author in any way. The investigation held my interest from first page to last, and I have to admit that I really enjoyed the voice of Watson. 

One scene in particular stays in my memory: a laugh-out-loud moment following a hair-raising action scene in which Holmes asks Watson if he has a future as a cab driver. I'll let you find out Watson's reply!

Clues to the solution of the case were planted along the way, but all I did was mentally point them out as I sat back and enjoyed the read. I'm not about to compare my deductive skills with the great consulting detective-- although I am certainly going to be indulging in more Holmes' tales written by Anthony Horowitz!
      

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

ISBN: 9780316197014

Mulholland Books © 2012

Paperback, 296 pages

Historical Mystery, #1 Sherlock Holmes mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Book Outlet.


 

February 2016 New Mystery Releases!

A disturbing new trend is emerging, and it has everything to do with my newly recovered passion for knitting. I like knitting gifts for people, and I don't expect payment of any sort. I'd be making the stuff anyway; it's good to know that I can send some of these things to people who will enjoy them.

But they're sending me gift cards as a thank you, and since they know I'm passionate about books, they are gift cards to bookstores. Yikes-- no wonder I have to keep my eye peeled for the latest in crime fiction titles! 

Here are my picks for the newest mystery titles being released in February. They're grouped by release date and have all the information you'll need to find them at your favorite book procurement sites. Book synopses are courtesy of Amazon.

Here we go. Let's take a look!

=== February 1 ===

Title: Tundra Kill

Author: Stan Jones

Series: #5 in the Nathan Active police procedural series set in Alaska

ISBN: 9780979980381 

Publisher: Bowhead Press

Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "Nathan Active, the top cop in a swath of the Alaskan tundra that is larger than fifteen U.S. states, has a new mystery to unravel after a dog musher is killed by a snowmobile. When the case is connected with Alaska’s gorgeous female governor, Active is swept into the bizarre family affairs and outsized political ambitions of the most dangerous woman he has ever met.  Now the counter-moves that have been put into place by the governor threaten the lives of both his beloved Grace Palmer and her daughter, Nita. With his career on the line, Active has to outwit the governor and save the people he cares for most before time runs out." 

=== February 2 ===

Title: A Disguise to Die For

Author: Diane Vallere

Series: #1 in the Costume Shop cozy series set in Nevada

ISBN: 9780425278284

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "No sooner does former magician’s assistant Margo Tamblyn return home to Proper City, Nevada, to run Disguise DeLimit, her family’s costume shop, than she gets her first big order. Wealthy nuisance Blitz Manners needs forty costumes for a detective-themed birthday bash. As for Blitz himself, his Sherlock Holmes is to die for—literally—when, in the middle of the festivities, Margo’s friend and party planner Ebony Welles is caught brandishing a carving knife over a very dead Blitz.

For Margo, clearing Ebony’s name is anything but elementary, especially after Ebony flees town. Now Margo is left to play real-life detective in a town full of masked motives, cloaked secrets, and veiled vendettas. But as she soon learns, even a killer disguise can’t hide a murderer in plain sight for long."  

Title: A Turn for the Bad

Author: Sheila Connolly

Series: #4 in the County Cork cozy series set in Ireland

ISBN: 9780425273425 

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "After calling Ireland home for six months, Boston expat Maura Donovan still has a lot to learn about Irish ways—and Sullivan’s Pub is her classroom. Maura didn’t only inherit a business, she inherited a tight-knit community. And when a tragedy strikes, it’s the talk of the pub. A local farmer, out for a stroll on the beach with his young son, has mysteriously disappeared. Did he drown? Kill himself? The child can say only that he saw a boat.

Everyone from the local gardai to the Coast Guard is scouring the Cork coast, but when a body is finally brought ashore, it’s the wrong man. An accidental drowning or something more sinister? Trusting the words of the boy and listening to the suspicions of her employee Mick that the missing farmer might have run afoul of smugglers, Maura decides to investigate the deserted coves and isolated inlets for herself. But this time she may be getting in over her head..." 

Title: Off the Books
Author: Lucy Arlington
Series: #5 in the Novel Idea cozy series set in North Carolina
ISBN: 9780425276679 
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "The Novel Idea Literary Agency has planned a wedding-themed week for Inspiration Valley, celebrating not only North Carolina’s best vendors but also some of the agency’s most popular bridal books. The fact that Lila can use the event to plan her own impending nuptials is just the icing on the cake.

But wedding bells turn to warning bells when Lila finds a dead man facedown in the frosting. Soon it’s discovered that the victim was connected to several Novel Idea authors, all of whom quickly become suspects in the case. It’s up to Lila and her fellow agents to find the real killer before one of their clients winds up scribbling stories from behind bars..."  

Title: Unreasonable Doubt
Author: Vicki Delany
Series: #8 in the Constable Molly Smith police procedural series set in British Columbia, Canada
ISBN: 9781464205132   
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 266 pages

Synopsis: "What would it be like to return to your hometown after twenty-five years in prison for a crime you have maintained you did not commit? And why would you? Walter Desmond is back in Trafalgar, British Columbia, having been officially exonerated when new evidence showed corruption at worst, incompetence at best, by the Trafalgar City Police conducting the investigation. His pitbull attorney is seeking five million in damages from the provincial government. But Walt has not returned to Trafalgar to pursue money or revenge. He just wants to know the why of it. The family of the murdered girl, Sophia D’Angelo, is bitterly determined to see Walt returned to prison―or dead. But for Trafalgar’s police, including Sergeant John Winters and Constable Molly Smith, the reality is: if Walter didn’t kill Sophia, someone else did. So, case reopened. It lands on Winters’ desk. The records are moldering. One investigating officer is dead, the other is retired―and not talking. The police are instructed to treat Walt as if he’d never been arrested or convicted. Someone else apparently killed Sophia, someone still walking free. But too many minds remain closed. It’s good luck for Walt that a group of women in town for the dragon boat race are staying in the B&B where he’s booked, women with no local prejudices. But then a townswoman, then a boat woman, are attacked by a rapist, the media gets active, and tempers dangerously flare."  

Title: The Killing Forest
Author: Sara Blaedel
Series: #8 in the Louise Rick/Camilla Lind police procedural series set in Denmark
ISBN: 9781455581542  
Publisher: Grand Central 
Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "Following an extended leave, Louise Rick returns to work at the Special Search Agency, an elite unit of the National Police Department. She's assigned a case involving a fifteen-year-old who vanished a week earlier. When Louise realizes that the missing teenager is the son of a butcher from Hvalsoe, she seizes the opportunity to combine the search for the teen with her personal investigation of her boyfriend's long-ago death . . . 

Louise's investigation takes her on a journey back through time. She reconnects with figures from her past, including Kim, the principal investigator at the Holbaek Police Department, her former in-laws, fanatic ancient religion believers, and her longtime close friend, journalist Camilla Lind. As she moves through the small town's cramped network of deadly connections, Louise unearths toxic truths left unspoken and dangerous secrets." 

Title: Murder at the Manor:Country House Mysteries

Editor: Martin Edwards

Standalone

ISBN: 9781464205736

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Paperback, 384 pages

Synopsis: "The English country house is an iconic setting for some of the greatest British crime fiction. This new collection gathers together stories written over a span of about 65 years, during which British society, and life in country houses, was transformed out of all recognition. It includes fascinating and unfamiliar twists on the classic ‘closed circle’ plot, in which the assorted guests at a country house party become suspects when a crime is committed. In the more sinister tales featured here, a gloomy mansion set in lonely grounds offers an eerie backdrop for dark deeds.

Many distinguished writers are represented in this collection, including such great names of the genre as Anthony Berkeley, Nicholas Blake and G.K. Chesterton. Martin Edwards has also unearthed hidden gems and forgotten masterpieces: among them are a fine send-up of the country house murder; a suspenseful tale by the unaccountably neglected Ethel Lina White; and a story by the little-known Scottish writer J.J. Bell." 

=== February 9 ===

Title: Runaway

Author: Peter May

Standalone set in Glasgow and London

ISBN: 9781623657895

Publisher: Quercus

Hardcover, 432 pages

Synopsis: "Glasgow, 1965. Headstrong teenager Jack Mackay cannot allow for even the possibility of a life of predictability and routine. The seventeen-year-old has just one destination on his mind--London--and successfully convinces his four friends, and fellow bandmates, to join him in abandoning their homes to pursue a goal of musical stardom.

Glasgow, 2015. Jack Mackay dares not look back on a life of failure and mediocrity. The heavy-hearted sixty-seven-year-old is still haunted by what might have been. His recollections of the terrible events that befell him and his friends some fifty years earlier, and how he did not act when it mattered most is a memory he has tried to escape his entire adult life.

London, 2015. A man lies dead in a one-room flat. His killer looks on, remorseless. What started with five teenagers following a dream five decades before has been transformed over the intervening decades into a waking nightmare that might just consume them all.

Runaway is a tense crime thriller spanning a half-century of friendships solidified and severed, dreams shared and shattered, passions ignited and extinguished, all set against the backdrop of two unique cities at two unique and transformational periods of recent history." 

=== February 16 ===

Title: The Quality of Silence
Author: Rosamund Lupton
Standalone, Psychological Thriller set in Alaska
ISBN: 9781101903674
Publisher: Crown
Hardcover, 304 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "Thrillingly suspenseful and atmospheric, The Quality of Silence is the story of Yasmin, a beautiful astrophysicist, and her precocious deaf daughter, Ruby, who arrive in a remote part of Alaska to be told that Ruby's father, Matt, has been the victim of a catastrophic accident. Unable to accept his death as truth, Yasmin and Ruby set out into the hostile winter of the Alaskan tundra in search of answers. But as a storm closes in, Yasmin realizes that a very human danger may be keeping pace with them. And with no one else on the road to help, they must keep moving, alone and terrified, through an endless Alaskan night." 

Title: The Widow
Author: Fiona Barton
Standalone Psychological Thriller set in England
ISBN: 9781101990261
Publisher: NAL
Hardcover, 336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "When the police started asking questions, Jean Taylor turned into a different woman. One who enabled her and her husband to carry on, when more bad things began to happen...

But that woman’s husband died last week. And Jean doesn’t have to be her anymore.

There’s a lot Jean hasn’t said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment.

Now there’s no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. She can tell them that there were secrets. There always are in a marriage.

The truth—that’s all anyone wants. But the one lesson Jean has learned in the last few years is that she can make people believe anything…" 

Title: Apricot's Revenge
Author: Song Ying
Standalone Thriller about an investigative journalist set in China
ISBN: 9781250016447
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 320 pages

Synopsis: "A business tycoon in China is found dead; he apparently suffered a heart attack while swimming. His body is washed onto a beach in a popular resort known as the Hawaii of the East. But soon it becomes clear that he was murdered. Three immediate beneficiaries of his death become the suspects: the vice president of the company, Zhou, who is in line to take over his position; his young widow, Zhu, who stands to inherit a huge amount of wealth; and his arch business rival, Hong, who is competing in a bid over a piece of hot property.

Nie Feng, a young investigative reporter for a magazine, interviewed the victim just a few days before he died. Through his own research, Nie Feng discovers a new suspect who is not on the police’s radar.

Apricot’s Revenge is an absorbing detective novel and more. Song Ying uses an ingenious plot to investigate social problems in modern China, which makes the book a profound and captivating read, leaving readers thinking long after reaching the last page." 

Title: The Blood Strand
Author: Chris Ould
Series: #1 Faroes novel, a police procedural set in the Faroes Islands
ISBN: 9781783297047
Publisher: Titan Books
Paperback, 352 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books

Synopsis: "Having left the Faroes as a child, Jan Reyna is now a British police detective, and the islands are foreign to him. But he is drawn back when his estranged father is found unconscious with a shotgun by his side and someone else’s blood at the scene. Then a man’s body is washed up on an isolated beach. Is Reyna’s father responsible?

Looking for answers, Reyna falls in with local detective Hjalti Hentze. But as the stakes get higher and Reyna learns more about his family and the truth behind his mother’s flight from the Faroes, he must decide whether to stay, or to forsake the strange, windswept islands for good." 

Title: The Silence of the Sea
Author: Yrsa Sigurđardóttir
Series: #6 in the lawyer Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series set in Iceland
ISBN: 9781250051486
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hardcover, 336 pages

Synopsis: "As The Silence of the Sea opens, a luxury yacht crashes into a Reykjavik pier. But the boat is empty; no one is on board. What has happened to the crew? And what has happened to the family who were very much present when the yacht left Lisbon?

What should Thora Gudmundsdottir, the series sleuth, make of the rumors that the vessel was cursed? She is spooked even more when she boards the yacht and thinks she sees one of the missing children. Where is Karitas, the glamorous young wife of the yacht's former owner? And whose is the body that has washed up further along the shore?" 



There's a little something for everyone in this month's choices, isn't there? I have to admit that the one I'm most excited about is Stan Jones' Tundra Kill. It's been seven long years since his last Nathan Active book, and that's much too long for this excellent series that really gives you a feel for the culture and the landscape of the Arctic. 

Which titles caught your eye? Inquiring minds need to know these things!