Auguries of Innocence

The September selection for the Read Christie 2026 Challenge, 'Best According to Agatha', is another novel I had not heard of - Endless Night (1967). This is standalone novel - not featuring Poirot, Marple, or the Beresfords - and reportedly one of Christie's favourite among her 74 novels.

Michael Rogers, age twenty-two, is a restless but charming young man. In his short life he has tried his hand at many jobs and wooed many young women, unable to commit to anything or anyone. Mike currently works as a chauffeur and hopes to earn enough money to eventually buy his dream home for his dream wife. The problem is that he is broke and doesn't seem to have much of a plan. When he comes across a property called Gipsy's Acre, a beautiful spot in the English countryside, Mike imagines it is the perfect location for his house. But there are rumours of a curse on the property.  

By chance he encounters Ellie Guteman, a young American heiress, who is also admiring the property. The two are an unlikely pair, but they quickly fall in love and marry, much to the chagrin of Ellie's imposing family. Initially Mike appears lost in the world of the super-rich, with Ellie being advised by lawyers and bankers and her constant companion, Greta. The couple soon appoint a mysterious architect, Santonix, to build their dream home at Gipsy's Acre. Shortly after they move in they are haunted by the curse - with bricks lobbed through the windows and an old woman warning them to stay away.

 

I will refrain from spoiling the story by telling more of the plot. Suffice it to say that while Endless Night could be mistaken for a gothic romance, this is definitely an Agatha Christie. But Endless Night is so different to the typical Christie whodunnit. It doesn't begin with a murder. There are no quirky detectives, no gathering of suspects, no unravelling of clues. But there are layers of intrigue as the suspense builds to a page-turning finish. The twist in the final chapters almost made me want to go back to the start to see what I missed along the way.

The title of this novel comes from this verse in the William Blake poem, Auguries of Innocence (1863):

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born.
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

Christie uses Blake's verse well throughout the novel. Written in her later years, Christie has refined her skills as a storyteller. This novel brings through important themes of the late 1960s - including class and gender. Having read nine of her books this year, in my view Endless Night is one of her best and well worth reading.

My reviews of other Agatha Christie novels are available on this blog: 

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)

Murder on the Links (1923)

Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

The Body in the Library (1942)

The Labours of Hercules (1947) 

The Rose and the Yew Tree (1948) 

Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952) 

A Caribbean Mystery (1964) 

By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968) 

Operation Vestal

A few weeks ago, the New York Times published a list of the '50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century'. I love a good thriller and have read many on this list. Irish author Tana French was listed multiple times with four books from her Dublin Murder series, including her first novel, In the Woods (2007), positioned at number three. I loved her Cal Hooper series (The Searcher, The Hunter, The Keeper) and know the quality of her writing. With her Dublin Murder series already on my e-reader, I downloaded the audiobook and set off on a new adventure, In the Woods.

The opening scene is in the summer of 1984 with three children running wild in the woods. The police are called when they don't return home. A search of the woods locates only one traumatised child, Adam, unable to recall what has happened to him or his missing friends. Flash forward twenty years and the boy has reinvented himself has Rob Ryan, a detective on the elite Dublin Murder Squad. When a twelve year old girl is found murdered in the same woods, Rob returns to Knocknaree to investigate, finding eerie similarities to the earlier crime. Are they connected? Will this bring closure to the childhood memories from that summer which continue to haunt Ryan? Or will his presence on this case undermine any chance of resolution?

In the Woods is a slow burn thriller, a form French has perfected since this assured debut. The central character Ryan is an unreliable and unlikable narrator (my favourite kind!), but what he lacked in personality was more than made up for by his partner Cassie Maddox. She is a marvellous creation - a smart, multidimensional character - and I really enjoyed the friendship she and Ryan had which made their partnership work so well. The supporting characters - Sam, O'Kelly, Devlin - are also well formed.

As a police procedural, the novel works well; showcasing the door-knocking, tip-fielding, daily grind of an investigation where leads often go nowhere. What I liked about French's approach, which can be frustrating for some readers, is how she revels in the messiness, refusing to tidy up all strands of the case. Her literary prose draws the reader in. I greatly enjoyed power-reading this alongside the audiobook performed by John McCormack who expertly gave Ryan the 'BBC' voice his character acquired while at boarding school in England.

Other books in this series are on the NYT '50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century' list including the second book The Likeness (2008) [#34], the fourth book Broken Harbor (2012) [#20] along with her standalone thriller, The Witch Elm (2018) [#33]. As The Likeness features Cassie Maddox, I am keen to continue with this series.

Something Wickedly Boring This Way Comes

The August selection in the 2026 Read Christie Challenge is By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968) in the category of 'beloved duo'. This is the fourth novel featuring Agatha Christie's husband and wife detective team Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. 

The story begins with a visit to Tommy's spinster Aunt Ada in the Sunny Ridge retirement home. Here Tuppence meets another resident, Mrs Lancaster, who mumbles something about a child behind the fireplace. The pair returns to the home a few weeks later when Ada has passed from natural causes and find that Mrs Lancaster has left the home, leaving behind a painting of a house on a river. Tuppence is determined to reunite Mrs Lancaster with the painting but cannot find her. With Tommy away for a few days, Tuppence sets off to find this mystery house, which is located near the village of Sutton Chancellor, and is currently rented to Alice and Amos Perry. Tuppence wants to find out more about the house so she talks to a the local vicar, various estate agents and the gossipy owner of a bed and breakfast where Tuppence is staying. 

When Tuppence doesn't return home as expected, Tommy gets worries and sets out to find her. I won't say more about the plot to avoid spoilers.  But suffice it to say there is a lot of superfluous dialogue and not a lot of mystery.     

I struggled with this novel. I have never been a big fan of Tommy and Tuppence, and this book reinforced my dislike of the pair. While the story starts well, it meanders and plods along. There are a handful of clues, and a mild sense of foreboding, but despite all the mystery tropes (creepy house, unsolved historical murders) this an unthrilling thriller. 

My reviews of other Agatha Christie novels are available on this blog: 

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)

Murder on the Links (1923)

Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

The Body in the Library (1942)

The Labours of Hercules (1947) 

The Rose and the Yew Tree (1948) 

Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952) 

A Caribbean Mystery (1964) 

Dance of Death

Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library (1942) begins with a murder. The body of a young woman is found lying on the hearth rug the library of Gossington Hall, the estate of Colonel and Mrs Bantry, by the maid. She wakes the Bantrys with a shriek.

While the Colonel contacts the local police - Inspector Slack and Colonel Melchett - Mrs Bantry has other ideas. She telephones her dear friend Miss Marple, the amateur sleuth. Marple is able to disarm witnesses with her charming, grandmotherly visage, and piece together a mystery with her fine intellect and quick wit. The police know Miss Marple and are keen to hear her perspective. 

The detectives need to identify this woman, who is unknown to the Bantry household. Their investigation takes them to the Majestic Hotel in Danemouth where an invalid guest, Conway Jefferson, has reported an 18 year old dancer, Ruby Keene, missing. She was onstage at 10pm, and seen dancing with a man at 11pm, but did not return for her midnight set. her cousin Josie, who recommended Ruby for the hotel job, confirms the identity of the body.

Suddenly there are a lot of potential suspects and when a second body is found, things become more complicated. There are many threads to pull in the investigation, revealing bitter rivalries, secret relationships and financial incentives among the many suspects. 

Miss Marple attends police interviews and notices things that others don't. She sees the state of someone's fingernails, the sideways glances another gives, and can tell if a person is lying. Marple figures everything out long before the police, and helps to solve both murders.

This is the second Miss Marple book, preceded by The Murder at the Vicarage (1930), and I enjoyed her as a character, even though she was in the background for much of the story. While Miss Marple worked alongside the police, she did not dominate or show them to be incompetent. Rather she partnered with them and helped them with the investigation. 

The Body in the Library is a delightful novel, brimming with humour. Christie is clearly having a great deal of fun telling this tale.  

I have had this book for a very long time, but had never read it. I recently stumbled across the "Read Christie" challenge, run by Agatha Christie Ltd (the company established by the author which owns the rights to her works). The 2026 challenge, 'Biggest, Best, Beloved' has selected twelve titles for a monthly read along. The Body in the Library has been given the category of 'Best Opening' and it certainly starts lives up to that description. I don't know if I will pursue the full Read Christie challenge this year, but I might give it a go. The Agatha Christie books I have previously enjoyed have generally been quick reads.

My reviews of other Christie novels are available on this blog: 

• The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
• Murder on the Links (1923)

My Reading Year 2025

I read a lot in 2025! My reading goal for 2025 was 35 books, which I surpassed reading 45 titles this year - over 15,500 pages! When planning for 2025, I had a stack of books on my to-be-read pile, and managed to read only a handful before I got distracted, as I always do, by other titles. 

So here's what I read in 2025:

Fiction

This was the year I finally immersed myself in the Elizabeth Strout universe. I began the year with Olive Kitteridge, Strout's Pulitzer Prize winning novel. I jumped ahead to her latest novel, Tell Me Everything, which was shortlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction. I then went back to the beginning and read her debut novel,  Amy and Isabelle. I am now fully converted to her genius and plan on exploring more of her work next year.

Another author that I have had on my radar for years but never conquered was Hilary Mantel. This year I read two-thirds of her Cromwell Trilogy with the Booker Prize winning Wolf Hall and its sequel Bring Up the Bodies.  I have started the final novel in the series, a hefty hardback of The Mirror in the Light, but will not complete it this year. 

Literary award longists added many titles to my reading list. Among my favourite novels this year were by Australian authors - Melanie Cheng's The Burrow (Stella Prize), Emily Maguire's wonderful Rapture (Stella Prize) Fiona McFarlane's linked short stories in Highway 13 (Miles Franklin Award), and Evie Wyld's ghostly tale, The Echoes (Victorian Premier's Prize). The 2025 Women's Prize introduced me to two heartbreaking novels which I still think about: Yael Van Der Wouden's The Safekeep and Roisin O'Donnell's Nesting. Carys Davies' lovely novel Clear (RSL Ondaatje Prize) was also brilliant. 

I wanted to read Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead ever since it was published and won the Women's Prize (among other accolades) in 2023, but I felt compelled to re-read Charles Dickens' David Copperfield first. I am so glad I did, as it greatly enhanced my reading of Kingsolver's remarkable novel. Having recently tidied my bookshelves, I find that I already possess a number of her novels so I look forward to exploring her back catalogue.

Other titles that had been languishing unread on my shelves finally moved up the to-be-read pile. I loved Anne Enright's The Green Road and am slowly working my way through all of her books.  Alex Miller's A Brief Affair, Penelope Lively's Heat Wave, Sarah Waters' The Paying Guest and Kevin Wilson's Nothing to See Here were great reads in 2025. I also finally read Barbara Trapido's Brother of the More Famous Jack which I had heard about for years. 

Some of the series that I have been following had new novels published. I really enjoyed Suzanne Collins' Sunrise on the Reaping, Tara Moss' The Italian Secret and Philip Pullman's The Secret Commonwealth. I have been saving Pullman's latest and last novel in the Lyra Bellaqua series - The Rose Field - but will read that next year. 

Taylor Jenkins Reid's Atmosphere, a novel I read without any expectations, was such a beautiful, heartbreaking story it left me sobbing. Another great standalone novel was Liz Moore's The God of the Woods.

I love a good crime thrillers, especially 'Aussie Noir'. This year I read Hayley Scrivenor's Girl Falling, Chris Hammer's  Legacy (another Martin Scarsden pageturner), Jane Harper's Last One Out and Garry Disher's Sanctuary. I read two Irish crime novels by Dervla McTiernan - The Scholar and  The Good Turn in the DS Cormac Reilly series. I enjoyed the latest in the Strike/Ellacott series by Robert Galbraith, The Hallmarked Man. I also started Mick Herron's Slow Horses series after being gifted a box set of his novels, and will undoubtedly work my way through these next year. 

Non-Fiction

This year I didn't read as much non-fiction as I had planned to and will need to rectify this in 2026.

I really enjoyed the Quarterly Essays this year. I have subscribed for the past decade and each year there are usually one or two on topics that I am not that interested in. This year I read George Megalogenis' Minority Report (QR96), Hugh White's Hard New World (QE98) and Sean Kelly's The Good Fight (QE100).

I read Anne Applebaum's Autocracy Inc when it was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction.  Janet Malcolm's essay collection Nobody's Looking at You, had been lingering unfinished for a while so I was pleased to have completed that. 

I read two memoirs this year which I loved. I borrowed Kate Grenville's Unsettled from my mother after she raved about this personal journey of reconciliation. Hannah Kent's Always Home, Always Homesick was such a delight - transporting me to Iceland and making me long to read Burial Rites again. 

I will read anything Helen Garner writes, including a book about footy - The Season. I also loved her book with Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, The Mushroom Tapes, about the trial of Erin Patterson who bumped off her husband's family with a deadly beef wellington.

My last book for the year was Niki Savva's Earthquake on the 2025 federal election

Best of 2025

I read so many great books this year. If I had to whittle down the 45 into my absolute favourites for 2025, without any hesitation I would pick Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead and Hannah Kent's  Always Home, Always Homesick.  

I would give honourable mentions to:

• Carys Davies - Clear
• Anne Enright - The Green Road
• Robert Galbraith - The Hallmarked Man
• Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein - The Mushroom Tapes
• Kate Grenville - Unsettled
• Mick Herron - Slow Horses
• Emily Maguire - Rapture
• Fiona McFarlane - Highway 13
• Roisin O'Donnell - Nesting
• Taylor Jenkins Reid - Atmosphere
• Elizabeth Strout - Olive Kitteridge
• Yael Van Der Wouden - The Safekeep

Well, that's my year of reading! A new year starts tomorrow and I cannot wait to discover new books and rediscover old favourites. Happy New Reading Year!

After the Flood

Journalist Martin Scarsden is back as the protagonist in Chris Hammer's latest Aussie-noir crime novel, Legacy (2025).

Scarsden is on the run. There has been a threat on his life, so he has fled his home and is on the run. He is hiding out in the outback border town of Port Paroo, population 12, about as far as you can get from anywhere. The phone lines are down so Martin has no internet, and the floods are coming which will block the roads out of town. Martin hangs out at the town's only pub and tries to be incognito. Here he learns of a local feud over water rights between two long-established families in the area - the Carmichaels of Longchamp Downs and the Stantons of Tavelly Station - and wonders if there might be a story in it.

North of Port Paroo, ghostwriter Ekaterina Boland has arrived at Longchamp Downs. The elderly Claybourne Carmichael wants her to write his family's history and connection to this land so it is recorded for his son and future generations. Clay is planning to sell up and move on from this beautiful but inhospitable landscape. Trudging through old diaries of Clay's forebears, Boland comes across an ancient intrigue which may provide her with a redeeming book. 

Hammer juggles a lot of subplots in Legacy but he is such a gifted writer that he can effortlessly keep many plates spinning at once. He knows how to pace a story, and through his use of compelling cliff-hanging chapters, the reader is immediately immersed in the tale. I also love the way Hammer includes a helpful map of the locale in each book, created by Aleksander J Potocnik. 

The real hero of Legacy is the landscape. Hammer is able to accurately depict the parched earth desperate for rain and the slow arrival of the floodwaters. Even if you have never been to the outback, the reader can understand the dryness and the distance of these far-flung places. You'll be swatting flies and craving shade alongside Scarsden. 

I have read all of Hammer's novels and reviewed them on this blog. Books in the Martin Scarsden series are Scrublands (2018), Silver (2019) and Trust (2020). You do not have to read them in order but you will get more out of Legacy if you are familiar with what happened in earlier novels. Legacy is an excellent addition to this series. 

I was delighted to see Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic make a brief appearance in Legacy. I actually prefer the Lucic/Buchanan series Treasure and Dirt (2021), The Tilt (2022), The Seven (2023) and The Valley (2024). In fact, Hammer's last four novels have been with this pair, so I was suprised when he did another Scarsden book.

Silver Strike

The Hallmarked Man (2025) is the eighth novel in the Cormoran Strike/Robin Ellacott private detective series. The story begins a few months after the events of The Running Grave (2023) which saw Robin undercover at Chapman Farm, exposing the wrongdoings of a cult. She is still recovering from the trauma of that case, supported by her business partner Strike and her police officer boyfriend Ryan Murphy.

A new case comes to the agency. Decima Mullins is convinced a man murdered in the vault of a silver shop is her missing boyfriend, Rupert Fleetwood. Mullins hires the detectives to prove it was him, as she knows Fleetwood would not have left her. The police think they have identified the mutilated body as Jason Knowles, a member of a crime family. If the detective agency were to prove the police got it wrong, Strike would find himself showing up the Met again. To make matters worse, Mullins and Fleetwood have ties to people in Strike's past, and there may be a Masonic element to the murder, so they need to tread carefully. As they start their enquiries, Strike and Ellacott discover that there are a number of candidates for the mutilated body in the silver shop and they need to rule out each one before they can give Mullins the answer she needs.

While they are on the main case, the agency's team of investigators are spread across a number of other matters - tailing a woman to find evidence of infidelity, following a man who may be taking advantage of his elderly mother - and this helps propel the story forward. Back are the familiar faces of Dev, Midge, Wardle, Barclay and Pat, the curmudgeonly office manager who is one of my favourite characters. Joining the team is Kim Cochran, ex-police detective, who has her eyes on Strike. 

But the heart of the series is the relationship between Strike and Ellacott, which has evolved over their seven years working together. They secretly have feelings for one another, but continually second guess whether the other shares their affections. Strike is determined to find just the right time to profess his love for Robin, but this is complicated as she has been getting closer to her boyfriend Murphy. Strike also has to deal with his nemesis, journalist Dominic Culpepper, who is determined to undermine Strike in the press.

The Hallmarked Man is an action-packed pageturner of a novel. Rowling expertly juggles multiple plot lines, bringing them all together in a gripping conclusion.  In addition to familiar London locations - Denmark Street, the Blind Spot secret bar, Freemasons Hall and other stomping grounds - we are taken to Crieff, Yorkshire, Shropshire, Sardinia and Sark in the Channel Islands. 

As I have done with the past few novels in this series, I read my hardcover along with listening to the audiobook expertly performed by Robert Gleinister. He perfectly captures Strike, Ellacott and all the characters, adding drama and excitement to the telling of this tale.

Rowling knows how to leave her readers wanting more. The Hallmarked Man, like the previous novels, ends in a delectable cliffhanger. Let's hope she is already working on number nine and we don't have to wait too long to find out what happens next!

My reviews of previous books in the series are available on this blog:

• The Cuckoo's Calling (2013) 
•  The Silkworm (2014) 
• Career of Evil (2016)
• Lethal White (2018)
• Troubled Blood (2020)
• The Ink Black Heart (2022)
• The Running Grave (2023) 

Neapolitan Adventure

Last year I holidayed in Naples, inspired in part by the knowledge that Tara Moss' forthcoming book was set there. I had hoped to time my trip so that I could read the book and then walk in heroine Billie Walker's footsteps, but publication was delayed and my travels could not wait. This was perhaps fortuitous, as I was able to read the novel with a deep love of and familiarity with this beautiful city.

The Italian Secret (2025) follows private investigator Billie Walker's previous adventures in The War Widow (2019) and The Ghosts of Paris (2022). 

It's 1948 and Billie's business is booming. In addition to her trusty assistant Sam, Billy has now employed Shyla. Much of their casework still consists of female clients seeking evidence of infidelity to enable their divorce. For the most part, the agency procures what is needed to the client's satisfaction, but every so often things go awry. When one case ends in tragedy, Billie needs a break.

Billie organises a holiday to Naples, taking Ella, her mother, and Alma, her mother's companion, with her. The three women board the Luxor, a luxury cruise ship and set sail for Europe. Billie has another reason for wanting to get to Naples. She has found a stack of letters to her father from an Italian woman and she wants to understand who this woman was to her beloved dad. But before she can resolve that mystery, she has to deal with her nemesis Vincenzo Moretti. 

The Italian Secret is a gripping page-turner. Moss has found the perfect blend of adventure, historical fiction and mystery. She blends multiple storylines and vividly portrays the post-war period. Billie Walker is a fabulous heroine - smart, stylish and self-aware - who holds her own in a world which has different views about the role of women.

I love this series. While The Italian Secret can be read as a standalone novel, I strongly suggest reading these novels in order as there are story threads here which stem from the previous books. My reviews of other books in the Billie Walker series are available on this blog:

•  The War Widow (2019)
•  The Ghosts of Paris (2022)

The Missing

Dervla McTiernan's crime series continues with the third novel in the DS Cormac Reilly series, The Good Turn (2020). Picking up shortly after the events of the last novel, The Scholar (2019), Reilly continues to work at a Galway police station under the watchful eye of Superintendent Brian Murphy. Reilly suspects Murphy is corrupt and just needs to figure out how to prove it. 

The story gets off to a quick start when a young girl is kidnapped. Reilly's colleague Garda Peter Fisher has to make rapid decisions in a quest to find her. The station is under resourced with everyone else assigned to a potential drug bust and Fisher is on his own. When things go wrong, Fisher is reassigned to a tiny station in his childhood hometown. Reilly is suspended, freeing him up to investigate possible corruption. 

To make matters worse, Reilly's home life is unstable. His partner Emma has moved to Europe to take up a position in a lab and their long-distance relationship is under strain. Reilly knows he has to decide between Emma and the Garda, as Emma's career is now in Europe. 

McTiernan has added interesting layers to her characters. I enjoyed learning more about Fisher and his past in this novel, particularly his relationships with his estranged father and his beloved grandmother. Reilly too is evolving, trying to figure out what he wants from his life. 

The Good Turn is a page-turner with plenty of twists and turns to keep readers guessing. In this third outing, McTiernan has perfected her storytelling. She paces out reveals and I was interested to see the ways in which she brought various story threads together. The Good Turn can be read as a standalone novel, but it is far more interesting to read this series in order. 

The Reilly series continues in The Unquiet Grave (2025) which I hope to read soon. My reviews of other novels in the Cormac Reilly series are available on this blog:

• The Ruin (2018) - Cormac Reilly #1
• The Scholar (2019) - Cormac Reilly #2

My Reading Year 2024

2024 was a wonderful year for reading - a year in which I was introduced to new authors, spent time with a few favourites and learned much about the world.

My reading goal for 2024 was 30 books, which I surpassed reading 34 titles this year. When planning for 2024 at the start of the year, I had a stack of books on my to-be-read pile, and managed to read only a handful before I got distracted by other titles. In January I updated my reading bingo card to diversify my reading. While I didn't read all categories, I succeeded in most of them (highlighted) but failed to read a poetry collection, short story collection and a handful of other categories.


So here's what I read in 2024:

Fiction

Reflecting on my novel reading for 2024, I can see that I was influenced by a couple of key factors:

• Hearing authors speak at festivals encouraged me to seek out their work. 
• Favourite authors releasing new novels or series sequels. 
• Award longlists introduced me to books and authors I did not know.
• Film/TV adaptations based on novels which I wanted to read before I saw the adaptation.
• Recommendations from friends, family and fellow book bloggers.

In March I attended the All About Women festival at the Sydney Opera House where I was able to meet Mary Beard, Anne Enright, Anna Funder and other authors I admire. It was wonderful to talk with Irish author Anne Enright about her latest novel, The Wren, The Wren (2023) which I absolutely loved. I followed it up by reading The Gathering (2007) which had languished on my shelf for far too long. These two novels, read back-to-back alongside Enright's audiobook recording, made me wonder why I had not read her work before. I now have her back catalogue and look forward to reading more of her novels. 

Another author I read multiple books by in 2024 was Colson Whitehead. I met him at the Sydney Writers' Festival in 2023 where he signed many of his books for me. I had previously loved his novel The Nickel Boys (2019), so this year I read Harlem Shuffle (2021) the first in a planned trilogy about Ray Carney, a furniture salesman and fence of stolen goods. I read this alongside the audiobook brilliantly performed by Dion Graham. Whitehead is an amazing genre-switching author and I was keen to read his early novel Zone One (2011) about a zombie apocalypse. While I didn't love that novel, I certainly appreciate Whitehead's thoughtful prose. 

Sequels I was looking forward to this year did not disappoint. Colm Toibin's Long Island (2024) was the long awaited sequel to his novel Brooklyn (2009), which tell the story of Eilis Lacey, a young Irish woman who moves to New York and then twenty years later returns home to visit her family. Toibin's storytelling is magical and it was wonderful to revisit this heroine. Pat Barker's trilogy retelling Homer's Iliad from the perspective of women concluded with The Voyage Home (2024) focussing on Cassandra and Clytemnestra. This novel was a worthy successor to The Silence of the Girls (2018) and The Women of Troy (2021). Highly recommended.

Mid-year I embarked on a wonderful reading journey. Percival Everett's James (2024) is a retelling of Mark Twain's novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1886). Before reading James, I went back to the source material and re-read the Twain books I read decades ago. This greatly enhanced my appreciation of what Everett achieved with his novel - he is a master of language and James is a sharp, edgy satire. Without any hesitation, the best novel I read this year!

Among the various novels I read that were award nominees, the Women's Prize and the Booker Prize gave me the most amount of joy. From the Booker Prize shortlist I read Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional (2023), Everett's James (2024) and winner Samantha Harvey's Orbital (2023).  The 2024 Women's Prize shortlist gave me Anne Enright's The Wren, The Wren (2023) and Kate Grenville's Restless Dolly Maunder (2023) 

Two books I chose because I wanted to see the film adaptations, but prefer to read the book first. Robert Harris' Conclave (2016) was a gripping thriller about the selection of the Pope. It has been made into a brilliant film starring Ralph Fiennes. Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2005) was adapted into a film with Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield in 2010. I wanted to see the film but was sparked to re-read the book when it appeared on a list published by the New York Times of the best books of the 21st century. I didn't love it as much as the NYT readers and the film was uninspiring. 

Recommendations from friends, families and fellow readers led me to many of my favourite reads of the year. Alba de Cespedes Forbidden Notebook (2023),  originally published in the 1950s, focusses on an Italian housewife who records her inner life in a diary.  Elizabeth and Elizabeth (2021) by Sue Williams explores the friendship between two women who were instrumental in the early days of Sydney. Claire Keegan's novella Foster (2010) is a gem of a story about a girl who spends a summer away from home. Lisa See's wonderful Lady Tan's Circle of Women (2023) transported me to the Ming Dynasty. Miranda July's brilliant All Fours (2024) was a delight that I have recommended to many friends. Unlike the other novels which focus on women, Alice Winn's gripping In Memoriam (2023) explores the lives of men at war in a novel I will not soon forget.

Crime thrillers always make their way into my reading cycle. Aussie noir shows no signs of stopping and this year I read two great novels by some of my favourite writers in this genre. Chris Hammer's The Valley (2024) is his latest in the Lucic/Buchanan series and was a ripping yarn! Garry Disher's The Way it is Now (2021) is a standalone crime thriller set in the Mornington Peninsula. Journalist Louise Milligan made her fiction debut with Pheasants Nest (2024), a page-turning novel about a journalist who goes missing. 

Of course Aussies aren't the only crime writers around. Tana French continued her western-style crime series with The Hunter (2024), a sequel to The Searcher (2020) which follows retired American detective Cal Hooper, now residing in a small town in Ireland. I also read another novel in the Simon Serrallier series by Dame Susan Hill, The Vows of Silence (2008) in which the detective has to track down a potential serial killer targeting newlywed women. Finally, I read Dorothy B Hughes' In a Lonely Place (1947) which has been on my shelf for years! Hughes is an amazing writer and this was an interesting take on the genre, told from the perspective of the killer.

Non-Fiction

This year I didn't read as much non-fiction as I had planned to and will need to rectify this in 2025.

I really enjoyed the Quarterly Essays this year. I have subscribed for the past decade and each year there are usually one or two on topics that I am not that interested in. 

This year I read three fantastic essays. Alan Kohler's The Great Divide focussed on the housing crisis. Don Watson's High Noon was all about the 2024 Presidential election. Lech Blaine's Bad Cop showcased the opposition leader Peter Dutton. All were well written and worth reading.

Memoirs and biographies always intrigue me. I love learning about real people, their lives and how they became who they are. Journalist Paddy Manning explores the life of Lachlan Murdoch, media scion, in The Successor (2023). I heard Manning speak about this at the 2023 Sydney Writers' Festival and was keen to read it against the backdrop of the Murdoch family dramas. Richard Flanagan's Question 7 (2023) is unlike any memoir I have ever read as he blends genre and takes readers on a strange journey which links the author's existence to HG Wells and the atomic bomb. I love Flanagan as a novelist and while Question 7 didn't work for me, I admire his twist on the genre.

Sarah Firth's graphic essay collection Eventually Everything Connects (2023) is a beautiful exploration of life. I loved the way Firth tackled big topics and everyday activities in illustrated form. Claire Dederer's book Monsters - a Fan's Dilemma (2023) looks at art and how to balance works of genius created by people who are contemptible. This was a fascinating way to consider what we consume and whether we can seperate the work from its maker.  Finally, I absolutely loved journalist Nick Bryant's The Forever War (2024), an exploration of American political history and how to make sense of what is happening today in the United States.

Best of 2024

I read so many great books this year. I loved and highly recommend:

• Nick Bryant - The Forever War
• Anne Enright - The Wren, The Wren
• Percival Everett - James
• Sarah Firth - Eventually Everything Connects
• Chris Hammer - The Valley
• Robert Harris - Conclave
• Miranda July - All Fours
• Paddy Manning - The Successor
• Lisa See - Lady Tan's Circle of Women
• Colm Toibin-  Long Island
• Alice Winn - In Memoriam
• Charlotte Wood - Stone Yard Devotional

If I had to choose my absolute favourites for 2024, without any hesitation I would pick Percival Everett's James and Nick Bryant's The Forever War.

Well, that's my year of reading! A new year starts tomorrow and I cannot wait to discover new books and rediscover old favourites. Happy New Reading Year!