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That's a shame Vera - its sounded quite a good read.

The most recent read worth mentioning is

The House Fell on Her Head by Kate Mitchell
This one was a free download a couple of weeks ago. It’s not something I’d normally choose, but am pleased to have read it.

Set in Sheffield, the remains of a body is discovered in a buried Anderson Shelter in Violet’s back garden. Violet, now a frail 90 year old, has lived in the same house all her life.
Her daughter Alice moves back in temporarily to care for her while the police investigations are ongoing and tries to work out who the body might belong to.

In Australia, Frank reads the newspaper reports and decides to re-visit his old town. During his journey, he reminisces about his up-bringing, family, love, life and loss during the Sheffield WW2 bombing. We meet Violet and Frank’s family through the eyes of a 10 year old.

Frank and Alice confront Violet and uncover secrets and lies that have been hidden for seventy years. Frank finds things are not as he thought, and Alice is not who she appeared to be.

Not quite a murder mystery or a gritty family saga, but with elements of both. Although the story is complete, I’d have liked there to have been an epilogue, just to see how the characters come to terms with the truth.

I've just finished The Marriage Certificate as well and we will have to agree to differ Stephen. Far from being un-put-downable, I had to force myself to finish the book.

After a few pages I realised the book must have been self published and looking into it further, that seems to be the case.. It was in such drastic need of editing and pruning that no reputable publisher would have had it printed without a lot of revision. One example that comes to mind is when the amateur genealogist meets someone outside a house which he is investigating. They have a long conversation and the genealogist gets some useful information. That was all that was needed or maybe something like "Over lunch he told his wife what he had learnt". Instead we have three pages of him repeating the entire conversation to his wife. The book is full of irrelevant and unnecessary detail.

It also suffers from the author not being sure what type of book he wants to write. Is it a genealogical mystery, a "how to do family history" textbook or a romance? It suffers from the author trying to do them all and doing none of them well.

I found the style of writing clunky and a bit like a school essay. There's quite a lot of stilted conversation and not very much description. Stephen Molyneux can't seem to decide how much explanation to give his readers. For instance, I don't imagine many people need to be told that a child of your aunt and uncle is your cousin yet he mentions the GRO several times without giving the name in full or explaining what it is, which could be puzzling to a non genealogist.

As for the 'postscript' at the end of the book, I had guessed the main fact of it, though not the detail. I did have to look back in the book to see where I had come across one of the names before. (I'm being vague as I don't want to spoil it for anyone still to read the book.)

I am sorry to be so negative about the book. I know a lot of people enjoyed it and I do think the idea behind the book was a good one. Unfortunately I think it was badly executed.

Finished The Marriage Certificate by Stephen Molyneux. I really enjoyed it and could hardly put it down. I hope he writes another.

I was a bit baffled at the end at first, though. I thought that I must have missed some clue or something so I skimmed back through again and I sort of get it now - I think. I might read it again.

I won't say any more as I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet.

Glad you are liking it Ann :-D

I am reading The Daughters of Red Hill Hall- Kathleen McGurl suggested by Mersey. Enjoying it so far.

I've never read any of the DI Banks books or seen any of the TV series but I do enjoy crime/detection novels. Some of them are a bit more than I am prepared to pay for Kindle books but the first in the series, Gallows View, is available for 98p so I'm going to download that now.

Love the posts on here because they make me look at authors I haven't tried before.

Finished Watching the Dark. A good read, not a fast-paced story but a page-turner non-the-less, though with a somewhat predictable outcome.

Just started The Marriage Certificate.

Stephen - Your latest read is the sort of thing I might buy. Unfortunately the cost is a bit too steep at the moment.

One I've bought recently on Kindle was Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin. Its the most recent in the Rebus series. If I'd waited a couple of weeks, I could have borrowed our daughter in law's paper back!

Although Rebus is retired, DI Siobhan Clarke asks for his help on a case - "Clarke's been investigating the death of a senior lawyer whose body was found along with a threatening note. On the other side of Edinburgh, Big Ger Cafferty - Rebus's long-time nemesis - has received an identical note and a bullet through his window."

Malcolm Fox, late of the 'Complaints' who investigated Rebus and worked with him in the previous book Saints of the Shadow Bible, is involved in a seperate investigation. A man with links to drug smuggling has gone missing.

Clarke, Rebus and Fox may not be on the same cases, but they do socialise with each other and discover a link.

Eventually finished The Wreckage. Not great, and the relevance of the title was lost on me, but maybe I missed something somewhere along the way. Not a page-turner.

Just started Peter Robinson's Watching The Dark, number 20 in his Inspector Banks series.

DI Bill Quinn is killed by a crossbow in the tranquil grounds of a police rehabilitation centre and compromising photos are found in his room. An English girl who disappeared in Estonia six years ago seems to hold the secret at the heart of this case. DCI Banks is brought in to investigate.

So far, so good. I might seek out some more later.

I think DetEcTive and I have very similar tastes. We always seem to like the same sort of books. I recently picked up a copy of The Ides of April for a very small sum from a bring and buy book stall.

There's a limit to how much I am prepared to pay for Kindle books (I'm a bit of a miser lol), but I do use the library a lot and have borrowed various Falco books from there. Our library used to arrange books by category so it was easy to find a crime novel or a fantasy and try out different authors. Now, apparently by popular demand, the books are arranged alphabetically by authors so everyone goes to the authors they know write the type of book they enjoy and don't try new authors so much. This I am told, is progress :-S

Unfortunately not :-(

Occasionally you can pickup the Falco books in Charity Shops and probably the Albia series in time. OH doesnt have a kindle, hence this new one is a paper version.

Not read any of those, are they free? I really shouldn't download any more until I have read what I have on the kindle, I dare not count how many I have waiting. :-D

Think I read it a while ago. It was certainly a strange one! Wouldn't have paid money for it, but free is good :-D

Currently reading The Graveyard of The Hesperides by Lindesy Davis. It's the newest one in the Flavia Albia series.
The previous ones were The Ides of April, Enemies at Home, and Deadly Election.

During renovations, the skeletons of 5 males and 1 decapitated woman are found in the courtyard garden of a bar, The Hesperides. Albia, with the support of her good friend the Adelie Faustus, tries to work out who they were and how they died about 10 years previously.

OH finished it in one day; I'm trying to pace myself ;-)

Not my sort of book either Mersey but it was a free one and, I thought, well written. And intriguing too in a strange sort of way.

I haven't Ann, but will take a peek..not sure if it's a book for me but
will certainly try it :-)

:-D :-D got a few to read before I get round to it though. At the moment I am reading one on Kindle which is good but strange, about a girl who suffers from an illness that causes sleeping episodes but she lives in the dreams she has, meets someone who also lives in the dream world. Called the girl in between by Laekan Zea Kemp. I think it was a free one. Have you read it?

Hope you enjoy it Ann as much as I did :-)

Seeing that it looks good and also that it was only 99p on Amazon for Kindle, I have downloaded that one Mersey. It better be good now :-D

I finished this one ntl long ago....loved it...reminded me of Kate Morton books
I could not put it down

The Daughters of Red Hill Hall- Kathleen McGurl

Description
‘Mystery, danger, intrigue and heart-pounding drama are deliciously interwoven’ – Julie (Goodreads)

When Gemma discovers a pair of ancient duelling pistols encrusted with rubies in the basement of the local museum, she is immediately intrigued…

On a fateful night in 1838 two sisters were found shot in the cellars of Red Hill Hall. And when Gemma begins to delve deeper into their history she begins to realise that the secrets of that night are darker than anyone had ever imagined.

As the shocking events of the past begin to unravel, Gemma’s own life starts to fall apart. Loyalties are tested and suddenly it seems as if history is repeating