Finally some warm, spring-like weather. I've done a great deal of hiking around the past few days and am behind schedule. Big food shop today, and I will ask you while I'm at it, are you experiencing difficult food shortages? It's so hard to shop these days.
My Friday Bookshelf Traveling post is delayed a day this week, but I thought I'd tell you about a Nantucket Island crime novel/murder mystery I'm reading, which is very satisfying. I'm more than halfway through Death in the Off-Season by Francine Mathews. It's the first in a series of five books. The first four titles were published in the mid-1990s.
After this, Mathews wrote a series a mystery novels about Jane Austen under the name of Stephanie Barron. Of these, I read one, Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas, which I enjoyed a great deal.
Then Mathews' publisher urged her to return to the Nantucket Island series. She agreed, but realized she would need to revise the first four novels before she could do a fifth. Which she has done.
So the version of Death in the Off-Season I'm reading is the revised 2016 version. And I urge you to try that.
The young, untried female detective, Merry Folger, is a fascinating character. And the Nantucket Island atmosphere and setting is so spot-on, it makes me ache to return for a lengthy visit, and in the off-season, to boot! Fabulous reading. Yes, I'm just 60 percent in, but I think you'll enjoy the visit to another world.
The author and story both new to me. Thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky to find it when I went "traveling" for Nantucket Island settings in fiction.
DeleteI see she is doing a virtual event at a wonderful mystery bookstore I visited once: https://www.poisonedpenevents.com/event/virtual-event-francine-mathews-discusses-death-on-tuckernuck/?instance_id=4224
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the mention! I will definitely follow up on that! Thank you!
DeleteGrocery shopping is hard these days, I agree. Most of the time we find what we need but it is disheartening that the toilet paper / kleenex / paper towel shelves are still so decimated. I cannot find any disinfectant products and even dish soap and hand soap are hard to find. We did find ingredients (including flour) for making cookies on one trip, but lately there is no flour but there is sugar.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you posted about Death in the Off-Season. I have a copy of that book but haven't gotten around to reading it. I wondered why she decided to revise the books when they were reissued. So now I have more motivation to read it.
I have read some of the Stephanie Barron books. I thought they were good but they seemed to be repetitive. I have been interested in trying Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas though, because I am partial to book set at Christmas.
Hi Tracy,
DeleteThanks for reporting on your difficult product shortages. We have the same lack of paper products, soap of all kinds, and you're so right about no disinfectants, no hand sanitizer, etc, etc. We don't have a flour shortage, but we have considerable meat shortages.
As you know, I, too, am partial to books set at Christmas, and I really liked this one, though I'll admit it sagged in the middle once or twice. Overall, I was very glad I'd read it, and I'd read it again.
Oh, I have the first in that Jane Austen series by Stephanie Barron, Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor. How strange is that? I haven't read it of course...
ReplyDeleteFood shortages are not too bad here. There's no flour to be had for love nor money, luckily I had some in before lockdown but when it runs out I will not be able to bake. Not that I do a huge amount of that really. I like rapeseed oil to cook with too and there's none of that anywhere so sunflower does just fine. Other than that things are not too bad. We're shopping once a fortnight but this week we got a delivery slot with a local supermarket so we pounced on that. Goodness, me we're sounding like it's wartime and rationing is the norm. Strange times.
Hi Cath,
DeleteI'd like to read a couple of others in the Jane Austen series, especially as I liked one of them. Maybe soon, as they're light and not too much of a challenge for addled minds!
Tracy has flour shortages in California, and you in England! That's very weird. I hope that won't last.
And yes, in some ways it is like wartime. We have problems getting meat. Strange times indeed. And although society can't stay sequestered forever, we will be staying away from the mass public for some time to come, because of Ken. I don't mind too much, though, really. We live in such a beautiful place that suits us. Ken is doing wonders renovating our hiking trails.
There's still no chance of getting any flour, luckily I had stocked up on it as part of my Brexit falling of a cliff with no trade deal, but I'm coming to the end of that now. Chocolate was very scarce for weeks but that seems to be available now, although there are no deals.
ReplyDeleteKatrina! Gosh, I missed your comment. So wise of you to have had the foresight to stock up on flour. But now as you come to the end of that, it must be perplexing to know what to do.
DeleteI can't imagine that. Here in the US, we have wheat flour in silos enough to last for years, so I'm told, so no flour shortages. But the meat thing is very, very tricky. Hard to get fish, lox, shellfish as well. At least we have plenty of eggs and milk products, all of which are locally raised/produced.