A Chapter of Accidents - Short Story Collection Review

Goodreads:  A Chapter of Accidents: Twenty-Seven Rediscovered Stories by L.M. Montgomery

Rating: Really Liked It! (4.5 Stars)
Source:   Publisher

Description:  L. M. Montgomery, best known for creating the beloved Anne of Green Gables series, had a thriving writing career that included several novels and more than five hundred poems and stories.

This collection features rare short stories originally published between 1901 and 1932 that haven't been in print since their initial periodicals. Montgomery scholar Carolyn Strom Collins has curated a selection of funny and heartfelt stories to provide unique insight into how this famed author's writing developed over her career. With stories like "A Case of Mistaken Identity," "A Platonic Experiment," and "Frank's Revenge," each tale features an unusual, accidental, or unlikely pair. Montgomery's brilliantly written characters and strong sense of place paired with Collins's scholarly context make this collection a must for every Montgomery fan.

Genre: Fiction - Short Stories 

Why I Picked This Book:  I love Montgomery's short stories so how could I not pick this one up?

My Impression: This is quite a mix of stories.  Most are only a couple of pages but the ages range from young children to older adults.  The subject matters vary widely as well.  Montgomery made her living with her writing - frequently heavily supplementing her husband wages and that means she frequently tailored her stories to publications she knew would take them.  The forward talked a bit about this - especially the stories for children's religious magazines that required there to be some kind of moral.  

These aren't the best quality stories but they are sweet and entertaining.  They're a wonderful palate cleanser between heavier stories or a nice way to end the day.  Montgomery frequently uses these short stories to play with different topics and story ideas that she frequently uses again in her longer books.  

I really enjoyed reading a few of these stories each day.  I love the world and the characters Montgomery creates and finding 27 new stories was really wonderful.  I do think the early short story collections edited by Rea Wilmshurst are a bit better but these are still a delight and a must read for Montgomery fans.  

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?  Absolutely!  I love Montgomery's books and will read anything by her.

Would I Recommend this Book?  Yes!  If you've read and enjoyed Montgomery's books then her short story collections are definitely not to be missed.

* I received this book in exchange for an honest review.  As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *

The Five Red Herrings - Classic Mystery Review

Goodreads: The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers

Rating: Just Okay (2 Stars)
Source:   Purchased

Description:  During a painting retreat, a killer takes a creative approach to the ancient art of murder...

The majestic landscape of the Scottish coast has attracted artists and fishermen for centuries. In the idyllic village of Kirkcudbright, every resident and visitor has two things in common: They either fish or paint (or do both), and they all hate Sandy Campbell. Though a fair painter, he is a rotten human being, and cannot enter a pub without raising the blood pressure of everybody there. No one weeps when he dies.

Campbell’s body is found at the bottom of a steep hill, and his easel stands at the top, suggesting that he took a tumble while painting. But something about the death doesn’t sit right with gentleman sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. No one in Kirkcudbright liked Campbell, and six hated him enough to become suspects. Five are innocent, and the other is the perpetrator of one of the most ingenious murders Lord Peter has ever encountered.

Genre:  Mystery - Classic

Why I Picked This Book:  This was the next full length Lord Peter Wimsey book and I'm trying to read my way through them.

My Impression:  Sayers and I have a bit of a rocky relationship.  I tend to either thoroughly enjoy them or find them a bit of a slog (there was one that I was really enjoying until it went off the rails at the end for an added twist).  Unfortunately, this one lands in the slog category for me.  The mystery is brilliant and the premise fantastic.  There's a wide range of rather oddball characters that all have pretty possible motives.  It's fun seeing Wimsey in the middle of an artist colony as well.  

So why was this one a slog?  The book takes place in Scotland - which is great, I love a Scottish setting - but unfortunately Sayers leans heavy into local dialect.  Every line of dialogue spoken by a Scottish person is thick with dialect and there's a lot of dialogue.  I don't mind a bit of this but this was so much that I found myself basically having to translate which pulled me out of the story every single time.  This kept me from enjoying what was really a fantastic mystery.  I think I'll avoid any of Sayers books with a Scottish setting in the future. 

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?  I will but I won't read anymore of her books that are set in Scotland.  

Would I Recommend this Book?  Eh - maybe?  If you're a big Sayers fan or if dialect in dialogue doesn't bother you than I'd give it a try.  It also might work better as an audio.  

Friday Fives - Five Series that May Make the List For 2026

I'm in a list making kind of mood so I thought I'd start making random five lists.  Sometimes they'll be bookish other weeks not so much. I've been thinking a little bit about my reading for 2026.  I read and enjoy a lot of series and my list is constantly expanding.  Here are 5 I'm hoping to have on my list for 2026.

1.  The Noodle Shop Mystery by Vivien Chien - I have read 2 books in this series and thoroughly enjoyed them.  It's definitely a world I want to spend more time in and it's full of characters I'd like to get to know a bit better.

2.  Belles of London by Mimi Matthews - This is only a 4 book series and I've already read 1 (well 2 - but I want to reread that one so I'm not counting it) but I really enjoyed the story I read and want to read the rest.

3.  Amelia Peabody Mysteries by Elizabeth Peters - Barbara Michaels is one of my absolute favorite authors but I haven't read many of her books under the Elizabeth Peters name and only a couple of books in her super long running Amelia Peabody series.  

4.  Sebastian St. Cyr by C.S. Harris - I have loved the most recent books in this series and am really looking forward to reading it from the beginning.

5.  Ghost Hunters by Jayne Castle - I'm still not entirely sure what I think of this series - or where it really starts - but I'd like to read more so I can make up my mind!

Are you a series reader?  What series are you hoping to read in 2026?

Books from the Backlog - Lost and Found in Paris

Today I'm linking up with Carole from Carole's Random Life of Books for Books from the Backlog.  I really enjoy the chance to feature a book that's been hiding in the piles of books for far too long!

Goodreads:  Lost and Found in Paris by Lian Dolan

Blurb:  Joan Blakely had an unconventional childhood: the daughter of a globe-trotting supermodel and a world-famous artist. Her artist father died on 9/11, and Joan—an art historian by training—has spent more than a decade maintaining his legacy. Life in the art world is beginning to wear on her—and then one fateful afternoon her husband drops a bombshell: he’s fathered twins with another woman.
Furious but secretly pleased to have a reason to blow up her life, Joan impulsively decides to get out of town, booking a last-minute trip to Paris as an art courier: the person museums hire to fly valuable works of art to potential clients, discreetly stowed in their carry-on luggage. Sipping her champagne in business-class, she chats up her seatmate, Nate, a good-looking tech nerd who invites her to dinner in Paris. He doesn’t know she’s carrying drawings worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But after a romantic dinner and an even more romantic night together, Joan wakes up next to her new lover to discover the drawings gone. Even more shocking is what’s been left in their place: a sketch from her father’s journals, which she thought had been lost when he died on 9/11, and a poem that reads like a treasure hunt.

With Nate as a sidekick, Joan will follow the clues all over Paris—from its grand cathedrals to the romantic bistros to the twisty side streets of Montmartre—hoping to recover the lost art, and her own sense of adventure. What she finds is even better than she’d expected.

Why It Needs to Come Off the Shelf:  I haven't had the best reading year and this sounds like one I'd really enjoy.  I'm hoping to shake up my reading a bit for 2026 so it doesn't feel as sluggish.

Authors I've Been Meaning to Read - The New Couple in 5B by Lisa Unger

At the beginning of the year, I made a list of authors that I've been saying I need to read and commit to reading at least one book by each of the authors in 2025.  Here's my thoughts on one of those books/authors.

Goodreads:  The New Couple in 5B by Lisa Unger

Blurb:  Rosie and Chad Lowan are barely making ends meet in New York City when they receive life-changing news: Chad’s late uncle has left them his luxury apartment at the historic Windermere in glamorous Murray Hill. With its prewar elegance and impeccably uniformed doorman, the building is the epitome of old New York charm. One would almost never suspect the dark history lurking behind its perfectly maintained facade.
At first, the building and its eclectic tenants couldn’t feel more welcoming. But as the Lowans settle into their new home, Rosie starts to suspect that there’s more to the Windermere than meets the eye. Why is the doorman ever-present? Why are there cameras everywhere? And why have so many gruesome crimes occurred there throughout the years? When one of the neighbors turns up dead, Rosie must get to the truth about the Windermere before she, too, falls under its dangerous spell.

My Thoughts:  This was a seriously unsettling mystery.  Every piece of information adds more uncertainty and distrust of all the characters.  Unger does a fantastic job creating atmosphere and making the Windermere come to life with a fully realized ominous presence.  I had no idea how everything was going to work out but I flew through this book anxious to find the answers.  The solution, like the rest of the book was incredibly unsettling but ultimately satisfying.  I enjoyed this book and the author's writing style.  I'm not sure she qualifies as a must read author for me yet but I will definitely read more from her when the blurb catches my attention.  My Rating: Really Liked It (4 Stars)

Top Ten Tuesday - Books Set in Snowy Places

Today I'm linking up with Top Ten Tuesday hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl which is all about lists.  Since lists are one of my favorite things this is one of my favorite linkups!  Today's topic is Books Set in Snowy Places.  I don't live in a place that gets much snow and I have no interest in being around snow but I really enjoy reading books that are set in snowy places.  Here are 10 of those books on my TBR.

1.  The Good Girl by Mary Kubica - This takes place in Chicago and the woods in Minnesota which are both pretty cold and snowy places.

2.  Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson - This series takes place in Iceland and it's hard to find a setting that's colder and snowier!

3.  Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey - This book is set in Alaska

4.  The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware - The previous book took place on a ship in miserably cold weather and this one takes place in a hotel in Switzerland

5.  An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena - Winter in the Catskills sounds pretty snowy

6.  Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict - This takes place on a train from London to Scotland that gets stuck in the snow.

7.  The Broken Girls by Simone St. James - There's snow on the cover and the book takes place in Vermont.

8.  This Fallen Prey by Kelley Armstrong - Rockton is a fictional town that is in the wilds of Canada

9.  The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson - This one has been on my TBR for ages and is set in Sweden.

10. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys - I'm not sure there's any place snowier than Siberia.  

What books Set in Snowy Places are on your TBR?

A Grave Deception - Mystery Review

Goodreads:  A Grave Deception by Connie Berry

Rating: 
Source:   Publisher

Description:  Kate Hamilton and her husband, Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, have settled into married life in Long Barston. When archaeologists excavating the ruins of a nearby plague village discover the miraculously preserved body of a 14th century woman, Kate and her colleague, Ivor Tweedy, are asked to appraise the grave goods, including a valuable pearl. When tests reveal the woman was pregnant and murdered, the owner of the estate on which the body was found, an amateur historian, asks Kate to identify her and, if possible, her killer. Surprised, Kate agrees to try.

Meanwhile, tensions within the archaeological team erupt when the body of the lead archaeologist turns up at the dig site with fake pearls in his mouth and stomach. Then a third body is found in the excavations. Meanwhile, Kate’s husband Tom is tracking the movements of a killer of his own.

With the help of 700-year-old documents and the unpublished research of a deceased historian, Kate must piece together the past before the grave count reaches four.

Genre: Mystery

Why I Picked This Book:  I have enjoyed other books in this series and the blurb really caught my attention on this one.

My Impression: I so enjoyed this mystery.  I'm fascinated by archaeology and missing persons cases and the fact that this one had both with the addition of antiques, likable main characters, and a really solid present time mystery.  The book starts off with discussions of a major discovery - a 14th century woman buried under the chapel of a village decimated by the plague.  Along with an amazingly preserved corpse is a stunning array of grave goods.  As well, the owner of the estate where the body was found is interested in not just learning more about the grave goods but wants to know more about the woman - and who she was.  The estate owner also happens to be the center of a more modern mystery as his wife disappeared without a trace several years ago.   The murder victim is the lead archaeologist and while no one deserves to be murdered Sebastian makes a pretty good case for why he needed to be removed.  And if this wasn't enough chaos, Kate's husband, police detective Tom, is busy tracking another murderer who is on the run.

This isn't the fastest paced mystery.  There's lots of details on the places and the antiquities that are woven through the book.  This wasn't one I flew through or stayed up super late to finish.  However, it was always one that I looked forward to picking up and was always a little sad to put down.  I was curious about all the different plots and wasn't quite sure what all was going to happen until the reveal.  This is part of the Kate Hamilton series and is a series best read in order. This isn't a hardship as each book has been enjoyable.  If you are looking for a solid mystery with a bit of history and a main character you can't help but like this book and this series as a whole is a great choice.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author? Absolutely!  I have really enjoyed every book I've read by this author and will definitely read anything I see by her.  I've read every book in this series except the first one which I'm hoping to read that one soon.

Would I Recommend this Book?  If you enjoy a mystery read I would definitely recommend this book, this series and this author.

* I received this book in exchange for an honest review.  As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *