Book 58: The Last Word by Elly Griffiths

 I just finished The Last Word and I give it 🗡🗡🗡🗡 1/2 stars.

I am a huge huge huge Elly Griffiths fan, and this book is the fourth book in her Harbinder Kaur series. This one, though, has very little Harbinder in it, instead revisiting some of the characters from her second book, The Postscript Murders. The book focuses mainly on Benedict, Natalka and Edwin, the latter two having started a private investigation agency. They are hired by two sisters who want to pin the death of their mother on their mother's second husband. Anyway, Benedict and Edwin go 'undercover' to a writer's retreat to try to find answers. They find more murders, and many suspects. 

I didn't really remember these characters that well from three years ago (when the book was published) but it works fine as a stand-alone story. It is well written and quite intriguing, and moves along really well. The end was kind of rushed and I said 'huh?' at one point, but it was a good book that I enjoyed.

I do miss Ruth Galloway though. I may need to go back and reread them all!

Book 57: Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman

 I just finished Then She Found Me and I give it 💄💄💄💄💄.

I'm a big Elinor Lipman fan, and I've read all her books and enjoyed them, but I like her earlier work the best. This is her first novel, set before cell phones and internet and the 'she' in the book is Bernice who 'finds' April (the me), her birth daughter. Bernice is quite the character, and much of what happens in this 1990 book is kind of problematic today. I do love this one though.

Book 56: The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

 I just finished The Lost Bookshop and I give it 📖. 

It's been described as 'charming and uplifting' and yes, it gets uplifting at the end and I guess there is a bit of charm but most of it is about women with abusive family members and there is nothing charming and uplifting in that.  This book is extremely well reviewed but it just didn't do it for me.

Book 55: Women of Good Fortune by Sophie Wan

 I just finished Women of Good Fortune and I give it ✡✦✧✵. Really, I give it 3 3/4 stars because it isn't a four star book, so I rounded up. 

This is a book about three women in Shanghai: Lulu, who is getting married to a very wealthy man; Rina, Lulu's roommate who is torn between her career and settling down to get married; and Jane, who hates how she looks and is married to a man who she thinks married her for her money. Lulu's mother-in-law-to-be is a horrible person, and the novel suggests that wealth=horrible people. Lulu is unsure she really wants to be married, and her two friends come up with a plan: steal all the red envelopes (filled with cash) that the couple will receive at their marriage, split the money, and then go off to live their perfect lives (Lulu will live in Thailand, Jane will get plastic surgery, and Rina will get her eggs frozen). This has "Oceans 11" vibes but without the joy and silliness of Oceans 11. There are a few good twists that I didn't see coming, and once the actual 'heist' occurs it is a fast and fun read, but these three women are so miserable that it is hard to enjoy the book before the heist begins. I learned a lot about Chinese culture so that's a plus?

Book 54: The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens of the Tower of London by Christopher Skaife.

 I just finished The Ravenmaster and I give it 🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦.

This is the memoir from a man who until recently was a Beefeater (Tower Warden) in charge of the ravens at the Tower. If you've visited there, you know that there is a myth that if the ravens leave the Tower, the empire would fall (and he shares the history of this myth in the book). He travels the path of his childhood and his life in the army prior to becoming a Beefeater (he's one tough guy) and shares stories of the daily routine and the individual personalities of the ravens. It's quite chatty and charming, some might find it too saccharine but I really liked it. 

Book 53: The Woman on the Ledge by Ruth Mancini

 I just finished The Woman on the Ledge and I give it ⭒⭒⭒.

I had great hopes for this book---unreliable narrator, twists galore, and it started to have a good "Oceans 11" vibe. But I was not prepared for it to morph into a story about girls being 'groomed' and all the twisty fun kind of went away. 

Book 52: The Weekend Retreat by Tara Lashkowski

 I just finished The Weekend Retreat and give it ✦✦✦.

Three siblings and their partners travel to their palatial family estate in upstate New York to celebrate two of the sibling's birthdays. As these things tend to go with thrillers of wealthy people: they all have secrets, they all will get stuck in the palatial estate, and someone (or someoneS) will die.  That gets told in the first page! Then you have to read the story to figure out who died, what were their secrets, and why they're stuck. This one had some interesting characters but they were all pretty much awful people. It was a quick read and a good dreary-afternoon book for me.