129) It's A Man's World - Polly Courtney
130) Despite the Falling snow - Shamim Sarif
131) The Ends of The Earth - Robert Goddard
132) Aftermath - Michael Kerr
133) Finding Rebecca - Eoin Dempsey

35. Hester & Harriet by Hilary Spiers.
Two sisters, both retired, both widowed, live together in a small village. They are on their way to spend Christmas with relatives when they come across a homeless young girl and her baby hiding in a bus shelter. They offer to help, mainly as an excuse to miss the Christmas celebrations.
I wasn't expecting to like this but it turned out to be a good read, despite a rather implausible plot. It was quite funny and had a good set of characters. It's the first of a series and I'll read the second one when it's published.

84/ Mister Creecher by Chris Priestley

YA novel by the author of the Tales of Terror series.

This novel takes two well known characters from Victorian novels and puts them together to see what happens. The first is Frankenstein's monster but I won't say who the other is as it isn't revealed until virtually the end of the book (although there are clues).

It's fun and quite fast moving but by the nature of taking two characters who go on to feature in already existing novels the ending is a little unsatisfactory as there is no real resolution.

85/ The Art of Horror - edited by Stephen Jones

As the title suggests this features lots of artwork based on horror subjects. As you'd expect there are a lot of book covers and film posters but there is so much more that goes beyond that.
In addition to the pictures are several short essays covering various subjects as well as notations for every image (including comments from the artists in many cases).

An excellent collection.

13) Jane Green - Summer Secrets 7/10
14) Dorothy Koomson - When I was invisable 9/10

26) Out of Practice by Penny Parkes

134) A Time For Friends - Patricia Scanlan
135) Judith Wants to be Your Friend - Annie Weir
136) Stella Rimington - Illegal Action

29. Started early, took my dog - Kate Atkinson
9/10 - book 4 and the last in the Jackson Brodie series, which is really frustrating as it ends on the potential for a sequel involving both Louise and the abduction of Courtney.

137) Anne Tyler - Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

15) The Opticians Wife - Betsy Reavley 6/10

51) The Litigators, by John Grisham
52) Death Watch, by Jim Kelly
53) Freeze Frame, by Peter May
54) The Fallen Angel, by Daniel Silva
55) Eye of the Red Tsar, by Sam Eastland
56) Blood Shot, by Sara Paretsky
57) City of Jackals, by Parker Bilal
58) Rogue Lawyer, by John Grisham
59) Die of Shame, by Mark Billingham
60) The Red Coffin, by Sam Eastland
61) The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
62) The Power of the Dog, by Don Winslow

22. Shift by Hugh Howey

I liked this better than the first book, Wool.

86/ Messiah by Boris Starling

Gory thriller.
Very well paced and engaging enough that I could overlook some of the more ridiculous plot holes (vicious murders of several people being looked at by a team of 4 - really????).

It isn't for the squeamish as there are a lot of graphic descriptions of the murders and the state of the bodies afterwards.

87/ Oblivion by Dave Stone

Another in the Bernice Summerfield series.
I'm trying to work my way through these after they've sat on my shelves for 18 years but it's been getting harder as the quality of the last couple has gotten worse.

This is easily the worst so far. Barely any plot but stretched out with an awful lot of padding.

88/ Underground Heritage by Antony Badley-Ellis

As the title suggests it's another book about the tube.
This one focuses on all the various bits of detail around the stations that date back to the early days of the tube and show the changing attitudes to design.
So there are chapters on signage, lighting, tiling, station furniture, etc.
Lots of photographs as you'd expect but also a detailed history of how these items changed and where you can find them.

36. Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller.

In 1976 Peggy is eight years old. Her mother is a concert pianist and her father, who is several years younger than her mother, is a survivalist and is preparing for a potential apocalypse. While the mother is away on a concert tour Peggy' s father takes her "on holiday" to a remote part of Germany.
A very good tale of survival in the wilderness and mental instability.

16) Best Kept Secret - Jeffrey Archer 5/10

138) The Tea Planter's Wife - Dinah Jefferies

12) Splinter the Silence by Val McDermid

What did you think of this? A colleague has recommended it to me.

Read it for my book club tomorrow night. Quite an enjoyable read though I had guessed the main plot. Focussed a lot on some fairly shallow characters and I think it could have been much more descriptive of Ceylon and what was happening there at the time.

I would give it 6.75 out of 10 !

17) Try not to breathe - Holly Seddon 8/10

23. The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths.

I like her but can't remember if the previous books were written in the present tense- which I find unrealistic.

Interestingly overall it got the thumbs down from the book club!

Oh no. I forgot I had actually downloaded it so may as well read it - it won't be top of my list though!

27) Lost Lived by Malcolm Richards

30. Turning Point - Freya North
9/10 - a romantic fiction about Frankie who meets the love of her life Scott who lives half way around the world and how their relationships develops across the miles. I never guessed what the "turning point" would be and the book had left me quite upset as it was very powerful. This is a new author for me and I would read more of her books.

139) Debbie Macomber - Thursdays at Eight
140) Simon Lelic - The Child Who
141) Sue Grafton - X