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It’s time to decide what we’ll add to our TBR (To-Be-Read) book stack for July 2024!
“Oracle” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
You don’t need to ‘sign up’ or have ‘special elite access’ to join the Fishbird Central Book Club. Just read along with our chosen book for the month, and let us know how you like it!
We’ll talk a little more in depth about the Book Club and our thoughts on the monthly book pick in our Fishbird Central Newsletter. We’d love to chat with you in the newsletter comments!
Join us as we read some great new titles and tick off some reading prompts! We’ll be sure to circle back around and post reviews of the books we read at the end of July.
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We encourage you to always source books from your local independent bookshop. However, we understand this is sometimes not practical based on location or budget.
Therefore, this post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means, if you click on the link and purchase the book from that link, I get a few dollars at no extra cost to you! This way we can both restock our TBR stack! 😀
Happy Reading, Friends!
TBR Prompt:
Read a book by an author you’ve enjoyed before!
Back Blurb:
On a foggy winter morning two children discover the impossible: the wreck of an eighteenth-century ship stranded in a field. One enters the hatch on the deck and is never seen again. And she isn’t the last to disappear. Soon a government agency begins to investigate, determined to uncover the ship’s secrets before a media storm erupts. They enlist Robert Grim, a retired specialist of the occult, to unravel the mystery, who soon realises the ship could be a harbinger of an ancient doom awakened under the sea. In a maelstrom of international intrigue and pure terror, Grim must race against time as he comes face to face with an open doorway to the apocalypse.
What made me pick it up?:
This book will be our Fishbird Central Book Club pick for July 2024! Woot woot! We look forward to hearing your thoughts!
I’ve really enjoyed Olde Heuvelt’s previous novels ‘Hex‘ and ‘Echo‘. His books are ominous, lite-supernatural, and always an intriguing read. I love the idea of a shipwreck in a field and a doorway to the apocalypse sounds exciting! Here’s hoping this one will be a great read! This is a stand-alone novel.
Grab yourself a copy:
TBR Prompt:
Read a book where the title begins with ‘A’.
Back Blurb:
When Laurence Fife was murdered, few cared. A slick divorce attorney with a reputation for ruthlessness, Fife was also rumoured to be a slippery ladies’ man. Plenty of people in the picturesque Southern California town of Santa Teresa had reason to want him dead. Including, thought the cops, his young and beautiful wife, Nikki. With motive, access and opportunity, Nikki was their number one suspect. The Jury thought so too. Eight years later and out on parole, Nikki Fife hires Kinsey Millhone to find out who really killed her husband. But the trail has gone cold and there is a chilling twist even Kinsey didn’t expect.
What made me pick it up?:
I’ve seen Sue Grafton’s books everywhere, but I’ve yet to give her detective series a try. This is Book One in the ‘Kinsey Millhone‘ series, and there are currently 25 books in the series – so plenty to get on with if I like her writing. I’m a sucker for some good detective fiction. Have you read this series? If so, what did you think? No spoilers! 🙂
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TBR Prompt:
Read a cosy mystery!
Back Blurb:
Opening a gourmet popcorn shop was never on Rebecca Anderson’s bucket list. But after a failed marriage to a celebrity chef, she’s ready for her life to open up and expand. She has returned to her hometown of Grand Lake, Ohio, with her popcorn-loving poodle Sprocket to start a new business—naturally called POPS. As a delicious bonus, Cordelia “Coco” Bittles, a close family friend who has always been like a grandmother to Rebecca, owns the chocolate shop next door, and the two are thinking of combining their businesses. But when Coco’s niece, Alice, discovers her on the floor of her chocolate shop, those dreams go up in smoke. The local sheriff thinks Coco was the victim of a robbery gone wrong, but Rebecca isn’t so sure. As suspects start popping up all over, Rebecca is determined to turn up the heat and bring the killer to justice in a jiffy!
What made me pick it up?:
I love a cosy crime mystery, and that dog on the cover cracks me up. Look at his beautiful face! If anyone’s going to solve whatever popcorn fiasco is heading their way, it’s this guy with his tube legs! Gooooo Sprocket! These trade paperbacks bring me so much joy. This is Book One in the ‘Popcorn Shop Mysteries’.
Grab yourself a copy:
TBR Prompt:
Read a book from a series you’ve already started!
Back Blurb:
Stabbed in the back. A pieced of lead piping nearby. It should be a simple case. Poirot is summoned to France, but arrives too late to save his client, whose body now lies face down in a shallow grave on a golf course. Why is the dead man wearing his son’s overcoat? And who was the intended recipient of the love-letter in the pocket? Before Poirot can answer these questions, the case is turned upside down by the discovery of a second, identically murdered corpse.
What made me pick it up?:
This is Book 2 in the ‘Hercule Poirot‘ series, and who doesn’t love Poirot! Agatha Christie is such a staple in the crime writing landscape, that I always assume I’ve read more of her work than I have. It’s time to help Poirot solve another case! Allons-y!
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TBR Prompt:
Read a ‘new to you’ author.
Back Blurb:
What Maigret sought, and what he waited and watched out for, was the crack in the wall. In other words, the instant when the human being comes out from behind the opponent. Who is Pietr the Latvian? Is he a gentleman thief? A Russian drinking absinthe in a grimy bar? A married Norwegian sea captain? A twisted corpse in a train bathroom? Or is he all of these men? Inspector Maigret, tracking a mysterious adversary and a trail of bodies, must bide his time before the answer can come into focus.
What made me pick it up?:
This is Book One in the ‘Inspector Maigret‘ series. A lot of Simenon’s Maigret books were published as part of the Penguin Crime Classics run – and (being a completist) I need to start at the start and see where it all began!
Grab yourself a copy:
TBR Prompt:
Sink your teeth into a vampire novel!
Back Blurb:
In a small Alaskan town, a boy is found with his throat ripped out and the blood drained from his body. The brutality of the murder of chillingly echoes a killing from twenty-five years ago. Out-of-state detective Barbara Atkins is brought in to assist the sheriff, Jensen Tucker, who investigated the original case. However, the inhabitants of Deadhart believe they know who is responsible: one of the nearby vampyr colony who live in an old mining settlement deep in the mountains. Barbara is under pressure to authorise a cull of the entire colony. But the evidence doesn’t stack up, people are lying, and the more Barbara and Tucker delve into Deadhart’s history, the darker the secrets they uncover. As the snow thickens and the nights grow longer, another teenager goes missing and body parts are found. Time is running out for Barbara and Tucker to find the truth.
What made me pick it up?:
This is a stand-alone vampire novel, and there’s nothing better to read on a winter night than a paranormal mystery thriller! I haven’t loved two other books I’ve previously read by Tudor, but I’m keen to give the author another bite of the apple. Fingers crossed this one packs a punch!
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TBR Prompt:
Read a book with supernatural elements!
Back Blurb:
Jim Crow Florida, 1950. Twelve-year-old Robert Stephens Jr., who for a trivial scuffle with a white boy is sent to The Gracetown School for Boys. But the segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there. In order to survive the school governor and his Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the school’s ghosts – only they have their own motivations.
What made me pick it up?:
I really enjoyed Due’s ‘The Good House‘ and have only heard great things about The Reformatory. A ghostly tale is right up my street. This is a stand-alone novel, and a chunker – but I have a feeling I’ll fly through it.
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TBR Prompt:
Read an award nominated book!
Back Blurb:
On Memorial Day in Jewel, Minnesota, the body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. The investigation falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past. Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbour secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.
What made me pick it up?:
This is a stand-alone novel, and nominated for ‘Best Novel’ in the 2024 Edgar Awards! This looks like it will be an atmospheric crime read, and I’m hoping Krueger will become a new favourite author.
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TBR Prompt:
Read a crime noir novel!
Back Blurb:
Ex-detective Nick Charles attracts trouble like a magnet. He thinks his sleuthing days are over, but when Julia Wolf, a former acquaintance, is found dead, her body riddled with bullets, Nick – along with his glamorous wife, Nora – can’t resist making a few enquiries. Clyde Miller Wynant, Julia’s lover and boss, has disappeared. Everyone is after him, but Nick is not convinced Wynant is the murderer – and when he finds a junked-up hoodlum with a careless attitude to guns in his bedroom, it’s only the beginning of his troubles.
What made me pick it up?:
This is a stand-alone novel, and one of the first 15 Penguin Crime Classics that I’m hoping to read through. Some of the old hard-boiled crime noir novels can be a hoot, so I’m looking forward to giving this one a try.
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