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Let’s make a list of books to read in March 2025!
We’re doubling down on crime fiction this month, so if you’re comforted by a police procedural or routinely held to ransom by a well-plotted whodunnit – then you’re in luck!
‘The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club’ by Dorothy L. Sayers
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 may talk a little more in-depth about the Book Club and our thoughts on the monthly book pick in our Fishbird Central Newsletter. Or we may not. We’re flighty like that. Regardless, 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! Book reviews are published in later posts.
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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!
Series or Standalone?:
This is Book 5 in the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries
'The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club' Back Blurb:
This compelling mystery invites readers to join the brilliant and charming detective Lord Peter Wimsey as he unravels a perplexing case set within the exclusive Bellona Club. When a member of the club is found dead under suspicious circumstances, Lord Peter delves into a tangled web of secrets, inheritance disputes, and hidden motives. With her trademark wit and meticulous plotting, Sayers crafts a story filled with intrigue, sharp characterisations, and a vivid portrayal of London’s high society.
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‘The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club’ by Dorothy L. Sayers
Series or Standalone?:
This is Book One in the Babe Levy series.
'Marathon Man' Back Blurb:
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Series or Standalone?:
This is part of the Cool and Lam series.
'The Knife Slipped' Back Blurb:
Lost for more than 75 years, ‘The Knife Slipped’ was meant to be the second book in the series, but was shelved when Gardner’s publisher objected to (among other things) Bertha Cool’s tendency to “talk tough, swear, smoke cigarettes, and try to gyp people.” But this tale of adultery and corruption, of double-crosses and triple identities – however shocking for 1939 – shines today as a glorious present from the past, a return to the heyday of private eyes and shady dames, of powerful criminals, crooked cops, blazing dialogue, and delicious plot twists. Donald Lam has never been cooler – not even when played by Frank Sinatra on the U.S. Steel Hour of Mystery in 1946. Bertha Cool has never been tougher. And Erle Stanley Gardner has never been better.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book One in the Inspector Hannasyde series.
'Death in the Stocks' Back Blurb:
An English bobbie returning from night patrol finds a corpse in evening dress locked in the stocks on the village green. He identifies the body immediately. Andrew Vereker was not a well-loved man, and narrowing down the suspects is not going to be an easy job. The Vereker family are corrupt and eccentric – and hardly cooperative … It’s another case for the resourceful Superintendent Hannasyde, who sets off on the trail of a killer so cunning that even his consummate powers of detection are tested to their limits…
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Series or Standalone?:
This is a standalone novel.
'Three Men in a Boat' Back Blurb:
A comic masterpiece that has never been out of print since it was first published in 1889. Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a ‘T’. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather forecasts and tins of pineapple chunks – not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.’s small fox-terrier Montmorency.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is a standalone novel.
'Payment Deferred' Back Blurb:
Mr Marble is in serious debt, desperate for money to pay his family’s bills, until the combination of a wealthy relative, a bottle of Cyanide and a shovel offer him the perfect solution. Slowly the Marble family becomes poisoned by guilt, and caught in a trap of secrets, fear and blackmail. Then Mrs Marble ensures that retribution comes in the most unexpected of ways…
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book One in the Anna Travis series.
'Above Suspicion' Back Blurb:
Young Anna Travis has been assigned to her first murder case – a series of killings that has shocked even the most hardened of detectives. They started eight years ago – now the body count is up to six. The method of killing is identical, the backgrounds of the girls identical – all drug-users and prostitutes. Then a seventh body is found. The modus operandi is the same – but the victim is a young student with the ‘face of an angel’. The profile of the murderer has changed dramatically. Determined to earn the respect of her male colleagues, Anna stumbles on a vital piece of information which links one man to the killings, a much-loved actor on the brink of international stardom. His arrest would create a media frenzy. But if he were found innocent, his wouldn’t be the only career over – Anna’s hard fought for reputation would be destroyed once and for all …
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book 2 in the Kay Scarpetta series.
'Body of Evidence' Back Blurb:
Someone is stalking Beryl Madison. Someone who spies on her and makes threatening, obscene phone-calls. Terrified, Beryl flees to Key West – but eventually she must return to her Richmond home. The very night she arrives, Beryl inexplicably invites her killer in … Thus begins for Dr Kay Scarpetta the investigation of a crime that is as convoluted as it is bizarre. Why would Beryl open the door to someone who brutally slashed and then nearly decapitated her? Did she know her killer? Adding to the intrigue is Beryl’s enigmatic relationship with a prize-winning author and the disappearance of her own manuscript. As Scarpetta retraces Beryl’s footsteps, an investigation that begins in the laboratory with microscopes and lasers leads her deep into a nightmare that soon becomes her own.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book One in the Commissario Brunetti series.
'Death at La Fenice' Back Blurb:
The twisted maze of Venice’s canals has always been shrouded in mystery. Even the celebrated opera house, La Fenice, has seen its share of death … but none so horrific and violent as that of world-famous conductor, Maestro Helmut Wellauer, who was poisoned during a performance of La Traviata. Even Commissario of Police, Guido Brunetti, used to the labyrinthine corruptions of the city, is shocked at the number of enemies Wellauer has made on his way to the top – but just how many have motive enough for murder? The beauty of Venice is crumbling. But evil is one thing that will never erode with age.
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