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It’s time to decide what we’ll add to our TBR (To-Be-Read) book stack for September 2024!
This month we thought we’d try ‘Series September!’ and make some headway on a few book series that we’re in the middle of.
“The Diggers Rest Hotel” by Geoffrey McGeachin !
This book is part of a series, but is Book One – so we can all kick off the journey together!
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 – or join us over at Facebook!
So let’s jump in and read some great new stories! We’ll be sure to post reviews of the books we read at the end of September.
* No links in this post are affiliate links
Series or Standalone?:
This is Book One in the ‘Charlie Berlin’ series.
Back Blurb:
In 1947, two years after witnessing the death of a young Jewish woman in Poland, Charlie Berlin has rejoined the police force a different man. Sent to investigate a spate of robberies in rural Victoria, he soon discovers that World War II has changed even the most ordinary of places and people. An ex-bomber pilot and former POW, Berlin is struggling to fit back in: grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder, the ghosts of his dead crew and his futile attempts to numb the pain. When Berlin travels to Albury–Wodonga to track down the gang behind the robberies, he suspects he’s a problem cop being set up to fail. Taking a room at the Diggers Rest Hotel in Wodonga, he sets about solving a case that no one else can – with the help of feisty, ambitious journalist Rebecca Green and rookie constable Rob Roberts, the only cop in town he can trust. Then the decapitated body of a young girl turns up in a back alley, and Berlin’s investigations lead him ever further through layers of small-town fears, secrets and despair.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book 3 in the ‘Frey & McGray’ series.
Back Blurb:
Idols of the theatre Henry Irving and Ellen Terry are preparing to stage Macbeth in Edinburgh. But long before the actors hit the boards the play-house is hit with horror; the piercing, desolate wail of a banshee and a bloody message smeared on the street. Legendary Detective ‘Nine-Nails’ McGray and disgraced London sceptic Inspector Ian Frey are to investigate. While McGray flicks through tattered tomes on the supernatural, Frey is convinced the whole thing is just a publicity stunt. But as the gory messages keep coming one thing is sure; whether by human hand or not, death is coming.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book 4 in the ‘Will Trent’ series.
Back Blurb:
When the body of a young woman is discovered deep beneath the icy waters of Lake Grant, a note left under a rock by the shore points to suicide. But within minutes, it becomes clear that this is no suicide. It’s a brutal, cold-blooded murder. All too soon, former Grant County medical examiner Sara Linton – home for Thanksgiving after a long absence – finds herself unwittingly drawn into the case. The chief suspect is desperate to see her, but when she arrives at the local police station she is met with a horrifying sight – he lies dead in his cell, the words ‘Not me’ scrawled across the walls. Something about his confession doesn’t add up and, deeply suspicious of Lena Adams, the detective in charge, Sara immediately calls in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Shortly afterwards, Special Agent Will Trent is brought in from his vacation to investigate. But he is immediately confronted with a wall of silence. Grant County is a close-knit community with loyalties and ties that run deep. And the only person who can tell the truth about what really happened is dead.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book 3 in the ‘Hirsch’ series.
Back Blurb:
Winter in Tiverton. Constable Paul Hirschhausen has a snowdropper on his patch. Someone is stealing women’s underwear, and Hirsch knows enough about that kind of crime—how it can escalate—not to take it lightly. But the more immediate concerns are a call from the high school, a teacher worried about a student who may be in danger at home. Another call, a different school: a man enraged about the principal’s treatment of his daughter. A little girl in harm’s way and an elderly woman in danger. An absent father who isn’t where he’s supposed to be; another who flees to the back country armed with a rifle. Families under pressure. And the cold, seeping feeling that something is very, very wrong.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book 3 in the ‘Caleb Zelic’ series.
Back Blurb:
Caleb Zelic can’t hear you. But he can see everything. After a lifetime of bad decisions PI Caleb Zelic is finally making good ones. He’s in therapy, his business is recovering and his relationship with his estranged wife Kat is on the mend. But soon Caleb is drawn into the tangled life of his troubled ex partner Frankie, which leads to a confrontation with the cops. And when Frankie’s niece is kidnapped, she and Caleb must work together to save the child’s life. But can Caleb trust her after her past betrayals?
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book 4 in the ‘John Dies at the End’ series.
Back Blurb:
If the broken neon signs, shuttered storefronts, and sub-standard housing didn’t tip you off, you’ve just wandered into the city of “Undisclosed”. You don’t want to be caught dead here, because odds are you just might find yourself rising from the grave. That hasn’t stopped tourists from visiting to check out the unusual phenomena that hangs around our town like radioactive fallout. Inter-dimensional parasites feeding on human hosts, paranormal cults worshipping demonic entities, vengeful teenage sorcerers, we’ve got it all. Did I mention the possessed toy? It’s a plastic football-sized egg that’s supposed to hatch an adorable, colourful stuffed bird when a child “feeds” it through a synchronised smartphone app. What’s actually inside is an otherworldly monstrosity that’s enticing impressionable wayward youth into murdering folks and depositing their body parts inside the egg as if it’s a hungry piggy bank to trigger the end of the world. That’s where Dave, John, and Amy come in. They face supernatural threats so the rest of us don’t have to—and sometimes even earn a couple of bucks to so do. But between the bloody ritual sacrifices and soul-crushing nightmares, our trio realises this apocalypse is way above their pay grade.
Grab yourself a copy:‘If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe’ by Jason Pargin
Series or Standalone?:
This is Book 2 in the ‘Enchanted Garden Mystery’ series.
Back Blurb:
Elliana Allbright s custom-made perfume shop and the Enchanted Garden behind it are garnering all sorts of attention lately, but a dead body could bury her in bad publicity. Elliana’s business and personal life are flourishing in her hometown of Poppyville, CA since she opened Scents & Nonsense. She uses her very special skills to craft perfumes that almost magically ease heartache, inspire change, and bring joy and her customers love to relax in the beautiful garden behind her shop along with her corgi, Dash, and her cat, Nabokov. The shop is so popular that a journalist has come to write a feature about Ellie for a national magazine. But then the journalist is found dead, and suspicion falls on the last person to see him who just happens to be Ellie s brothers girlfriend. So before everything goes to seed, Ellie must rely on her powers observational and otherwise to pick out the real killer from an ever-expanding bouquet of culprits.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book 2 in the ‘PI Lane Holland’ series.
Back Blurb:
Gemma Guillory has lived in Rainier her entire life. She knows the town’s ins and outs like the back of her hand, the people like they are her family, their quirks as if they were her own. She knows her once-charming town is now remembered for one reason, and one reason only. That three innocent people died. She knows that the consequences of catching the Ripper still haunt her police officer husband and their marriage to this day. When a dark tourism operator keen to cash in on the town’s reputation is killed by a Ripper copycat on Gemma’s doorstep, she’s drawn into the investigation. Unbeknownst to her, so is a prisoner named Lane Holland. Gemma knows her town. She knows her people. Doesn’t she?
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Series or Standalone:
This is Book 2 in ‘The Cutting Room’ series.
Back Blurb:
Auctioneer Rilke has been trying to stay out of trouble, keeping his life more or less respectable. Business has been slow at Bowery Auctions, so when an old friend, Jojo, gives Rilke a tip-off for a house clearance, life seems to be looking up. The next day Jojo washes up dead. Jojo liked Grindr hook-ups and recreational drugs – is that the reason the police won’t investigate? And if Rilke doesn’t find out what happened to Jojo, who will? Thrilling and atmospheric, The Second Cut delves into the dark side of twenty-first century Glasgow. Twenty years on from his appearance in The Cutting Room, Rilke is still walking a moral tightrope between good and bad, saint and sinner.
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