Read in 2025 - 27, 28

The following two reviews are both about works of crime fiction, each part of a series, but that's where the parallels end. 

One was a free ebook from Amazon's kindle shop, the other one a paperback borrowed from my book-swapping friend A (the one I was having the "Thursday Murder Club" evening with the other day). One was written by an Australian, the other by an American. They were originally published more than 100 years apart, in 1916 and 2023 respectively.

#27: The Hampstead Mystery

Arthur J. Rees

The wikipedia entry about the author doesn't say much about him as a person, but has a list of his works.

Sometimes I found the book hard going, not because it was complicated or in any way difficult to understand, but because of its sheer length and word-for-word repetition of conversations that weren't entirely necessary to bring the story forward.

Still, the case itself was interesting enough: 

A well-known Judge is found shot dead in his luxurious Hampstead home under mysterious circumstances. He was supposed to be in Scotland, hunting with friends; even his trusted butler claims not to know the reason for his unexpected return. He'd been a widower for many years and lived alone, but evidence points to a lady having been present at the time of his death.

Scotland Yard detectives Chippenfield and Rolfe are baffled, but it's not only vital for them to solve the case for the obvious reasons - they are also up against famous gentleman detective Crewe, employed by the victim's daughter, and the chase for the murderer turns into a race against time between them.

Who will first disentangle the web of relationships between the victim, characters from the underworld, servants, friends and lovers, and find out who really did it?

#28: Unnatural Death

Patricia Cornwell

The 27th book in the series about medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, I found this one gripping enough to keep going although I do not intend to seek out any more of the series. 

The author started the Scarpetta series in 1990, and I am pretty sure that the first one I ever read with this character at its centre was 1994's "The Body Farm". I quite liked it back then but never really followed up.

This recent story, only about 2 years old, references quite a lot from past books which I have not read; it is possible to read it as a standalone novel but probably better to stay within the series - or at least catch up with the fictional characters' biographies on wikipedia.

At the start of the book, Kay and her team are called to recover and examine the bodies of a married couple, wealthy owners of an outdoor equipment store, found dead near a site in dense woodland not accessible to the public where they had been camping for several month. Who had reason to kill them, and how did their murderer manage to get past their extensive security systems, not even showing up on camera although there was only one way to get to the camp site?

What annoyed me was the almost real-time account of events; the helicopter flight out to the woods is described so that every sentence Kay and the pilot (her niece) speak is followed by what they think and feel, what in their past has lead to them thinking and feeling that way, and what they are going to say and do next. 

Of course I understand that much of this was done to remind (or introduce) the reader about the characters' background, but there really was a bit too much of that in my opinion.

As with The Hampstead Mystery, the case itself was interesting enough, but the claim on the book's cover "Edge-of-the-seat, packed with twists" I can not confirm.

If any of you have been reading the Kay Scarpetta series, I'd like to know your opinion; I find that either my taste or the style of the books (or both?) has changed  considerably since I first read one of the novels in the 1990s.

A Very Busy Week

Those of you who read my blog more or less regularly know that I am usually relatively busy, both at work and in the hours before and after. Last week felt busier than usual; a trip to Cologne for work had something to do with that.

Monday (3 November) was a reasonably quiet start of the week that allowed me not only to work through my tasks mostly undisturbed but even gave me the chance for a walk to Benningen in the golden afternoon sun, which I appreciated very much.

I got up well before 5:00 am on Tuesday (4 November) in order to take an early train to Cologne where I was to attend a meeting of Data Protection Officers in the same industry (insurance). Scheduled to start at 10:00 am, I had planned to arrive with about an hour to spare, and wisely so; in the end, due to our notoriously unreliable railway system, I arrived in Cologne with a delay of about 35 minutes and made it to the venue ten minutes before the meeting began.

I enjoyed the train ride with beautiful views of the sunrise and morning mist on the fields.

I also enjoyed my breakfast on board!

Afterwards, "thanks" to my train back to Stuttgart being also delayed, I had time to stroll around the (not very nice) area around Cologne's main station, and for the first time ever I visited the cathedral (in spite of me having been to Cologne for work many, many times). 

Part of the floor inside the cathedral.

I was quite impressed by the beauty and calm, peaceful atmosphere; once inside, it is easy to forget how ugly the immediate surroundings are. If you want to find out more about this wonderful building, click here for the wikipedia article in English.

Deutzer Brücke ("Deutz Bridge") in Cologne, famous for the huge number of "love locks" on it.

The Rhine in Cologne.

By the way, for the first time this season it was so cold in the morning that I saw my own breath when I left the house on my way to the station.

On Wednesday (5 November) was not only the 16th anniversary of my late husband's death but also my usual day at the office. Although Tuesday had been a day of work (and a very long one at that), I had of course not done any actual "work" as usual, and so a pile of emails and many other tasks made it busier than usual. 

Sunrise on the 5th

Last but not least, my boss (who is bipolar) was on a high and kept coming to my room every five minutes (I am NOT exaggerating; when he is on a high he really is like that), and at some point I had to ask him to let me get on with things... it's not nice if you have to say that to your boss, but it's the only way to handle things during such a phase, and he is not offended or anything (he knows that he can be VERY exhausting).

I can not tell you how relieved I was when left the office that day.

This is not the sun, but the moon on the evening of the 5th - it was incredibly bright that night!

At only 4C/39F, Thursday (6 November) was cold in the morning but sunny. For the first time since the summer, my friend and I managed to meet for a pre-work walk, which was very nice. In the evening, I went to my see my Mum.

Sunrise from my kitchen window on Thursday morning

Pre-work walk

Another busy working day followed on Friday (7 November), but the weekend was already in sight. It was wet, cold and grey with a fog that didn't lift properly all day, so I didn't mind not having time for a walk. 

After work, I did my usual cleaning, packed my little red suitcase and went to the train station. Miraculously, my train to Offenburg was on time, and O.K. and I were happy to start the weekend with our customary Friday evening meal of salad, cheese, bread and wine.

I had time to rest on Saturday (8 November) but also for a walk around the village combined with one or two errands while O.K. was doing some jobs around his Mum's house. 

There is actually a rather busy road outside the village - it was hardly visible for the fog on Saturday.

Late afternoon, we had a quick snack, donned our village band t-shirts and walked up to the village hall. 

In this part of Germany, Carnival begins officially on the 11th of November, but especially in villages, many associations and bands who are active during the Carnival period organise an event to kick-off the "silly season" on the weekend before the 11th. In O.K.'s village, a big event was held in the village hall, calling for nearly everyone to lend a hand.

O.K. and I had put down our names to help in the kitchen, but not with the food; we were manning the dishwasher and dealt with an unknown number of glasses and cups from 6:00 to 10:30 pm. It wasn't stressful at all, just constant work, and while our hands were busy, we were free to chat. We were allowed to help ourselves to whatever food and drink we wanted, and being tucked away in the kitchen also meant that we were not exposed to the full noise in the hall.

After our shift, we stayed on only for a little while; after all, we had been on our feet since before 6:00. We had a drink with some of our friends from the village band and then said good-bye. It was well before midnight when we were back at the cottage.

Sunday (9 November) was a slow, quiet day with rain almost all morning. In the afternoon it stopped, allowing us to go for a leisurely walk before popping in with O.K.'s Mum. Coffee and cake was next, followed by a rest, and in the evening, our meal was basically a repeat of what we had on Friday.

Last of October, First of November

With the onset of November comes the distinct feeling that we're not far from winter, and that the four weeks of Advent and then Christmas (all of which I love) are just round the corner. But in spite of a wintry chill in the air some mornings and nights, we still enjoyed mild days and a mix of sun and rain.

Monday (27 October) started rainy, but the previous weeks' high winds continued and soon blew the clouds away; I even saw a pale rainbow from my kitchen window:

I didn't have time for a walk - for a very good reason:

My friend A who first introduced me to The Thursday Murder Club and keeps lending me the sequels as soon as they come out (and she has finished them) was coming over for our very own Movie Night. She doesn't have Netflix and therefore had not yet seen the film based on the 1st book, and although I saw it on its premiere night in September, I asolutely didn't mind watching it again.

I prepared a few snacks that the members of the Thursday Murder Club would certainly have approved of, and A brought an apple pie. We enjoyed the evening a lot, and should there be more films based on the sequels, we want to watch them together as well.

My team and I were booked for the pub quiz at "my" Irish Pub on Tuesday (28 October), always an evening to look forward to in spite of the VERY noisy pub. I managed to fit in an hour of walking between finishing work and going to the pub, which may (or may not) have contributed to us coming second although there were only four of us instead of the usual six. 

As usual, I spent Wednesday (29 October) at the office in Weilimdorf. It was a lovely autumn day of golden sunshine, and so on the way home I decided to stay on the train until Freiberg and walk from there to Benningen. It's not far, only about an hour, but because it was already late in the afternoon, I didn't want to get off the train earlier and walk longer, as the last 20 minutes or so would have been in the dark on the unlit fields.

Sunrise on Wednesday from my kitchen window, 7:00 am.

It wasn't as dark yet as it looks here, but the sun was definitely setting.

Another day at the office followed on Thursday (30 October), and afterwards, I met my Mum at the central bus station. 

From there we had only a short walk to a café where were invited to attend a reading of short stories and discussion about Freedom. One of my colleagues has a friend who writes stories, and she had put together some of them under the topic Freedom. The participants were invited to note their thoughts on what freedom means for them individually and on a larger scale.

A good idea and an interesting setup, but unfortunately, the café was busy and very noisy accordingly. We weren't in a separate room and had the full "benefit" of the background music, chatter of all the other guests plus the hissing and rattling of coffee machine, ice crusher and so on. 

Still, my colleague (who read to us the stories her friend had written) did very well, and we could more or less hear the stories and talk about them among us. 

Friday (31 October) would have been my late husband's 57th birthday, and of course I was thinking of him.

The following four pictures were taken that morning from my kitchen window in the half hour between 6:30 and 7:00 am:

O.K. had the day off and planned to catch up on jobs around his mother's house and garden, making use of a day without rain, and more daylight than what is left by the time he gets back from work.

He did plenty and was on the go until evening with only one short break, and by the time he usually would have packed his weekend bag and driven to me, he was quite exhausted and we both agreed it made more sense for him to rest at home and drive the 150 km to me the next morning.

Saturday (1st of November) was dull and grey, but dry; there was a faint promise of sun but it never materialised for us. It didn't matter, though; soon after O.K. arrived at my place in the morning, we set off in his car again.

Sunrise on the 1st of November

Just over half an hour from Ludwigsburg is the small town of Maulbronn, famous because it has a Cistercian abbey which became a UNESCO World Heritage site in the 1990s. The wikipedia article (in English) about the abbey is here and gives you all the dates and facts as well as more photos than what I am showing you here.

I have been coming to this special place for as long as I can remember, my parents often made it the destination for a family outing on a Sunday. We nearly always combined it with a visit to the lake you'll see further down, and sometimes we took a guided tour or, when my sister and I were old enough to appreciate it properly, attended concerts. I have many memories of Maulbronn and was happy to visit now with O.K.

But actually, we weren't here (mainly) for the abbey, but because a circular walk found in a book my sister gave me years ago starts and ends there, and we intended to walk it that day.

Once we had left the abbey grounds behind and climbed uphill, we reached the woods with the autumn colours lighting up the otherwise grey day.

The description in the book mentioned a viewing point and showed it on the map, but we didn't see the path that was supposed to lead there from the main path, and had it not been for a couple of helpful cyclists who showed us where to go, we would not have completed the walk in the way it was meant to be done.

With the guide book having been originally published in 2014, it was obvious that a lot had grown in the past 11 years, nearly obliterating that particular path! But we did find it in the end, and since we were wearing sturdy hiking boots, a bit of mud and thorny brambles didn't stop us, let alone the trunk of a tree that had fallen right across the path.

The views were rewarding, and we found a bench in surprisingly good condition where we had our sandwiches and a drink. 

Continuing through the woods (at one point startling a deer, which ran from us only a few yards next to the path), we arrived at the bottom of the slope. 

At the top of the hill is the hidden place where we had our sandwiches.

This bright yellow field is not rapeseed - that only grows here in April/May. It is mustard.

On through a few residential streets of Knittlingen and across fields, we reached the lake "Aalkistensee", literally meaning "lake of eel boxes", referring to the wooden crates used in the past to catch eel, once upon a time very popular for eating.

From there it was not all that far to the parking lot in Maulbronn, where we changed into regular shoes and went to a café for coffee and cake. After a brief visit to the souvenir shop (where we didn't buy anything), O.K. drove us home.

For our evening meal, I made Kässpätzle; a dish I like in autumn and winter especially, because it is done in the oven and so makes the kitchen really warm and cosy. I have showed Spätzle (the base for Kässpätzle) before on my blog, and Kässpätzle, too; so if you don't know what it is, you can click here.

Sunday (2 November) was wet and grey, but we still managed a walk in the early afternoon. Later, we and my sister were at our Mum's and enjoyed her Szegeden goulash (a Hungarian recipe), another typical autumn/winter dish.

O.K. left for home, my sister and I walked to our respective homes, and I ended the week with a combination of watching TV and reading.