Read in 2025 - 22: A Brush With Death

A Brush With Death

J.M. Hall

This is the fourth and latest book in J.M. Hall's series about three retired school teachers who solve crimes mainly by meeting once a week at a garden centre café and discuss the puzzling cases, always related to them one way or other, over coffee and cake. 

If you want to (re-)read my reviews for the first three books, you can click here for #3, where you'll find links for #2 and #1.

As stated in my review for the 3rd book, I found there was a change in tone and atmosphere - and not for the better, in my opinion. Still, I was determined to buy the next one, and I did; once again, of course I bought it at The Little Ripon Bookshop, my sister and my favourite and "must visit" when we're in Ripon. (By the way, J.M. Hall mentions it explicitly in his acknowledgements on the last pages of the book.)

A Brush With Death was a delightful read, and I felt none of the slight disappointment or unease the previous one left me with.

As before, Liz, Pat and Thelma have things going on in their home lives, continued from "A Clock Stopped Dead". Still, they get involved with what by all accounts was the natural death of an Ofsted inspector, when his ex-wife doubts the verdict and approaches her former colleagues, having heard of their previous successes in solving mysterious cases.

Without revealing too much, I can safely tell you that in this case, no actual murder is committed - but one is planned, and three people die before the book is over.

Holiday Lets play a role this time, as do school inspections, much dreaded by all involved, something the three friends can of course fully relate to from the years they spent teaching.

Thelma has a "dark" secret, Liz has the "sugar police" coming after her in the shape of her grandson, and Pat is in for a big surprise.

Again, for me a lot of the book's charm comes from places and things mentioned I know so well, it being based in and around Thirsk and Ripon.

The underlying theme of an uncharacteristically hot summer - we're talking North Yorkshire here! - is cleverly woven into the story, and each chapter begins with a quote from a website, radio show, newspaper or other media, ranging from tips to beat the heat to the weather forecast. It is no coincidence that the heatwave breaks as the story is wrapped up - I like it, and am already looking forward to #5 in the series.

Covering New Ground

Like I said in my previous post, I left O.K.'s on the Sunday morning instead of Monday, and was going to tell you why in an extra post, which is this one you're currently reading about Monday, the 1st of September.

Sunrise on the 1st of September, as seen from my kitchen

For my birthday in March, my sister gave me not only the book about NASA which I have reviewed here, but also a visit with her to ESA (European Space Agency) in Darmstadt. (The post about my birthday is here.)

ESA's headquarters are in Paris, but Darmstadt in Germany is an important location as well. You can read about ESA as a whole on wikipedia here, and about its Darmstadt facilities here - and of course, ESA and its many facilities have their own official websites, too.

Neither my sister nor I had ever been to Darmstadt before, and we knew very little about the city. I booked our train tickets after we had found a slot for a guided tour on the 1st of September at 2:00 pm.

We arrived with about 40 minutes delay at Darmstadt's main train station, but of course being seasoned travellers by public transport, we had allowed plenty of time for just such a case, and weren't in any hurry to get to ESOC. Still, we walked the short distance from the station to the complex of buildings right away just to make sure we knew where it was, and then had a bit of a walk around Darmstadt, which admittedly we found rather uninspiring.

In contrast, the tour was great!! It was fascinating to see the places and props I had read about so much for many years, and it was equally fascinating to see my sister's curiosity and interest in everything - so far, she had never been much interested in anything to do with space, satellites, astronomy and so on, so this was really new ground for her in more than one sense. Her enthusiasm enhanced my own experience of the tour, plus we had a very good guide; he knew his stuff but did not flood us with a monotonous stream of facts and numbers. Instead, he explained things in a way everyone was able to follow, and showed us around the grounds and some of the buildings.

Wall clock outside mission control, showing GMT (it was 15:08:53 on our watches and phones)

Model of Europe's Ariane launcher

Model of the ISS suspended in a staircase

German astronaut Alexander Gerst welcomes all visitors (...and shows them the way to the toilet) ! :-)

I loved the flags of all ESA-participating nations on top of the main ESOC building

We were even allowed to look into the main mission control room, although the glass doors were closed for us; a simulation was going on and of course visitors would only disturb the important process of preparing for all sorts of issues that can happen during a satellite flight or probe's mission in space.

One and a half hours later, we left ESOC and walked back into town centre in search of food, and found an Italian place where we had a very late and welcome lunch. 

After that, we walked on and up a long, slight hill to a quarter of town called Mathildenhöhe ("Mathilda Heights"), famous for its beautiful architecture from the Art Nouveau era, called Jugendstil here (clicking on the word will take you to its wikipedia entry, where you'll see photos of some of the same places that we saw and which I am showing you here.

"Wedding Tower"

Angels guarding a golden door

We would have loved to have more time here - just walking among the gorgeous buildings for a couple of hours would have been nice, but we had to make do with a rather short glimpse before it was time to head back to the station, which took us little more than half an hour, I think.

Sunset at Esslingen train station where we had to change

Our trains home were on time, and we said good night happy to have had such a great day out together, loosely planning on a future trip to Darmstadt with a longer visit of Mathildenhöhe.

Last of August

With August ending and the calendar now showing September, it really does feel like summer is over and autumn is here. However, here in my part of Germany, we often have nicer days in September than in July; it may be cooler at night but pleasantly warm during the day. Therefore, I see it as late summer just as much as early autumn.

What was the last week of August like here?

My return from Offenburg to Ludwigsburg on Monday (25 August) was flawless with my trains being on time. It was very chilly in the morning, only 9C/48F, but later warmed up to 24C/71-75C. I spent my lunch break having my back & shoulders massaged, and after work enjoyed a beautiful walk to Benningen.

Tuesday (26 August) was muggy and felt warmer than the 27C/80F the thermometer showed, but since the morning had been as chilly as the day before, it was well bearable. I was at my Mum's after work, and for the first time in a long time we were able to sit on her balcony without it being too hot.

Once again I spent both Wednesday and Thursday (27 and 28 August) at the office in Weilimdorf. 

After sunrise on Wednesday morning, as seen from my kitchen window

On the Wednesday, I thought I'd get away with walking home from Zuffenhausen without getting wet, but I was wrong - maybe 45 minutes from home, it started to drizzle and then turned into proper rain. Not cold, not heavy, but enough to get me wet through. Never mind - I was on my way home, where I could change into dry clothes immediately, plus I was rewarded with a rainbow, albeit a very pale one.

The night brought a proper thunderstorm with more rain as well as thunder and lightning.

On Thursday, I walked home from Kornwestheim (the distance being about half of when I walk from Zuffenhausen) and made it home dry. In the evening, I watched the Netflix première of "The Thursday Murder Club", based on the first of Richard Osman's books which I enjoy so much and have reviewed here on my blog.

If you look at my review of the first one, you'll see that I always had Helen Mirren in mind for the character of Elizabeth, and I was happy when I learned that she was indeed going to play her in the film. In my opinion, all the cast were very good in their roles, and the entire film was close enough to the book, even though some detail was different. I had a good "private cinema" evening and am certain that I will watch it again, probably with the friend who has been lending me her Thursday Murder Club books.

On Friday (29 August), I took an earlier connection to Offenburg, and miraculously the train was on the dot, arriving there at 7:00 pm precisely.

Offenburg has been running an event called "Sommer in der Stadt" (Summer in the City), with live bands playing at various spots in the pedestrian area, supplemented by pop-up bars and food stalls. We strolled around, looking for a place to eat, but everywhere was packed. Eventually, we settled for an Italian place where we had not been before and were glad to have a table indoors; the wind was a bit nippy for dining al fresco.

The pizzas we saw at the other tables were huge, but because next to us was a family, we thought they'd ordered a family pizza. Imagine our suprise when we realised there was just the one size, and ours were exactly as huge as theirs!

It's not a trick of perspective - the pizzas really almost covered the entire table!!

One for the two of us would have been enough, and I took about half of mine home with me in a box. It was good, just too big really, and the place was VERY noisy.

Afterwards, we took our time walking through town centre, listening to the music here and there for a bit, before going back to the car.

Saturday (30 August) was somewhat unsettled in terms of weather, but a walk in the afternoon was possible. In spite of having sprayed myself with mozzie repellant, I returned with two new and very itchy bites on my right knee.

Harvest in the vineyards will begin very soon.

In the evening, we had a small gathering with the immediate family and a couple of neighbours to celebrate the 85th birthday of O.K.'s Mum. The restaurant offered very good food, but the service wasn't up to the same standard as the food. Still, we had a pleasant evening to mark the occasion.

We had to get up relatively early on Sunday (31 August), because I was leaving for home that day instead of the Monday (you'll see why in my next post).

I was home by 11:30 am, and at 3:00 pm, met my Mum and my sister for a visit of the palace grounds, where we had not been in quite a while. It was rather crowded as expected - it was a sunny Sunday afternoon, and when should folks come visiting if not on a day like this!

The pumpkin exhibition (according to the claim on the website, the world's biggest) has been held in the palace grounds for many years now, but we still have mixed feelings about it. Neither of us think it necessary; the park and gardens are beautiful in their own right, they don't need any extras. But the event brings in busloads of tourists, meaning money for the town. This year's motto is Cinema, and some sculptures were quite good. The only ones I took photos of were Star Trek's "Enterprise" and Harry Potter.

The three of us had a leisurely stroll with enough short rests on benches for our Mum, and a longer break with refreshing drinks later on.

It was a fitting end to August, and (at least officially) to summer.

Read in 2025 - 18, 20, 21

I have not forgotten how to count, but my read #19 has had its own post already. The three books I am reviewing now have in common that they were all free at Amazon's Kindle shop, each of them the first in a series offered for free so that readers might get a taste for the series and buy the next ones.

#18: Death by Candlelight

Emma Davies

 

In this “cosy mystery”, the sleuth is not just one person, but a duo – and they are Adam and Eve, although not in the biblical sense.

Instead, Francesca Eve is a self-employed caterer, and Adam is the son of one of her clients. He’s only half her age and a tech nerd.

 

Fran and Adam meet under peculiar circumstances while Fran does the catering at his mother’s birthday party. The hostess and her small group of guests play a murder mystery over dinner, a game custom-ordered specifically for the event.

Everyone is given written instructions about the character they are to play for the evening, without knowing who is the intended “murder victim” – let alone who the “murderer” is, according to the game.

They appear to have great fun… until something goes deadly wrong.

 

Fran finds herself not among the suspects, but still has an interest in learning what has really happened.

She has to juggle her family life, work duties and her completely unofficial detective work, helped by Adam who shows surprisingly useful skills.

 

Of course the two of them solve the case, and of course they both are in danger at some stage or other, but as usual there is no question that they surive when the book is clearly marked the first in a series.

 

I enjoyed the story with some of the dialogue and scenes being rather funny, but I wasn’t convinced of every character and their actions.

It was a fun and easy read but not motivating me to buy more from the series.

The author's website is here.

 

 

#20: Death by Dark Roast

Kate P. Adams

 

For me, the unusual setting was mostly what made this book a good read: The main character works at a large stately home in England, probably based on Chatsworth House; a beautiful palace-like house in vast grounds, still lived in by a duke and his family, but open to visitors.

Sophie manages the cafés on the premises, and her duties also involve taking care of the catering at events in the impressive rooms and well maintained gardens.

 

A food festival is held in the grounds, and Sophie has the chance to indulge her passion for coffee with two of the stalls that sell their own local roasts and pride themselves on their uniqueness and expertise.

Then, a body is found in one of the coffee stalls, and although there doesn’t seem to be much in terms of a motive for the murder, suspects are aplenty.

At the same time, a pattern of thefts of artwork from big houses like the one where this book is set begins to emerge. Are these related in any way to the murder?

 

Sophie helps the local police (against their advice, of course) by doing some investigating of her own, assisted by one of the tour guides at the house.

For a while it seems that the more she finds out, the less close she is to solving the puzzle, but of course she succeeds in the end.

 

As I said, the setting of the house and gardens made the book interesting, plus quite a lot of small detail related to working in such a place. The author has actually worked in similar capacities at stately homes for years (although she never had to solve a murder), and it is obvious she knows what she’s writing about. One example is the mention of why no red wine is served at receptions in marble-floored halls – any spills would be very hard to clean from the precious antique surfaces, whereas champagne and white wine do not present the same problems.

 

I also liked the characters and wouldn't mind reading more of the series, although I must admit I am not keen enough to spend money on it.

 

The author's website is here.

 

#21: A Book to Kill for

Harper Lin

 

Unlike the other two, this book is set in a small town in the US, most of it happening at the local book shop.

 

The owner is an elderly gentleman who is more interested in his books and helping the local community than in making a profit.

He employs Maggie, a young woman who is very pretty without knowing it, very smart and very bookish; she doesn’t like to talk to people and only really feels comfortable talking to her boss – mostly about books, of course.

 

When the old man dies, Maggie is not only heartbroken but also fears the unwelcome changes Joshua, the man’s son and heir, is going to make to the shop.

Then, someone is found dead in the shop – accident or murder? Someone has obviously been looking for something, but who apart from the owner and his employee would know how valuable some of the old books are?

 

Maggie's life revolves around the book shop, and she does not want to lose her job, which gives her enough motivation to investigate the goings-on.

She soon learns more about the people in the small town than she ever knew, and it’s not all nice…

 

While I liked the idea behind the book, the characters didn’t really come alive for me. Especially Maggie and Joshua could have done with some more fleshing out; they were left rather flat and two-dimensional:

He was gorgeous and not much else, while her dislike to talk to people was repeated frequently, as if the reader would need constant reminding.

 

Not a total waste of time, but definitely not a series I shall look into any further.

The author's website is here.