01 | July | 2017 | Brainfluff

This is part of the weekly meme over at the Caffeinated Book Reviewer, where book bloggers can share the books and blogs they have written.

Last Sunday was the day before my birthday – so my daughter and partner took us out for a lovely meal at a local restaurant with an excellent vegetarian menu – we had a marvellous time.

On the day of my birthday, I had to teach both morning and evening, but I had lunch with my sister and granddaughter who had the day off to school. As requested, I’ve had some photos taken of me on my new swing – my present from Himself – showing my new purple hair-do. I’m delighted with it😊.

On Wednesday, I attended Pilates and Fitstep, had lunch with a friend and dropped in on my sister – and I can’t tell you how good it feels to write that… It was Writing Group on Wednesday evening. As I’ve been out and about rather a lot, I caught up on admin during the day and in the evening, my sister invited us over for a meal. Friday found me working at Tim’s.

Yesterday, I was busy cooking for a gathering of the clan – with vegetarians and vegans attending my birthday bash, I made some Marmite twists, vegan cheese straws, apple slices, flapjack and vegan pizza. And today I’m having a birthday party with all the family – so apologies for not being around much to respond on the blog. Hopefully after today, life will get back to normal.

This week I have read:

How To Stop Time by Matt Haig
Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen a lot, and now craves an ordinary life. Always changing his identity to stay alive, Tom has the perfect cover – working as a history teacher at a London comprehensive. Here he can teach the kids about wars and witch hunts as if he’d never witnessed them first-hand. He can try and tame the past that is fast catching up with him. The only thing Tom mustn’t do is fall in love.
This is an intriguing premise which Haig weaves into a fascinating story about an old, old man who is tired of life. And whatever he does – he mustn’t fall in love… I loved this one and will be reviewing it later this month.

Eleventh Hour – Book 8 of the Kit Marlowe series by M.J. Trow
April, 1590. The queen’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, is dead, leaving a dangerous power vacuum. His former right hand man, Nicholas Faunt, believes he was poisoned and has ordered Kit Marlowe to discover who killed him. To find the answers, Marlowe must consult the leading scientists and thinkers in the country. But as he questions the members of the so-called School of Night, the playwright-turned-spy becomes convinced that at least one of them is hiding a deadly secret. If he is to outwit the most inquiring minds in Europe and unmask the killer within, Marlowe must devise an impossibly ingenious plan.
This is great fun – an historical whodunit set in Elizabethan times featuring a famous playwright and a number of other well-known figures, though not necessarily as you’ve seen them depicted before. I’m delighted to have requested this one from Netgalley – it is a cracking read and I’ll be definitely tracking down more in this series.

The Invisible Library – Book 1 of The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman
Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she’s posted to an alternative London. Their mission – to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it’s already been stolen. London’s underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book. Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested – the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene’s new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.
Having read a number of glowing reviews from fellow book bloggers, I’d acquired this one a while ago – and finally decided to read it. It’s a great alternate world adventure and I’ll be soon tucking into the next instalment as I’ve now ordered it from the local library (sadly not the invisible variety – but we can’t have everything…).

My posts last week:
Sunday Post – 25th June 2017

Review of The Dog Walker – Book 5 of The Detective’s Daughter series by Lesley Thomson

Teaser Tuesday featuring Eleventh Hour – Book 8 of the Kit Marlowe series by M.J. Trow

Review of Scarlet – Book 2 of the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Review of Star Wars: The Dark – Book 4 of the Adventures in Wild Space series by Tom Huddleston

Friday Face-off – I collect hats. That’s what you do when you’re bald. featuring The Martian by Andy Weir

*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of Sherlock Mars by Jackie Kingon

Interesting/outstanding blogs and articles that have caught my attention during the last week, in no particular order:

Please Support Your Favourite Authors https://gaslightcrime.wordpress.com/2017/06/25/please-support-your-favourite-authors/ This short article just reminds readers how they can help their authors to be able to keep writing.

Fantasy Maps, Book Launches and Chris Pratt! https://sophieetallis.wordpress.com/2017/06/28/fantasy-maps-book-launches-and-chris-pratt/ This well-told article from talented author and artist, and fellow Grimmie author Sophie Tallis describes how her adventures in attending a book launch brought about an epiphany…

What’s Making Me Happy: June 2017 https://saraletourneauwriter.com/2017/06/29/happiness-june-2017/ I love the idea of writing a regular celebratory article – and Sara has done it really well.

Top Ten Historical Novels Worth Reading (more than once) http://earthianhivemind.net/2017/06/25/ten-historical-fiction-novels-worth-reading/ An excellent list for those of you who enjoy quality historical fiction

Lessons Learned from Agatha Christie: How Much Stock Should One Put into a Title? https://jeanleesworld.com/2017/06/29/lessons-learned-from-agatha-christie-how-much-stock-should-one-put-into-a-title/ Another enjoyable and thought provoking article from Jean on a subject that has most authors losing sleep.

Thank you very much for taking the time and trouble to visit, like and comment on my site and may you have a great week.

The quirky title and interesting premise caught my eye – I’m always a sucker for crime set in space, so I requested the arc.

Molly Marbles runs a successful bistro on terraformed Mars. But a virtual restaurant opens near her place, offering the experience of delicacies from across the Solar System with none of the calories. What will this do to her business? Then its owner is murdered in her kitchen. Molly, an amateur detective, springs into action to help the police solve the mystery, while also planning her pop-star daughter’s wedding, keeping her kitchen staff from feuding, and protecting her cyborg friend from the humans-only mob. Meanwhile, the infamous Cereal Serial Killer has escaped prison on Pluto and has everyone worried. Things are getting hectic, but Molly is a resilient and resourceful woman. And her knack for mysteries sees her nick-named ‘Sherlock Mars’.

This is basically a cosy mystery set in space. It has the classic ingredients – a victim that no one seems to care all that much about; a quirky, successful restaurant owner who inexplicably has sufficient time to shoot off here, there and everywhere to run down a number of clues; a friendly law enforcement officer who is happy to let Molly have crucial details of the ongoing case; lots of foodie details along the way.

I like Molly – the fact that she is happily married with adult children and is rushing around organising a wedding for one of them is a major plus point as far as I’m concerned. It’s nice to see women of a certain age confident in her ability and established in a stable relationship and career featuring as the main protagonist for a change. However, while she is crazily busy, I did feel her characterisation was a little thin – mostly because the continual stream of puns and gags around the future version of the past crowded out the opportunities for us to bond with her.

The worldbuilding is detailed and builds up a clear picture of exactly what life is like on Mars for Molly and her family. We get plenty of descriptions of the places they visit and in particular, the build-up to the wedding and the celebration, but again, the focus on the one-liners and wordplay inevitably skews some of the detail, as destinations and placenames are clearly only added for the sake of the gag. The situation regarding androids as political tensions rise around their status is nicely handled and I did enjoy Molly’s relationship with her friend Jersey, whose husband, Trenton, is an android. The only problem I did have, is that given the abilities Trenton displayed in manufacturing a range of goods for Jersey, it did occur to me that the fears of unmodified humans were very well founded – and that aspect simply wasn’t investigated. Perhaps it is being left for another book in the series, as although at no time is this book flagged as the second in a series, there is clearly a previous book somewhere about another case earlier in Molly’s life.

The solution to the case worked well, in that the murderer is someone who has a strong reason for killing the victim and is well placed to keep threatening Molly as she endeavours to track down the perpetrator. The various story arcs are nicely tied up and overall, it comes to a satisfactory conclusion – but I cannot help thinking that if there were a few less puns and wordplay jokes, the overall characterisation and scene setting could have been a lot stronger.
7/10