Happy New Year 2025

As usual, here is a round up of the books I read this year. I did slightly lose track in November, but I think I've got them all.

Accident by Design - E C R Lorac

There's a Porpoise Close Behind Us - Noel Langley

We Had to Take Down This Post - Hanna Bervoets

Murder in Vienna - E C R Lorac

Marple - Various

The Green Mirror - Hugh Walpole

No Time Like the Future - Michael J Fox

Death Came Softly - E C R Lorac

A Time in Rome - Elizabeth Bowen

Around the World in 80 Trains - Monisha Rajesh

Spoon Fed - Tim Spector

Shroud of Darkness - E C R Lorac

Ropes End, Rogues End - E C R Lorac

The Moon and Sixpence - W S Maugham

The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey

No Signposts in the Sea - Vita Sackville West

A House Unlocked - Penelope Lively

The Last Escape - E C R Lorac

London Particular - Christianna Brand

Shroud for a Nightingale - P D James

The Christmas Guest - Peter Swanson

Letters of Travel - Rudyard Kipling

Bandits in a Landscape - William Gaunt

Last Will and Testament - Elizabeth Ferrars

Frog in the Throat - Elizabeth Ferrars

Beware of the Dog - Elizabeth Ferrars

Witness Before the Fact - Elizabeth Ferrars

Skeleton Staff - Elizabeth Ferrars

Death Mask - Ellis Peters

The Sentimental Novelist -  Ophan Pamuk

The Death of Mr Dodsley - John Ferguson

Thinner than Water - E X Ferrars

No Rest for the Wicked - E X Ferrars

The Killing Pool - Ross MacDonald

Less - Patrick Grant

Case in the Clinic - E C R  Lorac

The Arvon Book of Crime Writing - Various

The Island of Sheep - John Buchan

Strange Waters - Jackie Taylor

A Breeze of Morning - Charles Morgan

Space Invaders - Nina Fernandez

The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman

Pure Joy - Danielle Steel

A Spot of Folly - Ruth Rendell

Fly Country - Anthony Lang

Full Dark House - Christopher Fowler

Banking on Death - Emma Lathem

Marple - Anne Hart

Death in Fancy Dress - Anthony Gilbert

Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio - Amara Lakhous

The Small World of Murder - Elizabeth Ferrars

The Bother At the Barbican - Guy Cullingford

N is for Noose - Sue Grafton

L'art de la Simplicite - Dominique Loreau

Phantoms on the Bookshelves - Jacques Bonnet

Other People's Shoes - Harriet Walter

Alive, Alive Oh - Diana Athill

Towards Zero - Agatha Christie

Death Goes on Skis - Nancy Spain

Tour de Force - Christianna Brand

The Dressing Room Murder - J S Fletcher

Dead Man's Folly - Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot's Christmas - Agatha Christie

The Belting Inheritance - Julian Symons

On the Other Side - Mathilde Wolff-Monckberg

The Water Room - Christopher Fowler

Deep Waters - Various

Call for the Dead - John LeCarre

Dramatic Murder - Elizabeth Anthony

The Secret History of Our Streets - Joseph Buleman

Mrs McGinty's Dead - Agatha Christic

Murder After Christmas - Rupert Latimer

Strange Tide - Christopher Fowler

Who Killed Father Christmas? - Various

Lots of Crime as always, and a brief dip into spy stories. Of the crime stories I read Christopher Fowler and Richard Osman for the first time, and can see what the fuss is about. I also read some British Library Crime books of short stories that went largely in one eye and other the other, and some longer ones which again varied. 

Stand out books were Around the World in 80 Trains - I now want to read Rajesh' other book (I think there's only one as yet) - and The Island of Sheep, which shouldn't have been my sort of thing at all but was just so well written it pulled me in anyway. 

I started but didn't finish a blog post entitled 'Please Call Scotland Yard' after reading The Dressing Room Murder because the incompetence of the police officers in that case was so completely maddening. 

Some totals: I read three books in translation, 58 fiction titles and 18 non fiction. I'm not going to beat myself up, but that's less non-fiction than I'd like, or is usual, so my very relaxed reading challenge to myself is read more non fiction in 2025. 

Apart from books I'm not sure what to say about 2024. I had some good holidays, did quite a lot of walking (a rough average of 28 miles per week, although that average is very rough and it was nowhere near evenly spread) decluttered 52 things more than I acquired (this probably sounds mad, but this is a very small flat and is pretty full. I do need to keep an eye on the flow of 'stuff') and am neither sorry nor pleased to see the back of it. 

Happy New Year all.