Short reading recap for you this week, because I only finished one book – Smallbone Deceased, on audio. My assessment from last week stands: enjoyable, but not as good as Death in Captivity, another Michael Gilbert book published by British Library Crime Classics, which was one of the best books I read in 2022. I can report that I did not guess whodunit, but I did correctly suss out the group from whom the guilty party came. The mystery takes place in a law firm, and there is a clear division between the attorneys and the staff. In this case, I was pretty sure early on that the murderer hailed from one of these two groups – I won’t say which, for those who may want to read the book – and I was right. I suspected two people in particular and was leaning towards the one who seemed less likely to have committed the crime, just because this person seemed so unlikely. And there I was off base – the person I suspected a little bit more was not the killer, and my second choice was. How’s that for cryptic?

In print, I spent the entire week over Scott’s Last Expedition and I’m still not done. It’s a lot of details about weather and food arrangements at Scott’s winter base, and that makes it rather slow reading. Fascinating, but slow. Anyway, I’m about 2/3 of the way through now and another few evenings of dedicated reading should do it, so I expect I’ll finish this week. Once I do, I haven’t decided yet what’s next – possibly Brat Farrar, by Josephine Tey, or The Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay, both of which I’d like to read so that I can listen to podcast episodes discussing them without getting spoiled.

Another skiing picture for you – but look who joined us this time! Steve and Peanut came to the mountain, and Nugget was beside himself with excitement at showing them both around. Steve has never been a skier, but he has tried to learn a few times and I know he would really like to enjoy mountain fun with the kids. Nugget was gleefully “teaching Daddy the basics” while I skied Peanut down the bunny slope and he said Steve did a great job – LOL. While we would of course rather Daddy still be enjoying Sundays watching his Bills in the NFL playoffs, a ski day with the whole family was a small silver lining to their season ending.

What are you reading this week?