Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and is currently revived by Taking on a World of Words. You can participate by answering the three questions below and leaving a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!

What Are You Currently Reading?

The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood

For months, the city has lived in fear of the Bat. A master criminal hindered by neither scruple nor fear, he has stolen over one million dollars and left at least six men dead. The police are helpless, the newspapers know nothing—even the key figures of the city’s underworld have no clue as to the identity of the Bat. He is a living embodiment of death itself, and he is coming to the countryside. There, he will encounter the only person who can stop him: adventurous sixty-five-year-old spinster Cornelia Van Gorder. Last in a long line of New York society royalty, Cornelia has found old age to be a bore, and is hungry for a bit of adventure. She’s going to find it—in a lonely old country house where every shadow could be the Bat.

Amazon

The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley

Graham and Joan Bendix have apparently succeeded in making that eighth wonder of the modern world, a happy marriage. And into the middle of it there drops, like a clap of thunder, a box of chocolates.

Joan Bendix is killed by a poisoned box of liqueur chocolates that cannot have been intended for her to eat. The police investigation rapidly reaches a dead end. Chief Inspector Moresby calls on Roger Sheringham and his Crimes Circle – six amateur but intrepid detectives – to consider the case.

Amazon

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman (Thursday Murder Club Mystery, 3)

It is an ordinary Thursday, and things should finally be returning to normal. Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club are concerned. A decade-old cold case—their favorite kind–leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers.

Then a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill or be killed. Suddenly the cold case has become red hot.

While Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim chase down the clues with help from old friends and new. But can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?

From an upmarket spa to a prison cell complete with espresso machine to a luxury penthouse high in the sky, this third adventure of the Thursday Murder Club is full of the cleverness, intrigue, and irresistible charm that readers have come to expect from Richard Osman’s bestselling series.

Amazon

What Have You Finished Reading?

The Body in the Dumb River by George Bellairs

Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library’s archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, these enduring British classics were written in the golden age of detective fiction.

“A decent, hardworking chap, with not an enemy anywhere. People were surprised that anybody should want to kill Jim.”

But Jim has been found stabbed in the back near Ely, miles from his Yorkshire home. His body, clearly dumped in the usually silent (‘dumb’) river, has been discovered before the killer intended?disturbed by a torrential flood in the night.

Roused from a comfortable night’s sleep, Superintendent Littlejohn of Scotland Yard is soon at the scene. With any clues to the culprit’s identity swept away with the surging water, Bellairs’ veteran sleuth boards a train heading north to dredge up the truth of the real Jim Teasdale and to trace the mystery of this unassuming victim’s murder to its source.

The Body in the Dumb River, like all of Bellairs’ crime books, delves into the complex inner-workings of an insulated country community. With all the wittiness and suspense of classic British mysteries, this is a story that explores the long-buried secrets of a small town?and the disastrous events that take place when they finally come to light.

Amazon

You can read my review here.

The Religious Body by Catherine Aird

The day begins like any other for Sister Mary St. Gertrude. When her alarm sounds at 5 a.m., Sister Mary begins rousting her convent sisters from their beds, starting with the Reverend Mother. Down the Order she goes with a knock and a warm blessing. But when the young nun reaches Sister Anne’s door, there is no answer. She assumes that Sister Anne got up early, and continues on her way.
 
But later, when a fellow nun leaves a bloody thumbprint on the sheet music for a hymn, and Sister Anne is nowhere to be found, it becomes apparent that something is very wrong. Then Sister Anne’s body is found at the bottom of a steep set of stairs, her veil askew and her head crushed.
 
Religious Body introduces the sophisticated Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan along with his eager and trustworthy sidekick, Detective Constable Crosby, and the acerbic Superintendent Leeyes in a mystery of holy proportions that will have readers guessing until the last page.

Amazon

You can read my review here.

A Murderous Marriage by Alyssa Maxwell

Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady’s maid, Eva Huntford, are preparing for a wedding, but it may not be the happy occasion everyone hopes for . . .
 
Since the Great War, the Renshaw family fortune has suffered. Now Julia Renshaw is under pressure to marry for money—and has settled for Gilbert Townsend, a viscount and wealthy industrialist. He is decades older than Julia, and it’s clear to her sister, Phoebe—and to Eva, who has been like a surrogate mother—that this is no love match. Nevertheless, the wedding takes place—and in a hurry.
 
At the reception aboard the groom’s yacht, there appears to be tension between Gil and several guests. The bride is also less than pleased to discover her honeymoon will be more crowded than expected—with Gil’s pretty secretary, among others, coming along. Worse, that very night, Julia is injured during a hot-tempered outburst on her new husband’s part . . .
 
The next morning, Gil’s body is found in the water—and Phoebe and Eva must discover who pushed him over—before the Renshaws’ social standing is irreparably stained by Julia’s arrest for his murder 

Amazon

You can read my review here.

What Might You Read Next?

Operation Overlord: A Tommy Collins Adventure by Francis Moss

Royal Naval Lieutenant Commander Lawrence Collins takes his son Tommy with him to Southampton for Most Secret work in the days before the Normandy invasion. Tommy is sometimes wrong about things, but he usually—make that always—thinks he’s right. Exploring Southampton, Tommy meets Annike, a Kindertransport Dutch girl whom he mistakenly thinks is a German spy. Despite this comedy of errors beginning, Annike and Tommy become friends and on the day before the Allied invasion of France, they risk their lives and discover Nazi spies plotting to reveal the invasion plans.

Amazon

Thrones, Dominations: A Lord Peter Wimsey/ Harriet Vane Mystery by Dorothy L. Sayers & Jill Paton Walsh

Now Thrones, Dominations, Sayers’ uncompleted last novel, satisfies the vast readership hungry to know what happened after the honeymoon.

Here award-winning author Jill Paton Walsh picks up where Sayers left off, bringing Wimsey and Vane brilliantly to life in Sayers’ unmistakable voice. Readers and reviewers are rejoicing at the return of this delightful sleuthing couple–as adept at solving a baffling murder mystery as they are a balancing the delicate demands of their loving union.

Amazon

Murder in the Telephone Exchange by June Wright

First published in 1948, when it was the best-selling mystery of the year in the author’s native Australia, Murder in the Telephone Exchange stars feisty young operator Maggie Byrnes. When one of her more unpopular colleagues is murdered — her head bashed in with a “buttinski,” a piece of equipment used to listen in on phone calls — Maggie resolves to turn sleuth. Some of her coworkers are acting strangely, and Maggie is convinced she has a better chance of figuring out who is responsible for the killing than the rather stolid police team assigned to the case, who seem to think she herself might have had something to do with it. But then one of her friends is murdered too, and it looks like Maggie might be next. Narrated with verve and wit, this is a whodunit in the tradition of Dorothy L. Sayers and Daphne du Maurier, by turns entertaining and suspenseful, and building to a gripping climax.

Amazon

A Trace of Poison by Colleen Cambridge

In this captivating English murder mystery from an acclaimed author, Agatha Christie’s housekeeper must uncover the killer amongst a throng of crime writers.

In England’s stately manor houses, murder is not generally a topic for polite conversation. Mallowan Hall, home to Agatha Christie and her husband, Max, is the exception. And housekeeper Phyllida Bright delights in discussing gory plot details with her friend and employer . . .

The neighboring village of Listleigh has also become a hub of grisly goings-on, thanks to a Murder Fête organized to benefit a local orphanage. Members of The Detection Club—a group of celebrated authors such as G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Agatha herself—will congregate for charitable events, including a writing contest for aspiring authors. The winner gets an international publishing contract, and entrants have gathered for a cocktail party—managed by the inimitable Phyllida—when murder strikes too close even for her comfort.

It seems the victim imbibed a poisoned cocktail intended for Alastair Whittlesby, president of the local writers’ club. The insufferable Whittlesby is thought to be a shoo-in for the prize, and ambition is certainly a worthy motive. But narrowing down these suspects could leave even Phyllida’s favorite fictional detective, M. Poirot, twirling his mustache in frustration.

It’s a mystery too intriguing for Phyllida to resist, but one fraught with duplicity and danger, for every guest is an expert in murder—and how to get away with it . . .

Amazon