Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality, all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, whether physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical stores or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, eBooks, and audiobooks.

Death in High Heels by Christianna Brand (1941)

Inspector Charlesworth investigates a strange murder in a dress shop
The sales room at Christophe et Cie is staffed by five young women. Each is beautiful in her own way—and each could be a murderer. One morning, two of the women purchase some oxalic acid to clean a stain off a Panama hat. No one knows how the poison gets into Miss Doon’s system, but it doesn’t take long to kill her. When Inspector Charlesworth steps into the little shop, he finds a dozen motives and no clear solution. Everyone in the shop was jealous of Miss Doon, for as the owner’s girlfriend she was the favorite to head up the store’s new Riviera branch. Romantic feelings for his chief suspect sidetrack Charlesworth, and it takes a second murder to put him back on the trail of the killer. 

Amazon

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood (2022)

Meet Judith: a seventy-seven-year-old whiskey drinking, crossword puzzle author living her best life in a dilapidated mansion on the outskirts of Marlow.

Nothing ever happens in Marlow. That is, until Judith hears her neighbor shot while skinny-dipping in the Thames. The local police don’t believe her story. It’s an open and shut case, of course. Ha! Stefan can’t be left for dead like that.

Judith investigates and picks up a crew of sidekicks: Suzie the dogwalker and Becks the vicar’s wife. Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club.

When another body turns up, they realize they have a real-life serial killer on their hands. And the puzzle they set out to solve has become a trap from which they might never escape…

Robert Thorogood, has turned the Christie-mystery on its head with this ever-so-sly cozy perfect for readers who love Richard Osmond’s Thursday Murder Club and An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good.

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Recently I have read so many books set during the blitzes in WWII, so I just wanted a more light-hearted setting. This Christianna Brand book caught my eye when I saw it on sale, I bought it, and I can’t wait to see how Inspector Charlesworth differs from Inspector Cockrill.

I’ve been on the waitlist for The Marlow Murder Club at my public library since its publication, and now it’s finally in my hands. I hope it’s perfect because I’ve hyped it up in my brain. If you’ve read it- please, no spoilers!

The Mystery of the Ashes by Anthony Wynne (1927)

The Ashes is a grand and sombre country house perched on a headland on the Northumberland coast. Its wild position, betwixt sea and land, seemed to harmonize with the wild spirit of its owner, eccentric young heiress, Patricia Keene.

Staffed with strange servants and riddled with secret passages The Ashes is preparing to host a murderous gathering to include: Dr Eustace Hailey, consultant in diseases of the criminal mind; Inspector Biles of Scotland Yard; and Bruce Netherby, a Harley Street physician. Their endeavour? To explain blackmail, murder and mysterious disappearances from within the walls of… The Ashes.

Amazon

I love the minimalist cover art and am a big fan of these Spitfire Editions. The Mystery of the Ashes by Spitfire Editions is a 2023 release and includes an introduction and additional information about Anthony Wynne and his creation, Dr. Hailey, like the British Library Crime Classics.

Have you read any books I added to my shelves this week? Let me know in the comments below.