Hello, dear readers, and happy Tuesday! Welcome to the new and revised Coffee Time Tuesday column. If you’re new here, let me fill you in.
Coffee Time Tuesdays are my way of checking in with loyal readers of Coffee Time Reviews. It usually covers my recent reads and a brand new book release (almost) every Tuesday. If you’d like to have a nosy at previous CTT columns, visit our Editor’s Picks page.
Starting today, though, I’m breathing fresh life into this column, making it more widely appealing and more spontaneous. Today’s theme is autumn reads.
Autumn is my favourite season, so for the remainder of August, I want to finish all the books I’ve started this summer and clear my calendar for some atmospheric fall books. Let’s dig in.
‘The Launch Party’ by Lauren Forry
Starting off strong with an Agatha-Christie-meets-Andy-Weir murder mystery, The Launch Party sounds like a cosy, gripping story to dig into on a rainy weekend.
Ten lucky people have won a place at the most exclusive launch event of the century: the grand opening of the Hotel Artemis, the first hotel on the moon. It’s an invitation to die for. As their transport departs for its return to Earth and the doors seal shut behind them, the guests take the next leap for mankind.
When one of the guests is found murdered, fear spreads through the group. But that death is only the beginning. Being three days’ journey from home and with no way to contact the outside, can any of the guests survive their stay?
I struggle with seasonal reads and get very easily side-tracked, so starting with a thriller is my strategy for success. And Then There Were None is one of my all-time favourite autumn reads, and there’s something about a locked-room mystery where the characters start dropping one by one that feels just right when the weather is all doom and gloom.
‘The Messenger of Measham Hall’ by Anna Abney
I’m not usually a historical fiction fan, but when leaves are starting to turn brown and the wind whooshes through the curtains, the sun sets too early and it’s time for candle-lit evenings, a story set in the distant past is charming, inviting even.
The Messenger of Measham Hall follows Nicholas Hawthorne, the Catholic heir to Measham Hall in Derbyshire, who gets tangled in the convoluted mysteries of his family. There are deeper and darker secrets even than his family’s outlawed religion.
As Nicholas starts looking for answers, England slides towards invasion by the Protestant forces of Prince William of Orange. It’s not long until our protagonist becomes entangled in conspiracies within King James’s court — and soon learns that both truth and love come at a high price.
I was kindly sent a copy of this book by Duckworth Books, and I’m excited to dedicate some cosy evenings in October to uncovering Nicholas’s family secrets.
‘The Devil in the White City’ by Erik Larson
If fiction is not your thing, worry not, dear readers, this one has you covered. I’ve had The Devil in the White City on my TBR for an embarrassingly long time. Larson is a journalist who investigates famous historical crimes and pieces the stories together into gripping, wonderfully authentic books.
The book uncovers the chilling murders at the Chicago World Fair in 1893, creating a compelling account of H.H. Holmes, the killer masquerading as a doctor, and Daniel H. Burnham, the architect who created the fair.
While Burnham overcame politics, infighting, personality clashes and Chicago’s infamous weather to transform the swamps of Jackson Park into the greatest show on Earth, Holmes built his own edifice just west of the fairground. He called it the World’s Fair Hotel — a sinister torture and murder space.
These two disparate but driven men are brought to life in this mesmerising tale of the legendary Fair that transformed America and set it on course for the twentieth century.
And that’s it for today’s column. Autumn’s in the air, and mystery is on my mind, ready to grip me on chilly, rainy nights. What books are you excited to read this coming fall season? Let me know!
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