A Wytch's Book Review Blog

A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny

Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder.
No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter—and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment of her death.
When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, of the Sûreté du Québec, is called to investigate, he quickly realizes he's dealing with someone quite extraordinary. CC de Poitiers was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, in front of the entire village, as she watched the annual curling tournament. And yet no one saw anything. Who could have been insane enough to try such a macabre method of murder—or brilliant enough to succeed?
With his trademark compassion and courage, Gamache digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find the dangerous secrets long buried there. For a Quebec winter is not only staggeringly beautiful but deadly, and the people of Three Pines know better than to reveal too much of themselves. But other dangers are becoming clear to Gamache. As a bitter wind blows into the village, something even more chilling is coming for Gamache himself.

This is the second book in the Inspector Gamache/Three Pines mysteries, in this one Armand Gamache and his 2nd in command Jean Guy Beauvoir are back in Three Pines after a newish member of the community is electrocuted during the Boxing Day curling match, what they soon discover is that no-one is upset that she is dead, but also no-one seems to have seen anything! Now as Armand and his team (including a wet behind the ears police officer and Yvette Nichols, who is NOT trusted by Armand at all) dig deeper and find some strange twists and turns, including a link to the death of a street person in Montreal, but can they find the truth and can Armand trust his team?

Still Life by Louise Penny

The discovery of a dead body in the woods on Thanksgiving Weekend brings Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his colleagues from the Surete du Quebec to a small village in the Eastern Townships. Gamache cannot understand why anyone would want to deliberately kill well-loved artist Jane Neal, especially any of the residents of Three Pines - a place so free from crime it doesn't even have its own police force.

But Gamache knows that evil is lurking somewhere behind the white picket fences and that, if he watches closely enough, Three Pines will start to give up its dark secrets...

A fascinating start to a series that I hope I will keep reading (I read this one as it was a #readforkimberly pick), this is a murder mystery where the main character is a Police Officer, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, who along with his team needs to solve the death of a retired schoolteacher, he luckily has his 2nd in command with him, not so luckily he also has a Rookie who seems not to want to listen to the seasoned Officers, this book starts off slowly and gradually builds to the crashing completion - 5 out of 5!

Edwardian Farm (Period Farms) by Alex Langlands, Ruth Goodman , Peter Ginn

Following on from the hit BBC series Victorian Farm, this book accompanies a new 12-part BBC series. This time, Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlands, and Peter Ginn take a leap forward in time to immerse themselves in an Edwardian community in the West Country. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Morwellham Quay was situated in a bustling and commercially prosperous region—a stunning rural landscape encompassing rolling farmland, wild moorland, tidal river, coast, and forest, which supported a vibrant and diverse economy. Ruth, Peter, and Alex will spend a year exploring all aspects of this working landscape—restoring boats, buildings, and equipment; cultivating crops; fishing; rearing animals; and rediscovering the lost heritage of this fascinating era as well as facing the challenges of increasingly commercial farming practices, fishing, and community events.

Another tie in with the TV series/DVD, as with the Victorian Farm book this gives a good overview of what the three presenters did during their year on the farm, some of the items that were only touched on in the programme are expanded in the book whilst others things are only mentioned.  Either way a great read and a great companion book for the DVD!

Victorian Farm: Rediscovering Forgotten Skills (Period Farms) by Alex Langlands, Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn

No electricity, no gas, no flushing toilet . . . and no tractor! Could you survive a year on a Victorian farm? In this fascinating time-traveling experiment a team of historians spend a year recreating farm life in 1885. Accompanying the television series, this book follows the team as they try to run a farm using only materials and resources that would have been available to them in the Victorian era. This was a crucial period in the history of Britain—rapid industrialization had radically changed life in the cites but rural communities used a mixture of centuries-old and pioneering modern practices. Packed with informative text and photographs from the farm year, this book reveals exactly what the Victorians ate and wore and how they managed their animals, farmed the land, and organized their lives. In-depth features describe revolutionary advances in more detail, including new inventions, new breeding methods, and advances in agricultural science. Practical projects allow you to join the historians in rediscovering Victorian crafts, cooking, and homecare.
 
Providing a real insight into life on a Victorian farm, this series is also a fascinating reminder of how history comes full circle. The organic diet of 1885, use of natural products for cleaning and healthcare and interests in crafts and gardening are of increasing relevance today as we look for a more responsible way of living over 120 years later.

I really enjoyed the TV series (and the subsequent ones!) and it is great to read some of the background information that for one reason or another doesn't make it onto the screen, there are snippets of the diaries kept by Ruth, Peter and Alex and these provide an insight into how the day to day drudgery (laundry anyone?!) is overcome and even enjoyed, these three work well together on screen and that comes through in the book as well - well worth a dip into :D

Tudor Monastery Farm (Period Farms) by Peter Ginn, Ruth Goodman , Tom Pinfold

Ruth Goodman and Peter Ginn have become familiar faces on BBC2 after their hugely popular and immersive time-travelling experiments, Victorian, Edwardian and Wartime Farm. But for their fourth series, and our accompanying book, they have joined forces with Tom Pinfold to take on their biggest challenge yet: going back to Tudor England to endure the harsh realities of working for an Abbey Farm.Peter, Ruth and Tom are trained historians, driven by new research and discovery. They are passionate about bringing period details to life, and they do that for us by comprehensively inhabiting the era for months, using only materials, tools and technology available at the time, to earn their living, celebrate their holidays, clothe and feed themselves and their families. Follow them as they discover how to build a pigsty, brew their own ale, forge their own machinery and keep a Tudor household. Scrupulously researched, totally authentic and with its own contemporary narrative playing out within an accurate reconstruction of Tudor England, this is a fantastic glimpse into history, as it was lived. This is set to be Peter, Ruth and Tom’s most ambitious historical assignment yet.

These are fun series to watch and reading the accompanying books allows you to see some of the back stories and also some of the items that didn't make it into the series, they are a light hearted but informative read and well worth a dip into on a regular basis!

The Wartime Kitchen and Garden by Jennifer Davies

A wonderful and gentle look at the horrendous time that was the second world war. Mrs Ruth Mott plays herself and also a lady who has taken in a young mother and her son who are evacuees from a major city, and she shows how people made do with the limited ingredients they had on rations. Harry Dodson had a land army girl working with him in the local large house gardens - these had naturally been given over to food production, most of which was then shipped to cities.