What’s on your bookshelf: May

I’m going to start this month’s what’s on your bookshelf post with some book news from Aotearoa. While I was disappointed that Laurence Fearnley’s At The Grand Glacier Hotel, my favourite book of 2024, didn’t win the Ockham prize for 2025, it was good to see Damien Wilkins Delirious, which I read last month, take the glory. You can read an interview with him here. Congratulations to all the winners in all the categories. I should say as most readers won’t know, but the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are the New Zealand’s premier literary awards.

So to what I have been reading, and I noticed as I looked at my recent reading that three of the books I read were the second I had read by the same author. Meaningful? Doubt it. Fun fact? Maybe.

First up, I forgot to take pictures of the first two books which I borrowed from the library this month: Anja de Jager’s A Death at the Hotel Mondrian and Charity Norman’s The Secret of Strangers (both the second book by the authors I have read). De Jager’s books about a female detective in Amsterdam a real find and I will keep my eyes open for more in the library. As the blurb says:

When Lotte Meerman is faced with the choice of interviewing the latest victim in a string of assaults or talking to a man who claims he really isn’t dead, she picks the interview. After all, the man cannot possibly be who he claims he is: Andre Nieuwkamp was murdered as a teenager over thirty years ago, and it had been a police success story nationwide when the skeletal remains found in the dunes outside Amsterdam had been identified, and the murderer subsequently arrested.

Yet concerned about this encounter, Lotte goes to the Hotel Mondrian the next day to talk to the man, but what she finds is his corpse. And his passport shows that he wasn’t Andre Nieuwkamp as he said, but Theo Brand, a British citizen.

Subsequent DNA tests reveal that the man was Andre Nieuwkamp so now Lotte has a double mystery on her hands and needs to figure out not only why Andre waited so long to tell anyone he was still alive, but also who was the teenager murdered in the dunes all those decades ago.

I really enjoyed this book for some perfect wet Sunday afternoon reading.

The Secret of Strangers is a book that will live with you after you finish it. It tells the tale of a hostage situation in a normal local café and over the pages of the book we learn about the people held captive and their stories as well as why the hostage taker has turned to this drastic solution to his problems. A book that keeps you guessing until the end.

Another ‘second by the same author’ was Three by Valérie Perrin, recommended to me by a friend in Copenhagen who had read it for her book club. This is a long book, covering several years in the lives of three friends in a French town. It is told in both the present and with ‘flash backs’ to past events. I actually found it a bit hard going to start, but once I got into it I was totally engaged with characters and their stories. The mystery of a car wreck serves as a catalyst for the rest of the story, but the key thing about this book is how well drawn the characters are and how their lives progress.

New to me was Japanese author Keigo Higashino, whose A Death in Tokyo proved a great read. A man is found murdered on Tokyo’s Nihonbashi Bridge, it seems that the murder was carried out by a young man who has just been knocked down by a motorbike and is found to be carrying the dead man’s wallet. Did he commit the murder as an act of revenge due to loosing his job? Detective Kyoichiro Kaga is assigned to the case and uncovers secrets, lies and what actually happened that night on the bridge. A great read if you are a detective novel fan.

I picked up Victoria Park by Gemma Reeves at random in the library with no expectations. It turned out to be a lovely read about the various people who live around Victoria Park, their lives and how they interweave with each other. There were some lovely vignettes and some evocative descriptions such as this one:

“Now it catered for vegans and the health conscious. Plates were piled high with quinoa and new carrot batons guarding baba ganoush”

I can just see the café and the dishes. I had no expectations about this book and was very pleasantly surprised.

There were no audio books this month…too many podcasts! So to the voting…..

• Anja de Jager A Death at the Mondrian Hotel – 4 hotel rooms
• Charity Norman The Secrets of Strangers – 4 cups of coffee
• Valérie Perrin Three – 4 friends
• Keigo Higashino A Death in Tokyo – 4 origami cranes
• Gemma Reeves Victoria Park – 4 people

Entered in the what’s on your bookshelf challenge is hosted by fellow bloggers Deb, Sue, Donna and Jo. The idea is to share what you’re reading, what you’ve enjoyed lately and share – why they resonated with you, how they made you feel, who are your favourite authors and what you recommend.

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis.