ShortBookandScribes October 2026 Reads, Book Post and Stats

Hello November, goodbye October. I don’t mind this time of year although I am a curmudgeon when it comes to Halloween and Bonfire Night. I think fireworks are brilliant when you’re watching a display but just an annoyance when they’re going off every night for weeks beforehand. Halloween? Well that’s just a reason to shut the curtains early. October does mean my blogiversary though and on the 25^th it was ten years since I started my blog. In some ways I can’t believe it but then I also can’t imagine a time when I didn’t do this.

I had a great reading month too. Ten books! After finishing the Morland series I embarked on the DCI Bill Slider series, also by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. Oh, how I love them! They’re also shorter than the Morland books so that’s the main reason I’ve managed to fit a couple of extra reads in although I’ve also read two books (The Weight of Angels and Life Out of Order) that took me longer than average to read so I’m counting it as a win.

So, October’s reads:

The Weight of Angels by John Boyne

What an incredible book this turned out to be. I love Boyne’s writing but was a little unsure of the subject of Oscar Wilde and an alternative life in which he lived to a great age and achieved a great deal. The more I read, the more I loved it.

 

Adam and Eve by Jeffrey Archer

I expected to love this book but didn’t. It romps along just fine but it’s cliched and unrealistic and a bit of a disappointment. It tells of Adam and Eve, both born on Armistice Day but from totally different backgrounds, and how their lives intertwined.

 

Life Out of Order by Audrey Niffenegger

Another incredible book. It’s the sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife and focuses on Alba, Henry and Clare’s daughter who loves two men, one who time travels just like her and one who doesn’t. An epic read in every way.

 

The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements

Mercy Booth lives with her father at Scarcross Hall, tending their flock of sheep. A malevolent presence starts to make itself known and some sinister things happen. I thought this was an excellent gothic ghost story.

 

Time’s Tyranny by Linda Gillard

The second in the Wyngrave Women trilogy and a lovely read. It has historical mysteries, richly drawn characters including a swoon-worthy hero and older heroines galore, and atmospheric settings of an Elizabethan hall and a ruined castle.

 

The Tango Chain by Linda MacDonald

A character driven story of two women, Rachel and Taryn, with a shared love of the Argentine Tango. Rachel is having an affair with a married man whilst Taryn is bored of being settled with steady Neil. Engaging and relatable.

 

Black Earth by Kate London

Set around the 1984 miners’ strike, Stephen is a picketing miner whose son has gone missing whilst his brother, Ian, is a policeman investigating the murder of a friend from their childhood. How are the two linked? I enjoyed the community and historic aspects of this book but found the interlinked crime a bit confusing.

 

Orchestrated Death by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

This is the first in the DCI Bill Slider series, although he’s still a DI in the early books. Bill investigates the body of a young woman which leads him to an orchestra, hence the title. Bill also has to deal with his loveless marriage and the possibility of a brighter future, but at what cost to his integrity?

 

Death Watch by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

The second book in the series. Bill is still dealing with all the problems in his personal life and now he has another difficult case to investigate, that of a burned body in a motel. Was it accident, suicide or murder? The author makes some very wry observations and uses puns a lot – I haven’t laughed so much in ages.

 

Necrochip by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Book three and this one really made me giggle too. A severed finger is found in a bag of chips and the rest of the dismembered corpse isn’t far away. Bill also has a new DCS to contend with. The author’s quips and characterisations are just brilliant.

 

 

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Book post received in October with thanks to the named publishers and authors:

Two Hopes by Nadezda Bobyleva (sent by Salt Publishing)

Love from Christmas Tree Farm by Jo Thomas (sent by Book Break/Pan Macmillan)

The Christmas Tree Murders by Katie Lumsden (sent by Michael Joseph)

Road Kill by Sabine Durrant (sent by Century)

The Silver Bones of Frances Winter by Fiona Goggin (sent by Everything With Words)

Almost a Ghost Story by Emily Bullock (sent by Everything With Words)

Extraordinary Correspondence by Robert Hutton (sent by Book Break/Pan Macmillan)

Sex and the Ex by Melanie Cantor (sent by Bantam Books)

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (special edition sent by Vintage)

 

I was also lucky enough to receive the first sixteen books in the DC Smith/King’s Lake books by Peter Grainger (sent by Hutchinson Heinemann).

 

I also bought:

The Shooting Party by Isobel Colegate (I bought this because it has Downton Abbey vibes and I love the cover of this edition)

Daughter of the Titanic by Caroline Cauchi (actually this was sent by a blogger friend so I didn’t actually buy it)

Autumn at Flora’s House by Freya North

A couple more towards my collection of the Mermaid Collection: Down Among the Women by Fay Weldon and Fenny by Lettice Cooper

The Case of the Christmas Card by Elly Griffiths

Leicester Square by Louisa Scarr

Death on the Royal Yacht by S.J. Bennett

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Finally, my Storygraph stats for October: