Stuff and Nonsense

Monday, February 9, 2026

January favorites

Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz (Ace, 18 November 2025),

Guy Shadowfade is dead, and after a lifetime as the dark sorcerer’s right-hand, Violet Thistlewaite is determined to start over—not as the fearsome Thornwitch, but as someone kind. Someone better. Someone good.

The quaint town of Dragon’s Rest, Violet decides, will be her second chance—she’ll set down roots, open a flower shop, keep her sentient (mildly homicidal) houseplant in check, and prune dark magic from the twisted boughs of her life.

Violet’s vibrant bouquets and cheerful enchantments soon charm the welcoming townsfolk, though nothing seems to impress the prickly yet dashingly handsome Nathaniel Marsh, an alchemist sharing her greenhouse. With a struggling business and his own second chance seemingly out of reach, Nathaniel has no time for flowers or frippery—and certainly none for the intriguing witch next door.

When a mysterious blight endangers every living plant in Dragon’s Rest, Violet and Nathaniel must work together, through their fears, and pasts to save their community. But with a figure from her previous life knocking at her door and her secrets threatening to uproot everything she’s worked so hard to grow, Violet can’t help but wonder…does a former villain truly deserve a happily-ever-after?

Mrs. Spy by M.J Robotham (Bloomsbury Publishing, 15 July 2025).

Maggie Flynn isn't your typical mum.

She's a spy, an operative for MI5, stalking London's streets in myriad disguises.

Widowed and balancing her clandestine career with raising a Beatles-mad teenage daughter, Maggie finds comfort and purpose in her profession – providing a connection to her late husband, whose own covert past only surfaced after his death.

But Maggie's world spins out of control when a chance encounter with a mysterious Russian agent triggers a chilling revelation: he knew her husband. And what's worse, the agent suspects someone on home soil betrayed him.

As Maggie searches for answers, she'll question everyone – and everything – she thought she could trust. In the murky and perilous world of espionage, can she outsmart those determined to keep her silenced?

See my review of Mrs. Spy here.

The Reckoning (A Renata Drake Thriller) by Kelli Stanley.

California, Southern Humboldt County, 1985. Renata Drake steps off a Greyhound bus and into small-town Garberville, hoping to disappear. She checks the papers. She’s not headline news. Not yet.

But she’s made a mistake. The FBI have the cannabis-producing “Emerald Triangle” town— and its corrupt residents—in their sights. Even worse, a teenage girl is missing, and when she turns up dead, the third in three years, it’s clear a serial killer is living among them.

Renata knows about murdered girls and the burning desire for justice—and for revenge. Her younger sister Josie is gone, and now, so is the man who killed her. Renata didn’t stay in Washington, D.C. to be arrested for executing a murderer, and she shouldn’t stay here either. But Renata decides to investigate, and what she uncovers will trigger a final reckoning: For herself, for a killer, and for all of Southern Humboldt.

See my review of The Reckoning here.

Cross-posted on my Substack.

Monday, February 2, 2026

Just finished reading...

Mrs. Spy by M.J. Robotham (Bloomsbury Publishing, 15 May 2025).

Yes, this is a spy novel, but it feels more like a cozy mystery.

The book is written in first person, from Maggie's point of view. We learn, in the first few paragraphs that Maggie Flynn is 45 years old, and may be growing a bunion. During the remainder the first chapter, we learn that she's tailing someone, and that she's carrying a bag full of objects she can use to change her appearance on the fly.

Soon, we learn that she works for MI5, but that she's an ordinary

"middle-aged parent of one very teenage girl, a widow of almost three years, and the only daughter of a mother undergoing some type of breakdown or renaissance, depending on which day of the week it is. And here I am, smack-bang in what is apparently the world’s hippest city."*

The aforementioned city happens to be London, and the year is 1965.

She may have discovered a turncoat in the agency's administration, and doing her regular job at the same time as trying to flush out the rat is taking up a lot of time.

Meanwhile, Maggie's daughter Libby wants tickets to The Beatles' December concert at the Hammersmith Odeon. Maggie desperately wants to find these tickets for her daughter, but Maggie is a little busy.

The book is great fun to read. The author has done an incredible job of recreating London in the mid-1960s.

Is it a cozy mystery? Is it a spy thriller? Read it and decide!

*Mrs. Spy, p. 19

Cross-posted to my Substack.