Tears of the Giraffe (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #2) by Alexander McCall Smith

Following on the brilliant The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Tears of the Giraffe charts the further adventures of Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's only - and finest - female private detective.

It's going to take all her intuition and eminent sensibility for Precious to crack her hardest cas yet: the decade-old disappearance of an American on the edge of the Kalahari. And if that wasn't enough, there are plenty of matters closer to home to concern her: her highly talented secretary, Mma Makutsi, eager to be promoted to detective; the unscrupulous maid of her husband-to-be, the wonderful Mr J. L. B. Matekoni; and the sudden - and unexpected increase to her family by not one, but two. 

The second book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is just as great as the first one. The characters stayed true to who they are and Botswana was shown in the same light. I can see why this book series is so popular. 

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The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #1) by Alexander McCall Smith

“Our heads may be small, but they are as full of memories as the sky may sometimes be full of swarming bees, thousands and thousands of memories, of smells, of places, of little things that happened to us and which come back, unexpectedly, to remind us who we are. And who am I?” 

Mma Ramotswe is the proud proprietor of the finest ladies detective agency in all Botswana (also the only one). When clients come along, whether it is to enquire after a missing spouse or establish the identity of a long-lost father, it is not The Principles of Private Detection that helps her to solve cases, but old-fashioned common sense and a warm-hearted understanding of human fallibility - especially that of men.

This book had a little bit of everything - humour, wit, smarts, mystery, love - and I loved it.

Despite the name and the blurb, it is a story that is as much about everyday life in Botswana as much as it is about solving mysteries. Each chapter offered insights in to life in Africa, both past and present.

Mia Ramotswe is a very endearing character who isn't easily fooled and isn't afraid to say it like it is. 

Easy to read but still intelligent.

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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift — an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume" — the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.

“And even knowing that to possess that scent he must pay the terrible price of losing it again, the very possession and the loss seemed to him more desirable than a prosaic renunciation of both. For he had renounced things all his life. But never once had he possessed and lost.” 

This book was not what I was expecting at all - in both a positive and negative way. The experience of this book was like wearing a good perfume, the beginning was strong and intoxicating, the middle faded and became bland, then the ending was refreshed with a new application and it became even stronger.

For a story about a murderer, it took a long time for the actual murderer part to set in - I almost gave up, especially as the middle part was so slow and boring. To be fair though, this was a very beautifully written story, even the slow parts. 

The ending was really good - it tied everything together and made the story complete, although it was also not without its strange parts too...

I'm glad I read this classic novel.

The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) by Robert Galbraith (Pseudonym), J.K. Rowling

Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before…

I found this book just as hard to put down as The Cuckoo's Calling. The subject was quite gory at times but it was so cleverly written that it didn't phase me or seem out of place at all. It so easy to get immersed in what was happening that I felt like I was travelling around London.  

The only thing that I found negative was that the references back to the first book were slightly irritating. I understand why they were there, but it still got annoying. I did like the book quotes at the top of each new chapter though.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

A compulsively readable, emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller that draws comparisons to Gone Girl, The Silent Wife, or Before I Go to Sleep, this is an electrifying debut embraced by readers across markets and categories. 

Its interesting what sort of assumptions we make about other peoples lives, just based on little pieces of information we see or overhear. This book is a perfect example of that, and how those assumptions can protects us, or get us in to trouble.

This story had a great pace, was easy to read and suspenseful, although I wasn't completely shocked by the ending. 

The characters were well written and they evolved really well once more of the detail came out.

A great read and one that wasn't easy to put down.