This is a meme hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies found here.

I saw then that beside the archway was an enclosure, and within it a great retriever, who at the sight of me barked furiously.  I murmered to him, but it was useless.  The sound of my voice drove him to greater fury, and I turned back to the shelter of the cedar, where he could not see me, and waited for him to quieten before deciding upon my further move.  The barking continued intermittently, then settled to a muttering, and finally to silence and once again I ventured forth and looked about me, and up at the massive walls of the chateau, forbidding, pale, yet strangely beautiful in the clear light beneath the moon.  A door in the terraced wall led to the grounds beyond, and some impulse made me pass through it, and stand looking over the sunken moat to the verdure where the cattle had wandered, to the ghostly alleyways bordering the forest, and the silent dovecot, and the broken swing.

Daphne Du Maurier – The Scapegoat

These are two very different mystery reads I finished last night when insomnia struck again.  Powdered Peril is book 8 in the A Donut Shop mystery series.  I really do enjoy this series and plan to continue reading it.  The recurring characters from the earlier books are all here again and in fact Grace is central to the mystery in this one, as a suspect in a murder.  There are plentiful red herrings in the story and it made for a great finish.  Suzanne, the protagonist, can be a little brusque but it worked for me, with the stress of her best friend being accused of murder, running her business on little or no sleep, and breaking in a new employee, I think it is to be expected.  Fun, light, cozy mystery.

Tuesday Falling is this month’s read over at the Kindle English Mystery Club on Goodreads.  I will be honest,  the first few pages totally turned me off, the style, the voice; I just was not into it at all.  I put it down and then picked it back up and pushed forward and then it did not take long for the story to suck me in.  Fascinating tale of vigilante justice that makes you, if possible, root for both the killer and DCI Loss at the same time.  Not really a whodunnit, we all know that, in fact we have video evidence and her own signature cards.  Instead this is a why, a what next, and a how dunnit.  The detailed description of the underground labyrinth of tunnels, abandoned places, shelters and basements and how Tuesday lived and used them to her advantage was fascinating for me.  The murders/assualts were original, if horrifying, although the victims did not engender much sympathy being who they were, especially after Tuesday reveals the catalyst crime for her bloody path across and under the city. Thrilling, fast paced read.