reading MURDER MYSTERY BOOKS for a week!🔪🩸

Hmm, you know what this channel needs? More murder mysteries. Hello friends, how are we doing? Today I'm gonna be doing a vlog that I do every single year around this time and that is reading murder mysteries for a week. I love murder mysteries, you love murder mysteries, we all love murder mysteries. And murder mysteries are so autumnal to me. So this is a video I do every year around October and November time where I just spend a week reading three murder mysteries that I'm very excited to read. So that's what we're gonna be doing. I'm determined that we're gonna get a five star in this video because A, I want more five stars in my life and B, murder mysteries are just the most fun to read ever and I love them and they're amazing and they're the best sub-genre ever to exist. So shall we just get into what we're gonna be reading? First book is one that I am ridiculously excited to read. You have not probably heard anything about this because it's not out yet. It comes out in February next year but I am not waiting any longer to read it and that is The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller. This is an ARC I very kindly got sent. There we go, that's the title on the back. And I spoke about this on my end of year book tag that I just did but if you don't know me, I love Bargain Hunt which is a show about antiques. No, I don't think you understand. I'm obsessed. It's like my favourite show. I watch it every day at lunchtime. It's my lunchtime, turn my brain off viewing and I love it. And this is a murder mystery set around antiques. It says, what antique would you kill for? Oh my god, the idea of like antique like collectors killing people for antiques. Oh my god, I love it. I'm so excited for this. This feels like a book that was written for me. This is like my number one five-star prediction for this video because it just feels like the author sat down and was like, I need to write a book for Megan. I sat down with the president of Disney Channel and I said, I want to make history and that's what this is. So we're going to be reading this in this vlog and I just literally cannot wait. It is a debut but the author is a daughter of one of the most famous experts on the show Antiques Roadshow. So I just, I just have great beliefs for this. I think I'm gonna love it. I am so excited. That is our first book. Then we have a book I wasn't planning on starting anytime soon. But if you watched October's TBR Clue Day, you'll see that out of the TBR jar, I picked The Marlowe Murder Club by Robert Thurgood. And I tried to get out of it. I tried to be like, oh, because I picked another book earlier out of the TBR that was already on the TBR and sometimes I let myself take the dub and not add another book. But I carried on anyway and I picked this out and I tried to weasel my way out of it. But it's not allowed. No, I'm not allowed. I know I'm not allowed. It's not allowed. I have to read. You all guys, you all told me in the comments, I have to read The Marlowe Murder Club by Robert Thurgood. So we're going to be reading in this vlog, which I'm very excited for. We're following 77 year old Judith Potts who lives a happy life. One evening while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don't believe her story. So she recruits two friends to look into it with her. And I have heard really good things about this. I've heard it's funny. You know, it does seem a little bit like a ripoff of Thursday Murder Club. There's this genre of books of murder mysteries, here in the UK especially, of old characters solving murder mysteries that have sprung up after the Thursday Murder Club had its success. So I am always a bit wary of these that came out after Thursday Murder Club. But I am, I'm very excited. I'm very excited. I've heard a lot of good things about this one. And then since we are starting a new series... Let's not even talk about that. I don't even want to know how bad the situation is right now. But I am going to make progress in another series to kind of balance the scales. And I'm going to be reading A Very Lively Murder by Katie Watson. I love the cover for this. I think it's so cute. If you don't know, this is the sequel to The Three Dahlias, where it's this book about these three women who have played this famous detective, this famous female detective, over time. And the first book is set at a fan convention at the author's estate and murder starts happening. And in this one, one of the women, in the first book, she'd just been cast to play this detective. And I think she is at her first movie as this famous detective. And murder starts happening on the set of the movie. And the other women go and try and help her. But I am very excited. I mean, look at it. Look at like the house. I'm so excited. I really loved The Three Dahlias. The book just felt like a love language to the murder mystery genre. It was obviously written by someone who loves murder mysteries. And so I'm really excited to continue on with this series because I loved it. So those are the three books we are going to be reading in this vlog. The Three Murder Mysteries. And I'm so excited to get started. And we are going to find a five star. I'm determined. I'm determined that we're going to find a five star in this video. I am going to start with The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder. I cannot wait any longer to read this. I am so excited. Please pray for me that I love this as much as I am hoping that I will. Because I just think the amount of buzzwords will get into the plot a little bit once I've read a little bit. But the amount of buzzwords for me in this book is crazy. So let's go ahead and start it. I have got a stroking headache. You know you just, I think I've been looking at screens too long today. So like bear with if I'm not talking the best. But I really want to tell you about this book. So I am 60 pages in. But the font in this arc is teeny tiny. It's so small. It's literally a font. I don't know if you can tell. This is like quite a large book. It's larger than your average paperback. And it's just tiny font. So I reckon even though this is only 240 pages, the arc, I reckon the physical will be like 300, 320, something around that. Because the font, maybe even longer because the font is so small in this. So all you need to know about this is a fine character whose mentor, who she has like, you know, they fell out. Her antiques mentor is, he dies and her aunt, who still lives in the town that he was and was best friends with him still, is like, babes, there's something sus going on here. And they find a note from him to them, giving them clues to find out what's happened. I'm like, I think someone's trying to do this to me or whatever. And like, so it's clear who he's murdered and he's giving them clues to like solve what was happening. Rather than just telling them straight up. Because he's like, the letter could fall into the wrong hands. So there's a bit of drama and it's set in a quaint English town. And I'm really enjoying it. It's a debut. There are moments where it feels like the writing's a little bit debut-y. And I don't have any other language to describe that other than it's debut-y. You know, you know what I mean. There's just moments where the writing feels like they've gone on a writing course. And they're like, hee hee, look at my great descriptors. You know what I mean? But for the most part, I'm really enjoying it. The main character isn't the most fleshed out. But like, I don't need that. The setting is nice. The plot is moving along fast at a good pace. I'm intrigued by the mystery. And I'm just loving the antiques element of it. Like, I am loving it. As a Bargain Hunt super fan. Super fan. I'm like, it mentions like G-Plan tables or G-Plan chairs. I'm like, G-Plan. That old thing. Child's play. Excuse me. I'm a genius. Or when there's like antiques that I don't know mentioned. There were like these bird sculptures mentioned. And I like was like looking them up on Google. Like, oh yeah. Like doing my antiques research. I don't know. I'm really enjoying that element of this. And I knew I would. But I just think it's, I love it. And now we're gonna go to a stately home, like a manor. And there's gonna be all these things happening. And I'm just, I'm really enjoying it. I think it's been set up really well initially. Listen, I've only read 60 pages. But I do think this is my kind of thing. It seems like a really nice mystery. I'm not like getting five star, five star, five star flashing alarm bells yet. But I am getting, yeah, I'm really enjoying this. And this is easy to read. And I'm having fun. And this is an enjoyable read. Alarm bells. Those famous alarm bells. And I get, it says meets Indiana Jones. I should have like predicted maybe we're gonna go, maybe we're gonna be jet setters. I don't know. There seems to be dimensions of Cairo, stuff happening in Cairo with the antiques. It's very intriguing. So yeah, I'm enjoying it. And not like, oh my god, I'm gonna die. It's amazing. But who knows? There's only, we're only 60 pages in. And I think for a debut, so far the pacing, the plot, the characters, the mystery, the intrigue, the setting is all pretty good. So I have read a little bit more of The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder. But I thought before we get any further into the video, I want to chat to you about the sponsor of today's video, which is Serious Readers. You guys know I love my Serious Light. You just saw me using it in the previous clip. And I, for those of you who haven't heard me talk about this before, I can't tell you how much I love it. I use it every single night if I am reading, without fail. 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Check out Sirius lights down below and thank you so much to them again for sponsoring this video. Oh god guys, I do not come bearing good news. Um, should we just end the vlog? I'm just gonna shut down and I don't want to talk about it. I am about just under 150 pages now into this. So I'm nearing, I've got a good chunk of the way through it. Um, I'm not enjoying it as much anymore. The whole last section, the whole 90 pages I've just read has been at this like manor house with all these new characters. I liked the quaint English village we were in. And yes, I do like a good manor house, but the characters in it, it's a struggle. It's a struggle. And I always say with murder mysteries, like if a character has a strong, like is portraying a strong archetype in a murder mystery, like the rich granddad, or do you know what I mean? Like there's certain roles that come up again and again in murder mysteries. And I always say like, if they're portraying that, I don't mind if they don't have much depth. God, where is the depth? Where is the depth? I don't know who any of them are. I don't have any feelings towards any of them. I don't care about any of them. Oh no, this has now gone downhill. I'm really sad. This is supposed to be a five star. What is going on? Like I don't, and I think it's so, it's kind of just Blair. Like I don't really have many thoughts because I'm reading it and I'm just like, okay, like it's fine. It's, I don't think it's terrible. There is some issues, you know, I mentioned the writing feeling a bit debut-y. There is some issues with the writing that are persisting. In the, it just feels a little bit metadramatic. Like at the end of every chapter, there's like a, I swallow the fear and tampon it down and emerge strong. Just so dramatic, over dramatic language. Like at the end of every chapter and I'm over it. I'm over it. Like where, let me try and find an example. But Arthur's clues and their connections to the past were making that day crash into me over and over again. Girl. I'm just not loving, I'm not loving it. I'm not loving it and I like, I only want to talk about it because this was supposed to be a five star prediction and I don't know what I'm supposed to do with myself. I literally could not care less around what happens to the mystery. Like the mystery was all in this town and then it moved to the manor house and they were like, the murderer is here. All the clues are here. Everything we need to know is here. It just felt a bit like disingenuous. It didn't feel like the plot rose at its natural course, if you know what I mean. So yes, I'll check with you once I finished it. But right now I'm feeling pretty disappointed. I don't even know, I don't even know what to say. I don't want to talk about, I don't want to talk about it guys. I wish that I could just disappear. I'm giving it two stars. Guys, I actually don't know how to move on from this. I don't know how to live my life. I don't know how to exist. I don't know how to like proceed forward in my life because I thought this would be five stars. I thought it was a book I've been saying for weeks, for months. Oh, this is a book written for me, written for me. Oh, it was written with me in mind with the antiques and the murder mystery. It's been the worst week of my life actually. Oh, I'm so sorry. I think I would have been better off if I had never known this book existed. And I think this is going to be a really big release next year if I had to predict. But I'm giving it two stars. In terms of the way that the mystery unfolded, it was simultaneously very convenient, very convenient things happening. Them realising some obscure clue at the perfect moment in a way that didn't feel earnt. Or yeah, things happened conveniently, but also incredibly complex. I could not follow the layers of this mystery. I think actually it wasn't even that it was complex, it was. But it wasn't, I mean, I like complex mysteries with layers, etc. But it was explained in a way where I could not follow what was going on. It was not written well. The explanations were so convoluted and like tripping up over themselves. I really don't think that the explanations for like why everything was the way it was and how it was related to the past and how this act, this person is related to that and this person happened to that. And like it was too, it wasn't explained well. So as a reader, you're like, what the hell is going on? I don't know how to explain it other than it was so difficult to wrap your head around what was happening and why it was happening and keep track of it. And also to give a fuck. Like I also just didn't give a fuck. It's the truth. As to like why that was the explanation. Like nothing in this felt exciting. No reveal felt exciting. And it felt like nothing happened. Like I read some reviews, there's quite a lot of good early reviews for this. And I read some reviews and they were like, oh, the pacing's really good. Nothing happens. We're in this one house for like after the 100 page mark. And it's not even interesting. It's nothing. I'm not invested in any character. I don't think any of the characters were done well. Like they are all so forgettable. Like we are just in this one house and nothing happens. I don't understand. I think I looked it up. The like final copy of this is 380 pages. This is a fairly long murder mystery and I felt it. It dragged. Also just a little thing that I think bothered me. It's difficult this kind of thing to tell. But the majority of the book, we follow Freya's perspective. And her perspective talking first person. But we do get interspersed with some other characters perspectives here and there. And they're always in third person. And I just think that switch sometimes was a bit jarring like subconsciously. I didn't necessarily notice it consciously. But I just don't think that switch was done well. I don't know. I don't mind it. Like for example, I think I'm right in saying in The Thursday Murder Club, most of it's in third person. But Joyce's diary entries in first person. Like that's okay. But like I just don't know. It's something about it in this one didn't work for me. I didn't love the writing. I'm devastated. I actually like, what is the point anymore? I have been pushed to the limit with this. I will not also. Turns out, I discovered this on Sprint to my patrons the other night. Turns out this is a series. On the last page, it introduces you to book two. Which I felt a little bit betrayed by because at that point, I was still thinking of like, oh, I'm gonna love this. And I thought I was reading a standalone. It's a fucking series. Not everything has to be a series. Like get over yourselves. Not everything has to be a series. So I need to say I won't be continuing on with this series. The last page is like, book two. I'm like, fuck off. But next, I am going to start The Marlowe Murder Club by Robert Thorogood. And I have higher hopes for this one and the rest of the vlog. Because so many of you have told me that you've read and loved this. And that you think I'll love it because I love Thursday Murder Club. Even though I'm a little bit like side eye over like, you know, The Marlowe Murder Club, The Thursday Murder Club. Like, you know, we need some originality up in here. But I'll put it aside. And then A Very Lovely Murder. Obviously, I really enjoyed The Three Dahlias. So I'm more hopeful for the second part of this vlog. But this first one, dear God, what a sad little life, Jane. I actually like, can't get over it. Anyways. You guys are gonna be infinitely pleased to know I am having such better luck with The Marlowe Murder Club. I'm loving it. I am loving it. I can look past the fact that it is, you know. It's one of the books that sprung up in the UK. These cosy murder mysteries following elderly characters in a quaint English village that sprung up after the success of Thursday Murder Club. I can look past it. I can forgive it its sins. Do you know what? The fact that it's got like, I mean, it's got a red cover. So colour-wise, it's very, I mean, look at it. It's very similar to the first book. But like, decisions like this, like the title and the fact that the covers look similar, is down to the publisher. Because the publisher, people, publishers do this all the time, right? People are gonna see this. This is more when this just come out and this has just come out. People will see this and think it's the Thursday Murder Club because it's got such a similar name and title. They'll go, oh, is that the book everyone's talking about? Oh, I should pick it up. It's a conspiracy theory that I'm actually interested in. The same thing I remember for ages. Do you guys remember the covers of The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer? Because Marissa Meyer and Stephanie Meyer, like, will be next to each other in the, in the, um, although they wouldn't be in the same section. Would Twilight be in the way? I'm not sure. But like, the covers were literally like it had an apple. So again, people may confuse it, you know? Publishers do this all the time. So I can forgive it. So basically, all you need to know is that we're following a 77-year-old Judith Potts, who, she's a bit eccentric, right, Judith? Like, everyone knows her. She likes to wear a cape as she's cycling. Everyone knows her in the town. She's a bit eccentric. And she witnesses a murder happen of her neighbour in the River Thames, which, like, they're swimming in the River Thames. I get, they're not in London. They're, like, on the outskirts of London. But, like, I don't know. But to be fair, where, near where I live is, um, the estuary, like, where the Thames feeds into the sea. And people swim there. But, like, that's not as bad. Like, I can't imagine swimming, like, in the centre of London, Thames. But I don't know what the Thames in Marlow would be like. I was like... Um, anyways, yeah. So she witnesses a murder and she is like, girlies, we need to solve this. In the story so far, she is kind of banded up with these two very unlikely friends. One is the vicar's wife, Bex, who is a character that I am really glad to see in a lot of mystery. You have a lot of these characters. Like, Judith, like, we've seen some of the characters where it's, like, an eccentric old lady. Or we have Susie, who's a bit, like, just chaos follows her. But Bex is, like, you know, she shops in John Lewis. Like, middle-class mum. Her whole life is being a mum. But more to that, she reminds me a lot of my friend's mums growing up. Who, like, she has Emma Bridgewater kettle, mugs, plates. Like, I don't know. I don't know if this would translate if you're not from the UK. But she's a, like, middle-class mum, right? Who, like, drives a 4x4 and whatever. And I just think it's fun seeing a character like that in a murder mystery. But this book is very funny. It's very funny. And so much has happened, right? My problem, really, with The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder was, like, we were having the same conversations over and over again. And just, like, nothing was happening. These conversations just kept happening. I'm hearing the same conversation over and over and over again. And it meant that there was no plot. The book is taken up with, like, literally word for word. Some characters, some conversations happen, like, three times. Whereas I feel like so much has already happened in this book. I feel like in a cosy-ish murder mystery in a quaint English town, unless it's, like, the one location is really playing up on the isolation. And, like, we're trapped here and whatever. I think it's a bit, which it isn't in The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder. I think it's a bit boring to, like, just be in one setting. Whereas in this, we're going to this house and we're going to the church. And we're going to this, um, park. I don't know if we have. But, like, we're going around the town. And I think that variety, it adds a bit of light and shade, right? I feel like in terms of plot variety, The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder didn't have any light and shade. It was one note, girlies. It was very one note. Yeah, I'm finding this so easy to read. I'm loving the writing style. I'm loving the characters. It's an intriguing murder mystery. It is very similar to this. So I think if you have enjoyed this, you will enjoy this. I'm like, this could get a five star from me. It's going to be a four or a five. It's not going to be anything less than a four. It can be a four, 4.5 or a five. I think this author wrote a TV show. I don't know. It just reads very, like, you can imagine, um, the settings. Like, I feel like it's very doing a good job of, like, creating imagery without overwrought descriptions or stuff. And it's funny. I'm having a great time reading it. Oh, and the audiobook is great. I'm listening to it. I've read most of this via the audiobook so far. And the audiobook is wonderful. I've really, really been enjoying the audiobook. I was like, I was stuck in traffic for like an hour this morning. Let me tell you, the audiobook made it okay. I was like sitting there. Everyone else is probably like so angry at this traffic. I'm like, Miss Judith out and about. So anyways, I'm going to go ahead and finish it. And I will check in with you once I have. But yeah, the vlog is, we're much more on a successful path now. Hey friends. I'm feeling a bit nervous because Tom's having, I'm around Tom's house and having work done on their front garden. And there's a guy just like right outside the window. I'm hoping he hasn't looked at me yet. I'm hoping he just doesn't look at me. This is awkward. I have finished The Marlowe Murder Club by Robert Thurgood. And it's not a five star, it's a four star. It's a strong, solid, very recommendable four star. But it's not a five star. I hate to say it. I'm sorry. I really enjoyed this. I thought the end reveal of like who the murderer is was, it's really clever. I thought it was done really, really well. I think there is an element of this reveal that it's kind of like what you are thinking like underneath, like in your subconscious the whole time. Like it doesn't feel, well, elements of it felt surprising. The elements of it felt like, okay, that's what I was thinking all along. Which is, I think, a satisfying ending for a murder mystery. Because you're kind of like, you feel like, oh, you figured something out. But also you feel shocked. But I think, you know, if you enjoyed Thursday Murder Club, this is very, very similar. It's along the similar lines. It's got a similar writing style. It's got similar characters. It's got a similar vibe to it. For what? I'm you. Um, but it's not the Thursday Murder Club. But if you're wanting more of that vibe, I think out of everything I've read that's like murder mystery, following early characters that I, you know, that have sprung up since I met Thursday Murder Club, this is the best one I've read of that. I think the writing is great. I think our main characters are great. I think it's really compelling individual storylines that make me excited to read the next one. So I am going to continue with this series. The Antique Candies Garden Murder. So we are adding a book to my series list, but I knew, I mean, this one I knew. Whereas the other one was a shock. I was duped. The kind of like reveal, it was very dramatic, right? We're in a storm and it was a well done storm. I read another, what was it? Oh, The Golden Spoon. That storm was not a good storm because there was no storm, but there was a storm. Whereas this one, it felt like very high stakes. Drama was great. I really enjoyed it. I really, really enjoyed it. Really good layering of the mystery. Really good, like, you know, different mysteries all kind of come together at the end, which I enjoy. And again, like the pacing was great. So much happened, right? Like I said, I don't want to keep comparing it, but like I will. The Antique Candies Garden Murder, like I feel like there was five scenes throughout that book. Whereas I couldn't even begin to tell you all the different moments and little scenes that we had in this book, which really made it for me. So I would really recommend this. Like I said, the best version of a Thursday Murder Club ripoff. Is that mean? I think that's a bit mean, but the best version of that that I've read. So we're onto our final book now, which is A Very Lively Murder by Katie Watson. Like I said, this is the sequel to The Three Dahlias, which was a four star, but like it was a very strong four star. Maybe even like a 4.25, 4.5 for me. I really, really loved it. Where, we'll get into the plot, but we're following three characters who have played Lady Detective Dahlia Lively. And I think we're following Posy in this one, who is on her first Dahlia Lively movie and the murder starts occurring on set, which I think is a very fun idea. Like deaths. I mean, shortly after the first death, it would get shut down. Oh, let's be realistic. I'm not sure how like the, the realisticness of this is gonna work, but yeah, no, I'm very excited to dive back into this world. Is this gonna, I'm, you know, when the first book of a series has been a four star, I never predict the next one will be a five star, but sometimes that does happen because you get more into the world and into the characters. So we'll see. I just really want a five star. It's the story of my life. I just want more four, five stars. Gosh, let's play a violin. Anyways. Yeah, I'm gonna go start this and I'll check on you probably when I'm halfway because it is a second in a series. I probably won't have as much that I can say that isn't a bit spoilery, but that is a good thing about murder mysteries, like murder mystery series is that you never really can spoil the first one because you're following just the same characters on a new murder mystery. It's not like a fantasy series where like, you know, you'd spoil everything in the first one, but I'll see you when I'm halfway through. I don't want to hear about my appearance. It's like I'm debating whether I take my hair down, but it might actually... Okay, we're just gonna try it. My makeup's all come off. It's been a long day. I've been for a walk. I've done yoga and, you know, we went for a walk in the cold and the wind. Right, let's talk about the book, shall we? Anyways, I just want you to ignore how I look. So I am halfway through A Very Lively Murder and I'm really enjoying it, guys. There's something about this series that is so comforting. Like I always said with the first one, I don't think this is gonna be a five star. The first one wasn't a five star. I don't think many people would read it and go, oh, if you have a high five star threshold as me, would read it and be like, oh, that's a five star. But it does what it's trying to do so well and it's just lovely. This book, you could really read it as a standalone. There's references to the first book and what happened, but they don't spoil the resolution of the mystery. I mean, you know people who it wasn't. Like, you know, I guess that does spoil sentiments. Like, you know it wasn't this person who committed the murder. There's characters who were in the first one. But, you know, it doesn't spoil who did it. In this, Posey and Rosalind, who are the youngest and oldest of the Dahlias are in the new Dahlia Lively film, in which Posey is, this is her first one as Dahlia Lively. And weird stuff starts occurring. So first we have a casting director who like disappears. On the first day, they're doing a teleroid and she walks into a cupboard almost. And people see her go in and no one sees the door, like her leave that room. But then when they look in there, she's not in there. And then it seems like she's posting pictures on her Instagram of like her at this desert thing. But people are like, and I was a bit, that's setting off my alarm bells. That's suspicious. That's weird. Anyone suddenly who disappears and is posting pictures of a desert, but like she's not in them. I'm like, hmm, says that. And then Rosalind starts getting threatening messages and things start happening that make them think that her life is in danger. So the camera light falls on her and like almost, she almost dies, almost gets brain from that. And then one day a real knife is been swapped out with a prop knife. And so they call up the other Dahlia and then she comes and meets them on set. And I'm loving the setting. Oh, and then there's a girl dies in like a hit and run. Another one of the actresses dies in a hit and run. So we've got all these kind of elements of the mystery converging. And you're wondering, is the same person behind them? Is different people behind them? And I think the setting is great. It's set in like this rural town in Wales and they're using this manor house to film. And the film set is, I think, an interesting set. If you're into that, some people aren't into that, but I think it's done really well. Like the way that the casting, like the director would act and like all these different people would act and like the intricacies of a film set, I think has been really interesting as a setting. And like I said, I think the writing, this is lovely. Oh, another thing. In the three Dahlias, we had their three perspectives, but they each made up like a third of the book. So the first third was like Posey or whatever. At the end, they're like switching between perspectives. We're switching between perspectives the whole time in this. So it's not like it's the whole third of the book with Posey's perspective. Mid chapter, we switch between perspectives and I think the perspectives are done well. I think they've got just enough difference in narrative voice to me not to complain. It's not a massive one. It's more a difference in what the themes that the character thinks about and like the slant that they put on the mystery. Each of them have different personal circumstances that mean they look at it in a slightly different way. But I love these girlies. I love that we're following three women from like three different generations, kind of uniting as friends to uncover this mystery. I think the setting is great. I think the pacing is great. I'm going to keep comparing everything because again, so much has happened. And like, I don't know, sometimes multi-perspectives can be an issue for me, but that's when we're following different storylines. They're all following the same storyline. I think the addition of characters has been great. Like the little inn and tavern and like the place they're staying at is a very vivid setting. And like the, I can imagine where they're, you know, the staying and the town they're ever in and the people that live in the town. There's just something about the writing that feels very comforting in this and very cosy and very lovely. And this definitely is, I think it's going to be a comfort series for me. So this could, I don't think it would be a five, but it may be a 4.5 in that this series might become greater than some of its parts for me, if that makes sense. Where like the individual books are like always like a four-ish. But like I view this series as a whole, very, very fondly. So, you know, I always say, if you love Metamysteries, this does feel like a love letter. The first one more so, but a love letter to the genre. And I just really like these characters. I'm really enjoying it. I'm going to finish it tonight and let you know what I think. I've seen, this came out a couple months ago and it's only got 200 ratings on Goodreads. And I just think this series, you know, it's not going to, I don't think blow your socks off, but it's a lovely Sunday read. It's like weekend read. Do you know what I mean? I think it's very, very lovely. So yeah, I'll check in with you in the morning once I finished it. Good morning. I finished A Very Lovely Murder by Katie Watson and I'm going to give this four stars, right? I really enjoyed it. It's a kind of four star where you feel like, oh, I have no notes. I just had like a fun time reading it. At this point, I don't have anything to talk about. There's nothing that I want to say. Like it was fun. It was a good time. I'm glad I've made progress in the series. It kind of feels to me like The Lady Hardcastle. Mysteries, those are a bit cozier than this. This isn't, this is like cozy, but not, I mean, that's like uber cozy. It's like the coziest I'll go. Lady Hardcastle Mysteries. But you know, it does feel like just a nice read, but it's not doing anything groundbreaking. And I do feel like more and more nowadays. I mean, as we know this year, I've had like incredibly high bar for five stars. Like I haven't been giving a lot of five stars out. I just feel like increasingly a book has to do something new and innovative and like surprise me to get a five star. Do you know what I mean? I don't know. So anyways, I really enjoyed this. I also feel like I was leaning at some points to like a 4.5 or whatever, but I settled on a four because the ending, like the resolution, it wasn't a resolution that felt unsatisfying. Like it was fine, but it didn't feel particularly satisfying afterwards. It was just like, okay, that's the resolution. Like in terms of who the murderer was, like that's wrapped up. Okay. But I do think this series deserves a lot more praise and attention. Like I haven't really heard anyone read this. Like anyone I follow, anyone. I haven't had anyone I follow read this. And I do think it deserves a lot more love. And I know already there's a third one confirmed. And I'm interested to see where the story goes. I do think though, I don't know if this series would benefit from being like, I feel like there's a lot of mystery series now that are going to go on forever. Like Thursday Metal Club's going to go on forever, right? I'm not sure these characters and their storylines would benefit from that. I do want this to be wrapped up. I'd say max four books. Like I only really want two more books in this series. I don't want it to go on forever. And I don't think their characters would benefit from that, you know? And I feel like it is starting to lean that way. Like, oh they just have a mystery. They investigate every single, you know, every single book. It's a different mystery and it could go on forever. I don't think that's what the characters need. I feel like they do need a bit of like an end resolution at some point. But if you haven't picked this series up. If you like Thursday Metal Club. If you like Janice Hallett. If you like, like if you like mysteries, you know, that kind of genre of mysteries. I would recommend giving this a go because it is a lovely read. And I had a great time reading it. So one sec, let me get the other books. In this vlog, we had two solid four stars and one incredibly disappointing two stars. I don't even want to like begin to talk about a guy was just watching me as he walked past the window. That's nice. We don't need to talk about this. It was like beyond disappointing. Like I'm heartbroken. Like anyways. But yeah, I really enjoyed both of these. And this is a series a lot of you've been telling me to start for a long time. So I'm excited to make progress. But yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed this vlog of me reading murder mysteries for a week. Let me know some of your favourite murder mysteries that you've read lately. If you've read any. Because like I said, I'm always looking for recs. I'm always looking for recommendations. So let me know. But thank you guys so much for watching this video. And I'll see you soon in another one. Bye!