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- New British Books This Week + Patricia Routledge's Beatrix Potter Fascination
New British Books This Week + Patricia Routledge's Beatrix Potter Fascination
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We’re sad to share that Dame Patricia Routledge has died at the age of 96. Many will remember her as Hyacinth “Bouquet” in Keeping Up Appearances or as the shrewd amateur sleuth Hetty Wainthropp. But Routledge also had a lasting connection to the world of books through her love of Beatrix Potter.
In 1997 she portrayed Potter on stage, also voicing her in a BBC Radio 4 production around the same time. From 2012 onward, she was a patron of the Beatrix Potter Society, and she even fronted a Channel 4 documentary retracing Potter’s life and landscapes, celebrating her not only as a storyteller but also as a gifted illustrator and naturalist.
Like Potter, Routledge never had children of her own, and instead left her legacy in the form of her memorable works. She will certainly be missed.
Sadly, the documentary is not available via strictly legal means in the US (where most of our readers reside), but if you’re particularly interested, you can Google “Patricia Routledge Beatrix Potter documentary” and you will find options.
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New British Books This Week
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
After a wedding, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim are pulled back into danger when a guest vanishes and all signs point to murder.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
The Killing Stones by Ann Cleeves
Detective Jimmy Perez returns in a new mystery set in Orkney, where the murder of his oldest friend on the island of Westray leads him into a case tangled with family loyalties, island secrets, and an ancient carved stone.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
In the Time of Five Pumpkins by Alexander McCall Smith
In Gaborone, Mma Ramotswe juggles a client’s suspicious story, worries over Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s risky new friendship, and seeks wisdom (and cake) from Mma Potokwane as new storms roll over Botswana.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
Murder at Somerset House by Andrea Penrose
In Regency London, Lord Wrexford and Charlotte investigate the murder of a Royal Society scientist at Somerset House, uncovering a plot where science, money, and politics collide while a shocking family secret tests their bond.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
Silver & the Sunday Cypher
In Kensington, widowed Laura Carlyle teams up with the mysterious Sebastian Silver to uncover a cabal of killers after a suspicious death exposes her late husband’s secrets.
Get it: Amazon
Murder in the Winter Woods by Katie Gayle
In the Cotswold village of Berrywick, Julia Bird investigates two suspicious deaths tied to a long-forgotten band and a killer still at large.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
Table for One by Emma Gannon
After heartbreak upends her carefully planned life, Willow learns to embrace solitude, rediscover joy, and fall in love with herself again.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
The Distant Daughter by Lorna Cook
Singapore, 1941: as Japanese bombs fall, glamorous socialite Issey flees the city with the enigmatic Alex Cartwright, while decades later in Cornwall, her descendant Lamorna uncovers Issey’s diary in a crumbling family estate and is drawn into a tale of war, sacrifice, and enduring love that may help her rebuild both her home and her heart.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
Gone in the Night by Helen Phifer
In England’s Lake District, Detective Morgan Brookes investigates the brutal stabbing of a young woman found in her tent at Rydal Falls, but when a second camper is killed in the mountains, she must untangle secrets of family rifts, hidden romances, and a chilling pattern that threatens every woman who dares to camp alone.
Get it: Amazon | Bookshop.org (supports independent bookshops)
Worse Than Murder by Michael Wood
In the wilds of the Lake District, grieving DCI Matilda Darke takes on the decades-old disappearance of the Pemberton twins, only to uncover dark family secrets someone is desperate to keep buried.
Get it: Amazon
Death on the Night Train to Verona by Benedict Brown
On a 1929 night train from Rome to Verona, Lord Edgington and his grandson must unravel the secrets of a murdered film star whose glittering life hid jealous lovers, dangerous patrons, and deadly lies.
Get it: Amazon
Dark Rock by B Baskerville
When MI6 drags ex-agent Spencer Bly back into the field, he must infiltrate a deadly arms deal aboard a yacht in Gibraltar before the Rock—and the world—goes up in flames.
Get it: Amazon
I Loved You Then by Rebecca Ruger
In 1296 Berwick-on-Tweed, warrior Ciaran Kerr is haunted by a dying woman’s face, and centuries later Claire Harrington crosses time in the Scottish Highlands to discover she is bound to him by a love that defies fate itself.
Get it: Amazon
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Sarah Waters, The Night Watch
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