Marian Librarian

09/06/2026

09/05/2026

I do not watch much television. I do watch t.v. mystery series:

Some of my favorites I've borrowed from the LA County Library as well as streamed: Miss Marple, Poirot, Phryne Fisher, Campion, Rosemary & Thyme, and Lord Peter Wimsey.

Lately I've been watching via Brit Box:
All of the Agatha Christie offerings ♥
Sister Boniface (🥱)
Father Brown (🥱)
The Death Paradise series ♥ w/ the exception of Beyond Paradise & Season 15
Wycliffe: which started off good, but got so dark & convoluted that I stopped
Rosemary & Thyme 👍
Vera: I'm still undecided
An Inspector Calls-Spooky & Unsettlling
Cadfael, I liked it better the first time I watched
Maigret w/ M Gambon ♥ with R. Atkinson 🤷‍♀️
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (🥱)
Inspector Lynley (🥱)
Murder in Provence ♥
Murder on the Blackpool Express 👎👎
Quirke: another dark series
Rumpole of the Bailey 🤷‍♀️
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher
Harry Wilde

Currently: The Good Ship Murder

https://www.britbox.com/us/genre/mystery

There are a few oth

BritBox - British TV.

09/03/2026

The Curious Case of the Poisoned Professor
Lucy Connelly
Available to borrow from LA County Library

From Amazon: "After crossing the pond, Dr. Gwen Griffith finds herself in the quirky place she fell in love with, Dillynaidd, Wales. A former managing editor for a Texan newspaper, Gwen is ready for the next stage in her life as the head of the journalism department at the local university in town. With her best friend, Carolyn Sparks–who is also the university’s dean–at her side, Dillynaidd feels like a dream, until murder comes knocking at her doorstep.

Gwen had only just met the victim, Dr. Alice Rice, at a faculty party, but that doesn't stop police detective Gareth Jones from suspecting her of foul play–after all, the victim was found on her doorstep. With her journalism background, Gwen decides that it’s up to her to clear her own name. But she’ll need all the help she can get when her idyllic small-town life is turned upside down in order to stay one step ahead of the killer."

Unfortunately, I just wasn't interested in these characters. Her books all seem to follow the same pattern, her heroines are basically the same, as are her detectives.

The clue to who done it was there, and in this case the victim brought it all upon herself, for which I had no empathy.

09/03/2026

Her One Regret
Donna Freitas

Oh noooooo!

From Amazon: "When successful Rhode Island real estate agent Lucy Mendoza vanishes, leaving her baby behind in a grocery store parking lot, the news quickly makes national headlines. Lucy’s best friend, Michelle, is devastated, and terrified that Lucy’s life is at stake. But she knows something that could complicate the police investigation. Lucy had confessed something unspeakable: She regretted becoming a mother, so much that she’d fantasized about faking her own kidnapping. If the police and media were to find out, Lucy would become a monster in public opinion. Michelle is sure Lucy would never abandon her daughter. But could she be wrong? Could Lucy have been so desperate she chose to escape her life?

Donna Freitas has drawn from groundbreaking research to bring readers this unforgettable novel. Her One Regret is at once a pulse-pounding feminist thriller, a moving depiction of the realities of motherhood, and a rich exploration of a subject our culture and society have rendered nearly verboten: the possibility that for some women, motherhood is an unfixable mistake."

Ok, I'm going to be honest... this book bored me, so I skipped mot all of the middle and went to the last 2-3 chapters, because I wanted to know then ending (which was quite grim).

I wasn't a fan of several of the characters. Also, I've never had a baby, but the woman who gave up her life & had her husband making all the decisions about her "mothering", I sure felt badly for her as well as the one with the baby that screamed all the time & the absent husband.... I sure understood why they'd want to run away & their regrets. Sheet!