Janet Gordon is married, retired, obsessed with her Westlake Terrier, Rollo – and books are her passion. She reads multiple books a week across all genres and reviews books for Rest Less.
This month’s round-up features FINDING SUZY: The Hunt for Missing Estate Agent Suzy Lamplough; Romantic Comedy; Highly Desirable; and Beautiful Rival.
Note: Prices can change often, so you may notice some variations on the providers’ websites. Prices and availability are accurate as of the 13th of September, 2023.
FINDING SUZY: The Hunt for Missing Estate Agent Suzy Lamplough and ‘Mr Kipper’ by David Videcette (available via Amazon – £5.99 on Kindle or free with Kindle Unlimited)
Hands up if you’re one of the millions of people who, like me, love watching and reading about True Crime. And, in fact, reports have shown that it’s definitely more women than men who plump for true crime. Personally, I put that down to the fact that I’m in charge of the remote in our house!
Anyway, it was mentioned online that it’s nearly 40 years since Suzy Lamplough disappeared. Cast your mind back to July 1986, when she vanished after apparently showing Mr Kipper a house in Fulham. It made a particular impression on me, since I was editing Taxi Newspaper and London’s licensed black cab drivers had been asked to “keep an eye out”.
Then, to my amazement, all these years later, author David Videcette contacted me saying that he’d written Finding Suzy and asked if I’d like to read it – and a couple of days later it popped through my letterbox.
Published in 2021, Videcette, an ex-Scotland Yard detective, has devoted thousands of hours, hundreds of miles of travelling, and blood, sweat and tears to his investigation into what happened to Suzy. What Videcette has uncovered is an incredible tribute to the true power of detective work – as opposed to the complete dereliction of duty on the part of the police, who certainly didn’t investigate as rigorously as one would hope they would.
His solution to the Suzy Lamplough is certainly plausible and could well uncover the truth. But, I guess that perhaps the mystery of what happened to Suzy is going to be a ‘Jack the Ripper’ type story – only, in this case, there isn’t even a body.
If you’re one of the millions who enjoy true crime, then this is certainly one to add to your collection.
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld (Doubleday £16.99, Kindle £9.99, or free with an Audible trial)
US comedy shows always seem to have far more script writers than UK comedies and, to be honest, the American sense of humour works in a totally different way to our ironic and laid-back British humour.
I’m a complete anorak over my favourite set-in-New York, American sitcoms – like Seinfeld and Rhoda – which are my go-to kitchen watch when my husband manages to wrestle control of the remote from me and is glued to Game of Thrones or Stranger Things.
And, so, we meet Sally Miltz who is a successful scriptwriter for top-ranking late-night TV comedy TNO (aka The Night Owls) – think something akin to our Fast Show.
Sally doesn’t believe in love – she’s been married and divorced and has decided that love is not for her.
Yet, when her hot desk sharee Danny – in Sally’s eyes, just an average Joe – meets and seriously dates the most high-profile actress and glamour model you could image, Sally’s mind goes into overdrive, and she writes and directs a comedy skit about how an old, crumbly millionaire man can date a younger, gorgeous model and nobody bats an eyelid.
But, when that same gorgeous model teams up with Joe Bus Driver, Fred Plumber, or perhaps Brian Builder, the world goes crazy and can’t explain the attraction.
Sally also classes herself as Ms Average and when Noah, the guest host of that week’s show and world-famous crooner (Michael Buble anyone?), turns up, there’s an instant attraction. Sally won’t let herself believe that this handsome man with piercing blue eyes who could date anybody, is interested in her. So, she writes a series of comedy sketches, which make Noah the butt of the joke, with which he happily plays along.
However, at the after-show chat, they have a difference of opinion over something completely trivial and Noah returns to California. Fast forward two years and it’s Covid-19 and lockdown. With Sally having tried – unsuccessfully – to remove Noah from her daydreams, she’s now drifting through life whilst living in Kansas with her 80-year-old stepfather and Sugar, his beloved beagle.
But then Noah emails her and what happens next is the most wonderful series of emails I have ever read. Fun, chatty, getting to know you emails. These emails are a true meeting of minds with both of them on the same wavelength as they get to know each other, without ever realising that they are falling in love.
And haven’t we all been there? I can remember when I met Malcolm (the second cab driver I married – I only ever marry black cab drivers), we would talk on the phone for hours, with the conversation stretching across a thousand different inconsequential topics. So, this is how it is with Noah and Sally, and then they switch to Facetime.
Noah and Sally are not yet lovers but it’s just glorious the way in which author, Sittenfeld, has delved so deeply into the lover’s psyche. I have never read a more emotional series of emails. And so Noah invites Sally to his house. But, it’s at the heart of Covid and Sally, terrified of being in crowds, decides to drive, loading herself up with masks and planning an overnight stay in a remote motel.
I absolutely adore the way in which this couple are so nervous and yet so considerate of each other, and the way in which Noah overcomes all of Sally’s inhibitions and anxieties. He even understands when she disappears to a far-off bedroom at the opposite end of his massive house in order to poo in peace.
Romantic Comedy deserves to be on every bookshelf. It’s a masterclass in romantic writing without being in any way slushy or sexy. The in-jokes, the asides that you didn’t think he’d remember – it’s the way in which every couple would like to see themselves.
But, above all, it’s a paean to being yourself, to knowing that you don’t have to be gorgeous with a flat stomach, thin thighs, or a hairless chest (men of course!) for your partner – however high in status, wealth, and looks he is – to absolutely adore, cherish, and worship you.
I can’t praise Romantic Comedy enough and I’d love you all to read and enjoy it. It’s on my shelf as one of my “Desert Island Books”.
Highly Desirable – Tales of London’s super-prime property from The Secret Agent (Headline £17.99, Kindle £12.99)
And so, apart from watching True Crime, I also love property programmes – from Escape to the Country to those completely over-the-top American shows where estate agents wear stilt-like heels and the tightest of dresses with the longest of hair and get to show rich Americans ridiculously expensive houses. Whereas, in the country, we can log onto Right Move for our dose of house porn.
Written by the Secret Agent, this guy deals in those houses that don’t make it to Right Move – those houses whose well-known and famous owners don’t really want anyone to know that they own this house.
He schmoozes and wheedles his way through the day, celebrating when a deal is done and crying when another agent succeeds. I do love a good insider read.
A Beautiful Rival by Gill Paul (Avon £9.99, Kindle £1.99)
I love Gill Paul’s novels and A Beautiful Rival is her latest. Set just before the start of WW1, Elizabeth Arden – that doyen of make-up – has dragged herself up by her eyelashes, re-invented her background and, having decided that her beauty salon is not quite in the right location, is about to sign a lease on a prestigious building on New York’s Fifth Avenue.
But there’s a fly in the ointment (pun intended). Helena Rubenstein – she of the famous Carpathian herbs – is snapping at her heels. And whatever Elizabeth Arden does, Helena Rubenstein seems to have done it a little sooner.
Reading through the years, we follow the two through the First World War, The Wall Street Crash, and the Great Depression with their rivalry growing ever greater. We share in their failed romances, astronomical spending, and triumphs and their failures. We share Rubenstein’s despair over the fate of the Jews in Europe under Hitler and Arden’s casual antisemitism. And, finally, the pair meet.
This is a scintillating reveal of the two women’s – both cosmetic giants – unseen rivalry and the excesses of life as they lived it.
As I said, I love Gill Paul’s novels and I love make-up – so it makes perfect reading.
For further book and literature discussions, you might be interested in joining the thriving book club or short story club over on Rest Less Events.
Have you read any of these books? Or have you added any of them to your reading list? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.