Milo, our crazy cat, is growing by leaps and bounds. He seems to get longer every day!

He still won’t use the cat flap to leave the house, so just as well that the weather allows us to keep the back door open.

My new system of allocating one job for the day seems to be working. So far, I have managed to cross two jobs from my incredibly long to-do list, and it feels good.

Mind you, I am also managing to fit other things in, like housework, gardening, a little knitting for the soon-to-be-here baby, and some tennis watching. So, maybe the irons are gathering again!

Hopefully, they will remain workable and not become out of control again, because I am enjoying feeling in control.

I have also chosen the next two books to review.

A CENSURED DETECTIVE WITH NO LEADS

DCI Matilda Darke and her team have been restricted under special measures after a series of calamitous scandals nearly brought down the South Yorkshire police force.

A BRUTAL ATTACK WITH NO WITNESSES

Now Matilda is on the trail of another murderer, an expert in avoiding detection with no obvious motive but one obvious method.

A DEPRAVED KILLER WHO LEAVES NO TRACES

When his latest victim survives the attack despite her vocal cords being severed, Matilda is more convinced than ever of the guilt of her key suspect. If only she had a way to prove it…

and…

Shy, introverted Lucy Dennings lives a quiet little life in New York City, working for a nonprofit and keeping to herself. Every afternoon, she goes home to her empty apartment and Edgar, her houseplant, and every night, she loses herself in the pages of her beloved romance novels. Her lonely heart seeks solace in tales of passionate, enduring, all-consuming love, but more and more, Lucy feels she’s not just reading for pleasure but searching for a lost piece of herself in the pages. As if she once touched something beautiful but it’s been ripped away.

Until one day Lucy discovers a dead body in the alley behind her apartment. Even if it’s too late, her first instinct is to help.

Her second is to run.

Because the dead body isn’t so very dead, and suddenly, her little world isn’t so little but one in which dreams feel like memories, “inner demons” actually lurk in dark alleys, and a beautiful creature of darkness with amber eyes and wings like night might hold the key to what her heart has been aching for…if she doesn’t fall down the path of eternal damnation first.