Summer, Station, Scene: What I Read in September 2025

Dead Man's Folly by Agatha Christie

I was a reader of Christie long before I saw any of the film or TV adaptations, so I formed my own imaginary versions of her characters long before I saw any actors interpreting them. But for some reason, with this book only, the 2013 ITV version with David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker as Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver dominates my mental image of it. Perhaps it's because it was filmed at Greenway, the very house that Christie had in mind when she was writing it? I'm not sure. Anyway, I found myself favourably impressed by the plot upon this re-read, given that this is not a book that is usually named as a top tier Christie mystery. She did a good job here of marrying the old and the new, combining a classic country house setting with some hints of social change. I'm writing about this book shortly for an episode of Shedunnit, so look out for that if you want more extended thoughts on it.

What Abigail Did That Summer and The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch

My audiobook re-listen of the Rivers of London series continues with two of the novellas. I really like both of these stories because they give me my favourite things about Aaronovitch's work — the magic and the London history — without the bit I like least, which is the police procedure and the multi-book nemesis. What Abigail Did That Summer cleverly fills the reader in on what was happening in the capital while usual protagonist Peter Grant was off on a rural case in Foxglove Summer, with his cousin Abigail as narrator. She gets in with a gang of talking foxes on Hampstead Heath, makes a new friend, and gets trapped in a century-old timeloop in a very posh house. Shvorne Marks narrates what I think might be my favourite book in the series so far.

The Furthest Station, another novella, is also great for readers with my preferences, as it's a magical ghost story set in Metroland (ie, along the northern extent of the Metropolitan line). John Betjeman fans, swoon with me. Unlike Abigail, this one stars Peter Grant again and does a great job of running a historical mystery in parallel with a contemporary one, another favourite trope of mine. At about four hours, an excellent listen when you want something engrossing and escapist but can't face committing to another 10+ hour audiobook.

Green for Danger by Christianna Brand

This was the October book for my podcast's book club and a novel I was delighted to revisit — truly one of the best WW2 mysteries and such a clever plot. I've talked at length about it already so I won't repeat myself, but I highly recommend this and the 1946 film starring Alastair Sim.

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

I mentioned this back in April: I really enjoy the type of book where someone reluctant ends up being terrifically competent and guiding an institution towards a good outcome. And this Discworld book about a convicted thief having to rescue a city's neglected post office and bring it back into operation absolutely scratches this itch for me. The sub-plot involving a cabal of investors who ruin the "clacks" — a semaphore-based telegraph system, basically the technological advance that has killed off the post — felt quite prophetic on this reread given the state of the tech companies these days... I'm only a casual Pratchett-enjoyer (I think I've read about half a dozen of his books, total?) but I've listened to the unabridged audiobook of this one at least three times.

A Rare Book of Cunning Device by Ben Aaronovitch

I fear I am becoming a Ben Aaronovitch completist. This was a short short story that he wrote for an event, now recorded by superb Rivers of London narrator Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. It's brief — under thirty minutes — and the plot is correspondingly simple. Since I love bibliomysteries, I kind of wish he had developed this idea of a sentient book roaming the British Library stacks into something longer.

Let's Make a Scene by Laura Wood

This is a gorgeous novel, a second-chance romance about two actors who originally meet (and clash, despite obvious chemistry) in their youth when they are both cast in a period drama film. It's all made much worse by the fact that the studio puts them in a fake PR relationship to promote the film. At the end of the press tour, they part ways and mutually agree never to speak again. Then they have to come together again thirteen years later to make the sequel. The original film has become a cult classic and their careers have gone in very different directions: formerly inexperienced Cynthie is now an Oscars darling, and alleged nepo baby Jack is doing a vampire TV show, to the disgust of his snobby thespian parents. When the pair reunite, they don't seem to hate each other anymore...

I follow Laura Wood's work because she is an Eva Ibbotson fan and I feel that influence strongly in her fiction. For me, this is her best novel yet — funny, clever, sharp and moving. The passages that deal with Cynthie's "cancellation" because of her affair with a married director are nuanced and feel accurate but don't overwhelm with their topicality, while Jack's struggles with his family and their legacy are likewise handled with a light touch. Wood thanks Emma Thompson in the acknowledgements for writing the The Sense and Sensibility Diaries, which gave her insight into what it's like to make a really good small-budget Austen adaptation, and you can feel that influence. Probably the highest praise I can give this book is that it reads like the off-camera romance you wanted from Sense and Sensibility or the 1995 Pride and Prejudice series.

The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie

Another reread in advance of writing that podcast episode I mentioned up top. My opinions are divided on this 1961 Christie. The solution is fantastic and the creepy misdirection layered on top is pretty good, but I really dislike a lot of the "young people are so dirty and modern" stuff. It's there at least in part because Christie is trying to give her middle-aged male narrator a distinct point of view, but there's enough of it that it was grating on me by the end of the book. I would have preferred more about the witches, honestly, but that's just me.

That was, belatedly, my reading for September: 7 books, bringing me up to 88 for the year to date. I'm a couple of books behind the pace needed to hit my target of 120 books read in 2025.

If you would like to follow along in real time, you can see what I'm reading at any given moment on the Storygraph. I just use that as a tracker, though, I don't publish any reviews there. I am trying to catch up with these reviews before the end of the year...