Today is the summer solstice in the UK, the longest amount of light in one day.
In honour of that fact, I thought I’d share a couple of my favourite long reads with you all.
First up is The Mirror and The Light by the late Hilary Mantel, the queen of incredible storytelling.
It’s the third book in the Wolf Hall Trilogy – here’s a little detail:
“England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour.
“Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin?”
The Mirror and The Light stands at 912 pages – which I’m sure is the longest book I’ve read. I preorder led my hardback copy back in September 2019 and I remember it arriving just as the covid pandemic swept the world and the UK was plunged into the first lockdown.
I recall having a sense of surrendering to a simple life – over the hot and sunny Easter holiday weekend, it was just me on my patio and my book. I lapped up every page!
My second pick is A Quarter to Midnight by Karen Rose. Standing at 608 pages, here’s a little blurb if you’re not familiar with this first story in a 3-part series set in New Orleans in America.
“Rocky Hebert walks into his death at quarter to midnight one New Orleans night.
“His son Gabe cannot accept the official verdict of suicide and enlists the help of the Burke Broussard Private Investigation Agency to discover the real cause of death.
“PI Molly Sutton knows what it’s like to lose a father in tragic circumstances and will go to any lengths to crack the investigation, as she tries to fight off her growing feelings for Gabe.
“They soon realise Rocky was working on an investigation of his own; one that threatened to expose the deep corruption going all the way to the top of the police department. And that the key to the puzzle lies with a young witness to a murder that happened years earlier: Xavier Morrow.
“Just what did Rocky know? And who might have shut him up?”
I had not read any Karen Rose stories until I was fortunate to receive a proof of this gripping tale. There’s murder, deceit and fast paced happenings set in the restless and unpredictable New Orleans city scapes as well as hostile swamp waters. I remember racing through this novel and I’m pleased to say that I auto-bought the second book, Beneath Dark Waters, which is now on the book trolley to be enjoyed in the coming months. I’ll report back when I do.
I hope you’ve managed to get some reading time in this summer solstice (more for my Western hemisphere friends).
Nonetheless, until next week – happy reading.
Linger Longer With Books 
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