Kate Shackleton Mysteries on Goodreads

Book Number 6 of Kate Shackleton Mystery series written by Frances Brody.
Favourite bookcover artwork © photo Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025.

For readers interested in this series and my reading record. “Gretchen is reading the Kate Shackleton Mystery Series by UK author Frances Brody for the Goodreads “Annual Crime Series Challenge 2025″ Read a Series, twelve crime novels, one a month for a year. Info: Join Aussie Lovers of Crime/Mystery/Thriller/Suspense. One crime novel a month in a crime/mystery/thriller/suspense series.”
Admin by Goodreads Moderator Phrynne, Mystery lover!
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/22983939-annual-challenge-2025—read-a-series

MY GOODREADS CRIME SERIES CHALLENGE 2025
The dates indicate the publication edition
Mystery Series Kate Shackleton by Frances Brody

JANUARY 1. Dying in the Wool (2009) Owned/Reviewed

FEBRUARY 2. A Medal For Murder (2010) Owned/Reviewed

MARCH 3. Murder in the Afternoon (2011) Owned/Reviewed

APRIL 4. A Woman Unknown (2012) Owned/Reviewed

MAY 5. Murder on a Summer Day (2013) Owned/Reviewed

JUNE 6. Death of an Avid Reader (2014) Owned/Reviewed

JULY 7. A Death in the Dales (2015) Owned/Reviewed

AUGUST 8. Death at the Seaside (2016) Owned/Reviewed

SEPTEMBER 9. Death in the Stars (2017) Owned/Reviewed

OCTOBER 10. A Snapshot of Murder (2018) Owned/Reviewed

NOVEMBER 11. The Body on the Train (2019) Owned/Reviewed

DECEMBER 12. Death and the Brewery Queen (2020) Owned and final book Reviewed on Goodreads.

My Goodreads Book Reviews here: https://www.goodreads.com/gretchenbernetward
Note: I order books from Booktopia Australia.
There is a 13th book which I will read separately at a later date: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59732421-a-mansion-for-murder
Frances Brody Goodreads Author: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3102629.Frances_Brody
Author update: Friday 25th July 2025 “A few of her books were only £2.99 on Kindle but ‘Death at the Seaside’ has been selected for a Kindle Monthly Deal in August”. I have just finished reading this book in paperback (in wintertime) and currently pay between AU$21 to AU$38 per book depending on the UK availability plus postage and handling. Also pricing changes between hardcover and paperback copies. I wanted the actual books so this is the Australian price we pay for new/real books from the other side of the world. 🥂 Cheers to mystery reading!

💗 © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

SERIES SYNOPSIS
From a hard-boiled crime reader’s point-of-view the private investigator
Kate Shackleton book series could be classified under the ‘cosy crime’ banner
but these stories contain a clear-eyed and faithful look at the 1920s.

Set in a bygone era where much has changed, our intrinsic human nature is
still the same: people committing Crime, Misdemeanour and Murder.
Kate is the individual who perseveres to solve these transgressions.
Kate’s two companions Mrs Sugden and ex-policeman Jim Sykes
add their own opinions and insights into every investigation.
The Yorkshire countryside settings feature strongly.
Also I am a fan of the retro-style bookcovers.
Kate Shackleton’s life progresses through the books as she solves
murderous crimes with her clever mind and astute manner.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/70508-kate-shackleton
https://www.goodreads.com/gretchenbernetward
https://www.hachette.com.au/frances-brody/books
This author has written other books

Four of 12 books in the Kate Shackleton Mystery series by author Frances Brody.
Photo © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

Save the World’s Oldest Children’s Bookshop

https://www.littlebookroom.com.au/

The Little Bookroom is at a turning point. You can help to give it a new home, a new chapter, and a future that honours its extraordinary past.

Melbourne’s beloved The Little Bookroom was founded by Albert Ullin OAM in 1960. The Little Bookroom was Australia’s very first bookstore dedicated solely to children’s literature.

Over time, it has become something even rarer — a living legacy to the power of books, imagination, and community. In fact, it is now the oldest children’s bookshop in the world!

For more than six decades, it has been a haven for readers young and old, a meeting place for authors and illustrators, and a cultural treasure for Australia, and the global children’s book community.

Michael Earp writes – “I’ve dedicated my life to children’s and young adult literature. I was The Little Bookroom manager from 2018–2022, and in 2021 I was awarded the Bookseller of the Year by Book People (the Australian Booksellers Association). I believe this beautiful bookshop deserves to celebrate its 65th birthday — and many more to come.”

Quote
This children’s bookstore has weathered many moves
and challenges over the years.
Most recently, the pandemic and personal circumstances.
The incredible Lambert family
who cared for The Little Bookroom for 17 years
made the decision to step away.
—Michael Earp—

You can step in, says Michael! The doors at St Georges Road have closed but this doesn’t have to be the end.

To make a bright book future happen, you and GoFundMe can help:
Link https://gofund.me/98a13b4f
Info: https://www.theurbanlist.com/melbourne/directory/little-bookroom-degraves

Secure a new home for The Little Bookroom (location to be announced soon!)
Fit out the new space with shelving, technology, and event essentials.
Ensure accessibility so all families and readers feel welcome.
Reopen with strong, diverse book stock from day one.
Host the storytimes, launches, book clubs, and school services that make The Little Bookroom a vital part of the community.

Share in the joy of knowing you’ve helped save a piece of children’s literary history! I can see children sitting reading, totally absorbed in their books.

Michael Earp continues: “As a non-binary writer and bookseller living in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, with over 23 years experience in bookselling and publishing as a Children’s Book specialist. I’ve worked with publishers like Walker Books and Affirm Press, and bookstores including Kinokuniya, Borders, The Younger Sun, and (of course) The Little Bookroom.“

Also, Michael hold a Masters in Children’s Literature and a Bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education, and is currently Chair of the Board for Q-Lit, Victoria’s Queer Literature Festival. Also the editor and contributor to Everything Under the Moon: Fairy tales in a queerer light; Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories; and Avast! Pirate Stories by Transgender Authors, co-edited by Alison Evans.

Michael passionately believes in creating spaces where every child can see themselves in the stories they read, and adds “I’m not asking for help with ongoing costs. I’m asking for a launchpad — a chance to give The Little Bookroom the future it deserves.”

If every person who has fond memories of the St Georges Rd, Fitzroy North bookstore, who believes in the importance of children’s literature or who wants to see this cultural landmark continue — if every one of you gives even a little — it can live on!

Let’s write the next chapter together.
Donate. Share. Spread the word. https://gofund.me/98a13b4f

All donations will be received by Michael Earp and used to cover costs involved with the moving and set up of The Little Bookroom in a new location so that the shop has the best chance of a long future.
I have donated. The more raised by this GoFundMe the more it will reduce the amount of money needed to borrow. Therefore, the new shop can open on a solid foundation and focus on thriving into a wonderful reading future.

Books Rule! 📚💗 Edited by Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

*So Many Books!* Artwork illustrator Tomislav Tomic https://tomislavtomic.com/

Note: No raffles, sweepstakes, giveaways, or returns on investment are offered in exchange for any donations made to this GoFundMe.
Link: https://gofund.me/98a13b4f

My Flash of Bright Light

A cold and frosty morning Brisbane Australia © image Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

My flash of bright light came from –

‘Stairway to Heaven’
Song by Led Zeppelin (1971)
Songwriters: Robert Plant and James Patrick (Jimmy) Page

A superlative song about desire, greed, power and corruption under the guise of a woman climbing the stairway to her idea of heaven.

When I first heard this song I doubt the words meant much to me but now years later I realise that the lyrics offer a way to reverse your decision when things begin to crumble.

Quote ‘Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, There’s still time to change the road you’re on…’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stairway_to_Heaven

For me today the words in this song mean not only slow down but look very hard at what is ahead. Perhaps the newest brain disease marketed under the moniker of AI, and what is happening with the aggressive war campaigns being fought overseas right now. A few years ago I would not have written a blog post like this but as I mature and pay closer attention to our environment, our safety and the repetition of evil manifesting itself yet again, possibly eyeing a global scale, I think ‘Look to the past’. Do I really want a repeat of what happened in the 20th century? Of course not.

Millions and millions of innocent people lost their lives in two wars. In the second one J. Robert Oppenheimer only lost his security clearance. Who is accountable today? Who is sitting in a laboratory or war-room right now refining the best way to destroy an entire country?

Does the victor really win? What they need to consider is that humankind is strong-willed but even the most powerful frontrunners can walk away. Surely the guys in control, those in both armed and war-torn countries, can see that for all concerned fighting to the death is absolutely pointless.

💗 © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

Holmes and Watson Live Auditions 2025

Attributed to Joseph Mallord William Turner (English 1775-1851)

Great excitement is being generated by the forthcoming stage production from Centenary Theatre Group featuring the famous crime duo Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.
Script by Jeffrey Hatcher.
Directed by Gary Kliger.
Audition time: 10am Saturday 23^rd August 2025
Place: Cnr Queenscroft and Halsbury Streets, Chelmer, Brisbane, Queensland Australia.

SYNOPSIS QUOTE:
The world is shocked! The famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis Moriarty are dead, locked in combat, both falling into the treacherous Reichenbach Falls. Holmes is dead — but is he? Dr Evan’s who runs an asylum on an island, a desolate location, has in his care three men who each claim to be the real Sherlock Holmes. Who can work out which of them is the real Holmes? Who else but Dr Watson. Surely Holmes’ best friend and confidant?

AND: That’s just the start! This is a twisty, teasing romp, designed to baffle and entertain in equal measure.
Come and be part of the theatre fun!

CAST REQUIRED:
Dr Evans – age open though probably best 30s to 50s.
Dr Watson – age open though same range suggested as for Evans.
Orderly at the asylum – age range the same.
Matron/The woman doubling up role – age open dazzle us.
Holmes 1 tall, thin, sharp featured classic Holmes.
Holmes 2 same as H1 but with long hair, moustache and beard.
Holmes 3 same as H1 but shaved head, pale face, glazed look.
The Inspector’s age is open and may double with a Holmes depending upon timing and costuming.
The Client wears a mask/doubles with Moriarty.
Moriarty age open seen in flashbacks.

STAGE NOTE:
There is fight scene choreography needed so anyone with stage combat skills come and make yourself known!
This is an escapade of the most exhilarating kind, perfect as the CTG end of year production.
They cannot wait to have you be a part of it!
So don’t forget Chelmer auditions 10am Saturday 23rd August 2025.

CONTACT:
The Director Gary Kliger on 0417 012 418
Or Julie Collins (Stage Manager) directorjules27@gmail.com
Twitter, Facebook, Website https://centenarytheatre.com.au/
Information CTG enquiry@centenarytheatre.com.au

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
Holmes & Watson audition details received from Centenary Theatre Group Inc, Queenscroft and Halsbury Streets, Chelmer, QLD 4068 Australia.
Sign up to get their opening night news direct.
https://centenarytheatre.com.au/faqs/

I will certainly book tickets when the box office opens.
💗 Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

Commissariat, Prison, Asylum? © image Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2022

Does Try Try Again Really Work?

Home baked Vanilla Cupcakes waiting for vanilla icing. Recipe ingredients are 2 3/4 cups plain flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 200g unsalted butter softened, 1 3/4 cups caster sugar, 4 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 cup milk. Preheat oven to 170C and line two muffin trays with cupcake papers.
Food by Dot Bernet © Photographs Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025
See website for Vanilla Buttercream icing:
https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/vanilla-cupcakes-L6950.html

A wonderful children’s author I have known for some time, Cate Whittle, posted on her Substack page about success and failure and trying again. A cooking failure was turned around and she will experiment further to refine her recipe.
Read here: https://catewhittle.substack.com/p/having-your-cake

Home baked Red Velvet Cupcake with White Chocolate Icing. Food by Dot Bernet © Photographs Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

My reply to Cate was prompted by a happy memory and perhaps an old lesson people could use more often. ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again.‘ Here is what I wrote on Cate’s July Substack page:

“Lovely, just what I needed to read with my cuppa! Your warming newsletter brought back some lovely memories of my daughter’s first foray into cooking. Initially, her first attempts were not that good and one particular dish was a disaster. I said ‘Oh well, let’s try it again and see what happens‘ and fortunately it worked. She is now an excellent cook and will try most recipes including exotic international dishes which are beyond me. We keep a photo file of my daughter’s greatest triumphs. Recently she told me that ‘Let’s try it again‘ day was a pivotal moment for her cooking skills.

Looking forward to another version of your tea cake, Cate!”
Follow Cate’s literary life ‘A Cuppa With Cate’
Substack https://catewhittle.substack.com/

Happy cooking (and eating!)

💗 © Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

Food choice by Dot Bernet. Mandarin from our tree. Bread home-baked © Photographs Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

‘Happy 6th WordPress Blogaversary Cake’ First attempt Battenberg Cake by Dot Bernet © image Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2023

https://thoughtsbecomewords.com/2023/09/14/review-starberries-and-kee-cate-whittle/
https://catewhittle.substack.com/p/my-books

(1) Strawberries from greengrocer (2) Side Salad by Dot Bernet © Photographs Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

A Word for New Life

Our current era has been around for 60 million years and gradually comprised every species including mammals currently living on earth today – regardless of their circumstances or how much they sleep.

What is this Cenozoic Era? A time when Earth’s flora and fauna evolved into those of the present day.

The Cenozoic ‘New Life’ era can also be named ‘Age of Mammals’. Interestingly we humans often don’t care very well for other humans or our animal mammals do we?

My theory: This could be why past civilisations and animal species died out and are still disappearing.

Killing does not make for success in the future.

My slogan: Be kind to a mammal today!

💟 © images Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

Hazel outside her treehouse with some of her adorable Aussie mammalian friends. https://www.walkerbooks.com.au/book/9781760657260/

Private Posts and Ekphrastic Writing

Every so often I do a bit of housekeeping on my blog and tidy up the way I have misused a word or left a word out or rearranged a word or… well, you get the idea, it was a cold day and I had nothing better to do. Anyhow, I found this interesting bit of info in my stats folder:

All Posts (626)
Published (617)
Drafts (2)
Private (7)

What’s that discrepancy after ‘All Posts’ and ‘Published’?
I thought I had published all my blog posts!
However, there is a nine-post limbo.

Drafts (2) is understandable, but Private (7)!
I don’t even remember them or what they could possibly contain. Am I bold enough to check? Do I really want to know? Should I just delete them and forget about it?

Ironically I did a blog post about Richard Flanagan’s book ‘Question 7‘ https://thoughtsbecomewords.com/2025/05/10/do-you-know-this-author/

Well, seeing as I am one of life’s hoarders, I am just going to ignore those mysteriously private posts and let them languish there for all eternity. Well, until I get too curious. Maybe I can use one of them next week…

Meanwhile, here is a not-so-private observation about my session at MoB (Museum of Brisbane) Ekphrastic Art Writing session at City Hall. I arrived late due to a public rally, hundreds of protesters calling for justice over the death of Aboriginal man Kuminjayi White while in custody. Fair enough. I slid open the door at MoB and joined a small group of people with pen and paper. Before undertaking the art of Ekphrasis we had visual prompts and some brief writing exercises before heading out into the beguiling gallery to find beautiful treasures old and new to write about in a lucid fashion, arty or otherwise.

Museum of Brisbane is a social history museum and art gallery in Brisbane, Queensland.
Located on Level 3, City Hall, MoB brings our city’s vibrant art, culture and history to life through exhibitions, events, workshops, tours, and MoB Kids activities.
https://www.museumofbrisbane.com.au/

Perversely, I detoured the beautiful/historic artworks, paintings and ceramics to admire the hand-printed posters for local music gigs in Brisbane in the 1970s. Destined for shop windows, brick walls and lamp posts, these raw, colourful and imaginative posters were only glanced at or pulled down, but now are surviving icons of a once vibrant and thriving local music scene. The posters fill a wall in the Museum but my eyes were lured by the Medicine Cabinet of brown, dusty bottles, peeling labels and gruesome details of the contents. Here is what I wrote in a quick attempt to understand a different side to Ekphrastic writing:

‘The Medicine Cabinet’
Pills, potions, powders and poisons. Frowning at me from the past, the names on the small yet ominous corked brown glass bottles and rusty tins with their peeling, discoloured paper labels were enough to make me shudder. Poulticine, good for pneumonia, pleurisy, tonsillitis, abscess, etc, with side effects. ‘Stomach Powder’, ‘Opium’, Bill Beans Laxatives, Alkia, Saltrates, all aimed at curing sufferers ills and chills. Surely Nitrate of Amyl Capsules would do more harm than good? Then there’s the ominous thin brown-ribbed bottle labelled ‘Thyroid/Ovarian’ treatment. I hope patients recovered regardless of the treatment but more often than not the old saying was invoked ‘Kill or cure’ with fingers crossed. There is perhaps beauty in knowing that modern medicines are more likely to save lives.

Wishing you a healthy life and insightful Ekphrasis!

Ekphrastic writing or poetry is a vivid description of a scene or work of art using active narration and reflection. Inspired by Alice in Wonderland © image Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2021

Dying Art of Limerick Writing

Illustration for Limerick No.(3) Mary Ann Steam Locomotive Maryborough Queensland Australia
© image Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2022

When did you last jot down a limerick? Perhaps at primary school, maybe a rude one at high school, a clever one at work or in a writing class? Chances are you have never heard or read a limerick (depending on your age or location) and if this is the case, you are missing out on centuries of tireless amusement.

In my opinion limericks are not classy nor really poetic, and can be risqué, but they are a fun five-lines with a specific rhyme scheme (AABBA) and a nice sing-song beat ending with a great punch line. Let me show you two examples with classic endings:
(A)
“I sat next to the Duchess at tea,
Distressed as a person could be.
Her rumblings abdominal
Were simply phenomenal –
And everyone thought it was me!” (Anonymous)
(B)
There was an old man of Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket;
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man,
And as for the bucket, Nantucket. (Anonymous)

Now I will show you four of my own attempts at limerick writing and notice the rhyming format:
(1)
There was an old lady from Wolfbane,
Day after day she had pain.
She cursed the cold weather,
And her shoes made of leather,
But really she suffered chilblain.
(2)
Brisbane city is deemed arcane,
Said to have sunshine never rain.
Such a fable the locals dictate,
To keep a high tourism rate,
And increase their monetary gain.
(3)
There was a young man from Bugbane,
Who suffered from bad stomach pain.
He ate onions on the job,
His boss said ‘you’re fired Bob’.
So he went home on the early train.
(4)
Wild wind on the beach today,
No children or dogs out to play.
I zipped up my jacket,
Trussed up like a packet,
Then my hat flew into the bay!

I think this blog post is long enough, you can learn more from limerick genius Fred Hornaday:
https://kingoflimericks.com/what-is-a-limerick/
The art of limerick writing is fun – try it.

Illustration for Limerick No.(4) Part of the headland near Byron Bay Lighthouse NSW Australia
© image Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2015

A Day For Mothers

How time flies, my first blog post was 2017 and ideas for blogging still somersault around in my head. On this calm Sunday in May 2025 it is Mother’s Day in Australia.

I am a mother and thoughts of my own dear mother and that of my aunts and women I know flash through my mind. I recall their varied roles in my life, and women who shape the lives of others in millions of families and societies around the world. It is possible to write about the wealth, poverty, injustices and generally low standing of women in most countries including Australia, but what is their true status? What is their role in the history of the universe?

In my opinion, one of the most powerful roles for women, in the world as we know it, is the eternal internal creation. While not ignoring the biodiversity of Mother Nature, without human females, women who give birth, there would be no world. There would be no evolution, there would be nothing ahead. Of course men play a role but generally stand back when events are underway.

Perhaps this creates jealousy? Why bigoted, misogynistic, cruel, political, rule-making men of our current world order put women and mothers at risk by keeping them out of sight, in second place, give them menial tasks, overlook females for promotion, make derogatory comments, portray them on television, in movies and books as the trivial second character, the support, the one answering phones, at home doing the laundry, tidying up or cooking dinner. You can add more diverse roles to the list but usually not a complete reversal although caring sharing life partners do exist.

In 1971 a childless Germaine Greer is quoted as saying:
“Bringing up children is not a real occupation,
because children come up just the same, brought up or not.”
A rather shallow look at the future, I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germaine_Greer

With or without conception, the women of Mother Earth are versatile people. Today there are strong female roles and powerful women in all walks of life who do rise above. When they do, it’s a novelty in the press, on social media, and invariably a TV chat show host asks “How do you cope with a family and work?” A man’s world not an equal world yet.

Today I shout out Thanks Mum, Happy Mothers Day because without mothers there would be no living breathing humans in the world today. Including you and me.

💓 Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2025

NOTE: My opinion piece acknowledges birth mothers, first mothers, adoption, surrogacy, LGBTQIA, IVF, child reunification. Parenting is precious. 🌼

Do You Know This Author?

Question One: Has an Australian author won the Booker Prize?
Answer: Yes.

New York Review of Books described Richard Flanagan as “among the most versatile writers in the English language.” The Guardian wrote about ‘Question 7‘ “Blending memoir and history and auto-fiction, this brilliantly unique book by the Booker winner is a treatise on the immeasurability of life.”

Question Two: Do you know this author?
Answer: Richard Miller Flanagan (born 1961) is an Australian writer who won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’ (several reviews here) and the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for ‘Question 7’ which makes him the first writer in history to win both Britain’s major fiction and non-fiction prizes.

Question Three: Have you read one or many of Flanagan’s books?

Question Four: If you have read a Flanagan novel do you call yourself a good reader or a stalwart reader?

Question Five: Do you think you are missing out on a literary experience if you have not read these books?

Question Six: Of the three books (pictured above and below) are you likely to purchase at least one?

Question Seven (wink): Do you know how many other books this Aussie author has written? Not a quiz but, hey!

Richard Flanagan has written:
1994 – 2020 Eight novels
1985 – 2023 Nine non-fiction books
1998 – Film ‘The Sound of One Hand Clapping’ (director and screenwriter)
2008 – Film ‘Australia’ (co-writer)
2008 – ‘Wanting’ a complex 19th-century tale set in Tasmania and England involving an Aboriginal girl and novelist Charles Dickens.
2024 – Baillie Gifford Prize for ‘Question 7’

Current Awards and Honours:
Too extensive to list here so please click on the Wikipedia and Penguin Books link for full details and prepare to be amazed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Flanagan
Baillie Gifford Prize:
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/question-7-9781761343483

Inspired? Keen to read something different? Challenge yourself or your book club. My reviews are on the way but meanwhile you can read Aussie WordPress blogger ‘Whispering Gums’ excellent review here.

The above questions are rhetorical.

Penguin: https://www.penguin.com.au/articles/3908-a-introductory-guide-to-australian-author-richard-flanagan
Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Flanagan