The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

Anne and Marco have been invited to a dinner party next door with Cynthia and Graham.  They have been told not to bring the baby.  At the last minute the baby-sitter cancels.  After an argument about not going to the party, Marco and Anne agree that as they are only next door they will take the baby monitor and check on Cora every half an hour.  Cora is fine at 12.30.  

When they get home just after 1am the front door is slightly ajar.  They rush upstairs to Cora's bedroom to find her cot empty.  The police are called and a search for Cora begins.  The first people under suspicion are the parents.  Anne has post-natal depression - has she accidentally killed her baby and they are covering it up?  Marco's business is in trouble - has he staged a kidnapping to get money from his in-laws?  

This is a great story which keeps shifting the suspicion from one person to the next and then back again until we finally find out what really happened on that night.  

From Paella to Porridge by Peter Kerr

This is the fifth and final book in the series about Peter and his family relocating to Mallorca. 

In this book they fail to find a larger fruit farm in Mallorca and so decide to sell Ca’s Mayoral and return to Scotland.  Their next venture is to be deer farming.  To do this they need to find and buy the right sized piece of land.  During the time they have been away in Mallorca the cost of land and buildings in Scotland has increased and they struggle to find the right land at the right price.  

To make ends meet whilst continuing the land search, and to avoid losing their capital money in rental costs, they buy an old house in need of repair and undertake the renovations themselves.  This proves to be a bigger undertaking than they has expected.  

I have enjoyed reading this series, but did find that this last book contained a lot more about Scottish history than I would have expected. 

My 2018 Book Reading Statistics

From 1 January to 31 December 2018 I have read 39 books.  

The shortest book was The Text by Claire Douglas which was a short story with only 40 pages (a Kindle book). 

The longest book was Stand By Me by Sheila O'Flanagan which had 590 pages. 

I have read a total of 13,827 pages over the year which is only just slightly more than I read in 2017. 

Today I will begin my first book of 2019! 

A Basketful of Snowflakes by Peter Kerr

This is the fourth travel biography book by Peter Kerr telling the story of him and his family setting up a new home on a fruit farm in Mallorca. 

During this book progress is made on adapting the old work/store room into a family games room and a swimming pool is dug out in the garden.  They are trying to make the place more comfortable for themselves and to add value to the property.