Review: The Vegemite Cookbook by Vegemite

I prefer Promite to Vegemite, there, I said it! However curiosity got the better of me and I couldn't resist checking out The Vegemite Cookbook: Favourite recipes that taste like Australia by Vegemite. I was keen to discover some new and appetising recipes for this iconic Australian spread but there wasn't much to sink my teeth into.

Vegemite is made in Port Melbourne and I enjoyed seeing how the marketing has evolved over the years, both in the advertisements and the packaging. Having said that, I don't think I'll ever be able to embrace Vegemite Squeezy. In my opinion, squeeze bottles for tomato sauce, mayonnaise, honey and golden syrup were life changers but I just can't get my head around squeezing Vegemite.

Containing only 40 recipes, the book also includes interviews with staff who work for Vegemite which was a nice touch but not terribly interesting to this reader. I found it more compelling to be reminded of the fact Vegemite was given to our soldiers in WWII due to its high nutritional value and rich vitamin B content.

The book offers recipes for - you guessed it - breakfast, lunch and tea and there were the expected recipes like Vegemite on muffins or toast with eggs. My biggest takeaway was that Vegemite can be used in stews and bolognese and while I can't imagine it, I'm going to risk it and give it a go. I certainly won't be trying the Vegemite cheesecake.

What's your favourite way to eat Vegemite?

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Carpe Librum!

Review: Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz is a modern whodunnit with a confident nod to vintage crime novels and a tipping of the hat to the golden age of detective fiction. Susan Ryeland is an editor at a publishing house tasked with editing the next whodunnit by bestselling author Alan Conway. An unpleasant man, the book begins with a short prologue from Susan's perspective before we dive straight into Conway's new manuscript.

I felt a little wrong footed in the beginning with the introduction of so many characters in the small fictional village of Saxby-on-Avon, however I needn't have worried. Conway - the author of the manuscript - kept the reader on track with helpful hints along the way. Set in the 1950s, there are a number of murders in the manuscript and when we leave Conway's work and return to Susan Ryeland, a contemporary murder takes her by complete surprise.

"You'd have thought that after twenty years editing murder mysteries I'd have noticed when I found myself in the middle of one." Page 60

Susan is a likeable character and successful editor and I enjoyed watching her step out from behind the safety of her desk and begin investigating in the role of amateur detective.

Horowitz generously gives us multiple layered murders to contemplate and solve and I really enjoyed the meta nature of the murder mystery within a murder mystery. As if this weren't enough, Susan makes mention of real world authors and books in the text which added to my enjoyment and will appeal to other self-proclaimed book lovers.

Susan reflects:

"I've always loved whodunnits. I've not just edited them. I've read them for pleasure throughout my life, gorging on them actually. You must know that feeling when it's raining outside and the heating's on and you lose yourself, utterly, in a book. You read and you read and you feel the pages slipping through your fingers until suddenly there are fewer in your right hand than there are in your left and you want to slow down but you still hurtle on towards a conclusion you can hardly bear to discover. That is the particular power of the whodunnit which has, I think, a special place within the general panoply of literary fiction because, of all characters, the detective enjoys a particular, indeed a unique relationship with the reader." Page 156

You can't help but smile at the likelihood Horowitz is sharing his own love of whodunnits here in the guise of Susan. On a meta level, he's also showing us that the detective enjoys a unique relationship with the reader - and by extension the creator of the detective - and that he cherishes it greatly.

The only part of Magpie Murders I didn't enjoy was the confusing page numbering system. The book begins with a short 3 page prologue, then 219 pages of Alan Conway's manuscript entitled Magpie Murders - An Atticus Pund Mystery. Conway's manuscript is helpfully printed in a different font (possibly Courier) and the author demarcates the transition back to the original text by changing the font again. However the page numbering picks up from the prologue beginning on page 4. Confused yet?

And THEN, on page 196 of the text, when we return to the manuscript, the numbering picks up from page 219 where the manuscript previously left off. This confusing page numbering system swaps at least once more in the book and I'm not sure it helps divide the book between manuscript and narrative. The difference in font style more than adequately distinguishes between the two writing styles and without this poor stylistic choice, this would have been a five star read for me.

Published in 2016, Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz is the first book in the Susan Ryeland series with Moonflower Murders published in 2020 and Marble Hall Murders published in 2025 to follow. Magpie Murders has since been adapted for TV and now that I've finished reading it, I'm looking forward to watching the 2022 drama series later in the year. I also have Moonflower Murders on my bookshelf thanks to a generous friend who let me borrow her copy and as soon as I've read it, I look forward to watching the 2024 TV series adaptation.

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz is highly recommended for those who enjoy a clever meta novel with a mystery within a mystery stuffed full of clues, colourful suspects and even the odd anagram.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola

In 1857, Audrey is on her way from London to the Isle of Skye to interview for the position of Assistant to a collector of folk tales. Miss Buchanan is a spinster and folklorist and rarely leaves her family home of Lanerly Hall; a dilapidated estate owned by her brother.

Some of Mr Buchanan's tenants (referred to as crofters) have been evicted, and Mazzola doesn't shy away from the effects of the Clearances in Skye around this time. The landscape is bleak and the crofters are struggling to make a living and keep food on the table, regularly relying on superstition and folklore rather than religion. Miss Buchanan recognises that local folk tales aren't being shared as freely within the community any more and the displacement of crofters from the land to make way for sheep farming means these stories are being lost.

The crofters distrust their landlord and believe there's something evil about Lanerly Hall so Audrey's job is to earn their trust and record as many stories as she can.

I enjoyed the descriptions of Lanerly Hall but when a local girl washes up dead on the beach nearby and another goes missing, the crofters believe it to be the work of faeries. Meanwhile, Audrey believes someone is responsible and we're given a number of potential suspects.

"Better to be terrified than miserable. If the reality is that people die of starvation and illness, drown themselves out of shame, or leave their impoverished homes in search of a better life, then maybe it's preferable to think that the fairies are taking people away to serve some greater purpose." Page 131

The author creates a dark and foreboding gothic atmosphere full of superstitions, myths, folklore and fairytales. In her historical note at the end of the novel, Mazzola explains the idea for this book came from the West Ham vanishings in the 1880s where a number of children and young adults disappeared from the East End of London. She also shares that the many folk tales relayed to Audrey in the book are adaptations of real folk stories which helped to ground the book firmly in 1800s Scotland.

The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola was an enjoyable historical fiction mystery and will appeal to fans of books like The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry and The Good People by Hannah Kent.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Darkroom by A.J. Hewitt

A.J. Hewitt is a former Police Forensic Photographer and Senior Photographic Officer with New Scotland Yard and in her book The Darkroom - Case Files of a Scotland Yard Forensic Photographer, she takes us through her career.

For almost a decade, Hewitt was required to photograph the scenes of workplace accidents, accidental deaths, suspicious deaths, suicides and homicides. She frequently photographed and documented the injuries of survivors of assault, attempted murder and domestic violence.

The author explains how she was able to establish a quick rapport with victims in shock, and the gruelling repetitive nature of the work she conducted. I didn't appreciate just how physical the role is, and Hewitt explains how she had to navigate the sometimes remote and challenging terrain, or operate in tiny spaces with her camera gear without compromising the crime scene.

I never really considered the value of aerial shots and Hewitt was required to produce aerial shots from a police helicopter prior to major events or police operations which provided vital information in the planning stages. It sounds like a great job until the author explains how cold it is hanging out of the window at an angle to get the perfect shot. A particular case in the book that stuck with me was the search for human remains at a rubbish tip that took multiple resources and days of hard labour before partial success. The difficulty in photographing the scene from above was made clear, as was the fact that forensic staff strived to provide as much information as they could to aid in the upcoming court case.

Hewitt spends much of the book citing different cases and scenarios, with the names changed of course. One of the well known incidents she attended was the Marchioness disaster in 1989, which I mentioned in my review of Unnatural Causes - The Life and Many Deaths of Britain's Top Forensic Pathologist by Dr Richard Shepherd. Given Hewitt also took photographs during post mortem examinations I couldn't help but wonder if she and Dr Shepherd often worked alongside each other.

Always respectful of the dead, Hewitt rages against femicide and violence against women and girls.

"Male violence against women and girls is now at epidemic proportions worldwide. Women are exhausted." Chapter 6, No Monsters, Only Men

In her career, Hewitt says she only photographed one scene where a woman had killed a man, and noted that none of her colleagues mentioned doing the same, when they would have given the rarity. Later in the book, Hewitt also laments the epidemic of male suicides.

My only quibble was the number of times the author referred to being one of the only females on site, how rare it was to be the only woman on a search team and the fact that some of the uniforms didn't fit because she was a woman. I know I'm being a little harsh here, but perhaps the fact that I was a woman in the ADF means that this isn't such a big deal to me. I wish her message had been more about why women would be great in this role and encouraging more women to consider this career path instead of continuing to point out how unique she was in her field.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Emma Spurgin Hussey and the content is quite graphic at times but it won't come as a surprise to those who pick up a book like this wanting to learn more about the role of a forensic photographer.

The Darkroom - Case Files of a Scotland Yard Forensic Photographer by A.J. Hewitt is recommended for readers of true crime and anyone considering a career in police forensic services.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

I enjoyed The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab so much that it made My Top 5 Books of 2021 so I decided to give her 2025 release Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil a try. First and foremost, this is a well written historical fiction novel with multiple female character points of view. All three characters eventually intersect in this plot spanning multiple centuries and multiple countries.

Alice is our contemporary character in 2019 and a student at a university in Boston. Feeling adrift, a one night stand changes the course of her life and sets her on a path of regret and revenge. In 1521, Maria is aged 10 years old and living with her family in a small town on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. We meet the third character Charlotte/Lottie later in the book and we pick up her backstory from 1827 in London.

This is a character driven book about these three women:

"In fairy tales, big things happen in threes. Three children. Three beds. Three roads. The third bite is poison, the third gift is great, the third door always leads home." Page 338

Now that I've set the scene and have your attention, it's time to drop a bomb... this is a sapphic vampire romance. Yep, you read that right. The paranormal romance genre rarely features in my reading schedule but I took a chance on this based on the strength of the author's writing. And I was right!

The writing in Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is beautiful. The personal challenges and internal struggles faced by all three women kept my attention and the gothic setting was sublime. As they age over decades and centuries, vampires in Schwab's world start to lose touch with the values and characteristics that made them human.

"Now and then, she wakes to find another little corner of her emptied, some aspect crumbled away in sleep. Perhaps it was a shard of insecurity. A sliver of regret. Sabine probes her mind, trying to find the nature of the absence, like a tongue searching for a missing tooth, but never does." Page 265

Schwab addresses the topic I was most interested in when reading the Anne Rice Interview with the Vampire series: what is it like to be immortal? (Don't worry, there are no sparkly vampires here). The author examines the toll it takes on all three of the characters, including the challenges they face maintaining their existence in the world without revealing their secret nature and evading the dangers that pursue them.

This statement from a male vampire to one of our characters reminded me of the relationship between Lestat and Louis:

"If you wish to stay, then you may do so as my guest, and I will be your gracious host. But you will live as I do, by a certain set of rules. There will be no skulking about in shadows, no victims stolen from the street and cast in the canal. I will show you how to savor every soul you take. How to claim space, and bend minds, how to enthrall, enchant, and masquerade. How to be the last one they think of when the bodies go missing." Pages 206-207

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is a unique genre-blending novel that defies easy categorisation and will appeal to a range of readers as a result. Straddling historical fiction, fantasy and queer romance and championing strong feminist characters, this book may appeal to you even if you don't like vampire novels. And if you believe books about vampires aren't for you, consider this:

"And here is the awful thing about belief. It is a current, like compulsion. Hard to forge when it goes against your will, but easy enough when it carries you the way you want to go." Page 401

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab is about female agency, love, power, hunger, control, rage and revenge and is highly recommended for Anne Rice fans.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★