The Lady Grace Mysteries Book 1

 

This book is by Patricia Finney writing as the fictional author Grace Cavendish, who is the main character. It was published in 2004 and the first book I will review is "Assassin" published by Double Day. This is the first in the series of the Lady Grace Mysteries books. 

Grace Cavendish is a maid of honour at the royal court of Queen Elizabeth I. She investigates a brutal murder and her betrothed was accused. Everything suspects that he was responsible as he had the motivation, while Grace isn't convinced. She discovers a curious yellow substance believed to be poison mixed from "darkwort" herb left behind. One of her friends is behaving strangely, and there's a lot more. 

An enjoyable murder mystery with a clever young girl as a 16th century detective! It was very fun to read and written for children and teenagers. It's purely nice historic mystery with some lovely atmosphere. It has none of the ugliness and debauchery found in many historic fiction for adults. 

The edition I have is a small hardback with shiny gold letters and outlines on the red floral cover with a painting of Grace running in a darkened corridor. Besides the pretty front cover is a nice back and spine showing an oval portrait of Grace, who writes as the author in her diary. I rate this a 8/10 because I couldn't put it down.

Blood Strawberry 

Yesterday's Children

The film "Yesterday's Children" is a 2000 tv movie, directed by Marcus Cole. It was written by Jenny Cockell (author of the book of the same title and involved in the tv series "Strange But True" presented by Michael Aspel), Sarah Bird (who worked on tv series "Hawkeye") and Richard Leder (also worked at 2019 "Primal"). It stars Jane Seymour, Clancy Brown and Kyle Howard. 

An English housewife Jenny keeps having disturbing dreams of a vivid place and it's people. She becomes obsessed that it's real place and draws it, learning pieces each time she has more visions. When she puts some of the pieces of the mystery together, she believes it's an actual location found in Ireland. Jenny also comes to realise she might've been reincarnated and that her past life was the reason behind her visions, which were memories. 

This is a well made supernatural mystery. Her patient and sceptical husband doesn't believe her while her spoilt teenaged son turns understanding and helps her on her new quest of discovery. The film is pleasant, atmospheric, creepy in places, although very well made. It's based on the book "Yesterday's Children" by Jenny Cockell who had this experience. She lived as Mary Sutton in Ireland and this seemed to be either past life or a spirit of a woman reaching out through Jenny. I rate this intriguing story a 10/10 for warmth and elegance.  

My personal likes is the scenery in Ireland and finding interesting answers.

My personal dislikes is the attitude of unsupportive grumpy husband.

Blood Strawberry

Welcome 2026

 

Happy New Year! 

Everyone will be making new year resolutions and so shall we! 

The films reviewed on this blog so far has all been scary and horror genre, with some added games and books. This blog intends to review more genres and not restrict to horror or video nasties. We want to include different types of films and also tv series, books and even games, but not too much because I'm not a gamer girl really anymore. I used to play games a lot when I was younger but for the past 20 years I've been messing with puzzles, brain teasers and crosswords. 

In future Blood Strawberry will become sweeter and sicklier. This is because I'm now ancient and influenced by new things such as gardening, cooking, knitting and laughing at funny cat videos. 

Let's raise a glass of strawberry daiquiri and welcome to the new year.

Blood Strawberry     

Wildwitch

This is a 2018 fantasy adventure film, directed by Kasper Munk. The cast includes Gerda Lie Kaas, Sonja Richter and May Lifschitz. 

A girl named Clara befriends the shy class outcast Oscar, noticing that he's different. Except he is hiding something because he never wants to invite her over to his place. A mysterious cat appears in her life at the same time a sinister witch calls her. After finding out there's an owl in her room, she learns that her mother is also hiding much more from her. 

This is a very pleasant modern fairy tale with a schoolgirl and enchanting animals. There's a magic witchy theme that is going to play an important part in her life. This is a Danish production and filmed in Hungry. This is based on a six part book series of the same title by author Lene Kaaberbol, translated into English by Charlotte Barslund. I rate this enjoyable watch 10/10 because it was pretty awesome.   

My personal likes are the cute animals featured in this gorgeously made film.

My personal dislikes is the evil witch ruining everything. 

Blood Strawberry