Here’s this week’s list of new fiction titles. These are titles appearing in hardback/paperback for the first time. In some cases the ebook might already be available. All titles are based on the listings found in The Bookseller, so I’m not working from a list of all titles being published.
Just a reminder I don’t see any advance copies, my choices are based on the blurb, gut instinct and what takes my fancy at the time.
(NB This post features Affiliate links from which I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases)
Index
Historical (I tend to take this as pre 1960’s ie not in my lifetime!)
Crime, Thriller & Mystery
Curtain Call at the Seaview Hotel by Glenda Young
In the charming Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough, the stage is set for murder . . .
Helen Dexter has started a new chapter in her life as sole proprietor of the Seaview Hotel.
But things take a dramatic turn when an acting troupe book into the hotel to rehearse a play they hope will save a much-loved theatre from being closed down. Helen immediately picks up on tension between the actors, but there is worse to come when the charismatic leading lady is found dead.
With so much at stake, it’s clear the show must go on. Helen is roped into helping the troupe with their performance, giving her ample opportunity to discover who wanted their diva dead.
However, the murder is not the only thing on Helen’s mind. She’s receiving threatening phone calls, her car is vandalised – and she’s just learned of an impending visit from a hotel inspector which could change the fortunes of the Seaview Hotel.
With her trusty greyhound Suki by her side, Helen is determined to uncover the identity of the killer – even if it means she has to give the performance of her life.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
It’s every parent’s nightmare.
Your happy, funny, innocent son commits a terrible crime: murdering a complete stranger.
You don’t know who. You don’t know why. You only know your teenage boy is in custody and his future lost.
That night you fall asleep in despair. Until you wake . . .
. . . and it is yesterday.
Every morning you wake up a day earlier, another day before the murder. Another chance to stop it.
Somewhere in the past lie the answers, and you don’t have a choice but to find them . . .
The Game by Scott Kershaw
Across the globe, five strangers receive a horrifying message from an unknown number.
THE PERSON YOU LOVE MOST IS IN DANGER.
To save them, each must play The Game – a sinister unknown entity that has a single rule: there can only be one winner.
IF YOU LOSE, YOUR LOVED ONE WILL DIE.
But what is The Game – and why have they been chosen?
There’s only one thing each of them knows for sure: they’ll do anything to win…
WELCOME TO THE GAME. YOU’VE JUST STARTED PLAYING.
Little Nothings by Julie Mayhew
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Liv Travers never knew real friendship until she met fellow mums Beth and Binnie. The three women become inseparable as they muddle through early parenthood together.
Then along comes Ange… Ambitious, wealthy and somehow able to do it all.
Under Ange’s guiding presence, the group finds new vigour and fresh aspirations – bigger houses, better schools, dinners at exclusive restaurants. But Liv can’t keep up and is increasingly edged out.
When the four families take a three-week trip to a luxurious holiday resort, Liv seizes the opportunity to reclaim her place at the heart of the group, only to discover the true, devastating cost of a friendship with Ange.
The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan
No one is innocent in this story.
First Rule: Make them like you.
Second Rule: Make them need you.
Third Rule: Make them pay.
They think I’m a young, idealistic law student, that I’m passionate about reforming a corrupt and brutal system.
They think I’m working hard to impress them.
They think I’m here to save an innocent man on death row.
They’re wrong. I’m going to bury him.
The Fallout by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
A murdered woman. A missing child. And a father intent on revenge.
On a cold day in Reykjavik, a baby goes missing from her pram. When the child’s blanket washes up on the beach, and the mother is found dead, everyone’s worst fears seem to have been realised.
Eleven years later, and detective Huldar and child psychologist Freyja are now working in the same police building, on the same team. Freyja believes that personal and professional relationships must remain separate, however hard that may be. But when a woman’s dismembered body is found in a deserted car, her head missing, and Freyja and Huldar find themselves working on the same case, the secrecy around their affair threatens to crack. And when Freyja is accused of a serious breach of police protocol, will Huldar be able to help her? Meanwhile, their search to identify the body takes the case back into secrets of the past, and the unspoken crimes that bind three separate families.
The Last to Disappear by Jo Spain
A luxury resort. Three missing women. One body.
When young London professional Alex Evans is informed that his sister’s body has been pulled from an icy lake in Northern Lapland, he assumes his irresponsible sister accidentally drowned. He travels to the wealthy winter resort where Vicky worked as a tour-guide and meets Agatha Koskinen, the detective in charge. Agatha is a no-nonsense single mother of three who already thinks there’s more to Vicky’s case than meets the eye.
As the two form an unlikely alliance, Alex also begins to suspect the small town where his sister lived and died is harbouring secrets. It’s not long before he learns that three other women have gone missing from the area in the past and that his sister may have left him a message.
On the surface, Koppe, Lapland is a winter wonderland. But in this remote, frozen place, death seems only ever a heartbeat away.
Cold Reckoning by Russ Thomas
THE DARKNESS FROM HIS PAST WILL FINALLY COME TO LIGHT
For sixteen years, DS Adam Tyler has been searching for answers to his father, Richard’s, death. Convinced it wasn’t suicide, he has been investigating the case in secret.
When a body is found in a frozen lake, linked to a cold case from 2002, it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the death of his father – except Tyler knows Richard was investigating the same case shortly before he died. And Tyler doesn’t believe in coincidences.
As he throws himself into finding out what really happened that day, Tyler uncovers a string of botched investigations, mysterious disappearances and, ultimately, deep-seated police corruption. There are dangerous people who don’t want Tyler asking questions – and the truth always comes at a price.
This time, it could cost him everything.
Lie to Me by C J Cooper
Natalie recognises the man in the supermarket queue.
He was accused of a horrific crime. She sat on the jury that let him walk free.
The trouble is, she thinks he lied. She thinks he’s a guilty man.
And now, weeks later, here he is . . . in her neighbourhood.
Should she walk away and forget her suspicions?
Or should she follow him? Strike up a conversation?
Invite him into her home?
Into her bed?
HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO FIND THE TRUTH?
The Mother’s Secret by Kathryn Croft
A dream come true, a nightmare that is just beginning
Eve wanted nothing more than to be a mother. She and her husband, Aiden, planned to have a family, but with each devastating miscarriage her hopes dwindled. When she eventually gave birth to her daughter, Kayla, it should have been the happiest time of her life. Instead, it was a waking nightmare for Eve, and one she was desperate to escape.
Now, Eve has left all that behind. She pretends that she never had a child, and keeps her secrets close. But someone knows the truth. They know that Eve told a lie, and the clock is ticking before her shocking decision is revealed. Once the story comes out, there’ll be no way out for Eve. If people learn about the crime she covered up, they’ll never look at her the same way again. She must get her little girl back, before it’s too late. If she can’t, running away won’t be an option. This time, Eve will face the consequences, and pay the price she should have paid years ago…
The Dark Isle by Simon McCleave
Will there be blood in the water?
Three years ago, DCI Laura Hart was the top Hostage and Crisis Negotiator for the Greater Manchester Police. Then her husband was kidnapped. Despite her best efforts to reason with the criminals, he was brutally murdered.
Now living on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, Laura is slowly healing. Then she gets a call: armed drug dealers have seized a tourist boat – and her ten-year-old son Jake is on board. There’s no other negotiator available, and the police need her to step up.
With the life of a loved one yet again on the line and memories of the last time she failed still searingly fresh, Laura is living her worst nightmare. Can she lay to rest the ghosts of her past in time to save her son?
The Killing Song by Lesley McEvoy
On a busy train station platform, a man pulls a knife and viciously attacks another passenger before fleeing – apparently unaware of what he has just done.
To the police, it looks like a terrorist attack. But Forensic Psychologist Dr. Jo McCready has seen this bizarre behaviour before, in controversial psychological experiments. She knows this is no random killing spree.
When a botched cold case resurfaces, and the mistress of a controversial billionaire philanthropist is found dead, Jo discovers all these crimes are tangled up in the same web of deadly local secrets. Secrets that some will kill to protect . . .
The Safe House by Louise Mumford
She told you the house would keep you safe. She lied.
Esther is safe in the house. For sixteen years, she and her mother have lived off the grid, protected from the dangers of the outside world. For sixteen years, Esther has never seen another single soul.
Until today.
Today there’s a man outside the house. A man who knows Esther’s name, and who proves that her mother’s claims about the outside world are false. A man who is telling Esther that she’s been living a lie.
Is her mother keeping Esther safe – or keeping her prisoner?
The Burning Question by Linda Regan
When an arson attack strikes in south London, leaving three people dead, it quickly becomes clear that the youngest victim, Danielle Low, was the intended target.
With no clear motive, and the killer at large, DCI Banham must act fast. But working with his partner, DI Alison Grainger, has its own challenges that threaten to stall the investigation. Then another body is found in similar circumstances and he knows that there is someone far more sinister at work.
As they begin to unravel a dark web of secrets, the case unexpectedly leads close to home and with time of the essence, and the killer always one step ahead, can DCI Banham and his team work together to put a stop to the depravity before another life is lost?
General/Contemporary Fiction
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser that has felt too true for the last decade, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart. Until the day she gets a call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek. For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family restaurant and curling up together with books – medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her – Percy and Sam had been inseparable. And slowly that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart. When Percy returns to the lake to attend Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. Percy must confront the decisions she’s made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, in order to determine, once and for all, whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past. Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.
This Time Tomorrow by Charlotte Butterfield
Jessica Bay has it all – and it’s all too much. Between moody teenagers, a hectic job and a husband who can recall that the last time they slept together was 632 days ago but somehow can’t remember to put the bins out, Jess is close to breaking point.
Desperate for change, she moves the family to a tiny island in the English Channel. An island that has a secret: it can take you back in time to relive any day in your past. To have another go at doing it right.
But as Jess becomes dizzy with the fact that she can, she forgets to consider if she should. Because changing even one moment in your past will change your whole future in unknowable ways. How much of her supposedly imperfect life is Jess willing to gamble? And will she realise the risks before she loses everything?
The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers
England, 1989. Over the course of a burning hot summer, two very different men – traumatized Falklands veteran Calvert, and affable, chaotic Redbone – set out nightly in a clapped-out camper van to undertake an extraordinary project.
Under cover of darkness, the two men traverse the fields of rural England in secret, forming crop circles in elaborate and mysterious patterns. As the summer wears on, and their designs grow ever more ambitious, the two men find that their work has become a cult international sensation – and that an unlikely and beautiful friendship has taken root as the wheat ripens from green to gold.
Moving and exhilarating, tender and slyly witty, The Perfect Golden Circle is a captivating novel about the futility of war, the destruction of the English countryside, class inequality – and the power of beauty to heal trauma and fight power.
Sunken City by Marta Barone
Newly-bereaved, bookish and lonely in Turin, a young woman sets out to chronicle her father’s secret lives – and her struggle to accept his loss. She is startled to discover that the gentle, mercurial doctor was sentenced to jail in 1986 for membership of an armed band. Her father, L.B., lived through the Years of Lead, a time of unrest when extreme factions of left and right took hostages, set bombs and murdered their countrymen.
Unable to move on before she can understand her family’s past, she goes in search of him – and ultimately of herself too – the only way she knows how, by reading everything she can … Through her search for the truth, a very different picture starts to emerge.
Wild Fires by Sophie Jai
Grief is like an inside joke: you have to have been there to really get it.
The only things Cassandra knows about her family are the stories she’s heard in snatches over the years: about the aunt and cousin she never got to meet, about the man from the folded-up photograph in one of her aunt’s drawers, and of course about her cousin Chevy, and why he never speaks – but no one utters a word about them any more.
When a call from one of her sisters brings Cassandra news of Chevy’s death, she has to return home for the funeral. To Toronto and the big house on Florence Street, where her sisters are hiding more than themselves in their rooms, where the tension brewing between her mother and aunts has been decades in the making, and where sooner or later every secret, unspoken word and painful memory will find its way out into the open.
Think of Me by Frances Liardet
When I open my eyes I see a small dark shape at the end of the pew under the window. A piece of cloth, a handkerchief perhaps? No, a woman’s headscarf.
The blue is bright, Mediterranean.
I can’t for the life of me remember seeing it before. But all the same it seems familiar. More than familiar. As if I’ve held it in my hands before. As if it’s been next to Yvette’s skin.
James Acton has come to the village of Upton to begin again. As his grief over the death of his wife eases, he hopes to find new purpose as the vicar of this small, Hampshire parish, still emerging from the long shadow of the war.
James’s own war was in the Western Desert, where he fell in love, first with the thrill of being a hurricane pilot and then with Yvette Haddad, the captivating, enigmatic young Alexandrian with a penchant for dangerous driving.
The past has a way of clinging on to us, and even as James embarks on new beginnings, finding friends – and even love – among the people of Upton, the secrets he has held on to so tightly for years threaten to break loose. But Yvette had secrets too, and as James follows a trail that leads him back through the landscape of their marriage, what he discovers about both of them will change everything …
Thrown by Sara Cox
Becky: a single mum who prides herself on her independence. She knows from painful experience that men are trouble.
Louise: a loving husband, gorgeous kids. She ought to feel more grateful.
Jameela: all she’s ever done is work hard, and try her best. Why won’t life give her the one thing she really wants?
Sheila: the nest is empty, she dreams of escaping to the sun, but her husband seems so distracted.
The inhabitants of the Inventor’s Housing Estate keep themselves to themselves. There are the friendly ‘Hellos’ when commutes coincide and the odd cheeky eye roll when the wine bottles clank in number 7’s wheelie bin, but it’s not exactly Ramsay Street.
The dilapidated community centre is no longer the beating heart of the estate that Becky remembers from her childhood. So the new pottery class she’s helped set up feels like a fresh start. And not just for her.
The assorted neighbours come together to try out a new skill, under the watchful eye of their charismatic teacher, Sasha. And as the soft unremarkable lumps of clay are hesitantly, lovingly moulded into delicate vases and majestic pots, so too are the lives of four women. Concealed passions and heartaches are uncovered, relationships shattered and formed, and the possibility for transformation is revealed.
Fish Tale by Matthew Yorke
When a painting of a beautiful woman disappears from a wall at Balmoral Castle, the consequences are far-reaching: a tragic death, a search for truth and motive, a fraught reconciliation between father and son. Who is responsible? The rare and elusive fish that inhabit the river? Or is the toss of the King’s coin the ultimate arbiter? In this lyrical tale that moves between the royal residences, the Amazon rainforest and the meeting rooms of Gamblers Anonymous, the concept of chance – random events and their impact on our lives – is explored through a series of related happenings, with very unexpected results.
One Italian Summer by Catherine Mangan
When Lily’s long-term relationship ends, she flees her life in New York to travel to her best friend’s wedding on the sun-drenched Italian island of Ischia – but could there be more to the secluded island than she ever imagined?
Ten days with nothing but sparkling seas, breath-taking beaches and delicious food sounds like the perfect cure for a broken heart. And Lily can hardly believe she’d never heard of Ischia before now. But Lily’s blissful break is short-lived as she discovers not only has she lost her boyfriend, she’s also lost her job.
As Lily searches for inspiration, she connects with local Matt, who shows her the magic the beautiful Italian island has to offer, and quickly inspiration strikes: Ischia needs more tourists and Lily knows just how to help.
As Ischia slowly heals Lily’s heart, will she in turn inject new life into the island? And will local Matt offer the possibility of a future she’d never dreamed of?
An Escape to Provence by Sophie Claire
Where there’s a will, can love find a way?
When cynical divorce lawyer Daisy Jackson unexpectedly inherits a ramshackle farmhouse in Provence, she sets off for the French countryside to oversee renovations herself.
But Gabriel Laforet has other ideas. A local builder with ties to the property, Gabriel is determined to see Daisy off and preserve the characterful, charming farmhouse – which, but for a missing will, he knows is rightfully his.
When the two meet, it’s clear they couldn’t be more different: Gabriel has lived in the small country village all his life; Daisy is a city girl whose career means everything. He is laid-back and messy; she is used to being in control. As they begin to work together, sparks fly. Yet they’re inexplicably drawn to each other and, in the heat of the Provence sun, secrets begin to spill. Perhaps Daisy can trust him with her carefully guarded heart after all?
But Gabriel is still searching for the missing will that proves the farmhouse belongs to him – and in doing so, risks upturning everything he and Daisy have started to build together . . .
The Long Road from Kandahar by Sara MacDonald
The hand of friendship can span a thousand miles…
Pakistan
Among the almond orchards of the Swat Valley, Zamir tends goats with his son, Raza. He must make a heartbreaking decision if he is to protect his youngest child from the Taliban.
Afghanistan
On a military base in Lashkar Gah, Ben lives on edge, wondering if his family will be the next to receive life-changing news from the front line.
Cornwall
And in a ramshackle house on the Cornish coast, Ben’s mother Delphi, an artist, offers a refuge to her grandson Finn, as he retreats from the changes he senses in his family.
When Raza and Finn, two boys from impossibly different worlds, meet, they are united by their loneliness. But will their unexpected bond be enough to save not just each other, but also their families, just as all their lives are about to change forever?
A Stitch in Time in Applewell by Lilac Mills
It’s not just hems that are frayed in Applewell…
Gracie rescues old clothes and cast offs from Applewell’s charity shop, making them into cute and fresh outfits, which she then sells in her little shop. Turning a profit is hard at the best of times, let alone when new arrival Lucas appears…
After running away from the village in his teens, Lucas has finally returned to an uncomfortable amount of fanfare and gossip. His job requires him to streamline homeless charity, UnderCover, and his plans to do so risk putting Gracie out of business.
The pair of them exchange harsh words but when Lucas’ niece cuts up his sister’s wedding dress, there’s only one person he can think to turn to. Along with repairing the dress, will Gracie patch up her relationship with Lucas? Or is that a stitch too far?
Summer at the French Café by Sue Moorcroft
As soon as Kat Jenson set foot in the idyllic French village of Kirchhoffen, she knew she’d found her home. Now she has a dreamy boyfriend, a delightful dog and the perfect job managing a bustling book café in the vibrant Parc Lemmel.
But when she learns her boyfriend isn’t all he seems, it’s the start of a difficult summer for Kat. Vindictive troublemakers, work woes and family heartache follow, and the clear blue sky that was her life suddenly seems full of clouds.
Then she gets to know the mysterious Noah, and her sun begins to shine brighter than ever. But Noah has problems of his own – ones that could scupper their new-found happiness. Together, can they overcome their many obstacles, and find love again?
The Spanish Garden by Cherry Radford
Andie finds herself in the midst of a media scandal that threatens to end her career as a TV landscape designer and her relationship with fellow presenter Johnny.
On impulse, she decides to rent her grandmother’s old home in southern Spain where she stayed as a child, but is shocked to discover that the beautiful Mediterranean garden she loved is now neglected and overgrown. Worse, her booking has fallen through and ex-flamenco dancer Vicente and his little son Rafi are staying at Casa Higuera – where Vicente’s wife died in an unexplained accident.
After a rocky first meeting, Andie offers to restore the garden, and gradually she and Vicente form a tentative bond.
As the garden heals and reveals its secrets, can anything grow between two people who have lost so much?
The Summer Fair by Heidi Swain
Beth loves her job working in a care home, looking after its elderly residents, but she doesn’t love the cramped and dirty house-share she currently lives in. So, when she gets the opportunity to move to Nightingale Square, sharing a house with the lovely Eli, she jumps at the chance.
The community at Nightingale Square welcomes Beth with open arms, and when she needs help to organise a fundraiser for the care home they rally round. Then she discovers The Arches, a local creative arts centre, has closed and the venture to replace it needs their help too – but this opens old wounds and past secrets for Beth.
Music was always an important part of her life, but now she has closed the door on all that. Will her friends at the care home and the people of Nightingale Square help her find a way to learn to love it once more…?
The Way from Here Jane Turner
The start of something new…
When Kate is faced with an ’empty nest’ when her youngest daughter, Ella, leaves for university, she starts to wonder: what comes next?
Decades after abandoning her university hobby, Kate nervously joins a local ladies rowing team and is surprised to find how much she enjoys it!
More than anything, though, Kate finds that the team of strong women bring new adventures and unlikely friendships she hadn’t even realised were missing from her life…
Historical
A Ladies Guide to Fortune-Hunting by by Sophie Irwin
The season is about to begin – and there’s not a minute to lose…
Kitty Talbot needs a fortune.
Or rather, she needs a husband who has a fortune. This is 1818 after all, and only men have the privilege of seeking their own riches.
With just twelve weeks until Kitty and her sisters are made homeless, launching herself into London society is the only avenue open to her. And Kitty must use every ounce of cunning and ingenuity she possesses to climb the ranks.
The only one to see through her plans is the worldly Lord Radcliffe and he is determined to thwart her at any cost.
Can Kitty secure a fortune and save her sisters from poverty? There is not a day to lose and no one – not even a lord – will stand in her way…
The Midnight House by Amanda Gears
My Dearest T, Whatever you hear, do not believe it for a moment…
1940: In south-west Ireland, the young and beautiful Lady Charlotte Rathmore is pronounced dead after she mysteriously disappears by the lake of Blackwater Hall. In London, on the brink of the Blitz, Nancy Rathmore is grieving Charlotte’s death when a letter arrives containing a secret that she is sworn to keep – one that will change her life for ever.
2019: Decades later, Ellie Fitzgerald is forced to leave Dublin disgraced and heartbroken. Abandoning journalism, she returns to rural Kerry to weather out the storm. But, when she discovers a faded letter, tucked inside the pages of an old book, she finds herself drawn in by a long-buried secret. And as Ellie begins to unravel the mystery, it becomes clear that the letter might hold the key to more than just Charlotte’s disappearance.
The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Strasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without pause or rest, and as she is joined by hundreds of others, the authorities declare an emergency. Musicians will be brought in to play the Devil out of these women.
Just beyond the city’s limits, pregnant Lisbet lives with her mother-in-law and husband, tending the bees that are their livelihood. And then, as the dancing plague gathers momentum, Lisbet’s sister-in-law Nethe returns from seven years’ penance in the mountains for a crime no one will name.
It is a secret that Lisbet is determined to uncover. As the city buckles under the beat of a thousand feet, she finds herself thrust into a dangerous web of deceit and clandestine passion, but she is dancing to a dangerous tune . . .
Set in an era of superstition, hysteria, and extraordinary change, and inspired by the true events of a doomed summer, The Dance Tree is an impassioned story of family secrets, forbidden love, and women pushed to the edge.
One Moonlit Night by Rachel Hore
Accept it, he is dead.
No, it’s not true.
It is. Everyone thinks so except you.
Forced to leave their family home in London after it is bombed, Maddie and her two young daughters take refuge at Knyghton, the beautiful country house in Norfolk where Maddie’s husband Philip spent the summers of his childhood.
But Philip is gone, believed to have been killed in action in northern France. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Maddie refuses to give up hope that she and Philip will some day be reunited.
Arriving at Knyghton, Maddie feels closer to her missing husband, but she soon realises that there’s a reason Philip has never spoken to her about his past. Something happened at Knyghton one summer years before. Something that involved Philip, his cousin Lyle and a mysterious young woman named Flora.
Maddie’s curiosity turns to desperation as she tries to discover the truth, but no one will speak about what happened all those years ago, and no one will reassure her that Philip will ever return to Knyghton.
That Green Eyed Girl by Julie Owen Moylan
1955: In an apartment on the Lower East Side, school teachers Dovie and Gillian live as lodgers. Dancing behind closed curtains, mixing cocktails for two, they guard their private lives fiercely. Until someone guesses the truth . . .
1975: Twenty years later in the same apartment, Ava Winters is keeping her own secret. Her mother has become erratic, haunted by something Ava doesn’t understand – until one sweltering July morning, she disappears.
Soon after her mother’s departure, Ava receives a parcel. Addressed simply to ‘Apartment 3B’, it contains a photo of a woman with the word ‘LIAR’ scrawled across it. Ava does not know what it means or who sent it. But if she can find out then perhaps she’ll discover the answers she is seeking – and meet the woman at the heart of it all . . .
Elizabeth of York, the Last White Rose by Alison Weir
AN ENGLISH PRINCESS, BORN INTO A WAR BETWEEN TWO FAMILIES.
Eldest daughter of the royal House of York, Elizabeth dreams of a crown to call her own. But when her beloved father, King Edward, dies suddenly, her destiny is rewritten.
Her family’s enemies close in. Two young princes are murdered in the Tower. Then her uncle seizes power – and vows to make Elizabeth his queen.
But another claimant seeks the throne, the upstart son of the rival royal House of Lancaster. Marriage to this Henry Tudor would unite the white rose of York and the red of Lancaster – and change everything.
A great new age awaits. Now Elizabeth must choose her allies – and husband – wisely, and fight for her right to rule.
The Woman with the Map by Jan Casey
February 1941
The world is at war and Joyce Cooper is doing her bit for the war effort. A proud member of the Civil Defence, it is her job to assist the people of Notting Hill when the bombs begin to fall. But as the Blitz takes hold of London, Joyce is called upon to plot the devastation that follows in its wake. Night after night she must stand before her map and mark the trail of loss and suffering inflicted upon the homes, families and businesses she knows so well.
February 1974
Decades later from her basement flat Joyce watches the world go by above her head. This is her haven; the home she has created for herself having had so much taken from her in the war. But now the council is tearing down her block of flats and she’s being forced to move. Could this chance to start over allow Joyce to let go of the past and step back into her life?
So that’s all for this week.
Happy Reading!
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