Month: Sep 2025

Posted in Publisher Proof

The Scene of the Crime by Lynda La Plante 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Jane Tennison was one of my tv heroines growing up. I was asked on my first ever counselling course to write down three characters who I admired and why – so I choose Linda from Press Gang (Julia Sawhala), Dana Sculley (Gillian Anderson) and Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren). They are characters and actresses I still admire today. I think it was their resolve, their competence and passion for their work and their intelligence. I wanted to have that belief in who I was and what I wanted to do. Jessica Russell is another strong character for the author, although outwardly she feels a little softer than La Plante’s other heroines. However, she has great confidence in her abilities and intellect as a forensic psychologist and head of the Met’s new MSCAN team. Jess, Diane and Taff have a lot of experience in working together and are hired to create this fast-track forensic team reserved for the most serious of the MET’s cases and they have to hit the ground running. A wine dealer has experienced a home invasion while he was sleeping upstairs. Johan de Clerk is a young South African man who has settled in London after marrying his wife Michelle and started a branch of his family’s wine company that supples their products direct to restaurants across the capital. The intruder disturbed him and when he came down to confront him there was a fight and the intruder fled, leaving Johan with serious stab wounds and a head injury. His sixty-thousand pound Rolex watch was taken along with money from a safe. While Johan fights for his life in hospital, Jess and her team make a start forensically examining the scene. This means working alongside DCI ?? Who seems almost personally affronted by the MSCAN team and is very brusque in his manner. Luckily they have his deputy DS Dave ?? Who seems very happy to work with the team and gels straight away. This is the case that will define whether the cost of their department is worth it’s while and whether Jess’s much talked about abilities are up to scratch. DCI Woods was on the interviewing panel for her job and didn’t want to appoint her, but was outvoted. This case is not going to be as straightforward as it seems because once you’ve thrown in a mystery late night visitor drinking in the cinema room, a furious and forensically aware spouse and Jess’s own personal link to the case there are a lot of variables. Oh, and the team have a leak too. Will Jess manage to bring this offender to justice?

I always look forward to a new Lynda La Plante character and Jess is going to be an interesting woman to get to know. She’s whip smart and confident when it comes to her job but rather more hesitant when it comes to her private life. She’s currently living with brother in their mother’s bungalow, an arrangement that works because although they’re quite different, they do understand one another. They have an interesting dynamic, having recently lost their mother they’re both grieving and Jess’s response to trauma is trying to control other parts of her life, such as her home environment. Chris has to intervene over the matter of hoovering first thing in the morning before work, when he’s trying to stay asleep. She’s wiping down surfaces as soon as something has touched them and insists on rinsing everything before it is stacked in the dishwasher, something Chris is more than happy to leave to the dishwasher. Although it’s possibly this need for correct procedure that makes her so good at her job and this one is creating more anxiety than most since it is the team’s first, but also because Jess is going to meet someone she hoped never to see again. Despite her rather fragile pre-raphaelite exterior (I see Kelly Reilly here) Jess has a core of steel and a willingness to place herself in very uncomfortable situations if it’s going to get the right result. This is especially important when she has an SIO who lacks experience, Woods was fast-tracked as a graduate and quickly promoted, but has no experience in uniform or with the minutiae of forensics, he relies very heavily on his deputy Dave who does most of the liaising with MSCAN. On Dave’s part that might have a lot more to do with Jess than his work ethic. Jess is loyal to her team, even to Guy who she doesn’t know well yet. She doesn’t hover over what they’re doing, she simply trusts them to do their jobs well and report in. Her mix of skills from the psychology of human behaviour to managing a crime scene are formidable. I think, if I’d been Dave I’d have been a little bit in awe of her. 

I found the case fascinating, solving only a small part of it before the end. I felt sure there was more to this married couple than met the eye. Nobody is known as ‘that bitch Belsham’ without a reason and I wondered if the victim’s wife’s reputation was built on more than her court appearances as a KC. She will certainly know criminal law as well as, if not better than, the police. She would be a formidable rival to them in court, although she can’t represent her husband, they would certainly talk about the best strategy together. This suspect can’t stop talking though, even overriding his solicitor’s advice. Even worse he’s known to a member of the team. Yet listening to his evidence they wonder whether this man could ever have been the dark shadow that invaded their nights and left them changed. Although he’s clearly been involved in criminal behaviour could he really have planned and executed that break in or overpowered a huge man like Johan de Clerk?                                                                                                                         

It was clever that the case kept moving in two different directions, drip feeding us a little about the investigation into their suspect and following the forensic evidence, but also investigating Johan de Clerk and even his family back in South Africa along with their wine business. The pacing is pitch perfect, just enough revelations to keep you reading but not so much that you’re running ahead of the team. Then there are the sections where there would be a CSI type montage of scientific testing and nerdy types delving into the devices like phones and tablets. It showed that every breakthrough in a case must be backed up by evidence – can they prove someone was where they claim to be? Can they prove a suspect’s alibi? Can they prove a connection between subjects? Everything has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt. I must admit there were places where I found the evidence overwhelming to keep track of and even though the characters are constantly in touch by phone I couldn’t imagine how they keep hold of all this information in their heads! Taff and Diane have bags and bags of things to test for DNA, Guy must have an inbox a mile deep because he is finding evidence to lock down the case against a suspect and also having the follow up theories and hunches the team might have. I had to let go sometimes and accept that I wasn’t going to understand or lock down every detail, just as long as it sounded plausible. I was reading a book, not running a forensic unit – a job I was more than happy to leave for Jessica. I was surprised by how much Jess actually did in terms of investigating and I could understand that she and DS Dave were coming a bit close to having the investigation blow up in their face. She questions people alongside Dave and offers profiling insights during interviews. I wasn’t sure whether the manager of a forensic team would be so involved with that side of a case, but I have the same criticism of Silent Witness and it’s still entertaining regardless and this is too. 

I think the author has achieved her goal of setting up a new series and a central character with a lot more to give. We’ve spent a lot of time with Jess, there was a fascinating case to get lost in and there are also clear hints where this might go next. There were whispers of a possible course with the FBI in Quantico for Jess, some hints of potential romance and I was sure there was a lot more to Guy who’s had a fascinating working life before MSCAN. There were also interesting aspects of her personal life I’d love to explore more such as Jess and her brother’s family background. Her brother is diagnosed with a life limiting disease that will affect them all in future books. We don’t learn much about Taff and Diane’s lives yet. All of which shows there is definitely room to grow here, which isn’t surprising given the author’s track record at plotting a series. I can see this being an addictive reading experience and I look forward to seeing where this series goes next. 

Meet the Author

Lynda La Plante was born in Liverpool. She trained for the stage at RADA and worked with the National Theatre and RDC before becoming a television actress. She then turned to writing – and made her breakthrough with the phenomenally successful TV series WIDOWS.

Her novels have all been international bestsellers. Her original script for the much-acclaimed PRIME SUSPECT won awards from BAFTA, Emmys, British Broadcasting and Royal Television Society as well as the 1993 Edgar Allan Poe Writer’s Award. 

Since 1993 Lynda has spearheaded La Plante Productions. In that time the company has produced a stunning slate of innovative dramas with proven success and enduring international appeal. 

Based on Lynda’s best selling series of Anna Travis novels, Above Suspicion, Silent Scream, Deadly Intent and Silent Scream have all adapted into TV scripts and received impressive viewing figures.

Lynda has been made honorary fellow of the British Film Institute and was awarded the BAFTA Dennis Potter Writer’s Award 2000.

On 14th June 2008 Lynda was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List (Writer and Producer for services to Literature, Drama and to Charity).

On 3rd October 2009, Lynda was honoured at the Cologne Conference International Film and Television Festival with the prestigious TV Spielfilm Award for her television adaptation of her novel, Above Suspicion.

Books penned by Lynda La Plante include: The Legacy, The Talisman, Bella Mafia, Entwined, Cold Shoulder, Cold Blood, Cold Heart, Sleeping Cruelty, Royal Flush, Above Suspicion, The Red Dahlia, Clean Cut, Deadly Intent and Silent Scream, Blind Fury (this entered the UK Sunday Times Bestsellers List at number 1 having sold 9,500 copies in its first two weeks), Blood Line, Backlash, Wrongful Death, and Twisted, which have all been international best-sellers. 

In Feb 2012 Lynda’s chilling tale of THE LITTLE ONE was published in conjunction with Quick Reads through Simon & Schuster UK.

Lynda’s latest book, Tennison, was published on 24th September 2015 and is the prequel the highly acclaimed Prime Suspect. The story charts Jane Tennison’s entry into the police force as a 22 year old Probationary Officer at Hackney Police Station in 1973.

Lynda La Plante is published in the UK by Simon & Schuster.

Lynda La Plante is published in the US by HarperCollins Publishers.

Please visit http://www.lyndalaplante.com for further information. You can also follow Lynda on Facebook and Twitter.

Posted in Random Things Tours

The Howling by Michael Malone 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

There was such an atmospheric opening to this last novel in the Annie Jackson series, setting up the link between the incredible scenery and Scottish folklore. Then we see Annie in her safe place, the little cottage she calls home nestled in the middle of nowhere. The only place where she gets some respite from the ‘murmurs’, the terrible portents of death she suffers when she meets someone who is going to die. They are a curse, not just because of the painfully loud noise in her head but because if she tells someone they rarely listen and if she doesn’t she’s left racked with guilt. She is taking in some fresh air outside, when she falls into the stream that runs at the front of the cottage. It’s freezing cold and reminds us that whenever Annie starts to feel safe, something comes along to challenge that sense of peace. This time it’s her brother Lewis and his girlfriend Clare with some brilliant news, they’re having a baby. Annie is so excited for them, but there is a downside. Even though it’s very early days, Annie is worried that this child will inherit the family curse of the murmurs. Maybe there’s a chance she can put the curse to bed? The woman who tried to kill her wants Annie to visit her in prison. Sylvia Lowry-Law was pulled into the dark arts by a professor at her university and believed that sacrificing Annie would raise an ancient demon to do her bidding. Now she needs Annie’s help in tracing the son she had adopted 17 years ago. Could this boy be the key to a future where she’s not waiting for the next murmurs to hit? That would be life-changing for Annie, not to mention Claire and Lewis’s baby. 

This is a complicated story that Michael Malone tells with multiple narrators and different time frames, slowly bringing them all together to solve the mystery. Linking with the opening section, there’s a boy called Drew who feels bonded with a wolf cub more than the family around him. 

“I was a wolf. And I was a boy. It was a long time ago. They wore funny clothes […] I would run away from my mother and be a wolf. And we were killed. They said we were witches”. 

It’s been quite a year for witches and books that hark back to King James VI of Scotland and all of them have been incredible reads. Here Malone alludes to the dangerous atmosphere in that time, where even the remotest villages were aware the King had given licence for witchfinders to root out anyone seen as different or troublesome. They would be tested against the king’s book Daemonologie then strangled and burned at the stake. Drew clearly has a similar ancestry to Annie and perhaps a long line of ancestors fighting against lycanthropy. His family are emigrating and as usual the author takes us deep inside the character. Drew’s childhood narrative is so emotive because I understood his feeling overwhelmed in an airport full of people and having to feel all the layers of their anxiety. All he wants to do is curl up quietly with his fellow wolf cubs and when he’s pushed, his shout sounds more like a wolf howl – a definite cold feeling down the spine moment. Then there’s Annie and Lewis who are a great investigative pairing, Annie has bags of empathy and insight even without the murmurs and Lewis is well versed in the technology side of investigation, but one thing they both have is a stubbornness that means once they’ve started looking they can’t stop until it’s done, even when the costs for Lewis become very high. They both go to Ashmoor Hospital, the psychological facility where Sylvia is being treated, but she wants to see Annie alone. What she asks for is help finding her son and puts them on to her lawyer Bernard Peters, a timid soul who has worked for her several years as his grandfather did before him. They were helping trace her family and a rather familiar and colourful tale emerges: 

“Witches and curses and twin sisters who fought over a man, leading to one of them being burned at the stake”. 

There is a sense here of history repeating itself through generations. It blends with Scottish folklore and it being a ‘thin place’, the term for places where the veil between this and the spirit world is almost transparent – those that believe and can tune into it of course. Bernard is astounded by the prominent people who are caught up in this strange ancient order that Sylvia belongs to. She tells him she owned his grandfather and that there are secret records that must be protected. Bernard’s grandfather dying suddenly, leaves some of this dark and dangerous business undone. Even as they try to help him they can’t wait to get into the secret room he’s been searching in. There are secrets in here that could bring down very powerful people, but why would the order keep them? Again it brings to mind current news, the Epstein Files and the buzz around having them released, bringing into the spotlight people we could never have imagined to be involved. I felt for Bernard because everyone else has some understanding of the background to this, but he’s blindsided. Also everyone else is here by choice, whereas he is thrust into the middle of it by birth and the death of someone he loved and looked up to. Now he’s implicated in a widespread network of influence and blackmail. The author balances all these narrative viewpoints so well and each section brings a little more information, with sudden little discoveries that fill in gaps and definitely drip feed tension to the story. 

This series has always been an unusual mix of thriller, family saga, horror, magic, folklore and crime. It defies being placed in a genre and I often find that’s where the best and most surprising reads are. It was lovely to have Sister Theresa make a cameo, with her sketchy grasp of data protection she’s a real asset in finding out about the past and nuns are often very quirky and unusual individuals I’ve always found. I left this novel less worried about Annie, I had always wondered if the isolation and loneliness of life with her gift would overwhelm her. Here I felt like Annie’s murmurs took a bit of a back seat, but she gets stronger with each book; a more resilient heroine who still has an otherworldly and mysterious air about her. I always imagine her rather like Kate Bush, which is always a compliment. The more she finds out about her family, the more settled she seems to be and is still working in the local café despite previous incidents with customers whose deaths she could see. However, as we raced towards the ending with tension in bucketloads I couldn’t be sure she’d be safe. The order is a many tentacled monster and I wondered if they would really be able to sever and destroy all its parts. As Sylvia says, they have ‘fingers in a lot of very interesting pies’. There is no depth they won’t stoop to and they operate very quickly indeed as Lewis finds out. I can’t ever imagine that Lewis and Annie will give up investigating and trying to help others, it doesn’t seem in their nature to kick back and enjoy the quiet life. Not for long anyway. 

Meet the Author

Michael Malone is a prize-winning poet and author who was born and brought up in the heart of Burns’ country. He has published over 200 poems in literary magazines throughout the UK, including New Writing Scotland, Poetry Scotland and Markings. Blood Tears, his bestselling debut novel won the Pitlochry Prize from the Scottish Association of Writers. His dark psychological thriller, A Suitable Lie, was a number-one bestseller, and is currently in production for the screen, and five powerful standalone thrillers followed suit. The Murmurs and The Torments, first in the Annie Jackson Mysteries series, were published to critical acclaim in 2023. A former Regional Sales Manager (Faber) he has also worked as an IFA and a bookseller. Michael lives in Ayr, where he also works as a hypnotherapist.

Posted in Netgalley

The Light a Candle Society by Ruth Hogan

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Ruth Hogan is one of my cozy authors. These are books I read when I need comfort and boy did I need it last week. I’m having the kitchen renovated, not just new units but ripping out the floor and ceiling, putting in new joists and laying a floor that’s been so wonky I’ve tripped over it a couple of times. We’ve taken out an island that was hogging all the space and finally new units are slowly going in. I’ve been without a kitchen sink for a fortnight and my other half has wired the oven up in the garage so everything we cook has to be oven or microwave only and I keep meeting neighbours as I’m walking past with oven gloves and a tray of chicken kievs. I’m washing up in the bath tub (not while I’m in it) so this time last week I lost my marbles and we’ve been staying in a holiday cottage nearby for some quiet. So I’ve spent a lovely week being mostly unreachable, laying back in a huge bubble bath with a view, and reading my cozy books. 

So let’s talk about the book which was a lovely oasis of calm in my personal chaos. It covered a subject close to my heart. My first job in mental health was as a support worker and since I lived in a small town I would often see clients I worked with on days off and even for years after I left. These were usually single people, living alone and only just managing to function with the basics. They were so isolated and when I stopped working I would volunteer at a local community centre twice a week to have a drop-in place for people struggling or feeling isolated. Sometimes though I would find out someone had died and if I wasn’t too late I would go to the funeral. However if someone is estranged from their family due to their mental health history and lived alone I wouldn’t always be able to find out when and where it was. I hated the idea of no one being there, so I immediately understood our main character George and where he was coming from. He has lost his wife Audrey and takes her flowers every week down at the cemetery. It’s there he meets Edwin, a local undertaker who appears to be lurking by the bins. He explains that he’s watching the new council worker responsible for the funerals of those who had died without family or funds of their own. Edwin is making sure that new recruit Niall knows what he’s doing and giving the person the reverence and dignity they can. George hates the idea of such a lonely send off with no one to witness your journey beyond this life. He muses about it and talks to his friends at the Dog and Duck pub where he goes to the quiz night. He would like to mark these funerals in some way so he invites Edwin to join his group at the pub for a chat. From a simple wish to be there for these send offs the Light a Candle Society is born. 

Like all Ruth’s books this has a wonderful cast of interesting and quirky characters, many of whom do live alone. There’s Roxy, George’s friend and colleague from the library where he works part-time. She has an alternative look, with tattoos and piercings and is probably not the person you’d expect to be so close with an older widower. Slowly we’re drawn into their circle. There’s Elena from the florist who does George’s flowers for Audrey every week and would like to make a contribution to the funerals. There’s Captain and his dog Sailor, one of the library regulars who comes in and reads most days. He talks very little about himself, only seeming to warm up when people pet his canine companion. Then there’s Briony who works for the local paper and decided to write a piece about the funerals, something she can take to her rather dismissive and sneaky boss and show him she can write more than a few words about someone’s giant vegetable. Her downstairs neighbour Allegra is an absolute riot and I would have loved to be friends with her. She has led a rather colourful life and acts like a mentor to Briony, pushing her to trust her own instincts and talent. Briony needs her combination of feminism, cocktails and a kindly kick up the behind. 

The funerals grow when Edwin tips George off about a house clearance firm, who log all the deceased belongings, sorting through them for valuables and taking them away to sell. He agrees to tip George off if he’s doing the house of someone who has no relatives or friends, allowing him to come to the house and get more of a sense of who they were. From there he can write a eulogy that matters and resonates with anyone who does come along unexpectedly. The author has created short chapters that take us back in that person’s life in between the main narrative, showing us a moment from their life and the sometimes devastating circumstances of their death. It’s a reminder that no matter who it is or how their lives have ended, we can’t judge because we haven’t lived their life or experienced the unique and sometimes traumatic circumstances they find themselves in. This resonated strongly with me having had clients with addictions and mental illnesses that have driven family away. I was so touched by one young man who had the dream and potential of become a professional footballer. I was also touched by Captain who slowly builds a relationship with Roxy for a very particular purpose. When we’re taken back into his life it explains completely why a man called Captain lived so far from the sea. I may have shed a tear or two there.

As the society grows it takes in people who would have otherwise been alone. There are younger people like Briony or Niall who have often moved to start a career they’ve longed for, but have to then make a life far away from home where they don’t know anyone. There are older people who have retired and perhaps lost their partner who have the time and the enthusiasm for the society. However the society is also a lifesaver for them, getting them out of the house and making new connections. They’ve needed to make friends and have a home from home like the Dog and Duck to meet new people and of course, come to quiz night. There are potential romances but they’re kept quite low key because they’re not the story’s focus. The focus is one friendship and how the society isn’t just honouring those who have died, it’s making sure that lonely people who might easily have become one of the statistics, are looked after. It made me think of people I’ve let go off in life. Those I’ve lost touch with when one of us has moved or has had a partner who isn’t keen on me or vice versa. It reminded me that when someone pushes you away, it might be the time when they need you the most.  

Meet the Author

My new novel – THE LIGHT A CANDLE SOCIETY – is out in NOW! It’s about a man called George McGlory – recent widower, part-time librarian, pub quiz enthusiast and lover of loud shirts – who witnesses a public health funeral and is deeply moved by the sight of the lonely coffin with no flowers and no mourners in attendance. George believes that everyone deserves a decent send-off and decides to do something about what he calls these ‘lonely funerals’ – and so THE LIGHT A CANDLE SOCIETY is formed. The book contains a number of short stories which give a glimpse into the lives of those whom George and his friends take it upon themselves to honour and remember in their own unique way. Despite it being a story about funerals, it’s full of life, love, humour, community and human connections. And, of course, there is a very special dog!

THE PHOENIX BALLROOM, MADAME BUROVA, THE KEEPER OF LOST THINGS, THE WISDOM OF SALLY RED SHOES and QUEENIE MALONE’S PARADISE HOTEL – are out now in all formats.

I was brought up in a house full of books, and grew up with an unsurprising passion for reading and writing. I also loved (and still do) dogs and ponies, seaside piers (particularly the Palace Pier in Brighton) snow globes and cemeteries. And potatoes. So of course, I was going to be a vet, show jumper, or gravedigger. Or potato farmer.

Or maybe a writer…

Posted in Personal Purchase

The Bride Stone by Sally Gardner 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

According to our narrator, a ‘bride stone’ is a precious stone given to the groom’s family as a dowry. Sometimes though, a beautifully made fake stone was used, one they could only have valued when it was too late. It’s an apt title for a book where women are traded in many different ways and in the human sense the most unprepossessing stones may turn out to be priceless. It is set just after the French Revolution where Marie Antoinette, who would have had no choice in marrying Louis VII, was condemned to the guillotine as his Queen. Many aristocrats left France for British shores at this time and were often welcomed in high society. Edmée has somehow made her way to Britain, despite seemingly being an ordinary citizen and she is being offered at a ‘wife sale’, something I had no idea existed until I read Thomas Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbridge where Michael Trenchard sells both his wife and daughter as chattels he can no longer afford. When I first read it at 14, I felt how degrading it must be and was automatically revolted but now, I’m even more aware of the implications of being sold to the highest bidder. The thought of being owned by a man, a complete stranger, to be treated as he wishes is horrifying. Yet for Edmée this chapter surely can’t be worse than the last? For Duval Harlington it’s something he would never usually countenance, but his circumstances are uniquely desperate. Having been captured by the French while fighting and treating wounded soldiers, he is met by one of the family servants who bears bad news. Duval Harlington so now Lord Harlington because his father has recently died. Although he now has the title, his right to the ancestral home of Muchmore and his father’s wealth is rather more complex. Duval had a tough relationship with his father who didn’t see the point of him training as a doctor. Once he departed for France, Duval’s father installed a distant relative, Mr Carson and his wife, to manage the day to day running of the estate. So his will has an interesting stipulation, in order to claim his inheritance Duval must be married and now he has only two days to achieve this aim. Otherwise the estate becomes Mr Carson’s. When his servant points out the wife sale it seems like a means to an end. Duval notices a young woman being led around the room by a scarf round her neck. Her hair has been shorn away like a boy’s and she has a veil covering her face, but the buyers call out for it to be removed and he’s shocked to see that one side of her face is swollen and covered in bruises. Someone has recently beaten her very badly. On impulse he puts up his hand and bids for her, his intention being to marry her quickly and claim his inheritance. Then he could seek an annulment. However he does find Edmée fascinating and with Mr and Mrs Carson ready for a fight this marriage might not be as easy to shrug off as he thinks. 

This is a fascinating period of history and I didn’t know as much about it as I thought. I knew bits about Versailles, the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette and the guillotine but my understanding was very vague. I hadn’t realised how many aristocrats fled here to escape the Reign of Terror and their fate at the guillotine. Edmée is interesting because she is French but claims not to be an aristocrat, so how else did she end up here? Could she be a Jacobin or a spy? The fear that something similar to the overthrow of the ancién regime could spread here was a real one, because it would remove the power held by the Royal Family and other aristocrats, instead creating a republic where all people would share natural rights of liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. Yet a book is always the product of its time and I could definitely see parallels with today’s politics. A dinner guest, Sir Wilfred Fairley MP talks about the influx of French emigrés saying he was asked if he thought ‘we’d been too lenient with the number of emigrés we have allowed into the country and my answer is yes’. However, a Marquis replies very strongly that no one wants to be in that position: 

“To be forced to leave their lands, their houses, to start again in a country that doesn’t possess their humour or their language and is frightened of their religion […] to cross La Manche in a small unseaworthy boat to discover they have paid a fortune to be at the mercy of sailors threatening to throw them overboard if they do not pay double.” 

It felt like it could have been two people arguing on social media today. 

It’s evident Edmée has gone through a terrible ordeal at the hands of her previous husband, the Reverend Hughes. At first she must fear a similar fate from this stranger and Duval doesn’t help by abandoning her as soon as they reach Muchmore to go and sleep with a long term mistress. I was fascinated with Edmée because she’s such an unusual character and like me she keeps a journal and writes daily. The author lets us into that diary and we get to know how unsure she feels and that she has secrets. Duval’s aunt notices Edmée’s vulnerability and really takes a shine to her as they dine together and she takes her to buy gowns from the local dressmaker, a fellow French woman called Madame DuPont. Now that she’s Lady Harlington, she must look like a lady. It’s hard to know who she really is because she could just be fitting into each person’s expectations. Maybe this is something she’s used to doing in order to survive. When she falls ill and Duval returns to Muchmore, using his knowledge as a doctor to treat her, he shows great care and tenderness. As he waits for her to recover he reads her journal and learns so much about this woman he’s married to. With Duval she seems to blossom a little. Something unlocks in her and it’s like watching a mistreated animal learning to trust a human. Until now she’s been a blank space for others to write on, but it seems like Duval might be the person who brings out the real her. It is hard not to like this woman, who is described by her previous husband’s natural son as courageous: 

“There was hardly anything of her but she had a will of steel. I don’t say that lightly. Some soldiers profess bravery and talk about courage, but that’s a woman who says nothing and has survived a Revolution and a violent bastard of a husband […] she would be a hard candle to blow out.” 

This isn’t just a love story though, it’s a thriller. Just as Duval starts to settle in to being home, the unthinkable happens. The couple are talked into holding a ball to introduce the new Lady Harlington to society. Their guests come from the local area, but also from London and some are French emigrés. Mr and Mrs Carson are even invited and unbelievably accept. Edmée is a great success as the host in her new role as mistress of Muchmore, but the next morning she has vanished. Did she leave of her own accord – perhaps spooked by someone she saw the previous night. Or has something more sinister happened? It could be the work of someone closer to home – a disgruntled lover of Duval’s or someone determined that their marriage won’t succeed. I was drawn so deeply into the story of these unlikely partners. Duval and Edmée have both had difficult starts in life. The relationship between Duval and his father is typified by the ridiculous terms of his inheritance. The only thing he has to guide his search is her journal and the book that came with her, seemingly an ordinary history book but beautifully bound.

The theme of domestic violence and sexual assault is distressing and hard to read, but what shocked me most was other people’s ability to ignore what was happening even when they witnessed it with their own eyes. It brought home to me how dependent women were, in fact the only women in control of their own destiny are those who have a skill or their own business such as Madame DuPont the dressmaker or the brothel madam where Duval was a loyal customer in his youth. This is absolutely in line with social history of the 18th and 19th Century, but so much literature adapted for television focuses on the upper and middle classes where marriage is the only means of improving a woman’s status. I love when writers go back and write people back into a history they’ve been erased from due to race, disability or sexuality or when characters are more complicated figures in society. Duval isn’t your average privileged heir and Edmée would never normally be his wife. During dinner discussion on the revolution, Sir Wifred points out that its biggest folly was that all people should be equal, meaning men and women. Duval surprises him by stating that in his view “it was one of the most exciting things to have come out of the revolution.” I love that he is starting to see women as equals. Edmée is surviving the only way she knows how and by the skin of her teeth, so why would she choose to move on again? Duval has no choice but to retrace his steps, go back to where he bought his wife and find the clues. I was hoping for Edmée to have a happy ending, but it was clear this might not be the case making for a tense read in those final chapters. The book has a mix of hardship, adventure and mystery interlaced with the romantic possibility of an unlikely match being perfect. If only Duval can find her again. The author has created a fascinating mystery and an extraordinarily modern hero and heroine that I desperately wanted to find each other again.

Meet the Author

Sally Gardner gained a first class degree at a leading London art college and became a successful theatre costume designer before illustrating and writing books. Her debut novel, I, Coriander won the Nestle Gold Award and she is also a Costa and Carnegie prize-winner. Her books have been translated all over the world and have sold over two million copies. Find Sally online at sallygardner.co.uk, or on Twitter @TheSallyGardner.

Posted in Personal Purchase

Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell

Posted on by thelotusreaders

There was a pivotal moment in this book that made me go cold. It sent me back twelve years when I was trying to understand how someone could treat others so badly, in what seemed like a deliberately cruel way. I remembered something my counsellor said at the time; I was spending all my time trying to work out someone’s motivation and what had happened in life to make them behave that way, instead of considering the impact on me and how unacceptable the behaviour was. Some people just don’t think like others. Nick is a tall silver fox with a lot of charm and a knack with the ladies. He seems to know exactly what will please someone. Exactly the right gift to soften someone. To get under their defences. It’s almost as if he has empathy,  but don’t be fooled. He’s just wearing a human suit. 

Nina and her daughter Ash live in the bougie seaside town of Whitstable in Kent. They are grieving for husband and father Paddy, who was killed when a man having a mental health crisis pushed him into an oncoming train. Ash has been living at home since her own mental health deteriorated. She was living in a house in London with two other girls but she developed a crush on her boss, that turned into an obsession. She claimed to have letters from him, but it turned out she’d written them herself and she was eventually diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. She’d just come home to recover when Paddy was killed. When her mum receives a parcel in the post Ash is intrigued. It’s beautifully wrapped, with a note inside from a man who has heard about Paddy’s death. He used to work with him in the 1990s when Paddy was just starting out. The gift wrapped box contains a Zippo lighter he borrowed but never returned. Since then Paddy has built a restaurant empire, with his flagship restaurant in Whitstable and two others down the coast. He benefitted greatly from the area’s development into the weekend getaway spot for Londoners. Nick’s note explains he is now a troubleshooter, brought into eateries and hotels to assess what’s not working and put it right. There is of course a number, should Nina wish to thank him for his thoughtfulness. Over the next few months Nick and Nina start to WhatsApp each other and then go out for a drink. Ash is glad to see her mum with a glow, but there’s something about Nick that’s just ‘off’. She can’t be sure and maybe she’s viewing this situation through her own grief or her personality disorder, but something isn’t right. She needs to find out more about him before he becomes a permanent fixture. 

It’s so hard to review Lisa’s books without letting things slip, but I’ll try my best. Most authors might have written a thriller based purely on the scenario above – is it the mentally ill daughter or the mum’s new boyfriend that’s the problem? Slowly drawing out the tension of whether she’s right or so unwell that she’s dreadfully mistaken. Lisa Jewell isn’t most authors so she takes that premise and builds an absolutely labyrinthine mystery that’s absolutely spellbinding. In multiple narratives and timelines we meet various women who are struggling in their relationships, all of which are linked by strange or abusive behaviour. There are different behaviours: gaslighting, manipulation, financial embezzlement and even disappearances. In some cases these women are married and have children, in others they’re older and widowed. There were so many conundrums, not least how these men are affording the lifestyle they’re living. Meanwhile, Ash has decided to take help from ‘Mad’ Jane Trevally, her dad’s old girlfriend from the 1990s. Surely if Nick was around for a while, Jane would remember him. Jane did have some obsessive qualities of her own back in the day, so maybe she’s not the best person for Ash to be hanging out with. She knows her mum would be furious. However, when they do meet, Jane tells Ash that Paddy categorically did not have a lighter. He was always taking the matches from the kitchen or cadging a light from other people, so much so that it was an ‘in’ joke with friends and customers. So whose lighter was in that parcel and why did he send it? 

I galloped through this book as we went backwards and forwards in time, every time learning a little more and inching towards the truth. I loved the fragile Ash who is at that stage of recovery where she doesn’t fully trust her own mind. Is she making too much of this? Is she just paranoid? Worst of all, if she finds something questionable, will her Mum even believe her? She’s so lonely at this point, she doesn’t have many friends to talk to and feels bad she’s had to bounce back home at her age. Her mum deserves to be happy and she might ruin it all. Just when you think you have all the answers, the author takes it to the next level! There were twists here that I wasn’t expecting and I felt very relieved that I got away from my own situation relatively easily, if not unscathed. This book is like a twisted knot in a necklace. It takes a long time to loosen it, but suddenly the whole thing unravels before your eyes. This is masterful thriller that absolutely begs to be devoured in a couple of sittings, from an author who gets better and better. 

Meet the Author

LISA JEWELL was born in London in 1968.

Her first novel, Ralph’s Party, was the best- selling debut novel of 1999. Since then she has written another twenty novels, most recently a number of dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs, The Family Remains and The Night She Disappeared, all of which were Richard & Judy Book Club picks.

Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over thirty languages. She lives in north London with her husband and two daughters.

Posted in Random Things Tours

The Transcendent Tide by Doug Johnstone 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

The Enceladons are back! We left them on the up, having destroyed the American facility that captured and tortured them with a tsunami wave. Lennox, Heather as well as Ava and her daughter Chloe were recovering from the torture they suffered and had to make a big decision, to leave for the Arctic as part of the Enceladon community or stay on land. Heather chose to leave with them. Now the remaining friends have established new lives. Lennox and his girlfriend Vonnie are studying together at university. Ava and Chloe are settled with Ava’s sister, but they all miss the group especially Heather, Sandy and Xander. It’s hard not to miss the extraordinary experiences they had, such as Lennox becoming part of Xander and flying off into space. It is Ava who brings everyone back together after Chloe appears to suffer a stroke, only to return back to normal, just as the friends did after first meeting Sandy. A follow-up MRI shows a brain tumour and Ava has a difficult decision to make: does she stay put and follow the medical route or does she try to find the Enceladons? She wonders whether the torture Chloe endured or her communications with the creatures could have caused this illness? She also remembers how Sandy cured Heather’s cancer and decides to take her daughter to Greenland. At the same time, Lennox and Vonnie are approached by an Norwegian tech billionaire who wants to meet the enceladons. Even the logo of his new company is a moon being held in giant tentacles. The couple are very unsure and inside I was screaming at them not to work with him, but when Ava contacts them about Chloe they both agree to work with him under certain conditions. Will those conditions be met and is this man as trustworthy as he seems? 

Niviaaq is our first new character, an Inuit woman who has lived in her small community on Greenland her whole life. The community still live like their ancestors with the principals of working with nature, not against it and they are feeling the effects of climate change. Glaciers are melting and species like polar bears are unable to hunt for food. Out on her boat, Niviaaq encounters another vessel, upturned and badly damaged. She also finds a man floating upside down in the water, hypothermic and barely alive. His coat has a symbol of a moon and octopus with the word ‘Sedna’, the name of an Inuit sea monster. She drags the man into her boat and takes him for medical help. The Inuit people have several legends of strange monsters  but lately the Northern Lights have been very active and people have seen strange glowing objects on the ice. Are these signals that something is going to happen? I loved this character throughout the book, mainly because she is so wholly and unselfconsciously her self. She is a strong woman, mentally and physically. She can take care of herself, taught from a young age how to use a rifle, to sail boats and fish on the ice floes. She doesn’t show off about this strength, it is simply part of her that can be used whenever it’s needed. She is used to long spells of time alone so she comes across as self-contained and very grounded. She is calm and gentle, not chatty but only speaking when necessary. I loved that she and Ava had an instant affinity and I could see how cozy and safe Ava would feel when with her, something she needs after her experiences with her violent husband. 

As always with Doug there are politics behind the actual story and setting it in Greenland, when it has been a constant topic in the media since Donald Trump came back into power had to be deliberate. It brought back to me how brash and ignorant the US Vice-President JD Vance appeared when he visited earlier this year. His first comment, that nobody had warned him how cold it was, just made me groan with embarrasment. It was no surprise that he was only welcome at the US Airforce Base. Their blatant and greedy desire for Greenland and parts of the Ukraine is all about mineral mining, taking what they need and further damaging the fragile ecosystem for its human and animal inhabitants. There are only two reasons a multi-billion dollar organisation would build a base there, either to exploit Greenland or the Enceladons. Probably both. Even though the business owner Karl Jensen initially impresses Lennox with his reaction to meeting the enceladons, while I was still very wary. He calls Sandy and Xander ‘they’ without prompting, because they don’t see themselves as individuals but as a collective. I loved this because it shows how easy it is to shift your perception and take care with other people’s feelings – it reminded me of the series of Taskmaster where I pointed out to my husband that Greg Davies had been using ‘they’ as Mae Martin’s pronoun for the whole series and he hadn’t even noticed. 

He seems to have a deep and profound experience on their first dive and when Sandy connects with him telepathically he suddenly understands everything that is wrong with the world. It’s the capitalism, the greed and simply exploiting every resource the earth has to give, without once considering whether it is ours to take. We don’t treat our fellow creatures as equals but as something we have dominion over and the right to kill for resources or for pleasure. We kill for yet more, when we already have so much. It’s an absolute tour de force of a speech and for a moment life is hopeful. However, as is pointed out by Vonnie, no one becomes a billionaire through philanthropy. Human nature intervenes suddenly and with finality, because it’s just so much easier to carry on as we are instead of making those personal and political changes. This is where Niviaaq is a brilliant contrast to mankind in general. When she and Ava have to take shelter in the hunting hut – one of several up and down the glacier, always ready for anyone to use – it made me realise how much the Inuit people have in common with the Enceladons. As she’s offered whale blubber to eat, Ava refuses it with a shudder. Niviaaq explains that the whale is suited to the environment they both live in and if they do hunt a whale, every single part of it is used. Eating two tiny chunks of it will give them the calories they need to survive the cold and the exertions of the journey ahead. To kill it, then refuse to use it for the purpose of staying alive is an insult. It made me realise that if people had stayed in their tribes and clans and used their original principles in this way – just like the Aboriginal and Māori people, and the Native Americans – we would have always lived in harmony with the earth. It’s possible certain animals wouldn’t be extinct and we might not have faced climate change. Their creation myths are so different too, not giving us dominion over the animals but being a harmonious whole. Or is human nature always determined to chase money and progress until we wipe ourselves out? 

I won’t divulge any more of the plot because that would ruin it for you. I get so excited about reading Doug’s books because reading them is a little like connecting with one of Sandy’s tentacles for a second. Ideas and light bulb moments appear in my brain and I have to write down all these weird notes and things to look up before I can review. Then I rabbit on about them to anyone who will listen for months to come! You can read these books on a surface level and they are still brilliant. The characters are full of heart and love for each other and their Enceladon friends. It’s also full of heart racing action sequences that would be amazing on screen – especially when all of the animals come along. You become so absorbed that you forget it’s all a bit weird, then you read a sentence like ‘Chloe was playing ball inside Sandy’ and it blows your mind. However, if you do delve under the surface it’s a profound comment on our times, our politics and capitalist lifestyles. Read the whole series and you’ll see how the author balances profundity, action, romance, sci-fi and humour like a magician. You’ll finish them, as I did, with a tear in your eye for these extraordinary creatures and a world with so much more variety and beauty than we’ll ever deserve. The Enceladons wake people up – yes I’m using that word ‘woke’ often thrown about as an insult these days, but why wouldn’t you want to shake an alien octopus’s tentacle and become enlightened, compassionate, open and perhaps your very best self? 

Out Now from Orenda Books

Meet the Author

Doug Johnstone is the author of 18 previous novels, most recently Living Is a Problem (2024) and The Collapsing Wave (2024). The Big Chill (2020) was longlisted for Theakston Crime Novel of the Year, and Black Hearts was shortlisted for the same award. Three of his books, A Dark Matter (2020), Breakers (2019) and The Jump (2015), have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year.

He’s taught creative writing and been writer in residence at various institutions over the last decade, and has been an arts journalist for over twenty years. Doug is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club, and has a PhD in nuclear physics. He lives in Edinburgh.

Posted in Publisher Proof

The Forest Hideaway by Sharon Gosling

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Hidden away in Cumbria’s Gair Forest is the most romantic setting, a ruined castle. It’s a haven for local history lovers and a once in a lifetime project for architect Saskia Tilbury Martin. She’s finding it difficult to get a builder to take the project on so Owen is her last hope and she’s already running late to meet him. She knows that she’s overdressed for the great outdoors and she’s had to borrow her friend’s BMW sports car because her trusty Land Rover is in the garage. In a way this is Owen’s last chance too. Previously in the forces, he has been a builder for a number of years but the business is struggling and he knows he’s not pulling his weight with wife Tasha and their gorgeous little girl. They have debts and if he doesn’t take this job he’s looking at failure, but when Saskia turns up with her sports car, three inch heels and double-barrelled name he’s isn’t impressed. Especially since she’s an hour late. He dismisses her as a rich girl throwing her money around. However, when she gets the plans out he can’t help but be intrigued. Saskia assures him that she wants to preserve what’s here, to leave the ruin looking as it does now but create a number of platforms inside to house her living spaces. She even intends to leave the slightly dilapidated oak tree growing in the centre of the castle, with a glass roof that can open in good weather. She doesn’t tell him that she’s the architect because other builders have been unsure about working with an unproven architect before. Owen takes the night to think about it, but when she offers him ten grand up front to get started he knows he can’t turn her down. Saskia reflects that they don’t have to like each other, they just have to be a good professional team for the project and save this beautiful building that holds so many memories for her. 

Owen soon finds he has assumed a lot about Saskia. When he sees the cabin she tows onto the site with her Land Rover back on the road, he thinks it’s an affectation to need a whole kitted out living space for when she’s here in the day. The builders have to make do with bare sectional buildings with no comforts. When he’s there early one morning, he’s surprised to see her appear from the cabin in her old denim shirt and her hair tied back, all set to walk her dog. She’s living in the cabin when he’s assumed she had a boutique hotel booked for the duration of the build. I wouldn’t have blamed her, having half my house out of bounds for building work at the moment I’d give anything for a couple of nights in a nice hotel! The truth is Saskia doesn’t have many people or places she could say feel like home. Her inheritance is from a grandparent and she has no relationship with her mother, instead she has best friend Vivian. Owen isn’t doing any better on the family front, Tasha has put up with a lot and has decided that their relationship just isn’t working anymore and he’s bunking down with friend and fellow builder Stuart. I found Saskia interesting and loved that she had a dream she was seeing through. She seems very sure of her ability and has confidence in her design which I found inspirational because I’m not confident and I’m rubbish at finishing projects. I admired that perseverance because she isn’t just hanging around waiting for life to happen. Owen’s life path felt more passive, despite seeing different parts of the world his life hasn’t been his own, it belonged to the army. He’s also drifted in his relationship. It clearly hasn’t been right for some time and Tasha tells him that his long absences on detachment meant they never really built a life together. As soon as he left the army and was home full time, they could both see their differences. Neither of them have tried to address the decline and now it’s too late. Maybe he needs to spend some time with Saskia because her self-reliance and determination could inspire him. 

The setting is absolutely stunning. I love the Lakes, a love that was awakened again on a recent visit. I loved the idea of taking such a romantic ruin and making it into a home without taking away any of the decay that makes it so picturesque, the beauty being tied up with its imperfection. The isolation is fascinating too. I used to live in a large house in the middle of nowhere and friends would be aghast that I didn’t shut my curtains or check that all five doors were properly locked every night. Saskia isn’t afraid of the isolation either and I liked that about her. The history of the site is important too, both Saskia’s link to it but also the local history buff’s attachment to the building. So far they haven’t even given Saskia a chance, stating they want Gair preserved as it is without realising that’s exactly what she’s trying to do. I loved the idea that there are:

‘Two types of history here […] the castle ruins, the ancient oak tree. They both have worlds within them”.

This is so true because they hold the history of many people over centuries, enduring every new generation and what they bring. When we think about it like that it’s clear that making it a home again is exactly the right thing to do, reintroducing humans to the building and the nature surrounding it. I thought the added intrigue of Roman ruins under castle was fascinating and I was again impressed that Saskia had thought of this and ordered drone scans of the castle and underneath to see what the layers of soil revealed. I was hoping the local history lovers would give her a chance if she tried to her plans to them. 

There is a ‘will they, won’t they’ to this couple’s relationship and while a touch of romance is always nice it isn’t the main focus here. Owen slowly comes round to Saskia once he’s realised how much of his assessment of her was based on assumptions. She isn’t a rich girl playing at property development. Owen doesn’t know himself as well as Saskia does and part of that is because of his years in the army. It takes time after coming out, to get to know the person inside and decide what you want the rest of your life to look like. I imagined that if Tasha hadn’t been brave enough to say something that morning, Owen would have drifted along for years in an unfulfilling marriage never knowing any different. His growing inner world was very well written as he learns to read other people better and how to be a responsible co-parent with Tasha for the future. Whereas Saskia has worked on herself and needs Gair to be her home, somewhere to feel grounded. When she needs support she checks in with Vivian and I loved this idea of ‘found family’, the people you choose to support and sustain you in life when the family you’re born with can’t. They aren’t an obvious match and this is not one of those books that ends with a big fairytale wedding. We just have the sense that they’re gradually moving towards each other as the build progresses and they learn how to be a team. The oak tree felt like a metaphor for both these people, but also for life in general. It’s not the most beautiful tree, in fact part of it has been hit by lightning and someone had an abandoned attempt at pruning it once, very badly. Despite these setbacks the oak has kept growing, not in the most beautiful shape but still reaching for the sky. This is the perfect, cozy, autumnal read.

Out now from Simon & Schuster Uk

Meet the Author

I’ve been writing since I was a teenager, which is now a distressingly long time ago! I started out as an entertainment journalist – actually, my earliest published work was as a reviewer of science fiction and fantasy books. I went on to become a staff writer and then an editor for print magazines, before beginning to write non-fiction making-of books tied in to film and television, such as The Art and Making of Penny Dreadful and Wonder Woman: The Art and Making of the Film. 

I now write both children’s and adult fiction – my first novel was called The Diamond Thief, a Victorian-set steampunk adventure book for the middle grade age group. That won the Redbridge Children’s prize in 2014, and I went on to write two more books in the series before moving on to other adventure books including The Golden Butterfly, which was nominated for the Carnegie Award in 2017, The House of Hidden Wonders, and a YA horror called FIR, which was shortlisted for the Lancashire Book of the Year Award in 2018. My last children’s book (to date) is called The Extraordinary Voyage of Katy Willacott, and was published by Little Tiger in 2023. 

My debut adult novel, The House Beneath the Cliffs, was published by Simon & Schuster in August 2021. Since then I’ve written three more: The Lighthouse Bookshop, The Forgotten Garden, and The Secret Orchard, which is out in September 2024. My adult fiction tends to centre on small communities – feel-good tales about how we find where we belong in life and what it means when we do. Although I have also published full-on adult horror stories, which are less about community and more about terror and mayhem…

I was born in Kent but now live in a very small house in an equally small village in northern Cumbria with my husband, who owns a bookshop in the nearby market town of Penrith.

From Sharon’s Amazon Author Page 28th August 2023

Posted in Monthly Wrap Up

Best Reads August 2025

Posted on by thelotusreaders

It’s been a month of crime/thriller reads and historical fiction, plus a couple of crime and historical combinations which I really enjoy. It’s also been a month where I found it difficult to concentrate because finally, after five years of brown tiles, lime green walls and cupboards with no handles we have been able to afford to renovate the kitchen. So for two weeks we have had no ceiling, no floor and no hob. As of Monday, we will be cooking in the garden until everything is back together again. I am not good with chaos so if you can imagine me wedged into a corner on the sofa with the contents of every kitchen cupboard taking up the study and other end of the living room. Hopefully only two weeks left to go. It can’t come soon enough. The other half is building the seating area under the pergola at the bottom of the garden. It feels like a symphony of drills and hammers at times but it will be lovely to be able to go and sit outside and read with roses growing around me. So much to look forward to in September with some fantastic reads on the list too. ❤️ 📚

Unbelievably this is the third novel from Kate Foster and firmly puts her on my ‘must-buy’ authors list. They’ve all been worthy of a place on my best reads list but I think this is her best yet. Maggie is a young girl from Fisherrow whose father is a fisherman and her mother ons of the fishwives who help bring in the catch, clean it for market and then repair nets ready for the next day’s fishing. She, her parents and sister Joan live in a one bedroom cottage but Maggie dreams of a life so different to this, where there isn’t back breaking work and she’s not at the mercy of her father’s drunken temper. So when ambitious trader Patrick turns up at the door, looking for somewhere to keep goods for making perfume she senses a chance. She knows Joan is prettier but she would make a far better wife to help him in his business. Luckily he sees this in her and after a short courtship they become married and set up home in a cottage in the village. They are happy until suddenly Maggie gets the news that a press gang has been to the hotel and Patrick was one of the men taken for the navy. Somehow Maggie finds herself travelling to London, to build her new life. At a stopover in Kelso she takes a couple of weeks to stay and earn some money. She knows now she is pregnant and conceals it, to keep on working. So how does she come to be in Edinburgh a few months later, being sent to the gallows on charges of concealing a pregnancy and killing her baby. Yet miraculously she survives the hanging, how and what she chooses to do with her second chance at life are the main contents of this brilliant novel. I loved the history, the growing up that Maggie does on her journey and how brilliant an advocate Kate Foster is for these women she finds in historical documents, often in dire situations at that time for ‘crimes’ it’s hard to comprehend today. Most of all I loved the bold, feminist take on Maggie’s life and the links that could be made with modern day politics. Brilliant.

My second historical fiction read of the month was this mesmerising and clever thriller from Laura Shepherd-Robinson that’s jumped straight onto my books of the year list. The Art of A Lie begins in a confectioner’s shop called the Punchbowl and Pineapple, run by the newly widowed Hannah Cole. This is the late 18th Century and Hannah grew up in the shop that was started by her grandfather. Her husband Jonas had been her father’s apprentice and now she must keep their shop running for it to be handed to his cousin. Jonas was found down river, washed up by the Thames with head injuries and missing anything of value including a watch given to him by Hannah that used to belong to her grandfather. Novelist and magistrate Joseph Fielding visits Hannah to say he is investigating Jonah’s murder, for he doesn’t think it’s as cut and dried a case as it might seem. Thank goodness for the lovely William Devereux, a friend of Jonas’s who introduces himself ar the funeral. He calls on Hannah at the shop, hearing of Joseph Fielding’s interference in the case and hoping to be of help. He gives her his grandmother’s recipe for iced cream, thinking it may be a hit with her customers and could tied her over until the case is closed and Jonas’s estate is released. Laura tells this tale so cleverly, drifting between narrators and shocking us with an aspect of their characters or the case. Both are fascinating and not necessarily what they appear to be at first. With each revelation I became more and more intrigued with this cat and mouse game and the psychological make up of those involved. Hannah is an astute businesswoman, good at reading people quickly and usually accurately. It’s hard to tell at times who is scamming who and I was so utterly entranced I was still thinking about it a week later. Simply brilliant in its setting, historical background and the constant simmering tension.

A modern thriller this time from one of the Queens of the genre and this really was an up to the minute tale of secrets, lies and murder. Gwen is an older widow, living in a complex of smart apartments in a nice area. She has decent neighbours, some of whom she might call friends. When her nearest neighbour Alex is looking for a new lodger she meets one of the candidates, Pixie. They start chatting and she is pleased to hear when the Britpop one hit wonder decides to offer her the room. Pixie gets a job at the bakery and cafe that Gwen frequents and they get on very well, so Gwen is disturbed to hear what sound like arguments from across the hall. She also catches a phrase that sounds like ‘you knew the deal when you moved in. When she catches up with Pixie she’s disturbed to hear that the deal involves sex in lieu of rent. She confronts Alex and takes Pixie in, writing a complaint to the building’s governing board. Her neighbour Dee tells her that she talked to her daughter Stella about it and she’s been making a documentary news item about the growing ‘sex for rent’ scandal. Would Pixie like to be interviewed? Soon the story is out of control, Alex is angry and denying everything and Gwen is public enemy number one. I loved how ‘of the moment’ this was with Gwen at a loss when it comes to freelance investigative journalism, sex for rent, trad wives and influencers. As she starts to feel out of her depth, those around her continue to manoeuvre and manipulate until life will never be the same again. This was so tense and the eventual murders most unexpected indeed.

I had the luck to read two Mark Edwards novels in August. a throwback to last year and this, his brand new thriller. The Wasp Trap was the jokey name given to a side project. While trying to form an algorithm for one of the first ever online dating apps, a group of university students have another idea. Each one specifically chosen by their professor, Sebastian, they are the best in their fields and are spending their summer at his mansion in the country. Will tells our flashback story, the creative who is meant to be coming up with a name for their site he is also hopelessly un love with Sophie but too scared to make a move. Together they come up with ‘butterfly.net’ but it’s Lily who comes up with a side project – an algorithm that could identify psychopaths. Statistically one of them could be and since they’re serving as guinea pigs for the dating apps why not for this? Now decades later they are gathered again, this time at Theo and Georgina’s mansion – the couple got together that summer and are married with two daughters. Strangely, they announce that one of their daughters is missing so it seems an odd time to have a dinner party. They also have caterers which is unusual for them, so Will isn’t shocked when it turns out to be a cover. The fake chef is Callum and he gives them an ultimatum- he’s giving them an hour to think and when he returns he wants to know the secret from that summer. If the secret isn’t divulged then someone will die. The tension rises as the hour ticks down, who has a secret? How do they know which is the right one? As Callum comes back into the room they’re left in no doubt that he means business. The rising and falling of tension is pitch perfect and in between the action we get flashbacks to that summer where more than one person is holding a secret and we start to wonder who exactly was the psychopath that Lily was searching for.

My final recommendation for last month is this last novel in the historical fiction quartet about the agony aunt of the Women’s Friend, a magazine running during WW2. It was lovely to be back with the gang and particularly Emmy Lake as they enter the final and arguably most difficult stretch of WW2. After five years of war both the team and their readers are tired. As a way of boosting morale at the magazine Emmy suggests they all decamp to Bunty and Harold’s in the countryside. As Hitler’s V1 and V2 bombs start to hit, it will certainly be safer. Emmy strongly feels they all need a boost in order to keep supporting and inspiring the women who read their magazine. If they’re tired and the magazine suffers, how will their readership keep the fight going? Emmy throws herself into rural life and is soon organising games nights, competitive knitting and planning the very important wedding of their officer administrator Hester and her fiance Clarence. She also has a phone call from the ministry to travel abroad and report from the French field hospitals and even manages to mastermind a break into husband Charles’s barracks before they’re both deployed. Emmy has no idea how much she’s going to need those around her in the coming months as her hardest test is yet to come. On their return to London she receives a telegram to say that Charles is missing, presumed captured in enemy territory and she has the agonising wait for the confirmation letter. Then Hester receives a blow when Clarence calls to say he’s being deployed in three days, two days before their planned wedding. Hester is inconsolable and after catching Emmy in a moment of frustration, she disappears. However, Emmy isn’t one to dwell on her misfortunes for long and I wondered what schemes and plans she would hatch next. 

The author doesn’t let us forget the sacrifice and loss in people’s lives, but still manages to bring in humour and a defiantly upbeat, make do and mend attitude. This is the closest I’ve seen Emmy come to breaking point and it’s hard to when you’re the one whose role it is to buoy everybody else up. As she finds out though, those who she’s helped and supported are so happy to be able to return the favour and support her. This is a set of books I always recommend, to women of all ages, because it’s so easy to relate to one of the characters and absolutely root for them. The main impression I take away from them is that sense of female solidarity. The instinct we have to come together, share the load and make each other’s lives a little easier from taking on someone’s children all the way down to being there with a meal or a shoulder to cry on. Emmy uses her writing to do the same and triumphs in being exactly what the magazine promises – the Woman’s Friend. 

Here’s a hint of what I’ll be reading in September: