Hello all. This has been a bumper reading month but I’m horribly behind with reviews. I’ve been unwell with a relapse of my autoimmune disorder and a sinus infection so I’ve been exhausted, had neuralgia, all my arthritis flared and I’ve been wearing wrist supports so I’ve struggled to type. I’ve got so many reviews languishing in my book journal so this month you’re going to be inundated! This means some of my favourites this month don’t have full reviews out yet. I’ve had to be on the sofa resting so I’m burning through my TBR quickly. Hopefully I’ll get caught up this month. One other beautiful little addition to my recovery was the BBC series The Other Bennett Sister, which was based on the novel by Janice Hadlow. Mary Bennett, who is the insufferable and rather studious middle sister in Pride and Prejudice becomes the centre of attention in her own right. If you haven’t caught this series, or the book, both come highly recommended and really cheered up my fortnight of feeling grotty. In other news my lovely other half has been taking advantage of the better weather to build a pergola and seating in the garden out of reclaimed wood so I can read outside this summer in comfort. I’m really excited about this and below is our new rescue cat Minka inspecting the works. See you next month. ❤️📚
This first book in a new crime series from Sarah Hilary is an absolutely brilliant mix of murder case, collective trauma and moments of unsettling horror. Laurie has taken a job as DI in the Peak District area of Edenscar, living in her husband’s childhood home to support his dad who’s been diagnosed with dementia. Her sergeant is Joe Ashe, known throughout the area as the only survivor from his primary school class after a trip ended with their bus at the bottom of Ladybower Reservoir. Joe carries scars from that tragedy, the frequent dislocation of his shoulder joint and an ability to see every child lost that awful day. His constant companion is still his best friend Sammi, who gives Joe his reputation for spooky foresight. When Joe hears a shotgun discharge late on the Friday night he thinks nothing of it, but makes a note of a car lights making their way from the woods to the road towards Manchester. It’s not till Monday morning when they discover the bodies of a young couple shot in the kitchen of their partially renovated house, and their baby drowned in the bath upstairs. They will need all of their skills and experience to solve this while a close knit community is both highly charged and devastated at the same time. With dodgy businessmen, a tearaway for a witness, second home owners and developers with bully boy tactics this is a real labyrinth of a case. Full of dark atmosphere, emotional trauma and some real bone chilling moments, I’m looking forward to more.
This fabulous historical novel from Sara Sheridan has a foundation in Scottish history, a kick- ass nun and a heroine who finds her place in a family she didn’t know she had. When newly married Araminta Moore is contacted about the death of her aunt in Scotland and a bequest, she doesn’t expect a beautiful Georgian house in Edinburgh or her place in an ancestral treasure hunt that goes all the way back to Mary Queen of Scots. I loved that Araminta really grows during the novel, during the quest for the Queen’s crown she starts to trust her own judgement and is incredibly resourceful, it’s noticed that when she escapes from her unlawful custody she uses a method no prisoner has thought of before. When she’s not dangling from rooftops or being pursued by a shadowy organisation called the Hermits, her powers of deduction are really put to the test. She also has to choose who she trusts, particularly the servants on whom she relies. Luckily for her, aunt Saiorse is definitely up to the task, despite being a nun and now called Sister Winifred. Sheridan brings in attitudes and themes that are still causing headlines today, such as the terrible misogyny that all women face. This is a tense, page turning historical mystery, with great characters and a few surprises towards the end. A great read.
I was thrilled when I found out that Patrick Gale had written a sequel to his brilliant novel A Place Called Winter, a novel that’s up there with my favourites of all time. After many years pioneering in Canada, Harry Cane is left in a tough position, when a young woman and her son come looking for a work. He suggests that homestead of his friend and lover Paul, whose sister he once married. Soon the new pair are really at home in Paul’s cabin and it doesn’t take long for Paul to announce their engagement and even worse, Paul stops coming to Harry at night. Only a few years later, after Paul’s sudden death, Harry finds himself blackmailed by Paul’s stepson into selling the farm after he finds a letter Paul wrote to Harry where he’s candid about their feelings. Harry also receives a letter from the daughter he has never seen she was a toddler. She lets him know that she’s married, living in Liverpool with her prison governor husband Terry and they have two daughters, Pip and Whistle by nickname. Would he like to come and meet them? On this visit, for the first time, we will see other people’s reactions to Harry and through each family members narration we see what effect this long-lost member of the family has on each of them. In his usual perceptive way, Harry sees things others don’t and proves a great source of comfort for hyper-anxious granddaughter Whistle, especially when there’s the build up to an execution at the prison. As usual with Gale this is an intelligent, heartfelt and incredibly humane novel and a fitting companion to its prequel.
As this is publishing later in the year I don’t want to say too much this early. However, it is an astonishing, compassionate and empathic novel. This could be Chloe Benjamin’s masterpiece!
At an isolated research station in Antarctica, biologist Laurel Salter washes dishes for a living ten hours a day, six days a week. She tells no one why she left her career, or why her marriage ended. But even in this remote outpost, Laurel can’t outrun her past. When a strange light appears across the ice and draws a group of physicists to McMurdo, her former husband, Eli, won’t be far behind.
Laurel is captivated by the Arc: its surreal glow; the way it seems almost alive. And though Eli is reluctant to test her wildest theory, Laurel is convinced that the Arc leads down a rabbit hole, and into a world they can barely imagine. Can she persuade him to risk everything to fix the burden that hangs between them – to turn back the clock and live their story a second time?
And this time, live it differently.
It’s always great to be back in the company of Jake at his remote home Little Sky. However, it’s not long before murdered pays yet another visit to the area. This time a woman has gone missing after setting off for a jog by the river. Search parties are set up to look for her, but when a body is found in the river it turns out to be a different woman. When the jogger is also found in the river a few days later it starts a panic and what the police must determine is whether both deaths were freak accidents or whether there’s a killer in the area? It’s not longer before they’re calling on Jake’s team and he brings in Alethiea and Martha to try to determine cause of death. The author weaves in the online phenomenons of the manosphere and true crime podcasts into the story, along with a militant feminist potter. There’s so much tension here, possibly more so with his partner Livia being pregnant and very sensitive to issues of safety and a certain true crime influencer’s interest in Jake. Martha is my favourite and she’s her usual blunt speaking and weed smoking self. My only caveat for this one is there’s less of Little Sky which I love, although Jake does install an outdoor bath tub that I’m desperate to be trying out, probably alongside one of the novels from his library.
Finally this month, comes our Squad Pod read of Jane Harper’s Last One Out, a brilliant thriller set in the remote Aussie town of Carrolan Ridge. Carrolan is a dying town. Ever since the Lentzer mining company decided to expand here everything has changed. Some people fought to keep the community together but as offers went out for homes and land surrounding the area of the new quarries it was only a matter of time. At first they offered silly money and the people who took it were seen as traitors, then as the money dwindled more people took the hint. Now it’s a ghost town, only a few people left and a constant vibrating hum of mining activity. Ro left a while ago now but she’s back for a few days, staying with her estranged husband Griff who lives in the house they used to own while he is Lentzer’s fire officer. It’s the annual memorial for their son Sam, who disappeared five years ago at the three houses who held out as long as possible. The bungalow once belonged to his Uncle Warren, but Ro and Griff have no more idea why he was here than they did five years ago. Sam was researching the effect of the industry on the town he was born in, interviewing people who still lived here. He left his hire car half way up the drive and disappeared into thin air. It had been a tough time, Ro’s father was killed by a car and ten day’s later Warren committed suicide in the quarry. Ro only left when the medical centre closed. She was the GP for these people, now she’s an infrequent visitor, no longer able to stay in the place where they were a happy family. Griff can’t leave till he finds his son. When daughter Della arrives they’ll follow the same yearly ritual, but as ever Ro and Griff find their feet take them to where their son disappeared. Still looking for clues as to what went wrong.
This is a slow burn novel but it needs to be so the author can properly explore the complexities of the town’s relationships, the different perspectives between generations and who, if anyone, wanted to harm Sam. As the pressure built I was desperate for Sam’s family to find him, and for Ro and Griff to reach an understanding too. Clues start to appear and I couldn’t put the book down till I knew. The story didn’t end how I expected but it was so good to finally have a flashback and follow Sam on that day and discover what happened. It was a really satisfying ending and made absolute sense, even though I hadn’t expected it at all. This is an excellent slow burn thriller in an incredibly atmospheric setting, exactly what I’d expected from this brilliant author.
So that’s all for April. I hope you have a great reading May, here’s my reading list.
The Lotus Readers 