Netgalley – Page 3 – The Lotus Readers

We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough

Posted on 24th Jun 202524th Jun 2025 by thelotusreaders

Emily and Freddie have been through the mill of late. After a terrible accident when they were on holiday, Freddie has surprised her with the home of their dreams. Emily fell from a cliff on a group holiday and not only did she break her leg in several places, she then developed sepsis and almost lost her life. Now she’s in recovery, still walking on a stick and has been thrust into a whole new life. Larkin Lodge sits just outside a village on the edge of the moors and could be their dream home, but Emily can’t believe Freddie made this huge decision without her. The house is gothic and in the mists and murk of winter it looks a little isolated and spooky. However, she can see that in spring the views will be incredible. As Freddie continues to work in London, Emily spends a lot of time alone and starts to feel uneasy. Sudden drafts and disgusting smells, then heavy footsteps moving across the second floor are unnerving. Freddie is convinced she’s struggling with post concussion syndrome and calls her ITU consultant for advice – much to Emily’s disgust for doing this behind her back. As she starts to look into the history of the house and questions some of the locals, all the different parts of her life start to fall apart. Secrets start to come to light and Emily wonders if the house is having an influence on her.

Freddie made me angry and I couldn’t understand what had kept them together so long. We hear both his and Emily’s viewpoint in alternate chapters. We don’t know how he felt about the ‘pre-accident’ Emily, but here he seems irritable and edgy. He makes Emily doubt her own sanity and even when he has experience of the same things he keeps it to himself. He talks behind her back to the vicar and her consultant – but we can’t help but wonder if it could it all be in Emily’s head? Yet even when she tries to forgive him for his actions he seems strangely disappointed and even angry. He says he hates her superior tone and victim mentality. Is he determined to think the worst of her or is he just a concerned husband looking for answers? They meet a married couple who once lived at the lodge and now live elsewhere in the village. They seem unscathed by their years at the house. He is an artist and loves to paint young models, with his incredibly chilled wife seemingly happy with any potential dalliance. Emily can’t imagine being that accepting of the same with her own marriage. How do they fit in to this strange puzzle?

Emily is a sympathetic narrator although she’s not entirely reliable. It must be so disorientating to wake from a coma and know that your body has been present but your mind has been somewhere else. Added to that is the risk of ICU psychosis – a common condition causing auditory hallucinations, nightmares, sleep disturbances and paranoia. One in three ICU patients are affected after spending five days in the unit so one of her experiences could be explained away. However it’s important that those who love her, listen to her and believe her experience, otherwise it feels like a betrayal. She is desperately looking for answers, researching the archives and talking to locals. Being disturbed in her sleep means she’s up and about in the night and after they throw a party at the lodge she stumbles across another secret and doesn’t know who trust. Would she ever have had thoughts like this before the house? The author cleverly creates tension between what we know about Freddie and Emily and what they know about each other. They’re both keeping secrets and Freddie projects all their problems on to her. Even when she’s quite measured and reasonable or accepts his apologies he becomes angrier. Just occasionally he pauses and wonders where these thoughts are coming from? Is it the shock of Emily’s fall still working on him or is something more insidious at work?

Of course it wouldn’t be a Sarah Pinborough novel without a supernatural element and this one is genuinely scary. It begins with the window on the landing, seemingly opening of it’s own accord. Then sounds on the stairs to the top floor where Emily can’t reach at the moment without severe pain. When she starts talking to older locals about the house there’s a moment that genuinely made the hair stand up on the back of my neck! The chapters from the raven’s perspective are very touching as well as creepy. He has lost his mate at the house and can’t seem to leave her, even with the promise of a new life with a beautiful young raven called Bright Wing. She can’t tempt him from the corpse of his mate, even though she’s no more than papery bones. His grief is so real and I was deeply sad for him. I was very keen to find out what link they both have to Larkin Lodge. Was this an edge of the seat thriller or a ghost story? We’re never quite sure, but i felt compelled to keep reading and find out. Sarah Pinborough is the Queen of this type of gothic thriller and this was another brilliant read, keeping you guessing till the very end.

Meet the Author

Sarah Pinborough is a New York Times bestselling and Sunday Times Number one and Internationally bestselling author who is published in over 25 territories worldwide. Having published more than 25 novels across various genres, her recent books include Behind Her Eyes which will air on Netflix in January 2021, Cross Her Heart, in development for UK television, and 13 Minutes in development with Netflix.

Sarah was the 2009 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story and also the 2010 and 2014 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella, and she has four times been short-listed for Best Novel. She is also a screenwriter who has written for the BBC and is currently working on three TV projects and the film adaptation of her novel The Death House.

Her latest novel, DEAD TO HER and is a dark and twisty, sexy tale of hidden secrets and revenge in high society Savannah and has been sold for TV in the US.

Sarah lives in the historic town of Stony Stratford, the home of the Cock and Bull story, with her dog Ted.

You can follow her on Twitter @sarahpinborough

Netgalley, Publisher Proof

The Midnight Carousel by Fiza Saeed McLynn

Posted on 28th May 202526th May 2025 by thelotusreaders

Maisie spent her early childhood in a ramshackle shed of a house belonging to her foster parents. It isn’t a home though, when the adults in charge are happy to collect the money but not provide the care. The children are cold, hungry and dressed in rags. Luckily she has best friend Tommy to dream about a better future with. One day they find a fairground flyer with a beautiful illustration of a carousel. Maisie keeps it with her and many years later, across the Atlantic Ocean, she meets the carousel again. Her wealthy guardian Sir Malcolm ships it over to America and sits it in the grounds of his mansion. When Maisie decides to hold a party for local children she is so happy to see the carousel being used. It’s finally full of happy smiling faces, but when the ride stops there is one less child on the ride. The little boy on the caramel horse is nowhere to be seen. Maisie finds this particular horse hypnotic, it’s different to the others with the blue diamond decoration on it’s forehead and surrounded by the letters OEHT. She has no idea what it means. Maisie is taken in for questioning, but she’s surprised when a French detective arrives. Someone has already disappeared from this very carousel and a man went to the guillotine, found guilty of murder. Could there be a US accomplice? Or is there something magical about this particular carousel after all?

The novel is set in the early 20th Century and takes us from Paris to Chicago. Maisie certainly has a varied life after such humble beginnings, plucked from the shack by her Aunt Mabel who introduces her to Sir Malcolm and his daughter Catherine. Maisie only just starts to trust her new life when it is ripped away by Spanish influenza. As Maisie slowly recovers, she’s told that both her aunt and new friend Catherine didn’t survive. Maisie is sure she’ll be sent back to her foster home, so she’s surprised when Sir Malcolm asks if she’d like to accompany him to the USA. He’s bought a large house and land near Chicago. Once they’re settled in, Maisie feels like she has a home for the first time and like she has a father figure. I found Maisie smart and resourceful, very capable of helping out with business especially when time has passed since the terrible disappearance of the little boy and they start to discuss a business opportunity. They decide to build a theme park, with the carousel at the centre and call it Silver Kingdom. Maisie throws herself into work and while there’s still the residual trauma of losing her parents and then her aunt, she does start to find her feet. She jumps into the next choice far too quickly at times, but it’s an instinct born of trauma. The anxiety of feeling unsafe is too much so she is vulnerable to people who prey on that and makes bad choices.

She also struggles with fitting in. She is often asked about her heritage because of her dark complexion, but having no memory of her parents she can’t answer. The milk lady, Mrs Papadopolous, says she’s Greek. The fairground runners think she might be one of them, or possibly Italian. She feels rootless, as if a wind might whisk her away at any moment. Continuation and motherhood are themes that run throughout and the women made an impression on me. Mrs Papadopolous is warm and loving towards Maisie, giving her a sense of belonging by saying that home isn’t a place, it’s knowing who you are. There’s also a fortune teller who is always keen to tell Maisie her future, but notices that she’s the only person on the fairground who’s never asked. She makes is clear that Maisie does need to be on her guard, especially where the fairground is concerned. Whereas Sir Malcolm’s sister-in-lane seems to pit herself against Maisie from the start. Perhaps always expecting to inherit his money, she is put out by this orphan who seems to have usurped them. Nancy struggles to conceive and doesn’t cope, descending into alcoholism and bitterness. When Maisie is pregnant the rivalry worsens although she does try to be gentle, knowing that she has everything Nancy wants.

A love story weaves through the mystery very well, with all the traditional obstacles and absences you would expect. There were times I was screaming at Maisie to open her post! Especially when there were misunderstandings and having the whole picture was dependent on the next letter. Her love for Laurent is all encompassing, that once in a lifetime love that lasts forever. They do miscommunicate a lot, mainly due to not expressing their true feelings or not being free. The ‘will they – won’t they’ does last years and I so wanted them to find a way back to each other. There were some parts where I was so engrossed in the romance that I totally forgot there was a mystery to solve. There was also her husband’s bootlegging, the search for Maisie’s birth parents, the drama surrounding a character’s will and each of these strands did take my mind away from the central case a little. After the carousel claims another victim, Maisie decides to encase the caramel horse in glass, so no one else can ride it. I was so looking forward to a magical explanation or for the mystery never to be solved. I wanted to see Maisie’s original vision realised. When she first rode the horse she had a vision or hallucination with stars and what she thinks might be a glimpse of another time or dimension. It was this magical element that kept me reading, rather than an urge to solve the case. That said, the author found a way to do both leaving me with a sense of satisfaction but also a little touch of intrigue.

Out now from Penguin Michael Joseph

Meet the Author

Fiza Saeed McLynn is a British novelist born in Karachi to an English mother and a Pakistani father. She moved to London as a child. After reading Modern History at Oxford University, she had a brief career in finance and then spent the next twelve years helping the bereaved as part of her work as a complementary therapist. Fiza now writes full time from her home in London, which she shares with her American husband, and two children.

Netgalley

The Surgeon’s House by Jody Cooksley

Posted on 24th May 2025 by thelotusreaders

London 1883

Rebecca and husband George run Evergreen House as a home for young girls and their illegitimate children, often called a house for ‘fallen women’. This has been a positive change. Previously, Rebecca’s sister Maddie was the woman of the house as the wife of Dr Everley. Maddie is recovering well after being on trial for the murder of her baby and the revelation that the Everley family had a tradition of hideous experimentation on the bodies of babies to create strange chimeras. Rebecca knows their tenure here is precarious. The Everley family still own the house, but with Dr Everley dead and his sister Grace in a prison asylum no one currently needs it. The small household are very close so all are devastated when the cook and centre of their household, Rose, is murdered. Rebecca is shocked by the death of her friend in what seems to be a random act. Rose’s death isn’t the end of the mysterious events at Evergreen. Rebecca fears the past is coming back to haunt them, the murderous and twisted legacy of the Everley family is hard to ignore. What was a sanctuary is becoming dangerous as the evil presence continues it’s work. With the charity board also tightening their grip on the house, Rebecca must draw out the murderer and discover their purpose.

This was a great companion novel to The Small Museum which told the story of Maddie’s marriage to Dr Everley. Rebecca was once one of Grace Everley’s fallen girls, but this was just a way of acquiring babies for her brother. It was great to see Maddie again especially so happy with her partner Tizzy. They are both regular visitors to Evergreen. There’s such a positive atmosphere and the residents are able to live alongside their babies, unlike the terrible Magdalen Laundries where babies were taken for adoption and their mothers were forced into heavy labour to repent their sin, repay their debt and make a profit for the church. The truth is that most of these girls have been manipulated, coerced or abused. Rebecca works on the premise that they shouldn’t be punished twice. There’s a lovely parallel with Maddie’s paintings of mythical women that she’s submitting to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Helen of Troy is seen as the cause of the Trojan War, but she had no agency in the story. She’s desired by a man who abducts her by force. Medusa is raped in the temple of Athena, but the goddess chooses to punish her for desecrating the temple, giving her snakes for hair and a gaze that turns men to stone. Neither woman asked for what happened to them. Maddie has painted them on huge powerful canvasses, a monument to women mistreated by men.

The house is becoming a hive of activity in the lead up to Easter. The children are excited, painting eggs and helping their mums to weave colourful baskets. So it is a shock to them when Rose is gone. She was always helping the children to bake and had a listening ear for anyone in the household who needed it. It’s as if the heart has been taken from their home. Downstairs at Evergreen has always been a different matter. Psychologist, Dr Threlfall practises in the basement at the behest of Grace Everley. He ensured Maddie wasn’t wrongly convicted of the murder of her baby and Rebecca is grateful, but is slightly suspicious of what he’s researching. He has an interest in eugenics, measuring the girl’s heads, the placement of their features and notes any patterns. He’s trying to create a taxonomy of fallen women as if their sin might be predicted by physical characteristics. Rebecca worries he’s been inspired by old Dr Everley’s research into pain – especially when she hears one of the girl’s scream from his room. Then there’s the room next door where one of the servants is practising her taxidermy, in an unhygienic way! It’s as if the interests and hobbies of the Everley’s are ingrained in the fabric of the house.

In between Rebecca’s narrative, we have Grace Everley’s. She’s incarcerated and seems to be teetering on the brink of insanity. Used to manipulating people with her beauty, her finery is a thing of the past and her beautiful hair has been completely shaved off. She’s still incensed that Dr Threlfall testified for Maddie, sending her brother to the gallows. What she cares about most and the focus for her vengeful thoughts, is that her father’s work isn’t being continued. She takes us back to her teenage years and participating in her father’s pain research – now she is utterly stoic and she can completely separate mind from body, blocking out her pain receptors. I did feel a tiny bit of sympathy for her because she didn’t stand a chance growing up in that environment. Having been used by her father she could have been a submissive mouse, but instead she became powerful and used her feminine charms to control the men around her. Could she still have that influence?

The men in the novel are mainly concerned with controlling their environment and all the women in it. Dr Threlfall is the last link between the Everley family and Evergreen House. He may be an effective doctor but his interest in eugenics is concerning. It always leads to controlling people’s behaviour and persecuting those who don’t fit the rigid ideal. It lead to some of the biggest atrocities of the 20th Century. Looking to categorise a type of woman who ends up in trouble, lets men off the hook for what happens to them. Mr Lavell is equally discriminatory. He thinks that women who have children out of wedlock must be punished for their actions and only the Bible and physical work will remind them of the terrible choices they’ve made. He finds Rebecca’s methods too lenient and would like the children sent to the orphanage. Then he’d bring laundry in for the women, to keep them penitent and make a profit for the charity board. Only George is absolutely steadfast to his wife. When a woman turns up at the door asking for kitchen work, Rebecca goes her a chance even though her references will need chasing after the fact. Things start to deteriorate quickly once Angela is in charge in the kitchen and it’s definitely not the heart of the home any more. She could have a bedroom but chooses to bed down in the cupboard where Dr Everley kept his specimens. She doesn’t try to make connections and won’t have children baking in the kitchen. Rebecca is concerned and then incensed when she suspects her of selling one of the women’s stories to a Penny Dreadful. When one of the youngest children falls ill, Rebecca knows for sure that something evil lurks in the house. She feels assailed from all sides, evil from within and outside forces trying to force their own agenda. She has to solve the mystery before the charity board get wind of their problems and use it to close them down.

This was a tense and atmospheric read. I could feel the warmth and happiness slowly being sucked from Evergreen House. It did feel evil, like a creeping black mould slowly covering everything. This really showed the inequality in society and how the fates of these women are decided by men; especially ironic when men are complicit, if not to blame for their supposed fall. One man seeks a genetic reason for their loose morals. Another feels they haven’t atoned for their sin. While a third would take away their children and punish them with hard labour. Not a single one questions their own behaviour or even doubts their right to pass judgement. Yet there are admirable women calmly showing compassion, understanding and professionalism, while stuck in this patriarchal system. Grace Everley gives me the shivers, but she is a victim too. I was held in suspense over who was the murderer and whether Rebecca’s home could remain the loving and caring space women need. There were heart-stopping moments, especially towards the end. The scene in the garden had me holding my breath. This is the perfect gothic mystery, especially for fans of historical fiction who like a touch of feminism on the side. This is a must-buy, for the engrossing story and for the gorgeous cover too.

Out Now from Allison and Busby

Meet the Author

Jody Cooksley is an author represented by literary agent Charlotte Seymour at Johnson & Alcock.

In 2023 she won the Caledonia Novel Award with The Small Museum, a chilling Victorian thriller that was published in hardback, ebook and audio with Allison&Busby in May 2024. Paperback publication was February 2025 and the sequel, The Surgeon’s House will be published in hardback, e-book and audio in May 2025.

Previous novels include award-nominated The Glass House, a fictional account of Victorian pioneer photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron (Cinnamon Press, 2020), and How to Keep Well in Wartime (Cinnamon Press, 2022)

She is currently writing more Victorian gothic novels. She has previously published essays, short stories and flash fiction.

Jody works in communications and lives in Surrey with her husband, two sons, two forest cats and a dangerous mountain of books.

Netgalley, Throwback Thursday

Missing Pieces by Laura Pearson

Posted on 22nd May 2025 by thelotusreaders

I’ve read a little bit of Laura Pearson before, so I did come to this expecting a moving and powerful story. It didn’t disappoint. When Bea is born it should have been a healing, new chapter for the family – mum, dad and older sister Esme. However, Bea was born to a family struggling in the aftermath of a tragedy. Esme was only seven years old when her sister Phoebe died suddenly and unexpectedly. It hits Esme hard because she was supposed to be looking after her sister. Their dad Tom feels an immense weight of guilt because he shouldn’t have stayed out later than expected. Esme’s mother is also wrestling with guilt and blame, she’d briefly popped next door to help a neighbour knowing that Tom would be home imminently. This is a story of a family, years later, struggling with unimaginable loss. How can they learn to forgive each other, or themselves?

Laura splits the story into two sections: the first months after Phoebe’s death interspersed with a narrative where Bea is trying to understand what happened to her family a couple of decades later. These feelings are coming to the surface because she herself is pregnant. I really enjoyed the section in the present day as Bea searches for the truth when her parents won’t ever talk about it. It reminded me of something my mum has recently done. Her first sister, Teresa, died on Bonfire Night 1959 and although she doesn’t remember everything she does have a memory of a tiny coffin that my grandad was carrying and putting in a black car. Mum tracked down a community group who were looking for the resting place of their stillborn babies in the same area where she grew up. Back then, if there was no money for a funeral or a grave plot then a baby might have been buried in a coffin with someone else or in a grave for several bodies. Three years ago she was able to take my grandma to a ceremony at the graveyard in Liverpool where a memorial was finally in place for babies lost and buried in a pauper’s grave on the site. It’s easy to underestimate how much the death of a baby affects other children in the house and i think we all underestimated how it still affected my grandma who is now 91.

Bea feels like she’s lost part of her identity. This loss is part of their joint family history and no one is addressing or memorialising it. Of course this is tough for other family members, all of whom blame themselves. The loss for Bea and her older sister Esme is threefold: they lost a sister, they lost the relationships and life experiences they would have had as three sisters and they lost the happy family life they might have had if their parents hadn’t been carrying the weight of all that grief and guilt. As for the other characters in the book, I did find Linda a bit of a struggle. It’s clear she’s never fully connected with Bea and when we go back in time we can see her conflicting emotions over being heavily pregnant. She is buried by her grief for Phoebe and feels bad for being pregnant again. She doesn’t want to replace Phoebe and sometimes wishes she wasn’t pregnant. A combination of fear, guilt, sadness and anger take over and she really wasn’t there for Esme or Bea, once she’s born. In the past sections there’s an oppressive atmosphere that hasn’t fully lifted, even in the girl’s adulthood. Esme can’t talk with her father so Bea doesn’t stand a chance when wanting to ask questions. It would mean delving back into the pain and communicating honestly, but no one wants to go back into the raw grief and horror of that day. Bea wonders how she can be a good mother when she has no relationship with her own. Will the family be able to rally around her, find a way to talk and become a united family again?

It’s a trademark of Laura’s books that characters are forced to talk about difficult and frightening experiences or situations they find themselves in. I love the openness and honesty these issues need and it is like a counselling process if people can start sharing and healing. I did shed some tears at times. I thought the author’s depiction of the parent’s grief was realistic and raw. We’re let into every aspect of a characters mind, no matter what their thoughts might be. I could genuinely feel these character’s emotions and pain. Yes, this is intense. Somehow through, this isn’t off-putting. We’re given just enough glimpses of hope to lift the story, personified by the new start Bea’s baby brings to the family. I found myself gripped, willing these people to give themselves a break and stop being angry with themselves and each other. This is an emotional but satisfying novel that shows healing is possible, if we’re willing to do the work. Beautifully written, emotional and ultimately hopeful.

Out now from Boldwood Books

Meet the Author

Laura Pearson is the author of five novels. The Last List of Mabel Beaumont was a Kindle number one bestseller in the UK and a top ten bestseller in the US. Laura lives in Leicestershire, England, with her husband, their two children, and a cat who likes to lie on her keyboard while she tries to write.

Netgalley

The Stars and Their Light by Olivia Hawker

Posted on 14th May 202513th May 2025 by thelotusreaders

I was instantly fascinated with the subject matter of this book – the 1947 Roswell Incident in New Mexico. As any good X-Files fan knows this was the most famous potential UFO sighting in history. An unidentified craft lands in a field and local workers find objects they can’t identify. There are witnesses too who can’t explain what they’ve seen, even though the government claims it’s merely a stray weather balloon. This felt very pertinent at a time when unexplained phenomena, particularly in the USA, are once again giving rise to conspiracy theories such as the Blue Beam Project. Here we meet Betty Campbell whose father Roger is based at Roswell and brings home an object from the landing site. Roger and his friend Harvey Day have been on the recovery team and are shocked by what they found. Both men served in WW2 so they’ve seen action, but this has Roger so confused he goes against orders and takes a fragment home to his family. However, when his daughter Betty handles it, she develops stigmata. Lured by a possible miracle the Catholic Church sends Sister Mary Agnes to stay at a local convent and investigate this apparent miracle.

This book was different to anything I’ve read before, but was a combination of many genres I love to read – science fiction, historical fiction and family drama. Sister Agnes is part of a local cloistered order, but here she will act as their PR in a way, liaising with local people and being the supportive face of the order. She is certainly the only person supporting the Campbell family, as Roger’s superiors start to shut down speculation. Betty is being ostracised in town and desperately needs a friend. She’s scared, confused and lonely. There are complex emotional matters here, such as how we cope when something we’ve seen surpasses our own understanding or clashes with our faith. There’s a loss of belonging – whether it be to the army, the church or a social group. I thought the interactions between Betty and Mary Anne were full of a yearning to understand and cope with a faith that might waver in the face of unexpected evidence. The clash between the Catholic Church and this encounter with the unknown is an almighty one, but it’s also a clash between the patriarchy and a young girl deemed ‘not holy enough’ to be visited by a miracle according to the bishops who come to witness the stigmata. If it isn’t a miracle what exactly is it? When the church maintains their stance that what’s above our world is heaven and the earth and all it inhabitants were all made over seven days, it seems reasonable to ask who made the other planets? Not to mention the galaxies beyond. Is Betty being punished or rewarded with this miracle? Especially when she discloses that her chosen course of study at college was going to be astrophysics. The church’s attitude is about trying to keep the status quo. Readers who have a faith or who are unable to stretch their mind beyond the established narrative on UFO sightings, might find the novel’s tone disrespectful but I quite enjoyed the anti-establishment feeling.

I would categorise the book as historical fiction more than sci-fi because it’s exploration of attitudes as they were at the time is the central theme of the book. It doesn’t take the UFO story forward or leap into alien worlds. The church’s role and attitudes were specific to the time period too, a plan of shutting down the claims and gossip to keep the church’s current role and influence in the community. Now poor Betty’s plight would be all over Facebook in seconds. I thought the characters, particularly Betty and Mary Anne were well written and felt very real. Their interactions were authentic and rooted within a desire to help. It’s a slow but utterly unique story that I felt fully explored such an unprecedented experience and the way people were affected by it. The author’s note at the back is an absolute mine of information about Roswell and the historical documentation on the event. We’re also told about the author’s own experiences, which show how she’s managed to write these characters and experience with such authenticity. This was different to sci-fi because it focused on the earth and human interaction with a UFO experience, as well as the response of powerful institutions whose first instinct is to reinforce the existing belief systems and behaviours. I felt that Mary Anne and Betty’s relationship almost existed outside that and became a therapeutic relationship for both concerned. This was unusual, interesting and made me think about my beliefs and how I’d come to hold them.

Meet the Author

Olivia Hawker is the pen name of American author Libbie Grant. Olivia writes historical “book club” fiction, for which she has appeared on the Washington Post bestseller list and has been a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Willa Literary Award. Her novel One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, a favorite of readers around the world, was among Amazon’s Top 100 Bestselling Books of 2020. Under her real name, she writes literary fiction, and—via her podcast, Future Saint of a New Era—experiments with modern storytelling techniques that transcend the limitations of the printed word. A permanent resident of Canada, she divides her time between Victoria, BC and the San Juan Islands of Washington State. For more information, please visit hawkerbooks.com.

Netgalley

The Cliff Hanger by Emily Freud

Posted on 7th May 2025 by thelotusreaders

You think you know how this ends. Think again.

Goodness this was a wild ride, full of unexpected twists, characters that are pathological and a book being written within a book. Married couple Felix and Emma seem to have it all. They are the husband and wife team behind the hugely successful Morgan Savage thrillers. However, their latest novel isn’t coming as easily as their others. Felix is drinking to the point of blacking out and had an affair with a girl called Robin who worked for their publishing house. Emma is angry and popping anxiety pills any chance she gets. Their publisher Max, exiles them to the South of France in the hope that new surroundings for the summer will unlock their creativity. The house is beautiful, on a cliff overlooking the sea, when visiting housekeeper Juliette tells them a story about a painting that hangs in the house an uneasiness hangs in the air. The girl was prone to sleepwalking and one night got out into the garden and walked directly off the cliff edge. Sometimes, her cries can be heard at night. Under the sweltering sun, will the couple heal their differences or will they become trapped in a deadly game that beats the plot of any Morgan Savage bestseller.

This is a slow burn thriller, but when it does start to speed up it’s like a runaway train. Emma seems quite rigid and tightly controlled, almost as if she’s stifling her true feelings or self. Felix appears to be the more relaxed of the pair, sociable and happy to succumb to the pleasures of France. The couple met in a New York book shop, where Felix was sitting with his well worn copy of The Catcher in the Rye. Emma had a studious air, probably from the extra large glasses she wore. Both had always wanted to write but hadn’t yet succeeded. Years later Emma has become a neutral wearing, elegant and sophisticated woman who doesn’t like to be out of control. As an editor she knows what sells when it comes to fiction and how to jazz up or change the structure of a manuscript to create a bestseller. She writes early in the day, always sending her chapter of the book to Felix by 10am and then relaxing by the pool. Felix receives the chapter alongside little notes with suggestions or directions for Felix to follow. He falls out of bed (or wherever he slept) whenever he wakes, often nearer to lunchtime than breakfast. He has a leisurely start with plenty of coffee and when he’s feeling human again he gets to the book. He accepts that this is the way their joint writing works, but since they’re in France why not take the odd day off? He knows that without Emma starting the novel he would struggle. He had dreams of writing a great literary novel one day, but it’s never happened. His skills lend themselves to being the face of Morgan Savage. He does the festivals and book readings, because his charm and abilities lend themselves to being out front. He even signs their books as Morgan Savage, so it’s usually him people recognise. Emma stays behind the scenes, preferring the work to the publicity. She starts the new book on their first morning and then pushes Felix into his chapter each day to keep the momentum. Even in the quiet it’s clear there are resentments between them, a marriage’s worth of petty differences building towards a crescendo.

Over the days little snippets of their lives emerge until we finally see the full picture. The pace picks up and the chapters get shorter and I was soon racing through the chapters to see what would happen next. My other half found me sat on a kitchen stool, cooking and reading at the same time. It leaves you desperate to know what happens next. At one point I had to check how close I was to the end on my Kindle but found myself really confused when I still had 15% of the book left. I thought I’d reached the end, that’s how clever the twists and turns are. I loved the book within a book, especially the way they are writing characters that explored their own marriage. Each has their own version though and while Emma would signpost where Felix should go next, she would receive his chapter and find he’d develop a character with entirely the opposite emphasis and behaviour. They’re using their writing like couple’s therapy, working out the kinks and plot holes but also punishing and spiting their spouse at every turn. It gets even more exciting when the tone and quality of the writing start to change at one side of the partnership. There are mistakes in grammar and spelling, but is this a sign of deteriorating mental health, over use of drink or drugs or something more sinister. I found myself wondering whether I trusted either narrator.

Juliette is the girl who services the property. A carefree and natural young woman who cycles the area doing odds and ends for work. She’s the epitome of the term free spirit and could be a prime opportunity for Felix to continue his philandering ways. However, he’s confused when Emma befriends her, despite them being so different. Emma is also affected by Juliette’s story of the girl falling from the cliff and even has a bout of sleepwalking herself. Felix finds her in a trance in the living room and convinces her to go back to bed. Is this a reaction to Juliette’s story or something else? Emma was starting to remind me of Parker Posey’s character in the latest series of The White Lotus, uptight and reliant on pills to function. Could this be why the quality of the writing deteriorates or is Felix busier in his blackouts than previously thought? Just because he can’t remember doing anything, doesn’t mean he isn’t. This was a great story to get my teeth into and honestly, if they’d come to me as therapist, I might have asked them if they’d considered living apart. It’s a toxic atmosphere from the moment they arrive, but just when you think you’ve worked out why and what’s really going on it will surprise you again. As we go back in time, using flashbacks to important events, we can see how their romantic and professional lives began but these glimpses started to make me question what I thought I knew. I wanted to race back through the chapters to search for the clues that brought us to the unexpected conclusion. This was a thrilling and atmospheric read, with a brilliant portrayal of how a relationship has become toxic. If you love relationship dynamics partnered with a whole amusement park of twists and turns this will be your next completely unputdownable read.

Out 8th May from Quercus

Meet the Author

Emily Freud is the author of four thrillers: My Best Friend’s Secret, What She Left Behind, Her Last Summer and, coming in 2025, The Cliffhanger. She spent her career working on award-winning television programmes, including Educating Yorkshire, First Dates, and SAS: Who Dares Wins – as well as developing original programming for all the main broadcasters.

Netgalley

The Show Woman by Emma Cowing

Posted on 29th Apr 2025 by thelotusreaders

I loved this book about four women brought together creating an all female mini circus. Lena is the show woman of the title and as well as managing all their finances and planning, she is the ring mistress. Violet escapes another circus to become their trapeze artist. Rosie is their bareback rider, while Carmen can be a musician, acrobat and dancer whose costume is a swirling rainbow of ribbons. Set in 1910, we meet the Grand Dame of the show circuit in Scotland – Serena Linden. Serena is the show woman behind Linden’s Circus renowned throughout Scotland and the only circus to perform at Balmoral for Queen Victoria and the royal family. Serena is the old guard who has inherited her circus from her father. She is old, arthritic, bitter and quite capable of settling scores with trickery and violence. She particularly likes to thwart those who flee her employ and move to other shows or even worse,start their own.

Lena has always been at the background of the circus and fair ground scene she has lived in all her life. Her mother disappeared a long time ago and she doesn’t remember her. Now her father has died and has left just their caravan and his carousel. She is told she’d better it sell it if she wants to have a life, because her only other options are to find a husband or a factory job. That’s until Violet arrives with a proposition. Violet is known for her flame red hair and her talent on the trapeze, she is known by fairground people as the greatest trapeze artist that’s ever lived, but also for being outspoken and a bit of a loner. What if they started their own show? They’re both outcasts and have nothing to lose. When they start to look for performers they find two more women on the run. Rosie has practiced her bareback riding with her pony Tommy for years. In fact she never imagined escaping her abusive father, but couldn’t stand it any longer. Finally there’s Carmen, a beautiful Spanish girl with luscious black hair and a lot of secrets. She dances and performs acrobatics in her rainbow ribbons. With Lena as ringmaster and an old but serviceable tent can they last the season?

I loved spending time with these wonderful women. I wanted to mother Rosie who desperately needs to let the truth out about her father and the after dark fumbling in the laundry cupboard. Her relationship with Tommy the pony is so beautiful because of the trust they have in each other, so when he fell ill I was so worried. Her burgeoning feelings for Violet are so pure and totally separate from the shame she’s holding onto. Violet is brilliantly herself and never tries to be anything else. She has a preference for women and has years of experience in this world, knowing how careful she must be. She knows that leaving Linden’s was risky so when their show is sabotaged she wonders if it might be Serena’s goons. Especially when they wreak the ultimate revenge on her specifically. Violet doesn’t know how she’ll cope if she ever can’t fly. Carmen keeps her cards close to her chest but somehow finds a home with the other women. She holds a lot of shame, for the years she spent on the streets, destitute and selling the only thing she has left. It’s this past that threatens her place in the show, when a misunderstanding comes between her and Lena.

I really enjoyed Lena, who’s strong and old, perfectly capable of organising three women and travelling from place to place iin season. It’s Lena who gets up early, has a dip in the river or stream then sets up the camp fire and cooks breakfast for the others. I could imagine her in her usual ‘ringmaster’ outfit, with the combination of the masculine clothes her long hair and red lipstick bringing a sass and sexiness to her role. Love is her undoing. It’s an instant attraction between her and Violet’s brother Harry, who no longer works on the shows but has become a music hall singer. He offers advice on the show and protection when a couple of men lurk around the caravan, seeing four women as sitting ducks. When the women’s luck changes and Violet is angry and frustrated she lets slip a secret that breaks Lena’s heart. The women come apart. Can Lena find out about the sabotage and her family history by visiting Serena Linden?

Lena is determined to understand her past , uncovering a kinship between her and one of the others that has been hidden for years. She is also determined to find out who committed the act of sabotage against Violet. Was it about the show or was it more personal? She becomes the head of this family, determined to bring them all back together. A community that fully supports each other, who listen and understand the circumstances and pain that has brought them here. I was rooting for all of these women and not just the show, but their new found independence and friendships. It was those evenings where they were talking in the caravan after a show, too full of adrenaline to sleep. Or the warm and sunny days when they got chance to swim in a local lake or river, to wash their hair. Then there were the joint efforts to save Rosie’s pony. It’s these moments that are just as magical for these women as the seconds before Violet lets go and flies through the air.

Out May 1st 2025

Meet the Author

Emma Cowing is a journalist and author. She was shortlisted for the 2023 Cheshire Novel Prize, and longlisted for the 2023 Bath Novel Award and Blue Pencil First Novel Award. She lives in Glasgow with her husband Jonathan and their cat, Moses. The Show Woman is her first novel.

Netgalley

The Maid’s Secret by Nita Prose

Posted on 25th Apr 202523rd Apr 2025 by thelotusreaders

It was a joy to be back in Molly the Maid’s company again. It always takes just a couple of sentences for me to feel like I never left her world. In some ways her life could be seen as unchanged. She’s still Molly, as wholly herself as ever, living in her late grandmother’s flat with her fiancé Juan, chef at the Regency Grand. In other ways things have changed, Molly manages the maids and has become ‘Events Manager’ so she’s definitely gone up in the world at work. Two important events loom in the near future – Molly and Juan’s wedding at City Hall is on the horizon – but today the two darlings of the antique world are filming an episode of their TV show Hidden Treasures in the tearoom of the hotel. Beagle and Brown are known jointly as the Bees. They wear a lot of velvet, bow ties and smoking jackets and are the married presenters of the show that runs like our own Antiques Roadshow. People queue to have their valuables appraised in the hope of either owning a secret masterpiece or appearing on the TV. At the last moment, before they leave the flat that morning, Juan suggests Molly takes her grandmother’s box of treasures, including a highly decorated egg that came to her from the Grimsthorpe estate. When the Bees see this particular treasure their eyes light up. They seem to know immediately that this is very special and they must get it on camera. As the cameras roll they tell Molly that this looks like a lost Russian imperial egg, possibly the prototype for all the ones that followed. It’s one of a kind, decorated with rubies and emeralds by Fabergé himself. It’s worth could be several million dollars. Molly doesn’t seem to take the news in and wants to carry on as normal, but as the clip is shared online it becomes impossible and Mr Preston has to take them home. The couple sit in their flat utterly shell shocked. Will life ever be the same again?

Things go from bad to worse when Molly agrees to auction the egg at the hotel, again run by Brown and Beagle. It might be the only way to return things to normal. She can’t imagine being wealthy and so far has only committed to a slightly larger wedding. As the auction reaches fever pitch, all eyes are on the egg in it’s glass case on the podium. As the hammer goes down at ten million dollars there are celebrations across the room and no one notices, until the Bees draw attention back to the egg, that there’s just an empty case. The author follows this story as the police are called in and an investigations get underway, but between this narrative are chapters from the past. It isn’t long after the auction when Mr Preston reunites Molly with a different relic from the past – her late grandmother’s diary. The ornate key to open it has always been in her grandmother’s cabinet but Molly has never known what it was for and she isn’t ready to open it just yet. We still get the tale though, written directly to Molly in a series of letters. We might learn about her past with Mr Preston, but also why she was estranged from her whole family. We also might find out what might her give up her daughter, Molly’s mother Maggie.

Molly is the heart and soul of the book though and she doesn’t disappoint. She is genuinely flummoxed by people’s reaction after the valuation. As guests and even fellow staff start to photograph her working, Molly just wants to get on. In the main people just want to congratulate her but Cheryl is her usual self, taking and selling pictures of NYC’s newest potential millionaire. Molly doesn’t understand what’s changed because she’s the same person with exactly the same values as before. When the egg is stolen, all she wants to do is help the police to recover it, although she isn’t necessarily happy about the chaos it’s brought to her life. Molly is a great detective though and admired by Police Detective Stark for her ability to notice patterns and follow the logic of a case. She also has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the hotel, which might be invaluable when working out how someone could steal something in plain sight. I did feel sorry for Molly, especially when she’s talked into trying on wedding dresses in a high end store by her protégée Lily. The pair are horrified to find out it is a publicity stunt for the TV cameras. Molly truly believes she has everything she could want – her job, Juan, Mr Preston, their home. She’s almost given up on her mother who does make an appearance here. A child never loses that tiny bit of hope when it comes to a parent and it’s so heartbreaking to see Molly taking this chance. I was desperately hoping Maggie was there for the right reasons.

Molly’s grandmother’s narrative reads like a fairy tale. A young girl with wealthy but distant parents, becomes a pawn in their game when fortunes are running low. They know that their business is going to fail and a rival is trying to buy it up. As the money dries up their daughter might be the only way they can revive their fortunes. Unfortunately Molly’s grandmother is more interested in her education than making an advantageous marriage. She’s fallen in love already although she’s fighting it. John is the nephew of their housekeeper, has a scholarship at the same school and has been given access to family’s library for his studies. They have an instant spark with lots of banter and academic competition, but her head is turned when she has the chance to date the fabulously handsome and wealthy son of the man who’s buying their company. If she pleases him, maybe their fortunes will be saved. He’s certainly charming, but is that all surface? The dairy feels like a cautionary tale for young women and men do not come out of it very well. Molly doesn’t really need to read it as she’s always listened to her grandmother’s advice. However, it might just give her a clue…

This is a charming and heart-warming read that brings Molly full circle in terms of her background and having her life exactly where she wants it. There is a special joy in a character like this who you can absolutely root for. Her modest wants in life are refreshing and old fashioned in a way. As many point out, it’s rare to see one of the little people, rewarded by a quirk of fate. I knew there were so many obstacles to overcome, not just the theft but the question of ownership and provenance if it was returned. I knew that it would be a great read either way because Molly is the sort of character who will find her happiness with or without the golden egg.

Meet the Author

Nita Prose is the author of the Molly the Maid series, including THE MISTLETOE MYSTERY, THE MYSTERY GUEST, and THE MAID, which has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide and was published in over forty countries. A #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestseller and a GOOD MORNING AMERICA Book Club Pick, THE MAID won the Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction, the Fingerprint Award for Debut Novel of the Year, the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, and the Barry Award for Best First Mystery. THE MAID was also an Edgar Award finalist for Best Novel. Nita lives in Toronto, Canada, in a house that is moderately clean.

Netgalley

The Eights by Joanna Miller

Posted on 8th Apr 20256th Apr 2025 by thelotusreaders

I pre-ordered this book as soon as I read the blurb. I could see myself falling in love with this story of four pioneering women who attend Oxford University as part of the first cohort to gain an actual degree. The four women arrive at Oxford in a time of great upheaval. The First World War has ended and women have just been awarded the vote. Women have experienced more freedom during war time, by working to replace enlisted men, volunteering for the war effort. Beatrice comes from a progressive family, with a suffragette mother who attended Oxford herself. Beatrice is very political, obviously a feminist and is used to being noticed, as she’s usually the tallest woman in a room. Marianne is a scholarship student, but she seems to have secrets. She returns home every other weekend and struggles financially but she is determined to get what education she can. Ottoline (Otto) comes from a wealthy family, but is haunted by volunteering for a nursing role during the war. She found it so distressing, she was redeployed as a driver giving patients transportation rather than working on the front line. She’s had symptoms of PTSD ever since, but also feelings of shame that she couldn’t do her duty. Dora also struggles with the consequences of war. She received a letter from her fiancé Charles’s regiment to inform her he’d been killed, then only two weeks later her brother George also lost his life. She still sees Charles wherever she goes and being so close to his university only serves to keep him at the forefront of her mind. These four girls are assigned to a corridor where the rooms start with the number eight, giving them their affectionate nickname. This seemingly random allocation starts strong friendships as the girls help each other negotiate their university work, their memories of the war and being taken seriously by their male counterparts.

Oxford University is the oldest English- speaking university in the world, having and I was amazed to read it was founded in the 11th Century. The first colleges for men were fully established 200 years later and the Bodleian Library opened in 1602. Women were only starting show interest in an Oxford education in the late 1800s and four women’s colleges were established, however even after years of negotiation to do the same courses as men, women had to be chaperoned to lectures. I was also amazed that despite doing exactly the same exams, women could not be awarded degrees and dons would still refuse to teach them. I couldn’t imagine doing all that work, then having nothing tangible to show for it. It must have been soul-destroying. The author’s story begins after women got the vote and it took until 1920 for women to become fully enrolled at the university as men had been, a ritual called matriculation. The author lays out this facts at the beginning of the novel, which is brilliant for setting the scene generally but also allows us into what is an exclusive world with it’s own language and culture. She separates her book into the named terms – such as Michaelmas or Hilary – and lays out the dress code and rules, different for men and women. She also lets us into what the exams are called and has a glossary at the back in case you get lost. Finally she splits her first chapter between the four girls so we get a really good sense of who they are and where they’re from.

This is a real character led novel from Joanna Miller, creating a similar feel to those novels I loved as a girl such as the Little Women series or What Katy Did At School. With both of those novels I felt like I knew the characters and they would be great fun to be friends with. I loved the secret societies, the scrapes they got into and the character building lessons learned. This has all that, but with great emotional heft and real, gritty issues from that time period. I loved how the characters developed over time and how each of the friends supported but also changed each other with their different backgrounds and perspectives on the world. I felt Marianne’s predicament strongly, in that she’s landed with three friends who are reasonably comfortable financially. I felt it when they all swapped presents for Christmas, but Marianne couldn’t afford to buy for each of them, so instead created a framed favourite poem each. Her offerings are always from the heart and she’s definitely the most thoughtful and most serious of the girls. She also has the hurdle of illness to climb over, as well as whatever takes her home on weekends. The others notice that she’s never managed her reading so what is she doing? She has the constant fear of not passing the year and losing her scholarship, so she’s mentally preparing herself for the eventuality of only spending one year studying. Ottoline is probably her opposite, in fact if it wasn’t for her love of maths she might be tearing about London with her sister and the rest of the Bright Young Things. There’s the rather imperious side to Otto, such as the way she’s always scuttling into tearooms and the nickname ‘Baroness’ that she earned in the war. However, there’s a softer side too and that terrible sense of failure she still feels. Yet she definitely comes through for Marianne when she contracts flu. Otto proves capable of dealing with bodily fluids, cooling Marianne in the bath and even washing her down with a damp cloth. She is even the first to uncover Marianne’s secret and guards it ferociously.

Beatrice is living with the weight of her mother’s success, both as a student of Oxford and a suffragette. She is a woman of ‘considerable reknown’ and this has given Beatrice an interesting childhood. She now has several hobbies – writing letters to politicians and watching debates in the commons, propagating orchids and being able to read Ancient Greek. She seems the perfect fit for Oxford but has never really lived in close proximity to other young women or lived anywhere but the family home in Bloomsbury. Two key events in the book seem to shape her future. She meets a young woman called Ursula who is outspoken, political and wears men’s clothing, which is much more comfortable than women’s. Beatrice is bowled over by her new acquaintance and is determined to wear men’s shirts and ties from then on. There is also the ceremony for her mother who will finally be awarded an Oxford degree. There’s a constant push and pull between who Beatrice is and where she has come from; does she accept and enjoy the legacy of her mother, or does she move away from it? Through her we learn about some of the most harrowing aspects of the suffragette’s fight, particularly the way the women were treated as protestors and prisoners. Dora is a delightful girl from the country, who comes to university seeming rather old-fashioned. Her longer skirts and waist length hair seem incongruous when hemlines are rising and hair is being shingled shorter than ever. Yet she’s weighed down with the early throes of bereavement and has come to Oxford in the hope of feeling closer to the memory of her fiancé who should have come to Queen’s College. She wants more from life than to pour tea, play whist and prop up her mother whose grief is inconsolable. Dora will perhaps change the most and with a terrible shock to come, she may have to make a decision between the new life she has created or her old one.

I loved every moment I spent with these young women. They are all equally interesting and important so I couldn’t pick one I gelled with most. I loved Beatrice’s awakening, her straight forward manner and her bravery. Otto made me laugh and became so much more nuanced than the spoiled rich girl she could have been. Dora’s gentle strength is admirable, especially when it is tested. Marianne is the dark horse of the group, but she’s surprising and has a strong sense of what is right for her. This is a favourite time period for me so I loved the clothing, the outings, the rising tide of women wanting more from life than a ring and motherhood. These women are the birth of who we are now and I think the author was really successful in portraying issues that are still relevant. As we see women’s rights being eroded and the misogyny on social media, the novel is also about how men treat women. It can even be seen in small ways, such as the pranks played on the women by male students. However, it’s also the control wielded by a father figure or professor, the deception and double-standards men use to manipulate women, the sexual predator or abuser who finds a chance moment or a position of power to commit violence. I believe that just the chance to pursue their education with the freedom men take for granted, is a huge step for the women in terms of status but also self-confidence. However, it is the friendship of these four women, first and foremost, that helps them grow. Their unflinching support and understanding of each other is beautifully drawn and brings to mind something I’ve always said to women on my ‘authentic self’ workshops; men may come and go, but it’s the women in your life who will hold you up’.

Out now from Fig Tree

Meet the Author

Joanna has always loved stories – even from an early age, when the Headteacher complained to her parents that she had read all the books in the school library. Joanna went on to study English at Exeter College, Oxford and later returned to the University to train as a teacher.

After ten years in education, she set up an award-winning poetry gift business. During this time, she wrote thousands of poems to order and her rhyming verse was filmed twice by the BBC.

Unable to resist the lure of the classroom, Joanna recently returned to Oxford University to study for a diploma in creative writing. THE EIGHTS is her debut novel and is inspired by her love of local history and historical fiction.

When Joanna is not writing, she is either walking her dog or working in the local bookshop. She lives with her husband and three children near the Grand Union Canal in Hertfordshire, UK.

Netgalley

The Secret Room by Jane Casey

Posted on 31st Mar 202521st Mar 2025 by thelotusreaders

A closed door. An impossible murder.

2:32 p.m. Wealthy, privileged Ilaria Cavendish checks into a luxury London hotel and orders a bottle of champagne. Within the hour, her lover discovers her submerged in a bath of scalding water, dead.At first glance it looks like an accident. No one went in with her. No one came out. But all the signs point to murder.

For DS Maeve Kerrigan, the case is a welcome distraction. But when shock news hits close to home, affecting her partner, DI Josh Derwent, she faces the toughest challenge of her career. And if she fails her world will never be the same again…

There’s an extra secretive element to this twelfth book in the DS Maeve Kerrigan series. In her afterword Jane begs readers not to reveal aspects of the novel for those who have yet to read it, in fact for those people who have only just discovered this addictive mix of murder investigation and ‘will they – won’t they’ love story. So I’m trying my best to keep it to myself while telling you all what a great read this. The murder at hand is a tricky one and will probably remain in my brain forever after reading that when the victim’s lover tries to pull her from the bath her scalp comes away. She has, rather disturbingly, been boiled like a lobster. However it isn’t the water or the heat that has killed her, Illaria has been strangled with a cord then dragged into the bath. The fact that she was meeting her lover and had the room booked for exactly the same time every Wednesday is an interesting little detail. Sometimes they only use it for a few hours but it is always booked, exactly the same. These are the actions of someone wealthy and it’s no surprise to find she has a rich husband. Angus is incredibly frank when interviewed; he loved his wife and wanted her to be happy and she wanted Sam. They had met at a glitzy dinner and Angus reveals that when he saw them talking together he knew, it was a coup de foudre, when love hits instantly like a bolt of lightning. Ilaria had a great life, filled with travel, events and a little interior design business with her friend that Angus funds too. They seem to be going nowhere when Maeve has a sudden lightbulb moment leading to a discovery.

Aside from this case and arguably being the most compelling part of the novel is the drama surrounding DI Josh Derwent. Josh has been living with psychotherapist girlfriend Melissa and her son Thomas for a while now, much to Maeve’s sorrow. Melissa is due to pick Thomas up from school, when she gets a phone call from a distressed patient. Knowing she has to see them and needing someone to collect and keep Thomas for a few hours, Josh calls Maeve’s parents. They’ve been like grandparents to the little boy who hasn’t been well of late. Hours later when they return Thomas, Maeve’s father runs into a panicked young girl on the driveway, screaming that Melissa has been hurt. Melissa is at the bottom of the stairs, motionless and covered in bruises as if she’s been beaten badly. As she’s rushed to hospital and the police arrive, so does Josh and quickly finds himself arrested for the attack. When Maeve arrives Josh tells her to stay out of it, walk away and don’t get involved. However, readers of the series know that this is something Maeve simply can’t do. Despite Derwent’s disapproval she has to find a way of clearing his name, because she knows he isn’t capable of this.

I have to be honest and admit I was so caught up in the Melissa/Derwent storyline that there were points when I forgot about the other case. It was more psychologically complex and of course had the added weight of caring about these characters over eleven previous books. I couldn’t believe the suspicions I had about it and I was desperately hoping Maeve would come to the same conclusion, if she didn’t get herself suspended for meddling first. When the book went back to Ilaria’s murder I found myself going ‘oh yes, where were we’. Having said that it’s a cracking case in it’s own right with a seemingly impossible premise. With the only people seen on CCTV of the corridor being a chambermaid and the man who delivered the room service champagne, but he wasn’t in there long enough to murder anyone. When he’s found dead on a building site, it looks very much like someone is covering their tracks. On the face of it Ilaria’s life seemed perfect, so why was she sneaking around? Was it really love or was something else going on?

I whipped through the final chapters in an afternoon to find out and to see what would happen with Melissa, who I was beginning to hate! I loved the little vignettes of normal life in between, especially with the men in the book. Derwent’s eldest son Luke and Thomas have a lovely growing relationship and with Maeve’s nurturing and loving parents he had a great stand-in gran and grandad. It was interesting to see how Melissa’s ex-husband and Derwent were with each other too. Through Luke, Maeve was introduced to a decent man called Owen and their dates were going well. It was nice to see her being treated with kindness and consistency. This was an addictive read from an author who knows exactly when to leave the reader hanging and when to deliver heart-stopping action sequences – the suspicious man at the front desk of the police station had my pulse racing. I’m interested in where she takes DS Kerrigan next and I’ll definitely be queueing up for my copy.

From Hemlock Press 24th April 2025

Meet the Author

Jane Casey is a bestselling crime writer who was born and brought up in Dublin. A former editor, she has written twelve crime novels for adults (including ten in the Maeve Kerrigan series) and three for teenagers (the Jess Tennant series). Her books have been international bestsellers, critically acclaimed for their realism and accuracy. The Maeve Kerrigan series has been nominated for many awards: in 2015 Jane won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Stranger You Know and Irish Crime Novel of the Year for After the Fire. In 2019, Cruel Acts was chosen as Irish Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. It was a Sunday Times bestseller. Stand-alone novel The Killing Kind was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick in 2021, and is currently being filmed for television. Jane lives in southwest London with her husband, who is a criminal barrister, and their two children.