I’m going to say up front that I’m a massive Helen Fields fan, with The Last Girl to Die being a particular favourite of mine. Her last novel introduced us to the unusual and complex psychologist and profiler Dr. Connie Woolwine at The Institution. Connie makes a cameo here, but the undoubted heroine of this tale is Midnight Jones. Midnight lives with her twin sister Dawn ( see what the parents did there) and is her main carer, since their parents chose to go travelling when Midnight finished university. Dawn was affected by lack of oxygen at birth leading to Cerebral Palsy. It’s effects are very individual to the patient, but it can cause both physical and intellectual disabilities. Dawn is profoundly affected, needing care 24/7 and that’s why Midnight is desperate to keep her job at Necto. She needs their higher than average pay packet to cover the costs of care. The company like to present themselves as an ethical firm, starting with their space age offices, filled with plants and trees that help create a better work environment. They have their fingers in many pies, but Midnight is a profiler and every day works through thousands of applications for universities, the military and other organisations, passing some applicants through to be interviewed and rejecting others based on assessment data alone.
Necto’s testing systems are so sophisticated, there’s nothing about the applicant they don’t know. In assessments, virtual reality head sets show images and the applicants every response is recorded from intelligence to levels of empathy. Then, dependent on the parameters for the particular institution they’re applying to, they are accepted or not. However, on this particular day Midnight finds a candidate who isn’t run of the mill, in fact he’s a one-off. In training, a candidate like this is jokingly dubbed a ‘Profile K’- for killer – Midnight finds a man who has recorded as showing zero empathy. When she watches the footage he was shown through her own headset, she is sickened by what she sees. This is way beyond the normal films shown to illicit empathy, it’s as if the machine couldn’t get a reading so has chosen more and more disturbing and violent images that should provoke empathy and disgust. Yet none comes. Unable to compute the response and also where such extreme footage could have come from, Midnight decides to take this further but her supervisor Richard Baxter isn’t interested. So she goes over his head, telling his boss that she’s found a Profile K. Surely they have a duty to report him, what if he’s dangerous? What if he kills?
I’ve read three great thrillers this weekend in quick succession but this was by far the most inventive, with a hint of dystopia and a touch of social justice that was right up my street. I empathised with Midnight’s situation, determined not to let down her sister Dawn but struggling to pay for just enough care that Midnight can go to work. There is no room for a social life or romance. Their heads are just above water, but there’s no flexibility or empathy for her care role within her company, despite it’s apparent ethics. She takes a big risk taking her findings higher than Richard Baxter, because if she loses her job how will she afford the care Dawn needs? Yet she can’t ignore what she knows. Especially when the worst happens. A young woman is killed very close to where she and Dawn live and although Midnight doesn’t know this at first, the torture methods used are very close to a scene from the film shown during the Profile K’s application process. The victim was subjected to the death of a thousand cuts, which would have been both a painful and long drawn out way to die. Midnight is horrified to find that her boss would rather keep her discovery under wraps and she’s reminded of her non-disclosure agreement. What reason could they have that’s better than saving the lives of future victims? Midnight has read about the psychologist and profiler Dr Connie Woolwine and has a theory to run past someone with her expertise. Not expecting a response, she sends a message and is pleasantly surprised when the unusual doctor calls her late at night to talk it through. Midnight is scared of the consequences, but sure of her theory – could Necto have known about the Profile K? What if they showed the violent material on purpose to trigger a response? To turn someone with killer potential into a killer for real.
I absolutely loved this belting thriller, because it was complex and intelligent but also full of human feeling. I guess this might sound strange when there’s quite graphic violence involved in some scenes, but they’re balanced by the pure depth of feeling Midnight has for her sister and later on for the elderly lady they begin a friendship with. I loved how authentic Midnight’s caring situation was, with a very clear struggle between wanting to provide the best help for someone she loves but feeling the fear of that sole responsibility. The anger she feels towards her parents is very real, because although she understands their need to follow their dreams, their freedom has curtailed her own. She can’t make any life decision without factoring Dawn in. How could she have a romantic relationship? What if she falls ill herself? Having been a carer I know how lonely and exhausting it can be. We can see the pull between home and work life, in that they both hinder and are dependent on each other. Parts of the book are genuinely terrifying. There is a scene that’s going to stay with me, like that episode of Luther where a woman gets undressed and climbs into bed followed by a ceiling shot where a man slowly slides out from underneath as if he’s been working under a car. It’s that combination of vulnerability and evil. We’ve all done that walk home where we get inside and lock the door, then take a deep breath and know we’re safe. To be attacked in that moment is heart-stoppingly scary! In the end, everything had to stop for those final chapters as I raced through to find out what happens. I was glued to these scenes, made all the more terrifying because the victim doesn’t have a clue how much danger she’s in. It’s one of those finales where I put the book down and realised every muscle in my body was tense! I needed some yoga stretches and a few episodes of Friday Night Dinner before bed to unwind. This is an absolute cracker of a read and I highly recommend it.
Published by Avon 25th April 2024
Meet the Author
A Sunday Times and million copy best-selling author, Helen is a former criminal and family law barrister. Every book in the Callanach series has claimed an Amazon #1 bestseller flag. ‘Perfect Kill’ was longlisted for the Crime Writers Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger in 2020, and others have been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize, Scottish crime novel of the year. Helen also writes as HS Chandler, and has released legal thriller ‘Degrees of Guilt’. In 2020 Perfect Remains was shortlisted for the Bronze Bat, Dutch debut crime novel of the year. In 2022, Helen was nominated for Best Crime Novel and Best Author in the Netherlands. Now translated into more than 20 languages, and also selling in the USA, Canada & Australasia, Helen’s books have won global recognition. She has written standalone novels, The Institution, The Last Girl To Die, These Lost & Broken Things and The Shadow Man. She regularly commutes between West Sussex, USA and Scotland. Helen can be found on X @Helen_Fields.
I was only a few pages into this thriller, when I wished I’d seen Suzie Miller’s stage play of the same name running in the West End with an award-winning performance by Jodie Comer. I could see that Comer was the perfect choice for Tessa because I imagine she would understand this character perfectly. Tessa has brought herself from the council estates of Liverpool, via similar areas in Luton, through Cambridge University to one of the best barrister’s chambers in London. Tessa is a defence barrister, one of the best in the competitive area of criminal law. She thinks like a lawyer, her job isn’t about the truth. It isn’t about whether her client is innocent or guilty, in fact she doesn’t want to know. It’s about following the intricacies of the law. It’s about looking for the holes in the prosecution’s case and exploiting them, bringing them to the attention of the jury and creating doubt. All she has to do is create enough reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury that the law directs them to an acquittal. It’s almost a game. A very high stakes game for the defendant, but Tessa gets paid either way. For her it’s the enjoyment of winning and seeing the the system she believes in, applied correctly. However, when Tessa goes on a date with a fellow barrister from her chambers, something goes wrong. Then she realises that the law might not be in her favour after all. Perhaps justice is more equal for some than others.
I was immediately enthralled by Tessa’s narrative voice. She’s smart, a quick study of other people and how they present themselves to the world. She is a brilliant, intelligent and careful lawyer. The author presents law like a religion. Tessa believes in the British justice system, that although there are anomalies, by and large justice does get served. After making a huge jump from her estate and family to Cambridge, she’s become a quick study of class and tribes. As she arrives at her first university lecture she spies a group of staff in suits hanging around the entrance and wonders if she’s been found out – ‘maybe I fluked it and one of those suited people are going to barge in with a list and call out my name. Tessa Ensler? I’m sorry there’s been a terrible mistake’. The boy sat on her right has clearly come from public school. He has that assured way of being that comes from knowing he belongs here and that he will be among those who change the country. The dean tells them that 1 in 3 of them will fail. As she looks to her other side she sees a girl trying to look dishevelled but with clothes deliberately made that way, rather than being worn out. With her layers of necklaces and raggedy clothes she’s showing that she has the confidence to look bedraggled, whereas as Tessa looks down at her own new jumper and knows she doesn’t belong. They know she doesn’t belong. What if she is the 1 in 3?
Yet she adapts and educates herself in how to blend in and even as a fully-fledged barrister years later, she is still well-versed in the unwritten codes of both the court room and the women barrister’s robing room. She refers to her fellow barristers as thoroughbreds. It isn’t enough for her to be a barrister, she has to know how to look and seem like a barrister. She knows the uniform – grey or blue understated suit, low comfortable heels for standing in court, hair that can withstand the wig, not too much make-up. It’s acceptable to show individuality with some quirky earrings, unusual glasses or chunky heel ankle boots. These little details are the way women have learned to own their own space, to show they are serious about the law, but do it differently to the men. Some things are sacrosanct such as the right shoes – the same designer brand, low key and stylish, but very expensive for a shoe that’s so boring. Yet within her first year as a barrister Tess has the same brand on her feet. Her rebellion comes in tiny acts like wearing a collarless shirt, coloured tights or eye-catching earrings. Individual, but not so out there it would frighten the horses. She also doesn’t have a wig tin, choosing instead to keep her wig in a Tupperware box borrowed from her mum. This is deliberate, it reminds her of where she’s from and how to remain grounded. She resists anyone’s offer to buy a wig tin for her, especially when they refer to her choice as ‘slumming it’. She’s mainly played by the rules and thinks she’s become one of them.
I will mention that there are graphic depictions of sexual assault that are a hard read, but they are necessary. They show the ambiguity that can be brought into the legal arguments. Anyone who reads the account has no doubt what happened between Tessa and her colleague. Yet already I could see the ‘holes’ in her story, the things she does ‘wrong’ and how the difference she thought was invisible, being brought up to weaken her account. She can probably imagine the way a defence barrister will cross-examine her and which parts of her story he will exploit to create doubt in the jury’s mind. I found it so painful when she overhears other female barristers discussing the accused, Julian. Julian was always hoping to be a barrister, his father was before him and is now a judge. He is immediately accepted into this world without once having to work out how to be. As the women discuss going to his dinner party and how terrible this false accusation is for him it’s clear he’s one of them, they probably went to the same school and, like her pupil Phoebe, knew which shoes to buy before they even got here. One female barrister asks her outright why she would accuse Julian, when everyone knew she was into him. She must know it’s hurting her own reputation and her career, she’s alienating the ‘very people who will decide whether she gets silk’. In that moment Tessa wonders why it isn’t hurting Julian’s reputation? There are solicitors who will never instruct her again, people who will not share chambers with her and she will likely never progress with her career again. But he will. It brings home everything about her difference from that clique – the small world of London chambers – her disadvantages as a woman, as someone from the wrong school and the wrong type of estate.
I was fascinated with whether or not Tessa would realise that the law isn’t the same for everyone and that her belief in the system she has worked for is left crumbling at her feet? Added to everything else Tessa feels foolish for every time she has said that the law dispenses justice more or less, for everyone. Now she knows it doesn’t. Even before she’s in the court room she knows that it was her difference that made her a victim in the first place. This wouldn’t have happened to Alice or Phoebe because they are protected by their class:
‘I really had thought that I was now untouchable. That if I just did my job, didn’t stand out, won my cases, I’d be like everyone else in chambers. But I am not. I am disposable, I am rapeable. Just like when I was a kid on the estate. Nothing has changed, other than the class of man that can rape me.’
In being exposed to the way the world works for the right type of people, she has naively assumed that it now works that way for her too. We are so intimate with Tessa, her inner world is huge – full of contradictions and fierce intelligence with a veneer of upper middle-class lifestyle overlying strong working class roots. I was totally engrossed in her and recognised something of myself in that working class background rubbing roughly alongside years of middle class education and lifestyle. I’m conscious of a difference in the way I view the world from the rest of my family, but I’ve always wanted to keep them close. I know that if anything terrible happened they would be there for me, just as I hoped Tessa’s mum would be there for her. I’m aware of the difference in my accent honed by seven years of grammar school, a change that turned me into a vocal chameleon, picking up a trace of wherever I go, wanting to fit in. Tessa notices this with other barristers who have accents, there’s always a court voice that’s clear, concise and authoritative. There are so many points in the story where the author captures a current change in how the world has changed, particularly for women. Tessa recalls a sexual encounter in her teens which was only borderline consensual, but back then was chalked up to experience. I remember these days well: a push up against the wall followed by an unwanted kiss so hard it bruised my lip; a grab of the hips from a man as I reached over to answer a phone in a busy office; a teenage boy who thought that because my friend was snogging with his mate, I was up for it too. These seemed like minor incidents, but wouldn’t be accepted by young women today.
Tessa’s story brought up all those issues of consent that I find so interesting – does consenting to one sexual act mean you’ve consented for everything else? If we consent to sex once, does that mean we’ve consented for that whole night? Does it cover the next morning too? My husband was horrified that in law there was no such thing as marital rape until 1991. Consent was given by the woman through her marriage vows. Alarmingly there are still people who think as long as there is no violence, forced or coerced sexual intercourse within marriage does not constitute rape. The court scenes are electric, written with such tension and power. Watching the balance of that power shifting between defendants and prosecution witnesses and the barristers in their robes, posing the questions with scepticism, repeating them till you trip up and then diving in for the attack. I found myself dreading what would happen to Tessa if she didn’t get justice. Would she cope emotionally? Also, what would it mean for her professionally? Would she be trusted again? I would say ‘reading this….’ in my reviews normally, but I felt more like I was ‘experiencing this’ by Tessa’s side and sometimes in her head. She was as close as my own thoughts at times. I wondered whether it’s possible for someone to be as educated, honed and prepared for such an establishment career as the law, without becoming someone altogether different. Is there a way to separate the professional from the personal, to take on some of the female barrister’s characteristics and traditions but keep a little bit more of who you are? To take a bigger Tupperware box from home and seal even more of that professional persona inside along with the traditional wig. Her struggle between being the Tess she became at Cambridge and her chambers and the Tess who lived for a weekend house party with her friends from the estate is the struggle of every university graduate whose family earned a living in a manual job. A family who encouraged her to push herself, to reach grammar school, then be the first to go to university didn’t realise that with each step they’d lose her a little bit. A gap opens up, created by education, money, culture and lifestyle. I was strongly reminded of Tony Harrison’s poem ‘V’ that beautifully captures this dichotomy within a person, a Northerner that’s settled and makes both their name and their living in the south. Yet one line stood amongst all that anger and dislocation: ‘the ones we choose to love become our anchor’. He meant new friends but I hoped in Tessa’s case she would learn that she can be part of her family, while still being successful. To recognise them as her strength and support, rather than something you drift away from. This book is right up there, with the best I’ve read this year. Don’t miss it.
Published on 14th March by Hutchinson Heinemann. With thanks to the Squad Pod for having me in this month’s book club choice
Meet the Author
Suzie Miller is an international playwright, librettist and screenwriter. She has a background in law, and has won numerous awards, including the Australian Writers’ Guild, Kit Denton Fellowship for Writing with Courage and an Olivier Award. She lives in London and Sydney and is developing major theatre, film and television projects across the UK, USA and Australia.
Hey there everyone and hope you’ve had a good February. This month has been an eclectic month where I’ve done very few blog tours but instead did a lot of reading by choice. I decided to pick and choose from my proof trolley and my NetGalley ARCs. What usually happens is these get neglected because I focus on so much on the most important deadlines. Then my NetGalley reviews are useless because they’re always after the fact and my percentage is appalling. I’ve actually read more books this month and I’ve enjoyed my reading more. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a blog tour, particularly my friend Anne Cater’s tours because she’s lovely and gets great books. In fact my one blog tour choice is one of her Orenda Books titles and it’s brilliant. I thought January was good but February’s books have been even better. Some of these I have reviewed this month, others are due in a couple of months so I’m only going to give you a quick review of each. I loved every single one of these and hope you will too.
This book has been chosen by the BBC programme Between the Covers and I’m not surprised. I love Doug Johnstone, I think he’s a brilliant crime writer but this series is something completely different. This is the second in a series featuring a telepathic extraterrestrial octopus creature called Sandy and his journey with three human friends, Lennox, Heather and Ava. We left them as they reached Ullapool and reunited Sandy with his Enceladon friends. Yet, lurking on the horizon were M17 agents, Ava’s abusive husband and other authorities who want to capture the friends, but also take Sandy and study him. This novel deals with the aftermath, where Ava faces a trial for the murder of her husband and Lennox and Heather are incarcerated in a newly built American military base. The Americans, accompanied by M17 agent Oliver, are capturing partial Enceladons to study them and work out how they communicate with each other. This is a hard read in places as it puts our friends and the lovely Sandy in danger, but it’s also uplifting, life affirming and gives us some faith in humour nature. If you haven’t read part one order them both, you won’t be disappointed.
Out March 14th 2024 from Orenda Books
This novel is one of my most anticipated for the year and my full review will be on the blog this week. Eadie is an unusual little girl and she doesn’t have many friends. Not the live kind anyway. Her house is next to the cemetery and Eadie sits and talks to the inhabitants. There is also an elderly gentleman who tidies the cemetery and talks to the lonely little girl. At school she is bullied by Patrick Semple, but life starts to look up when she makes friends. Celeste and Josh are also bullied by Semple, although as Josh points out he seems to save his cruellest jibes for Eadie. These three kids form a close bond, then go their separate ways for university with Eadie ending up in Manchester just before the ‘Summer of Love’. Eadie and her housemates become devotees of dance music and the Hacienda. She’s happy, especially on those nights when they try Ecstasy. They haven’t realised that the club is being pulled apart by rival drug gangs. Life changes when there’s an unexpected meeting, a link to the past and events she still finds difficult to deal with. I fell in love with this character and the depiction of unprocessed trauma that follows her through life, until she can find a way to let it go. It’s about love, our formative experiences and how hard it can be moving forward when we’re dragging too much baggage.
Out now from Mountain Leopard Press
This book covers a subject that I’ve never read about before and I’ll give you a quick glimpse, because my review is coming later. The author takes the usual machismo in stories of the Vietnam war and shows us that women also served as part of the Army’s Medical Corps. When society girl Frankie is told that her brother has died in Vietnam only months after enlisting she wants to find a way to honour him. As the family gather at their home on Coronado Beach, Frankie is studying the wall in her father’s office dedicated to the McGrath men celebrated for their bravery and service. Finley’s friend Rye tells her that men aren’t the only ones who can be courageous. She’s been thinking the same thing and Rye’s words light a fire under her. The Air Force and Navy would need her to train for several years as a nurse before she could serve in combat zones. However, the Army will deploy her with just her basic nursing training, so Frankie signs up and within months she’s flown out to a field hospital in Vietnam. The author’s historical detail and sense of place is incredible. I felt like I was in the jungle with Frankie, covered with sweat and red dust and highly tuned to the distant ‘whump whump’ of approaching helicopters with casualties. I loved the combination of strong female friendships, loss, romance and the struggles of serving and returning from this particular conflict.
Out now from MacMillan Publishing
Another great thriller this month was the latest from B.A.Paris, a great domestic noir about two couples who have been friends for years. On holiday twenty years ago, Iris and Gabriel met a French couple called Laure and Pierre who were on their honeymoon. Their friendship and their marriages have lasted and the couples always meet at least once a year, either in Paris or the English countryside where Iris and Gabriel have settled with daughter Beth. The couple are surprised when Laure turns up alone and unannounced asking to stay for a few days. Pierre has just found out that he has a daughter from a brief liaison during their marriage. Laure is giving him space to think about this revelation, but she’s also very angry and suspects his best friend Clare who has a six year old daughter. Gabriel is on leave from work after a traumatic incident and he tries to get in touch with Pierre to support him, but gets no reply. In the meantime, Laure starts to settle in but her need for a listening ear seems endless, she is borrowing Iris’s favourite clothes and even rearranges their kitchen. When Pierre doesn’t show up for a meeting at their apartment in Paris, Laure comes straight back and Iris starts to wonder how long she’s going to stay. This is a great thriller which takes the discomfort of a guest overstaying their welcome and magnifies it, leading to adultery, betrayal and even murder. There are twists to this tale and you will not expect the outcome. Prepare to be reading this in one go!
Out now from Hodder and Stoughton.
It’s Christmas and Charlotte Salter doesn’t turn up for her husband’s fiftieth birthday party leaving daughter Etty immediately alarmed. She’s sure that her mum wouldn’t choose to stay away from the event, even if her parents don’t always get along. Etty’s three brothers are less worried, thinking their parents may have had a row or she’s just gone for a walk. When Lottie still doesn’t appear the following morning, Etty insists on calling the police. It’s Christmas and the Salter family are paralysed, unable to do anything except search for their mother. Village rumours are linking Lottie with Duncan Ackerley, so when the Ackerley’s invite them for Christmas dinner only Etty turns up on time. In a strange twist, Duncan has gone for a walk and not returned for dinner. Etty sets off with one of the boys to look for him and he’s found dead, presumed drowned, next to his boat. The police find his glasses on a bridge further upstream and conclude that Duncan Ackerley killed Lottie and then committed suicide. Case closed. Twenty years later and the Salter siblings are clearing their childhood home before their father moves into nursing care. His dementia is worsening and it’s no longer safe for him to be at home. Meanwhile, Morgan Ackerley and his brother are back home recording a podcast about the death of their father and Lottie, who has never been found. What might be uncovered by this generation’s exploration into the past? This is an intelligent thriller, exploring the dynamics of families and traumatic events in childhood. I found it really hard to put down.
Out now from Simon and Schuster.
This was my first Tina Baker thriller and I loved it. Set on the island of Tresco off the Cornish coast, the author explores the tensions of this very unique place. Tresco’s community is always split because of it’s reliance on tourism and only wealthy families can afford to stay on the island, usually block booking a ‘cottage’ for several weeks at the same time each year. Residents are always seen as staff, either working directly in one of the cottages or in the shops and pubs on the island. The ‘family’ who own Tresco usually remain on their estate and have a staff of estate workers, gardeners and servants in the house. These groups usually don’t mix but rich playboy Kit and barmaid Hannah are about to break the rules. Hannah is seen by others on the island as a bit slutty, a home- wrecker and even a witch. When she and Kit spend the night together no one bats an eyelid, but when their flirtation blossoms into love problems start to arise. Kit’s widowed mother is unimpressed and constantly tries to dangle the right kind of girl in front of him. Wronged wives start to mutter about her behaviour, especially Christie, whose husband was Hannah’s last conquest. Alison just wishes Hannah would keep her jeans buttoned up and stop causing punch ups in the pub. When Hannah disappears in a storm, Kit is heartbroken and stays on the island. Hannah could have met with an accident, but so many islanders have a motive that she might have been murdered. This is a deliciously wicked romp through the lives of Tresco’s inhabitants, full of wit as well as some thrilling revelations.
Out now from Viper
I love Helen Fields and this is a fascinating thriller coming in April, so I will just whet your appetite here. Midnight Jones works as an analyst, processing application forms for universities, the military and other institutions. She’s trained to psychologically profile, but she’s paid very well to check forms against the required criteria and accept or decline on the data provided. The applicant is assessed using a virtual reality headset showing images to illicit the required response, but on this day Midnight finds an anomaly. The applicant has no score for empathy. When she views the assessment footage, Midnight is shaken to her core. Some of the images are so graphically violent she feels sick, surely they aren’t on the system? The applicant has zero empathy. She has found a Profile K – K for killer. However, when Midnight tries to report it she meets with resistance. How far can she push this, knowing that her sister depends on her salary? Midnight has a twin sister called Dawn, who suffered a lack of oxygen during birth and is now affected mentally and physically by cerebral palsy. She needs round the clock care and if Midnight loses her job they’re going to struggle, especially since there are no friends and family to help. The stakes get higher when a woman is brutally murdered, in a way that was shown on the terrible recording. Who can Midnight turn to? This was complex and intelligent with a dystopian vibe and a cameo from Dr Connie Woolwine.
Out 25th April from Avon
I had been granted access to Rebecca Serle’s upcoming novel on NetGalley and I had to read it right away! I usually get bored with rom-coms, but I do enjoy those with a historical background or those that try to do something completely different and I think this author is especially inventive. Her novel In Five Years blew me away with it’s twist in the story and I’m always keen to see what she’s done next. Here we are introduced to Daphne, a young single woman living and working in L.A. Dating is never a mystery for Daphne because as soon as she meets a man she finds a little slip of paper with an expiration date on it – 6 months, a weekend, one night – she knows how long each liaison will last. Until she meets Jake, who has everything she could want in a man. He’s considerate, doesn’t play games and is happy to talk about his feelings. Daphne waits for her slip of paper, but when it comes it only says his name. No expiration date. Does this mean Daphne has found her happy ever after? Their relationship is quiet, loving and has only one snag. Daphne has another secret, one that will break Jake’s heart if she tells him. I loved this story and felt a real connection to the conundrum Daphne finds herself in. This was heartbreakingly romantic and full of surprises.
Out 19th March 2024 from Quercus
That’s all for February, keep a look out for the full reviews coming your way and here’s to a new reading month and hopefully a touch of spring. Here is my TBR for March.
Well, what a wonderful start to my bookish New Year! January has been a busy month and I’ve read some fabulous books. Being away for a couple of weeks at the beginning of January has helped enormously. I’ve been able to keep up with blog tours and managed to get some personal choices read as well, a balance that I’d like to continue through this year. It’s been so nice to just pick something that appeals to my mood on that day! So my favourites are a great mix: three are choices from my Squad Pod book group; one is a blog tour book from Orenda Books and Random Things Tours; the final two were personal choices. These are my January favourite reads:
The Knowing is a fantastic debut from Emma Hinds and Bedford Square Publishers. If a book could have been written specifically for me it would have been this one. If you love The Night Circus, The Crimson Petal and the White or the books of Sarah Waters then this is for you. Flora is a mystic, tarot reader and tattoo artist living with a member of the Dead Rabbits gang in Five Points, NYC. Jordan has had Flora since she was a child and their ‘relationship’ is nothing more than a long history of physical and sexual violence. Her life changes when she meets Minnie, a young woman with dwarfism who organises freak shows and curiosities. She takes Flora in and shares her own room, within a mansion belonging to her lover Chester Merton. This isn’t just an act of altruism though, Minnie wants Flora to share her gift and become their ‘tattooed mystic’. But Flora’s ‘knowing’ is more powerful than anyone expects. This book takes us from NYC to the slums of Manchester, through Flora’s eyes, as she experiences love, obsession and betrayal.
Lou has lost her sugar daddy and needs to get a job, so she decides to interview for a role in Edinburgh working in a halfway house for offenders newly realised from prison. She intends to live with her cousin Beatrice and get her life back on track. Before she’s even over the jet lag she meets a man at the matinee of Beatrice’s new play. After a few days of wild outdoor sex, she has to start her new job. One shift shadowing a current employee introduces her to the men she’ll be on night shifts with. The offenders are guilty of crimes that range from drugs and public decency, all the way up to murder. I wondered if Lou hadn’t bitten off more than she could chew! Her nighttime routine means doling out cocoa and the right biscuits, but is timed to the minute so she’ll be able to catch one resident who tries to hang himself every evening at the same time. This thriller is dark, but also very funny. I loved Lou. She is a force of nature, displaying compulsive and even dangerous behaviour. As the routines of the house start to unravel a little, I was rooting for her and hoping she’d come out alive! A brilliantly dark and comic thriller.
This book was a Squad Pod choice in it’s paperback form and I fell in love with it’s charm and themes of loss, letting go and moving on. There is nothing more cathartic then having a good clear out – something I tend to do at this time of year. I also love a good rummage in second hand and charity shops, especially the bookshelves of course. I’m also mainly clothed in Vinted purchases so I love to repurpose things and give homes to some unique items that seem to exist purely for me – a candleholder in the form of a monkey wearing a dress anyone? Gwen is being made redundant and decides to use the pay off she receives to have a career break and really think about what she wants to do next. For the summer she decides to volunteer at her local charity shop and it opens her up to experiences she never imagined. Gwen has been in a rut for a long time, now that she can reshape it she seems overwhelmed. She also seems detached from family and old friends. With the help of volunteer Connie, who is determined to help Gwen take the next step, or the hint of romance with young volunteer Nicholas could she find a new way of living? This is a love story, not a boy meets girl, but of finding yourself. It’s about discarded belongings getting a new lease of life and a family’s acceptance of loss. I loved it.
This was one of my personal reading choices for the month and I really enjoyed the premise. Blue has decided to attend a grief retreat, run in the rural home of Molly and Josh Park. Guests stay in the farmhouse and take their meals together, but also participate in therapy sessions facilitated by Molly. Blue is an unusual woman, who has grown up with the gift of mediumship. The happiest days of her childhood were with stepfather Devlin who encouraged her gift and understood what it cost her – after seeing a spirit Blue would be exhausted and affected by headaches. She lived with Devlin, her mum and two other children – a baby and young boy named Bodhi who seems to glower at her and never speaks. As soon as she reaches the farm, Blue’s headaches and vision problems start. Her neighbour Sabine’s door keeps coming open, no matter how many times it’s locked and Blue gets the sense of a little girl with long, wispy blonde hair. As a storm encroaches on the weekend and the roads start to flood, they are completely cut off. Blue is getting the sense that all is not well with their hosts. Who is the girl in the photograph, hidden in their private living room? Why does she sleep so well after Molly’s hot chocolate? Why does participant Milton keep coming to the retreat when he barely joins in? As the flood waters close in, will Blue find answers to her questions? Or are they in even more danger than they imagined?
We rejoin the unforgettable Molly the Maid in this wonderful sequel that drew me back into her world immediately. Molly still lives in her grandmother’s and is still working at the Regency Grand, but now she’s living with her boyfriend and has been promoted to Head Maid. She has declined a trip to Cuba because the mystery author J.D. Grimthorpe will be launching his new book from the newly restored Art Deco tea room at the hotel. She knows the author is very precise and has high standards so getting his tea trolley ready is no easy task. Molly trusts Lily, her protégé, to make sure all his needs are met including his own honey pot to sweeten his tea. As everyone gathers to hear the author, including some avid book fans, he takes a sip of his tea and collapses to the floor, quite dead. The Regency is once again at the centre of a murder mystery and Molly’s incredible memory and powers of observation are a much needed asset. What she’s not telling them is that she knows J.D. Grimthorpe rather well. Could she have a motive for his murder? This is a brilliant return of a character I absolutely loved the first time.
This book absolutely blew my mind! It’s like nothing else I’ve read recently and I was transfixed by it, almost reading it cover to cover in one sitting. Cole doesn’t understand modern women any more. He has taken a job in a remote coastal area that comes with its own lodgings, removing himself from London and the failure of his marriage. His wife Mel is seeking divorce, but he has always treasured her and looked out for her safety, especially when she was working too hard. They had decided to start a family through IVF and still have three viable embryos waiting for implantation. Mel is acting like he’s some sort of monster. When he meets Lenny, an artist who lives in the coastguard cottage, he is taken with her femininity and decides to call her Leonora as he thinks it suits her better. They become friends, but he is wary of wanting more even though they look at life the same way and she lets him look after her. Then he becomes embroiled in the drama around two missing girls, who were walking the coastal route over several days to highlight the amount of violence against women in society. Will Leonora stand by him if he is implicated? This is a brilliant book which captures the zeitgeist and is full of so many delicious twists and turns you won’t know who to believe.
That’s my January round up for 2024. February is looking like a bumper month for publications and with less time to read them all I’m going to be very busy!
‘She searches for ways to stop feeling so lonely you fear your brain will melt and your heart will stop and your skin will never be touched again. She searches for ways to make herself feel better. The online forum has been a lifeline. A lifesaver. She can chat to counsellors when she needs to or other women who struggle with similar issues. Every week she receives a piece of advice to help her on the road to recovery or, as she calls it, the road to normality. The path to living a life.’
Blue makes a decision to deal with her unresolved grief and trauma with a residential course she sees advertised when she’s at a low ebb. At Hope Marsh House participants are offered counselling, art therapy and meditation with married couple Molly and Joshua Park. Blue has been struggling for a long time, culminating in the death of her mother with whom she had an uneasy relationship. However her grief journey begins with the loss of her stepfather Devlin, a rotund man with a fondness for kaftans and a talent with tarot. His own skills are based in clever observation, carefully worded open questions and more than average perception, but in Blue he recognises something he isn’t. A lonely child with strong, natural,psychic abilities. Prior to meeting Devlin, Blue’s mother has managed a rather haphazard upbringing at best with choices for Blue that are based in her own problems and inadequacies rather than what’s best for her child. Blue has been home-schooled but any learning was provided by magazines, television and whatever books Blue could lay her hands on. As a result she had no friends and was thought of as weird by the kids nearby. Her mother is equally isolated, not helped by the fact they move constantly. What exactly are they running from? So, Devlin’s attention is welcomed by both mother and daughter. Losing him to a heart attack was devastating and Blue became parent to her heartbroken mother, taking responsibility for her mum’s worsening mental health, the family’s income and single-handedly running Devlin’s mediumship business. Maybe it will take a place like Hope Marsh House to deal with the lonely and exhausting rut Blue finds herself in? It will be kill or cure….
‘And how long have you had your … talents?’ he said. Blue didn’t know what to say. Was hitting a saucepan with a wooden spoon a talent? Was babysitting a toddler in a dry bath whilst her mother cried herself to sleep a talent? She could wash her own clothes in the steel kitchen sink, she could heat soup and tins of beans, she could sing all the words to ‘May the Circle Be Open’. Is this what the strange man meant? She was five years old. She didn’t know.’
The author tells Blue’s story using different timelines: one gives us the present and focuses in on the retreat at Marsh House, while the others are in flashbacks to Blue’s life before her trip and further back in vignettes of her childhood. The flashbacks give us the building blocks of Blue’s personality and the strange abilities she has. She is a little girl simply longing for love and care, we can see this from the way she blossoms if praised by Devlin. Even more than that, the most powerful thing Devlin does is seemingly very simple – when Blue comes off stage, Devlin simply asks ‘are you ok, lass’? These four words mean more to her than anything else because they bypass the person she is on stage and the money her gift can make them and instead asks how she is. He knows and acknowledges what this gift costs her and how arduous a whole show can be, but mainly it’s just a dad checking in on his daughter. It means a lot to Blue, who has probably never been asked if she’s ok before. No one has ever cared enough. It is his care of her that she misses so deeply. I wondered if there were elements of personality disorder. Does Blue know who she is? When Devlin lives with them she’s at her happiest, but I was confused about her relationship with the other two children who live with them – Bodhi and the baby. They seem to be there, but she rarely relates to them. In fact she actively seems to avoid them and almost looks past them if they appear in her eye line.
Other short sections of the book include a story about a loving married couple who haven’t been able to have children, but look after a little girl who lives in a nearby flat with her elder brother. Unfortunately he is a drug addict and the couple, James and Marie, provide that stable family unit for Jessica. They dread something happening to Jessica’s brother because she could then be taken away from them. I knew that this couple related to Marsh House in some way, but I wasn’t sure how. Why does Blue keep hearing the same three girls names, Jessica, Eleanor and Lauren? Who is the strange long haired girl that appears in Sabrina’s room and opens the door when they’re not there. When she appears Blue starts to feel sick and a feeling of dread comes over her, a couple of times she comes close to passing out. The apparitions also have a way of spoiling her food, making it smell like rotten eggs or rubbish bins. They want to be noticed, but what are they trying to tell her?
The retreat itself is disturbed by a storm and the nearby river bursting it’s banks, threatening the house itself. Instead of the therapy they’re supposed to be receiving Blue and the other able bodied participant Sabina, help Mr Park with unblocking debris from the bridge to help the river flow on it’s normal path. The only other resident is Milton, an older man who uses a wheelchair and seems weakened by a lung disease that causes coughing fits. He’s been to the retreat several times, but seems incredibly grumpy with Molly and her husband. He also avoids any of the activities and even rebuffs Molly’s late night cocoa ritual. Is he just one of life’s misanthropes or is there more going on? Obviously, as a therapist, it’s Molly I’m fascinated with. I’ve been through a major bereavement and have run courses like the ones Molly advocates using a combination of meditation and group therapy using creative writing and art. I found her manner with the participants overwhelming at times. Even before the flood interrupted the normal flow of things there was a boundary issue that I couldn’t put my finger on. As time went on I realised the couple had no children, so who is the little girl in the picture that’s hidden in their own private sitting room? Who is the girl that Blue can see, if no children have lived there? Molly seems to mother her guests. It’s difficult to create clear boundaries when working in your own home and especially when participants are also eating with you and staying overnight. However, there’s something about the way Molly nurtures her clients that feels off. There’s a power imbalance at play, almost as if she is the parent and they are children. It’s this element in her personality and the care she gives that Milton seems to resist or even reject outright. Blue is particularly susceptible to her methods, because she has never had a nurturing mother figure. I felt protective towards Blue (my own maternal instinct at play) and my instinct was telling me she needed to keep her wits about her. The author created a sense of impending doom and as the worst of the storm hit it felt like a warning.
I don’t want to reveal any more, because I think the the story unfolds at the right pace and the truths are revealed slowly. The revelations come in both timelines, as Blue unearths the truths about her mother Bridget by looking through archived newspapers in the library. The secrets come out as if they’ve always been there in Blue’s mind, she just needed something to unlock the door. There will be moments at Hope Marsh House where you wonder what’s going on, placing you in exactly the same position as our main characters. The reader discovers the answers when the characters do so we feel their disorientation, confusion and fear. There were one or two moments that were genuinely terrifying! I enjoyed the growing bond between the three guests at Marsh House, something that Blue has never had before and exactly what she needs. I stayed up late to get to the end and I wasn’t disappointed, although it did lead to some disturbing dreams that night. This was a really great read with a perfect balance between psychological thriller and haunting, gothic tale.
Published Jan 18th by RAVEN Books
Meet the Author
Rebecca lives in the West Country with her family and their cat. She has written two best-selling novels under the name Rebecca Tinnelly: Never Go There and Don’t Say A Word, both published with Hodder.
I’ve spent the last two weeks celebrating both the New Year and our recent marriage in a little cottage in Cornwall. We were married on the 22nd December and although I’ve always fancied a Christmas wedding, the reality was a little more stressful than I anticipated. So rather than wander off abroad we decided to stay in the U.K. and find somewhere special to stay with our new puppy ( I know, utter madness) down in Cornwall. I was very lucky to find this rustic and relaxing cottage several months before and had been hoping for an excuse to go, because it was a little more expensive than we usually go for. Aside from the cottage’s look, rustic and relaxing, there was a special meaning for me because of what the building was originally used for; a reading room for local miners and their children, who were often working alongside them.
Cornish mines employed children for many different roles, but usually for ‘surface’ work which might include washing down the mined stones in long troughs. In the middle of the 19th Century, the working day for a child was very long, usually between 7am and 5.30pm, with a daylight hours working arrangement in the winter. Many children also had a long walk to work of up to several miles, meaning the day didn’t end at 5.30pm. For example, a young woman called Martha Buckingham, was working at Consolidated Mines at the age of ten. In order to reach work for 7am she had to get up at 4am ready for a two mile walk. She would retire to bed at 9.30 pm, leaving little time for anything but sleeping, walking and working. Sundays were the only days that might provide leisure time. With little to no schooling many of these children would have been illiterate and while reading rooms were often set up to create an alternative to the pub for adults, some seem to have focused on encouraging reading for children. Reading Rooms were provided even in small villages and towns, funded by often the church and local landowners, mainly for the working classes and their children, reflecting contemporary attitudes to philanthropy, recreation and self-help. Of course the mines benefitted from having sober and literate workers too.
Books, magazines and newspapers became more accessible for everyone and learning to read was encouraged. It amazed me that even in such a small, isolated area this place had been providing a haven for people to read. Essentially a small cottage that had been left derelict is now a holiday home and everywhere in the cottage there was a sense of it being like an old school room. The slate floor and rustic wood finish everywhere felt authentic and even the cupboards and shelving wouldn’t have looked out of place in an old school or library. Everything was worn, a little bit battered, but serviceable. It had a really quiet feel to it and when I was reading in the garden room all I could hear was the gentle tick of the clock and the sound of the river flowing past (although it did become a bit of a roar on about day 4 and I wondered if I should have taken flippers and a snorkel).
Styled everywhere with old books, lamps and an incredibly old typewriter it was the perfect place for a bookish person to feel at home. Thankfully while there I even got my reading mojo back and managed to read the following books with reviews on the way:
Preloved by Lauren Bravo
The Collapsing Wave by Doug Johnstone
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elson
One of the Good Guys by Araminta Hall
Into the Uncanny by Danny Robins
Meet Me When My Heart Stops by Becky Hunter.
The Guests by Agnes Ravatn.
If you’d like to look at The Old Reading Room the link to the holiday site is listed below. It is expensive but I wanted my honeymoon to be special and with a nine month old goldendoodle on our hands there was no way we could go abroad. It was worth it to stay somewhere with that history and feel about it, it made me feel that rather than rushing around to see this or that attraction I could just read and take in my surroundings instead.
Molly the maid is back! Back in a new adventure, but still living in her grandmother’s apartment, which she now shares with partner Juan Marco, and still working at the Grand Regency Hotel. Juan is on a long awaited trip, visiting family, but Molly decided to stay behind in order to supervise a really important event at the hotel. Mystery writer Mr J.D. Grimthorpe is using the newly decorated Art Deco tea rooms to make an announcement to his fans and the press. Molly knows that Mr Grimthorpe is a very particular man, a knowledge that goes beyond the average bit of research, so it must be her that oversees how he’s looked after. Against most people’s judgement she has chosen her protege Lily to prepare his tea cart, because she’s sure that she’s passed on the requisite skills for her to make a success of it. However, at the crucial moment something goes badly wrong. As Mr Grimthorpe reaches out to his personal honey pot to add just a little sweetness to his tea, a hush descends. As he takes a drink however, chaos ensues. He suddenly plummets to the ground, dead. Molly knows that Lily will be terrified especially since it’s ‘always the maids fault.’ As a detective appears to take on the case, Molly’s skills in observation and brilliant memory turn out to be useful. Yet Molly has another insight that she hasn’t disclosed to her boss or the police. She has met J.D. Grimthorpe before and her memories of that time are not the most flattering to the famous author.
Nita Prose gives us a dual narrative, but both of are Molly. We follow the aftermath of Mr Grimthorpe’s death, but also go back to Molly’s childhood when she is taken to the Grimthorpe mansion by her grandmother who is their maid. Neither narrative is simple, but Molly’s different way of observing the world and her incredible memory create an exciting and complex journey. In one we see Molly’s childhood perspective and we understand that wide-eyed wonder of visiting such a rich house with all its treasures including a Faberge egg! Through a mishap with the egg, Molly is assigned a job in the silver room, polishing all the cutlery. This is supposed to be a punishment, but Mrs Grimthrope has no idea that cleaning is Molly’a idea of fun. I loved following this unique little girl as she uses her privileges to get into every nook and cranny of the house. It’s very atmospheric, quiet with just the steady tap tap of the keys on a typewriter as Grimthorpe creates his next masterpiece. Usually she uses his well stocked shelves to read, particularly the classics like Great Expectations. Molly discovers that if she attempts to take a particular book from the shelf it opens a secret door into his study. This proves to be a vital discovery that will shape their lives forever.
In the present, Molly is making great progress by thinking back to that time all those years ago for clues. When Grimthorpe keeled over nobody noticed what happened to the tea cart, but when it’s inspected they realise two items are missing – his particular honey pot and spoon plus a signed copy of his latest book. With so many super fans and book bloggers around that day, it could have been one of a hundred people, either looking for a macabre souvenir or looking for a good way to make some quick money – the moment Grimthorpe died his books suddenly became more valuable, especially the one he’d only just signed. Molly wants to check out local pawn shops and book collectors to see if anyone has recently brought the book in. Meanwhile suspicion falls on Lily as she knew it would, she needs all the support someone like Molly can give her.
I love Molly as a character and her development in the last novel was an important part of the story. Here we see her take another person under her wing. In the interviews, the others were not impressed by Lily but Molly knew she had all the skills to become the perfect maid. She might be quiet and introverted but that meant she wouldn’t waste time talking with colleagues or guests. She might have a polite and deferential way of talking to the customers too. Molly can clearly see something of her old self in this nervous and slightly strange girl. Molly is now head maid so has the hiring and firing power, and she’s certainly found some brilliant staff for the Regency so she is trusted. Lily shines under Molly’s directions which is lovely to see, but other members or staff are suspicious of her, especially Cheryl who is a loud and greedy chancer! I thought Lily’s manner became confusing, especially after Grimthorpe’s death. She keeps repeating that ‘loose lips sink ships’ but not elaborating on the meaning. She needs careful handling and Molly knows how to manage her. I loved how impressed the detective is with Molly, and the respect that builds between them.
Mr Preston, the doorman at the Regency, is still there and still having lunch every Sunday at Molly and Juan’s flat. His relationship with Molly becomes more significant here, not just because of the investigation but because Molly is delving into her past. Mr Grimthorpe had a very closed circle of people he trusted, including his wife, Molly’s grandmother and the secretary who faithfully turned his notes and verbal ramblings into a proper plot. It was her fingers making the steady clacking sound that was the heart beat of the house. Delving this far back brings up memories for Molly, including the reasons they were banished from this inner circle. She also has to process memories of her mother, someone barely mentioned during her upbringing. Despite having a happy and healthy family unit with her grandmother, Molly still missed her mum desperately and always wondered what happened to her. The mystery is interesting and kept me guessing throughout, with me almost thinking Nita might do something wholly unexpected and pin the blame on Molly. However it’s the love of Molly that will draw readers to this story and the fact that the mystery fills in some holes in her background is a huge bonus. I found myself finishing the book, hoping that Nita Prose would be kind enough to give us at least one more adventure with this charming and unique character.
Out on 18th Jan from Harper Collins
Meet the Author
Nita Prose is the author of The Maid, which has sold more than 1 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 and was an Edgar Award finalist. Her second novel, The Mystery Guest, publishes in November 2023 in North America (January 2024 in the UK). Prose lives in Toronto, Canada, in a house that is moderately clean.
Cole is the perfect husband: a romantic, supportive of his wife, Mel’s career, keen to be a hands-on dad, not a big drinker. A good guy.
So when Mel leaves him, he’s floored. She was lucky to be with a man like him.
Craving solitude, he accepts a job on the coast and quickly settles into his new life where he meets reclusive artist Lennie.
Lennie has made the same move for similar reasons. She is living in a crumbling cottage on the edge of a nearby cliff. It’s an undeniably scary location, but sometimes you have to face your fears to get past them.
As their relationship develops, two young women go missing while on a walk protesting gendered violence, right by where Cole and Lennie live. Finding themselves at the heart of a police investigation and media frenzy, it soon becomes clear that they don’t know each other very well at all.
This is what happens when women have had enough.
Wow! This blows your eyes wide open. I warn you not to start reading at night, unless like me you have a total disregard for tomorrow. Even if I wasn’t actively reading it, I was thinking about it. Cole has moved to a remote part of the coast for a total life change after the collapse of his marriage. Cole considers himself one of the good guys. In fact he would probably call himself a feminist. So the marriage breakdown and Mel’s reasons are inexplicable to him. He was proud of Mel, who was launching her own business, but as they crept towards their late thirties he was starting to wonder if they were leaving it a bit late to start the family they both wanted. After trying for a while, they’d decided on IVF which he knows was more gruelling for Mel than him, but was she really giving their embryos their best chance? Always working late, not eating properly and popping back to work after implantation were all endangering their chances of a viable pregnancy. Despite cooking and caring for her, and supporting her business dreams, Cole is now facing a pile of legal papers on the kitchen table – divorce papers, financial settlements and perhaps most hurtful, a form agreeing to destruction of their final three embryos. What can he have done to deserve this?
As he slowly heals he notices someone is living in the old coastguard’s cottage, a woman he can’t stop watching. She seems so feminine, but yet grounded enough to put her wellies on with her dress while she’s gardening. She is an artist and when they meet a party she introduces herself as Lennie. When he asks what it’s short for she tells him it’s Leonora. No one calls her that but Cole insists. It suits her better he tells her, softer and more feminine. Could the two of them strike up a friendship, or even more? In the background, getting air time on radio and television, are two young women in their twenties who have decided to take on a challenge – a fitting continuation of the work done by women’s movement in the 1970’s. They want to highlight the daily misogyny and violence against women that’s endemic in society. So they plan to walk over 300 miles of the coastal path, camping out each night in a tent. They know that this is dangerous but they want to support a domestic violence charity and raise as much awareness as possible for those women and girls living in daily fear of violence. However as the girls go missing one night it seems they may have fallen victim to their own cause. Could they have become lost and died from exposure? Could they have misjudged their steps and fallen from the cliffs? Or has something far more sinister happened – one of their online trolls following through on comments like ‘you deserve to be raped’.
I loved the way the author put her story together, using fragments from lots of different stories and different narrators. Just when we get used to one and start to see their point of view, the perspective shifts. I thought this added to the immediacy of the novel, but also reflected life and the constant bombardment of information and misinformation we sift through every day. As well as Cole we have narration from Lennie and Mel interspersed with transcripts of radio shows and podcasts, Twitter threads and TV interviews. All give their perspective or commentary on the casual misogyny and violence against women that almost seems like the norm these days. Just like real life the book sometimes felt like a merry-go-ground of opinion, counter argument and trolling. Sometimes I was left so twisted around I wasn’t sure what I thought any more. The only thing I was sure about was much I disliked every single character, but I couldn’t stop reading them either. I would believe one narrator, but then later revelations would blow what I thought right out of the water. As the missing person’s case continues, everyone is weighed up then torn apart on social media and in the press. It made me ask questions: about the nature of art and it’s ethics; about whether all men truly hate women; to what lengths do we go to protest; when is enough, enough? It’s been over a week since I finished this extraordinarily controversial story and I still can’t stop thinking about it. Is it too early to predict a book of the year? I don’t think so.
Thanks to Macmillan and The Squad Pod Collective for my proof copy of this amazing novel.
Meet The Author
Hello, I’m a writer of thrillers and a lover of stories.
My latest book, ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS, was inspired by a groundswell of anger I’ve been feeling myself and amongst the women I know. Because if we don’t feel safe in the world, then it’s still a very unequal world. This is my answer to what happens when women have had enough of being scared.
I hope you enjoy this tense story set in a remote seaside location. I’d love to know if you guess the twist – I’m on instagram and X @aramintahall
And, if you do enjoy this one, I’ve published five other novels, EVERYTHING & NOTHING (2011), DOT (2013), OUR KIND OF CRUELTY (2017), IMPERFECT WOMEN/PERFECT STRANGERS (2019) & HIDDEN DEPTHS (2021
I had so much trouble being strict with my top 23 of last year and 2024 is already looking like a bumper year again! There is so much to look forward to already, some I’ve previewed through proofs and NetGalley whereas others I’m judging on the blurb and the fact I love the author already. My list covers a range of release dates, so some won’t be here with us until the autumn but others are here in January. Here’s a quick look and my final picks for the coming year.
Halfway House by Helen Fitzgerald – I’ve already reviewed this great read from Orenda Books and it really is a page turner. Lou is treading water in Australia and after breaking up from her sugar daddy, she decides to try her luck in Edinburgh. She has lined up a job in a halfway house, supervising prisoners who will soon be moving back into the community. Lou is confident, has a new lover and is starting work with a celebrity paedophile, a paranoid coke dealer and two killers. What could possibly go wrong? Blackly funny and so tense I held my breath.
Out Now from Orenda Books.
The Island of Mists and Miracles by Victoria Mas
I loved the author’s first novel The Mad Women’s Ball so I’m excited for this one, set on a remote island off the coast of Brittany. Sister Anne has accepted a mission to the tiny community, her only company being a chain-smoking older nun who wants to be left alone. Sister Anne is hoping for a vision, but instead it is local boy Isaac who is transfixed, looking out to sea. The only words he can utter are ‘I see’. As a media circus descends, old wounds are reopened setting in motion an unexpected chain of events.
Out on 14th March from Doubleday and Translated by Frank Wynne.
The Hunter by Tana French
I love a gritty crime drama and I enjoyed her previous novel The Searcher. It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in the village. They’re coming for gold. What they bring is trouble.
Cal Hooper was a Chicago detective, till he moved to the West of Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or less – in his relationship with local woman Lena, and the bond he’s formed with half-wild teenager Trey. So when two men turn up with a money-making scheme to find gold in the townland, Cal gets ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey. Because one of the men is no stranger: he’s Trey’s father.
Out on 7th March from Penguin Books.
The Theatre of Glass and Shadows by Anne Corlett
There’s mystery surrounding the cover of this one and I received a black proof with a lace eye mask and several keys through the post to pique my interest. This sounds like everything a Night Circus fan like me could want. In an alternate London, Juliet turns nineteen and wants to know who she is. She has never felt loved by her stepmother or father and starts to search for the truth about her birth. Her birth certificate tells her she was born in the walled area south of the river where an immersive theatre production ‘The Show’ runs continually. Juliet travels there, but can she find the truth when the only rule is ‘the show must go on’ and powerful men control which stories see the light of day.
Out on 23rd May from Black and White Publishing.
The Phoenix Ballroom by Ruth Hogan
Ruth Hogan’s books always leave me feeling warm and uplifted. Our heroine is Venetia Hamilton Hargreaves who feels like she’s been sleepwalking through life until widowhood leaves her in an interesting position. With a large house and bank balance to match Venetia can reshape her life and she buys the dilapidated Phoenix Ballroom, that comes with it’s own drop-in centre and spiritualist church. As the centre becomes a refuge for people who are lost and lonely, stories intertwine and secrets come to the surface. Chosen families are formed and missed opportunities are seized as the ballroom starts to live up to it’s hopeful and optimistic name. This sounds like a lovely weekend read in the garden that’s full of joy.
Out on 27th June from Corvus Publishing.
Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook
I’ve been lucky enough to be sent a beautiful proof of this book from the publisher and it really is a stunning cover. It’s London, 1850, and Maude Horton’s older sister Constance has disappeared. It seems she has left the apothecary where they live and disguised herself as a boy to join an Arctic voyage. The Admiralty tell Maude there’s been a tragic accident and Constance has gone. Maude doesn’t believe them and reading Constance’s journal makes her think there are sinister forces hiding the truth. Maude needs to step into London’s dark underbelly, taking on dangerous men who enjoy the horrors the city has to offer, from hangings at Newgate to Madame Tussaud’s ghoulish waxworks. It’s going to be a perilous task but Maude has dangerous skills of her own…..
Out on 1st Feb from Picador.
The Household by Stacey Halls
I’m a huge fan of Stacey Hall’s novels so I’m so excited for this one, set in the outskirts of London where a quiet house is being readied for a group of women. It’s location is secret and the residents have never met, but all have something in common – they are fallen. Urania Cottage is a second chance for prostitutes, petty thieves and the destitute. Only a few miles away in Picadilly lives the millionairess Angela Burdett-Coutts, one of the cottage’s benefactors. She has found out that her stalker is being released after ten years in prison. Will their nightmarish games resume? As the women’s worlds collide in ways they could never have expected, they will discover that freedom always comes at a price . .
Out on 11th April from Manila Press
The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
Ive been lucky enough to read this wonderful sequel to The Maid where we’re back with Molly, now Head Maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. She still lives in the flat she shared with her late grandmother but now shares with boyfriend Juan Marco. The couple were planning on travelling to Cuba to meet his family, but a mystery guest wants to hold and event in the hotel’s newly decorated Art Deco tearoom. Molly needs to oversee this and puts her newest recruit Lily on the job. J.D. Grimthorpe, the murder mystery author, is launching his new book and he has very specific requirements for his tea tray, including his very own honey pot to sweeten his tea. Horrifyingly, on the day, he takes one sip of his tea and falls down dead. Two things go missing in the chaos, the honeypot and the signed copy of his new novel. Suspicion falls on Lily, of course it’s always the maid’s fault, but can Molly work with the police to find the culprit? She does have something of an advantage though, Molly has met J. D. Grimthorpe before…. Such a joy to be in Molly’s company again for this sequel.
Out on 18th January by Harper Collins.
Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
Concordia has remained peaceful for a thousand years and to mark this achievement the emperor’s ship embarks on a twelve day voyage to the sacred Goddess’s Mountain. The twelve heirs of Concordia’s provinces are aboard, each one graced with a unique and secret magical ability known as a blessing. All except one: Ganymedes Piscero – class clown, slacker, and all-round disappointment. When one heir is murdered, everyone is a suspect. Stuck at sea and surrounded by powerful people, odds of survival are slim and as the bodies pile higher, Ganymedes must become the hero he was not born to be. Can he unmask the killer and their secret blessing before this bloody crusade reaches the shores of Concordia? Or will the empire as he knows it fall forever? A brilliant mix of fantasy and murder mystery.
Out on 18th January from Michael Joseph
The Fury by Alex Michaelides
‘On a small private Greek island, former movie star Lana Farrar – an old friend – invites a select group of us to stay.’
It’ll be hot, sunny, perfect. A chance to relax and reconnect – and maybe for a few hidden truths to come out. Because nothing on this island is quite what it seems. Not Lana. Not her guests. Certainly not the murderer – furiously plotting their crime . . .
But who am I? My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard. I love this author for his incredible twists – I sail recommend The Silent Patient.
Out on 1st Feb from Penguin.
The Book of Witching by C.J.Cooke
I can’t believe this author has a new book out this year! Talk about prolific. This is the blurb we have so far.
A terrible discovery on an idyllic beach in Fynhallow Bay: a teenage boy has been burned to death, a girl is missing, and another girl is in hospital and remembers just one thing – that she is Nyx. But her mother won’t give up on bringing her back to reality, and travels back to that remote beach where she starts to uncover a centuries old secret of witchcraft that may just be the key to saving her daughter . . .
Will Fynhallow Bay give up its secrets before someone else dies?
Out 10th October 2024 from Harper Collins
The Betrayal of Thomas True by A.J.West
It is the year 1710, and Thomas True has arrived on old London Bridge with a dangerous secret. One night, lost in the squalor of London’s back streets, he finds himself drawn into the underworld of the molly houses. Meanwhile, carpenter Gabriel Griffin struggles to hide his double life as Lotty, the molly’s silent guard. When the queen of all ‘he-harlots’, Mother Clap, confides in him about a deadly threat, he realises his friends are facing imminent execution. There is a rat amongst the mollies, betraying their secrets to the murderous Justices punishing sinners with the noose. Can Gabriel unmask the traitor before it’s too late? Can he save Thomas and their own impossible love?
Set amidst the hidden world of Georgian London’s ‘gay’ scene, this is a brutal and devastating thriller, where love must overcome evil, and the only true sin is betrayal…
Out on 6th June from Orenda Books
The Library of Heartbeats by Laura Imai Messina
On the peaceful Japanese island of Teshima there is a library of heartbeats, a place where the heartbeats of visitors from around the world are collected. In this isolated building, even the heartbeats of people who’ve have already passed away, continue to echo. Several miles away, in the ancient city of Kamakura, two lonely souls meet: Shuichi, a forty-year-old illustrator, returns to his home-town to fix up the house of his recently deceased mother. Eight-year-old Kenta is a child who wanders like a shadow around Shuichi’s house. Day by day, the trust between Shuichi and Kenta grows until they discover they share a bond that will tie them together for life. Their journey will lead them to Teshima and to the library of heartbeats . . .
Out on 4th Jan from Manila Press.
House of Shades by Lianne Dillsworth
So excited for this one as I loved her debut. In London, 1833, doctress Hester Reeves has been offered a life-changing commission. But it comes at a price. She must leave behind her husband and their canal-side home in Kings Cross and move to Tall Trees – a dark and foreboding house in Fitzrovia. If Hester can cure the ailing health of its owner, Gervaise Cherville, she will receive payment that will bring her everything she could dream of. But on arriving at Tall Trees, Hester quickly discovers that an even bigger task awaits her. Now she must unearth secrets that have lain hidden for decades – including one that will leave Hester’s own life forever changed…
Out on 16th May from Hutchinson Heinneman
Ice Town by Will Dean
This one is coming very late in the year and will certainly be on my birthday wishlist. I’m a massive Tuva Moodyson fan and I’ve been waiting for a new one, even while enjoying his standalone novels.
A deaf teenager goes missing in Esseberg. Mountain rescue are launching a search party but conditions hinder their efforts. When journalist Tuva Moodyson reads this news alert she knows she must join the search. If this teenager is found, she will be able to communicate with him in a way no one else can. Tuva is deaf too. Esseberg lies on the other side of a mountain tunnel: there is only one way in and one way out. When the tunnel closes at night, the residents are left to fend for themselves. And as more people go missing, it becomes clear that there is a killer among them ..
Out November 7th from Hodder and Stoughton
When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman
This is also a later release but anything new by Alice Hoffman is always on my radar. This is aimed at younger readers but I do delve into young adult fiction and this is worth it.
Anne Frank’s story has captivated and inspired readers for decades. Published posthumously by her bereaved father, Anne’s journal, written while she and her family were in hiding during World War II, has become one of the central texts of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust. With the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the Frank family’s life is turned inside out and Anne is forced to bear witness as ordinary people become monsters, and children and families are caught up in the violence. In the midst of danger, the audacious and creative Anne discovers who she truly is. With a wisdom beyond her years, her writing will change the world. Alice Hoffman weaves a heart-wrenching story of the way the world closes in on the Frank family until they are forced into hiding, bringing Anne to bold, vivid life. Based on extensive research and published in cooperation with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, When We Flew Away is an extraordinary and moving tour de force.
Out on 17th September from Scholastic Press
Meet Me When My Heart Stops by Becky Hunter
I was lucky enough to read this over Christmas and loved the premise, which had a Life After Life feel, but brought up to date.
The first time Emery’s heart stops, she is only five years old. She is born with a heart condition that means her heart could quite literally stop at any moment. The people around her know what to do – if they act quickly enough there will be no lasting damage, and Emery’s heart can be restarted. But when it happens, she is briefly technically dead. Each time Emery’s heart stops, she meets Nick. He helps people adjust to being dead, before they move on entirely. He doesn’t usually meet people more than once – but with Emery, he can a connection, and he finds himself drawn to her. As Emery’s life progresses, and she goes through ups and downs, she finds a part of her longing for those moments when her heart stops – so that she can see Nick again. This is the story of two fated lovers who are destined never to share more than a few fleeting moments – because if they were together, it would mean Emery’s life has ended. This is a real tear-jerker and I loved the author’s ability to create both the afterlife and a real, present life with all the issues of Emery’s condition played out.
Out on March 21st from Corvus
Death on the Lusitania by R.L. Graham
Welcome on board the Lusitania’s final voyage . . .
New York, 1915. RMS Lusitania, one of the world’s most luxurious ocean liners, departs for war-torn Europe. On board is Patrick Gallagher, a civil servant in Her Majesty’s government tasked with escorting a British diplomat back to England. When a fellow passenger is believed to have shot himself in his cabin, Gallagher is asked to investigate the scene but one crucial detail doesn’t fit. The man’s body was found in a locked cabin with the key inside and no gun to be found. Was it really suicide? Or murder? Gallagher believes one of the passengers is a deadly killer – one who could strike again at any moment. And all the while, the ship sails on towards Europe, where enemy submarines patrol dark waters . . .
Out on January 25th from Macmillan.
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter by Nicci French
She’s loved by all who meet her. But someone wants her gone . . .
When beautiful and vivacious Charlotte Salter fails to turn up to her husband Alec’s 50th birthday party, her kids are worried, but Alec is not. As the days pass, with no word from Charlie, her daughter, Etty, and her sons, Niall, Paul and Ollie, all struggle to come to terms with her disappearance. Left with no answers, the Salter children try and go on with their lives, all the while thinking that their mother’s killer is potentially very close to home. After years away, Etty returns to the village, to help move her father into a care home. Now in his eighties, Alec has dementia and often mistakes his daughter for her mother. Etty is a changed woman from the trouble-free girl she was when Charlie was still around – all the Salter children have spent decades hiding from their mother’s disappearance. But when childhood friends, Greg and Morgen Ackerley, decide to do a podcast about Charlotte’s disappearance, it seems like the town’s buried secrets – and the Salters’ – might finally come to light.
Out on 29th Feb from Simon & Schuster
By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
This latest from prolific writer Jodi Picoult barely has a blurb as yet, just lots of positive feedback from other authors. I love her work so this is another book for my birthday list I think.
The Amazing Grace Adams – I loved taking Grace’s journey with her, as she ends up abandoning her car and walking to deliver a birthday cake to her daughter. As she walks, family secrets start to emerge and we watch Grace find herself again. Funny, moving and uplifting.
Shark Heart – This is such an unusual novel, as newlyweds Lewis and Wren find out about a rare genetic mutation that will slowly turn Lewis into a Great White Shark. The author uses magic realism to explore the grief of losing someone by slow degrees. Beautiful and utterly heartbreaking.
The Opposite of Lonely – Of course the Skelf novel number 5 is on my list! I’m such a fan of these books and the three Skelf women: grandmother Dorothy, mother Jenny and daughter Hannah. There are changes afoot in the funeral business, plus three new cases for them to investigate including a fire at a traveller’s site, the whereabouts of Jenny’s sister-in-law and an astronaut who came back to earth a ‘changed’ woman. Brilliantly written and woven together this is the best one yet.
End of Story – this book is an absolute masterpiece. Louise creates a dystopian world where all fiction is banned and writers are monitored very carefully by compliance officers who visit and interrogate their activities. Fern is one such writer whose third novel Technological Amazingness was banned for creating dissent. I sensed another story lurking beneath the surface and I read the last chapters with tears running down my cheeks.
The Birdcage Library – this had all the elements of my favourite type of novel – dual timelines, women’s history, a gothic castle, and taxidermy! What more could you want? Emily Blackwood is an explorer in her own right, but is asked by a collector of taxidermy to help him catalogue his collection. However when she arrives and finds pieces of a woman’s journal from 50 years ago, she is pulled into a story that has implications for the collector and for her own safety. Dark, compelling and quirky.
All The Little Bird-Hearts – Sunday and her daughter Dolly have a glamorous and gregarious new neighbour. Vita wants to be friends, a big deal for Sunday who finds socialising difficult. Vita and her husband Rollo seems to accept Sunday’s ‘quirks’, but as they get closer Sunday starts to notice Vita is spending more time with Dolly. Are they just taking an interest in Dolly or is something more manipulative going on? This is a subtle and emotionally literate debut that’s so beautifully written.
Good Girls Die Last – I read this book in a day, because it’s so compelling. Em’s 30th birthday looms along with the imminent wedding of her younger sister back home in Spain. On the hottest day of the year she loses her job and home in one morning. All she’s got to do is get to the airport, but with strikes, protests and a serial killer on the loose will she ever get there? A raw and searingly insightful thriller.
River Sing Me Home – a stunning novelty set in the first years after slavery is outlawed in Barbados. Rachel is still in the cane fields as an apprentice and doesn’t feel free. The only way Rachel will feel free is if she can find her children; scattered to different places and owners by the slave owner. This is a beautiful, moving journey of a mother trying to put the pieces of her family back together and it is unforgettable.
Vita and the Birds – I loved this haunting tale from the wonderful Polly Crosby. Told in a dual timeline, we follow Eve Blakeney who returns to her grandmother’s home by the coast to sort through her belongings and work through her grief. She finds a tin of letters that take us back to the 1930’s and her grandmother’s relationship with a woman called Vita. A novel of family secrets kept for decades and so beautifully written.
The Fascination – with it’s setting of travelling fairs, the West End and the Victorian fascination with ‘curiosities’ it was perfect for me. Tilly and Keziah Lovell are twins and alike in everything except Tilly hasn’t grown since she was five. They follow their father to fairgrounds selling his quack remedies until they are sold at 15 to the mysterious Captain who whisks them to London. Theo is raised by Lord Seabrook, a man who has an obsession with anatomical curiosities. As Theo undertakes work at Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy his path crosses with the Captain and his troupe. Theo, Keziah and Tilly are drawn into a web of deceit and secrets that could upturn everything they know.
The Running Grave – I was disappointed with the last Cormoran Strike novel but this was back on form. Strike and Robin are hired to find a young man drawn into a cult and estranged from his family. Robin volunteers to infiltrate the church through their temple in London, with the hope of being taken to their farm in Norfolk to undergo induction. The Universal Humanitarian Church is, seems like a peaceable organisation that campaigns for a better world, but Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths. Is Robin prepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her?
Starling House – An absorbing Gothic fairytale set in the small town of Eden, Kentucky. No one remembers when Starling House was built, but stories of the house’s bad luck have been passed down the generations. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses, but when an opportunity to work there arises the money might get her brother out of Eden. Starling House is uncanny and full of secrets – just like Arthur, its heir. It also feels strangely, dangerously, like something she’s never had: a home. Yet Opal isn’t the only one interested in the horrors and the wonders that lie buried beneath it. As sinister forces converge on Eden Opal realizes that if she wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.
A Haunting in the Arctic – 1901. On board the Ormen, a whaling ship battling through the unforgiving North Sea, Nicky Duthie awakes. Attacked and dragged there against her will, it’s just her and the crew – and they’re all owed something only she can give them. 1973. Decades later the ship is found still drifting across the ocean, but deserted. Just one body is left on board, his face and feet mutilated, his cabin locked from the inside. Everyone else has vanished. Now, urban explorer Dominique travels to the northernmost tip of Iceland and the Ormen’s wreck, determined to uncover the ship’s secrets. But she’s not alone. Something is here with her. And it’s seeking revenge… hauntingly brilliant.
In A Thousand Different Ways– Alice sees the worst in people. She also sees the best. She sees a thousand different emotions in shades of colour and knows exactly what everyone around her is feeling. Every. Single. Day. It’s the dark thoughts. The sadness. The rage. These are the things she can’t get out of her head. The things that overwhelm her. With a difficult family life including her mother who’s a permanent shade of blue, where will the journey to find herself begin? This was a beautifully thoughtful depiction of intergenerational trauma and the ways in which we heal.
The Moon Gate – This brilliant historical fiction novel weaves together three timelines, starting in Australia in the 1930’s and two girls shipped down under to avoid the Blitz – Grace and their housekeeper’s daughter. At Towerhurst, Grace and neighbour Daniel bond over poetry, and when Australia’s young men are finally called up a secret is carried forward over the decades. In 1975 Willow and her husband Ben are shocked to receive a letter informing them she has been bequeathed a house, Towerhurst, on the northwest coast of Tasmania. Ben decides to use his journalism skills to find out why. Libby Andrews has always been shielded from the truth of her father Ben’s death. When she decides to travel to London and claim his belongings, she finds an intriguing photograph that inspires her to finish his investigation. This is a beautiful story, emotional and perfectly set within it’s different settings and time frames. This is my favourite read of the year.
Harlem After Midnight – In the middle of Harlem, at the dead of night, a woman falls from a second storey window. In her hand, she holds a passport and the name written on it is Lena Aldridge… after the voyage of Miss Aldridge Regrets, Lena arrived in Harlem less than two weeks ago. She’s full of hope for her new romance with Will Goodman, the handsome musician she met on board the Queen Mary. Will has arranged for Lena to stay with friends of his, and give their relationship a chance. She’s also in Harlem to find out what happened in 1908 to make her father flee to London. As Lena’s investigations progress, not only does she realise her father lied to her, but the man she’s falling too fast and too hard for has secrets of his own. And those secrets have put Lena in terrible danger…
The Girls of Summer – I couldn’t get this novel out of my head, especially having teenage stepdaughters stepping out into the world. Rachel has loved Alistair since she was seventeen, even though it was sixteen years ago and she’s now married to someone else. She was a teenager when they met and he was almost twenty years older than her. Rachel has never been able to forget their golden summer together on a remote, sun-trapped Greek island. But as dark and deeply suppressed memories rise to the surface, Rachel begins to understand that Alistair – and the enigmatic, wealthy man he worked for – controlled much more than she ever realized. Rachel has never once considered herself a victim – until now. Not only a great thriller, but shows how thinking has changed around abuse and exploitative power dynamics in relationships.
The House of Fortune – This return to 18th Century Amsterdam and the world of Nella Oortman is set several years after Nella’s husband’s execution. Nella’s sister-in-law Marin died in childbirth, after a relationship with her brother’s manservant Otto. The household is running out of money, so Nella knows that their only option is to find a wealthy husband for Thea, Marin’s daughter. Will the notoriety of Thea’s birth and her mixed race heritage hold her back in the marriage market? When small packages start to appear on the doorstep, Nella knows that the miniaturist has returned.
The Good Liars – Anita Frank’s new historic thriller is set in a favourite period of mine, the period after the First World War. In the summer of 1914 a boy vanishes from the estate of Darkacre Hall, never to be seen again. In 1920, the once esteemed Stilwell family of Darkacre are struggling with the war’s legacy. Leonard bears the physical scars, while his brother Maurice has endured more than his mind can take. Maurice’s wife Ida yearns for the lost days of privilege and pleasure and family friend Victor seems unwilling to move on. Then a young nurse arrives to work with Leonard changing the dynamic. She finds that the dead haunt the living at Darkacre and dark secrets lie buried. When the missing boy’s case is reopened – and this time they themselves are under police scrutiny. A great Gothic novel, that beautifully conjures the 1920’s and the aftermath of war.
Strange Sally Diamond – After her father dies, Sally carries out his wishes to the letter and he’s always said put me in a bin bag and throw me out with the rubbish. There’s a dark, Irish humour in this novel about a vulnerable young woman who finds out she has been her father’s subject of study. This story veers between an uplifting tale of a sheltered young woman trying to live independently and a thriller. As Sally gets on her feet a man from New Zealand turns up on the doorstep. What is his link to Sally and will his presence change everything? I know this is a book I’ll read again and again.
73 Dove Street– Edie Budd arrives at a shabby West London boarding house in October 1958, carrying nothing except a broken suitcase and an envelope full of cash, it’s clear she’s hiding a terrible secret. The other women of 73 Dove Street have secrets of their own. Tommie, who lives on the second floor, waits on the eccentric Mrs Vee by day. After dark, she harbours an addiction to seedy Soho nightlife – and a man she can’t quit. Phyllis, the formidable landlady, has set fire to her husband’s belongings after discovering a heart-breaking betrayal – yet her fierce bravado hides a past she doesn’t want to talk about. The three women keep to themselves, but as Edie’s past catches up with her, Tommie becomes caught in her web of lies – forcing her to make a decision that will change everything . . .
The Space Between Us – Heather, Ava and Lennox see a bright light in the sky and on the same evening suffer a rare form of stroke. Yet they seem to suddenly recover. All are drawn back to where the light came down and find themselves in a race to help Sandy, an alien cephalopod who needs to find others of his kind. An unusual, funny and deeply moving read.
Beautiful Shining People – Awkward teenager John is a coding genius, who is in Japan on business when he comes across an ear-cleaning service, run by a beautiful girl called Neotnia, a giant ex-Sumo wrestler and a robot dog. This book is like nothing I’d ever read before: part romance, part science-fiction and part thriller. I loved it all.
Also worth reading…
I had a really hard time keeping to 23 books this year so here are a few that almost made the cut.
Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater – brilliant thriller set in a bookshop chain, with dark humour and some great swipes at our bookish culture – you will recognise yourself..
You Can’t See Me by Eva Björg Ægisdottir – a great addition to the Forbidden Iceland series as a wealthy family have booked a reunion in a hotel on the lava fields. When someone goes missing their darkest secrets start to be exposed.
Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen – a dark and funny thriller ensues when an author is challenged to write a thriller in 30 days and her writing retreat is anything but relaxing.
The Seawomen by Chloe Timms – the women on the island of Eden are forbidden to enter the water, to even touch the water will stir up the sin inside. Obedience, marriage and motherhood are the only path to salvation. The sea is Esta’s greatest temptation, can she resist it’s siren call?
We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman – Ash and Edi have been friends for forty years, so when Edi is diagnosed with terminal cancer Ash arranges her life round Edi’s care. She wants to squeeze every bit of joy out of these moments, but will she be able to let go?
This Family by Kate Sawyer – Mary has watched all three of her daughters grow up in this house and today she is getting married there. Will Phoebe, Rosie and especially Emma be able to put all that has happened since aside to be there for their mother? A brilliant family drama.
Past Lying by Val McDermid – the latest in Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie series sees the DI investigating during lockdown when a librarian finds a disturbing manuscript as she’s archiving an author’s final effects. Could his unfinished manuscript actually link to a missing person case?
The Lotus Readers 