Disgraced Laurence Jago decamps to his Cornish hometown in Scarlet Town, the third book in the series by Leonora Nattrass. Arriving in the midst of a chaotic election week, he encounters some familiar faces from his former life and soon after when a body is discovered, Laurence will be tasked with investigating. 1796. Disgraced former Foreign Office clerk Laurence Jago…
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Book reviews
Ann-Marie MacDonald lures you into Fayne‘s liminal spaces and disputed borderlands alongside Charlotte, a character who will hold you captivated in this deliciously gothic, queer coming-of-age story. In the late 19th century, Charlotte Bell is growing up at Fayne, a vast and lonely estate straddling the border between England and Scotland, where she has been kept from the world by…
Anne Worthington’s debut novel The Unheard takes us through three key moments in Tom Pullan’s life, the reverse chronology of which making what is an already deeply affecting story all the more impactful. Tom Pullan knows that the people who visit him are trying to tell him something, but he cannot remember what. He knows the faces in his memory,…
As a storm heads towards the city, a midwife in Reykavik finds a stash of letters and manuscripts left behind by her grandaunt, and in going through them rediscovers the woman she remembers in Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir’s Animal Life. In the days leading up to Christmas, Dómhildur delivers her 1,922nd baby. Beginnings and endings are her family trade; she comes…
Twenty years ago, three young friends vanished from the scene of an accident, which left another badly injured. Now in Claire Douglas’ The Girls Who Disappeared, journalist Jenna Halliday arrives in town to cover the milestone anniversary, only to discover that loss, secrets and local lore still haunt the place and its inhabitants. Twenty years ago: One rainy night, Olivia Rutherford…
Government clerk Laurence Jago returns, trading London’s political corridors and the dark alleys of Black Drop for passage to America with the hope of redemption in Leonora Nattrass’ sequel, Blue Water. Death came aboard with the cormorant. It arrived on the seventh day of our voyage… This is the secret report of disgraced former Foreign Office clerk Laurence Jago, written…
JP Delaney’s My Darling Daughter explores what happens after an adopted teenager contacts her birth parent out of the blue and Anna’s mother Susie and husband, Gabe, respond to her cry for help. Out of the blue, Susie Jukes is contacted on social media by Anna, the girl she gave up for adoption fifteen years ago. But when they meet,…
The second book in Peter Papathanasiou’s series featuring Greek-Australian DS George Manolis sees him leave Australia for a Greek holiday. His late father emigrated from the northwesternmost mainland region of Prespes, bordering Albania and North Macedonia, a place where it’s easy to disappear. Burnt-out from policework, Detective Sergeant George Manolis flies from Australia to Greece for a holiday. Recently divorced…
Two girls go on the run in Emma Styles’ No Country for Girls: a man is dead and they leave the city in his ute, still strangers but now accomplices to murder and with a bag of stolen gold at their feet. Gold. Theft. Murder. A Road Trip to Die For. Charlie and Nao are strangers from different sides of…
When term ends for the summer break, photography teacher Poppy decides to escape the home she still shares with her estranged husband, Josh, and take herself and her camera to an island off the Devon coast. But on her way to commune with the only inhabitants, puffins and other seabirds, best friend and rookie wedding planner, Lola, ropes her in…