Books, Reading & Reviews

Looking for a new read?

Yours Faithfully by Sheila O’Flanagan

A wonderfully gripping, dramatic, touching and warm novel. Iona's not pregnant. It's a blow, but she's looking forward to when her husband Frank gets home to comfort her, and to reassure her that their dream of a family together will come true. Sally, on the other hand, has just discovered that she's very much pregnant. Which is quite a surprise, with her only child now a stroppy seventeen-year-old, who's not going to be at all pleased to hear the embarrassing news that her mother's up the duff. And Sally's not sure how her husband's going to feel about it, when he gets home. Except Frank's not going to get home - to either of his wives. Frank's bigamy of several years is about to be exposed, because Frank was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And now his wives are going to meet in the hospital where he lies in a coma. And everything is about to change for all of them - and for the ambitious young woman police detective who finds herself assigned to a case like no other...

 

 

The Eyewitness by Stephen Leather

The Eyewitness, delves into ethnic genocide in the Balkans and the murky world of global prostitution. Jack Solomon, an ex-London vice squad detective, works for the International War Dead Commission in the former Yugoslavia. His job is identifying the victims of the ethnic atrocities "to put names to the dead" and, where necessary, pass cases on to the War Crimes Tribunal.
In three years this cigarette-smoking investigator has seen a lot of terrible things, but when a van containing the bodies of 26 Kosovar Albanians, most from the same family, is pulled out of the river, something inside him snaps. He believes that one of the family, a young woman called Nicole, not only survived but also witnessed the murders. Jack sets out to find her. Ordered off the case by his number-crunching boss, he seeks the help of Dragan, a beer-swilling Bosnian cop. Convinced that Nicole has become a prostitute, Jack starts trawling the brothels. After a run in with Petrovic, a local hood, he discovers that she's now working as a call girl in London.
Solomon heads back home but finds things have changed; Albanian gangsters have muscled in on Soho and the Internet has revolutionised the skin trade. Tracking Nicole down proves more difficult than he had first surmised.

 

 

The Girl of his Dreams – by Donna Leon

One rainy morning Commissario Brunetti and Ispettore Vianello respond to a 911 call reporting a body floating near some steps on the Grand Canal. Reaching down to pull it out, Brunetti’s wrist is caught by the silkiness of golden hair, and he sees a small foot – together he and Vianello lift a dead girl from the water.
But, inconceivably, no one has reported a missing child, nor the theft of the gold jewellery that she carries. Brunetti is drawn into a search not only for the cause of her death but also for her identity, her family, and for the secrets that people will keep in order to protect their children – be they innocent or guilty.
From the canals and palazzos of Venice to a Gypsy encampment on the mainland, Brunetti struggles with institutional prejudice and entrenched criminality to try to unravel the fate of the dead child.

 

For the Death of Me by Quintin Jardine

It’s summertime in Monaco and Oz Blackstone is sitting on the verandah of his opulent mansion – one of three homes – idly gazing at Roman Abramovich’s luxury yacht as it gently cruises into the harbour. Life doesn’t get much better than this. But somebody knows where he lives. A struggling author sweet talks him into buying the movie rights to his latest novel for $50,000, and a shocking trap is laid.
The demons of the past begin to creep up on Oz’s sunny life: blackmail and murder are lurking in the shadows. Oz travels all the way to Singapore to track down the owner of some incriminating photographs but he’s in grave danger of over-exposure. And when organised crime muscles in on the picture, Oz is getting perilously close to losing a lot more than his wealth and reputation…

 

Black Dog by Stephen Booth

Stephen Booth's first novel Black Dog is an impressive portrait of two sorts of policing. Ben is a local man who knows everybody and perhaps scares too much, while Diane is a stranger wherever she goes and is perhaps too cold-blooded; when they find themselves rivals for promotion, and colleagues on a difficult case, breaking strain is going to be reached sooner or later.

Spoiled, young Laura Vernon is missing, soon to be found dead, and the question soon arises: is she only, or even, the first? Retired quarryman Harry found the body and perhaps knows more than he is letting on, but he will do anything rather than tell the police more than he has to. The Vernons' gardener is missing, a thuggish young man rather too fond of showing off his muscles--what does he know? What went on at the Vernons' smart cocktail parties and what do Harry and his friends talk about over their beer in the pub?

 

 

Kill chain by Meg Gardiner

When Evan Delaney’s father disappears, the cops think he’s fled the country to avoid prosecution. But Evan is sure that Phil has been abducted or killed for reasons associated with his work for Naval Intelligence.

As Evan hunts for clues, she is attacked by an armed man. The attacker ends up dead – and turns out to be a federal agent. Now Evan is on the run, implicated in his murder. Then she is contacted by a sinister duo – a Madam and gigolo mother-and-son-team who claim that Phil was mixed up in their very dirty business.

Can Evan save her father’s reputation – and his life? And can Jesse save Evan? Time is running out …

 

 

The Glass Room by Kate Holmquist

There are two ways Louisa Maguire can look at her life: half-empty or half-full. On the half-empty side there's a husband who's never around, perpetual guilt about short-changing her children and her work, and the craziness of living in boom-time Dublin. And on the half-full side there are the children, a thriving business, wonderful friends and she knows deep down that husband never being around. But on the morning of her thirty-seventh birthday, Louisa decides that there has to be more to her existence than a routine that is frantic but familiar. She needs to live. And she needs to love. Her decision to change her life takes Louisa in extraordinary directions. But when it leads her back to her native New York, and to a summer in the Hamptons when she was seventeen, Louisa must take on the toughest challenge of her life: finally confronting the devastating truth about why she has always put security before passion.

 

 

Love Falls by Esther Freud

'A vividly rendered portrait of a young girl's journey towards self discovery and maturity' Daily Mail 'Her most subtle and most affecting book yet' Independent on Sunday 'Love Falls captures the delicious uncertainty and electrifying beginnings of first love' Glamour 'As a coming-of-age tale, Love Falls is expertly realised the entire book radiates with the empathy for which Freud is known' Times Literary Supplement

 

 

Nature Gil by Carl Hiaasen

Nature Girl of the title, is Honey Santana, a single parent, living in a trailer in Flordia. One evening, while eating dinner, she receives a cold-call from Boyd Shreave, a salesman who trys to persuade her to purchase some real-estate in Florida. At first Honey tries to show Boyd how being a professional pest is no way to long-term fulfilment, but when Boyd gives her an earful of verbal abuse, Honey decides to plot revenge.

Observer
'Carl Hiaasen's latest screwball thriller ... is sometimes ludicrous but
always engaging and frequently hilarious.'

 

 

An Offer You Can’t Refuse by Jill Mansell

The book follows the life of Lola and her boyfriend Dougie. The story starts off with Dougies mother offering Lola £10000 pounds to finish with her son. Lola is appalled by this and refuses point blank - until she discovers a terrible secret and she has no choice but to take the money.

The story now moves to 3 years later - and shows a twist of fate bringing Dougie and Lola back together, with Lola still loving him as much as ever, but Dougie discovers she was paid to break his heart, and because Lola doesn’t want to tell him the truth can she ever get him back? She’s got her work cut out but can he forgive her?