May 2016 (15)

When She Was Bad - Tammy Cohen (pub. Transworld)

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Sarah, Amira, Paula, Ewan and Charlie enjoy their routine 9-to-5 life. Until the day an aggressive new boss walks in... Suddenly, there's something chilling in the air. Who secretly hates everyone? Who is tortured by their past? Who is capable of murder? I cannot say this plainly enough; if you […]

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This Must Be The Place - Maggie O'Farrell (pub. Tinder Press)

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Meet Daniel Sullivan, a man with a complicated life. A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn and a wife, Claudette, who is a reclusive ex-film star given to shooting at anyone who ventures up their driveway. He is […]

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Shutter Man - Richard Montanari (pub. Sphere)

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The Farren family has been a plague upon Philadelphia's most dangerous neighbourhood, the Devil's Pocket, for generations. There, row after row of tumbledown houses hide dark secrets - none darker than Billy, the youngest Farren. Afflicted by a syndrome that means he can't recognise faces, Billy […]

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Dead Gone - Luca Veste (pub. Avon)

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A serial killer is stalking the streets of Liverpool, gruesomely murdering victims as part of a series of infamous, unethical and deadly psychological experiments. When it becomes apparent that each victim has ties to the City of Liverpool University, DI David Murphy and DS Laura Rossi realise […]

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while my eyes were closed - Linda Green (pub. Quercus)

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One, two, three...Lisa Dale shuts her eyes and counts to one hundred during a game of hide-and-seek. When she opens them, her four-year-old daughter Ella is gone. Disappeared without a trace. The police, the media and Lisa's family all think they know who snatched Ella. But what if the person who […]

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The Secret to not Drowning - Colette Snowden (pub. Bluemoose)

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How did the girl who once dreamed of being a Charlie's Angel become such a cowed and submissive woman? Marion's life appears perfectly fine but she is controlled and bullied by her husband, her only respite a once a week trip to the local swimming pool. A chance meeting with an old school-friend […]

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When I Was Invisible - Dorothy Koomson (pub. Century)

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In 1988, two eight-year-old girls with almost identical names and the same love of ballet meet for the first time. They seem destined to be best friends forever and to become professional dancers. Years later, however, they have both been dealt so many cruel blows that they walk away from each […]

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Die of Shame - Mark Billingham (pub. Little, Brown)

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Every Monday evening, six people gather in a smart North London house to talk about addiction. There they share their deepest secrets: stories of lies, regret, and above all, shame. Then one of them is killed - and it's clear one of the circle was responsible. Detective Inspector Nicola Tanner […]

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Behind Closed Doors - B.A. Paris (pub. Harlequin Mira)

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Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth, she has charm and elegance. You might not want to like them, but you do. You’d like to get to know Grace better. But it’s difficult, because you realise Jack and Grace are never apart. Some might call this true love. Others might […]

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The Lie - C. L. Taylor (pub. Avon)

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Jane Hughes has a loving partner, a job in an animal sanctuary and a tiny cottage in rural Wales. She’s happier than she’s ever been but her life is a lie. Jane Hughes does not really exist. Five years earlier Jane and her then best friends went on holiday but what should have been the trip of a […]

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Where They Found Her - Kimberly McCreight (pub. Simon & Schuster)

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Motherhood hasn't come at all easy for Molly Anderson. But she's finally enjoying life as mother to five-year-old Ella and as Arts reporter for the small but respectable Ridgedale Reader. That is, until a body is found in the woods adjacent to Ridgedale University's ivy-covered campus. This is a […]

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Aaah, that feels better!

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Well I think it's fair to say my itch has been well and truly scratched. This was my lovely haul from the weekend, not bad I'm sure you'll agree. Have I told you how much I love Waterstones? It's very unusual that I can go in there and not find something interesting to read. This time was Shtum - […]

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Musings of a frustrated reader

I’m being ever so good. I know the new Dorothy Koomson novel, When I Was Invisible, is out today, and I SO want to buy it. As soon as I do though, I’m going to want to read it – and I have so much work to do, plus the boy to ferry around, so the inevitable feasting will be interrupted. It’s like an […]

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Strictly Between Us - Jane Fallon (pub. Penguin)

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Tamsin and her best friend Michelle have been inseparable since they were teenagers. Even now they spend all their time together, along with Patrick, Michelle’s perfect husband. So when Tamsin hears a rumour that Patrick is having an affair, she is incensed. Unwilling to ignore it, she plots a […]

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The Crooked House - Christobel Kent (pub. Sphere)

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Alison is as close to anonymous as she can get: with no ties and a backroom job, hers is a life lived under the radar. But once Alison was someone else: once she was Esme, a teenager whose bedroom sat at the top of a remote house on a bleak estuary. A girl whose family, if not happy, exactly, was […]

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