Recent Books

The Wedding Party (March 2023)

By Cathy Kelly

March 7, 2023

For the first time in years, the beautiful Robicheaux sisters are returning to their childhood home.  Decades after they first met, their parents are getting married again!

Indy is used to high-stress situations in her job as a midwife – but she knows that keeping the peace in her family of big personalities is a different matter entirely …

Eden is on the brink of political success and a surprise family wedding is the last thing she needs.  Especially when a long-buried secret is threatening to destroy everything.

Savannah might look like she has it all, but she’s spent her whole married life hiding the truth.  It’s a fragile facade that’s unlikely to withstand a week spend with her sisters.

Rory lives with her gorgeous girlfriend and tends to avoid family gatherings.  Particularly now, as her new book might just revel more than her sisters or parents would like …

A big wedding party is sure to throw up a few surprises – but one thing’s for sure, it’s going to be a week that the Robicheaux family will never forget …

The Murders at Fleet House (March 2023)

By Lucinda Riley

March 7, 2023

One dead bully.  A school full of suspects.

When a young student is found dead at a private boarding school, its elite reputation is at risk.  The headmaster is determined to write the death off as a tragic accident – but Detective Jazz Hunter will soon suspect that a murder has been committed.

Escaping her own problems in London, the beautiful and isolated landscape of rural Norfolk had felt like the ideal place for Jazz to hide.  But when it becomes clear the victim was tangled in a web of loyalties and old vendettas that go far beyond just one student, and as the body count begins to grow, Jazz knows she is running out of time…

All roads lead back to the closed world of the school.  But Fleet House and its residents refuse to give up their secrets so easily – and as her investigation gathers pace, Jazz realises that they are even more sinister than she could possibly have imagined.

Exit .45 (March 2023)

By Ben Sanders

March 7, 2023

When a former NYPD colleague is shot dead in front of him, private investigator Marshall Grade discovers there’s far more to the killing than meets the eye.

Ray Vialoux is in trouble.  Big trouble.  And he needs Marshall Grade’s help.

Reluctantly, Grade agrees to meet.  Over dinner in a Brooklyn restaurant, he learns that his former NYPD colleague owes money – a lot of money – to the wrong people.  But the conversation is cut short by gunfire, and suddenly Ray is lying dead on the restaurant floor.

As Marshall investigates the circumstances leading up to the murder, tracking down the drug dealers, bag men, bent cops and mob players within Ray’s orbit, it becomes clear there’s far more to the killing than a gambling debt.  Just who is responsible for Vialoux’s death … and why?  What secrets are his family hiding?  And can Marshall find the answers before his own history marks his as the prime suspect?

The Devils You Know (March 2023)

By Ben Sanders

March 7, 2023

Vincent needs a change.  He’s spent the last fifteen years in covert operations for the US government, but after a botched and fatal mission, he decides he’s done with pulling triggers.

He lucks into a dream job in Santa Barbara as head of security for supermarket mogul Eugene Lamar: nothing more that driving the boss to and from golf, with ample downtime for surfing, or sitting by the pool contemplating life – and how to live it with a zero body count.

There he meets and intrigued by Lamar’s daughter; the journalist Erin Jones, who’s on tour in California to promote her book about the benefits of war: Vincent’s seen his share of conflict and is sure he can change her mind – and he’d really like to make his case over drinks.

But there’s a problem: if Lamar’s business is confined to supermarkets, why does he need a panic room full of assault rifles, and a .357 revolver in his car?  It doesn’t take long for Vincent to find out that Lamar owes a debt to bad people – and that’s only the start of it.  He’s ensnared in a criminal enterprise, which soon brings costs in lives as well as money.

Erin wants answers, and needs Vincent’s help to get them.  But how much does she already know?  Is his growing attraction to her a liability?  And can he keep her safe from the brutal killers who are after her father?

It seems that Santa Barbara is a sunny town full of dark talent, and Vincent will have to revert to dark talents of his own if he’s going to survive…

Horse (February 2023)

By Geraldine Brooks

February 28, 2023

A discarded painting in a roadside clean-up, forgotten bones in a research archive, and Lexington, the greatest racehorse in US history.  From these strands of fact, Geraldine Brooks weaves a sweeping story of spirit, obsession and injustice across American history.

Kentucky, 1850.  An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South, even as the nation reels towards war.  An itinerant young artist who makes his name from paintings of the horse takes up arms for the Union and reconnects with the stallion and his groom on a perilous night far from the glamour of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954.  Marcha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2010.  Jess a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse – one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

The Autumn of the Ace (February 2023)

By Louis de Bernieres

February 28, 2023

Is it ever too late to change your story?

Daniel Pitt was an RAF fighter in the First World War and an espionage agent for the SOE in the Second.  Now the conflicts he faces are closer to home: Daniel’s marriage has fractured beyond repair and his relationship with his son, Bertie, has been a failure.

A sudden family tragedy spurs Daniel to leave England for a while, but some bonds are hard to break…

Daniel and Bertie soon find that their different experiences of war, although devastating, may bring with them the opportunity to reconnect.

If only they can find a way to move on from the past…

The Boys from Bloxi (February 2023)

By John Grisham

February 28, 2023

For most of the last hundred years Biloxi was known for its beaches, resorts, and seafood industry.  But it had a darker side.  It was also notorious for corruption and vice, everything from gambling, prostitution, bootleg liquor, drugs … even contract killings.  The vice was controlled by a small cabal of mobsters, many of them rumoured to be members of the Dixie Mafia.

Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up in Biloxi in the sixties and were childhood friends.  But as teenagers, their lives took them in different directions.  Keith’s father became a legendary prosecutor, determined to ‘clean up the Coast.’  Hugh’s father became the ‘Boss’ of Biloxi’s criminal underground.  Keith went to law school and followed in his father’s footsteps.  Hugh preferred the nightlife and worked in his father’s clubs.  The two families were headed for a showdown, one that would happen in a courtroom.

Rich with history and with a large cast of unforgettable characters, The Boys from Biloxi is a sweeping saga of two sons of immigrant families who grew up as friends, but ultimately find themselves in a knife-edge legal confrontation in which life itself hangs in the balance.

The Night Man (February 2023)

By Jorn Lier Horst

February 28, 2023

When a severed head is displayed on a stake in the quiet town of Larvik, Chief Inspector William Wisting is sent to investigate.

This is a calling card from a dangerous killer.  And it isn’t long before another body is found.

As the media closes in on the biggest story of the year, the truth is slowly uncovered as Wisting discovers a criminal network has lodged itself deep in the roots of the city.

Their leader – known only as The Night Man – holds the city in a vice-like grip and it’s up to Wisting to hunt him down.

But it’s all too easy for the hunter to become the prey.  And soon the case comes closer to home than Wisting ever thought possible…

A Gentle Radical: The Life of Jeanette Fitzsimons (February 2023) – Athenaeum Book Club 2023

By Gareth Hughes

February 28, 2023

Jeanette Fitzsimons was a visionary, a pioneer and a radical.  This is the story of someone who battled National and Labour’s lock on parliament and had the courage to challenge political sacred cows.  She was the co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand from 1995 to 2009, and a member of parliament from 1996 to 2010.

Highly regarded by all, she was the first (and until recently, the only) Green MP to win an electorate seat.  She died very suddenly and unexpectedly in 2020.  Fitzsimons is a unique figure in our political history yet someone whose personal story is still unknown.

How did a girl from a conservative rural family get to the front lines of radical political thought and then into the front benches of parliament?

How did she become the first Green MP in the world to win an electorate seat?

How did she survive the brutal world of politics and get through the death of her co-leader Rod Donald?

How did the world’s first national Green Party form in New Zealand, and what was Jeanette’s role?

What can we learn from her politics and what did she think of the Green Party that followed her?  Fitzsimons lived a fascinating life, filled with moments of high political drama, and her example of how to navigate politics, adversity and triumph is more important than ever.

Klara and the Sun (February 2023)

By Kazuo Ishiguro

February 28, 2023

From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside.  She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.

In Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?