Recent Books

The Custom House Murder (June 2022)

By Mike Hollow

June 14, 2022

September, 1940.  With London having endured the Blitz for nearly a month, people are calling for vengeance, but once again the night heralds more destruction.  In Custom House, anxious residents dutifully head to the nearest public air-raid shelter as the warning siren wails.

When dawn brings the all-clear, people disperse, but one man remains – he is dead, stabbed through the heart.  Detective Inspector John Jago discovers that the victim was a pacifist.  But why, then, was he carrying a loaded revolver in his pocket?

With a Mind to Kill (June 2022)

By Anthony Horowitz

June 14, 2022

The explosive new James Bond novel from the number-one bestselling author of Trigger Mortis and Forever and a Day

It is M’s funeral.  One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M’s murder – James Bond.

Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former Smersh agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power.  Bond is smuggled into the lion’s den – but whose orders is he following and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives?

In a mission where treachery is all around and one false move means death, Bond must grapple with the darkest questions about himself.  But not even he knows what has happened to the man he used to be.

No Less the Devil (June 2022)

By Stuart MacBride

June 14, 2022

‘We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.’

It’s been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer catching him.. The media is whipping up a storm, the top brass are demanding results, but the investigation is sinking fast.

Now isn’t the time to get distracted with other cases, but Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh doesn’t have much choice.  When Benedict Strachan was just eleven, he hunted down and killed a homeless man.  No one’s over figured out why Benedict  did it, but now, after sixteen years, he’s back on the streets again – battered, frightened, convinced a shadowy ‘They’ are out to get him, and begging Lucy for help.

It sounds like paranoia, but what if he’s right?  What if he really is caught up in something bigger and darker than Lucy’s ever dealt with before?  What if the Bloodsmith isn’t the only monster out there?  And what’s going to happen when Lucy goes after them?

Where the Crawdads Sing (June 2022)

By Delia Owens

June 14, 2022

For years, rumours of the ‘Marsh Girl’ have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast.  So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark the so-called Marsh Girl.  But Kya is not what they say.  Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand.  Then the time comes when she yearns to be loved.  When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life – until the unthinkable happens.

Nine Lives (June 2022)

By Peter Swanson

June 14, 2022

The envelope is unremarkable.  There is no return address.  It contains a single, folded sheet of white paper.

The envelope drops through the mailslot like any other pierce of post.  But for the nine complete strangers who receive one – each of them recognising only their own name on the enclosed list – it will be the most life-altering letter they ever receive.  It could also be the last, as, one by one, they start to meet their end.

But why?

French Braid (June 2022)

By Anne Tyler

June 14, 2022

When the kids are grown and Mercy Garrett gradually moves herself out of the family home, everyone is determined not to notice.

Over at her studio, she wants space and silence.  She won’t allow any family clutter.  Not even their cat, Desmond.

Yet it is a clutter of untidy moments that forms the Garretts’ family life over the decades, whether that’s a painstaking Easter lunch or giving a child a ride, a fateful train journey or an unexpected homecoming.

And it all begins in 1959, with a family holiday to a cabin by a lake.  It’s the only one the Garretts will ever take, but its effect will ripple through the generations.

Amongst Our Weapons (May 2022)

By Ben Aaronovitch

May 17, 2022

There is a world hidden underneath this great city…

The London Silver Vaults – for well over a century, the largest collection of silver for sale in the world.  It has more locks than the Bank of England and more cameras than a celebrity punch-up.

Not somewhere you can murder someone and vanish without a trace – only that’s what happened.

The disappearing act, the reports of a blinding flash of light and memory loss amongst the witnesses all make this a case for Detective Constable Peter Grant and the Special Assessment Unit.

Alongside their boss DCI Thomas Nightingale, the SAU find themselves embroiled in a mystery that encompasses London’s tangled history, foreign lands and, most terrifying of all, the North!

And Peter must solve this case soon because back home his partner Beverley is expecting twins any day now.  But what he doesn’t know is that he’s about to encounter something – and somebody – that nobody ever expects…

The Leonard Girls (May 2022)

By Deborah Challinor

May 17, 2022

In 1969, at the height of the Vietnam war, nurse Rowie Leonard is serving a 12 month tour of duty.  She supports the war and is committed to caring for wounded New Zealand and Australian troops.  After a few months, however, she realises that nothing at all about the conflict is as clear-cut as she’d assumed.

Her younger sister, Jo, is the opposite – a student at Auckland University, a folk singer and a fervent anti-war protestor.  But when Jo falls for professional soldier Sam Apanui, home on leave to visit his ill father, she finds herself torn between her feelings and her convictions.

As the three of them grapple with love, loss, and the stresses and sorrows of war, each will be forced to confront and question everything they believed.

The Gilded Cage (May 2022)

By Camilla Lackberg

May 17, 2022

A woman who has everything…

People would kill to have Faye Adelheim’s life.  She lives in a beautiful apartment, she has a gorgeous husband who gives her everything she’s ever wanted, and she has an adorable daughter who lights up her world.

Or does she?

So how is it, then, that Faye now finds herself in a police station?

The truth is about to come out…

The truth is that Faye’s life is far from what it seems.  And now, she’s been caught out.  There’s no way she’s going down without a fight.  The only question is – who will escape with their life?

Harbouring (May 2022)

By Jenny Pattrick

May 17, 2022

It is 1839 and Huw Pengellin is desperate to find a better life for his family than the one he ekes out in Wales.  His wife, Martha, is fully aware just how foolhardy Huw’s schemes can be, but she is keen to escape the foundry slums, as well as Huw’s brother Gareth, with his hot eyes and roving hands.  Might Colonel Wakefield’s plans to take settlers to the distant shores of New Zealand offer a solution?

On the other side of the world, watching the new arrivals, is Hineroa, who is also desperate to find a better life.  Will she be a slave for ever, will she ever be reunited with her people, and will the ships that keep sailing into the bay bring further trouble?

Change is underway, not just for those characters but also for the crescent of beach, thick bush and steep hills that are about to become the bustling settlement of Wellington.