#WWWWednesday – 16th December 2020

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

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Currently reading

A NetGalley ARC and an audiobook…

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult (audiobook)

Ruth Jefferson is a labour and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years’ experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she’s been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?

Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy’s counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family – especially her teenage son – as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other’s trust, and come to see that what they’ve been taught their whole lives about others – and themselves – might be wrong.

The Diabolical Bones (Brontë Sisters Mystery #2) by Bella Ellis (eARC, courtesy of Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley)

It’s Christmas 1845 and Haworth is in the grip of a freezing winter. Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë are rather losing interest in detecting until they hear of a shocking discovery: the bones of a child have been found interred within the walls of a local house, Top Withens Hall, home to the scandalous and brutish Bradshaw family.

When the sisters set off to find out more, they are confronted with an increasingly complex and sinister case, which leads them into the dark world of orphanages, and onto the trail of other lost, and likely murdered children. After another local boy goes missing, Charlotte, Emily and Anne vow to find him before it’s too late.

But in order to do so, they must face their most despicable and wicked adversary yet – one that would not hesitate to cause them the gravest of harm…

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Recently finished

Links from the titles will take you to my reviews

The Smallest Man by Frances Quinn (proof copy, courtesy of Simon & Schuster) 

Liar by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, trans. by Sondra Silverston

A Time For Swords by Matthew Harffy (eARC, courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

The Running Wolf by Helen Steadman (review copy, courtesy of the author and Impress Books)

Winterkill (Dark Iceland #6) by Ragnar Jónasson, trans. by David Warriner (eARC, courtesy of Orenda Books) 

Easter weekend is approaching, and snow is gently falling in Siglufjörður, the northernmost town in Iceland, as crowds of tourists arrive to visit the majestic ski slopes. Ari Thór Arason is now a police inspector, but he’s separated from his girlfriend, who lives in Sweden with their three-year-old son. A family reunion is planned for the holiday, but a violent blizzard is threatening and there is an unsettling chill in the air.

Three days before Easter, a nineteen-year-old local girl falls to her death from the balcony of a house on the main street. A perplexing entry in her diary suggests that this may not be an accident, and when an old man in a local nursing home writes ‘She was murdered’ again and again on the wall of his room, there is every suggestion that something more sinister lies at the heart of her death…

As the extreme weather closes in, cutting the power and access to Siglufjörður, Ari Thór must piece together the puzzle to reveal a horrible truth… one that will leave no one unscathed. (Review to follow for blog tour)

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What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Long Traverse by John Buchan 

This enchanting adventure tells the story of Donald, a boy spending his summer holidays in the Canadian countryside. Negog, a Native American Indian, acts as Donald’s companion and guide conjuring up a strange mist from a magic fire and bringing to life visions from the past. Through these boyish adventures peopled with Vikings, gold prospectors, Indians and Eskimos, Donald learns more about Canadian history than school has ever taught him.