On What Cathy Read Next last week
Monday – I shared my review of The Cleaner of Chartres by Salley Vickers, one of the books in my list for the 20 Books of Summer 2022 Reading Challenge.
Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topics was Books On My Seasonal TBRs I Still Haven’t Read.
Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is my weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading.
Thursday – I travelled to 2nd century Britain for my review of historical novel The Iron Way by Tim Leach.
Saturday – I shared an update on my gardening week for #SixOnSaturday.
New arrivals
After the Rising & Before the Fall by Orna Ross
A love forbidden by family. A feud spanning generations. A woman still yearning for freedom.
Twenty years after she was driven away from her family and the only man she ever truly loved, Jo Devereux has returned to the small Irish village where she grew up. And this time, she wants answers.
What happened to her family during the Irish Civil War? Did her great-uncle’s best friend really shoot him dead? And what did this “war of the brothers” mean for mothers, sisters and daughters?
Searching through papers bequeathed by her estranged mother, Jo uncovers astonishing truths about her grandmother and great-aunt – secrets of a cold-blooded murder with consequences that ricocheted down the generations into her own life.
Urged on by Rory O’Donovan, her lost love and the son of her family’s sworn enemies, Jo is tempted to reignite the fires of rebellion. Can she ever go back to the life she’d made for herself in San Francisco? Or will what she’s learning about her heritage incite her to cast off caution – and claim what should have been hers?
A Winter War by Tim Leach (Head of Zeus)
AD173. The Danube has frozen. On its far banks gather the clans of Sarmatia. Winter-starved, life ebbing away on a barren plain of ice and snow, to survive they must cross the river’s frozen waters. There’s just one thing in their way. Petty feuds have been cast aside, six thousand heavy cavalry marshalled.
Will it be enough? For across the ice lies the Roman Empire, and deployed in front of them, one of its legions.
The Sarmatians are proud, cast as if from the ice itself. After decades of warfare they are the only tribe still fighting the Romans. They have broken legions in battle before. They will do so again. They charge.
Sarmatian warrior Kai awakes on a bloodied battlefield, his only company the dead. The disgrace of his defeat compounded by his survival, Kai must now navigate a course between honour and shame, his people and the Empire, for Rome hasn’t finished with Kai or the Sarmatians yet.
The Santa Killer by Ross Greenwood (eARC, Boldwood)
One night less than two weeks before Christmas, a single mother is violently assaulted. It’s a brutal crime at the time of year when there should be goodwill to all. When DI Barton begins his investigation, he’s surprised to find the victim is a woman with nothing to hide and no reason for anyone to hurt her.
A few days later, the mother of the woman attacked rings the police station. Her granddaughter has drawn a shocking picture. It seems she was looking out of the window when her mother was attacked. And when her grandmother asks the young girl who the person with the weapon is, she whispers two words.
Bad Santa.
The rumours start spreading, and none of the city’s women feel safe – which one of them will be next
He’s got a list. It’s quite precise. It won’t matter even if you’re nice.
Under A Veiled Moon (Inspector Corravan Mystery #2) by Karen Odden (eARC, Crooked Lane Books)
September 1878. One night, as the pleasure boat the Princess Alice makes her daily trip up the Thames, she collides with the Bywell Castle, a huge iron-hulled collier. The Princess Alice shears apart, throwing all 600 passengers into the river; only 130 survive. It is the worst maritime disaster London has ever seen, and early clues point to sabotage by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who believe violence is the path to restoring Irish Home Rule.
For Scotland Yard Inspector Michael Corravan, born in Ireland and adopted by the Irish Doyle family, the case presents a challenge. Accused by the Home Office of willfully disregarding the obvious conclusion, and berated by his Irish friends for bowing to prejudice, Corravan doggedly pursues the truth, knowing that if the Princess Alice disaster is pinned on the IRB, hopes for Home Rule could be dashed forever.
Corrovan’s dilemma is compounded by Colin, the youngest Doyle, who has joined James McCabe’s Irish gang. As violence in Whitechapel rises, Corravan strikes a deal with McCabe to get Colin out of harm’s way. But unbeknownst to Corravan, Colin bears longstanding resentments against his adopted brother and scorns his help.
As the newspapers link the IRB to further accidents, London threatens to devolve into terror and chaos. With the help of his young colleague, the loyal Mr. Stiles, and his friend Belinda Gale, Corravan uncovers the harrowing truth – one that will shake his faith in his countrymen, the law, and himself.
On What Cathy Read Next this week
Currently reading
Planned posts
- My Five Favourite July Reads
- Book Review: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
- Book Review: Learwife by J R Thorp
- Cover Reveal: Hokey Pokey by Kate Mascarenhas
- #6Degrees of Separation
What Cathy Read Next... 