On the blog last week
Tuesday – I went off-piste for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday with Ten Short Story Collections I’ve Read.
Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a 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.
Saturday – I published my review of My Name is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende, translated by Frances Riddle.
New on my shelves
Cairo Gambit by S. W. Perry (Corvus via NetGalley)
Cairo, 1938. Archie Nevenden is many things: amateur archaeologist; theatre impresario; absent father; potential defector. And now, he’s a missing person.
His daughter, Prim, hasn’t seen him for nearly fifteen years. But she’s never given up on him, and now she’s on her way to Cairo to assist in the search.
Harry Taverner claims to work for the British Council, but Prim knows there’s more to it. He clearly has a theory about what happened to Archie, one she’s not going to like.
As Prim and Harry uncover the layers of Archie’s existence in Cairo, they find themselves drawn in to more than one conspiracy. And soon they’ll discover that Archie may not be the only one in danger…
The Best of Intentions by Caroline Scott (Simon & Schuster via NetGalley)
1932: When gardener Robert Bardsley arrives at Anderby Hall, an Elizabethan manor house in the Gloucestershire countryside, it is home to ‘Greenfields’, a community of artists and idealists.
Robert has been employed to revive Anderby’s famous roses and restore the topiary garden, but he also soon befriends the other residents: from colourful neighbour Trudie, who makes a formidable cocktail and keeps her late-fiancé’s ashes on the mantelpiece, to composer Daniel, recovering from the horrors of the Great War. The only person he can’t win over is Anderby’s schoolteacher, Faye, who finds him . . . perfectly vexing.
But just as Robert starts to feel at home, the residents discover that the old orchard has been sold to a property developer who has plans for an estate of Tudorbethan bungalows. Can they find a way to keep their creative community alive or will the new housing development put an end to the spirit of Greenfields?
What I’m currently reading
I’m reading Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon, listening to The Book of Days by Francesca Kay – both books on the shortlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction – and reading Traitor’s Legacy by S.J. Parris from my NetGalley shelf. My reading rate has slowed to almost stationary lately…
Look out for…
- Book Review: Days of Light by Megan Hunter
- Book Review: Traitor’s Legacy by S.J. Parris
What Cathy Read Next... 
I must have missed that Caroline Scott has a new one. I really enjoyed her previous books.
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I didn’t know about it either until I got sent a NetGalley widget. This one sounds quite different, more lighthearted, than her previous books.
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The Caroline Scott sounds like one I’d like. Happy reading.
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