Reviews – Page 31 – What Cathy Read Next…

On the blog last week

Monday – I published my May Monthly Wrap-Up.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Can’t Believe I Haven’t 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.

Thursday – I published my review of Prey by Graham Hurley, book 1 of my 20 Books of Summer.

Saturday – I joined other gardeners for #SixonSaturday sharing six things from my garden this week. I also took part in the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a book chain from The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zwieg to The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly.

New on my shelves

Deception by Alan Parks (John Murray via NetGalley)

New York, December 1941. Joseph Gunner, former soldier, is off the front lines and on the streets of New York, tasked with helping tip America into the Second World War.

Working for a section of the British Secret Service, Gunner spends his days covertly encouraging pro-war sentiment through planted news stories, radio broadcasts and even blackmail.

But when a honeytrap mission with a prominent US politician goes wrong and the young woman involved is found dead, Gunner realises he has a target on his back. Who silenced her? Who knew their plan? And who has betrayed Gunner?

As he investigates, Gunner is plunged into the secretive world of Nazis in America, the NYPD and the mobs of New York, as the body count quickly stacks up. With world events accelerating, Gunner finds himself in a race against time before he becomes the next victim. Soon, he’ll uncover a conspiracy that goes beyond what he thought was possible.

Cold Sunset by William Boyd (Viking via NetGalley)

Cold War Moscow is a place smouldering with secrets.

Gabriel Dax is on route to Russia, tasked with delivering a mysterious Blanco drawing to celebrated defector, Kit Caldwell. But Caldwell is convinced that the KGB suspects him of treachery and he wants to get out – now.

When Gabriel is ordered by his enigmatic handler Faith Green to help, he is pulled into a web of shifting loyalties and dangerous escape plans. As tensions rise and trust fractures, he is forced to confront the fine line between devotion and deception. But which will he choose?

Land by Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press)

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.

The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?

Land is a story of buried treasure, overlapping lives, ancient woodland, persistent ghosts, a particularly loyal dog, and how, when it comes to both land and history, nothing ever goes away.

The Wolf’s Oath by Tim Hodkinson (Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

Einar and the Wolf Coats sail back to the northern realms in order to honour a dying man’s last wish by placing his sword into the hands of his son.

As they get closer to their destination, they encounter a fearsome band of Viking mercenaries. Einar is keen to join forces, but the Wolf Coats are vehemently opposed… until a violent skirmish makes both sides realise they will be stronger together.

First though the Wolf Coats must pass a test: prove themselves to their new allies by discovering the truth behind strange tales of bloodshed in the far north.

Einar soon realises he may have signed up for more than he intended, for he must cross swords with allies of his bitter enemy: Eirik, the Serpent King.

What I’m currently reading

I’m reading Country People by Daniel Mason and Deception by Alan Parks from my NetGalley shelf, both out next month. And I’m listening to the audiobook of A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie, the book chosen for me in the latest Classics Club spin.

Look out for…

Book Review: Dwell by Rue Baldry

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation.

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own #6Degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post. You can also check out links to posts on X using the hashtag #6Degrees.

This month’s starting book is The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig, translated by Joel Rotenberg. It’s a book I haven’t read but from the description I think it’s one I might like so I’ve added it to my wishlist. Thank you, Kate! Links from each title will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

In The Post-Office Girl a young Austrian woman receives a telegram from a rich aunt requesting she join her and her husband in a Swiss Alpine resort. A similar summons occurs in A Single Rose by Muriel Barbery in which forty-year-old Rose gets a call from a lawyer asking her to come to Kyoto for the reading of her estranged father’s will. Once in Japan she is guided along a mysterious itinerary designed by her deceased father.

Also set in Japan and with a mystery at its heart is Flashlight by Susan Choi, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026. One evening, Louisa and her father take a walk out along a breakwater on the Japanese coast. She is found half-drowned, he has disappeared without trace.

Pretty much the opposite occurs in The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr in which a baby is found abandoned on a beach on Ireland’s west coast. The baby is passed from house to house before being adopted by a local fisherman and his wife.

Another abandoned baby features in Time of the Child by Niall Williams, also set in a small Irish community. As Christmas approaches, the local doctor and his daughter agree to care for a foundling but crucially its presence must remain a secret.

Time of the Child was shortlisted for the Winston Graham Historical Prize 2026 as was The Pretender by Jo Harkin. The Pretender is the story of twelve-year-old John Collan who discovers he’s not the person he thought he was – the son of a farmer – but Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, the son of the executed Duke of Clarence. He’s told he was secretly exchanged at birth for his own safety and that he has a claim to the throne of England.

The Pretender has been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2026 as has The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly. The book is set in the ‘Curative Education’ department of the Vienna Children’s Hospital where children whom we would now describe as being on the autism spectrum are the subject of observation and research. Adelheid Brunner is one of those children. She does not speak but writes and draws instead, her ambition being to own one thousand matchboxes. However, that doesn’t stop Adelheid from telling us her story, one which reveals unimaginably evil acts being carried out by the Nazi regime.

My chain has brought me full circle back to Vienna via Japan, Ireland and England during the Wars of the Roses. Where did your chain take you?