On What Cathy Read Next last week
Tuesday – My take on this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books Set In Schools.
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 shared my proposed reading list for Novellas in November.
Saturday – I shared my reviews of Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers and The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond by Louise Davidson.
New arrivals
A bumper week thanks to a spending spree whilst on holiday in Cornwall and some ARCs. Especially excited about Karla’s Choice and the new Tom Wilde.
The Mischief Makers by Elisabeth Gifford (Corvus)
She wrote her stories in his shadow. Now Daphne’s past is catching up with her…
In a beautiful house in the wilds of Cornwall, Daphne du Maurier is on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Tangled in a self-destructive love affair that threatens to unravel her marriage, she is also distracted by worry for the family friend whose shadow looms over her childhood: J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan.
Daphne tries to escape into writing her new book, but the line between fiction and reality blurs dangerously when her own characters start manifesting before her eyes – in particular a woman called Rebecca who looks suspiciously like her husband’s alluring ex-girlfriend.
Daphne must confront the dark truth that lurks beneath the fantasy of Peter Pan and the secret life that has plagued her since she found fame. Unless she can solve these mysteries and reckon with who she truly is as an artist, her next great work may be lost to history . . .
Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll (Mudlark)
In this fascinating and compelling book, veteran journalist Rory Carroll retraces the road to the infamous Brighton bombing in 1984 – an incident that shaped the political landscape in the UK for decades to come. He begins with the infamous execution of Lord Mountbatten in 1979 – for which the IRA took full responsibility – before tracing the rise of Margaret Thatcher, her response to the ‘Troubles’ in Ireland and the chain of events that culminated in the hunger strikes of 1981 and the death of 10 republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands. From that moment on Thatcher became an enemy of the IRA – and the organisation swore revenge.
Opening with a brilliantly-paced prologue that introduces bomber Patrick Magee in the build up to the incident, Carroll sets out to deftly explore the intrigue before and after the assassination attempt – with the story spanning three continents, from pubs and palaces, safe houses and interrogation rooms, hotels and barracks. On one side, an elite IRA team aided by a renegade priest, US-raised funds and Libya’s Qaddafi and on the other, intelligence officers, police detectives, informers and bomb disposal officers. An exciting narrative that blends true crime with political history, this is the first major book to investigate the Brighton attack.
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout (Viking)
It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been.
Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.
Homeseeking by Karissa Chen (eARC, Sceptre via NetGalley)
Haiwen and Suchi are teenage sweethearts in 1940s Shanghai. Their childhood friendship has blossomed into young love, and they believe they are soulmates. But when Haiwen secretly decides to enlist in the army to keep his brother from the draft, their shared future is shattered. Their paths take them far from each other, with the exception of one pivotal chance encounter on the Hong Kong ferry in 1966.
Sixty years later, Haiwen, now in his late seventies, is bagging bananas at a 99 Ranch in Los Angeles when he lifts his head and sees Suchi. As they rekindle their friendship, it feels like they might have a second chance to live the life they were supposed to have together. But the weight of the past lives with them at every moment, and only time will tell if they are able to forge something new.
The Ghosts of Paris by Tara Moss (ARC, Verve Books)
It’s 1947. The world continues to grapple with the fallout of WWII, and former war reporter Billie Walker is finding her feet as an investigator. When a wealthy client hires Billie and her assistant Sam to track down her missing husband, the trail leads Billie back to London and Paris, where painful memories of her own husband’s disappearance also lurk.
As Billie’s search for her client’s husband takes her from the upper echelons of Paris’ Ritz hotel to the dank basements of the infamous Paris morgue, she’ll need to keep her gun at the ready, because something even more terrible than a few old memories might be following her around the City of Light…
A Cold Wind From Moscow (Tom Wilde #8) by Rory Clements (eARC, Zaffre via NetGalley)
Winter, 1947. Britain’s secret services have been penetrated. The country is more vulnerable than ever – and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin knows it. He decides it is time to send his master of ‘Special Tasks’ to create extra chaos. But Stalin has a more important motive than mere disruption. He has a man on the inside who must be protected at all costs – a communist super-spy who has the secrets of the atomic bomb at his fingertips.
Freya Bentall, a senior MI5 officer, no longer knows who to trust and is left with one to bring in an outsider whose loyalty is beyond question – Cambridge professor Tom Wilde. His to find the traitor in MI5. Bentall has three main suspects and Wilde must get close to them all. That means delving deep into the criminal underworld, attaching himself to the cultural elite of the arts and finding a way into the extreme reaches of British politics.
As winter bites and violence erupts, Wilde faces an uphill battle to protect those he loves from merciless killers. And he knows that one slip will spell disaster for the country – and his family.
Shadows of the Slain (The Bernicia Chronicles #10) by Matthew Harffy (Head of Zeus)
AD 652. After surviving dark intrigues at the Merovingian court of Frankia, Beobrand is finally able to undertake the mission his queen set to escort a party of pilgrims to the holy city of Rome. But Beobrand’s life is never easy. His party includes a scheming novice churchman whose ambition is boundless, and a mysterious envoy from Frankia.
Entering the lands of the Langobards, Beobrand discovers unexpected similarities to his native Northumbria in their speech and customs… and their willingness to spill blood.
The roads heading south are filled with danger. Meeting other pilgrims who have been attacked and robbed, Beobrand soon finds himself reluctantly responsible for their safety. Confronting brigands and robbers at every turn, they press on towards their goal. But when Beobrand reaches the snakepit of ruins and relics that is Rome, his difficulties truly begin… and his homeland has never been further away.
Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway (ARC, Viking)
It is spring in 1963 and George Smiley has left the Circus. With the wreckage of the West’s spy war with the Soviets strewn across Europe, he has eyes only on a more peaceful life. And indeed, with his marriage more secure than ever, there is a rumour in Whitehall – unconfirmed and a little scandalous – that George Smiley might almost be happy.
But Control has other plans. A Russian agent has defected in the most unusual of circumstances, and the man he was sent to kill in London is nowhere to be found. Smiley reluctantly agrees to one last simple interview Susanna, a Hungarian émigré and employee of the missing man, and sniff out a lead. But in his absence the shadows of Moscow have lengthened. Smiley will soon find himself entangled in a perilous mystery that will define the battles to come, and strike at the heart of his greatest enemy…
On What Cathy Read Next this week
Currently reading
Planned posts
- Book Review: Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd
- Book Review: The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse
- Book Review: The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
What Cathy Read Next... 