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!
Currently reading
Macbeth by Jo Nesbo (eARC, courtesy of NetGalley)
He’s the best cop they’ve got.
When a drug bust turns into a bloodbath it’s up to Inspector Macbeth and his team to clean up the mess.
He’s also an ex-drug addict with a troubled past.
He’s rewarded for his success. Power. Money. Respect. They’re all within reach.
But a man like him won’t get to the top.
Plagued by hallucinations and paranoia, Macbeth starts to unravel. He’s convinced he won’t get what is rightfully his.
Unless he kills for it.
Little by Edward Carey (ARC, courtesy of Gallic Books)
“There is a space between life and death: it’s called waxwork.s”
In 1761, a tiny, odd-looking girl named Marie is born in a village in Alsace. After the death of her parents, she is apprenticed to an eccentric wax sculptor and whisked off to the seamy streets of Paris, where they meet a domineering widow and her quiet, pale son. Together, they convert an abandoned monkey house into an exhibition hall for wax heads, and the spectacle becomes a sensation.
As word of her artistic talent spreads, Marie is called to Versailles, where she tutors a princess and saves Marie Antoinette in childbirth. But outside the palace walls, Paris is roiling: The revolutionary mob is demanding heads, and . . . at the wax museum, heads are what they do.
Pre-order Little from Amazon UK
Recently finished (click on title for review)
The Temptation (The Anglian Detective Agency #2) by Vera Morris (ebook)
Where is David Pemberton?
It’s 1971. Thirteen year old David has been missing for two years. It’s now up to Laurel Bowman and Frank Diamond, partners in the newly formed Anglian Detective Agency, to find him. But how do you solve a cold case with no leads? Are there connections to the brutal deaths of three local residents?
As their first big case unravels, they uncover a circle of temptations, destruction and deceit.
But the closer they get to solving the case, the more exposed they are to danger. And now both Laurel’s and Frank’s lives are at risk.
The Moving Blade (Detective Hiroshi #2) by Michael Pronko (eARC, courtesy of the author)
When the top American diplomat in Tokyo, Bernard Mattson, is killed, he leaves more than a lifetime of successful Japan-American negotiations. He leaves a missing manuscript, boxes of research, a lost keynote speech and a tangled web of relations.
When his alluring daughter, Jamie, returns from America wanting answers, finding only threats, Detective Hiroshi Shimizu is dragged from the safe confines of his office into the street-level realities of Pacific Rim politics.
With help from ex-sumo wrestler Sakaguchi, Hiroshi searches for the killer from back alley bars to government offices, through anti-nuke protests to military conspiracies. When two more bodies turn up, Hiroshi must choose between desire and duty, violence or procedure, before the killer silences his next victim.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (ebook)
All children mythologize their birth…So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter’s collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist.
The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself — all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter’s story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.
As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.
Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida’s storytelling but remains suspicious of the author’s sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves. (Review to follow)
What Cathy (will) Read Next
A House of Ghosts by W. C. Ryan (hardcover, courtesy of Zaffre and Readers First)
Winter 1917 – As the First World War enters its most brutal phase, back home in England, everyone is seeking answers to the darkness that has seeped into their lives.
At Blackwater Abbey, on an island off the Devon coast, Lord Highmount has arranged a spiritualist gathering to contact his two sons who were lost in the conflict. But as his guests begin to arrive, it gradually becomes clear that each has something they would rather keep hidden. Then, when a storm descends on the island, the guests will find themselves trapped. Soon one of their number will die.
Pre-order A House of Ghosts from Amazon UK
The Turn of Midnight by Minette Walters (hardcover, courtesy of Allen & Unwin and Readers First)
As the year turns from 1348 to 1349, the Black Death continues its relentless course across England. In Dorsetshire, the first county to be afflicted, the people of Develish begin to question if they are the lone survivors of this terrible pestilence.
Guided by their heretical mistress, Lady Anne, they wait inside the protection of a moat as their stores dwindle, knowing that when the food is gone they will have no choice but to leave. But where will they find safety in the desolate wasteland their county has become? And how can Lady Anne, a woman without rights herself, grant them the freedom they long for?
One man has the courage to find out.
Thaddeus Thurkell, a bastard serf, educated in secret by Lady Anne and risen to the post of steward, takes a band of raw, untested youths in search of supplies and news. As free-thinking and heretical as his admired mistress, Thaddeus makes a compelling leader, and his companions quickly learn to throw off the shackles of serfdom and set their minds to ensuring Develish’s future.
But what use is freedom that cannot be won lawfully? Aided and abetted by Lady Anne, Thaddeus conceives an audacious and dangerous plan to secure her people’s right to determine their fates for themselves. Neither foresees the life-threatening struggle over power, money and religion that follows…
…or the trial for heresy that will imperil all in Develish…
Pre-order The Turn of Midnight from Amazon UK
What Cathy Read Next... 