Currently Reading

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!

One of the older books from my NetGalley shelf and a book for my personal Backlist Burrow reading challenge (that I hoped to complete by the end of 2023 but didn’t).

The Most Difficult Thing/Part of the Family by Charlotte Philby (The Borough Press via NetGalley)

How do you know who’s on your side, if you don’t know whose side you’re on?

David is the heir to global company TradeSmart, run by his philanthropic father Clive Witherall. Meg is an ambitious intern at a national newspaper, determined to break into the media world. Anna is hiding a dark secret, desperately clinging onto her new identity.

When the three friends meet Harry, everything changes…

As Anna finds herself drawn into the dark and highly controlled world of espionage, she is forced to question everything she thought she knew about the people who have recruited her – and about herself.

All Day at the Movies by Fiona Kidman (Gallic Books)

When war widow Irene Sandle goes to work in New Zealand’s tobacco fields in 1952, she hopes to start a new, independent life for herself and her daughter – but the tragic repercussions of her decision will resonate long after Irene has gone.

Each of Irene’s children carries the events of their childhood throughout their lives, played out against a backdrop of great change – new opportunities emerge for women, but social problems continue to hold many back. Headstrong Belinda becomes a successful filmmaker, but struggles to deal with her own family drama as her younger siblings are haunted by the past.

Recently finished

His Bloody Project: Documents relating to the case of Roderick Macrae by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Contraband)

The year is 1869. A brutal triple murder in a remote community in the Scottish Highlands leads to the arrest of a young man by the name of Roderick Macrae.

A memoir written by the accused makes it clear that he is guilty, but it falls to the country’s finest legal and psychiatric minds to uncover what drove him to commit such merciless acts of violence.

Was he mad? Only the persuasive powers of his advocate stand between Macrae and the gallows. (Review to follow)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

To Kill a King (Master of War #8) by David Gilman (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

Bordeaux, 1367. Having angered the bloodthirsty Don Pedro, King of Castile, Sir Thomas Blackstone is thoroughly sick of his mission for the Prince of Wales, but must remain true to his oath.

But this is the Hundred Years’ War, and tensions are rising once more. With the Prince of Wales deeply unpopular in his Aquitainian lands, Blackstone, King Edward’s Master of War, must return to French soil to help stem the tide of support for the King of France.

Meanwhile, Henry, Blackstone’s son, faces an incognito ride across France with his own motley band of outlaws and mercenaries. But the French are aware of the younger Blackstone’s journey, and see a perfect way to target the Master of War…

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – As part of the blog tour, I published my review of The Teacher by Tim Sullivan along with a letter to help spell out a clue.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024.

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 sign-up post for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024.

Friday – I published my review of crime novel, The Distant Dead by Lesley Thomson.

New arrivals

Someone ran amok on NetGalley…

The Household by Stacey Halls (eARC, Manilla Press via NetGalley)

London, 1847. In a quiet house in the countryside outside London, the finishing touches are being made to welcome a group of young women. The house and its location are top secret, its residents unknown to one another, but the girls have one thing in common: they are fallen. Offering refuge for prostitutes, petty thieves and the destitute, Urania Cottage is a second chance at life – but how badly do they want it?

Meanwhile, a few miles away in a Piccadilly mansion, millionairess Angela Burdett-Coutts, one of the benefactors of Urania Cottage, makes a discovery that leaves her cold. Her stalker of ten years has been released from prison, and she knows it’s only a matter of time before their nightmarish game resumes once more.

As the women’s worlds collide in ways they could never have expected, they will discover that freedom always comes at a price . . .

A Plague of Serpents by K. J. Maitland (eARC, Headline via NetGalley)

London, 1608. Three years after the Gunpowder Treason, the King’s enemies prepare to strike again.

Daniel Pursglove is tasked by royal command with one final mission: he must infiltrate the Serpents – a secret group of Catholics plotting to kill the King – or risk his own execution. But other conspirators are circling, men who would blackmail Daniel for their own dark ends.

In the Serpents’ den, nothing is quite as it seems. And when Daniel spies a familiar face among their number, the game takes a dangerous turn.

As plague returns to London, tensions reach breaking point. Can Daniel escape the web of treason in which he finds himself ensnared – or has his luck finally run out?

Sufferance by Charles Palliser (eARC, Guernica Editions via NetGalley)

When his nation is invaded and occupied by a brutal enemy, a well-intentioned man persuades his wife that they should give temporary shelter to a young girl who is at school with their daughter.

He has no idea that the girl belongs to a community against whom the invader intends to commit genocide.

Days stretch into weeks and then months while the enemy’s pitiless hatred of the girl’s community puts all of the family in danger. Nobody outside the family can be trusted with the dangerous secret and the threat from outside unlocks a darkness that threatens to derail them all.

James by Percival Everett (eARC, Mantle via NetGalley)

The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town.

Thus begins a dangerous and transcendent journey by raft along the Mississippi River, toward the elusive promise of free states and beyond. As James and Huck begin to navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise. With rumours of a brewing war, James must face the burden he the family he is desperate to protect and the constant lie he must live. And together, the unlikely pair must face the most dangerous odyssey of them all . . .

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Book Review: Back Trouble by Clare Chambers
Book Review: Perfume River by Robert Olen Butler
Book Review: Munich Wolf by Rory Clements
Book Review: The Slowworm’s Song by Andrew Miller
Book Review: History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

Tag: Currently Reading

#WWWWednesday – 17th January 2024