myweekinbooks – Page 63 – What Cathy Read Next…

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Atmospheric Books.

Wednesday – I published my review of historical mystery, The Socialite Spy by Sarah Sigal. And 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.

Friday – I shared my review of Run to the Western Shore by Tim Pears, a historical novel set in 1st century Britain.

New arrivals

Rebellion (Eagles of the Empire #22) by Simon Scarrow (eARC, Headline via NetGalley)

AD 60. Britannia is in turmoil. The rebel leader Boudica has tasted victory, against a force of tough veterans in Camulodunum.

Alerted to the rapidly spreading uprising, Governor Suetonius leads his army towards endangered Londinium with a mounted escort, led by Prefect Cato. Soon it’s terrifyingly clear that Britannia is slipping into chaos and panic, with ever more tribal warriors swelling Boudica’s ranks. And Cato and Suetonius are grimly aware that little preparation has been made to withstand a full-scale rebellion.

In Londinium there is devastating news. Centurion Macro is amongst those unaccounted for after the massacre at Camulodunum. Has Cato’s comrade and friend made his last stand?

Facing disaster, Cato prepares his next move. Dare he hope that Macro – battle-scarred and fearless – has escaped the bloodthirsty rebels? For there is only one man Cato trusts by his side as he faces the military campaign of his life. And the future of the Empire in Britannia hangs in the balance.

The Infinite Air by Fiona Kidman (Gallic Books)

Jean Batten became an international icon in 1930s. A brave, beautiful woman, she made a number of heroic solo flights across the world. The newspapers couldn’t get enough of her.

In 1934, she broke Amy Johnson’s flight time between England and Australia by six days. The following year, she was the first woman to make the return flight. In 1936, she made the first ever direct flight between England and New Zealand and then the fastest ever trans-Tasman flight. Jean Batten stood for adventure, daring, exploration and glamour.

The Second World War ended Jean’s flying adventures. She suddenly slipped out of view, disappearing to the Caribbean with her mother and eventually dying in Majorca, buried in a pauper’s grave. Fiona Kidman’s enthralling novel delves into the life of this enigmatic woman. It is a fascinating exploration of early aviation, of fame, and of secrecy.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

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#6Degrees of Separation

New arrivals

Back Trouble by Clare Chambers (Arrow)

On the brink of forty, newly single with a failed business, Philip thought he’d reached an all-time low.

It only needed a discarded chip on a South London street to lay him literally flat. So, bedbound and bored, Philip naturally starts to write the story of his life.

But between the mundane catalogue of seaside holidays and bodged DIY, broken relationships and unspoken truths, more surprises are revealed, both comic and touching, than Philip or his family ever bargained for.

Perhaps there will even be a happy ending . . .

An ex-soldier and recovering alcoholic living quietly in Somerset, Stephen Rose has just begun to form a fragile bond with Maggie, the daughter he barely knows, when he receives a summons – to an inquiry in Belfast about an incident during the Troubles, which he hoped he had long outdistanced. Now to testify about it could wreck his fragile relationship with Maggie. And if he loses her, he loses everything.

He decides instead to write her an account of his life – a confession, a defence, a love letter. Also a means of buying time. But as time runs out, the day comes when he must face again what happened in that distant summer of 1982.