Tag: new arrivals

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I shared my review of the atmospheric historical novel, The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.

Tuesday – I published my review of the charming illustrated book, The Writer’s Cats by Muriel Barbery.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to have a good nose around what others are reading.

Thursday – I shared my publication day review of Oh William! by Eizabeth Strout. 

Friday – I published my review of historical mystery Black Drop by Leonora Nattrass.

Saturday – I revisited my review of The Gap in the Curtain by John Buchan to mark the forthcoming publication of a new edition of the book by Handheld Press. 

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media.

---

New arrivals

A quieter week, thank goodness, after last week’s frenzy of activity. 

The Lost Girl in Paris by Jina Bacarr (eARC, Boldwood)

1940, Nazi-occupied Paris. A powerful story of love, tragedy and incredible courage, about one woman whose life is ripped apart by war and risks everything to seek justice. Brand new from the bestselling author of The Resistance Girl.

As Nazis patrol the streets of the French capital, Tiena is alone, desperate and on the run. After defending herself against the force of an officer, she must find a new identity in order to survive. An accidental meeting with members of the Resistance gives her a lifeline, as she is offered the chance to reinvent herself as perfumer Angéline De Cadieux. However Angéline will never forget what happened to her, and will do everything she can to seek revenge. But vengeance can be a dangerous game, and Angeline can only hide her true identity for so long before her past catches up with her, with some devastating consequences…

Paris, 2003. When the opportunity arises for aspiring journalist Emma Keane to interview world renowned perfumer Madame De Cadieux about her life during World War Two, she is determined to take it. There are secrets from her own family history that she hopes Angéline may be able to help unlock. But nothing can prepare Emma for Angéline’s story, and one thing is for certain – it will change her own life forever…

The Marsh House by Zoë Somerville (eARC, Apollo via NetGalley)

Part ghost story, part novel of suspense The Marsh House is the haunting second novel from the author of The Night of the Flood where two women, separated by decades, are drawn together by one, mysterious house on the North Norfolk coast.

December, 1962. Desperate to salvage something from a disastrous year, Malorie rents a remote house on the Norfolk coast for Christmas. But once there, the strained silence between her and her daughter, Franny, feels louder than ever. Digging for decorations in the attic, she comes across the notebooks of the teenaged Rosemary, who lived in the house years before. Though she knows she needs to focus on the present, Malorie finds herself inexorably drawn into the past…

July, 1930. Rosemary lives in the Marsh House with her austere father, surrounded by unspoken truths and rumours. So when the glamorous Lafferty family move to the village, she succumbs easily to their charm. Dazzled by the beautiful Hilda and her dashing brother, Franklin, Rosemary fails to see the danger that lurks beneath their bright façades…

As Malorie reads on, the boundaries between past and present begin to blur, in this haunting novel about family, obligation and deeply buried secrets.

---

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

• Blog Tour/Book Review: Liberty Terrace by Madeleine D’Arcy
• Blog Tour/Book Review: Born Of No Woman by Franck Bouysse
• Blog Tour/Book Review: Sergeant Salinger by Jerome Charyn
• Book Review: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
• NetGalley November Reading List 

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I shared my write-up of former politician Ed Balls’s appearance at Henley Literary Festival 2021 talking about his book, Appetite.

Tuesday – I published my review of A Woman Made Of Snow by Elisabeth Gifford as part of the blog tour.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to have a good nose around what others are reading. I also shared my review of An Extra Pair of Hands by Kate Mosse as part of the blog tour celebrating Cheltenham Literature Festival.

Thursday – I published my review of Cold As Hell by Lilja Sigurðardóttir as part of the blog tour.

Friday – Another day, another blog tour this time for The Prince of the Skies by Antonio Iturbe.

Saturday – I published my review of the book I read for the #1976Club, The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta . 

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media.

---

New arrivals

Repeat after me: I must not go to the Oxfam bookshop to drop off books and come out with nearly as many as I donated…  

The Custard Corpses by M.J. Porter (eARC)

Birmingham, England, UK, 1943. While the whine of the air raid sirens might no longer be rousing him from bed every night, a two-decade-old unsolved murder case will ensure that Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is about to suffer more sleepless nights.

Young Robert McFarlane’s body was found outside the local church hall on 30th September 1923. But, his cause of death was drowning, and he’d been missing for three days before his body was found. No one was ever arrested for the crime. No answers could ever be given to the grieving family. The unsolved case has haunted Mason ever since.

But, the chance discovery of another victim, with worrying parallels, sets Mason, and his constable, O’Rourke, on a journey that will take them back over twenty-five years, the chance to finally solve the case, while all around them is uncertainty, impossible to ignore. 

The Dublin Railway Murder by Thomas Morris (eARC, Vintage)

The Quiet People by Paul Cleave (eARC, Orenda Books)

Cameron and Lisa Murdoch are successful crime-writers. They have been on the promotional circuit, joking that no-one knows how to get away with crime like they do. After all, they write about it for a living.

So when their 7 year old son Zach goes missing, naturally the police and the public wonder if they have finally decided to prove what they have been saying all this time – are they trying to show how they can commit the perfect crime?

Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair by M.K. Wiseman (eARC) 

Before Baker Street, there was Montague.

Before partnership with a former army doctor recently returned from Afghanistan, Sherlock Holmes had but the quiet company of his own great intellect. Solitary he might be but, living as he did for the thrill of the chase, it was enough. For a little while, at the least, it was enough.

That is, until a client arrives at his door with a desperate plea and an invitation into a world of societal scandal and stage door dandies. Thrust deep in an all-consuming role and charged with the safe-keeping of another, Holmes must own to his limits or risk danger to others besides himself in this the case of the aluminium crutch.

Tangerine by Christine Mangan (Paperback)

The last person Alice Shipley expected to see since arriving in Tangier with her new husband was Lucy Mason. After the horrific accident at Bennington, the two friends – once inseparable roommates – haven’t spoken in over a year. But Lucy is standing there, trying to make things right. Perhaps Alice should be happy. She has not adjusted to life in Morocco, too afraid to venture out into the bustling medinas and oppressive heat. Lucy, always fearless and independent, helps Alice emerge from her flat and explore the country.

But soon a familiar feeling starts to overtake Alice – she feels controlled and stifled by Lucy at every turn. Then Alice’s husband, John, goes missing, and Alice starts to question everything around her: her relationship with her enigmatic friend, her decision to ever come to Tangier, and her very own state of mind.

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (Paperback)

Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental hospital where she’s spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr Grene, and their relationship intensifies and complicates.

Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges is at once shocking and deeply beautiful. Refracted through the haze of memory and retelling, Roseanne’s story becomes an alternative, secret history of Ireland’s changing character and the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked still by love and passion and hope.

Silverview by John le Carré (Hardcover)

Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the City for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian’s evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish émigré living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian’s family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise.

When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea . . .

Silverview is the mesmerising story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In his inimitable voice John le Carré, the greatest chronicler of our age, seeks to answer the question of what we truly owe to the people we love. 

---

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

• Book Review: The Mercies by Kiran Milgrave Harwood
• Book Review: The Writer’s Cats by Muriel Barbery 
• Book Review: Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
• Book Review: Black Drop by Leonora Nattrass