new arrivals

MyWeekinBooks

The Phoenix of Florence by Philip Kazan (proof copy, courtesy of Allison & Busby)

Fifteenth century Italy, deep in the Tuscan countryside, adolescent Onoria is the sole survivor of a family massacre. Abandoned and alone in the forest, she meets the leader of a fierce band of soldiers who, mistaking her for a boy, takes her under his wing. Determined never to be vulnerable ever again, Onoria reinvents herself as a mercenary, leaving behind the identity one man saw fit to soil and discovering soldier Celavini along the way.

In Florence, ex-soldier now government law enforcer Celavini investigates two brutal murders that on first look seem to be crimes of passion. Convinced this hides a more sinister truth, Celavini digs further and is perturbed to discover a family heirloom from his past and a man using his dead brother’s name.

When it becomes clear that behind the murders lurks a menacing conspiracy, Celavini must revisit the turbulent past he shares with Onoria, reconciling himself to her so, together, they can lay the ghosts of their shared history to rest.

Pre-order The Phoenix of Florence from Amazon UK

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo (eARC, courtesy of Quercus and NetGalley)

They say a tiger that devours too many humans can take the form of a man and walk amongst us…

In 1930s colonial Malaya, a dissolute British doctor receives a surprise gift of an eleven-year-old Chinese houseboy. Sent as a bequest from an old friend, young Ren has a mission: to find his dead master’s severed finger and reunite it with his body. Ren has forty-nine days, or else his master’s soul will roam the earth forever.

Ji Lin, an apprentice dressmaker, moonlights as a dancehall girl to pay her mother’s debts. One night, Ji Lin’s dance partner leaves her with a gruesome souvenir that leads her on a crooked, dark trail.

As time runs out for Ren’s mission, a series of unexplained deaths occur amid rumours of tigers who turn into men. In their journey to keep a promise and discover the truth, Ren and Ji Lin’s paths will cross in ways they will never forget.

Pre-order The Night Tiger from Amazon UK

A River in the Trees by Jacqueline O’Mahony (eARC, courtesy of Quercus and NetGalley)

Two women. Two stories. One hundred years of secrets.

1919 – Hannah is nineteen years old and living on her family’s farm in West Cork. Her peaceful world is shattered forever by the eruption of the War of Independence, Ireland’s bid for freedom from Britain. Hannah’s family hide rebel soldiers in their attic, putting them in great danger from the Black and Tans who roam the countryside. An immediate connection between Hannah and O’Riada, the leader of this band of rebels, will change her life and that of her family forever.

2019 – Ellen is at a crossroads in her life: her marriage is in trouble, her career is over and she’s grieving the loss of a baby. After years in London, she decides to come home to Ireland to face the past she has always tried to escape. Her journey centres on an old house in the countryside, a house that used to belong to her family. Reaching into the past, she feels a connection to her aunt, the mysterious Hannah O’Donovan. But why won’t anyone in her family talk about Hannah? And how can this journey help Ellen put her life back together?

Pre-order A River in the Trees from Amazon UK

(Gorgeous covers or what?)

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Tuesday – The Top Ten Tuesday topic was Platonic Relationships in Books and my list included siblings and friends. I also hosted a slot on the blog tour for A Light of Her Own by Carrie Callaghan, sharing my review of this historical novel about the 17^th century Dutch artist, Judith Leyster. I also shared my review of memoir, Song of Praise for a Flower by Fengxian Chu and Charlene Chu, a book I read for Nonfiction November and that had been languishing on my author review pile for far too long.

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 have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading.

Thursday – I published my review of my Buchan of the Month, John Buchan’s autobiography Memory Hold-the-Door. This was another book I read as part of Nonfiction November.

Friday – To mark publication day, I shared my review of The Wooden Hill by Jamie Guiney, an imaginative collection of short stories connected by the theme of the different stages in life.

Saturday – Being the first Saturday of the month, I took part in the Six Degrees of Separation meme creating a chain that stretched from traditional favourite, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, to recently published historical crime novel, None So Blind by Alis Hawkins. I also shared my Five Favourite November Reads.

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

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Book Review: Sugar in the Blood by Andrea Stuart
Blog Tour/Book Review: Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield
Book Review: The Cold North Sea by Jeff Dawson
Blog Tour/Q&A: Triumph in Dust by Ian Ross
Blog Tour/Book Review: The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau
Book Review: Christmas at War by Caroline Taggart
Book Review: Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks

MyWeekinBooks

New arrivals

The Cold North Sea(Ingo Finch Mystery #2) by Jeff Dawson (eARC, courtesy of Canelo and NetGalley)

A game of spies, a brutal murder, the fate of an Empire…

Doctor Ingo Finch is back in Britain, practicing medicine and hitting the bottle. But then something happens in the North Sea: fishing ships are mysteriously attacked off Dogger Bank. Great powers are stirring and innocent lives are lost. But why is the secretive ‘Freeland Company’ paying off witnesses?

It seems far away, but when a strange man turns up on Finch’s door begging for help, events soon take a life of their own, not least when the man is murdered. As navies and nations mobilise, Finch is once again drawn into the dark underworld of espionage. As war looms, and militarists and Bolshevists vie in the streets, the future of Britain herself is at stake…

Pre-order The Cold North Sea from Amazon UK

The Art of Love (The Golden City #1) by A. B. Michaels (ebook, courtesy of the author)

Money. Art. Passion. Despair. Welcome to the Golden City…

At the end of the Gilded Age, the “Golden City” of San Francisco offers everything a man could want – except the answers August Wolff desperately needs to find. After digging a fortune in gold from the frozen fields of the Klondike, Gus heads south, hoping to start over and put the baffling disappearance of his wife and daughter behind him. The turn of the century brings him even more success, but the distractions of a city some call the new Sodom and Gomorrah can’t fill the gaping hole in his life.

Amelia Starling is a wildly talented artist caught in the straightjacket of Old New York society. Making a heart-breaking decision, she moves to San Francisco to further her career, all the while living with the pain of a sacrifice no woman should ever have to make.

Brought together by the city’s flourishing art scene, Gus and Lia forge a rare connection. But the past, shrouded in mystery, prevents the two of them from moving forward as one. Unwilling to face society’s scorn, Lia leaves the city and vows to begin again in Europe. Gus can’t bear to let her go, but unless he can set his ghosts to rest, he and Lia have no chance at all.

The Road to Grantchester by James Runcie (eARC, courtesy of Bloomsbury and NetGalley)

The captivating prequel to the treasured Grantchester series follows the life, loves, and losses of young Sidney Chambers in postwar London.

It is 1938, and eighteen-year-old Sidney Chambers is dancing the quickstep with Amanda Kendall at her brother Robert’s birthday party at the Caledonian Club. No one can believe, on this golden evening, that there could ever be another war.

Returning to London seven years later, Sidney has gained a Military Cross and lost his best friend on the battlefields of Italy. The carefree youth that he and his friends were promised has been blown apart, just like the rest of the world–and Sidney, carrying a terrible, secret guilt, must decide what to do with the rest of his life. But he has heard a call: constant, though quiet, and growing ever more persistent. To the incredulity of his family and the derision of his friends – the irrepressible actor Freddie and the beautiful, vivacious Amanda – Sidney must now negotiate his path to God: the course of which, much like true love, never runs smooth.

The Road to Grantchester will delight new and old fans alike and finally tell the touching, engaging, and surprising origin story of the Grantchester Mysteries’ beloved archdeacon.

Pre-order The Road to Grantchester from Amazon UK

The Encircling Sea (Vindolanda #2) by Adrian Goldsworthy (ebook)

AD 100- Flavius Ferox, Briton and Roman centurion, is finding it hard to keep the peace. Based at Vindolanda – an army fort on the northern frontier of Britannia and the entire Roman world – he feels the eyes of his enemies on him at all hours.

Ambitious leaders sense a chance to carve out empires of their own. While men nearer at hand speak in whispers of war and the destruction of Rome.

And out at sea, ships of pirates and deserters restlessly wait for the time to launch their attack on the empire’s land.

A Killer’s Alibi (Philadelphia Legal #3) by William L. Myers, Jr. (eARC, courtesy of the author)

For attorney Mick McFarland, the evidence is damning. And so are the family secrets in this twisty legal thriller from the Amazon Charts bestselling author of A Criminal Defense.

When crime lord Jimmy Nunzio is caught, knife in hand, over the body of his daughter’s lover and his own archenemy, he turns to Mick McFarland to take up his defense. Usually the courtroom puppeteer, McFarland quickly finds himself at the end of Nunzio’s strings. Struggling to find grounds for a not-guilty verdict on behalf of a well-known killer, Mick is hamstrung by Nunzio’s refusal to tell him what really happened.

On the other side of the law, Mick’s wife, Piper, is working to free Darlene Dowd, a young woman sentenced to life in prison for her abusive father’s violent death. But the jury that convicted Darlene heard only part of the truth, and Piper will do anything to reveal the rest and prove Darlene’s innocence.

As Mick finds himself in the middle of a mob war, Piper delves deeper into Darlene’s past. Both will discover dark secrets that link these fathers and daughters – some that protect, some that destroy, and some that can’t stay hidden forever. No matter the risk.

Pre-order A Killer’s Alibi (Philadelphia Legal #3) from Amazon UK