new arrivals

MyWeekinBooks

All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison (ebook, courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley)

The autumn of 1933 is the most beautiful Edie Mather can remember, although the Great War still casts its shadow over the fields and villages around her beloved home, Wych Farm.

Constance FitzAllen arrives from London to document fading rural traditions and beliefs. For Edie, who must soon face the unsettling pressures of adulthood, the glamorous and worldly outsider appears to be a godsend. But there is more to the older woman than meets the eye.

As harvest time approaches and pressures mount on the entire community, Edie must find a way to trust her instincts and save herself from disaster.

none-so-blind None So Blind by Alis Hawkins (paperback, review copy courtesy of The Dome Press)

West Wales, 1850. When an old tree root is dug up, the remains of a young woman are found. Harry Probert-Lloyd, a young barrister forced home from London by encroaching blindness, has been dreading this discovery.

He knows exactly whose bones they are.

Working with his clerk, John Davies, Harry is determined to expose the guilty, but the investigation turns up more questions than answers.

The search for the truth will prove costly. Will Harry and John be the ones to pay the highest price?

Murder at the Grand Raj Hotel Murder at the Grand Raj Palace (Baby Ganesh Agency #4) by Vaseem Khan (hardcover, library book)

For a century the iconic Grand Raj Palace Hotel has welcomed the world’s elite. From film stars to foreign dignitaries, anyone who is anyone stays at the Grand Raj. The last thing the venerable old hotel needs is a murder…

When American billionaire Hollis Burbank is found dead – the day after buying India’s most expensive painting – the authorities are keen to label it a suicide. But the man in charge of the investigation is not so sure. Chopra is called in – and discovers a hotel full of people with a reason to want Burbank dead.

Accompanied by his sidekick, baby elephant Ganesha, Chopra navigates his way through the palatial building, a journey that leads him steadily to a killer, and into the heart of darkness . . .

A Light of Her Own by Carrie Callaghan (eARC, review copy courtesy of Amberjack Publishing and NetGalley)

In Holland 1633, a woman’s ambition has no place.

Judith is a painter, dodging the law and whispers of murder to become the first woman admitted to the prestigious Haarlem artists’ guild. Maria is a Catholic in a country where the faith is banned, hoping to absolve her sins by recovering a lost saint’s relic. Both women’s destinies will be shaped by their ambitions, running counter to the city’s most powerful men, whose own plans spell disaster.

A vivid portrait of a remarkable artist, A Light of Her Own is a richly-woven story of grit against the backdrop of Rembrandts and repressive religious rule.

Pre-order A Light of Her Own from Amazon UK

The Temptation by Vera Morris (ebook)

Where is David Pemberton?

Two years ago, thirteen-year-old David Pemberton vanished without a trace. It’s up to detectives Laurel Bowman and Frank Diamond to find him. But how do you solve a case without a lead? When local residents are brutally murdered, they start to think something more ominous is at heart. And now, it’s not just David they should be worried about. As they’re drawn into a circle of destruction, deceit and temptation, they find themselves close to cracking the case. But the closer they get, the more vulnerable they become. And soon, their lives are at risk…

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I hosted a stop on the blog tour for Smart Moves by Adrian Magson, sharing my review and also a guest post from Adrian.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Back to School so I shared a list of books set in schools or colleges.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just finished reading, what I’m reading now and what I’ll be reading next. I also published my review of The Mistress of Pennington’s by Rachel Brimble as part of the blog tour for the book which is the first in a new historical romance saga. My second blog tour of the day for historical thriller, Night Flight to Paris by David Gilman, set in WW2 Paris. I loved it as will be obvious from my review.

Friday – I just sneaked in under the wire my review of the book selected as part of the latest Classics Club Spin, Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. I also published my review of my Buchan of the Month, Huntingtower (Dickson McCunn #1) by John Buchan. Finally, I shared details of how I got on with this year’s ARC August reading challenge.

Saturday – It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for another #6Degrees of Separation linking six books in a chain starting with Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Book Review: Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski
Book Review: The Dark Tide by Vera Brittain
Book Review: Money Power Love by Joss Sheldon
Book Review: The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason
Book Review: A Gathering of Ghosts by Karen Maitland
Buchan of the Month: Introducing Castle Gay by John Buchan
Blog Tour/Book Review: Sleeping Through War by Jackie Carreira
Book Review: Choose to Rise: The Victory Within by M. N. Mekaelian

MyWeekinBooks

New arrivals

The Golden Orphans by Gary Raymond (ebook, review copy courtesy of Damppebbles Blog Tours)

Within the dark heart of an abandoned city, on an island once torn by betrayal and war, lies a terrible secret…

Francis Benthem is a successful artist; he’s created a new life on an island in the sun. He works all night, painting the dreams of his mysterious Russian benefactor, Illy Prostakov. He writes letters to old friends and students back in cold, far away London. But now Francis Benthem is found dead. The funeral is planned and his old friend from art school arrives to finish what Benthem had started. The painting of dreams on a faraway island. But you can also paint nightmares and Illy has secrets of his own that are not ready for the light. Of promises made and broken, betrayal and murder…

The Girl in the Letter by Emily Gunnis (ebook)

A heartbreaking letter. A girl locked away. A mystery to be solved.

1956 – When Ivy Jenkins falls pregnant she is sent in disgrace to St Margaret’s, a dark, brooding house for unmarried mothers. Her baby is adopted against her will. Ivy will never leave.

Present day – Samantha Harper is a journalist desperate for a break. When she stumbles on a letter from the past, the contents shock and move her. The letter is from a young mother, begging to be rescued from St Margaret’s. Before it is too late.

Sam is pulled into the tragic story and discovers a spate of unexplained deaths surrounding the woman and her child. With St Margaret’s set for demolition, Sam has only hours to piece together a sixty-year-old mystery before the truth, which lies disturbingly close to home, is lost for ever…

The Continuity Girl by Patrick Kincaid (ebook)

1969 – Hollywood descends on a tiny Scottish village for the making of Billy Wilder’s most ambitious picture yet: a sprawling epic detailing The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. But the formidable director and his crew soon come into conflict with Jim Outhwaite, a young scientist seeking evidence for monsters.

2014 – Stuck just a short walk from the East London street where she grew up, ambitious Film Studies lecturer Gemma MacDonald is restless and hungry for change. A job offer in the Highlands seems to offer escape – but only at a cost to her relationships with family and an equally ambitious American boyfriend. Then a lost print of Gemma’s favourite film turns up, and with it, an idea…

Two stories, separated by 45 years, are set on collision course – on the surface of Loch Ness, under the shadow of a castle – by the reappearance of the continuity girl herself: April Bloom.

Dead Man's Gift and Other Stories Dead Man’s Gift and Other Stories by Simon Kernick (hardover, library copy)

One book. Five thrillers. No holds barred. Including:

DEAD MAN’S GIFT

MP Tim Horton arrives home to find his seven-year-old son has been abducted – and the nanny brutally murdered. The kidnapping gang’s demands are simple: Tim must sacrifice his own life to save his son’s. A dead man’s gift…

ONE BY ONE

Six former school-friends have been reunited on a remote island. Separated since a fateful night twenty-one years ago, when their friend Rachel was killed, they’re afraid for their lives – because the man arrested for Rachel’s murder has been released. They think he’s coming for them. They’re almost right.

Plus three more thrillers guaranteed to keep you gripped to the page. Can you withstand five full-strength doses of Simon Kernick?

Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan (hardcover, library copy)

When Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up new worlds and cast light on all the complexities she encountered in this one.

She was whisked away to Narnia – and Kirrin Island – and Wonderland. She ventured down rabbit holes and womble burrows into midnight gardens and chocolate factories. She wandered the countryside with Milly-Molly-Mandy, and played by the tracks with the Railway Children. With Charlotte’s Web she discovered Death and with Judy Blume it was Boys. No wonder she only left the house for her weekly trip to the library or to spend her pocket money on amassing her own at home.

In Bookworm, Lucy revisits her childhood reading with wit, love and gratitude. She relives our best-beloved books, their extraordinary creators, and looks at the thousand subtle ways they shape our lives. She also disinters a few forgotten treasures to inspire the next generation of bookworms and set them on their way.

Lucy brings the favourite characters of our collective childhoods back to life – prompting endless re-readings, rediscoveries, and, inevitably, fierce debate – and brilliantly uses them to tell her own story, that of a born, and unrepentant, bookworm.

The Angel’s Mark by S.W. Perry (hardcover, giveaway prize courtesy of Corvus and Readers First)

LONDON, 1590. Queen Elizabeth I’s control over her kingdom is wavering. Amidst a tumultuous backdrop of Spanish plotters, Catholic heretics and foreign wars threatening the country’s fragile stability, the body of a small boy is found in the City of London, with strange marks that no one can explain.

When idealistic physician Nicholas Shelby finds another body displaying the same marks only days later, he becomes convinced that a killer is at work, preying on the weak and destitute of London.

Determined to find out who is behind these terrible murders, Nicholas is joined in his investigations by Bianca, a mysterious tavern keeper. As more bodies are discovered, the pair find themselves caught in the middle of a sinister plot. With the killer still at large, and Bianca in terrible danger, Nicholas’s choice seems impossible – to save Bianca, or save himself…

Pre-order The Angel’s Mark from Amazon UK