Reviews – Page 251 – What Cathy Read Next…

#WWWWednesday – 24th April 2024

April 24, 2024April 29, 2024 whatcathyreadnext5 Comments

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!

Currently reading

The Montford Maniac by M.R.C. Kasasian (ARC, Canelo)

Lady Violet Thorn’s awful Aunt Igitha has arrived uninvited and she’s wreaking havoc in the household. When Violet plucks up courage to ask her to leave, Igitha’s chilling threats are soon realised with deadly effect.

In a devastating series of events, a woman is impaled, another is hanged outside Violet’s window, and a wild beast is delivered to her house.

Violet is soon struck by the similarities between these events, and the unsolved murders committed ten years earlier by the sadistic serial killer known as the Montford Maniac. Could he have returned? Is Igitha behind the crimes? Or could there be someone even more terrifying on the prowl? The horrors have only just begun.

The Coming Storm by Greg Mosse (eARC, Moonflower Books)

He may have prevented the world from falling into ruin, but Alexandre Lamarque knows his work is not done yet.

There’s still a controlling intelligence out there, pulling together the strands of a new and even more destructive conspiracy.

Battling with personal tragedy on one hand, and the intrusion of new-found celebrity on the other, Alex must re-emerge from self-imposed exile to reunite with Mariam – the woman he loves – and Amaury – his truest friend – to face the fight of their lives.

From the streets of Paris, the lithium mines of southern Mali, and the mighty Aswan Dam, they come up against forces whose intentions are as devious as they are malign. Time is against them, and there’s more at stake than ever.

Recently finished

The Paris Peacemakers by Flora Johnston (Allison & Busby)

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (Penguin)

The Household by Stacey Halls (Manilla Press)

Book cover of Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

What Cathy Will Read Next

How To Make A Bomb: A Novel by Rupert Thomson (eARC, Apollo via NetGalley)

If he suddenly found what surrounded him unbearable, it was because it was artificial. Everything had been designed and manufactured, and he was trapped in it.

Philip Notman, an acclaimed historian, attends a conference in Bergen, Norway. On his return to London, and to his wife and son, something unexpected and inexplicable happens to him, and he is unable to settle back into his normal life.

Seeking answers, he flies to Cadiz to see Inés, a Spanish academic with whom he shared a connection at the conference, but his journey doesn’t end there. A chance encounter with a wealthy, elderly couple sends him to a house on the south coast of Crete. Is he thinking of leaving his wife, whom he claims he still loves, or is he trying to change a reality that has become impossible to bear? Is he on a quest for a simpler and more authentic existence, or is he utterly self-deluded?

As he tries to make sense of both his personal circumstances and the world surrounding him, he finds himself embarking on a course of action that will push him to the very brink of disaster.

My Week in Books – 21st April 2024

April 21, 2024April 20, 2024 whatcathyreadnext

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared review of Sweetness in the Skin by Ishi Robinson, a coming-of-age story set in Jamaica.

Tuesday – I went off-piste for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday with a list of Books I’ve Read That Have Won Literary Prizes.

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 Q&A with Gary Corbin about his latest crime novel, Under the Banner of Valor, which will be published on 7th May 2024.

Friday – I published my review of historical novel, The Paris Peacemakers by Flora Johnston, as part of the blog tour.

Saturday – I shared my review of A Better Place by Stephen Daisley, one of the books on the longlist for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

Book cover of Sweetness in the Skin by Ishi Robinson

Book cover of Under the Banner of Valor by Gary Corbin

New arrivals

Two souvenirs from the Verve Books book bloggers event on 17th April.

The War Widow by Tara Moss (Verve Books)

WWII may be over, but journalist Billie Walker’s search for a missing young man will plunge her right back into the danger and drama she thought she’d left behind in Europe.

It’s 1946, and though war correspondent Billie Walker is happy to finally be back home in glamorous Sydney, for her the heady postwar days are tarnished by the loss of her father and the disappearance of her husband, Jack. To make matters worse, newspapers are now sidelining her reporting talents to prioritise jobs for returning soldiers.

Determined to take control of her future, she reopens her late father’s private investigation agency, and, slowly, the women of Sydney come knocking. At first, Billie’s work consists of tailing cheating husbands. But when a young man goes missing, Billie finds herself on a dangerous new trail that will lead her to the highest levels of Sydney society, and down into its underworld. As the risk mounts, Billie realises that there is much more than one man’s life at stake. Though the war was won, it is far from over.

The Damages by Genevieve Scott (Verve Books)

What I remember best about that week in January is trying to keep track of all the lies I told…

1997. Ontario has been hit by a days-long, life-endangering ice storm, and on Regis University campus, with classes cancelled, the students are partying. In the midst of it all, eighteen-year-old Ros’s roommate Megan goes missing. As a panicked search ensues, Ros is blamed for not keeping a closer eye on Megan, and the incident casts a shadow over the next two decades of her life.

2020. Ros’s former partner, Lukas, the father of her eleven-year-old son, is accused of a sexual assault. The accusation brings new details of an old story to light, forcing Ros to revisit a dark moment from her past. Ros must take a hard look not only at the father of her child, but also at her own mistakes, her own trauma, and at the supposedly liberal period she grew up in.