Published by Verve Books, 25 July 2024. ISBN: 978-0-85730-875-7 (PB) Margo, real name Jane, has been working at a little known library for two years. Unknown to all her colleagues, she used to be a nurse. She had worked at several different hospitals, but always had to leave after several suspicious deaths. Margo has settled into a quiet untroubled life at the library, the only irritation being a couple of awkward patrons who visit there regularly. One day however, a new member of staff, Patricia starts working there. She also is trying to start a new life after writing several novels but fai ..read more

Published by No Exit Press, 28 March 2024.  ISBN: 978-1-83501045-7 (PB) This is the latest police thriller from Leigh Russell.  A man is found dead, lying at the bottom of the stairs to his flat and it soon becomes clear that this is not an accident.  The dead man's landlord seeks advice from Detective Inspector Ariadne Moralis who is married to his friend.  Ariadne is not convinced she is getting the true picture either from the landlord or the elderly witness who overhears the tumble down the stairs.  Identifying the killer is the raison d'etre of the entire novel a ..read more

Published by Simon & Schuster, 4 July 2024. ISBN: 978-1-3985-2692-4 (HB) Maddy Wight makes a living by writing other people’s memoirs for them – and a scant and precarious living it is until she’s commissioned by world-famous cosmetic surgeon Angela Reynolds, for a fee beyond her wildest dreams and the promise of high-profile contacts. But the job proves far more difficult than she expects. Not only does Angela require that she works in her remote Scottish house, and through brief online interviews; the deadline is far too tight, and personal information proves almost impossible to find ..read more

Independently Published, 21 August 2023. ISBN: 978-1-91600199-2 (PB) The 1820s, and former soldier Gregory Hardiman is the ostler at a busy Cambridge coaching inn. When the inn cook is murdered, he sets out to investigate – and soon finds himself discovering secrets of the hidden life of St Clement’s college – secrets which put his life in danger. This novel transported me straight back into the past, and the sounds and sights of a coaching inn in the reign of George IV. Gregory Hardiman’s backstory wasn’t over-emphasised, but we got enough to make him a rounded, believable character: a forme ..read more

Published by Gallic Books, 11 April 2024. ISBN: 978-1-91354752-3 (PB) Minnie Ward is in temporary charge of the Variety Palace Theatre, but takings are falling and every new idea her boss Tansie comes up with just seems to put them more in the red. Then one of the stars, Bernard, asks her to help him find his missing brother – and soon she and Albert Eastbrook are drawn into another investigation together. This novel’s set in 1877, but it begins with a vividly told account of a disaster from fourteen years earlier, based on a real tragedy in the Victoria Hall, Sunderland, in which nearly two ..read more

Published by House of Zeus Ltd, 11 April 2024. ISBN: 978-180110833-1 (PB) “How are they going to get out of this?  There has to be a way.” Charlotte and Andreas Vinge live in Wimbledon with their two children, Madelaine and Oscar.  As their surname suggests, the family are originally from Norway.  They moved to their current residence when Andreas landed a top job in the city of London.  The relocation came with challenges for Charlotte, a medical doctor, who had to leave her job, friends, family and homeland.  Soon, though, the couple linked up with a community of No ..read more

Translated from the French by Nick CaistorPublished by Quercus, 23 May 2024. ISBN: 0-85705-921-5 (HB) Paris, and the turf in question is Malceny, Paris’s most lawless suburb. Three murdered drug dealers means a take-over bid – and a new case for Capitaine Victor Coste and his team. This contemporary French PP fires straight into action with two ruthless murders just in the prologue. Norek is a former police officer, and the writer of the TV series Spiral, and the command structure, the routines, the feelings of the officers on and off the beat, are as authentic as you’d expect – the episode w ..read more

Published by Canelo Hera Books, 11 July 2024. ISBN: 978-1-80436-842-8 (PB) Some childhood and teenage friendships fade away when life intervenes, and everyone goes their separate way. Others last into adulthood, held together by – what? Geography? Mutual interests? Or something darker: a long-held secret, perhaps? Maddie, Hayley, Claire, Jenna and Lucy were members of the cool crowd at school. Well, maybe not Lucy, two years younger and a newcomer to the area, but the others took pity on her. Especially Maddie, the self-styled leader of their little group. Twenty-five years later four of them ..read more

Published by Severn House, 4 July 2024 ISBN: 978-1-4483-1095-1 (HB) It is 1908 and the Fitzglen family is one of the best known theatrical families in London. However very few people outside the Fitzglen family are aware that they are also have a part-time career as thieves. When it comes to their ‘filches’ the Fitzglens have a firm code of conduct and they never steal from people who cannot afford to lose the object or will be badly hurt by the loss. At the start of the story the entire Fitzglen family is distressed to hear of the death of Montague Fitzglen who had fallen down the stairs of ..read more

Published by Allison & Busby, 23 May 2024. ISBN: 978-0-74902-315-2 (HB) This story was inspired by the extraordinary cabinet of curiosities in the Hunterian Museum in London.  It is a Victorian melodrama with overtones of Blue Beard and Gothic horror.  It is set in the late Victorian period when medical experimentation was at its height and continues to fascinate readers today.  The main character is Madeleine Brewster who marries a Dr Lucius Everley at the beginning of the story.  She is a rather innocent young girl who is strongly encouraged to marry the doctor as a ..read more