Good Reading Magazine – April 2021

The April issue of Good Reading magazine is ready for you to enjoy through Blue Mountains Library!

 

This Month

• Find your next good book with our 45 independent book reviews.
• Andy Griffiths on The Treehouse Joke Book 2 and the best childhood reads.
• Kirsty Manning on The French Gift and her seaside home -Fresnes Prison, 1940: Margot Bisset, a former maid, finds herself in a prison cell with French Resistance fighter, Josephine Murant. Present-day Paris: Evie attempts to unravel the official story of a famous novelist. If she succeeds, a murder from a lifetime ago may be solved. 
• Neuroscientist Lisa Genova delves into how memories are made and how we retrieve them. Learn whether forgotten memories are temporarily inaccessible or erased forever and why some memories are built to exist for only a few seconds while others can last a lifetime.
• New podcasts, trivia, quizzes, and independent reviews!

Book Club – This Month’s Pick

Our pick this month is Love Objects by Emily Maguire.

Nic is an amateur nail artist and fairy godmother to the neighbourhood’s stray cats. The person she’s closest to in the world is her beloved niece Lena, who she meets for lunch every Sunday. One day Nic fails to show up. When Lena travels to her aunt’s house to see if Nic’s all right, she gets the shock of her life, and sets in train a series of events that will prove cataclysmic for them both.

Get listening with the GR Podcast

• Debra Oswald on The family doctor
• Helen Fitzgerald on Ash Mountain
• Tanya Bretherton on The husband poisoner
• Susan Johnson on From where I fell

You can borrow Good Reading from the library or access the digital subscription right here, right now, with your library card.

Carolyn’s Books of the Month – April

 

Best Read: The End of Her by Shari Lapena

It starts with a shocking accusation… Stephanie and Patrick are recently married, with new-born twins. While Stephanie struggles with the disorienting effects of sleep deprivation, there’s one thing she knows for certain – she has everything she ever wanted. Then a woman from his past arrives and makes a horrifying allegation about his first wife. He always claimed her death was an accident – but she says it was murder. He insists he’s innocent, that this is nothing but a blackmail attempt. But is Patrick telling the truth? Or has Stephanie made a terrible mistake?

 

Crime: Little Boy Lost by J.P.Carter

The third gipping crime thriller in the DCI Anna Tate series. Readers love J. P. Carter: `What a page turner!’ Reader review `If you’re looking for a book that will delight you whilst creeping you out, entertain while keeping you awake NEEDING to know what will happen, then you need this book.’ Reader review `A very fast paced book … I raced through it in one sitting… I can’t wait to see what Anna Tate does next!’ Reader review `Full of suspense with a full cast of well developed characters, the story was engaging and original. Really looking forward to the next book in the series’ Reader review `In Safe Hands, is hard hitting, gripping, suspenseful, chilling… A cat and mouse, race against the clock that felt like a whirlwind… it’s such a corker of a read!’

Australian Author: Bush School by Peter O’Brien

In 1960, newly minted teacher Peter O’Brien started work as the only teacher at a bush school in Weabonga, two days’ travel by train and mail car from Armidale. Peter was only 20 years old and had never before lived away from his home in Sydney. He’d had some teaching experience, but nothing to prepare him for the monumental challenge of being solely responsible for the education of 18 students, ranging in age from 5 to 15 years old. With few lesson plans, scant teaching materials, a wide range of curious minds and ages to prepare for, Peter was daunted by the enormity of the task ahead. Because of Weabonga’s remoteness, the students were already at a disadvantage, but they were keen and receptive and had been blessed with an enthusiastic and committed teacher. Indeed it was the children and their thirst for learning who kept Peter afloat during the early days of shockingly inadequate living conditions, a deficient diet and the terrible loneliness he felt being isolated so far from family, friends and his burgeoning romance.

General: Across the Water by Ingrid Alexandra

 

In remote Oyster Creek, a beautiful young mother and her baby daughter Ruby have gone missing. But it was no secret that Delilah Waters never wanted children. She wasn’t coping with motherhood, and everyone believes she leapt to her death in the creek, taking Ruby with her. Everyone, that is, except Liz Dawson. Wrestling with her own demons, Liz risks everything to uncover a truth that becomes more complex with every twist. Of all people, Liz knows that just because someone is a reluctant mother, it doesn’t mean they don’t love their child. And it doesn’t mean they’re capable of murder… does it?

Thriller: Day of the Accident by Nuala Ellwood 

 

Sixty seconds after she wakes from a coma, Maggie’s world is torn apart. The police tell her that her daughter Elspeth is dead. That she drowned when the car Maggie had been driving plunged into the river. Maggie remembers nothing. When Maggie begs to see her husband, Sean, the police tell her that he has disappeared. He was last seen on the day of their daughter’s funeral. What really happened that day at the river? Where is Maggie’s husband? And why can’t she shake the suspicion that somewhere, somehow, her daughter is still alive?

Thriller: A Knock at the Door by T.W. Ellis

They ask for your husband. They just want to talk. They’re lying. Your husband isn’t who he says he is, say the people at your door. Come with us. Don’t trust them, says a voice on the phone. Run. Who would you believe? In this terrifying first psychological thriller by bestselling author T.W. Ellis, one woman goes on the run and is forced to question everything she held dear . . .

 

Saga/Romance: Love after Love by Ingrid Persaud

After Betty Ramdin’s abusive husband dies, she invites a colleague, Mr Chetan, to move in with her and her son Solo as their lodger. Over time these three form an unconventional family, loving and depending on one another. Then on a fateful night Solo overhears Betty confiding in Mr Chetan and learns a secret that plunges him into torment and alienates him from his mother. He leaves Trinidad to live a lonely life in New York City, devastating Betty in the process. Both are buoyed by the continuing love and friendship of Mr Chetan, until his own burdensome secret is uncovered with heart-breaking consequences.

eBooks

Little Friends by Jane Shemilt [BorrowBox]

Their children are friends first. They hit it off immediately, as kids do.
So the parents are forced to get to know each other. But as they get closer, they start to take their eyes off their children.
And while they have been looking the other way, evil has crept in.
Every parent’s biggest nightmare is about to come true…
‘Intelligent, compelling and deeply unsettling.’ Ali Land, bestselling author of Good Me Bad Me

The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter [BorrowBox]

He watches.
A woman runs alone in the woods. She convinces herself she has no reason to be afraid, but she’s wrong. A predator is stalking the women of Grant County. He lingers in the shadows, until the time is just right to snatch his victim.
He waits.
A decade later, the case has been closed. The killer is behind bars. But then another young woman is brutally attacked and left for dead, and the MO is identical.
He takes.
Although the original trail has gone cold — memories have faded, witnesses have disappeared — agent Will Trent and forensic pathologist Sara Linton must re-open the cold case. But the clock is ticking, and the killer is determined to find his perfect silent wife.

eAudio

Blunt Force by Lynda La Plante [BorrowBox]

Jane Tennison must navigate the salacious world of theatre to solve a brutal murder in the heart of London’s West End, in the brilliant new thriller from the Queen of Crime Drama, Lynda La Plante.

Things can’t get much worse for detective Jane Tennison. Unceremoniously kicked off the adrenaline-fuelled Flying Squad, she now plies her trade in Gerald Road, a small and sleepy police station in the heart of London’s affluent Knightsbridge.

With only petty crime to sink her teeth into, Tennison can feel her career slowly flatlining. That is until the discovery of the most brutal murder Jane has ever seen: Charlie Foxley has been found viciously beaten to death with a cricket bat – his body dismembered and disembowelled.

As a big-time theatrical agent, Foxley had a lot of powerful friends – but just as many enemies. And alongside her old friend DS Spencer Gibbs, Tennison must journey into the salacious world of show business to find out which one is the killer, before they strike again.

Just between Us by Rebecca Drake [Libby]

Four suburban mothers and friends conspire to cover up a deadly crime in this heart-stopping novel of suspense in the tradition of Lisa Scottoline and Lisa Unger.

Alison, Julie, Sarah, Heather. Four friends living the suburban ideal. Their jobs are steady, their kids are healthy. They’re as beautiful as their houses. But each of them has a dirty little secret, and hidden behind the veneer of their perfect lives is a crime and a mystery that will consume them all.

Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly [indyreads]

It is 1914, and New York socialite Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be travelling to St Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. The two met years ago one summer in Paris, and now Eliza is embarking on the trip of a lifetime to see the splendours of Russia.

But when Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia’s imperial dynasty begins to fall, Eliza escapes back to America, while Sofya and her family flee to their country estate. In need of domestic help, they hire the local fortune-teller’s daughter, Varinka, unknowingly bringing intense danger into their household.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Eliza is doing her part to help the White Russian families find safety as they escape the revolution. But when Sofya’s letters suddenly stop coming, she fears the worst for her best friend.

From the turbulent streets of St Petersburg and aristocratic countryside estates to the avenues of Paris to the mansions of Long Island, the lives of Eliza, Sofya and Varinka will intersect in profound ways.

 

 

 

 

Stella Prize Shortlist 2021

Stella Prize Shortlist 2021

Spanning fiction and non-fiction, the six titles shortlisted for the 2021 Stella Prize invite readers to reach beyond their own perceptions, to question social and political systems, and to examine their place in the world. Discover one (or all) of these great titles through Blue Mountains Library.

Fathoms: the world in the whale by Rebecca Giggs

When Rebecca Giggs encountered a humpback whale stranded on her local beach in Australia, she began to wonder how the lives of whales might shed light on the condition of our seas. How do whales experience environmental change? Has our connection to these fabled animals been transformed by technology? What future awaits us, and them? And what does it mean to write about nature in the midst of an ecological crisis? In Fathoms, the world in the whale, Giggs blends natural history, philosophy, and science to explore these questions with clarity and hope. In lively, inventive prose, she introduces us to whales so rare they have never been named; she tells us of the astonishing variety found in whale sounds, and of whale ‘pop’ songs that sweep across hemispheres. She takes us into the deeps to discover that one whale’s death can spark a great flourishing of creatures. We travel to Japan to board whaling ships, examine the uncanny charisma of these magnificent mammals, and confront the plastic pollution now pervading their underwater environment. In the spirit of Rachel Carson and John Berger, Fathoms is a work of profound insight and wonder that marks the arrival of an essential new voice in narrative nonfiction, and provides us with a powerful, surprising, and compelling view of some of the most urgent issues of our time. 

Revenge: Murder in Three Parts by S.L. Lim

A family favour their son over their daughter. Shan attends university before making his fortune in Australia while Yannie must find menial employment and care for her ageing parents. After her mother’s death, Yannie travels to Sydney to become enmeshed in her psychopathic brother’s new life, which she seeks to undermine from within. This is a novel that rages against capitalism, hetero-supremacy, mothers, fathers, families, the whole damn thing. It’s about what happens when you want to make art but are born in the wrong time and place.

The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay

Out on the road, no one speaks, everything talks. Hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, and allergic to bullshit, Jean is not your usual grandma. She’s never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her beloved granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park. And although Jean talks to all her charges, she has a particular soft spot for a young dingo called Sue. As disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country, Jean realises this is no ordinary flu: its chief symptom is that its victims begin to understand the language of animals – first mammals, then birds and insects, too. As the flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds, including Jean’s infected son, Lee. When he takes off with Kimberly, heading south, Jean feels the pull to follow her kin. Setting off on their trail, with Sue the dingo riding shotgun, they find themselves in a stark, strange world in which the animal apocalypse has only further isolated people from other species. Bold, exhilarating, and wholly original, The Animals in That Country asks what would happen, for better or worse, if we finally understood what animals were saying.

Witness by Louise Milligan

 A masterful and deeply troubling expose, Witness is the culmination of almost five years’ work for award-winning investigative journalist Louise Milligan. Charting the experiences of those who have the courage to come forward and face their abusers in high-profile child abuse and sexual assault cases, Milligan was profoundly shocked by what she found. During this time, the #MeToo movement changed the zeitgeist, but time and again during her investigations Milligan watched how witnesses were treated in the courtroom and listened to them afterwards as they relived the associated trauma. Then she was a witness herself in the trial of the decade, R v George Pell. She interviews high-profile members of the legal profession, including judges and prosecutors. And she speaks to the defence lawyers who have worked in these cases, discovering what they really think about victims and the process, and the impact that this has on their own lives. Milligan also reveals never-before-published court transcripts, laying bare the flaws that are ignored, and a court system that can be sexist, unfeeling and weighted towards the rich and powerful. Witness is a call for change. Milligan exposes the devastating reality of the Australian legal system where truth is never guaranteed and, for victims, justice is often elusive. And even when they get justice, the process is so bruising, they wish they had never tried.

Stone Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe

Family circumstances force siblings Ying and Lai Yue to flee their home in China to seek their fortunes in Australia. Life on the gold fields is hard, and they soon abandon the diggings and head to nearby Maytown. Once there, Lai Yue gets a job as a carrier on an overland expedition, while Ying finds work in a local store and strikes up a friendship with Meriem, a young white woman with her own troubled past. When a serious crime is committed, suspicion falls on all those who are considered outsiders. Evoking the rich, unfolding tapestry of Australian life in the late nineteenth century, Stone Sky Gold Mountain is a heartbreaking and universal story about the exiled and displaced, about those who encounter discrimination yet yearn for acceptance.

The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld

Surging out of the sea, the Bass Rock has for centuries watched over the lives that pass under its shadow on the Scottish mainland. And across the centuries the fates of three women are linked: to this place, to each other. In the early 1700’s, Sarah, accused of being a witch, flees for her life. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Ruth navigates a new house, a new husband and the strange waters of the local community. Six decades later, the house stands empty. Viv, mourning the death of her father, catalogues Ruth’s belongings and discovers her place in the past – and perhaps a way forward. Each woman’s choices are circumscribed, in ways big and small, by the men in their lives. But in sisterhood there is the hope of survival and new life.

Carolyn’s Books of the Month – March

 

 Best Read: His and Hers by Alice Feeney

Anna Andrews finally has what she wants. Almost. She’s worked hard to become the main TV presenter of the BBC’s lunchtime news, putting work before friends, family, and her now ex-husband. So, when someone threatens to take her dream job away, she’ll do almost anything to keep it. When asked to cover a murder in Blackdown – the sleepy countryside village where she grew up – Anna is reluctant to go. But when the victim turns out to be one of her childhood friends, she can’t leave. It soon becomes clear that Anna isn’t just covering the story, she’s part of it. DCI Jack Harper left London for a reason, but never thought he’d end up working in a place like Blackdown. When the body of a young woman is discovered, Jack decides not to tell anyone that he knew the victim, until he begins to realise he is a suspect in his own murder investigation. One of them knows more than they are letting on. Someone isn’t telling the truth.

Crime: Cry Baby by Mark Billingham

It’s 1996. Detective Sergeant Tom Thorne is a haunted man. Haunted by the moment he ignored his instinct about a suspect, by the horrific crime that followed and by the memories that come day and night, in sunshine and shadow. So when seven-year-old Kieron Coyne goes missing while playing in the woods with his best friend, Thorne vows he will not make the same mistake again. Cannot. The solitary witness. The strange neighbour. The friendly teacher. All are in Thorne’s sights. This case will be the making of him… or the breaking. The gripping prequel to Mark Billingham’s acclaimed debut, Sleepyhead, Cry Baby is the shocking first case for one of British crime fiction’s most iconic detectives.

Australian Author: The Resilience Project by H.Van Cuylenburg

Hugh van Cuylenburg was a primary school teacher volunteering in northern India when he had a life-changing realisation: despite the poverty and privations the children he taught faced, they appeared to be the happiest kids he had ever come across. By contrast, back in Australia Hugh knew that all too many children struggled with depression, social anxieties and mental illness. His own little sister had been ravaged by anorexia nervosa. How was it that young people he knew at home, who had food, shelter, friends and a lovely family, struggled with their mental health, while these impoverished kids seemed so contented and resilient? He set about finding the answer and in time came to recognise the key traits and behaviours these children possessed were gratitude, empathy and mindfulness. In the ensuing years Hugh worked tirelessly to study and share this revelation with the world. He launched the Resilience Project, which has become part of the curriculum in many schools and he tours Australia talking to parents, educators, corporations, CEOs and sporting elite. Now, with the same blend of humour, poignancy and clear-eyed insight that The Resilience Project is renowned for, Hugh explains how we can all get the necessary tools to live a happier, more contented and fulfilling life.

General: The Black Swan of Paris by Karen Robards

Paris, 1944. Celebrated singer Genevieve Dumont is both a star and a smokescreen. An unwilling darling of the Nazis, her position of privilege allows her to go undetected as an ally to the resistance. When her estranged mother, Lillian de Rocheford, is captured by Nazis, Genevieve is shaken. She knows it won’t be long before the Gestapo succeeds in torturing information out of Lillian that will derail the upcoming allied invasion. The resistance movement is tasked with silencing her by any means necessary – including assassination. But Genevieve refuses to let her mother become yet one more victim of the war. Reuniting with her long-lost sister, she must find a way to navigate the perilous cross-currents of Occupied France undetected – and in time to save Lillian’s life.

Thriller: When You See Me by Lisa Gardner

A body is found in the hills – but the truth still lies buried… In a small town in the Deep South, Flora Dane is part of a task force committed to hunting down every last trace of notorious serial kidnapper Jacob Ness. As his last victim, imprisoned by Ness in a small box for over a year, she knew him better than most. Even after his death, his evil still lingers. But this is the kind of town that doesn’t take kindly to strangers asking questions. The kind of town where dark secrets lurk just beneath the surface. The kind of town she might not leave alive.

Thriller: Finders Keepers by Sabine Durrant

 

Ailsa Tilson moves with her husband and children to Trinity Fields in search of the new. New project – a house to renovate. New people – no links to the past. New friends – especially her next-door neighbour, the lonely Verity, who needs her help. Verity has lived in Trinity Fields all her life. She’s always resisted change. Her home and belongings are a shield, a defence to keep the outside world at bay. But something about the Tilsons piques her interest. Just as her ivy creeps through the shared garden fence, so Verity will work her way into the Tilson family. And once they realise how formidable she can be, it might well be too late.

Saga/Romance: The Silk House by Kayte Nunn

Australian history teacher Thea Rust doesn’t believe in ghosts, but when she arrives at an exclusive boarding school in 2019, together with the first intake of girls in its 150-year history, a series of puzzling events in Silk House, where the girls live, causes her to question her convictions. She sets out to discover the truth, no matter the cost. In the late 1700s, Rowan Caswell leaves her village to work in the home of an English silk merchant. Her talent for herbs and healing soon attracts attention and she is tasked with both bringing new life into the world as well as helping to end it. Meanwhile, in London, Mary-Louise Stephenson lives amid the clatter of the weaving trade and dreams of being a silk designer, a job that is the domain of men. When she arrives in the market town of Oxleigh, bringing with her a length of fabric woven with a pattern of deadly plants, she unwittingly sets in motion a catastrophe that will affect the lives of all those who dwell in the silk merchant’s house.

Ebooks

The Cedar Tree by Nicole Alexander [indyreads]

In the spring of 1949, Stella O’Riain flees her home – a sheep property on the barren edge of the Strzelecki Desert. She leaves behind the graves of her husband Joe and her baby daughter. With no money and limited options, Stella accepts her brother-in-law Harry’s offer to live at the O’Riain cane farm in the Richmond Valley. There she hopes to get answers to the questions that plague her about her marriage. However Harry refuses to discuss Joe or the family’s secrets, even forbidding her to speak to the owner of the neighbouring property. Nearly a century earlier in County Tipperary, Irish cousins Brandon and Sean O’Riain also fled their homes – as wanted criminals. By 1867, they are working as cedar-cutters in New South Wales’s lush green Richmond Valley. But while Brandon embraces the opportunities this new country offers, Sean refuses to let go of the past.

Three Little Truths by Eithne Shortall [BorrowBox]

On the idyllic Pine Road, three women are looking for a fresh start…
Martha was a force of nature, but since moving to Dublin under mysterious circumstances, she can’t seem to find her footing.
Robin was the ‘it’ girl in school. Now she’s back at her parents’ with her four-year-old, vowing that her ex is out of the picture for good.
Edie has the perfect life, but she longs for a baby, the acceptance of her neighbours, and to find out why her dream husband is avoiding their dream future.
The friendships of these women will change their lives forever, revealing the secrets, rivalries and scandals that hide behind every door…

 

EAudio Books

The Champagne War by Fiona McIntosh [BorrowBox]

In the summer of 1914, vigneron Jerome heads off to war, certain he’ll be home by Christmas. His new bride Sophie, a fifth generation champenoise, is determined to ensure the forthcoming vintages will be testament to their love and the power of the people of opernay, especially its strong women. But as the years drag on, authorities advise that Jerome is missing, considered dead.

When poison gas is first used in Belgium by the Germans, British chemist Charles Nash jumps to enlist. After he is injured, he is brought to Reims, where Sophie has helped to set up an underground hospital to care for the wounded. In the dark, ancient champagne cellars, their stirring emotions take them both by surprise.

While Sophie battles to keep her vineyard going through the bombings, a critical sugar shortage forces her to strike a dangerous bargain with an untrustworthy acquaintance – but nothing will test her courage more than the news that filters through to her about the fate of her heroic Jerome.

 

Tiny White Lies by Fiona Palmer [Libby]

Two families escape the rat race to holiday at a remote coastal retreat, but what lies are they telling themselves and each other? The new family drama by beloved Australian storyteller Fiona Palmer Ashley has recently lost her husband. Daughter Emily is being bullied online. Best friend Nikki is holding a huge secret. And why is husband, Chris, receiving so many text messages lately? Their teenage children are glued to technology, be it PlayStation, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat . . . The two women hatch a plan: for three weeks, both families will stay in a rustic, remote coastal camp with no phone reception. While the teenagers struggle to embrace this new world of self-entertaining in the rugged bushland, the adults are trying to maintain a certain facade. Soon, around the flames of the camp fire, their tiny white lies might just begin to be exposed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

RBdigital is moving to OverDrive

RBdigital eMagazines and eAudio are moving to OverDrive and the Libby app on Wednesday 17th March. If you are using the RBdigital app you will be notified when you can make the change. Just go to your app store and download Libby. RBdigital website users will find the new link on the Library’s website when we have made the change.

Happy listening!

Carolyn’s Books of the Month – February

Best Read: The Survivors by Jane Harper

Kieran Elliott’s life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences. The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home. Kieran’s parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn. When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away…

 

Crime: When she was Good by Michael Robotham

Evie Cormac’s whole life is a lie. She has spent years hiding her true identity, making sure nobody ever discovers what happened to her and who she really is. Because the people who find out always end up dead. But Cyrus Haven, a gifted forensic psychologist and Evie’s closest friend, is determined to know the truth. When the body of a retired detective is found in his car, it’s clear that someone wanted it to look like suicide. And as Cyrus digs deeper, he uncovers an insidious web of lies reaching further than he could have ever imagined, with Evie at its heart.Powerful people have spent years hunting her, the only living witness to their crimes. Who is Evie running from, and is Cyrus inadvertently leading her straight to them?

Australian Author: Just my Luck by Adele Parks

It’s the stuff dreams are made of – a lottery win so big, it changes everything. For fifteen years, Lexi and Jake have played the same six numbers with their friends, the Pearsons and the Heathcotes. Over dinner parties, fish and chip suppers and summer barbecues, they’ve discussed the important stuff – the kids, marriages, jobs and houses – and they’ve laughed off their disappointment when they failed to win anything more than a tenner. But then, one Saturday night, the unthinkable happens. There’s a rift in the group. Someone doesn’t tell the truth. And soon after, six numbers come up which change everything forever. Lexi and Jake have a ticket worth £18 million. And their friends are determined to claim a share of it.

General: Liar by Lesley Pearse

Amelia White dreamed of being a reporter, but the closest she’d come was selling advertising in the local paper. Until the fateful day she stumbles on a truly shocking scoop. A murder victim, round the corner from her home. When the police and reporters descend, Amelia is horrified at the assumptions made and lies soon to be spread about this poor young woman. Convincing her local paper to let her take up the story herself, Amelia is determined to protect the victim from these smears. But when another body is found, the police investigation stalls. Now, Amelia’s own unfolding investigation may be the only chance of uncovering the truth, and stopping more killings. If only she can work out who the liar is.

Thriller: Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanagh

Alexandra Avellino has just found her father’s mutilated body, and needs the police right away. She believes her sister killed him, and that she is still in the house with a knife. Sofia Avellino has just found her father’s mutilated body and needs the police right away. She believes her sister, Alexandra did it, and that she is still in the house, locked in the bathroom. Both women are to go on trial at the same time. A joint trial in front of one jury. But one of these women is lying. One of them is a murderer. Sitting in a jail cell, about to go on trial with her sister for murder, you might think that this is the last place she expected to be. You’d be wrong.

Thriller: Never have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson

Amy Whey is proud of her ordinary life and the simple pleasures that come with it–teaching diving lessons, baking cookies for new neighbors, helping her best friend, Charlotte, run their local book club. Her greatest joy is her family: her devoted professor husband, her spirited fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, her adorable infant son. And, of course, the steadfast and supportive Charlotte. But Amy’s sweet, uncomplicated life begins to unravel when the mysterious and alluring Angelica Roux arrives on her doorstep one book club night.Sultry and magnetic, Roux beguiles the group with her feral charm. She keeps the wine flowing and lures them into a game of spilling secrets. Everyone thinks it’s naughty, harmless fun. Only Amy knows better. Something wicked has come her way–a she-devil in a pricey red sports car who seems to know the terrible truth about who she is and what she once did.When they’re alone, Roux tells her that if she doesn’t give her what she asks for, what she deserves, she’s going to make Amy pay for her sins. One way or another.To protect herself and her family and save the life she’s built, Amy must beat the devil at her own clever game, matching wits with Roux in an escalating war of hidden pasts and unearthed secrets. Amy knows the consequences if she can’t beat Roux.

Saga/Romance: The Lost Summer of Driftwood by Vanessa McCausland

She remembered this part of the trip during the day time. Her sisters on either side in the back. The sunlight flickering through branches was like looking through a kaleidoscope. How could that be so long ago? How could so much have gone wrong? Phoebe’s life has fallen apart and there’s only one place left to go. Alone and adrift after a failed marriage proposal, she flees Sydney to her family’s abandoned holiday cottage. On the slow-moving river Phoebe is confronted with the legacy of her older sister’s suicide, a year before. Why did Karin leave a note written in flowers and walk into the water? Phoebe’s childhood love, Jez, has moved back to the beautiful old house, Driftwood, one jetty down. He’s married now and the home has become a refuge for an unlikely little community. As the river begins to give up its secrets, Phoebe finds herself caught up in old feelings and new mysteries.

Ebooks

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult [BorrowBox]

Dawn Edelstein knows everything there is to know about dying. She specialises in helping her clients make peace with the end of their lives. But as she’s flying home from her latest case, she is forced to confront her own mortality for the first time.

Instead of seeing her brilliant quantum physicist husband and their beautiful daughter flash before her eyes in what she assumes are her last moments, only one face is shockingly clear: Wyatt Neville.

Safely on the ground, Dawn now faces a desperate decision. Should she return to Boston, her family, and the life she knows, or journey back to an Egyptian archaeological site she left over a decade earlier, reconnect with Wyatt, and finally finish her abandoned magnum opus, The Book of Two Ways.

As the story unfolds, Dawn must confront the questions she’s never truly answered: What does a life well-lived look like? When we depart this earth, what do we leave behind of ourselves? And who would you be, if you hadn’t turned out to be the person you are right now?

The Glass House by Eve Chase [Indyreads]

When the Harrington family discovers an abandoned baby deep in the woods, they decide to keep her a secret and raise her as their own.

But within days a body is found in the grounds of their house and their perfect new family implodes.

Years later, Sylvie, seeking answers to nagging questions about her life, is drawn into the wild beautiful woods where nothing is quite what it seems. Will she unearth the truth?

 

EAudio Books

The Hidden Wife by Joanna Rees [BorrowBox]

The second novel in a dazzling historical trilogy from bestselling author Joanna Rees, following The Runaway Daughter. For fans of Lucinda Riley and Penny Vincenzi.

 

The Weekend by Charlotte Wood [RBDigital]

From the Winner of the Stella Prize for The Natural Way of Things. Four older women have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts for the remaining three. Can they survive together without her? They are Jude, a once-famous restaurateur, Wendy, an acclaimed public intellectual, and Adele, a renowned actress now out of work. Struggling to recall exactly why they’ve remained close all these years, the grieving women gather for Christmas at Sylvie’s old beach house, to clean the place out before it is sold. Without Sylvie to maintain the group’s equilibrium, frustrations build and painful memories press in. Fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests and too much wine collide in a storm that brings long-buried hurts to the surface – and threatens to sweep away their friendship for good.