Category: loss
+ brothers, childhood, crime fiction, family, fiction, forgiveness, grief, lies, loss, love, marriage, murder, relationships, revenge, review, secrets, thriller
Broken Shadows by Sorrel Pitts
‘Looking back, Dad just didn’t act like a man who had killed his son. Every time I come back to it, I remember his face that day we came home and Mum had asked where Callum was, and there was nothing there but true concern, you know, at that moment…’ In 1994, eleven-year-old Callum was abducted from his Wiltshire village. His body was found … Read More Broken Shadows by Sorrel Pitts
+ coming-of-age, fifties, grief, loss, love, murder mystery, secrets, sixties
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
For years, rumors of the ‘Marsh Girl’ haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her. But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life’s lessons from the land, learning … Read More Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
+ child abduction, climate fiction, diary, dystopia, family, fiction, grief, journal, kidnapping, loss, pandemic, review, secrets, slavery, thriller
The Descent by Paul E Hardisty
Kweku Ashworth is a child of the cataclysm, born on a sailboat to parents fleeing the devastation in search for a refuge in the Southern Ocean. Growing up in a world forever changed, his only connection to the events that set the world on its course to disaster were the stories his step-father, now long-dead, recorded in his manuscript, The Forcing. #TheDescent @Hardisty_Paul @OrendaBooks … Read More The Descent by Paul E Hardisty
+ crime fiction, fiction, folklore, gothic, gothic horror, Gothic mystery, loss, murder, murder mystery, mystery, mythology, obsession, review, Scandi noir, Sweden
Yule Island by Johana Gustawsson translated by David Warriner
Art expert Emma Lindhal is anxious when she’s asked to appraise the antiques in the infamous manor house of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, on the island of Storholmen, where a young woman was murdered nine years earlier, her killer never found. As she goes about her painstaking work and one shocking discovery yields clues that lead to another, Emma becomes determined to uncover … Read More Yule Island by Johana Gustawsson translated by David Warriner
Swimming For Beginners by Nicola Gill
Swimming for Beginners will show you how a child can open your heart even if you aren’t a mother. Loretta has her life under control. She’s chasing a big promotion, she’s marrying the “perfect man” and she has a flawless five-year plan. This plan does not include children. #SwimmingForBeginners @Nicola_J_Gill @bedsqpublishers #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours IG @nicolagillauthor @bedfordsq.publishers #blogtour But when a complete stranger asks her to watch … Read More Swimming For Beginners by Nicola Gill
+ childhood, coming-of-age, dementia, family, grief, lies, loss, psychologist, secrets
Surviving Him by Jo Johnson
When Daisy reaches eighteen, she enters a highly selective club. In this club, you get a test that decides if you live or die. To the casual observer Daisy is a vile bully with a drug habit. She’s been expelled from school and frightens her family. Realising the disease that devoured her father is after her, Daisy has given up. Her one remaining cheerleader … Read More Surviving Him by Jo Johnson
+ abuse, care home, child abuse, childhood, crime fiction, family, fiction, friendship, grief, loss, love, motherhood, murder, police drama, review, sisters, thriller, war, World War Two
The Girls Left Behind by Emily Gunnis
1985. Separated from her little sister at the children’s home where they are taken as orphans, Holly Moore is a troubled teenager in need of love. When she meets a man who promises to take care of her, she hopes her luck has finally changed. 2015. The clock is ticking for Superintendent Jo Hamilton when the discovery of a young woman’s remains takes her back to an unsolved case from … Read More The Girls Left Behind by Emily Gunnis
+ childhood, fiction, friendship, Ghost story, grief, haunting, journalist, loss, love, mental illness, obsession, paranormal, psychiatric hospital, psychiatrist, review, supernatural, writer
13 Doors by G J Phelps
Thirteen doors, thirteen hauntings. News reporter Joe Baxter has a plan. His idea is simple – to use his newsroom contacts across England to find thirteen haunted places to stay, and then record his experiences in a book. From an abandoned cinema to a dank pub cellar, from a World War Two airfield to a lonely, landlocked cruise liner, Joe is prepared to spend … Read More 13 Doors by G J Phelps
+ crime fiction, family, fiction, grief, kidnapping, loss, mental health, mental illness, mystery, obsession, police drama, review, thriller
Gone by TJ Brearton
How can an entire family disappear into thin air? An empty house on the edge of a small town . . . a teddy bear abandoned . . . a half drunk glass of wine . . . the TV left on and all the computer equipment missing. Where have Hutchinson Kemp and his wife and two children gone? Detective Rondeau doesn’t think they left … Read More Gone by TJ Brearton
+ child abduction, crime fiction, Detective novel, fiction, lies, loss, marriage, murder, obsession, police drama, police procedural, review, secrets, serial killer, sisters, twins
The Murder Trail by DG Penny DC Izzy Wilde Crime Thriller #1
Can a rookie cop stop a serial killer before another life is lost? Three months after moving out of uniform, DC Izzy Wilde wants to make an impression. But sometimes she can’t help going off track. It’s got her in trouble before. As first responder to a monstrous death at a remote farm, she discovers a slain wife whose eight-month-old daughter is missing. And … Read More The Murder Trail by DG Penny DC Izzy Wilde Crime Thriller #1
+ crime fiction, family, fiction, grief, lies, loss, love, marriage, mental health, motherhood, murder, obsession, postpartum psychosis, relationships, review, thriller
The Babysitter by Emma Curtis
Three women. Three secrets.Claudia’s life imploded ten years ago when she was convicted of the murder of her child. Now she has done the unthinkable and confessed to manslaughter in order to be granted parole – her only hope of finding out what really happened to Tilly. Sara is married to Joe, Claudia’s ex-husband, and they have a young child together. She finally has … Read More The Babysitter by Emma Curtis
+ family, female friendship, feminism, fiction, friendship, grief, Historical fiction, loss, love, motherhood, review, sisterhood, sisters, suffragette movement, twins, World War One
The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams
A young British woman working in a book bindery gets a chance to pursue knowledge and love when World War I upends her life in this new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick The Dictionary of Lost Words. It is 1914, and as the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, women must keep the nation running. Two … Read More The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams