Category: review

Confessions of a Crime Writer by Louise Mangos

A budding crime writer, a death at a literary festival and a satirical peek into the world of publishing Handsome, debonair Nigel Inchcock is a talented crime writer working on the next global bestselling thriller. Or so he believes. In his early thirties and still living with his ageing mother, his writing career is taking time to kick-start, hampered by his warped sense of … Read More Confessions of a Crime Writer by Louise Mangos

The Mourning Necklace by Kate Foster

Inspired by an infamous real-life case, The Mourning Necklace is an unforgettable historical novel from the Women’s Prize-longlisted author of The Maiden, Kate Foster. They said I would swing for the crime and I did. I wear the rope-bruise like a necklace. 1724. In a tavern just outside Edinburgh, Maggie Dickson’s family drown their sorrows, mourning her death yet relieved she is gone. Shame haunts them. Hanged … Read More The Mourning Necklace by Kate Foster

Crime in the Gym by Catherine Moloney

Bromgrove folk are dying to join Fitness for All. A friendly little gym where everyone’s welcome. And everyone’s a suspect. Paralympian Jack Donahue has always been the gym’s devastatingly handsome poster boy. Until now. Jack is found dead in the weights room. Bludgeoned with the same dumbbell that helped sculpt his world-class biceps! Detective Gil Markham is called to investigate, with his loyal — and gloriously tactless — sidekick … Read More Crime in the Gym by Catherine Moloney

The Cartography of What Remains by Eva Schep (The Going Back Series Book #1)

She can go back. Not in memory. In fact. Since Tomas died, Lena has made her life small enough to survive. The chipped cup on the left side of the sink. The bread folded twice. The keys in the bowl by the door. And one impossible thing her grief allows. She can step into the kitchen they shared and stand in the fixed afternoon … Read More The Cartography of What Remains by Eva Schep (The Going Back Series Book #1)

Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard

If these walls could talk, they’d scream… When Ellie moves into 1 Delaney Row, all she has to her name is the house, a small suitcase and the terrible secrets she’s desperate to keep. But what she doesn’t know is that her new home is already hiding someone else’s secrets – and the people determined to keep them are watching her. #BuyerBeware X/Twitter @cathryanhoward #RandomThingsTours  @annecater  @RandomTTours  … Read More Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard

The Repentants by Kate Foster

Her scandal. His revenge. The unforgettable new historical novel from award-winning author, Kate Foster. St Monans, Fife, Scotland 1790. Two women are forced to publicly repent in church, one for adultery the other for breaching the sabbath. Wealthy housewife, Florrie, and salt serf, Eliza, form a quick and unusual bond over their mutual humiliation. So when Florrie’s husband decides she must accompany him on a … Read More The Repentants by Kate Foster

Save Her by Abigail Osborne

Would you sacrifice your marriage to save your best friend? Bound by the traumas of their childhood, Flora and Sophie were inseparable long before they married brothers and joined the rich and powerful Cavendish family. But behind the polished façade of the family estate lurks Cecelia. The cold and controlling matriarch is determined to remind both women they will never be good enough for … Read More Save Her by Abigail Osborne

The Kill Switch by Robert Peston

Journalist Gil Peck is back; in therapy, married to Jess – now editor of the Financial Chronicle – and still driven by the need to prove a point that he can’t quite identify. Yet all is not well at home. Jess is fed up with Gil’s obsession with his job, and she’s kicked him out of their home. But Gil has never let anything … Read More The Kill Switch by Robert Peston

Shibby Magee by Carrie Kabak 

A vanished mother. A fractured family. A lifetime of choosing the wrong men. When their bold, brassy mother vanishes into Ireland’s Traveller community, Shibby Magee and her twin sister, Dorah, are left behind in a family already cracking at the seams. Under the iron rule of their rigidly bigoted grandmother, the girls grow up on opposite tracks: Dorah, sharp-edged and defiant; Shibby, bruised and … Read More Shibby Magee by Carrie Kabak 

Until the Next Letter by Hannah Claire

When sisters Libby and Rachel open a letter from their late mother, they discover that it’s the first of five. Each letter asks them to scatter their mother’s ashes in a different place, and travel together to the carefully chosen locations. What begins as an act of remembrance soon becomes a journey into the past. With every trip, the sisters uncover unsettling truths about … Read More Until the Next Letter by Hannah Claire

My 4 Favourite Audiobooks of 2026 – Part Two

2026 is turning out to be a good year for audiobooks, so once again I am giving them their own post. We have one Jess Kidd (always, and always as an audiobook as the narration is one of my favourite parts), a modern Gothic mystery and two Will Carvers (who also made it to my Top Ten favourite books of 2026 Part Two). Here … Read More My 4 Favourite Audiobooks of 2026 – Part Two

How To Survive in the Woods by Kat Rosenfield 

Wild meets The Wife Between Us in this page-turning thriller, set in the treacherous final stretch of the Appalachian Trail – an addictive tale of passion, betrayal, control and what it means to survive. Emma Sharp knows the rules of survival. From being raised by a doomsday-fearing father and hardened by the startup world, she has learned how to endure – especially in her … Read More How To Survive in the Woods by Kat Rosenfield