Tag: literature
+ family, fiction, haunting, literature, mystery, review, Scottish Highlands, secrets, supernatural, superstition, thriller, writing
Pine by Francine Toon
They are driving home from the search party when they see her. The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men. Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. … Read More Pine by Francine Toon
+ abuse, adventure, child abuse, childhood, family, fiction, literature, love, obsession, relationships, review, secrets, sisters, writing
Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone
Cat lives in Los Angeles, about as far away as she can get from her estranged twin sister El and No. 36 Westeryk Road, the imposing Gothic house in Edinburgh where they grew up. As girls, they invented Mirrorland, a dark, imaginary place under the pantry stairs full of pirates, witches, and clowns. These days Cat rarely thinks about their childhood home, or the … Read More Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone
+ anthology, crime fiction, dark humour, Detective novel, fiction, fifties, jealousy, literature, murder, murder mystery, mystery, review, short stories, short story, sixties, thriller, writing
Vintage Crime by Martin Edwards (Editor)
Vintage Crimes is a CWA anthology with a difference, celebrating members’ work over the years. The book gathers stories from the mid-1950s until the twenty-first century by great names of the past, great names of the present together with a few hidden treasures by less familiar writers. The first CWA anthology, Butcher’s Dozen, appeared in 1956, and was co-edited by Julian Symons, Michael Gilbert, … Read More Vintage Crime by Martin Edwards (Editor)
+ fiction, friends, friendship, literature, love, murder mystery, Publishing, reading, relationships, review, romance, writing
Her Last Words by Kim Kelly
Thisbe Chisholm wants to be a writer. It’s 2007, a time of digital revolution and skyrocketing property prices, but she’s an old-fashioned girl. She doesn’t even own a mobile phone. She has no stars-in-her-eyes desire for fame, to see her name on the cover of a book, either. She longs only to tell of the stories written on her heart. While her best friends, … Read More Her Last Words by Kim Kelly
Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce
“The differences between them – all those things she’d once found so infuriating – she now accepted. Being Enid’s friend meant there were always going to be surprises. However close they were it didn’t entitle her to Enid’s memories and neither did it allow her to be part of Enid’s life before they met. Being a friend meant accepting those unknowable things. It was … Read More Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce
The Glass House by Eve Chase
Outside a remote manor house in an idyllic wood, a baby girl is found. The Harrington family takes her in and disbelief quickly turns to joy. They’re grieving a terrible tragedy of their own and the beautiful baby fills them with hope, lighting up the house’s dark, dusty corners. Desperate not to lose her to the authorities, they keep her secret, suspended in a … Read More The Glass House by Eve Chase
+ Ceylon, family drama, fiction, Historical fiction, literature, review, romance, Sri Lanka, writing
The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies
Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower, eager to join him on his tea plantation, determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected. The plantation workers are resentful, the neighbours treacherous, and there are clues to the past – a dusty trunk of dresses, an overgrown gravestone in the grounds … Read More The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies
+ dark humour, fiction, literature, rabbit, review, satire, writing
The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde
Peter Knox lives quietly in one of those small country villages that’s up for the Village Garden of the Year award. Until Doc and Constance Rabbit move in next door, upsetting the locals (many of them members of the governing political party – UKARP or the United Kingdom Against Rabbit Population), complicating Peter’s job as a Rabbit Spotter, and forcing him to take a stand, moving from unconscious … Read More The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde
+ Catholic Church, crime fiction, fiction, Historical fiction, murder mystery, mystery, review, Tudor England, writing
The Lost Boys of London by Mary Lawrence
In the twilight years of Henry VIII’s reign, alchemist’s daughter Bianca Goddard uses her skills to aid the living, and help seek justice for the dead . . . While her husband fights the Scots on behalf of King Henry VIII, Bianca Goddard earns her coin by concocting medicines that offer relief to London’s sick. Some unfortunates, however, are beyond any remedies she can … Read More The Lost Boys of London by Mary Lawrence
+ childhood, dementia, family drama, fiction, friendship, Kit Williams, literature, Magical realism, relationships, review, The Man Behind the Masquerade, writing
The Illustrated Child by Polly Crosby
Romilly lives in a ramshackle house with her eccentric artist father and her cat, Monty. She knows little about her past – but she knows that she is loved. When her father finds fame with a series of children’s books starring her as the main character, everything changes: exotic foods appear on the table, her father appears on TV, and strangers appear at their … Read More The Illustrated Child by Polly Crosby
The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue
Twenty-five years ago, a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl and her charismatic teacher disappeared without trace… In an elite Catholic girls’ boarding-school the pupils live under the repressive, watchful gaze of the nuns. Seeking to break from the cloistered atmosphere two of the students – Louisa and Victoria – quickly become infatuated with their young, bohemian art teacher, and act out passionately as a result. That is, … Read More The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue
The Sisters Grimm by Menna van Praag
“Once upon a time, a demon who desired earthly domination fathered an army of dark daughters to help him corrupt humanity . . . “As children, Goldie, Liyana, Scarlet, and Bea dreamed of a strange otherworld: a nightscape of mists and fog, perpetually falling leaves and hungry ivy, lit by an unwavering moon. Here, in this shadowland of Everwhere, the four girls, half-sisters connected … Read More The Sisters Grimm by Menna van Praag
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