Sunday 17 October 2021

Books to Look Forward to From HarperCollins

January 2022 

All For You is by Louise Jensen. Lucy: Mother. Wife. Falling to pieces . . .Aidan: Father. Husband. In too deep . . . Connor: Son. Friend. Can never tell the truth . . . Everyone in this family is hiding something, but one secret will turn out to be the deadliest of all . . . Will this family ever recover when the truth finally comes out?

They all have opinions, they all have secrets. In a small town like West Burntridge, it should be impossible to keep a secret. Rachel Saunders knows gossip is the price you pay for a rural lifestyle and outstanding schools. The latest town scandal is her divorce - and the fact that her new girlfriend has moved into the family home. Laura Spence lives in a poky bedsit on the wrong side of town. She and her son Jake don't really belong, and his violent tantrums are threatening to expose the very thing she's trying to hide. When the local school introduces a new inclusive curriculum, Rachel and Laura find themselves on opposite sides of a fearsome debate. But the problem with having your nose in everyone else's business is that you often miss what is happening in your own home. Other Parents is by Sarah Stovell.

February 2022

Take Your Breath Away is by Linwood Barclay. It's always the husband, isn't it? One weekend, while Andrew Mason was on a fishing trip, his wife, Brie, vanished without a trace. Most people assumed Andy had got away with murder, but the police couldn't build a strong case against him. For a while, Andy hit rock bottom - he drank too much, was abandoned by his friends, nearly lost his business, and became a pariah in the place he had once called home. Now, six years later, Andy has put his life back together. He's sold the house he shared with Brie and moved away for a fresh start. When he hears his old house has been bulldozed and a new house built in its place, he's not bothered. He's settled with a new partner, Jayne, and life is good. But Andy's peaceful world is about to shatter. One day, a woman shows up at his old address, screaming, 'Where's my house? What's happened to my house?' And then, just as suddenly as she appeared, the woman - who bears a striking resemblance to Brie - is gone. The police are notified and old questions - and dark suspicions – resurface. Could Brie really be alive after all these years? If so, where has she been? It soon becomes clear that Andy's future, and the lives of those closest to him, depends on discovering what the hell is going on. The trick will be whether he can stay alive long enough to unearth the answers...

March 2o22

The Haven is by Amanda Jennings. Winterfall Farm, spectacular and remote, stands over Bodmin Moor. Wanting an escape from the constraints of conventional life, Kit and Tara move to the isolated smallholding with their daughter and a group of friends. Searching for a purer existence, they live off-grid and work the land, and soon begin to enjoy the fruits of their labour amid the breathtaking beauty and freedom of the moor. At first this new way of life seems too good to be true, but when their charismatic leader Jeremy returns from a mysterious trip to the city with Dani, a young runaway, fractures begin to show. As winter approaches, and with it cold weather and dark nights, Jeremy's behaviour becomes increasingly erratic. Rules are imposed, the outside world is shunned, and when he brings a second girl back to the farm, tensions quickly reach breaking point with devastating consequences.

You get away with murder. In a remote sea loch on the west coast of Scotland, a fisherman vanishes without trace. His remains are never found. You make people disappear. A young man jumps from a bridge in Glasgow and falls to his death in the water below. DS Max Craigie uncovers evidence that links both victims. But if he can't find out what cost them their lives, it won't be long before more bodies turn up at the morgue...You come back for revenge. Soon cracks start to appear in the investigation, and Max's past hurtles back to haunt him. When his loved ones are threatened, he faces a terrifying choice: let the only man he ever feared walk free, or watch his closest friend die... The Blood Tide is by Neil Lancaster.

April 2022

Breakneck Point is by Tina Orr Munro. CSI Ally Dymond follows the evidence wherever it leads. Her commitment to justice has cost Ally her place on the major investigations team. After exposing corruption in the ranks, she’s stuck working petty crimes on the sleepy North Devon coast. Only when the body of nineteen-year-old Janie Warren turns up in the seaside town of Bidecombe can Ally put her skills to good use. Yet the evidence she discovers contradicts the lead detective’s theory. And no one wants to listen to the CSI who landed their colleagues in prison. Time is running out to catch a serial killer no one is looking for — no one except Ally. What she doesn’t know is that he’s watching, from her side of the crime scene tape, waiting for the moment to strike. When he does, Ally will be forced to question the true nature of justice like never before.

A nightclub singer with more than one secret hastily leaves London on The Queen Mary after her best friend's husband is murdered...only to discover that death has followed her onboard, in this thrilling locked-room mystery. London, 1936. Lena Aldridge is wondering if life has passed her by. The dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn’t worked out. Instead, she’s stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho, and her married lover has just dumped her. But Lena has always had a complicated life, one shrouded in mystery as a mixed-race girl passing for white in a city unforgiving of her true racial heritage. She has nothing to look forward to—until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime: a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York. After a murder at the club, the timing couldn’t be better, and Lena jumps at the chance to escape England. But when a fellow passenger is killed in a strikingly familiar way, Lena realizes that her greatest performance won't be for an audience, but for her life. Miss Aldridge Regrets is by Louise Hare.

May 2022

To The Grave by John Barlow.is the second in the series set in Leeds featuring half Sicilian detective Joe Romano.

June 2022 

Such a Good Mother is by Helen Monks Takhar. Rose O'Connell is barely surviving. Her relationship with her husband is on the rocks and their son has isn't fitting in at his new school, the prestigious Woolf Academy. Their tiny flat in a rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood--the very place Rose grew up as the daughter of an infamous local con artist--can barely contain her family. Rose can't catch a professional break either, trapped in the same junior bank teller role for years. Life as the only mom in a name tag and uniform at The Woolf's shiny school gates isn't easy. Not so for those in the elite and secretive Circle, a tight-knit group of mothers who rule the school, led by the charismatic and glamorous Amala Kaur. In exchange for supporting The Woolf's relentless fundraising and public image drives, the women enjoy lucrative business opportunities, special privileges for their children, and the admiration of the entire community. After the mysterious death of one of The Circle's members, Rose dares to hope that filling the vacancy could set her family up for success. And when Amala makes the shocking decision to invite Rose into their clique, her fortunes, self-esteem, and status soar. But the deeper Rose gets inside The Circle, the darker the secrets lurking within every perfectly Instagramable life. Far from being a dream come true, being inside The Circle could prove Rose's worst nightmare...



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