July
The
Secrets of Wishtide is by Kate Saunders. Mrs Laetitia Rodd is the impoverished widow
of an Archdeacon, living modestly in Hampstead with her landlady Mrs Bentley.
She is also a private detective of the utmost discretion. In winter 1850, her
brother Frederick, a criminal barrister, introduces her to Sir James
Calderstone, a wealthy and powerful industrialist who asks Mrs Rodd to
investigate the background of an 'unsuitable' woman his son intends to marry -
a match he is determined to prevent. In the guise of governess, she travels to
the family seat, Wishtide, deep in the frozen Lincolnshire countryside, where
she soon discovers that the Calderstones have more to hide than most. As their
secrets unfold, the case takes an unpleasant turn when a man is found dead
outside a tavern. Mrs Rodd's keen eyes and astute wits are taxed as never
before in her search for the truth - which carries her from elite drawing rooms
to London's notorious inns and its steaming laundry houses.
August
On a
searing summer Friday, Eddie Chapman has been stuck for hours in a traffic jam.
There are accidents along the highway, but ambulances and police are
conspicuously absent. When he decides to abandon his car and run home, he sees
that the trees along the edge of a stream have been burnt, and the water in the
stream bed is gone. Something is very wrong. When he arrives home, the power is
out and there is no running water. The pipes everywhere, it seems, have gone
dry. Eddie and his wife, Laura, find themselves thrust together with their
neighbours while a sense of unease thickens in the stifling night air. Thirst
takes place in the immediate aftermath of a mysterious disaster - the Chapmans
and their neighbours suffer the effects of the heat, their thirst, and the terrifying
realisation that no one may be coming to help. As violence rips through the
community, Eddie and Laura are forced to recall secrets from their past and
question their present humanity. Thirst
is by Benjamin Warner
Brighton
is by Michael Harvey. You came back here to bury your past ...Thing is, you
gotta kill it first Brighton, 1975: a Boston neighbourhood where racial
tensions run high and gangs jostle for dominance in the trades that matter –
drug-running, book-keeping and theft. Fifteen-year-old Kevin Pearce knows his
best hope is to get the hell out before its bloody streets get a grip on his
dreams. Bitterness and brutality stalk the hard-drinking generations of his
Irish immigrant family. But when an act of violence tears their home apart, Kevin
is forced to leave for New York, changing the course of his life forever.
Twenty-seven years later, in 2002, Kevin wins the Pulitzer Prize for an
investigative article on the wrongful conviction and death of a man from
Brighton, and decides to visit his old neighbourhood for the first time in
decades. But his past has long shadows - shadows which have taken on a life of
their own. And when Kevin's prosecutor girlfriend Lisa asks his advice on a
murder case, he is plunged into a web of deception and bloodshed that will test
his loyalties to the limit and place the life he has built at risk.
September
Ruso
and Tilla’s excitement at arriving in Rome with their baby daughter is soon
dulled by their discovery that the grand facades of polished marble mask an
underworld of corrupt landlords and vermin-infested tenements. Ruso finds that his predecessor Doctor
Kleitos has fled, leaving a dead man in a barrel on the doorstep with the
warning. Be careful who you trust. Distracted, Ruso makes a grave mistake,
causing him to question his own competence and integrity. With Ruso’s reputation under threat, he and
Tilla must protect their small family by tracking down the vanished doctor –
and discovering the truth behind the man in the barrel. Vita Brevis is by Ruth
Downie
