Penny has an enviable marriage to vicar Simon, with a gorgeous baby daughter, Jenna. She lives in an idyllic part of Cornwall, and can’t understand why she feels a total failure. To make matters worse, the successful career she had in television seems to be in trouble. The final straw comes when her estranged younger sister, Suzie, turns up, stirring up the difficult family memories that Penny had thought she’d escaped. The novel continues the stories of people first met in other novels by the author, and introduces more intriguing characters. Village life is drawn colourfully, creating a mix of emotions in another of the author’s tales of Cornish village life. Warm and sympathetic.
Danielle Girard – Whiteout
A thriller set in USA. Lily wakes up in crashed car, beside an unconscious man she doesn’t know – and can’t recall her own identity or what happened. There are only disjointed flashbacks in her mind, and she can make no sense of it. She finds out her name from the driving licence in her bag. From this point she begins a journey of discovery and terror as she tries to piece together her life and keep safe from someone who seems to want her dead. Ambitious detective Kylie is also on a quest, to find the killer of another young woman whose body appeared in a local dumpster. But her attempts to solve the crime seem to be thwarted at every turn – who is sabotaging her investigation? She believes there’s a connection to Lily, and the two women’s lives begin to converge as leads are woven in confusion. A lot of suspense, many threads to untangle, but overall a satisfying read.
Elle Newmark – The Sandalwood Tree
A fascinating weaving of tales from two turbulent times in the history of India. In 1947, on the eve of Partition, American Evie arrives in northern India with her husband Martin and their five-year-old son Billy. Martin served in World War II and came back altered, with hidden demons he cannot speak about. Now he’s studying the momentous changes in India for a history PhD, and Evie hopes that during their time there, they will rediscover the closeness of their early marriage. But he remains locked in his personal nightmare. Her curiosity is roused when she discovers letters hidden in their Victorian house – correspondence between two young Englishwomen, Adela and Felicity in 1855. As Evie follows a trail which gradually reveals the secrets of their lives in India during the Sepoy Rebellion, she experiences more of the realities and history of the people inhabiting this exotic country. Their stories also help her to learn more about herself and how she can face the future. A deeply emotional and engrossing read.