As you bask on the beach, or around the pool, or collapse after a day in the garden we have a round up of books that might hit the spot.
The Case of the Fool by Daisy Waugh writing as E.V. HarteTT
Tarot reader Dolly Green, returning from a happy hols in St Lucia with her cracker of a police sergeant boyfriend, finds a Russian girl waiting for a reading. The charmless Marina is young and beautiful, everything to live for, but will she? The cards see other things ahead – death, but for whom?
This is an appetising read, nice, assured, with echoes of Agatha Christie. Don’t drip your ice cream on it.
The Case of the Fool by E.V. Harte
Keeping in the ethereal world:
Unquiet Spirits by Bonnie MacBird, an award-winning Hollywood screenwriter, and Sherlock Holmes fan.
How does she do? Rather well Frost thought as we join Holmes in December 1889 on his return from exposing a ‘ghostly’ house in Dartmoor. You know the one. He is invited to Scotland to pursue all sorts of mayhem, but chooses the South of France instead. Watson is nonplussed.
Mayhem is not to be escaped however and from France they are led to Scotland after all, and a conundrum to be solved. A good read for Holmes fans.
Unquiet Spirits. Pub HarperCollins pb & ebook and audiobook.
The Quarryman’s Wife by Elizabeth Gill
A warm evocative book, the second in the Weardale Sagas, set in the north-east, my old stamping ground. In this second of the series Nell Almond not only loses her daughter, but her husband, and her hopes rest in her grandson who is being cared for by one of the local families, and not very well it seems. See how these hopes are realised, or not – will he, or won’t he take his rightful place as heir to the quarry.
The Quarryman’s Wife by Elizabeth Gill. pub Quercus. Hb.
Blood Feud by Anna Smith
The first of a new series from the author of the Rosie Gilmour series. Blood Feud is in the mould of Martina Cole I felt, as Kerry Casey, strides back into a world she thought she had escaped. But no, on the deaths of her mother and brother she returns, and the girl is mad, and out to get even. Vigorous, Blood Feud takes no prisoners.
Blood Feud by Anna Smith. Pub Quercus pb and ebook.
The City of Lies by Michael Russell
A fascinating book set in Ireland during the Second World War. The City of Lies is the third in the Stefan Gillespie novels and holds its place in the rankings. The City of Lies is just that, full of lies and mystery, and double dealing as German, Irish and British concerns conflict. I liked it. It has pace, good scene setting and a great main character.
The City of Lies by Michael Russell. Pub Constable pb and ebook.
Milly Adams latest novel is the second in the Waterway Girls series. Love on the Waterways pub Arrow. Pb and ebook