Murder in the Caribbean by Robert Thorogood

This is to buy with the  book token you could buy your nearest and dearest for Chrimbo as it isn’t out til 27th December.

A bit of sunshine, and why not as the glorious golden leaves of this autumn are biting the dust as DI Richard Poole and his team set about cracking another murder after a boat explodes in the harbour. Who did it, and why leave a ruby behind at the scene of the crime? As events unfold it becomes clear that one can’t outrun the past. I love a good sunny romp, but there is enough of a dark side not to be cloying. A treat, quite frankly.

Published by HQ £7.99/ebook £2.99/audio £12.99

A Daughter’s Gift by Maggie Hope.

When Elizabeth and her four siblings are orphaned, she and her brother are sent to a children’s home; their younger sisters into foster care. Maggie is determined to make a better life for her and her brother and all seems to be more or less on track,e even when she starts work as a nurse, but does she jeopardise it all when she falls for a wounded officer? Marriage to one so far above her is out of the question and her behaviour must be above reproach if she is to retain her job. Even more stress awaits as her sister is adopted by an abusive farmer. How is Maggie to solve all these dilemmas?

A page turner of a novel set in Catherine Cookson country. Give it a try.

Ebury Press £6.99

The Christmas Sisters by the ever popular Sarah Morgan

This is one of those warm  optimistic novels which is just right for Christmas, with a cracking jacket, though there are problems in abundance as Suzanne McBride’s three daughters return for the festivities in the Scottish Highlands.  But as so often at these reunions things from the past bubble to the surface…

A warm rich story to read by the fireside, with a box of chocolates and a glass or two of wine. Enjoy.

HQ Harper Collins   £7.99

Forget my Name by J.S. Monroe

On quite a different pathway, this thriller from the bestselling author of Find Me-  which Frost also enjoyed – sometimes from behind the sofa it must be said.

Munroe cranks up the tension as ‘she’ arrives in Heathrow after a difficult week at work. All her ID has been stolen. OK, report the theft then, but  how, when she can’t remember her own name? Ah, but she can summon up her address.

But when she arrives, Tony and Laura, a young couple live there. She says it’s her home. They say they have never met her before. Who is lying?

This is the sort of nightmare we are pleased to wake from, and find ourselves still in bed. But what do you do when it’s not that sort of a nightmare. Bite your nails and read Forget my Name, or give it to someone in plain brown wrapping paper (as we’re being told to do this year) and let them sweat it out, and tell you the end.

Head of Zeus pb  £18.99

Milly Adams latest series is The Waterway Girls  – pub: Arrow

Gold

Here in the Frost Magazine office our handbags are in danger of weighting a ton, so any way to lighten the load appeals. Which is why we liked these, so take a look  – a fabulous idea for a Christmas gift, or any time, really, and reasonable enough to buy for yourself.

Twist and Spritz 8ml atomizers save carrying around your favourite 100 ml perfume bottle. Just fill, squirt, replace into your bag, and toddle along. It comes in a choice of 18 shades and at Frost we found it so easy to fill, and in an age where one wonders who actually has time to  stuff a tomato, let alone fiddle about putting perfume into a container, what’s not to like?

Pink Glitter

With this you simply remove the inner bottle from your chosen Twist & Spritz, before placing the valve over the exposed nozzle of the fragrance bottle.  Pump repeatedly until the inner bottle is full, and then replace the this back into the Twist & Spritz. You now have 8ml of fragrance, which equates to 100 sprays; guaranteed to last your whole holiday, wedding or festival.

Silver

Available in great choice of fashion-forward shades, some with a high-shine metallic finish, and slim, sleek design whilst for the fun-loving festival goer there are hero shades including purple, light pink, blue, green and red. For the discerning traveler, there are sophisticated precious metal inspired hues of polished silver, gold and trend led rose gold.

I filled mine with the relatively new perfume, Signature, which was launched in the spring.

I really like its complex scent of citrus, pepper and rhubarb, but also hints of rose, jasmine and ylang ylang add a floral flavour, with base notes of warm woods, dry amber, musk and vetiver adding an air of luxurious sophistication.

The eau de toilette, available from March in L.K.Bennett stores and lkbennett.com, is available in three sizes – 30ml (£35) 50ml (£49) and 100ml (£69); in a beautiful Art Deco-inspired glass bottle designed with iconic branding.

But do decant into your Twist and Spritz so you have some with you always.

As I said, good presents, and why not treat yourself.

Twist & Spritz RRP £10   www.thefragranceshop.co.uk

Yes, you’ve guessed it – another Agatha Raisin has hit the bookstands – temporarily because they’re already flying right off again.

So it is celebration time in the Frost office, and much unseemly elbowing to be the first to read it, and I WON.

Agatha Raisin and the Dead Ringer:  The team of bells at St. Ethelred church is the pride and glory of the idyllic Cotswold village of Thirk Magna, together with the most dedicated bell ringers in the whole of England: the twins Mavis and Millicent Dupin.

As the village gets ready for the Bishop’s visit, the twins get over-excited at the prospect of ringing the special peal of bells created for the occasion and start bullying the other bell ringers, forcing them to rehearse and rehearse… until Joseph Kennell, a retired lawyer does the inevitable – snaps and shrieks that he feels like killing them.

But does he? Well…

Someone broke into the twins home one night, and delivered a hammer blow onto Millicent’s bonce, so was it Joseph? Huh, do you really think I’m going to tell you.

Get yourself a glass of champagne, settle yourself down to the treat of the month, or year, and read the glorious happenings that always somehow whirl around the wonderfully politically incorrect Agatha Raisin as she digs, delves and trips over the truth. Agatha our hero, our star, our treat of the year is back. Yay, whoopee, hallelujah.

So has the fabulous M.C. Beaton pulled it off again? You darned well better believe it.

M.C. Beaton is the New York Times bestselling author of both the Agatha Raisin and the Hamish Macbeth series, as well as numerous Regency romances. Her Agatha Raisin books have been turned into a TV series on Sky, starring Ashley Jensen as Agatha. A second series will be filmed in Spring 2018. She lives in Paris and in a Cotswold village that is very much like Agatha’s beloved Carsely.

And… and… we can hardly breathe with excitement – Angela, are you listening, (she’s the latest devotee we have enrolled into the Frost’s Aggy Fan Club ). This winter 2018 the aforementioned second  series of three – yes three 90 minute episodes will be airing based on Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam, Curious Curate and Wizard of Evesham, featuring the original cast with Ashley Jensen starring as Agatha.

What could be better? Well, we could have been in it, of course, tottering about on similar high heels couldn’t we? Is that really too much to ask? Nonetheless, we’ll be there in front of the TV, choc in one hand, champagne in the other, having a ball with our Agatha.

Agatha Raisin and the Dead Ringer by M.C. Beaton hb £17.99

(Milly Adams’  latest novel is the last in the Waterways Girls – Hope on the Waterways.’

This is fun.  A séance, aristocratic guests, ghosts, murder and secrets, all on an island cut off by a storm. In 1917. With winter approaching us in the twenty first century, what more could we possibly want? Curl up on the sofa with something warm, and enjoy.

On one level this is a ‘cosy’ read because it has the characteristics of this genre. The claustrophobia of a house cut off by nature and populated with an assortment of guests who each has his or her own secrets and agenda is comfortingly familiar. Murder is to be expected. The background, however, is 1917 and the First World War is entering its most brutal phase.  The characters of Donovan, for whom memories of the Somme are far too vivid, and Kate Cartwright, who lost her brother there, ensure that the reader is never quite allowed to forget the very real horrors just across the Channel from Blackwater Abbey and its oddly assorted guests. The plot ties the two worlds together in a way that is sometimes uncomfortable.

Just as A House of Ghosts  is not quite a ‘cosy’, nor is it a ghost story in a conventional way. But you can’t ignore the ghosts. Nor can the house guests.  The links between the living and the dead may make you shiver occasionally on your comfortable sofa  and wonder where that draught came from.

You are in safe hands with this book. The author is clearly a natural story teller and draws you in to the twists and turns of a plot which is almost as complicated as the Abbey’s architecture.  All does become clear – but you may be surprised. I finished this book feeling that I’d had a good read with a story which wasn’t quite what I’d expected. And that I wouldn’t mind meeting its central characters again.

Review by Penny Deacon, author of A Kind of Puritan  and  A Thankless Child

A House of Ghosts by W.C. Ryan published in hardback 4th Oct, Zaffre, £12.99