The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox is an interesting book. I’ve just had a discussion on genes, and we were chatting about whether we inherit memories, or attitudes, or gifts and to some extent this explores the edge of our discussion.

Growing up, Lydia Montrose knew she was descended from the witches of Salem and was warned to keep her legacy secret. But Willow Hall has awoken something inside her…

I enjoyed the writing, and the story. The American voice came over clearly, the story was effortless to follow. A good read.

The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox. pub Harper Collins. pb £7.99 e book and audio

Every Breath You Take by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke

I read this with great pleasure. I’ve loved Mary Higgins Clark ever since a sheep station owner in Australia handed it to me for my onward journey, saying you’ll love her. I do. I’ve wanted to love Alafair Burke, because I have a passion for James Lee Burke. But somehow I’ve never quite felt the commitment to his daughter, very close, but not quite. But after reading this novel,  I’m in her corner now.

The Met Gala ball – where the rich and famous want to be seen , strutting their stuff. You’re nobody if you’re not invited. Perhaps people would kill for that crisp white card? For for not getting one?

Is that what happened three years ago when a member of the Met’s board of trustees was found dead in the snow at the foot of the building? Thrown or jumped? Well, now you mention it, thrown, but by whom? Ah, well read the book.

The alchemy of these two writers brings us something special. Bravo, fabulous. Like Oliver Twist – More please.

Every Breath you Take by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke. pub Simon & Schuster pb £7.99

The Bad Daughter by Joy Fielding

Another novel about trust. There’re many questions about trust   these days and not just in the writing world.

This exploration is gripping: Robin Davis hasn’t spoken to her family in six years. Not since ‘it’ happened. Then they’re attacked; left fighting for their lives. And Robin is back. What is the secret that has put them all in danger, and whose is it?

As I say, gripping. But I’ve come to expect it from this author.

The Bad Daughter by Joy Fielding. pub Zaffre. pb and eBook £7.99

Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum is a fresh insight into the last year of the artist’s life which was mostly spent at Saint-Paul-de Mausoleum in the South of France. The author, a leading Van Gogh specialist has woven new material from the Asylum with his extensive knowledge of the artist, his life and work. This well written and lavishly illustrated book will capture hearts and minds.

Vincent Van Gogh was a highly literate man who knew French, German and English as well as his native Dutch. He was a great reader, who loved Dickens and who read the complete works of Shakespeare in English during his stay at Saint-Paul. He produced many paintings and drawings during the year he voluntarily spent as a patient whose mental health problems had caused him great distress culminating in the severing of his own ear.

Martin Bailey has meticulously charted that year using documents from the asylum which for the first time offer descriptions of the buildings, other residents and glimpses of the life led by `Monsieur Vincent’ from May 1889 to May 1890.

It is possible to see the viewpoints for the works of this time, whether from windows, or the interior, and occasions when Vincent was well enough to travel into the surrounding countryside. Many of the paintings were sent to Paris to his brother Theo, which is how they have survived. The masterpieces included wheat fields, olive groves, cypresses and sunsets.

Vincent also wrote letters when he was well enough, which alongside this new research give a fascinating insight into the artist. Sadly there are so many lost works. The story of some of these is an intriguing work of detection and revelation by the author.

Starry Night Van Gogh at the Asylum By Martin Bailey  pub:  White Lion Publishing. £25.00 Hardback

Death on the Canal comes as I’ve just finished reading the Waterway Girls trilogy by Milly Adams – fabulous. So is Death on the Canal by Anja de Jager also fabulous?

Amsterdam is in the clutches of a bitter winter, and six UK tourists are dead.

I feel I’m in Amsterdam itself as Dutch detective Lotte Meerman is faced with a moral dilemma – does she investigate the murder of a suspected drug dealer, or instead stay silent to ensure that another man, responsible for the drug-related deaths of six tourists in Amsterdam, is convicted?

I was in Amsterdam recently, and I walked the streets with Lotte, summer and winter. All superbly captured, and evocative and the pages kept turning with problems arising, and over lying it all the massive difficulty of whom to trust. A stonking read. Go for it.

Death on the Canal by Anja de Jager. PB. Pub. Constable (who publish good things) £8.99. + ebook.

Golden Prey by John Sandford

Lucas Davenport has a job with the U.S. Marshals Service – an unusual one. He gets to pick his own cases, whatever they are and follow wherever they lead. There was a feel of Ian Rankin’s Rebus about this, because Rebus follows wherever cases lead, and would dearly like to pick ’em as well. And I loved it.

Written with just the right pace, wry humour, action and an absorbing central character. What more to say beyond – buy it, and all Sandford’s other novels. What a fabulous author. I bet he’s an interesting bloke too – after all, John Sandford is the pseudonym for the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Camp.

Golden Prey by John Sandford. pb. pub Simon & Schuster. £8.99

One More Lie by Amy Lloyd

A thriller, a chilling one an’ all. Charlotte wants to start afresh. She wants to ditch her past, forget the childhood years in prison, and most of all, Sean. But even with a new identity has anything really changed, most of all, her? After all, there’s comfort in old familiar things, especially if they are the sum of one’s self. So soon she is heading back down towards the darkness. Can she retreat, turn away, turn back, and REALLY change her life. Well, that journey into the darkness requires a catalyst and when that comes along…

This is written with experience and style, which is strange as this is only a second novel. I liked it and though I haven’t experienced obsession I felt Charlotte’s.

One More Lie by Amy Lloyd. hb. + ebook. £12.99  pub. Century.

And lastly:

The Year that Changed Everything by Cathy Kelly.

Women’s fiction to end with. Heart-warming chatty novel which charts three women as they head into a year that could/will change everything for each of them. One is 30, one forty, one fifty and she is celebrating at a party when something heralds change.Reading this is a bit like soaking in a warm bath after battling through the tensions and nail biting of the first three novels. Or if not a bath, then perhaps sipping a great glass of wine after a hectic day…

The Year that Changed Everything by Cathy Kelly pb pub Orion £7.99

Written loosely in the style of the Ladybird for Adults ‘How it Works’ series, this is the first book by a consultant doctor who specialises in Emergency Medicine. Perhaps more to follow?

Using a children’s book format, Dr McHale provides an insight into the different grades of hospital doctor and GPs – a very British hierarchy.  He connects his characters using a humorous story which also highlights political issues affecting the current working of the NHS. His caricatures of consultant figures will strike a cord with anyone who has worked in the NHS.

Don’t be fooled by the large type and the pictures of dolls and toy cars – this book is strictly adult humour. A light-hearted read.

By Dr K Thompson, author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q

http://faitobooks.co.uk