A BUMPER CROP of new titles added to the Library shelves in the run-up to Christmas include the atmospherically-charged Reservoir 13 by John McGregor, the equally intriguing The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz, rightfully one of the hightest-earning writers in Britain, and Irish novelist Patricia Scanlan’s delightful Orange Blossom Days, which will resonate with many who have had dealings in their apartment block with El Presidente.
Then there’s the latest from the prolific pen of that master of the spy story, John Le Carre, a tangled tale of families by Joanna Nadin and a sparkling debut novel from Sarah Haywood.
Reservoir 13
by Jon McGregor
MIDWINTER IN THE EARLY YEARS of this century. A teenage girl on holiday has gone missing in the hills at the heart of England.
The villagers are called up to join in the search, fanning out across the moors as the police set up roadblocks and a crowd of news reporters descends on their usually quiet home.
The search for the missing girl goes on, but so does everyday life. As it must.
The Word Is Murder
by Anthony Horowitz
ONE BRIGHT SPRING MORNING in London, Diana Cowper – the wealthy mother of a famous actor – enters a funeral parlour. She is there to plan her own service. Six hours later she is found dead, strangled with a curtain cord in her own home.
Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric investigator who’s as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. Hawthorne needs a ghost writer to document his life; a Watson to his Holmes. He chooses Anthony Horowitz.
Drawn in against his will, Horowitz soon finds himself at the centre of a story he cannot control. Hawthorne is brusque, temperamental and annoying but even so his latest case with its many twists and turns proves irresistible.
The writer and the detective form an unusual partnership. At the same time, it soon becomes clear that Hawthorne is hiding some dark secrets of his own.
Orange Blossom Days
by Patricia Scanlan
IN A BEAUTIFUL SOUTHERN Spanish town where the sea sparkles and orange blossoms scent the air, the gates of a brand new apartment complex, La Joys de Andalucia, glide open to welcome the new owners.
Anna and Austen McDonald, an Irish couple, are preparing to enjoy retirement to the full. But the demands of family cause problems they have never foreseen and shake their marriage to the core.
Sally-Ann Connolly Cooper, a fiesty Texan mother of two young teenagers, is recovering from her husband’s betrayal. La Joya becomes a place of solace for Sally-Ann in more ways than one.
Eduardo de la Frente, a haughty Madrileno, has set out with single-minded determination to become El President of the complex’s management committee. But pride comes before a fall.
Jetta Sauer Perez, a sophisticated German who aspires to have her very own apartment in La Joya, works hard to reach her goal. Then the unthinkable happens.
A Legacy Of Spies
by John Le Carre
PETER GUILLAM, former disciple of George Smiley in the British Secret Service, has long retired to Brittany when a letter arrives, summoning him to London. The reason? Cold War ghosts have come back to haunt him.
Intelligence operations that were once the toast of the Service are to be dissected by a generation with no memory of the Berlin War. Somebody must pay for innocent blood spilt in the name of the greater good…
The Queen Of Bloody Everything
by Joanna Nadin
AS EDIE JONES LIES IN BED on the 14th floor of a hospital in Cambridge, her daughter Dido tells their story, starting with the day everything changed. That was the day six-year-old Dido Met the handsome Tom Trevelyan, his precocious sister, Harry, and their mother, Angela.
The day Dido fell in love with a family combo, very different from her own. Because the Trevelyans are exactly the kind of family Dido dreams of – normal. And Dido’s mother Edie doesn’t do normal. In fact, as Dido learns the hard way, normal is the one thing Edie can never be…
The Cactus
by Sarah Haywood
SUSAN GREEN IS A PRICKLY, independent woman who has everything just the way she wants it. At forty-five, she thinks her life is perfect: a London flat for one, a job that fulfills her passion for logic, and a personal arrangement that provides cultural and other – more intimate – benefits.
There’s no room for messy, emotional relationships. Yet following the loss of her mother and, implausibly, the prospect of becoming a mother herself, Susan’s life is about to become somewhat messier.
This sparkling debut novel packs a real emotional punch, with a heroine who is both exasperating and delightful.
DVD Corner
Innocent
DS442
AFTER SEVEN YEARS in a high security prison David Collins’s conviction for the murder of his wife is overturned due to a technicality, or as his lawyer puts it an “appalling miscarriage of justice”.
Able to start his life again and begin to rebuild relationships with his family and friends, David vows to regain custody of his children and bring the guilty to justice.
As a new investigation is launched, dark secrets of abuse, affairs and money troubles rise to the surface. From jealous sisters to disgruntled lovers, these secrets rip fragile relationships apart at the seams. But one question remains: is David Collins truly innocent?
Vanity Fair
DF11E
IN A WORLD WHERE everyone is striving for what is not worth having, orphan Becky Sharp sets out to claw her way to the top of English society. Written by Gwyneth Hughes, Vanity Fair is a new adaptation of William Makepeace Thackery’s 19th century literary classic.
Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, Becky’s story of villainy, crime, merriment, lovemaking, jilting, laughing, cheating, fighting and dancing takes her all the way to the court of King George IV, via the Battle of Waterloo, breaking hearts and losing fortunes as she goes.
Find it in our Classics section.
