Books Archive

Low Action: The Vinyl Detective Book Five (March 2022)

By Andrew Cartmel

March 7, 2022

Semi-retired god of rock guitar and local poseur, Erik Make Loud, has got himself a new girlfriend.  Helena Hilditch – formerly known as Howlin’ Hellbitch – of all-girl punk outfit the Blue Tits is a mean guitarist.  But not as mean as whoever is trying to kill her…

With a rare pressing of the Blue Tits’ first album to find, the Vinyl Detective and Nevada are called in to help.  But this time the questions is who isn’t a suspect.  With a long list of enemies, the people who could want Helene dead includes her ex-bandmates, their former producer turned record label mogul, the TV presenter that Helene got fired – even their old roadie could be in on it.  As the killer’s attempts on Helene’s life get more and more ambitious the Vinyl Detective and Nevada are in a race against time to find the killer, before it’s too late

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A Haunting at Holkham (March 2022)

By Anne Glenconner

March 7, 2022

January 1950.  Lady Anne Coke, the eldest daughter of the 5th Earl of Leicester, is in Scunthorpe on a business trip when she is called home after a sudden death in the family.  She returns to Holkham Hall to discover a mystery: her beloved grandfather has been found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs with a valuable piece of jewellery in his pocket.  No one can find a cause of death, and some even suspect foul play from the ghost who supposedly haunts the house.  But Anne’s suspicions are aroused; she grew close to her grandfather when they lived together during the war and she is determined to discover the truth.

During World War II, Holkham Hall was an army base with large sections out of bounds, and 11-year-old Anne was in the care of a new governess, whom she hated and believed to be deceitful.  Although she had been told to stay away from certain parts of the house, Anne used the secret passageways and the cellars to move around unnoticed.  And something she saw then could unlock the mystery of her grandfather’s death now…

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A Question of Guilt (March 2022)

By Jorn Lier Horst

March 7, 2022

A killer caught.  A murder sentence served.  But did they arrest the wrong man?

One summer evening in 1999, seventeen-year-old Tone Vaterland was killed on her way home from work.

The police – desperate for a quick conviction – deemed the investigation an open-and-shut case and sent her embittered ex-b0yfriend, Danny Momrak, down for murder.

Her family were able to grieve, her body laid to rest, and the public felt justice had been done.  The streets were safe again.

But twenty years later William Wisting receives an anonymous letter.  It suggests the wrong man was convicted for Tone’s death and the real murder is still out there.

Wisting is quickly thrown into a terrifying race against time where he must find the sender and catch the real killer before they strike again.

But nothing is as it seems.  As Wisting disappears further into a dark past of secrets, lies and murder, his own life is threatened.

Can he find Tone’s killer before it’s too late?

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56 Days (March 2022)

By Catherine Ryan Howard

March 7, 2022

No one even knew they were together.  Now one of them is dead.

56 Days Ago

Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin and start dating the same week COVID-19 reaches Irish shores.

35 Days Ago

When lockdown threatens to keep them apart, Oliver suggests they move in together.  Ciara seems a unique opportunity for a relationship to flourish without the scrutiny of family and friends.  Oliver sees a chance to hide who – and what – he really is.

Today

Detectives arrive at Oliver’s apartment to discover a decomposing body inside.  Can they determine what really happened, or has lockdown created an opportunity for someone to commit the perfect crime?

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Dark Horse (March 2022)

By Gregg Hurwitz

March 7, 2022

The Hero

Evan Smoak: former off-the-book assassin – code name Orphan X.  His world is divided into those who deserve his help and those who’ve brought his singular brand of justice upon themselves.

The Victim

A desperate father reaches out.  His teenage daughter Anjelina has been kidnapped by a brutal criminal cartel and spirited over the border into Mexico.  And while money is no object, Evan soon realises that his prospective client’s past is as clouded and compromised as his own.

The Mission

If Evan is going to put his life on the line to rescue Anjelina, he must first decide whether he can act on behalf of a bad man.  And even then, up against the men who are holding his daughter, there will be no guarantee of success…

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Sunflower Sisters (March 2022)

By Martha Hall Kelly

March 7, 2022

Georgeanna Woolsey isn’t meant for the world of lavish parties and demure attitudes.  So when civil war ignites the nation, she follows her passion for nursing during a time when doctors considered women a bother on the battlefront.  She and her sister Eliza venture from New York to Washington, D.C. to Gettysburg, and while involved in the war effort witness firsthand the unparalleled horrors of slavery.

In the South, Jemma is enslaved on the Peeler Plantation, while her sister, Patience, is enslaved on the property next door.  Both live in fear of LeBaron, an abusive overseer who tracks their every move.  When Jemma is sold by the cruel Anne-May just as the Union army comes through, she sees a chance to escape – but only by abandoning those she loves.

Anne-May is forced to run the Peeler Plantation when her husband joins the Union Army and her brother enlists with the Confederates.  Now in charge, she uses the opportunity to follow her own ambitions and is drawn into a secret Southern network of spies…

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Again, Rachel (March 2022)

By Marian Keyes

March 7, 2022

Back in the long-ago nineties, Rachel Walsh was a mess.

But a spell in rehab transformed everything.  Life became very good, very quickly.  These days Rachel has love, family, a great job as an addiction counsellor – she even gardens.  Her only bad habit is a fondness for expensive trainers.

But with the sudden reappearance of a man she’d once loved, her life wobbles.

She’d thought she was settled.  Fixed forever.  Is she about to discover that no matter what our age, everything can change?

It is time to think again, Rachel?

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Unholy Murder (March 2022)

By Lynda La Plante

March 7, 2022

A victim buried alive.  A secret taken to the grave.

Now Detective Jane Tennison must life the lid on the most chilling murder case of her career.

A coffin is dug up by builders in the grounds of an historic convent – inside is the body of a young nun.

In a city as old as London, the discovery is hardly surprising.  But when scratch marks are found on the inside of the coffin lid, Detective Jane Tennison believes she has unearthed a mystery far darker than any she’s investigated before.

However, not everyone agrees.  Tennison’s superiors dismiss it as an historic cold case, and the Church seems desperate to conceal the facts from the investigation.

It’s clear that someone is hiding the truth, and perhaps even the killer.  Tennison must pray she can find both – before they are buried forever…

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should I tell you? (March 2022)

By Jill Mansell

March 7, 2022

Amber, Lachlan and Raffaele met as teenagers in the home of kind-hearted foster parents.  Arriving in glorious Cornwell was the best thing that ever happened to them – and now, as adults, their bond is stronger than ever.

But Amber has a secret.  She’s in love with Lachlan.  She can’t confess her feelings because that would never work.  Restless Lachlan isn’t the settling-down type.  Surely it’s better to keep him as a friend than to risk losing him for good?

Raffaele has his own dilemma.  He had the dream girlfriend in Vee, until it all went horribly wrong…and he can’t understand why.  Is Vee hiding something from him?

Now their widowed foster dad Teddy thinks he’s found love again.  Younger, charming and strikingly beautiful, is Olga as perfect as she seems?  Or will she end up breaking Teddy’s heart?

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Remember Me (March 2022)

By Charity Norman

March 7, 2022

They never found Leah Parata.  Not a boot, not a backpack, not a turquoise beanie.  After she left me that day, she vanished off the face of the earth.

A close-knit community is ripped apart by disturbing revelations that cast new light on a young woman’s disappearance twenty-five years ago.

After years of living overseas, Emily Kirkland returns to New Zealand to care for her father, Felix, who suffers from dementia.  As his memory fades and his guard slips, she begins to understand him for the first time – and to glimpse shattering truths about his past.  Truths she’d rather were kept buried.

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