The vows of silence

Susan Hill

Gunmen are terrorising young women in the cathedral town of Lafferton.. What – if – anything – links the apparently random murders? Is the marksman with a rifle the same person as the killer with a handgun?

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler falls back on well-tried police methods such as questioning neighbours and house-to-house searches. Simon has been promoted and is now with the Serious Incident flying Taskforce, but he is still at heart a loner and these chilly murders are on his home territory. He tries to stay one step ahead of the killer, to prevent each new outrage. And he tries to think himself into the gunman’s head…

Meanwhile, his sister, Cat, had returned with her husband and children from Australia, and Simon is once again sucked into family life at her welcoming farmhouse. But tragedy strikes, and the warmth and security of home are cruelly tested. - - book cover
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Stones from the river

Ursula Hegi

Trudi Montag is a Zwerg – a dwarf – short, undesirable, different, the voice of anyone who has ever tried to fit in. Eventually she learns that being different is a secret that all humans share – from her mother who flees into madness, to her friend Georg whose parents pretend he’s a girl, to the Jews Trudi harbors in her cellar.

Ursual Hegi brings us a timeless and unforgettable story in Trudi and a small town, weaving together a profound tapestry of emotional power, humanity, and truth. – book cover
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Pompeii

Robert Harris

All along the coast, the Roman Empire’s richest citizens are relaxing their luxurious villas. The world’s largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Only one man is worried. The engineer Marius Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct which brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. His predecessor has disappeared. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta’s sixty-mile main line – somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

Attilius – decent, practical, incorruptible – promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. But as he heads out towards Vesuvius he is about to discover there are forces which even the worls; only superpower cannot control. – book cover
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Maverick in Madagascar

Mark Eveleigh

Intrigued by tales of the Vazimba people – a mysterious tribe of white pygmies according to some accounts; an invisible telepathic people according to others – Mark Eveleigh travels to the ancient ‘Isle of the Moon”. He treks along Madagascar’s north-west coast, accompanied first by his pack bull Jobi and then by an intrepid Malagasy guide, Eloi, who prudently dons a bullet-prooof vest for the trip. Before he comes to the end of his quest, and hears the story of the last of the Vazimba at the feet of an old village headman, he explores the difference between myth and reality in a land that has spawned sacred crocodiles, schizophrenic tyrant queens, blood-guzzling spirit animals and people-eating plants. Mark Eveligh exuberantly captures the spirit of Madagascar in this modern-day adventure. - book cover
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Justice Hall

Laurie R. King

Only hours after Holmes and Russell return from solving one murky riddle on the moor, another knocks on their front door … literally. It’s a mystery that begins during the Great War, when Gabriel Hughenfort died amidst scandalous rumors that have haunted the family ever since. But it’s not until Holmes and Russell arrive at Justice Hall, a home of unearthly perfection set in a garden modelled on Paradise, that they fully understand the riony echoed in the family motto, Justicia fortudo mea est: “Righteousness is my strength” -- book cover
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Death of a baritone

Karen Sturges

At the exclusive Long Island opera colony of singing legend Anna Varovna, residents are rehearsing their summer production of Cosi fan tutte. But Phoebe quickly sees that relations offstage are less than cozy, and Mozaart’s honeyed melodies soon give way to high-decibel melodrama. Then handsome baritone Frank Palermo is found dead of an allergy to the penicillin pill covertly planted among his vitamins – and Anna urges Phoebe to make some discreet inquiries. Could Frank’s recent joint of the Children of Truth cult have somehow earned him an early grave? And why did Frank, clutching his opera score as he died, scratch an X on the name “Amadeus”? Before Phoebe can make sense of it all, a fatal cacophony of love, lust, genius, and guilt reveals itself – and the tempo accelerates as death strikes again. – book cover.
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Winer Solstice

by Rosamunde Pilcher

When she leaves London for the pretty Hampshire village that she describes as "my geriatric bolt-hole"' Elfrida Phipps quickly feels at home. She has a tiny cottage, her faithful dog Horace and the friendship of the neighbouring Blundells - particularly Oscar - to ensure that her days include companionship as well as independence.

But unforeseen tragedy upsets Elfida's tranquillity. she takes refuge in a rambling house in Scotland, which becomes a magnet for various waifs and strays. It sounds a recipe for disaster. But somehow the group becomes greater that the sum of its ill-assorted parts and Elfida finds herself at the centre of a very magical Christmas. - book cover.
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The Fencing Master

by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

On the eve of Spain's september Revolution of 1868, while the regal Isabella consorts with her household cavalry and rumours and plots abound, Jaime Astarloa, master of the ancient art of fencing, conducts his life above such vulgarities. He prefers to concentrate on his modest but dignified and orderly existence as fencing teacher to the noblemen of Madrid and their sons. However Don Jaime finds his attnetion diverted by young Adela de Otero, who persuades him to take her on a a pupil. After one bout that leaves no question of her talent and skill, the master falls in love with his pupil. Erotic passion and political intrigue threaten to distract him from his quest for the perfect sword thrust, a survivor of a more gallant age, he does not fully comprehend. But if Don Jaime proves naive, her is no less resolute. It takes time for him to understand, but when he does, will he have the strength left for a duel which can only be to the death? - book cover.
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