The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

Rating: 5/5 Blurb: Newly married, newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband’s crumbling country estate, The Bridge. With her new servants resentful and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie only has her husband’s awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. For inside her new home lies a […]

Serendipity

There was just enough room for them both at the end of the jetty. The boy had popped into existence, occupying the space beside her. She hadn’t realised how empty it was until he was there, filling it all up. It was almost enough to make her forget that her feet were submerged in the […]

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Rating: 5/5 Blurb: There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed . . . On an autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman knocks at the door of a grand house in the wealthiest quarter of Amsterdam. She has come from the country to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant […]

The Envy of the Village

Old Mrs Bergman’s roses were the envy of the village. The bushes bloomed in a congregation of scarlet and coral, sun-flare yellow and delicious tangerine. They spilled over the walls and lit up the pavement with their scattered petals, like delicate wishes skipping along the breeze, destination unknown. Mrs Bergman plucked and preened, watered and […]

It’s Probably Mrs Gillespie

‘What is Mr Bridgewater is doing? That’s a mighty big bag he’s putting in his boot. And in all this snow too.’ ‘It’s a dead body, mum,’ Bailey said, not looking up from his magazine. ‘I told you months ago he’s been killing off the wrinklies in the neighbourhood. But you never listen. He can […]

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Mass

Rating: 3/5 stars Blurb: Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do […]

Murder in the Yard

The noise had been niggling at Nora for a while, sifting into her dreams at the edge of consciousness. She squirmed in bed. The sound took shape, a whirr of an engine. A saw. A chainsaw. It was coming from the back yard. She jumped up and ran outside. Her tree lay in pieces all […]