The five star picks from us and Leeds Libraries readers

Banks, Maya – Echoes at dawn  romantic suspense with telepathic heroine. 

Carter, Chris–  One by one  Robert Hunter investigates a serial killer. Set in California.

Daly, Pauline – Keep your friends close    What do you do when your best friend steals your life? Suspense. 

Jones, Belinda –  The travelling tea shop    Romance and cupcakes .

Horst, Jorn Lier – The hunting dogs  Always like a new Scandi crime story, this one’s a Norwegian tale of murder and wrong conviction 

Mawer, Simon – The glass room.  High on a Czechoslovak hill, the Landauer House has been built for newlyweds Viktor and Liesel Landauer, a Jew married to a gentile. When the storm clouds of WW2 gather, the family must flee, accompanied by Viktor’s lover and her child.The house’s story is far from over, as it passes from hand to hand, from Czech to Russian

O’Connor, Joseph – The thrill of it all Spanning 25 years from the 80s -Rock’n’roll story of band members  

Roth, Gabriel – The unknowns   Fast and funny love story   

Sanghera, Sathnam – Marriage material   Story of race and caste in the Midlands Arjan, the present-day narrator who opens the book with a razor-sharp disquisition on the trials of being an Asian newsagent. Recommended

Swan, Karen – The summer without you Nice summery read  Rowena Tipton isn’t looking for a new life, just a new adventure, something to while away the months as her long-term boyfriend presses pause ..

Wyld, Evie – All the birds singing  ‘Fearlessly written tale of damage, dread and sheepshearing’  Telegraph. Very highly recommended

 

Thrillers

Bell, Ted  Warriors  Espionage thriller set in NY

Brown, Sandra Deadline  Battle fatigued journalist returning from Afghanistan tracks big story. Suspense/thriller

Forsyth, Frederick– The kill list  International best selling  author only gets 2* from Leeds readers for this

Higgins, Jack – The death trade World’s most dangerous man has escaped

Lange, Richard – Angel baby     Face paced thriller. 

Mann, Don – Hunt the Jackal Thriller about identity altered drugs baron hunted by SEAL team

Millar, Louise – The hidden girl  How do you look for someone who’s not even missing? Thriller   

Patterson, James –Four blind mice    Alex Cross investigates  

Patterson, James Private LA      Thriller by the prolific author

Quirk, Matthew – The directive   Ex con caught between police and underworld goes undercover   

Rhodes, Kate – A killing of angels    Pschologist Alice Quentin investigates in this thriller  

Robertson, Craig –The last refuge Suspense story set in the Faroe Islands      

Robertson, Imogen – Theft of life  Suspense set in London 1785 

Smythe, J P – No harm can come to a good man How far would you go to save your family from an invisible threat? A terrifyingly original thriller from the author of The Machine

Turow, Scott Identical   Thriller from No1 bestselling author 

 

 Crime and detective

Allingham,  Margery – Albert Campion returns  in Mr Campion’s farewell  Private investigator Albert C in idyllic country village 

Block, Lawrence– The burglar who counted the spoons Bernie Rhodenbarr mystery, burglar turned detective 

Camilleri, Andrea – The treasure hunt Inspector Montalbano mystery set in Sicily     

Cornell, Paul – The severed streets Supernatural crime busting     

 Done, Stephen -The Marylebone murders Railway Detective Inspector Charles Vignoles mystery set 1936 -1952  

Runcie, James – Sidney Chambers and the perils of the night   and Sidney Chambers and the problem of evil   Granchester Detective mystery

Silva, Daniel – A death in Vienna NY Times bestseller       

Spillane, Mickey – Complex Classic crime   

Saylor, Steven – Raiders of the Nile Something a bit different.Ancient Egyptian crime and detective story

Tremayne, Peter – The monk who vanished   Sister Fidelma detective story

 

Historical

Dineley, E A  Castle Orchard  Jonny Arthur, perpetual debtor & fashionable London dandy loses his family estate of Castle Orchard in a chess game to the mysterious Captain Allington  

Cornwell, Bernard – The pagan lord  Viking epic by the author of ‘Sharpe’   

Fremantle, Elizabeth – Sisters of treason Set in Tudor times about Lady Jane Grey’s sisters.   

Letemendia, Claire –  The licence of war Missing TV’s ‘New Worlds’? Try this set in 1643, story of torn loyalties in English Civil War

Sidebottom, Harry – Iron and rust Roman historyset AD235, in series Throne of Caesars.   

 

 Saga

Bennett, Anne– A girl can dream Domestic fiction drama set in WW2    

Conlon-Mckenna, Marita – The Magdalen Young Irish girl growing up in Connemara in the 50s

Hannigan, Emma – The summer guest  Will suit fans of Maeve Binchy. Irish family saga of three generations of women coming together one magical summer

 Jefferies, Dinah – The separation  Set in the 50s in Malaya, story of journey through war torn jungle

 Young, Louisa – The heroes’ welcome Set 1910-36 Evocative sequel to bestselling Richard & Judy pick My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You.

 Scifi and fantasy

Britain, Kristen Mirror sight   Bestselling Scifi/fantasy

Canavan, Trudi – Thief’s magic   No 1 bestseller fantasy   

Carey, Mike – The city of silk and steel    Fantasy with concubines  

Cargill, C Robert – Queen of the dark things Two boys, spirited away to a dark world of myth & folklore now make their way as men.

Dalglish, David –A dance of shadows   Fantasy tale of retribution & darkness, 4th in Shadowdance series

Farland, David – The lair of bones Fantasy in Runelords series     

Kowal, Mary – Valour and vanity Jane Austen meets Ocean’s 11 in this fantasy tale     

Wilkinson, Kerry– Reckoning  Fantasy set in futuristic England.

 

 Love and chicklit

 Barker, Margaret The fatherhood miracle   Mills & Boon love story

Barton, Beverly– Dead by nightfall  Romance/suspense   

Bolger, Muriel – The pink pepper tree  Two lovers forced apart by fate who are offered a second chance

 Byrne, Monica – The girl in the road Arabian sea fiction adventure.      

Carroll, Claudia – Love me or leave me Chick lit

Cohen, Tamar– Someone else’s wedding  A wedding stirs up the past

Fiorato, Marina Beatrice and Benedick  Prequel to love story in ‘Much Ado about Nothing’  

Jones, Darynda – Sixth grave on the edge Sixth Charley Davidson paranormal romance  

Taylor, Elizabeth – In a summer season   Love story published by Virago  

Toon, Paige – Thirteen weddings Chicklit   

Wilson, Teri – Unleashing Mr Darcy Love story set in NY  

West, Juliet – Before the fall The Great war, a powerful love, an impossible choice 

 

 General/psychological

Alexander, Nick –  The halflife of Hannah Set in France, ghost from past/reviewing life story   

Glencross, Tim – Barbarians   Contemporary debut novel about love, art and politics. If you liked Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty, Jonathan Coe’s What a Carve Up! or Armando Iannucci’s The Thick of It, you will enjoy it.

Gurganus, Allan– Local souls Award winning author’s stories about characters lives in small town America

Laferriere, Dany – The enigma of the return   Story of Haitian writer who travels back to his homeland after many years to be confronted with the realisty of starvation, poverty and broken dreams.

McBride, Eimear A girl is a half formed thing  Girl’s relationship with her brother after he becomes brain damaged.

McGrath, Patrick Constance Psychological fiction, story of disintegrating marriage, sibling rivalry which includes madness and yearning.     

 O’Connor, Frank – Classic Irish short stories      

O’Keeffe, Patrick The visitors Irish-American immigrant James, whose contented but feckless life in Middle America is thrown into turmoil when an unexpected visitor arrives

Rahman, Zia Haider– In the light of what we know   Two friends making their way in the world on a dizzying voyage that touches on many of the key issues of our time

Roth, Philip – The ghost writer   The first volume of a trilogy, introduces Nathan Zuckerman in the 1950s; a budding writer infatuated with the Great Books.

Thompson, Grace – The end of a journey A father’s death brings to light shattering secrets      

VanderMeer, Jeff – Shriek   An epic yet personal look at several decades of life, love & death in the imaginary city of Ambergris

 Weaver, Eva – The puppet boy of Warsaw – Set in Warsaw WW2, the story of  Mika, a Jewish boy who inherits a coat from his grandfather and discovers a puppet in one of its many secret pockets.

Humour

Connolly, Joseph – It can’t go on    ‘Adultery humour’

Delillo, Don – White noise     Humour in academia!

Winton, Tom– Eyrie Funny Australian novel by prize winning author about Tom Keely- defeated & ineffectual pill-popping, lonely one-time idealist who has fallen out of his own life.