by Michael Robotham
On clinical psychologist Joseph O’Loughlin’s first day in his new part time lecturer’s job at Bath University, his boss pushes him into helping the police with a ‘jumper’ on the Clifton Suspension Bridge. He is unable to save her and later the woman’s teenage daughter, Darcy, tells O’Louglin that her mother would not have jumped as she is scared of heights. O’Loughlin tries to convince the police that this is no ordinary suicide, when a similar case occurs. As the story unfolds we are treated to a course in pure evil.
IT’S no surprise that this book won the Orange Award for New Writers; it’s an unusual little gem. It opens at the funeral of Jennet Mallow, and the narrator tells of how he/she was urged to write Mallow’s biography. What follows is that biography. Jennet was a painter born in 1924 to a war-damaged clergyman and his disappointed wife. Whilst at art college she meets and marries a lecturer/painter and her artistic life becomes subordinate to his career and their children.
ADRIANA Trigiani sticks to the adage “write about what you know”. So this her eighth book deals with the trials and tribulations of yet another close knit Italian American family, with thirty-something Valentine Roncalli as the narrator and protagonist. Unmarried Valentine and her grandmother of eighty, run a century-old handmade wedding shoe business in Greenwich Village. They have amassed huge debts and Valentine’s whiz-kid brother wants to close the business and sell the building to realise it’s now vast assets. Valentine’s plan is not only to continue but to expand.
As an ardent Radio 4 listener, Jennie Murray seems to have been my daily companion for years. She is now Woman’s Hour presenter and before that was on the BBC’s flagship daily news programme Today. So I must admit to bias as I am a bit of a fan. She is a few years younger than I, so her memories of a postwar childhood resonate strongly with me, as do her adolescent battles with parents about make-up, boyfriends and what time to be home after dates!
Barclay’s previous book, “No Time for Goodbye” spent many weeks heading the best seller list and this one deserves the same fate. What’s more frightening than your neighbours being murdered? Finding out that the killers went to the wrong house!
Set in the granite city of Aberdeen this fast-moving crime thriller is both violent and bloody. Although MacBride doesn’t hold back on the gory details, they are counterbalanced by the dark humour of the police officers.
SUBTITLED ‘One man’s mission to promote peace… one school at a time’ this is one of those books that you want to recommend to everyone. In 1993, after a disastrous attempt to climb K2, the world’s second highest mountain, Mortenson becomes separated from his guide.
JANE Robinson’s incisive, lively and astonishing history of the first women who struggled for full admission to British universities won’t let readers down.
THE Defector is the latest book of Daniel Silva’s thriller series starring Gabriel Allon, a conflicted Israeli spy. Grigori Bulganov, the defector and former spy who saved Gabriel’s life in Moscow on two occasions, has disappeared in London after he stepped into a car. British intelligence is convinced Grigori is a double agent but Gabriel believes Grigori was abducted by arms dealer Ivan Kharkov.
CARLOS Ruiz Zafon’s The Angel’s Game is being promoted as ‘the fastest selling book in Spanish publishing history’. It comes after the commercial success of his first novel, The Shadow of the Wind.
ENGLISH author and music journalist Tony Bryant is about to release a new revised edition of his book, Flamenco: An Englishman's Passion. Tony Bryant has lived in Andalucia for more than 15 years and is considered to be a knowledgeable figure on the evolution and history of flamenco and this book will demonstrate why.
STUART Wright releases a light-hearted hilarious A-Z inventory of Brits on holiday abroad. Why do the Brits have such a bad reputation whilst on their holidays abroad?
The Flip Side is a most enjoyable, well-written book.
The author manages to convey the facts and figures without going into 
ASSEGAI is a book full of adventure, exotic African landscapes and glamorous women. Wilbur Smith, born in Central Africa in 1
A NEW Jack Reacher novel arrives for the summer. Lee Child’s brainiac tough-guy series has been one of the most popular durin
Michael Parker's 'The Third Secret' is set in 1941, when an Italian Army convoy, carrying gold bullion, is attacked in the Sa
THIS novel by Bernhard Schlink is narrated by Michael Berg as he reflects on different stages of his life. The central focus 
ROSEANNE McNULTY is the protagonist of Sebastian Barry’s novel, ‘The Secret Scripture’. A century-old Irish woman, McNulty ha
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