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Exit Strategy
Lee Child and Andrew Child
Jack Reacher will make three stops today. Not all of them were planned for.
First stop – a Baltimore coffee shop. A seat in the corner, facing the door. Black coffee, two refills, no messing about. A minor interruption from two of the customers, but nothing he can’t deal with swiftly. As he leaves, a young guy brushes against him in the doorway. Instinctively Reacher checks the pocket holding his cash and passport. There’s no problem. Nothing is missing.
Second stop – a store to buy a coat. Nothing fancy. Something he can ditch when he heads to warmer climes. Large enough to fit a man the size of a bank vault. As he pulls out his cash, he finds something new in his pocket. A handwritten note. A desperate plea for help.
Third stop – wherever this bend in the road takes him. Impressed by the guy’s technique and intrigued by the message, Reacher makes it his mission to find out more.
Queen Esther
John Irving
Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine; her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr Larch knows it won’t be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won’t find any family who’ll adopt her.
When Esther is 14, soon to be a ward of the state, Dr Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic New England family with a history of providing foster care for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren’t Jewish, but they despise anti-Semitism. Esther’s gratitude for the Winslows is unending; even as she retraces her roots back to Vienna, she never stops loving and protecting the Winslows.
In the final chapter, set in Jerusalem in 1981, Esther Nacht is 76.
The Silver Book
Olivia Laing
It is September 1974. Two men meet by chance in Venice. One is a young English artist, in panicked flight from London. The other is Danilo Donati, the magician of Italian cinema, the designer responsible for realising the spectacular visions of Fellini and Pasolini. Donati is in Venice to produce sketches for Fellini’s Casanova. A young – and beautiful – apprentice is just what he needs. He sweeps Nicholas to Rome, into the looking-glass world of Cinecittá, the studio where Casanova’s Venice will be ingeniously assembled.
Then in the spring, the lovers move together to the set of Salò, Pasolini’s horrifying fable of fascism. But Nicholas has a secret and in this world of constant illusion, his real nature passes unseen. Amidst the rising tensions of Italy’s ‘Years of Lead’, he acts as an accelerant, setting in motion a tragedy he didn’t intend.
The Eleventh Hour
Salman Rushdie
Two quarrelsome old men in Chennai, India, experience private tragedy during national calamity. Revisiting the Bombay neighbourhood of Midnight’s Children, a magical musician is unhappily married to a multibillionaire. In an English university college, an undead academic asks a lonely student to avenge his former tormentor.
Do we accommodate ourselves to death, or rail against it? How can we bid farewell to the places that we have made home? The Eleventh Hour ponders life and death, legacy and identity with the penetrating insight and boundless imagination that have made Salman Rushdie one of the most celebrated writers of our time.
Wild Dark Shore
Charlotte McConaghy
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground.
Despite the wild beauty, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place. Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore.
The Burning Grounds
Abir Mukherjee
In the Burning Ghats of Calcutta where the dead are laid to rest, a man is found murdered, his throat cut from ear to ear.
The body is that of a popular patron of the arts, a man who was, by all accounts, beloved by all: so what was the motive for his murder? Despite being out of favour with the Imperial Police Force, Detective Sam Wyndham is assigned to the case and finds himself thrust into the glamorous world of Indian cinema.
Meanwhile Surendranath Banerjee, recently returned from Europe after three years spent running from the fallout of his last case, is searching for a missing photographer; a trailblazing woman at the forefront of the profession. When Suren discovers that the vanished woman is linked to Sam’s murder investigation, the two men find themselves working together once again – but will Wyndham and Banerjee be able to put their differences aside to solve the case?
The Lake
Jørn Lier Horst
Following a harsh winter, the dam gates at Farris Lake have been badly damaged, and as summer approaches the lake must be drained for repairs. Under the intense summer sun, the idyllic lake transforms into a barren wasteland – until the secrets that have long been buried beneath the surface are uncovered.
On both sides of the lakebed, new evidence relating to unsolved cold cases is discovered – the remains of a young man who went missing eight years ago, and the belongings of a girl who disappeared four years later. Detective William Wisting is certain these crimes are linked – but can Wisting now bring the truth to light?
Bluff
Francine Toon
Joanie, 2013. Desperate to flee the claustrophobia of St Rule, Joanie has long been looking forward to her big escape. But on the night of her school graduation this dream slips through her hands. Devastated, Joanie falls into the orbit of an enigmatic couple – Erin and David – who offer her a new kind of escape. Charismatic, older and intellectual, they make Joanie feel alive and important in a way she didn’t know was possible.
Cameron, 2023. When Cameron arrives back in St Rule for Christmas a question burns in his mind: what ever happened to Joanie? It’s been a decade since he saw his former friend, and in truth he hadn’t given it much thought – busily building a life. But as he starts to look for answers, it becomes clear that someone wants to keep this secret buried at all costs.
The Christmas Magpie
Mark Edwards
It’s Noel and Dani’s first Christmas in their new home and they want everything to be perfect – lavish presents, a beautiful tree and outdoor decorations to join in with the festivities in this welcoming community. But they quickly wonder if this street is as perfect as it appears.
First, there are the unwelcome presents left anonymously on their doorstep. Then they are sure someone is watching them. And why are the neighbours all obsessed with a notorious killer who is housed at the nearby women’s prison?
After tragedy strikes at a Christmas party, Noel and Dani try to find out who is targeting them – but, in this case, it might be safer not to know.
The Austen Christmas Murders
Jessica Bull
The festive season is fast approaching. Jane Austen fears that without her siblings at home, there won’t be much Christmas cheer in the Austen household this year. But when she uncovers a skeleton in the cellar of Deane Rectory, Jane soon forgets her woes. Who needs merriment, when there’s a mystery to solve?
Her investigation leads her to the legend of a young bride who’s long been thought to haunt the woods nearby. After fleeing her wedding breakfast, the bride was never seen again. Has Jane found her at last? Or is there more to this mystery than meets the eye?
Tis the season for Jane to embark upon festive delights, making merry, and solving murders…
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