My reading favourites from April are:
Andrea Mara - No One Saw a Thing
This psychological thriller is fast-paced and brings shocks with each new chapter. Sive has come over to London from Ireland with her husband Aaron and their three young children. Aaron is meeting up with his former university friends for a short reunion and to take part in a race. Sive wasn't one of this gang, having met her barrister husband later. But on the day of the race, Sive is momentarily distracted while on the London Underground and turns away from her two daughters. To her horror, her two little girls are carried away on the train before she can reach them. The nightmare becomes worse when only Bea, her two-year-old, is found at the next station. Seven-year-old Faye has vanished, and the only true witness, her sister, is too young to explain. Aaron and his friends rally round while a police search begins, leads are pursued, dead-ends and sinister tracks followed. As emotions run high, secrets from the pasts of all the adults are uncovered, the shocking truths that have been concealed throughout the years. As Sive and Aaron search desperately for their lost child, the lives of all the group will never be the same again.
Sally Page - The Keeper of Stories
An unusual novel with hidden depths, I found this book to be a riveting read. Janice, who's in her fifties, works as a cleaner in several homes to support herself and her unsuccessful husband, Mike. She sees herself as a collector of stories, and these give her solace in her unfulfilling life. She finds the stories of all of her clients fascinating, from elderly tenor Geordie to grieving Fiona and her young son, Adam. But she feels little connection with the couple who live in a large, fancy home, an architect and his wife. The highlight of this job is acting as dog walker for their pedigree terrier, who sports the magnificent name of Decius. She imagines that the dog makes comments to her about his pompous owners. Everything changes when the architect's wife asks Janice to clean for her mother-in-law who's in her nineties and still lives in her own home. After an inauspicious start with her new client the hidden depths behind the old lady's crusty and eccentric exterior begin to surface, and Janice discovers a wealth of new stories. Her experiences begin to spread out and affect all her other clients. Janice even finds the courage to face the stories from her own past, and re-examine her own worth. A very satisfying book.
Alexandra Walsh - The Forgotten Palace
This time-slip novel is linked to the Minoan Palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. In the current day, medical doctor Eloise is recovering from the death of her husband, Josh. She's having a difficult time with his family and friends, who can't believe that she couldn't save him from a heart attack at such a young age. She flees to Crete, to the house that Josh's father Quinn left her. It's close to the ruins of Knossos, and is steeped in its history. There she comes across the diaries of Alice, a young Englishwoman who was a volunteer on the original archaeological dig run by Englishman Arthur Evans, in the early nineteen-hundreds. Alice also fled from England to escape a youthful folly, and mend her broken heart. We see the stories of both Eloise and Alice unfolding as they come to terms with their past and learn to heal. Linked to both stories is the myth of the Minotaur, the man/bull monster who reputedly lived in the Labyrinth below the palace, and also Ariadne, daughter of the King of Crete. As secrets unfold in three eras, both Eloise and Alice need to open their hearts so that they can move on with their lives. Plenty of historical and local colour, and an intriguing interpretation of an ancient myth.
