Pam Lecky - No Stone Unturned
This is the first in a series of novels about Lucy, a young Victorian woman who is an amateur sleuth. Lucy has been estranged from her wealthy family since eloping with her husband Charlie. But after several years she's disillusioned by his infidelities and his badly-judged schemes that have left them penniless. When his recklessness goes too far, she finds herself identifying his body in the mortuary. Here she meets insurance investigator, Phin, who is researching some priceless stolen gems and believes that they were in Charlie's possession. As a result, Lucy herself is under suspicion. But her family have relented and invite her to stay with them for a while. Having no other means of support, she goes back home to Yorkshire. However, not everyone welcomes her home, and it's not the haven she'd imagined. Help comes from an unexpected source, and she's startled to find her heart being unexpectedly captured. Courageous Lucy embarks on an adventure with only Mary, her loyal Irish maid, to accompany her. The heroine is engaging, feisty, and resourceful, and the novel is well-written and packed with content.
Evie Woods - The Lost Bookshop
An enchanting novel about the joy of books and how a special bookshop in Dublin provides a refuge for two women a century apart. In 1921, Opaline runs away from her English family to escape being married off as a chattel. She travels to Paris where she works in a bookshop with a wonderful mentor, and meets people who share her interests and stir her emotions. But she's forced to flee again, and ends up in Dublin, taking over an unusual bookshop. In present day, Matthew is searching in Dublin for a wonderful bookshop he saw momentarily, but for some odd reason, he can't find it again. He believes it will lead him to a lost manuscript that would be the crowning of his research. His quest leads him to Martha, who has escaped an abusive marriage. She's found a live-in job looking after the elderly and eccentric Madame Bowden. The situation is not ideal but is safe. Martha and Matthew feel a connection to each other, though they spar constantly. At the same time, unexplained phenomena begin to appear in Madame Bowden's house. As Matthew and Martha begin open up to a new future, the links to the past are reaching down the years to be revealed.
T. J. Brearton - Her Husband's Lies
Callie's husband, Abel, has lying in a coma in hospital following a car crash six weeks previously. As far as the police could tell, he'd skidded on some ice and crashed into the lake. Luckily someone had found him before the car was submerged. He wasn't even supposed to be in that area, and the questions keep piling up. Callie's desperate for answers, for him to recover, especially for the sake of her son Cormac who's just started college. But when a young woman named Althea calls her, claiming that she's a psychic who taps into the memories of others, and tells her that someone ran Abel off the road, Callie doesn't really believe in psychics - yet some of the information Althea tells her turns out to be spookily accurate. As she begins her own investigation, she begins to uncover secrets that Abel was keeping from her. When the police turn up some new evidence connecting her husband to a serious crime, it feels to Callie as if her whole life has been a lie. Exciting, twisting, the plot weaves its way through the winter countryside as Callie tries to find out the truth. A gripping read.
