A Trifle Dead by Livia Day

Author: Livia Day Publisher: Twelfth Planet Press Copyright Year: 2013 Review By: Michaela Lobb Book Synopsis: Tabitha Darling has always had a dab hand for pastry and a knack for getting into trouble. Which was fine when she was a tearaway teen, but not so useful now she’s trying to run a hipster urban cafe, …

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The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid

Author: Val McDermid Publisher: Little Brown Copyright Year: 2014 ISBN: 978-1-4087-0458-5 Review By: Angela Savage and Sue Turnbull Book Synopsis: The Skeleton Road opens with a skeleton being found in the top of an abandoned Gothic building in Edinburgh, a bullet hole in its skull. The corpse carries no ID, only a hotel keycard in …

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Mothers Who Murder by Dr. Xanthe Mallett

Author: Dr. Xanthe Mallett Publisher: Edbury Press and Randon House Australia Pty Ltd. Copyright Year: 2014 ISBN: 978 0 85798 380 0 Review By: Suzanne Bozorth-Baines Book Synopsis: Child murder: A social taboo and one of the most abhorrent acts most of us can imagine. Meet the women found guilty of murdering their own children. …

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Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Author: Hannah Kent Publisher: Picador Copyright Year: 2013 Review By: Michaela Lobb Book Synopsis: In northern Iceland, 1829, Agnes Magnúsdóttir is condemned to death for her part in the brutal murder of two men. Agnes is sent to wait out the time leading to her execution on the farm of District Officer Jón Jónsson, his …

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Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

Author: Lauren Beukes Publisher: Harper Collins Copyright Year: 2014 Review By: Sue Turnbull Book Synopsis: Detective Gabriella Versado has seen a lot of bodies. But this one is unique even by Detroit’s standards: half boy, half deer, somehow fused together. As stranger and more disturbing bodies are discovered, how can the city hold on to …

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Atomic City by Sally Breen

Author: Sally Breen Publisher: Fourth Estate, an imprint of Harper Collins Copyright Year: 2013 Review By: Nita Jaye Book Synopsis: An electrifying, neo-noir tale of identity theft, subterfuge and new beginnings, set in the dark shadows of the Gold Coast’s glittering high-rise strip … Jade, on the run from her past, arrives on the Gold …

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The Long Way Home by Louise Penny

Author: Louise Penny Publisher: Sphere Copyright Year: 2014 Review By: Sandra Nicholson Book Synopsis: Former Chief Inspector of Homicide, Armand Gamache, has found a peace he’d never imagined possible, away from the front line of the police and in the tranquil village of Three Pines. But when his friend Clara Morrow asks for help, he …

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Love Behind Bars by Victoria Heywood

Author: Victoria Heywood Publisher: Five Mile Press Copyright Year: 2013 Review By: Joyce Marshall Book Synopsis: All relationships face obstacles, but can romance really survive when there are prison bars between two people who love each other? What does it take to pledge your life to someone who may see out the rest of their …

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The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas

Author: Fred Vargas Publisher: Vintage Copyright Year: 2013 Review By: Sandra Nicholson Book Synopsis: ‘People will die,’ says the panic-stricken woman outside police headquarters. She refuses to speak to anyone besides Commissaire Adamsberg. Her daughter has seen a vision: ghostly horsemen who target the most nefarious characters in Normandy. Since the middle ages there have …

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The Stone Boy by Sophie Loubiere

Author: Sophie Loubiere Publisher: Trap Door Copyright Year: 2013 Review By: Sandra Nicholson Book Synopsis: When the elderly Madame Préau returns to her own house after several years spent in a convalescent home, she immediately notices that the neighbourhood had changed. A new family has moved in next door and from her window she watches …

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