Holly was devastated after the death of her husband. They couldn’t have children so she is now trying to find a new purpose to focus upon. She starts to volunteer at a cafe for homeless people and tries to heal herself by helping others…
The Saturday Place is an emotional yet feel-good book about finding hope during the darkest times.
Holly is almost overwhelmed by grief for her late husband. She finds a new purpose by helping out at a cafe where the other volunteers as well as the clients have their own issues to contend with. In particular Angus and Lauren make Holly think about the aspects of her life that she should be thankful for, and inspire her to want to make a positive difference.
There are some big emotional issues covered in this book. Holly is dealing with her grief as well as her childlessness. Angus is despairing at the collapse of his marriage. Lauren is living in a shelter and has obviouslty experienced trauma. Many peripheral characters have mental health needs, are homeless, or face adversity.
Despite the heaviness of the emotional turmoil experienced by the main characters, there is an underlying hope that shines through the pages. The capacity of the human spirit to want to help others is highlighted whilst they try to move on from their own pain. The characters were authentically written and I felt invested in their converging plotlines.
The Saturday Place is a heartbreaking and heartwarming novel.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
‘A tender story of hope, friendship and the power of community.’ – Emily Houghton author of Before I Saw You
‘A warm, wise and really special book… I absolutely loved it.’ – Katy Regan author of Little Big Love
Three perfect strangers who help each other to believe in love again
Holly’s husband died, and she’s lonely. She needs to do something to save herself, quickly. Next thing she knows she’s interviewing for a voluntary cooking job, surprised to be ambushed by a scruffy man who looks like he has a past.
Angus has messed up. He’s lost the respect of his family and has none for himself. If it weren’t for his brother and friend who run the café, he’d be sleeping on the streets. Angus is about ready to give up – until he meets Holly, who sparks something in him.
Then Lauren arrives from the homeless shelter. She came to London with nothing but an old train ticket, a teddy bear, and the clothes on her back. With no family, no home, no friends, she doesn’t know what love is. People scare her. She’s terrified of Angus and Holly. At first.
Each of them finds themselves in the Saturday café at a time when they need something to grab hold of. It might have to be each other…
I have been a huge fan of Susan HIll since I read the seriously spooky The Woman In Black 30 years ago. So I was thrilled to be invited to join the tour to celebrate 20 years of her detective series featuring Simon Serrailler. I have read most of the books in the series but not recently and I was given book 9 which I haven’t read before.
Simon has suffered life changing injuries and goes to a remote island in Scotland to recuperate. The tranquility of the island is shattered by a murder and Simon agrees to help with the investigation…
The Comforts of Home is the 9th book in the Simon Serrailler police procedural series.
Simon needs to adapt to life following a catastrophic incident during his last case. I am assuming that this book follows directly from the previous one. There are no spoilers about the culprit but Simon’s situaton has been significantly impacted by recent events. His father has also been affected by accusations which I presume featured in an earlier book.
Simon is recuperating on a remote Scottish island. He is giving thought to his future with the police when he is asked to assist with a suspicious death investigation. There are personal elements to the book as Simon’s sister marries his boss and is thinking of a big career move. Her son needs to make a decision about the future and Simon’s father also faces a change in circumstances.
The writing style is easy to read and engaging. I really cared about Simon’s recovery and the personal family aspects. These are introduced strongly at the start whilst the murder isn’t disocvered until a third of the way through the book. Simon’s brother in law/boss is investigating a cold case of a missing person and this adds another layer to the plot as well as more connections between the characters.
The Comforts of Home is an enjoyable detective novel with a strong lead and supporting characters.
Susan Hill’s Simon Serrailler novels are in a league of their own – well-written and full of drama. At their heart is a very English setting, the idyllic fictional cathedral town of Lafferton, and a very English Detective, Chief Superintendent Serrailler, in the pursuit of classic whodunits. But there’s nothing old-fashioned about the crimes and nothing cosy about the lives of the characters, including Serrailler’s.
‘Hill’s Serrailler novels are as addictive as Rankin’s’ Scotsman
‘Eagerly awaited by all aficionados of crime fiction’ P. D. James
‘Not all great novelists can write crime fiction but when Susan Hill does the result is stunning’ Ruth Rendell
The Comforts of Home book blurb
Recovering on a remote Scottish island, his peace doesn’t last long. He is pulled in to a murder inquiry by the overstretched local police. A newcomer, popular with the islanders, has died in perplexing circumstances. The community’s reactions are complicated and fragile.
It’s good to be back on the job. And when Simon returns to Lafferton, an arsonist is on the rampage and a woman whose daughter disappeared some years before is haunting the police station seeking closure. She will not let it rest, and Simon is called in to do a cold-case review.
At home, Simon is starting to get used to having a new brother-in-law – in the form of his Chief Constable Kieron Bright. His sister Cat has embarked on a new way of practising medicine, and his nephew Sam is trying to work out what to do with his life. And then their tricky father, Richard, turns up again like a bad penny.
In this gripping new Serrailler thriller, Simon’s personal and professional lives intertwine in more complex and demanding ways than ever before.
1923, Pearl Glenham and her father are invited to a stately home by the sea. Pearl believes her father is being blackmailed but their mysterious host isn’t present to welcome them. She goes for a swim and hits her head in a cove before returning to the house, enjoying dinner and then being killed in a fire. She then wakes again in the cove and repeatedly tries to save herself from death…
At The Stroke Of Midnight is a timeloop book in an historical setting.
Pearl becomes stuck in a timeloop, reliving the evening at the country house which culminates in a fire or other means of death. She tries to find ways to outwit the killer but they change their plan to ensure success. She also finds the freedom to escape her controlling father alongside Ellery Brown who becomes aware of her situation.
I felt quite sorry for Pearl. Her mother died giving birth to her and her father treats her like a servant. She is treated dismissively by the other guests but makes a surprising connection with the male servant which develops over the course of the book. Now she dies in a terrible fire but is then caught in a timeloop to save herself and maybe the other guests (who are awful!)
I enjoyed the mystery of the timeloop and Pearl’s struggles to survive. Many of the characters are acting suspiciously or inappropriately which served to make me like Pearl even more. There are secrets to be revealed and the tension simmers gently. The historical and geographical element supported the plot and characters and I felt they had been researched well.
At The Stroke Of Midnight is an enjoyable mystery with a clever timeloop feature.
At the Stroke of Midnight
It’s 1923 and in a decade that promises excitement and liberation, Pearl Glenham and her father are invited to a mysterious country house party on the Dorset coast, by a total stranger.
Her father claims not to have any prior association with Highcliffe House, but upon arrival, it is apparent that he has a shared history with several of the guests, although he won’t admit it. Belatedly discovering that her father was blackmailed into attending, Pearl’s worries are compounded when their host fails to arrive…
Intimidated by everyone at the party, she escapes to the nearby cove and stumbles upon a mysterious mercury clock hidden in a cave. This strange encounter sets in motion a series of events that will culminate in an horrific house fire, claiming the lives of all the guests, including Pearl herself.
But then Pearl wakes up back in the cave, seemingly destined never to live past midnight. She can repeat the day. But can she change its outcome?
Author Bio –
Jenni Keer is a history graduate who lives in the Suffolk countryside. Her lifelong passion for reading became a passion for writing and she had two contemporary romance novels published in 2019. She has now embraced her love of the past to write twisty, turny historicals, and The Legacy of Halesham Hall was shortlisted for the Romantic Historical Novel of the Year in 2023.
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A woman wakes, confused and disorientated. She doesn’t now her name or recognise her surroundings. She is cared for by a housekeeper but has no mempory of her husband or home or even the last few years of her life. She believes she is being kept prisoner and finds evidence that her husband’s first wife may have been murdered…
The Other Wife is an intense and uncomfortable psychological thriller.
The opening chapter had me intrigued but was difficult to comprehend. The timeline then goes back 5 days to show the events immediately before the crisis. Again, there was a lot of confusion due to the narrator’s own mental state.
Initially I didn’t like this book. The woman’s overwhelming fear and confusion was quite unpleasant. The big twist was easy to guess but I couldn’t put the book down and liked it much more once I’d finished it and could see the concept as a whole.
The writing style is vivid and I was utterly absorbed in the lives of the characters. It is written in the first person from a perspective that is very unreliable. There are strong echoes of ‘mad wife’ tropes from Rebecca and Jane Eyre but the book is very modern.
The Other Wife is vividly written but often uncomfortable, powerfully emotional but almost overwhelmingly so.
The Other Wife
The wife is always the last to know…
What if everything you believed was a lie?
Your life…your marriage…your very existence.
What if the person lying to you is your husband, the man who claims to love you more than anything in the world?
Isolated in his remote Scottish ancestral home on the pretext that you are psychologically fragile and recovering from a breakdown, this home has become a prison. As the days slip by in a haze of confusion and a cocktail of drugs administered by a loyal housekeeper, you begin to piece together the fragments of your life and stumble on a terrifying secret.
What if you discover you weren’t his first wife, and nor will you be the last?
That he plans to replace you, to make you disappear – just like the first wife.
Just how far would you go to save your life and prove your husband’s a murderer?
The new gripping read, perfect for the fans of Louise Candlish and Adele Parks
Author Bio –
Danielle Ramsay is the Scottish author of nine novels. The latest three are standalone psychological thrillers; the first was The Perfect Husband, followed by My Best Friend’s Secret. The third standalone is the psychological suspense, The Other Wife, published in March 2024 and perfect for fans of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.
Before writing psychological thrillers, Danielle wrote five Jack Brady crime novels set in a small seaside resort in the North East of England. These were followed by a dark thriller, The Last Cut.
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Julia’s ex husband Peter is getting married to his new partner Christopher but a death after the wedding ceremony leaves one of the grooms as a suspect…
A Country Wedding Murder is the 5th book in the Julia Bird cosy murder mystery series. There are no major spoilers but there are some mentions of outcomes from earlier books as they refer to peripheral characters.
It’s a slightly odd feeling for Julia as she is happy for her ex and delighted her daughter has come home. Luckily she has her own relationship with doctor Sean, but the wedding does bring some mixed emotions and thoughts about the past. This is quickly overshadowed when the caterer is found dead in his refrigerated van after Christopher threatened him. Julia wants to support him so begins to investigate.
The case isn’t straight forward and Julia uncovers a range of suspects and motives which is heightened when another body is found. The style of writing is easy to read and there is little forensic detail. I enjoyed meeting other characters again to give Julia and the setting some added depth. Meanwhile the personal relationships strengthen our support of Julia as she proceeds to investigate.
A Country Wedding Murder is an enjoyable cosy murder mystery.
Book Description:
The joyous crowd applauds as the happy couple strides down the aisle. This Cotswolds country wedding has everything – friends and family, beautiful flowers and… murder?
When Julia Bird’s ex-husband Peter and his lovely partner Christopher decide to get married in Berrywick, Julia is delighted – after all, who doesn’t love a country wedding? Little does Julia know that normally calm and collected Christopher will turn into a full-on Groomzilla – and that by the end of the night, someone will end up dead.
The morning after the big day, the jolly nuptial mood turns grim when Julia discovers the lifeless body of the caterer, Desmond. Someone locked him in the cold truck and the poor man froze to death. Now looking for a murderer, all eyes are on Christopher who, mid-tantrum, had publicly threatened to kill him. Convinced that Christopher is innocent, Julia vows to find the real culprit.
Julia soon discovers Desmond had a long list of enemies as she races against the clock to clear Christopher’s name. Could his death be the work of the respected wedding planner who was heard exchanging choice words with the victim? Or perhaps it was his wife – ‘til death do them part – who didn’t shed a single tear at his funeral?
But just when Julia thinks she’s cracked the case, her prime suspect is found dead with a knife in their back. Can Julia find the murderer before they strike again?
An utterly gripping, charming cosy mystery set in the English countryside. Fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and Betty Rowlands will love the Julia Bird Mysteries.
Author Bio:
Katie Gayle is the writing partnership of best-selling South African writers, Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel. Kate and Gail have, between them, written over ten books of various genres, but with Katie Gayle, they both make their debut in the cozy mystery genre. Both Gail and Kate live in Johannesburg, with husbands, children, dogs and cats.
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