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Oct 25, 2016

Hold A Scorpion, Melodie Johnson Howe

Movie actress Diana Poole makes it a rule never to date other actors, her one exception, the one she just dumped, has taken to twitter claiming he dumped her. Diana’s last movie may have been a flop but it paid for some much needed work on her Malibu beach house. Her place isn’t gated and camera ridden so occasionally fans and stalkery ex-boyfriends turn up outside. Diana thinks that the woman waving at her and neighbour Ryan from the other side of the pacific coast highway could be a fan, as she gets closer the woman, spooked by something they can’t see walks straight into traffic and dies instantly, closing the PCH for hours and giving writer Ryan about ten years of therapist’s bills and an idea for a zombie movie.

The mystery woman was carrying a scorpion, jewel encrusted and instantly recognizable to Diana as belonging to her late film star mother. How did the dead woman get hold of it? Who scared her into traffic and why is someone turning Diana’s life upside trying to get the scorpion back.


With help from PI Leo Heath and some hindrance from Ryan and his new squeeze, Diana begins to investigate her mother’s death. She’s fed up of landing the kind of walk-on-and-die-half-way-through-the-movie type roles but real life could soon prove to be even deadlier.

Oct 11, 2016

The Lost Boy, Camilla Lackberg

Lost Boy picks up a few months after the tragic events of the The Drowning.  Patrik is back at work with orders from his doctor not to overstress himself. Erica has her hands full with the twins and is still trying to get through to her sister Anna who is dealing with her pain the only way she knows how; by pushing people away.

Patrik and the team are investigating the murder of Mats Sverin who had only just returned to Fjallbacka. None of his colleagues, past or present, seems to have a bad word to say about him, leads are drying up and Sverin’s parents are desperate for answers.


Erica decides to visit an old school friend, Nathalie also recently returned home with her five year old son, Sam. Erica has been researching nearby Graskar, the island Nathalie and Sam are living on. She’s uncovered some mysterious tales she thinks Nathalie ought to know about. Back on the mainland Patrik’s stress levels are spiking as Mellberg, his inept but publicity hungry chief, decides to hold a press conference; with disastrous results.

Oct 10, 2016

Sherlock: The essential Arthur Conan Doyle Adventures, Introduced by Mark Gattis & Steven Moffat

Sherlock is a collection of Conan Doyle’s works, selected by the creators of the hit BBC series. Rereading these stories through the lens of these two brilliant writers makes it feel like you are discovering stories like A Study in Scarlet, or Scandal in Bohemia for the first time. A perfect companion for the series and (we can only hope) a glimpse into future episodes? 

Oct 4, 2016

The Trespasser, Tana French

Conway is tough as nails, she works the murder squad’s night shift and apart from a good solve the previous year (Secret Place) which netted her a partner, young and ambitious Steve Moran; her job is not turning out the way she’d hoped. Shifts are filled with vicious pranks, harassment, vanishing evidence and a bunch of boring domestics which aren’t that taxing. She wants a case that will propel her and Moran into the rarified atmosphere of the day shift and she just might’ve got it. 

The curious case of Aisling Murray, dead, probably the result of a lovers quarrel. Someone is pressuring Conway and Moran to wrap Aisling’s new boyfriend up nice and tidy and put a bow on the case file before it goes to the prosecutor. Aisling’s friends seem to think she was in over her head before she met the current boyfriend, and Conway is sure she’s seen Aisling before. Throw in a bent copper and some gangland interest from the victim and the case morphs into something else. 

Conway knows that working in the murder squad has made her paranoid, she’s just not sure how far gone she is. Can she trust anyone on the squad, including her new partner?


French carries on with the successful character transplant formula that she began with In The Woods.