Hobbies and Crafts

Please suggest two books as usual. Vote will be held as soon as all suggestions are in.

FROM MERSEY

The Midnight Rose - Lucinda Riley


Spanning four generations, The Midnight Rose sweeps from the glittering palaces of the great maharajas of India to the majestic stately homes of England, following the extraordinary life of a girl, Anahita Chavan, from 1911 to the present day . . . In the heyday of the British Raj, eleven-year-old Anahita, from a noble but impoverished family, forms a lifelong friendship with the headstrong Princess Indira, the privileged daughter of rich Indian royalty. Becoming the princess’s official companion, Anahita accompanies her friend to England just before the outbreak of the Great War. There, she meets the young Donald Astbury – reluctant heir to the magnificent, remote Astbury Estate – and his scheming mother. Eighty years later, Rebecca Bradley, a young American film star, has the world at her feet. But when her turbulent relationship with her equally famous boyfriend takes an unexpected turn, she’s relieved that her latest role, playing a 1920s debutante, will take her away from the glare of publicity to the wilds of Dartmoor in England. Shortly after filming begins at the now-crumbling Astbury Hall, Ari Malik, Anahita’s great-grandson, arrives unexpectedly, on a quest for his family’s past. What he and Rebecca discover begins to unravel the dark secrets that haunt the Astbury dynasty . . .


Muddy Boots and Silk Stockings by Julia Stoneham


England, 1943. The country is at war
With so many men away fighting, it is the women left behind who must keep the country going, and when Alice Todd is abandoned by her husband, she must find a means to provide for herself and her young son. She is offered the job of looking after the group of land girls at Lower Post Stone Farm and soon discovers they each have a story – and some have secrets they’d rather not reveal. The harsh times of war are tempered by the Saturday evening dances in the local hall, but as the hostilities continue, it is clear to Alice that there is more tragedy to follow closer to home.

FROM ME
The Island Hideaway by Louise Candlish
His voice cracked with guilt ‘I’m seeing someone else’. ‘Who is she?’ She asked. ‘You don’t need to know’ ‘I repeat, who is she?’
Eleanor Blake, distraught after breaking up with her fiancé Will, decides to do what most would scarcely dare; secretly follow him to the island hideaway where he’s on holiday with the woman who took her place. But on the shimmering, sun-drenched Sicilian island of Panarea, distractions come in many forms – including her fellow guest Lewis, an enigmatic Englishman with secrets of his own.

Kindle £3.99

The Sealed Letter by Emma Donaghue
Helen Codrington is unhappily married. Emily ‘Fido’ Faithfull hasn’t seen her once dear friend for years. After bumping into Helen on the streets of Victorian London, Fido finds herself reluctantly helping her to carry on an affair with a young army officer.
The women’s friendship quickly unravels amid courtroom accusations of adultery, counter accusations of cruelty and attempted rape, and the appearance of a mysterious ‘sealed letter’ that could destroy more than one life.
Based on a real life scandal that gripped England in 1864 The Sealed Letter is a delicious tale of secrets, betrayal and forbidden love,

£1.89 Kindle £3.86 paper back from Amazon.

Clean Cut by Lynda La Plante

Dedicated, intuitive and utterly obsessive, DCI James Langton is ruthless in his pursuit of a gang of illegal immigrants, killers of a young prostitute. When he is horrifically, almost fatally injured by one of them, it falls upon DI Anna Travis to put her own career on hold as she nurses him through his intense frustration and desperation to bring his would-be murderer to justice.
Then Anna is assigned to a different case, the brutal killing of a quiet, studious woman whose body was discovered by her daughter returning home from school. A senseless attack with no obvious motive or immediate suspect. Until, chillingly, the case becomes unexpectedly linked with Langton's and Anna finds herself under similar threat from those who almost destroyed his career and his life.

Lionheart by Sharon Penman

'The great Crusader king Richard the Lionheart comes alive in all his complex splendor in this masterpiece of a medieval tapestry by Sharon Kay Penman. She brings him and his legendary enemy, Saladin, before us, both on the battlefield for Jerusalem and in the quiet of their private chambers. It's as if you were there, in this strange, beguiling, vanished time that haunts the Middle East even today. Penman has triumphed in capturing its elusive essence and the blazing glory of the English king called Lionheart."
-Margaret George, author of "Elizabeth I: A Novel"

Only the Innocent . by Rachel Abbott

A man is dead. The killer is a woman. But what secrets lie beneath the surface - so dark that a man has to die?

Women are rarely cold blooded killers. But when famous philanthropist Hugo Fletcher is found dead, there is no doubt in anybody's mind that the killer is a woman. And it is clear from the precision of the planning that this was no crime of passion. It was an execution.

The victim was revered the world over for his charitable work with trafficked Eastern European prostitutes, and as at least one of these girls is missing, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Douglas is certain that there has to be a connection.

But nothing is as it appears on the surface. A web of complex relationships is gradually revealed and it seems that everybody has something to hide. As each horrific secret is exposed, Tom Douglas begins to realise that this is much more than a simple murder case. And he has a terrible dilemma to face - whether to punish the guilty, or protect the innocent.


15 Seconds by Andrew Gross

Andrew Gross is the acclaimed author of The Blue Zone, Eyes Wide Open, and other exceptional suspense thrillers. Now, with 15 Seconds, he delivers an electrifying, lightning-paced story of a desperate man on the run, trying to save his family from the faceless enemy that’s determined to destroy them all. A gripping tale of a life turned upside-down in 15 Seconds, Gross’s stunner is a must for fans of James Patterson, David Baldacci, Jeffery Deaver, Lisa Gardner, Nelson DeMille, Tess Gerritsen, or anyone who likes action and suspense done to perfection.

Ritual by \Mo Hayder


Just after lunch on a Tuesday in April, nine feet underwater, police diver Flea Marley closes her gloved fingers around a human hand.

The fact that there's no body attached is disturbing enough. Yet more didturbing is the discovery, a day later, of the matching hand. Both have been recently amputated, and the indications are that the victim was still alive when they were removed.

Newly seconded to the Major Crime Investigation Unit in Bristol, DI Jack Caffery is attempting to leave behind his failed personal life in London. Still haunted by the disappearance of his brother, he is looking for a man recently released from a high-security prison, a man who sleeps rough and walks the country roads as he relives a terrifying crime.

Caffery and Flea soon establish that the hands belong to a boy who has recently disappeared.

Their search for him and his abductor, leads them to the darkest recesses of Bristol's underworld ............

- - - - - - - - -- --

Wife to Charles 11 Hilda Lewis

The story of Catherine of Braganza, Charles 11's Portuguese queen set against the background of injustice and tragedy.

Catherine of Braganza, entered into a royal marriage to Charles 11 at a precipitous time in England's history. This is the story of how such a small and gentle woman withstood every conceivable insult both from her king and her adopted country, and yet emerged victorious.

Charles lived a life intent upon pleasure, Squandering immense sums upon his mistresses and often abandoning Catherine to the cold comforts of forbidding royal palaces and unfeeling courtiers.
Hilda Lewis traces the tempestuous relationship between Catherine and Charles, the infidelities, the neglect, but also the passionate love and deep affection.

Pieces of Justice by Margaret Yorke

An unusual collection of short stories, each with a twist of some kind, some of retribution, some poignant, I was recommended to this, and to tell more would be giving away the story lines...a very different approach of stories

Will be back

The Humans by Matt Haig

It follows the account of a nameless alien who takes over the body of a mathematician who's discovered something the alien civilisation doesn't believe the people of Earth can yet handle. So he comes to Earth with the mission to destroy the evidence of the discovery and to kill everyone who knows about it.

Something funny happens along the way. He begins to interact, to have his curiosity engaged. He learns what it means to be human, and in sharing this insightful and funny account, also tells a love story.


The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez

In a little coffee shop in one of the most dangerous places on earth, five very different women come together.

SUNNY, the proud proprietor, who needs an ingenious plan - and fast - to keep her café and customers safe.

YAZMINA, a young pregnant woman stolen from her remote village and now abandoned on Kabul's violent streets.

CANDACE, a wealthy American who has finally left her husband for her Afghan lover, the enigmatic Wakil.

ISABEL, a determined journalist with a secret that might keep her from the biggest story of her life.

And HALAJAN, the sixty-year-old den mother, whose long-hidden love affair breaks all the rules.

As these five women discover there's more to one another than meets the eye, they form a unique bond that will for ever change their lives and the lives of many others.

xx Jill

A Dangerous Dress by julia Holden

When Jane inherits from her grandmother, she finds an exquisite yet nearly see thru dress from the 1920's wiith a Paris label..she has no idea why or when her gran went to Paris or with whom. Writing a sort of blog about it it then leads her on to great adventures, some unexpected.,

Joan this was the list of suggestions. :-)