News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Ten white geese : a novel / Gerbrand Bakker ; translated from the Dutch by David Colmer.
“A Dutch woman rents a remote farm in rural Wales. She says her name is Emilie. She has left her husband, having confessed to an affair. In Amsterdam, her stunned husband forms a strange partnership with a detective who agrees to help him trace her. They board the ferry to Hull on Christmas Eve. On the Welsh farm, a young man out walking with his dog injures himself and stays the night, then ends up staying longer with Emilie. Yet something is deeply wrong. Does he know what he is getting himself into? And what will happen when her husband and the detective arrive?” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

The town that drowned / Riel Nason.
“Living with a weird brother in a small town can be tough enough. Having a spectacular fall through the ice at a skating party and nearly drowning are grounds for embarrassment. But having a vision and narrating it to the assembled crowd solidifies your status as an outcast. What Ruby Carson saw during that fateful day was her entire town, buildings and people floating under water. The residents of Haverton soon discover that a massive dam is being constructed and that most of their homes will be swallowed by the rising water. Suspicions mount, tempers flare, and secrets are revealed. As the town prepares for its own demise, 14-year-old Ruby Carson sees it all from a front-row seat. Set in the 1960s, The Town That Drowned evokes the awkwardness of childhood, the thrill of first love, and the importance of having a place to call home.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Life form / Amélie Nothomb ; translated from the French by Alison Anderson.
“Belgian author Amelie Nothomb receives a letter from 400 pound US Army private Melvin Mapple in December 2008. Normally she would ignore it, but something makes her respond. Amelie hates long letters and hides from fan requests, but agrees to help Melvin commit weight-gaining “body art” as a protest to the war America is fighting. Over two years the two grow to depend on each other’s letters to create a shared reality. All is well until Melvin disappears. Amelie worriedly searches and what she finds is a despairing man who has nothing “left to live for.”(adapted from Syndetics summary)

Dicks. Volume 1 / story, Garth Ennis ; art & covers, John McCrea.
“Two unlucky, crude private detectives in hilarious and at times oh-so-offensive misadventures against crime lords, ghosts, and bar brawlers.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

The girl with the dragon tattoo. Book 1 / adapted by Denise Mina ; art by Leonardo Manc and Andrea Mutti ; based on the novel by Stieg Larsson.
“The late Stieg Larsson’s slick potboiler is wildly popular in both movie and novel form; its tale-disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his unorthodox ally hacker/investigator, Lisbeth Salander, struggle to discover the truth behind the disappearance of Harriet Vanger decades before-is familiar to people around the world. Now it has been transformed into a graphic novel, this installment covering the events of the first half of the novel.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Days of the bagnold summer / Joff Winterhart.
“Sue, 52, works in a library. Daniel, 15, is still at school. This was the summer holidays Daniel was due to spend with his father and his father’s pregnant new wife in Florida. When they cancel his trip, Sue and Daniel face six long weeks together. Joff Winterhart perfectly captures the ennui, the tension, the pathos and even the affection of this mother-son relationship.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Ratlines / Stuart Neville.Ratlines
“At the end of World War II, several denazified Germans found sanctuary in Ireland, among them notorious SS officer Otto Skorzeny. Best known as the commando who rescued deposed dictator Mussolini from his mountain prison in Italy, Skorzeny set up some of the “ratlines” that served as escape routes for Nazis fleeing Allied justice. Drawing on these historical tidbits, Irish author Neville (Stolen Souls) crafts an engaging crime story set in 1963, just weeks before President Kennedy’s visit to Ireland. Several murders have upset the Minister of Justice in Dublin, a man known to be friendly with Skorzeny. The victims are all ex-Nazis formerly granted asylum by the government. Intelligence agent Albert Ryan is tasked with solving the crimes before they embarrass the country and sabotage Kennedy’s visit. VERDICT Neville, whose debut, The Ghosts of Belfast, won the 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller, concocts a believable plot with an intriguing protagonist torn between duty to country and his distaste for Nazi criminals…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The weeping girl : an Inspector Van Veeteren mystery / Håkan Nesser ; translated from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson.
“For Ewa Moreno, Chief Inspector Van Veeteren’s protege, this is her most perplexing case yet…Winnie Maas died because she changed her mind…A community is left reeling after a teacher – Arnold Maager – is convicted of murdering his female pupil Winnie Maas. It seems the girl had been pregnant with Maager’s child. Years later, on her eighteenth birthday, Maager’s daughter Mikaela finally learns the terrible truth about her father. Desperate for answers, Mikaela travels to the institution at Lejnice, where Maager has been held since his trial. But soon afterwards she inexplicably vanishes. Detective Inspector Ewa Moreno from the Maardam Police is on holiday in the area when she finds herself drawn into Mikaela’s disappearance. But before she can make any headway in the case, Maager himself disappears – and then a body is found. It will soon become clear to Ewa that only unravelling the events of the past will unlock this dark mystery…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Lifetime : a novel / Liza Marklund ; [English language translation by Neil Smith].
“Things aren’t going so well for Annika Bengtzon in Marklund’s superlative seventh novel featuring the tenacious Stockholm crime reporter (after 2012’s Last Will). For starters, Annika’s house burns down, and her husband leaves her for another woman. Meanwhile, she has to investigate the brutal murder of Supt. David Lindholm, “Sweden’s most well-known and respected detective.” David’s traumatized wife, Julia, is the primary suspect in his death and the possible kidnapping of their young son. Annika discovers that David, the model policeman, hid a darker side and may have been involved in illegal activities that led to his murder. Annika’s race against time to uncover the truth and exonerate Julia is intensified by multiple roadblocks, including governmental red tape and the ever-changing infrastructure at her newspaper, the Evening Post. Marklund has created a complex page-turner, complete with gritty realism, a flawed but likable protagonist, and nonstop suspense…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The city of silk and steel / Mike Carey, Linda Carey and Louise Carey.
“Once, in a city known as Bessa, there was a sultan named Bokhari Al-Bokhari, who was thrown down by the zealots of the ascetic Hakkim Mehdad. The sultan, his wives and children were put to the sword, while his 365 concubines were sent to a neighboring caliph as tribute, Hakkim having no use for the pleasures of the flesh. But a day after the caravan had departed from Bessa, Hakkim discovered the terrible secret that the concubines had hidden from him. His reaction was swift and cruel. Kill the women of the harem forthwith, along with their children and maidservants. Let not one survive. This, then, is the tale, or tales, of how a remarkable group of women fight together to survive both the fury of Hakkim and the rigors of the desert.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Forge of darkness / Steven Erikson.
“It’s a conflicted time in Kurald Galain, the realm of Darkness, where Mother Dark reigns. But this ancient land was once home to many a power, and even death is not quite eternal. The commoners’ great hero, Vatha Urusander, is being promoted by his followers to take Mother Dark’s hand in marriage, but her Consort, Lord Draconus, stands in the way of such ambitions. The impending clash sends fissures throughout the realm, and as the rumors of civil war burn through the masses, an ancient power emerges from the long dead seas. Caught in the middle of it all are the First Sons of Darkness, Anomander, Andarist, and Silchas Ruin of the Purake Hold.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Blood of dragons / Robin Hobb.
“The fourth book of the Rain Wilds Chronicles. Tintaglia, the legendary dragon, has returned, but wounded by the Chalcedeans. These people are still seeking dragon body parts, but especially dragon blood, in an effort to save their despotic duke. To heal the dragon, the new Elderlings must find the elusive silver wells. The younger dragons have matured further, and their dedicated keepers, the new Elderlings, are beginning to gain deeper understanding of their roles.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Dark predator : a Carpathian novel / Christine Feehan.
“As brutal as the undead he hunted, Zacarias De La Cruz was a master executioner. Now his stark and savage journey is over. After a thousand years in a grey world, he has accomplished everything he set out to do, his brothers are safeguarded, and each has found a woman. Zacarias has walked the edge of madness. But without a hunt to define him, Zacarias wonders, for the first time in his life, who he really is. The answer awaits him back home in Peru, in the betrayal of a woman who is readying her trap, in the vengeance of an old enemy, in the inevitable consequences of a bloody family legacy, and in the deliverance of a life mate he never could have imagined” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Last days / Adam Nevill.
“British filmmaker Kyle Freeman is on his last financial legs when he’s offered a deal that sounds too good to be true: 100,000 dollars to help Max Solomon, publisher of the hot self-help book of the moment, make a documentary about a cult. In 1975, nine people were found dead at the headquarters of the Temple of the Last Days in an abandoned mine in Arizona. Among the corpses was Sister Katherine, the founder of the temple, beheaded at her own request. Freeman, who’s given a tight schedule to complete the project, soon gets the feeling that supernatural forces are at work and that his producer has been less than forthcoming.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Lover at last : a novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood / J.R. Ward.
“Qhuinn, son of no one, is used to being on his own. Disavowed from his bloodline, shunned by the aristocracy, he has finally found an identity as one of the most brutal fighters in the war against the Lessening Society. But his life is not complete. Even as the prospect of having a family of his own seems to be within reach, he is empty on the inside, his heart given to another. Blay, after years of unrequited love, has moved on from his feelings for Qhuinn and has found his perfect match in a Chosen female. Fate seems to have taken these vampire soldiers in different directions, but as the battle over the race’s throne intensifies, and new players on the scene in Caldwell create mortal danger for the Brotherhood, Qhuinn finally learns the true definition of courage.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

The childhood of Jesus / J. M. Coetzee.
“After crossing oceans, a man and a boy arrive in a new land. Here they are each assigned a name and an age, and held in a camp in the desert while they learn Spanish, the language of their new country. As Simón and David they make their way to the relocation centre in the city of Novilla, where officialdom treats them politely but not necessarily helpfully. Simón finds a job in a grain wharf. He must set about his task of locating the boy’s mother. Though like everyone else who arrives in this new country he seems to be washed clean of all traces of memory, he is convinced he will know her when he sees her. And indeed, while walking with the boy in the countryside Simón catches sight of a woman he is certain is the mother, and persuades her to assume the role.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

A tale for the time being / Ruth Ozeki.
“In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine.
Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox, possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.” (adapted from Amazon.com)

Light shining in the forest / Paul Torday.
“Norman Stokoe has just been appointed Children’s Czar by the new government. He sells his flat and moves up north to take up the position. However before his first salary cheque has even hit his bank account, new priorities are set for the government department for which he works. The Children’s Czar Network is put on hold but it is too late to reverse the decision to employ Norman. So he is given a P.A. and a spacious office in a new business park on the banks of the Tyne. He settles down in his new leather chair behind his new desk, to wait for the green light to begin his mission. The green light never comes. What does happen is that two children go missing. As Children’s Czar he is now faced with a campaigning journalist and a distraught mother, he is forced to become involved. The search will take him to dark places and will make him ask questions about the system he is supposed to uphold.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Not my bag / written and illustrated by Sina Grace.
“What do you get when you put an artist in a department store selling nice clothes, all the while wondering why being so clearly in retail hell doesn’t stop him from having a modicum of ambition to move up the fashion food chain? Sina Grace (The L’il Depressed Boy) draws upon his experience in retail to craft a graphic novel that gives us a window into the life of an artist who is forced to take a job he doesn’t really want in order to pay the bills.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Rebel blood / scripter, Alex Link ; art, Riley Rossmo ; plot, Alex Link and Riley Rossmo. “A virus has created a wilderness of blood-thirsty creatures standing between you and your family. You don’t know if you can save them in time, or if you’ve even got the strength to try. But you’re about to find out. In a world of ravenous creatures it doesn’t matter who you used to be. Today you’re lunch!” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Aotearoa whispers. 1, The awakening / Gonzalo Navarro ; Charisma Rangipunga, translation. “The brilliant art work by Gonzalo Navarro brings his wonderful interpretation of Maori culture and New Zealand history alive. Fiction based very much on reality.” (adapted from Book cover)

The ghost riders of Ordebec / Fred Vargas ; translated from the French by Sian Reynolds.
“More than ten million copies of Fred Vargas’s Commissaire Adamsberg mysteries have been sold worldwide. Now, American readers are getting hooked on the internationally bestselling author’s unsettling blend of crime and the supernatural. As the chief of police in Paris’s seventh arrondissement, Commissaire Adamsberg has no jurisdiction in Ordebec. Yet, he cannot ignore a widow’s plea. Her daughter Lina has seen a vision of the Ghost Riders with four nefarious men. According to the thousand-year-old legend, the vision means that the men will soon die a grisly death. When one of them disappears, Adamsberg races to Ordebec, where he becomes entranced by the gorgeous Lina—and embroiled in the small Normandy town’s ancient feud…” (Description from Amazon.com)

The lost boy / Camilla Lackberg ; translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally.
“No. 1 international bestseller and Swedish crime sensation Camilla Lackberg’s new psychological thriller – irresistible for fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo. Mats Sverin was Fjallbacka’s financial director on a regeneration project worth millions. When he is found murdered, Detective Patrik Hedstrom must find answers. It seems Mats was a man who everybody liked yet nobody really knew – a man with something to hide…Is it just a coincidence that his high school sweetheart, Nathalie, has returned to the area? What does she know about who Mats really was? However, Nathalie has her own secret. Something has made her and her five-year-old son flee to their remote family home on the ‘Ghost Isle’. And that is where she’ll stay and shield her son from the evils of the world…” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)

The golden egg / Donna Leon.
“Commissario Guido Brunetti, out of a sense of guilt and at the urging of his compassionate wife, investigates the suspicious death of a disabled man, Davide Cavanella, in Leon’s intriguing 22nd mystery featuring the crafty Venetian police inspector (after 2012’s Beastly Things). Davide’s mother is unwilling to discuss his death. Worse, there’s no official evidence of Davide’s existence: he apparently was never born and never went to school, saw a doctor, or received a passport. The colorful locals are uncooperative. Brunetti’s understanding of the Venetian bureaucracy, which operates smoothly on bribery and familial connections, allows his subordinates to enlist the help of various aunts and cousins, as is neatly shown in a subplot involving the mayor and his son. Appreciative of feminine charms, the deeply uxorious Brunetti amply displays the keen intelligence and wry humor that has endeared this series to so many…” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Hellhole : awakening / Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
“General Adolphus knows the Monarchy crackdown is coming. Now he needs to pull together all the resources of the Hellhole colony, the ever-expanding shadow-Xayan settlement, and his connections with the other Deep Zone worlds. On Sonjeera, Diadem Michella Duchenet has collected a huge fleet, led by firebrand Commissar Escobar Hallholme, son of the man who originally defeated Adolphus. Uniting themselves and pooling their minds, the shadow-Xayans send a power surge along the original stringline path that links Hellhole with the Monarchy’s hub on Sonjeera. All of the Diadem’s battleships are currently approaching on that route, and when the mental blast wipes out all the substations, the battleships are effectively stranded. But worse threats are to follow.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Born of silence / Sherrilyn Kenyon.
“Vowing to destroy his father’s killer while outmaneuvering alter ego Kere, Darling Cruel, a dictator member of an elite ruling family, is shattered when Resistance leader Zarya, his most trusted ally, turns a specially designed weapon against Darling’s family in her effort to rekindle his humanity.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Daylight on Iron Mountain / David Wingrove.
“The generals of the Middle Kingdom await the decision of the emperor. The campaign to secure the border from China to Iraq has reached a strange impasse. Two blood enemies – Arabs and Jews – have united against their common cause. But with the lives of thousands at his whim, the exalted Tsao Ch’un, the Son of Heaven, cannot decide. Destroy the Middle East in one blinding flash? Or take another path? In the court of Tsao Ch’un, men of power have become smiling lackeys, whose graces conceal their fear, or their ambition. A man that can be trusted absolutely is a rare thing. And so, with his family held hostage by the empire, General Jiang Lei finds himself appointed to a special task: the orchestration of the last great war against the West, the total dominion of America.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Destined to play / Indigo Bloome.
“When 37-year-old psychologist, Alexandra Blake, leaves her comfortable suburban existence to give a series of lectures , she meets up with Dr Jeremy Quinn, the man who opened her eyes and body to the world in ways she never thought possible. After a few glasses of champagne in his luxurious hotel penthouse, he presents her with an extraordinary proposition. Alexandra knows that they never promise each other something they can’t commit to and that he will challenge her every inhibition. But she soon finds herself seduced into a level of surrender and danger she could never have imagined.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Elza’s kitchen / Marc Fitten.
“Divorcee Elza owns a little restaurant in post communist Hungary. She’s in a dead-end relationship with the Sous-Chef, restless and dissatisfied, and desperate for the Critic to visit, taste her marvelous pork tenderloin, and nominate her for the coveted Silver Ladle award. She entreats two friends, the Professor of Sauces and the Professor of Meats, to persuade the Critic to give her a shot. Her failed relationship with the Sous-Chef, combined with the Critic’s late, drunken arrival, and a violent incident with a trio of loitering Gypsy children cause everything to unravel. Elza must rebuild not just her business but her life.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Dangerous refuge / Elizabeth Lowell.
“Beautiful, sweet Shay and dark, dangerous Tanner don’t have a lot in common. He’s a suspicious big city policeman who’s come home to his family’s ranch. Shay works for an environmental conservancy that acquires and protects old ranches and she wants to preserve the Davis homestead. The suspicious death of Tanner’s uncle throws the two opposites together and sparks fly. Working as a pair, using Shay’s sweet personality and town connections, as well as Tanner’s experience, they set out to find justice, never expecting to find love along the way.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

A hologram for the king : a novel / Dave Eggers.
“In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter’s college tuition, and finally do something great.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Flight behaviour : a novel / Barbara Kingsolver.
“Dellarobia Turnbow is a restless farm wife who gave up her own plans when she accidentally became pregnant at seventeen. Now, after a decade of domestic disharmony on a failing farm, she has settled for permanent disappointment but seeks momentary escape through an obsessive flirtation with a younger man. As she hikes up a mountain road behind her house to a secret tryst, but instead encounters a shocking sight: a silent, forested valley filled with what looks like a lake of fire. She can only understand it as a cautionary miracle, but it sparks a raft of other explanations from scientists, religious leaders and the media. The bewildering emergency draws rural farmers into unexpected acquaintance with urbane journalists, opportunists, sightseers, and a striking biologist with his own stake in the outcome.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Back to blood : a novel / Tom Wolfe.
“A colorful cast of residents and visitors to Miami go about their daily activities, both legal and illegal. This is a big, panoramic story of the new America, as told by the author of the way we live now.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Blacksad : a silent hell / created by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido.
“Detective John Blacksad returns, with a new case that takes him to a 1950s New Orleans filled with hot jazz and cold-blooded murder! Hired to discover the fate of a celebrated pianist, Blacksad finds his most dangerous mystery yet in the midst of drugs, voodoo, the rollicking atmosphere of Mardi Gras, and the dark underbelly that it hides.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

The underwater welder / by Jeff Lemire.
“As an underwater welder on an oilrig off the coast of Nova Scotia, Jack Joseph is used to the immense pressures of deep-sea work. Nothing, however, could prepare him for the pressures of impending fatherhood. As Jack dives deeper and deeper, he seems to pull further and further away from his young wife and their unborn son. Then one night, deep in the icy solitude of the ocean floor, something unexplainable happens. Jack has a mysterious and supernatural encounter that will change the course of his life forever.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Freaks of the heartland / story by Steve Niles ; art and lettering by Greg Ruth.
“Trevor’s monstrous little brother lives in the barn behind the house. The boy’s only six years old, but he towers over his older brother, and possesses incredible strength. For years, Trevor has looked after his baby brother, keeping him from the light, but now that’s all about to change. His family’s secret is about to be revealed, uncovering the horrible truth of the small Midwestern town the boys have grown up in” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

The prisoner of Brenda / Bateman.
“When notorious gangster ‘Fat Sam’ Mahood is murdered, the chief suspect is arrested nearby. But he seems to have suffered a breakdown. Incarcerated in a mental institution, he’s known only as the Man in the White Suit. The suspect remains an enigma until Nurse Brenda calls on Mystery Man.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

A question of identity : a Simon Serrailler crime novel / Susan Hill.
“The seventh Simon Serrailler crime novel. Duchess of Cornwall Close: sheltered accommodation, a mix of bungalows and flats, newly built and not quite finished. Despite the bitterly cold weather, elderly residents are moving in. They don’t notice the figure in the shadows, someone who doesn’t mind the cold. Then, one snowy night, an old lady is murdered, dragged from her bed and strangled with a length of flex. DCS Simon Serrailler and his team are aware of bizarre circumstances surrounding her death, but they keep some of these details secret, while they desperately search for a match. All they know is that the killer will strike again, and will once more leave the same tell-tale signature.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Standing in another man’s grave / Ian Rankin. “It’s twenty-five years since John Rebus appeared on the scene, and five years since he retired. But 2012 sees his return. Not only is Rebus as stubborn and anarchic as ever, but he finds himself in trouble with Rankin’s latest creation, Malcolm Fox of Edinburgh’s internal affairs unit. Added to which, Rebus may be about to derail the career of his ex-colleague Siobhan Clarke, while himself being permanently derailed by mob boss and old adversary Big Ger Cafferty. But all Rebus wants to do is discover the truth about a series of seemingly unconnected disappearances stretching back to the millennium. The problem being, no one else wants to go there and that includes Rebus’s fellow officers. Not that any of that is going to stop Rebus. Not even when his own life and the careers of those around him are on the line.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

The hydrogen sonata / Iain M. Banks.
“An ancient people, organized on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join only at the last moment. Now they’ve made the collective decision to follow the well-trodden path of millions of other civilizations; they are going to Sublime, elevating themselves to a new and almost infinitely more rich and complex existence. Amid preparations though, the Regimental High Command is destroyed. Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont appears to have been involved, and she is now wanted, dead, not alive. Aided only by an ancient, reconditioned android and a suspicious Culture avatar, Cossont must complete her last mission given to her by the High Command.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Clean : a Mindspace Investigations novel / Alex Hughes.
“I used to work for the Telepath’s Guild before they kicked me out for a drug habit that wasn’t entirely my fault. Now I work for the cops, helping Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino put killers behind bars. My ability to get inside the twisted minds of suspects makes me the best interrogator in the department. But the normals keep me on a short leash. When the Tech Wars ripped the world apart, the Guild stepped up to save it. But they had to get scary to do it, real scary. Now the cops don’t trust the telepaths, the Guild doesn’t trust me, a serial killer is stalking the city and I’m aching for a fix. But I need to solve this case. Fast. I’ve just had a vision of the future: I’m the next to die” (adpated from Syndetics summary)

The skin map / Stephen R. Lawhead.
“Book one of Bright Empires series. Kit Livingstone’s great-grandfather appears to him in a deserted alley during a tumultuous storm. He reveals an unbelievable story: that the ley lines throughout Britain are not merely the stuff of legend or the weekend hobby of deluded cranks, but pathways to other worlds. To those who know how to use them, they grant the ability to travel the multi-layered universe of which we ordinarily inhabit only a tiny part. One explorer knew more than most. Braving every danger, he toured both time and space on voyages of heroic discovery. Ever on his guard and fearful of becoming lost in the cosmos, he developed an intricate code, a roadmap of symbols, that he tattooed onto his own body. This Skin Map has since been lost in time. Now the race is on to recover all the pieces and discover its secrets. But the Skin Map itself is not the ultimate goal. It is merely the beginning of a vast and marvellous quest for a prize beyond imagining.” (adapted from Amazon.com)

The Laughterhouse : a thriller / Paul Cleave.
“Theodore Tate never forgot his first crime scene, ten-year-old Jessica found dead in the ‘Laughterhouse’, an old abandoned slaughterhouse with the ‘S’ spray-painted over. The killer was found and arrested. Justice was served. Or was it? Fifteen years later, there’s a new killer on the loose and he has a list of people who were involved in Jessica’s murder case, among them Dr. Stanton, a man with three young daughters. If Tate is going to help them, he has to find the connection between the killer, the ‘Laughterhouse’, and a growing list of murder victims.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

The not so perfect life of Mo Lawrence / Catherine Robertson.
“Michelle Lawrence’s perfect life has been just as she’s designed it. But then her husband, Chad, ruins everything by taking a job in San Francisco, about as far from their comfortable family home as it’s possible to get without actually emigrating. Up until now, Chad’s primary focus has been keeping her happy, and Michelle can see no good reason why this should change. But change it has and Michelle now has to deal with Chad’s increasing detachment, while building a new life with her two small children in a place filled with cat-eating coyotes.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

Risk : a novel / C.K. Stead.
“Recently divorced New Zealander Sam Nola returns to London in 2002, where he spent two years in his early twenties. Life for Sam has never been better: a grown-up, half-French daughter from a long-ago affair has recently been in touch, and he has walked into a lucrative role in the booming banking sector. It is only when he learns of the deaths of two friends within a week that intrigue begins to intrude on his contentment, and life begin to feel a little more precarious.” (adapted from Book cover)

“A possible life : a novel in five parts / Sebastian Faulks. “Throughout the five masterpieces of fiction that make up A Possible Life, exquisitely drawn and unforgettable characters risk their bodies, hearts and minds in pursuit of the manna of human connection. Between soldier and lover, parent and child, servant and master, and artist and muse, important pleasures and pains are born of love, separations and missed opportunities. These interactions, whether successful or not also affect the long trajectories of characters’ lives.” (adapted from Amazon.com)

Winter of the World / Ken Follett.
“Berlin in 1933 is in upheaval. Eleven-year-old Carla von Ulrich struggles to understand the tensions disrupting her family as Hitler strengthens his grip on Germany. Into this turmoil steps her mother’s formidable friend and former British MP, Ethel Leckwith, and her student son, Lloyd, who soon learns for himself the brutal reality of Nazism. He also encounters a group of Germans resolved to oppose Hitler, but are they willing to go so far as to betray their country? Such people are closely watched by Volodya, a Russian with a bright future in Red Army Intelligence. The international clash of military power and personal beliefs that ensues will sweep over them all as it rages from Cable Street in London’s East End to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, from Spain to Stalingrad, from Dresden to Hiroshima. Lives and the hopes of the world are smashed by the greatest and cruellest war in the history of the human race.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

The mystery of Mercy Close / Marian Keyes. “Helen Walsh doesn’t believe in fear, it’s just a thing invented by men to get all the money and good jobs, and yet she’s sinking. Her work as a Private Investigator has dried up, her flat has been repossessed and now some old demons have resurfaced. Not least in the form of her charming but dodgy ex-boyfriend Jay Parker, who shows up with a missing persons case. Money is tight and Jay is awash with cash, so Helen is forced to take on the task of finding Wayne Diffney, the ‘Wacky One’ from boy band Laddz. Things ended messily with Jay, but his reappearance is stirring up all kinds of stuff she thought she’d left behind. Playing by her own rules, Helen is drawn into a dark and glamorous world, where her worst enemy is her own head and where increasingly the only person she feels connected to is Wayne, a man she’s never even met.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Interiorae / by Gabriella Giandelli ; [edited and translated by Kim Thompson].
“A large and (mostly) invisible rabbit looks over the affairs of various tenants in a modern apartment building: an elderly woman dying in one apartment, a couple entrenched in unhappiness and unfaithfulness in another, young schoolgirl friends in a third, and a happy group of ghosts in a fourth. Scenes with their appropriate characters are intercut, with the rabbit as harbinger of change leaping from panel to panel, view to view, addressing the reader enough to keep the outsider engaged in asking what might happen to whom next.”(adapted from Syndetics summary)

The rinse / created and written by Gary Phillips ; art by Marc Laming.
“High finance and low-down greed rear their ugly heads as Jeff Sinclair, the premier laundryman in San Francisco is unwillingly pulled into a dangerous gig laundering $25 million in stolen casino skim money. Forced to truly consider his line of work and the evil that he facilitates, Jeff must find a way to clean the cash and wash away his own sins.” (adapted from Syndetics summary).

Stray toasters / by Bill Sienkiewicz.
“Locked up for a crime he didn’t commit, burnt out detective Egon Rustemagick is released from a high security mental institution in order to catch a serial-killing monster who is murdering and mutilating housewives and young children. This dark, scary critically acclaimed tale mixes the sci-fi, noir, mystery and monster genres and sets them in a Blade Runner-like City of the Future.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

The forgotten / David Baldacci.
“Army Special Agent John Puller is the man the U.S. Army relies on to investigate the toughest crimes facing the nation. Now he has a new case-but this time, the crime is personal: His aunt has been found dead in Paradise, Florida. A picture-perfect town on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Paradise thrives on the wealthy tourists and retirees drawn to its gorgeous weather and beaches. The local police have ruled his aunt’s death an unfortunate, tragic accident. But just before she died, she mailed a letter to Puller’s father, telling him that beneath its beautiful veneer, Paradise is not all it seems to be. What Puller finds convinces him that his aunt’s death was no accident and that the palm trees and sandy beaches of Paradise may hide a conspiracy so shocking that some will go to unthinkable lengths to make sure the truth is never revealed…” (Syndetics Sunmamry)

The Bat / Jo Nesbø ; translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett.
”As Harry tracks down the murderer of a Norwegian TV star reduced to living in desperate circumstances, he is fully formed as the difficult, vulnerable personality we have come to know. The evocation of Australia itself has the customary Nesbo expertise (Barry Forshaw Independent )…The Bat appeared in Norway in 1997, and it’s a fascinating book, filling in the gaps in Hole’s biography and telling the story of the murder case in Australia that cemented his reputation as a brilliant investigator.It is a stunning opening to the series (Joan Smith Sunday Times )…Scandinavian noir goes Down Under. what’s fascinating is seeing Hole already equipped with all the obsessional attributes that would merge so brilliantly in subsequent novels (Marcel Berlins The Times )… Even with this first book Nesbo’s command of the idiom is completely in place – there is no sense that the writer was finding his feet and aficionados will be very pleased to slide this onto their bookshelves alongside the other Harry Hole novels (Barry Forshaw Daily Express )…” (Review from Amazon.co.uk)

Some kind of peace / Camilla Grebe and Åsa Träff ; translated from the Swedish by Paul Norlén.
“Dr. Siri Bergman runs a private psychotherapy practice in central Stockholm with her best friend Aina. Since her husband’s death in a diving accident, Siri has lived alone in an isolated cottage outside the city. Terrified of the dark, she drinks wine to steady her nerves and leaves the lights on when she goes to bed, unable to shake the feeling that someone is watching through her windows. When the lifeless body of Sara Matteus, a young patient with borderline personality disorder and a tragic history, is found floating in the water near Siri’s cottage, she knows that someone has been watching her – and he’s coming for Siri next. But she is not alone. With a young policeman named Markus, she begins her own investigation. As Siri’s past and present start to merge and disintegrate, virtually everyone in her inner circle becomes a potential suspect…” (Syndetics summary)

Bowl of heaven / Gregory Benford and Larry Niven.
“A human expedition to another star system is jeopardized by the discovery of an immense bowl-shaped structure. A landing party is sent to investigate the Bowl, but when the explorers are separated, one group captured by the gigantic structure’s alien inhabitants, the other pursued across its strange and dangerous landscape, the mystery of the Bowl’s origins and purpose propels the human voyagers toward discoveries that will transform their understanding of their place in the universe.” (adapted from Amazon.com)

1635 : the papal stakes / Eric Flint [and] Charles E. Gannon.
“Rome, the Eternal City, 1635, uptimer Frank Stone and his pregnant downtime wife, Giovanna find they are in the clutches of would-be Pope Cardinal Borgia, with the real Pope–Urban VII, on the run with the renegade embassy of uptime Ambassador Sharon Nichols and her swashbuckling downtime husband, Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz. Up to their necks in papal assassins, power politics, murder, and mayhem, the uptimers and their spouses need help and they need it quickly. Special rescue teams, including Harry Lefferts and his infamous Wrecking Crew, converge on Rome to extract Frank and Gia. And an uptime airplane is on its way to spirit the Pope to safety before Borja’s assassins can find him. Unfortunately everything goes horribly wrong.” (adapted from Amazon. Com)

The Constantine Affliction : a Pimm and Skye adventure / T. Aaron Payton.
“The Constantine Affliction, a strange malady that kills some of its victims and physically transforms others into the opposite sex, has spread scandal and upheaval throughout society. Scientific marvels and disasters, such as clockwork courtesans, the alchemical fires of Whitechapel, electric carriages, and acidic monsters lurking in the Thames, have forever altered the face of the city. Pembroke “Pimm” Hanover is an aristocrat with an interest in criminology, who uses his keen powers of observation to assist the police or private individuals, at least when he’s sober enough to do so. Ellie Skyler, who hides her gender behind the byline “E. Skye,” is an intrepid journalist driven by both passion and necessity to uncover the truth, no matter where it hides. When Pimm and Skye stumble onto a dark plot that links the city’s most notorious criminal overlord with the Queen’s new consort, famed scientist Sir Bertram Oswald, they soon find the forces of both high and low society arrayed against them.” (adapted from Syndetics summary)

The colonel / Mahmoud Dowlatabadi ; translated from the German by Tom Patterdale. “A pitch black, rainy night in a small Iranian town. Inside his house the Colonel is immersed in thought, remembering his wife, great patriots of the past, all of them assassinated or executed and his children, who had joined the different factions of the 1979 revolution. There is a knock on the door. Two young policemen have come to summon the Colonel to collect the tortured body of his youngest daughter and bury her before sunrise. The Islamic Revolution, like every other revolution in history, is devouring its own children. And whose fault is that? This shocking diatribe against the failures of the Iranian left over the last fifty years does not leave one taboo unbroken.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

The elephant keepers’ children / by Peter Hoeg ; translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken. “Peter and Tilte are trying to track down two notorious criminals: their parents. They are the pastor and the organist, respectively, of the only church on the tiny island of Finø. Known for fabricating cheap miracles to strengthen their congregation’s faith, they have been in trouble before. But this time their children suspect they are up to mischief on a far greater scale. When Peter and Tilte learn that scientific and religious leaders from around the world are assembling in Copenhagen for a conference, they know their parents are up to something. Peter and Tilte’s quest to find them exposes conspiracies, terrorist plots, an angry bishop, a deranged headmaster, two love-struck police officers, a deluded aristocrat and much more along the way.” (adapted from Amazon.co.uk.)

The shadow girls / Henning Mankell ; translated from the Swedish by Ebba Segerberg.
Jesper Humlin is a poet of middling acclaim who is saddled by his underwhelming book sales, an exasperated girlfriend, a demanding mother, and a rapidly fading tan. His boy-wonder stockbroker has squandered Humlin’s investments, and his editor, who says he must write a crime novel to survive, begins to pitch and promote the nonexistent book despite Humlin’s emphatic refusals. Then, when he travels to Gothenburg to give a reading, he finds himself thrust into an entirely different world, where names shift, stories overlap, and histories are both deeply secret and in profound need of retelling. Leyla from Iran, Tanya from Russia, and Tea-Bag, who is from Africa but claims to be from Kurdistan (because Kurds might receive preferential treatment as refugees) these are the shadow girls who become Humlin’s unlikely pupils in impromptu writing workshops. Though he had imagined their stories as fodder for his own book, soon their intertwining lives require him to play a much different role.” (adapted Syndetics summary)