November 10, 2023
The Manor House by Gilly Macmillan – Childhood sweethearts Nicole and Tom are a normal, loving couple – until a massive lottery win changes their lives overnight. Soon they’ve moved into a custom-built state-of-the-art Glass Barn on the stunning grounds of Lancaut Manor in Gloucestershire. They have fancy cars, expensive hobbies, and an exclusive lifestyle they never could have imagined. But this dream world quickly turns into a nightmare when Tom is found dead in the swimming pool. Nicole is devastated. Tom was her rock. And their beautiful barn – with all its smart features that never seem to work for her- is beginning to feel very lonely. But she’s not entirely by herself out there in the country. There’s a nice young couple who live in the Manor itself along with their middle-aged housekeeper, who has the Coach House. And an old friend of Tom’s from school has turned up to help her get through her grief. But big money can bring big problems and big threats. Was Tom’s death a tragic accident, or was it something worse? And is her life in danger as well? Nicole’s beginning to feel like a little fish in a big glass bowl. Surrounded by piranhas.
The Bittlemores by Jann Arden – On mean Harp Bittlemore’s blighted farm, hidden away in the Backhills, nothing has gone right for a very long time. Crops don’t grow, the pigs and chickens stay skinny and the three aged dairy cows, Berle, Crilla and Dally, are so fed up with being on the receiving end of Harp’s cruelty, they are plotting an escape. The one thing holding them back is the thought of abandoning young Willa, the single bright point in their life since her older sister, Margaret, ran away. But Willa, just turning fourteen, is about to launch her own rebellion. Something doesn’t add up in the story she’s been told about her missing sister, and she’s beginning to wonder exactly what kind of secrets the horrible Bittlemores are keeping. Just as things are really coming to a head, a bright young police officer starts investigating a cold case involving a baby stolen from a little rural hospital 29 years earlier.
Julia by Sandra Newman – Julia Worthing is a mechanic who works in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. It’s 1984 and Britain – now called Airstrip One – has long been absorbed into the larger trans-Atlantic nation of Oceania. Oceania has been at war for as long as anyone can remember, and it is ruled by the ultratotalitarian Party, whose leader is a quasi-mythical figure called Big Brother. In short, it is the world of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. All her life, Julia has known only Oceania, and, until she meets Winston Smith, she has never imagined anything else. She is an ideal citizen: cheerfully cynical, always ready with a bribe, piously repeating every political slogan while believing in nothing. She routinely breaks the rules, but also collaborates with the regime when necessary, and knows how to survive in a world of constant surveillance, Thought Police, Newspeak, doublethink, child spies, and the black markets of the prole neighborhoods. Everyone likes Julia. Then one day she finds herself walking toward Winston Smith in a corridor and impulsively slips him a note, setting in motion the devastating, unforgettable events of the classic story.
The Last Exchange by Charles Martin – When MacThomas Pockets finished his last tour as part of the Scottish Special Forces, he was hired to consult for a film director to finesse some scenes that weren’t working. In a twist he never saw coming, he ended up moving to L.A. to work as the bodyguard for movie star Maybe Joe Sue. It didn’t take long for Pockets to realize there were two Joe Sues: The Joe Sue the public saw with her perfect life and her Hollywood husband. And the private Joe Sue: the one with the traumatic youth that no amount of pills could cover up, who desperately wanted a child of her own. Even after their paths diverged, he continued to track Joe Sue’s life. Only a few would notice when the bottom fell out. But he did. And that’s when he stepped in.