The Catherine Howard Conspiracy by Alexandra Walsh

I like stories with two separate time lines. This one from the very present modern pair of twins in an exquisite setting of the Marquess House and then we go back centuries to the time of the Tudor King Henry VIII and yes some of his wives.

1539 and Catherine Howard is a simple girl just arrived at the court. She wasn't to know that she would catch the rapacious eye of the King who just did not like his Queen - Anne of Cleves. She was too "plain" for him and he wanted someone younger, more pliant than a maturer woman. Catherine fitted the bill. That she did not like the King, and that she was coerced into the relationship is obvious from the start.

On the other hand we have Perdita and Piper who have been estranged from their grandmother who they believe cut them out of her life when her only daughter was killed in a car accident. Just days after her grandmother died, the twins are amazed to know that not only was their father in a very good relationship with their grandmother, but that their grandmother had followed every detail of their lives minutely and that both of them were her only beneficiaries of her estate.

How the two disparate stories come together is very well told in this epic story. History to a great extent, factual and very much part of the story and then the fiction crept in and what a story. It would change the history of the British Royals if factually true!

This was history, family saga, mystery and of course a fair amount of murder considering that we are talking of Henry VIII.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Sapere Books.

The Reluctant Hotelkeeper by John Searancke

Along with an idyllic cover, the story of a reluctant hotelkeeper who was forced into this occupation is a good one. Factual, hilarious and very matter of fact humour. Very tongue in the cheek humour very typical of a British attitude (I think). The British seem to excel at this.

Told over a span of several decades, inheriting a hotel which was run down, in a shambles, no known systems, the owners (his parents) not interested at all in its functioning and definitely in the red. How through sheer hard work and a few dashes of good luck and good timing, he turned the hotel into a star winning, accolade winning enterprise is a good story.

Handling staff, plumbing and electrical systems almost at the end of their natural life, dealing with irritating and interesting guests in equal measure kept the book alive throughout.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Troubadour Publishing Limited.

Tomorrow's Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew

In the South in America the year 1961 still sees a lot of segregation and discrimination is rife. Loraylee lives with family and her young son Hawk whose parentage though suspect is never discussed either within the family or outside.

Urban renewal at the time seems to only focus on "black" neighbourhoods considered a blight on the environment due to its neglect, its lack of facilities and curb appeal so hundreds of these neighbourhoods are razed to the ground in the face of "development". When Brooklyn faces the same fate, how these three residents face them courageously is the story of this book. The end is inevitable but how they handle it with grace and dignity and the sense of survival that brought them this far, is very courageous.

Told in the language of the times and of the community this was a very well told story, especially for an outsider.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Kensington Books.

Little Lovely Things by Maureen Joyce Connolly

Claire is having an absolutely horrendous allergic reaction to a vaccine. She does what anyone would do. At a rest station she hesitates whether to lock the car or not and thinks it is safer otherwise, leaving two sleeping infants in the car she dashes into the room, then collapses. Comes out to the nightmare every parent hopes never to face. Both toddlers and the car  are missing.

It is the best of suspense mystery novels. Two little girls, a mad couple heavily into drugs on the other side and a couple breaking apart over guilt, misery and no news. When the littlest one's body is found, a sense of dread pervades the story and you wonder what is the fate of the older girl because unlike the parents who know who has taken them. You know the character of the beast and you are fearful where his mind (the little he has of it) will take him.

Holding on to your breath every step of the way, you are rooting for our couple, you are rooting for spunky Andrea now Colly and hope that some salvation is there around the corner. I felt for the McCann parents right then.

One of the best I've read this far.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Sourcebooks Landmark.

The Mother In Law by Sally Hepworth

In any other family Lucy would have been a very welcomed daughter in law. She was loving, warm and wanted to be part of the family.  She was a good caring wife and mother and I thought that was the main criterion for a mother in law! I was wrong. Diana was cool and collected and she kept Lucy at arms length. She did not dislike her but she was never welcoming either.

Diana and Lucy got on fairly well. You knew where you stood with Diana who had iron clad principles and beliefs. One was that despite being endowed with a lot of money, she was not going to hand out any either to her son or to her daughter, however dire the circumstances were. She had a tough beginning herself and believed that you worked to overcome that. Nothing could shake her from that belief.

When Diana was found dead with a suicide note by her side, the family believed she had cancer and that may have caused her to take her own life. When that fact was disputed with no oncological records at all and when a vial of a drug found to cause slow, painless death was found the unraveling begins.

Unfortunately at the time of Diana's death both her children were in dire need of funds. The son because his partner had run the business down to the ground, they were in debt and everything had to go. Nettie the daughter desperate to have a child, an obssession if you can call it that, failed IVF treatments behind her, now forty and knowing she had to have one more round. Detectives had a good case for suspicion when they ruled out suicide.

In typical Hepworth fashion the story unwinds slowly but surely. You never know who could be the one but you knew it was close to home.

Fascinating read and a real page turner.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of St Martin's Press.

Victoria by Richard Mullen & James Munson

I had just finished watching the film on this Queen and getting this book was just the right moment.
It gave me a further insight into what the young Queen had to face not just from her country, but from her own mother, her uncles and then her husband.

The biography was meticulously detailed. The commentary was succinct and precise. It reflected on Victoria herself. She seemed to be a passionate woman - one with a passion for her husband and then for her country. She was determined to do well by her country, and had to fight the obstacles than men within her circle (including her husband) threw in her way. Most men of the time just thought that she was a Queen in name, lording it over a nursery and a large one at that and happy to be satisfied within that circle. Victoria was far from that. She threw herself into every act of government being partisan to some (the Queen was expected to be above party politics) but she knew her own mind and had no inhibitions about it.

This was a wonderful read of a life of 81 years set out meticulously in a book.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Thistle Publishing. 

Murder in the Dining Room by Betty Rowlands

After a rocky start, relations with her mother seem to be on an even keel and Melissa is keen for renovations to the extension to be finished soon so that her mother can move in and live with her on a permanent basis. In the meantime, the accommodation at the nearby retirement home is very good and her mother seems to have settled in for this short period.

The apparent murder of a pet dog and then the sudden demise of its owner sets Sylvia off on a tangent, determined that foul play is amiss and Melissa is terrified that with her interference that if there is an actual murderer around, her mother is the one in most danger as she is stirring things up without realizing it.  Initially skeptical, Melissa begins to think that something is amiss in the Home and that its inmates are not exactly what they seem.

Like everyone else, people are hiding secrets. There are skeletons in the closet that no one wants anyone to find and there are those who are determined to keep them hidden.

An old fashioned mystery murder, with slow detective work being laboriously followed up is this story. It does not mean it is boring though. Reminiscent of Miss Marple mysteries this was a good one.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Bookouture.