The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

                                                       

Paperback:   288 pages                                                                         

Genre:  Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, 

Publisher:  Penguin Paperback 2026

Source:  Tywyn Library

Literary Awards:  *WINNER OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026*
Audie Award for Ensemble Performance and Nominee for Fiction (2026), Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Audiobook (2025), Women's Prize for Fiction (2026), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction and for Debut Novel (2025), The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books Nominee for Longlist (2026), The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Nominee for Longlist(2025), She Reads Best of Award Nominee for Book of the Year (2025), Libby Award Nominee for Best Audiobook and Best Debut (2026)

Setting: Maryland, USA.  

First Sentences: At last, on Monday around ten or half past, Sybil Van Antwerp carries the mug of Irish breakfast tea with milk to her desk.

Review Quote:  'Immensely enjoyable' Guardian

My Opinion:

I have been wanting to read ‘The Correspondent’ for sometime now. Mainly because since publication last year it has been nominated for so many literary awards and I wanted to find out why.

In this her debut novel, the author Virginia Evans has given us a memorable protagonist in Sybil Van Antwerp. Sybil uses letter writing as communication and the novel is written as a series of letters, sent and received, through which the reader gets to know how life has treated her.

A unique idea which was an emotional read. Letters are not an easy format for a novelist to use as a medium to tell a story through. Virginia Evans has done so successfully and compassionately.  Highly recommended.

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:

Every morning, Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters – to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to attend a class she desperately wants to take, to her favourite authors to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Because at seventy-three, Sybil has used her correspondence – witty and wise – to make sense of the world. But beyond the page, she has spent the last thirty years keeping the people who love her at arms’ length... Until letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life.

Now, Sybil must send the letter she has been writing for all these years - and find forgiveness within herself in order to move on.

Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be ‘a very small thing’, but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

Author Profile:

                                                                                                              

                                                Photo and Bio Courtesy of Amazon

Virginia Evans is from the east coast of the United States and was born in 1986.  She attended James Madison University for her bachelor’s in English literature. After starting a family, she went back to school for her master’s of philosophy in creative writing at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, where she had the good fortune to study under Carlo Gébler, Eoin McNamee, Claire Keegan, Harry Clifton and Kevin Power. She now lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with her husband, Mark, two children, Jack and Mae, and her Red Labrador, Brigid.

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Goodreads Profile   Amazon Author Page.   Wikipedia Profile.    Author - Official Website

The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey

                                                 

Audio: 10 hrs  57 m

Narrators:  Joanne Froggart, Mark Noble, Asif Kahn, Gemma Whelan and Simon Harvey.

Genre:   Fiction, Mystery

Publisher: Penguin Audio Feb 2024

Source:  Purchased from Audible

First Sentence:  It would be easy to say that it all started with the murders, but actually it began when Margaret thatcher became prime minister.

Review Quote: A touching paean to lost innocence and the comfort of friendships, its dark undertow leavened by stout Yorkshire humour ― The Times

Literary awards:

British Book Award Nominee for Debut Fiction (2025)

Setting:  Yorkshire, England, 1979

My Opinion:  

'The List of Suspicious Things' is the very successful debut for Jennie Godfrey whose childhood was spent growing up in the seventies in Yorkshire.  It is therefore interesting but not surprising that the infamous Yorkshire Ripper was the inspiration for this novel.  I am very late to the party, possibly because it is in my Audible collection and I have still not got into the habit of regular listening.

The protagonist is Mavis, known as Miv, an eleven year old girl. Growing up in the shadow of the seemingly ever present unsolved murder cases she with the help of her best friend Sharon decides they can help solve the case. Their adventures and investigations introduce the reader to many characters along the way. The emphasis of the whole story is on the importance of family life, friendship and community spirit.

At times a heart wrenching read, this novel sensitively covers dreadful events and is well worth reading or listening to.

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: 

"We'll make a list. A list of all the people and things we see that are suspicious. And then . . . we'll investigate them."

Twelve-year-old Miv is panicking. Life has been complicated since her mom got sick, and now her dad is talking about wanting to move their family away from the town Miv has lived in her whole life—because of the murders. Young women are dying, everyone is afraid, and no one knows who the culprit might be.

But as far as Miv is concerned, leaving Yorkshire and her best friend Sharon simply isn't an option, no matter the dangers lurking round their way; or the strangeness at home that started the day Miv's mum stopped talking. Perhaps if she could solve the case of the disappearing women, they could stay after all?

So, Miv and Sharon decide to make a a list of all the suspicious people and things on their street. People they know. People they don't. But their search for the truth reveals more secrets in their neighborhood, within their families—and between each other—than they ever thought possible. What if the real mystery Miv needs to solve is the one that lies much closer to home?

Author Profile

                                                      

                                                                                                                                                             

                                                            Courtesy of Google

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Amazon Author Page.   Goodreads Author Page.   Instagram Profile

The Painter's Daughters by Emily Howes

                                                       

Hardback: 372 pages                                                                         

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Publisher:  Phoenix 2024

Source:  Tywyn Library

First Sentences: First, the canvas. Not one, but many. Great oblongs carried in and out, wrapped carefully in shrouds.

Review Quote: 'Convincing, engaging, transporting' GUARDIAN

My Opinion:

Emily Howes was a new to me author when I recently read her second novel Mrs Dickens and decided I should definitely be reading her debut novel. 

'The Painter's Daughters' is centred around Gainsborough's life in Bath, where he moves to enable the family, he hopes to have a decent standard of living.  The main protagonists of this story are his two daughters, who though so very different in character are devoted to each other.  Their mother's complicated past is also revealed to the reader as a secondary storyline. This helps one to understand the personal difficulties the family faced in private behind the public facade.

An engaging but sad insight into the life of the 18C artist Thomas Gainsborough's daughters. Recommended to readers that enjoy historical fiction, especially if it is based on fact.  

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:

A story of love, madness, sisterly devotion, and control, about the two beloved daughters of renowned 1700s English painter Thomas Gainsborough, who struggle to live up to the perfect image the world so admired in their portraits.

Peggy and Molly Gainsborough—the daughters of one of England’s most famous portrait artists of the 1700s and the frequent subject of his work—are best friends. They spy on their father as he paints, rankle their mother as she manages the household, and run barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are from a young age, Molly periodically experiences bouts of mental confusion, even forgetting who she is, and Peggy instinctively knows she must help cover up her sister’s condition.

When the family moves to Bath, it’s not so easy to hide Molly’s slip-ups. There, the sisters are thrown into the whirlwind of polite society, where the codes of behavior are crystal clear. Molly dreams of a normal life but slides deeper and more publicly into her delusions. By now, Peggy knows the shadow of an asylum looms for women like Molly, and she goes to greater lengths to protect her sister’s secret.

But when Peggy unexpectedly falls in love with her father’s friend, the charming composer Johann Fischer, the sisters’ precarious situation is thrown catastrophically off course. Her burgeoning love for Johann sparks the bitterest of betrayals, forcing Peggy to question all she has done for Molly, and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another.

A tense and tender examination of the blurred lines between protection and control, The Painter’s Daughters is a searing portrait of the real girls behind the canvas. Emily Howes’s debut is a stunning exploration of devotion, control, and individuality; it is a love song to sisterhood, to the many hues of life, and to being looked at but never really seen.

Previous Review: Mrs Dickens 

Author Profile:

                                                      

                                                Photo and Bio Courtesy of Amazon

Emily Howes was born in Essex in 1981. 

She has worked as a storyteller, theatre maker, writer, performer and director in stage, television and radio. In addition to writing fiction, she holds an MA in Existential Psychotherapy, and works as a psychotherapist in private practice. She lives with her two children, her two cats and her dog in East London.

THE PAINTER'S DAUGHTERS, her debut novel, won the 2021 Mslexia Novel Competition, judged by Hilary Mantel, Jo Unwin and Marianne Tatepo. It is the relatively unknown story of Peggy and Molly Gainsborough, and their mutual struggle with insanity. 

Her second novel, MRS DICKENS, is about Catherine, wife of Charles, who had ten children, climbed Vesuvius, and wrote a cookbook. 

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Amazon Profile.      Goodreads Profile

The Opposite of Murder by Sophie Hannah

                                                           

Hardback:  357 pages

Genre:  Contemporary Murder Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Mystery, Thriller

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton 2026

Source:  Tywyn Public Library

First Sentence: This is my story and no one else's. In it I am a killer.

Review Quote: An ingenious puzzle of a novel that crackles with energy and menace -- Nicci French-Author 

My Opinion: 

Although I prefer Sophie Hannah's psychological thrillers, I have read some, but by no means all of her Spilling CID series of which 'The Opposite of Murder' is. Detectives Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer are on the case again, this time investigating a murder that was confessed to before the event!  As with the previous novels in the series, this can be read as a stand alone story.

The story is set around the complicated family relationship that the female protagonist Jemma Stelling has had with her step-mother. This leads her to walk into a local Police Station and confess to a murder that she has planned but not yet committed. Most of the officers she spoke to did not take her seriously though. At the same time as Jemma is confessing a murder takes place that she would be the prime suspect for had she not already got the perfect alibi. Will Simon Waterhouse, Charlie Zailer and colleagues be able to solve this case, the twists and turns keep them and the reader guessing. The result was certainly not one I had expected.

Although I found this novel intriguing, I still prefer Sophie Hannah's psychological thrillers which I find more entertaining. If you are a crime fiction fan you will probably enjoy this one.

 

Previous Reviews:   Haven't They Grown  Little Face  Hurting Distance  Point of Rescue  

The Other Half Lives.  The Couple at the Table

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: 

What if the only way you could prevent a murder was by confessing to it?
5.05pm. A terrified Jemma Stelling walks into a police station and says she is about to commit a murder.
She knows that the person she hates most in the world, Marianne Cass, might soon be killed. She knows this because she is the one in danger of killing Marianne, and the urge to do so is growing stronger.
The only way to stop the struggle in her mind is to inform the authorities that Marianne is at risk - from Jemma herself. Desperate to be free of her frightening obsession, she seeks out police officer Simon Waterford and makes what she thinks of as a 'preventative confession'. 
5.05pm. Marianne Cass is murdered in her home.
But while Jemma is talking to the police, Marianne is brutally murdered. The time of death window means Jemma is unequivocally eliminated as a suspect.
The problem for Simon is that he's now positive that Jemma Stelling is a ruthless, cold-blooded killer, and possibly the most ingenious one he's ever encountered...

Author Profile:         

Sophie Hannah is a Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling writer of crime fiction, published in forty-nine languages and fifty-one territories. Her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. In 2014, with the blessing of Agatha Christie’s family and estate, Sophie published a new Poirot novel, The Monogram Murders, which was a bestseller in more than fifteen countries. She has since published two more Poirot novels, Closed Casket and The Mystery of Three Quarters, both of which were instant Sunday Times Top Ten bestsellers.

In 2013, Sophie’s novel The Carrier won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards.  She has also published two short story collections and five collections of poetry – the fifth of which, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A Level and degree level across the UK. Most recently, she has published a self-help book called How to Hold a Grudge: From Resentment to Contentment – The Power of Grudges to Transform Your Life.

Sophie has recently helped to create a Master’s Degree in Crime and Thriller Writing at the University of Cambridge, for which she is the main teacher and Course Director. She is also the founder of the DREAM AUTHOR coaching programme for writers. She lives with her husband, children and dog in Cambridge, where she is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College.

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Sophie Hannah - Official Website  Twitter - Sophie Hannah  Facebook Profile 

Goodreads - Author Profile   Amazon Author Page.   Instagram Profile

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

                                                 

Hardback:  307 pages 

Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction,Romance, Mystery, Thriller,

Publisher:  John Murray 2025

Source: Tywyn Public Library

First Sentence: “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”

Setting: England

Review Quote: 'Excellent . . . a vivid, forceful love story which plays out at the pace of a thriller' Irish Times

Favourite Quote: “It’s strange, the patchwork stories we tell someone when we want them to catch up, a shortcut to knowing us, as if such a thing were possible.”

Goodreads Choice Award

Nominee for Readers' Favorite Historical Fiction (2025), Nominee for Readers' Favorite Audiobook (2025)

My Opinion:

Having heard nothing but praise for 'Broken Country' I was delighted when my library reservation was ready to collect. From the first page I felt this was going to be a read to get fully immersed in.

A dual timeline story that follows the lives of the three protagonists Beth, Frank and Gabriel. We first meet them as youngsters in 1955 when their lives first become entangled. By 1968 when they catch up with each other again, after many years, the dynamics have changed somewhat and a murder is committed.

An emotional read, but beware it deals with the grief of losing a child. Although it is also a romantic story which will tug at your heart strings as passion is intertwined with grief. Highly recommended.

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: 

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.

Author Profile:       

                                                                                                                                    Courtesy of  Goodreads

Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset, England, with her family. Under the name Clare Empson, she published two domestic noir thrillers, Him and Mine, that were published in the UK and Germany. She has always loved The Go Between by LP Hartley and Broken Country is a nod to it, featuring a forbidden love affair with catastrophic repercussions. Broken Country is her US debut.

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Goodreads Author Profile.   Amazon Author Profile

The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge by Rachel Hore

                                            

Hardback:   467 pages

Genre:  Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction,

Publisher: Simon and Schuster 2025

Source:  Tywyn Public Library

First Sentences: For a third night Nancy lay sleepless for hours, anxious thoughts chasing around in her head. Heavy rain battered the window and rattled through the downpipes, while the wind tossed the branches of the trees, made the landing ight flicker and the curtains shiver.

Review Quote:  'I loved it. I was completely immersed in the story and the setting. So clever and interesting and beautifully written' ELIZABETH BUCHAN

My Opinion: 

It was back in 2009 I first read one of Rachel Hore's novels and I have enjoyed them more and more over the years.  As with many of her novels, 'The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge’ is dual narrative, this one set in 1940's/1950's and 2010-2013. The author was originally inspired by the experiences of her mother and aunt whilst studying Zoology at Imperial College, London in the 1940's when they both obtained PHD's and worked as scientists. Much of the detail of their lives during this period that they shared with Rachel formed the basis of the story, although of course the narrative and characters are all fictional.

The novel is a fascinating read as through the main characters we learn of the difficulties that female scientists have encountered over the years. Stef Lansdown is a journalist whose latest project is to write a book about women in science. By chance whilst visiting her mother in Norfolk, where she has recently moved, she meets Dr Nancy Foster who gave up her career as a scientist in the 1950's. Initially she is far from keen to be part of Stef's research because of the secrets in her past. Eventually Stef wins the older woman over and the story that she learns from her is engaging.

Once again Rachel Hore has written a captivating story which I recommended to those readers that enjoy novels with plenty of secrets to be uncovered.

My reviews of other novels by Rachel Hore:  The Memory Garden   A Week in Paris

A Beautiful Spy  The Love Child.  One Moonlit Night.     The Hidden Years

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: 

Nancy Foster has harboured a devastating secret that shattered her professional and personal life.  On meeting her, journalist Stef Lansdown realizes that she has the power to restore Nancy’s reputation and to heal the wounds, if only Nancy will trust her. But someone else wants to get to the bottom of the story first, someone who doesn’t want it to be told. 

Set in the beautiful environs of the Norfolk Broads in 2010, and in London in the '40s and ‘50s, when life for career-driven women was so different, The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge is Sunday Times multi-million copy bestselling author Rachel Hore’s utterly compelling new novel, interweaving the past and the present. 

Author Profile:         

Courtesy of Amazon 

Rachel Hore is the author of fourteen bestselling novels, 

Full time writing only came after a career editing fiction at HarperCollins in London. She lives in Norfolk with her husband and they have three grown up sons.  

A full and interesting Profile can be found on the Amazon Author Page and even more on her Official Website

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Amazon Author Page   Goodreads - Author Profile  Twitter - Rachel Hore

 Official Author Website

The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

                                                          

Ebook:  314 pages Kindle Edition

Genre: Contemporary Romantic Fiction 

Publisher:  March 2024 by Boldwood Books

Source: My Kindle Library via Amazon 

First Sentence: George was just stepping out of the cafe, takeaway coffee in hand, when he saw Grace appear in the window of the tabac opposite.

Setting: Bordeaux,  France

Review Quote: 'As delightful as it is moving – a true gem of a novel... enchanting, wise and wonderfully uplifting' Isabelle Broom - Author

My Opinion: 

Gillian Harvey is a prolific author who writes escapist stories often set in France. I only discovered her writing last year and ' The Bordeaux Book Club' is the third title I have read.

As the title tells us the novel is set around a Book Club in Bordeaux France when an eclectic group of ex-pats come together in a bid to make new friends.  The group consists of Grace, a divorced strong willed woman with an organised life, who is the instigator of the club. Leah, struggling with a moody teenage daughter and a seemingly depressed husband, living a life style she is not really enjoying. George a builder in the area whilst helping a friend with a renovation project. Alfie a sixteen year old who has only joined to please his Mum. Finally Monica, a new Mum finding herself struggling with motherhood and very lonely as her pilot husband is often away. This motley collection of individuals find the Book Club discussions draw them together as friendships and support networks form.

Real life dilemmas dealt with in a compassionate story. Just like the last title of hers that I  read I found this to be a touch of escapism that will appeal to those looking for a quick mood enhancing read.

Previous Review:   The Riviera House Swap.   The Little Provence Bookshop

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads: 

Love books? The Bordeaux Book Club is seeking new members!

When Leah and her husband moved to France, it was with the dream of becoming self-sufficient. But in truth, it’s not the ‘good life’ she’d imagined, as three hours of digging barely yield a single straggly carrot. Worse, her teenage daughter is acting up, and her husband seems to find every strange excuse under the hot French sun to disappear.

So when her friend entreats her to join the new bookclub she’s forming, Leah decides it’s something she will do for herself. The chance to make new friends, to drink a few glasses of wine, and to escape into stories that take her miles away from the life she’d thought would be her own happy-ever-after.

But the book club is a strange group of misfits. There’s prickly Grace, who lives alone and seems to know everybody and like no-one. Buttoned-up Monica, who says her husband is away and appears to be parenting her baby all alone. Handsome builder George, who has barely read a book before. And Alfie – who is a full two decades younger than everyone else, and is hiding a devastating secret…

As the stories they read begin to bring the new friends closer together, Leah is about to discover that happy-ever-afters don’t always look how you expect them to…

Author Profile:         

                                                                             

                                                   Courtesy of  Goodreads

Gillian Harvey is a British author and freelance writer, currently living in Norfolk, England with her husband and 5 children. She writes contemporary, uplifting and emotive fiction, often set in France where she lived for 14 years.

Photographs, Trailer and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Gillian Harvey - Author Website.    Goodreads Author Profile    Facebook Profile

Instagram Profile.   Twitter Profile

How to Lose the Lottery by Jay McKenzie

                                                 

Ebook:  416 pages                                                                            

Genre:   Fiction

Publisher: March 26, 2026 by 

Source: NetGalley

First Sentence: The cars came before anything else.

My Opinion: 

Prior to reading 'How to Lose the Lottery' I had never heard of Jay McKenzie, despite the fact she has, I now know has had her writing published at least since 2019.

Edie and Ron are the protagonists of this story which is written as a dual time line, before and after the couple have a big lottery win.  Their lives are obviously richer in monetary terms and the financial struggles they had coped with for years were resolved. The couple had not had an easy marriage and they encountered difficulties from their very first meeting. Money certainly does not guarantee happiness though as Edie in particular very soon discovered.

Although well written I found the storyline very slow and at times boring, however I do recommend the author for her writing style.

With thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review.

 

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:

Buy a lottery ticket✅Win your wildest dreams✅Lose everything…?One lucky ticket is about to change everything

Edie and Ron have been together for nearly fifty years, keeping each other afloat by the skin of their teeth. They’ve always been ordinary – until something very extraordinary happens.

Winning the lottery is everything they’ve ever wanted – well, almost.

Because for the last twenty years, Edie and Ron have been running from a secret that tore their family apart. And when you can suddenly buy everything you’ve ever wanted, you realise that the only thing you really want is the one thing money can’t buy.

Join Edie as she finally takes control. She’s had enough of playing the hand she’s been dealt – it’s time to risk it all.

Author Profile: 

                                                                                                                       

                                                                  Courtesy of Amazon

 Jay McKenzie grew up in the North East surrounded by storytellers and Catherine Cookson novels, before attending Bretton Hall College of the Arts in the beautiful Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Since graduating ( a long time ago! Her degree is old enough to have a degree!) she has worked as a holiday rep, a performing arts teacher, a life model and a street theatre performer in Greece, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea and Australia. 

Her short stories and flash fiction appear  in adda, Bath Flash, Maudlin House, Fictive Dream, The Hooghly Review, Fahmidan Journal, Roi Faineant and others. She has won prizes such as the Exeter Story Prize, the Fish Short Story Prize, The Danahy Prize for Fiction, Quiet Man Dave and others, and shortlisted for the Edinburgh Story Award, Exeter Novel Prize, The Alpine Fellowship, Oxford Flash Fiction Prize, Bath Short Story Award, Bridport Prize and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. 

Her novel How to Lose the Lottery will be published with HarperFiction in Spring 2026. 

She has a penchant for knitwear and lives with her husband, daughter and too many cardigans. She has a dog called Duck.  

Photograph and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites.

Facebook Profile.    Instagram Profile.  Jay McKenzie - Official Author Website