The Heron's Cry

North Devon is enjoying a rare hot summer with tourists flocking to its coastline. Detective Matthew Venn is called out to a rural crime scene at the home of a group of artists. What he finds is an elaborately staged murder--Dr Nigel Yeo has been fatally stabbed with a shard of one of his glassblower daughter's broken vases.

Dr Yeo seems an unlikely murder victim. He's a good man, a public servant, beloved by his daughter. Matthew is unnerved, though, to find that she is a close friend of Jonathan, his husband.

Then another body is found--killed in a similar way. Matthew soon finds himself treading carefully through the lies that fester at the heart of his community and a case that is dangerously close to home.

The Rose Code

1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of East-End London poverty, works the legendary code-breaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.

1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter—the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger—and their true enemy...

Den var spännande. Och det var intressant att läsa om bombe machines och annat spännande de hade på Bletchley Park. Men stilen, och även storyn, var lite "billig" och den var på tok för lång! 
 

The Dark Wives

The man’s body is found in the early morning light by a local dog walker in the park outside Rosebank, a home for troubled teens in the coastal village of Longwater. The victim is Josh, a staff member, who was due to work the previous night but never showed up. DI Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate the death, with her only clue being the disappearance of one of the home’s residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spence. Vera can’t bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can’t dismiss the possibility. Vera, Joe and new team member Rosie Bell, are soon embroiled in the case, and when a second connected body is found near the Three Dark Wives monument in the wilds of the Northumberland countryside, superstition and folklore begin to collide with fact. Vera knows she has to find Chloe to get to the truth, and the dark secrets in their community that may be far more dangerous than she could have ever believed possible. Sista boken om Vera? Åtminstone den sista som filmatiserades med Brenda Blethyn som Vera.

The Gown

En bok om ett par av kvinnorna (fiktiva) som broderade Drottning, då prinsessan Elizabeths brudklänning. Den var jättebra, kanske inte för sin litterära höjd, men för att den gjorde mig märkligt berörd. Det är något med tyg och handarbete, vet ni.

We Solve Murders

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy? 

 

 

 

Home Stretch

It is 1987 and a small Irish community is preparing for a wedding. The day before the ceremony, a group of young friends, including the bride and groom, are involved in an accident. Three survive. Three are killed.

The lives of the families are shattered and the rifts between them ripple throughout the small town. Connor survived, but living among the angry and the mourning is almost as hard as carrying the shame of having been the driver. He leaves the only place he knows for another life, taking his secrets with him. Travelling first to Liverpool, then London, he eventually makes a home—of sorts—for himself in New York, where he finds shelter and the possibility of forging a new life.

But the secrets—the unspoken longings and regrets that have come to haunt those left behind—will not be silenced. Before long, Connor will have to confront his past.

Det tog ett tag att komma in i boken och ett tag tänkte jag att jag inte intresserade mig tillräckligt för dessa människors öden för att fortsätta, men sen tog den sig och tog också en oväntad vändning.

De fenomenala fruntimren på Grand Hotel

I början av 1900-talet är Stockholm en stad i förändring. Medan rika drömmer om större bostäder med alla de nya faciliteter som pengar kan erbjuda, drömmer de fattiga om mat till familjen, en rimlig lön och färre råttor på gatorna.

Vid vattnet mitt emot slottet tronar Grand Hôtel, den omtalade juvelen i turistnäringen. Men hotellet är i ekonomisk knipa och styrelsen behöver en särskild kvinnas begåvning för att lyfta hotellet till nya höjder. Wilhelmina Skogh äger ett pärlband av hotell längs de svenska järnvägarna, och ser Grand Hôtels potential och betydelse för staden. Men hon är en lika fruktad som respekterad chef.

Samtidigt anländer den unga Ottilia till storstan från Rättvik för att påbörja sin anställning på det mytomspunna hotellet. Tillsammans med ett gäng andra kvinnor får hon kämpa mot orättvisor och hinder i en mansstyrd bransch. Kvinnor förväntas ju sköta hemmet – men vad är ett hotell om inte ett hem?