Secrets to Keep
By Lynda Page
Published by Headline Publications £7.99
Lynda Page’s latest novel is an emotional rollercoaster of hardship and heartache. When a new doctor arrives in the back streets of Leicester, the locals are outraged by his rudeness and hostility. Young Aidy Nelson discovers just how rude he can be when a family tragedy brings her face to face with his abrasive manner. However, this is just the start of Aidy’s troubles. Abandoned by her husband and left to care for her family, she struggles to make ends meet. Then things go from bad to worse and she is forced to take a job as receptionist to the unpleasant doctor. But as she gets to know her employer, Aidy realises that the doctor is a man burdened with dark secrets he’s desperate to keep.
Blood Line
by Mark Billingham
Published by Sphere, £6.99
When a dead body is found in a North London flat, it seems like a straightforward domestic murder until a bloodstained sliver of X-ray is found clutched in the dead woman’s fist – and it quickly becomes clear that this case is anything but ordinary. DI Thorne discovers that the victim’s mother had herself been murdered fifteen years before by infamous serial killer Raymond Garvey. The hunt to catch Garvey was one of the biggest in the history of the Met, and ended with seven women dead. When more bodies and more fragments of X-ray are discovered, Thorne has a macabre jigsaw to piece together until the horrifying picture finally emerges. A killer is targeting the children of Raymond Garvey’s victims. Thorne must move quickly to protect those still on the murderers list, but nothing and nobody are what they seem. Not when Thorne is dealing with one of the most twisted killers he has ever hunted…
The Best of Times
by Penny Vincenzsi,
published by Headline, £7.99
Bestseller Vincenzi’s diverting if charmless latest delves into the lives of a massive cast brought together by a multicar accident on a London highway. The brisk, journalistic style makes it hard to fall for any of the characters, whose lives are filled with high and low drama: a truck driver racked with guilt over the accident; his terrified passenger, who flees the scene; a successful doctor trying to break up with his mistress; a groom and best man already late for the wedding due to scandalous circumstances; and a widow headed to reunite with a past love. After the crisis, their lives intertwine tangentially as, among others, the best man starts a relationship with an ER doctor, the truck driver’s wife becomes close with the widow, and the mistress falls for the farmer whose land overlooks the accident scene. The story brings them all back together at the inquest, the cause of the accident is revealed and apologies are made. Though everyone gets their predictably happy ending, the way the obvious resolutions drag out makes this something like a once-enjoyable guest who has long outstayed his welcome.
