Book club

Richard and Judy always recommend some great books in collaboration with WH Smith and this Spring their top six sounds great! Order them online or they might even be available from your local supermarket if you can get a delivery or someone is bringing your shopping to you. Remember if you are going out to do your shopping, follow the guidelines and stay safe.

We hope you enjoy their reviews.

Half a World Away – Mike Gayle

A brother and sister torn apart when one is put into care and the other adopted. He grows up in privilege and becomes a successful barrister: she endures a harsh childhood and now works as a cleaner. But she never stops loving him and trying to find him. Their eventual reunion will warm your heart... and break it.

The Bee Keeper of Aleppo – Christi Lefteri

Aleppo has become a kind of shorthand for human suffering and cruelty, and Christy Lefteri does not flinch from describing the hellish experiences of innocent men, women and children caught in the jaws of Syria's pitiless civil war. Can life as a fleeing refugee be any better? A hauntingly written account of choices and consequences we can only pray we never have to face ourselves.

**No One Home – Tim Weaver **

Book ten in a series, this, but if it's your first encounter with investigator David Raker, don't worry. This is a stand-alone story and a gripping one. Halloween in a Yorkshire village; nine neighbours gather for a dinner party. Next morning, all have vanished without a trace. Two years on, the mystery remains as baffling as ever. Step forward David Rakes... a total page-turner.

The Snakes – Sadie Jones

Bea and Dan, recently married, happy but badly-off, embark on a low-budget three month tour of Europe, stopping in France at Bea’s ‘waster’ brother Alex’s dilapidated hotel, which is infested with snakes. Soon Bea’s immensely wealthy but cruel parents arrive. They drive a wedge between her and Dan, and instigate a truly terrible tragedy. A snake-pit indeed, and an absolutely brilliant thriller.

Tidelands – Philippa Gregory

England, 1648. The country is riven by civil war and witch-mania. When Alinor, a young peasant woman, skilled with herbs and ancient health remedies, meets a young Catholic priest on the run from Oliver Cromwell, she faces malice, envy, and grave danger. A riveting Tudor historical story.

The Nanny – Gilly Macmillan

This devastating psychological thriller centre on the mysterious disappearance of a nanny beloved by her seven-year-old charge. Jocelyn never gets over it and blames her mother. Thirty years later Jocelyn returns to her hated mother’s house, now a young widow with her own daughter. The child finds a human skull in the garden; then there’s a shock knock at the door. Menacing and full of tension.