Tuesday, 3rd March
The Maid’s Secret by Nita Prose
Paperback, Ballantine US and Canada
As a hotel maid, Molly Gray wipes away fingerprints as a matter of routine. But when a priceless Fabergé egg is stolen from the Regency Grand Hotel – and she receives an ominous note threatening her life – it’s clear there’s more to this mystery than meets the eye.
Can Molly crack the case of the missing Fabergé? Or are some secrets best left buried?
The Garden by Nick Newman
Nothing had come over the wall for a very long time.….
In a place and time unknown, two elderly sisters live in a walled garden, secluded from the outside world. For as long as they can remember, Evelyn and Lily have only had each other.
What came before the garden, they have forgotten; what lies beyond it, they do not know. Each day is spent tending the bees, planting the crops, dutifully following the instructions of the almanac written by their mother.
But then one of them makes a startling discovery. What if their carefully curated life is an illusion? What if the walls no longer keep them safe?
The Secret Lives of Murderer’s Wives by Elizabeth Arnott
Beverley, Elsie, and Margot are not your average housewives. They are all wives of convicted killers. During the sun-drenched summer of 1966, the three women form an unlikely friendship after the discoveries of their husbands’ brutal crimes. With their exes—some of California’s most infamous murderers—dead or behind bars, they are attempting to forge a new future for themselves.
Headstrong Beverley tries compulsively to maintain control of everything around her, all while raising two children. Bookish Elsie fights to make a name for herself in the newsroom, working among men who sneer at her career goals. Glamorous Margot prefers partying to homemaking and devotes all her energy to upholding the appearance that everything is fine—anything to quell the shame from her husband’s deceit.
They know people look at them and think only one thing: How could they not have known what their husbands were doing? How much are they to blame? And yet when a string of local killings hits the news, the three women—underestimated, overlooked, shrewd—decide to get to work. After all, who better to catch a killer than those who have shared their lives and homes with one?
Thursday, 5th March
Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
Paperback, Penguin UK
A family full of secrets. A chance to set them all free.
When Ebby Freeman travels to France to take a three-month hiatus from her complicated home life, the last person she expects to find is her ex-fiancé Henry, with his new girlfriend in tow. Nearly twenty years earlier, the Freemans were the only African American family living in a wealthy coastal enclave in Connecticut when armed robbers invaded their home and tragedy changed their lives forever. Then, just as Ebby thought she had a new chance at happiness, her storybook romance with Henry fell apart.
Now, this unexpected encounter with Henry will force Ebby to reckon with her past and to think on the other loss her family suffered that day – the destruction of a beloved stoneware jar crafted by an enslaved ancestor and passed down through the generations. A piece that might hold not only her family history, but also the key to reclaiming her future.
