Purnell, Sonia (2024) Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue. Viking.
Pamela Churchill Harriman was an unsung power player of the twentieth-century; a strategic weapon and legend, cultural icon, hostess and a maligned courtesan who operated at the centre of politics across two continents. Purnell has sympathetically researched the life of Pamela Digby from her unpropitious beginnings as bullied debutante, beloved daughter-in-law to Winston Churchill, seducer of powerful and wealthy men to saviour of the US Democratic Party and Ambassador to France. This is a rich biography of a charming political fixer extraordinaire. Fabulous.
Rating: 5/5
Hunter, Cara (2025) Making a Killing. Hemlock Press.
When forensic evidence discloses that a child who disappeared eight years ago, supposedly murdered by her mother, may still be alive DCI Adam Fawley and his team have to revisit an old investigation and address a new mystery. What really happened to eight-year-old Daisy Mason? And, why is her DNA on a body found at the ancient Crone Oak, the site of seventeenth century witchcraft trials? Slowly but surely the police using a range of crime scene tools, forensics and media, unpick the mystery with true crime podcasters on their heels. We haven’t seen the last of Daisy I suspect! Exciting police procedural.
Rating: 4/5
Feeney, Alice (2025) Beautiful Ugly. Pan Macmillan.
Grady Green has just made the New York Times Bestseller list. It should have been the best day of his life but instead it is his worst – his wife has disappeared. In his grief he can no longer write so a year on he takes up residence on the remote and secretive Scottish Island of Amberly. There he meets a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife. But things are not what they seem and a dark tale is slowly unravelled through the voices of the two narrators. Vindictive and confusing. Leaves you hanging. Not worth the effort.
Rating: 2/5
Ward, Gareth & Louise (2024) The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone. Penguin.
Garth and Eloise Sherlock, two UK ex-cops, now owners of Havelock North’s Sherlock Tomes Bookshop in small town New Zealand, are gripped by a decades-old missing school girl cold case. Intrigued by clues they soon become involved in a crime caper whilst at the same time planning a celebrity book launch. Cosy small town mystery peppered with quirky local characters. First in a series. Good piece of marketing for the authors and owners of Havelock North’s Wardinis bookshop. Similar vibe to Thursday Murder Club but for me did not live up to the hype.
Rating: 2/5
Moyes, Jojo (2025) We All Live Here. M.Joseph.
Lila’s husband ran off with the woman down the road, who is now pregnant, during the launch of her bestselling book on how to keep your marriage alive. Her life has been in free fall since, with a big dilapidated house, two marginally happy daughters, a grieving stepdad and a barky-bitey dog to care for. On top of that she has writer’s block and no income. Then her estranged father enters her life creating further domestic chaos. A delightful and poignant look at family life and post-divorce blues. Jojo Moyes at her best.
Rating: 5/5
Dalrymple, William (2024) The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World. Bloomsbury.
Ancient India has been largely forgotten as the nursery of ideas and influence that transformed our modern world. Ideas that were spread by its traders along the golden road not by the sword, but by knowledge. From 25BC – 1200AD Indian religion, art, culture, scholarship, mathematics, aesthetics, goods and precious metals flowed from India into the “Indosphere” of Eurasia. The most transformational influence being the spread of Buddhism, and the adoption of Hindu and Sanskrit cultures, across Asia. A book that will change your view of early civilisation. Fascinating.
Rating: 5/5
7:30 Bookclub 