Book Club

BOOK OF THE WEEK with Linda Jennings. Dead Men’s Bones (James Oswald), ISBN 9781405917094 (Penguin) BD4.500 (for Gulf Weekly Book Club members)

Dead Men’s Bones is the latest book by James Oswald featuring Inspector McLean and set in Scotland.

There’s no need to read the books in order – they are all exceptionally well-written and complex enough to keep you guessing late into the night. In fact, I missed most of the wonderful scenery on a recent train journey from Kent to Edinburgh whilst totally engrossed in this crime novel, which is justifiably a current top-five best-seller.

A family lies slaughtered in an isolated house: Morag Weatherly and her two young daughters, shot by husband Andrew before he turned the gun on himself. But what would cause a rich, successful politician to snap so suddenly?
Inspector Tony McLean’s instincts are telling him that there is a lot more behind this apparently simple but high-profile case and things heat up as he enters into a world of danger, power and privilege with a touch of the supernatural thrown in as well.

The deeper he digs, the more he realises he’s being manipulated by shadowy factions. Under pressure from superiors to wrap up the case, McLean, instead, seeks to uncover layers of truth – putting the lives of everyone he cares about at risk.

The first three Inspector McLean novels are: Natural Causes, The Book of Souls and The Hangman’s Song. If you are a fan of Ian Rankin and Stuart MacBride, you will love James Oswald’s writing and especially Inspector McLean – he reminds me of Inspector Morse but set in Edinburgh, not Oxford.

* Read it now in paperback
My Husband Next Door (Catherine Alliott) ISBN 9781405913928 (Little Brown) BD4.500 (for Gulf Weekly Book Club members)

Catherine Alliott brings us the fabulously funny and wonderfully heart-warming My Husband Next Door.

For better or worse, Ella was just 19 and madly in love when she married dashing young artist Sebastian Montclair. But that was a long time ago.

Now Ella and the kids live in a ramshackle farmhouse while Sebastian and his paintings inhabit the outhouse next door – a family separated in every way but distance. Is it a marvellously modern relationship – or a disaster waiting to happen? Certainly Ella seems to have drawn the short straw.

So when charming gardener Ludo arrives on the scene and Sebastian makes a sudden and surprising decision, Ella sees a chance at a fresh start. However, with two teenagers and her parents on the verge of their own late-life crisis, will she be allowed to choose her own path?

This is an easy read with a lot of sub-plots going on, many of which will resonate with other mothers – witty, funny and a good summer read.

* My favourite read-of-the-week
The House We Grew Up In (Lisa Jewell) ISBN 9780099559559 (Arrow) BD4.500 (for Gulf Weekly Book Club members)
This is the unforgettable story about a family with a secret at its core, from Lisa Jewell.

Imagine a picture-book cottage in a village. A family in a sun-drenched kitchen filled with love and laughter, the children living a seemingly idyllic life.

Picture an Easter weekend when tragedy strikes – so unexpected, so devastating that no one can talk about it. The years pass; the children become adults.

Then something happens that calls them back to the house they grew up in – and to what really happened that Easter weekend all those years ago.

Its core subject matter is not often covered, so well worth a read.