Showing posts with label veronica henry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label veronica henry. Show all posts

Sunday, 14 March 2010

In My Mailbox #2

I've done quite well this week, most of the books I've got have been either swaps or second-hand purchases. The only one that I've bought new is The Complete Father Brown Stories.

The Complete Father Brown Stories (Wordsworth Classics) (Wordsworth Collection) Father Brown, one of the most quirkily genial and lovable characters to emerge from English detective fiction, first made his appearance in The Innocence of Father Brown in 1911. That first collection of stories established G.K. Chesterton's kindly cleric in the front rank of eccentric sleuths.
This complete collection contains all the favourite Father Brown stories, showing a quiet wit and compassion that has endeared him to many, whilst solving his mysteries by a mixture of imagination and a sympathetic worldliness in a totally believable manner.

Just a Family AffairIn the Gloucestershire village of Honeycote, country life is anything but quiet. Maybe it's something to do with all that fresh air, but it's the kind of place where passions run high...The Liddiard family are well known in Honeycote - and now there is to be a big wedding. But will everything go according to plan? Lucy Liddiard knows her husband is no saint, but isn't prepared for his latest confession. Bride-to-be Mandy has no idea what joining the Liddiards really means. And local girl Mayday, wild child, rebel and free spirit, is thinking the unthinkable - with unimaginable consequences ...JUST A FAMILY AFFAIR is a glorious, all-consuming story about finding out the truth, finding a husband, or perhaps just finding yourself.

Cover Her Face (Adam Dalgliesh, #1)Sally Jupp seemed the ideal girl to help Mrs Maxie run a large house and look after her invalid husband. She was pretty, docile and grateful; or so it seemed, until murder shattered the tranquility of her new home. A puzzling, disturbing killing that brought Detective-Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh to the quiet village in search of the murderer.

Angela's Ashes: A Memoir of a Childhood"Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood," writes Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes. "Worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Welcome, then, to the pinnacle of the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. Born in Brooklyn in 1930 to recent Irish immigrants Malachy and Angela McCourt, Frank grew up in Limerick after his parents returned to Ireland because of poor prospects in America. It turns out that prospects weren't so great back in the old country either--not with Malachy for a father. A chronically unemployed and nearly unemployable alcoholic, he appears to be the model on which many of our more insulting cliches about drunken Irish manhood are based. Mix in abject poverty and frequent death and illness and you have all the makings of a truly difficult early life. Fortunately, in McCourt's able hands it also has all the makings for a compelling memoir.

African Adventure (Knight Books)
One of Willard Price's adventure books featuring Hal and Roger Hunt. On safari in Africa, the pair find that the bogus Colonel Bigg is hindering their attempts to capture a man-eating tiger. Worse is to come in the shape of an evil witch-doctor, who is determined to kill the boys.


In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

Sunday, 28 February 2010

Honeycote by Veronica Henry

Synopsis: HoneycoteThe Liddiards have lived at Honeycote House for generations. But all that might be about to change…

Mickey Liddiard adores his wife, Lucy. So why is he cheating on her with Kay? He knows it’s wrong, but he can’t help himself.
James, Mickey’s brother, has been in love with Lucy since the day he met her. He can’t betray his brother - but he’s not going to stop the truth coming out.
Kay only married Lawrence Oakley for his money, and he knows it. But is it Mickey who holds the key to her happiness?

For each of Mickey’s misdemeanours, somewhere in the seemingly peaceful village of Honeycote there is a knife being sharpened. Ambition, greed and good old-fashioned revenge all conspire to bring about his downfall - but will true love save the day?
My thoughts: Mickey is hiding a lot of things from his wife: his affair, his drinking and his massive debts. The family-run brewery is on the verge of being repossessed by the bank and he doesn’t know what to do about it. Gradually his secrets start to be found out by various characters in the book, and eventually everyone knows what a mess he’s in.
Alongside the main story, there are other side-stories involving Mickey’s family members and acquaintances.
The book is set in a fictional Cotswold village and I felt like I really got sucked into life in Honeycote, where it seems like there’s always something interesting going on.