Set against a back drop of the suffragettes movement and then the first World War, this is a lovely read. Connie and Will are in love, but he is extremely conservative and traditional and she doesn’t feel that she can give up her passion for human rights for a man.

The book follows this couple, along with their friends, family and acquaintances, over two decades and their experiences of everything from suicide and prison to love and war.

A really fascinating insight into life at the beginning of the twentieth century told through a wonderful and moving love story. Very worth reading.

Half the Human Race by Anthony Quinn

The Twelve follows Gerry Fegan: alcoholic, ex-hitman, haunted by the twelve people he murdered during the ‘troubles’ in Ireland.

Fegan has done his time in jail, but when he meets the mother of one of the men he killed, the ghosts of the people he killed appear and start to scream in the night. They are telling him to kill everyone that arranged the murders. When he does, they start to disappear, so one by one he tracks down and kills the crooked politicians and heavies that he worked with before he went to prison.

Although this is a really gripping book, it is pretty heavy. Lots of guilt, endless remorse, and lots and lots of shooting/killing. Fegan is meant to be the hero, killing the evil people who organised murders twenty years ago, but he’s still a pretty horrible character. He falls in love with a woman and her daughter, and wants to be forgiven for his past. But he is a drunk who is still killing people, so I don’t feel that sympathetic…

If you liked Taken, you will like this book. If not, give it a miss.

The Twelve by Stuart Neville

I had no idea that Rose Tremain was a suspense/crime writer. I picked this up thinking it was going to be very literary and serious and it turned out to be a slightly advanced Ruth Rendall! Still, I do love a good thriller, and this one was great. I read it in about three sittings. I wouldn’t say this was an amazing book but it would be perfect for a plane ride and worked great on the tube. Will definitely have to go back and buy (or ‘borrow’ from the second floor at work) the rest of her books.

Trespass by Rose Tremain

Beatrice is called back to the UK from her home in New York by her mother, who is frantic that her younger sister has gone missing. When the body is found, the police are convinced it was a suicide: Tess was pregnant and when she gave birth three weeks early, the baby was dead. Her psychiatrist has diagnosed her as having severe post-natal depression and as far as everyone but Beatrice is concerned, the case is closed. But Beatrice knows her sister, and she knows that she would never have killed herself. Soon she is running her own investigation, desperate for anything that will find her sister’s killer.

I could not put this book down and started yearning for my commute so that I could pick it up again. As well as being incredibly gripping, it is such a strong depiction of the relationship between Beatrice and Tess that it had me in tears on more than one occasion. Well worth reading.

Sister by Rosamund Lupton

We publish this, so that might make me biased. But I really enjoyed this! It didn’t sound that promising - the trials and tribulations of the South Riding council as they appoint a new headteacher - but it was really wonderful. Possibly a TAD over patriotic (it was written in the 1930s), but wonderfully written characters and a really engrossing ‘Sunday night costume drama’ appeal. I’m not surprised that the editors have chosen to put a Sarah Waters quote on the front - it has a very similar feel to The Night Watch (minus the lesbians) and you could almost feel as though it was written recently, rather than 80 years ago! I highly recommend and cannot wait for the TV!

South Riding

Set in a crumbling new England mansion in the 1800s, Florence & Giles is a very creepy read. Florence is 12 and her younger brother, Giles, is 8. Their father and mother are both dead and their uncle, who is meant to be raising them, has left them in his country estate.

Florence occupies her time making up her own language, reading in the cavernous library, and entertaining her neighbour Theo.

After a brief stint at boarding school, where he is bullied regularly and sends sad letters home to his sister, Giles is sent back home to be raised by the collection of servants and a governess. The first governess mysteriously dies in a boating accident and the second seems to want to steal Giles away from Florence, something she is determined to prevent. How far she will go takes the book down a very dark road…

Something to read on a dark, cold night, when you have a cozy duvet over you and some branches scratching on the window pane outside to make you jump at all the right bits. Spine chilling.