Finally! This is the last post in what seemed to be an endless list of March releases I’m anticipating! This list includes those books published a the very tail-end of the month, March 31st:
Behind Closed Doors by Elizabeth Haynes
Ten years ago, 13-year-old Scarlett Rainsford vanished while on a family holiday to Greece. Was she abducted, or did she run away from the family that, at best, would be described as dysfunctional? Lou Smith worked on the case as a police constable, and failing to find any trace of Scarlett was always one of the biggest regrets of her career. So no one is more surprised than Lou to learn that, during a Special Branch warrant on a brothel in Briarstone, Scarlett has been found.
But Lou and her Major Crime team are already working at full stretch: 19 year old Ian Palmer has been found badly beaten after a night out in Briarstone town centre; a few days later, one of the town’s entrepreneurs, bar owner Carl McVey, has been found half-buried in woodland, robbed of his Rolex and his cash. While Lou tries to establish the links between the two cases, DS Sam Hollands works with Special Branch to try and gain as much intelligence from Scarlett as possible. Where has she been all this time? How did she end up back in her home town? And why do her family seem less than enthusiastic about seeing her again?
Only Scarlett’s younger sister, Juliette—who has spent ten years blaming herself for Scarlett’s abduction—seems pleased to have her back, despite the Rainsfords’ desperate attempts to shield the emotionally fragile Juliette from any external stress. Meanwhile Lou is experiencing another side of sibling rivalry, as her relationship with Senior Analyst Jason is threatened by the temptations presented by his charismatic older brother, Mike.
When a brutal assault and homicide are linked to the McVey murder, Lou’s cases collide and she begins to suspect that the violence may be linked to the trafficking organisations operating in the area. As the pressure for a result mounts, it seems that only Scarlett holds the key to the criminal group orchestrating the violence—and, like everyone else, Scarlett has secrets to keep.
At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen:
After embarrassing themselves at the social event of the year in high society Philadelphia on New Year’s Eve of 1942, Maddie and Ellis Hyde are cut off financially by Ellis’s father, a former army Colonel who is already embarrassed by his son’s inability to serve in WWII due to his being colorblind. To Maddie’s horror, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father’s favor is to succeed in a venture his father attempted and very publicly failed at: he will hunt the famous Loch Ness monster and when he finds it he will restore his father’s name and return to his father’s good graces (and pocketbook). Joined by their friend Hank, a wealthy socialite, the three make their way to Scotland in the midst of war. Each day the two men go off to hunt the monster, while another monster, Hitler, is devastating Europe. And Maddie, now alone in a foreign country, must begin to figure out who she is and what she wants. The novel tells of Maddie’s social awakening: to the harsh realities of life, to the beauties of nature, to a connection with forces larger than herself, to female friendship, and finally, to love.
Normal by Graeme Cameron:
“The truth is I hurt people. It’s what I do. It’s all I do. It’s all I’ve ever done.”
He lives in your community, in a nice house with a well-tended garden. He shops in your grocery store, bumping shoulders with you and apologizing with a smile. He drives beside you on the highway, politely waving you into the lane ahead of him.
What you don’t know is that he has an elaborate cage built into a secret basement under his garage. And the food that he’s carefully shopping for is to feed a young woman he’s holding there against her will—one in a string of many, unaware of the fate that awaits her.
This is how it’s been for a long time. It’s normal…and it works. Perfectly.
Then he meets the checkout girl from the 24-hour grocery. And now the plan, the hunts, the room…the others. He doesn’t need any of them anymore. He needs only her. But just as he decides to go straight, the police start to close in. He might be able to cover his tracks, except for one small problem—he still has someone trapped in his garage.
Discovering his humanity couldn’t have come at a worse time.
The World Before Us by by Aislinn Hunter:
Deep in the woods of northern England, somewhere between a dilapidated estate and an abandoned Victorian asylum, fifteen-year-old Jane Standen lived through a nightmare. She was babysitting a sweet young girl named Lily, and in one fleeting moment during their outdoor adventure, she lost her. The little girl was never found, leaving her family and Jane devastated.
Twenty years later, Jane is an archivist at a small London museum that is about to close for lack of funding. As a final research project—an endeavor inspired in part by her painful past—Jane surveys the archives for information related to another missing person: a woman who disappeared some 125 years ago in the same woods where Lily was lost. As Jane pieces moments in history together, a compelling portrait of a fascinating group of people starts to unfurl. Inexplicably tied to the mysterious disappearance of long ago, Jane finds tender details of their lives at the country estate and in the asylum that are linked to her own presently heartbroken world, and their story from all those years ago may now help Jane find a way to move on.
In riveting, beautiful prose, The World Before Us explores the powerful notion that history is a closely connected part of us—kept alive by the resonance of our daily choices—reminding us of the possibility that we are less alone today than we might think.
Well, there you have it. Each & every March release I’m anticipated. Miss the previous posts? Check them out here:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
What did I miss (is that even possible)? Which titles are you looking forward to most?
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