Reading in the Daisies

Publication - 21st September 2017 Rating - 5* Synopsis - After a young woman is brutally attacked on her way home from the local supermarket, checkout girl Bea is determined to find out who’s responsible. She enlists the help of Ant, the seemingly gormless new trainee – but can she really trust him? Customers and colleagues become suspects, secrets are uncovered, and while fear stalks the town, Bea risks losing the people she loves most.  I've been invited to post an extract from Rachel Ward's brilliant new cosy-crime novel The Cost of Living, published by Sandstone Press,   and I've chosen a brilliant scene set in the supermarket our heroes Ant and Bea work in. Rachel Ward brings her characters to life with humour and a brilliant eye for detail. My favourite crime novel of the year!!! Hope you guys enjoy it as much! By half past eight the store was well past the ‘What’s for tea?’ evening rush. There were a few stragglers late home from work and a cou...

The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave  Published by Chicken House (UK)   Buy From Waterstones  This is the tale of Isabella, who along with her father lives on the small island of Joya.  Joya is controlled by the wicked Governor who came from across the sea and forbade all to leave, then banished those who resisted his rule away from the town Gromera and put up borders to divide the island.  When, one day, a girl from Isabella's school is murdered, everything in her life begins to change. Chasing after her friend Lupe (the governor's daughter) who runs into the forest to prove she's brave and find the murderer, Isabella gets caught up in the myth and magic of the island and soon finds out that the bed time stories she was told may be closer to the truth than anyone thought.  *****  I was recommended this book by a bookseller friend at Waterstones, with the caveat of it being similar to Philip Pullman's 'No...