Need to Know by Karen Cleveland

Married for ten years. Four children. She thought she knew her husband better than anyone. She was wrong. ‘Heart-poundingly suspenseful and heart-wrenchingly insightful’ J.P.Delaney, author of The Girl Before ‘This compulsive, clever thriller will have you reading long into the night’ Red **** You get to work. Make a coffee. Turn on your computer. Your task- break into a Russian criminal’s laptop and find proof that he’s concealing five deep-cover agents – seemingly normal people living in plain sight. You’re in. Five faces stare back at you. One of them is your husband. **** ‘An immensely satisfying story with serpentine twists and turns’ Daily Mail

Elaine 6, Pauline 7, Cai 6, June 6, Sally 7, Rebecca 8, Christine 6, Trude 5, Jane 8, Janet 7

Rebecca H
Score: 6.6
2019-05-08

The Cactus by Sarah Haywood

It’s never too late to bloom … People aren’t sure what to make of Susan Green. Family and colleagues find her prickly and hard to understand – but Susan makes perfect sense to herself.

Age 45, she thinks her life is perfect, as long as she avoids her feckless brother, Edward – a safe distance away in Birmingham. She has a London flat which is ideal for one; a job that suits her passion for logic; and a personal arrangement providing cultural and other, more intimate, benefits.

Yet suddenly faced with the loss of her mother and, implausibly, with the possibility of becoming a mother herself, Susan’s greatest fear is being realised: she is losing control. And things can only get worse … at least in Susan’s eyes.

Janet 6, Pauline 7, June 8, Jane 5, Rebecca 5, Sally 6, Trude 6, Christine 6, Elaine 6

Sally M
Score: 6.1
2019-04-10

Small Island by Andrea Levy

It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh’s neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn’t know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do?

Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It’s desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door.

Gilbert’s wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was…

Janet 7, June 10, Jane 8, Rebecca 8, Cai 10, Sally 9, Christine 7, Trude 8, Pauline 9, Elaine not read

Jane B
Score: 8.4
2019-03-21