What I've been reading in April

 First up is Weyward by Emilia Hart.  

This was one of the choices for our online book club, but it didn't get the most votes so wasn't our book of the month.  I had already been interested in reading it after hearing it being discussed on Sara Cox's TV programme Between the Covers so I decided to read it anyway!

What links Altha in 1619, Violet in 1942 and Kate in 2019?  Kate is fleeing from an abusive relationship and heads north to the cottage that she has inherited following the death of her great-aunt.  Violet is a nature lover who does not comply with her father's idea of how a young girl should behave and whose innocence is destroyed by her cousin Frederick, and Altha is on trial for witchcraft.

What is the connection? What aspect of their lives repeats itself through the generations?  

I don't always enjoy books which cover many hundreds of years but this one held my interest.  All three women in the story are sympathetically described and all find a kind of sanctuary in Weyward Cottage over the generations.  You cannot help but feel yourself drawn to them.  The author captures the strength and resilience that they have and I did enjoy it. 

Next up is a book that just caught my eye on Kindle. The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh.

I think this may be the first book I have read that is set in Wales! Well, mostly set in Wales - it involves a body being found in a lake which has the Wales/England border running through it so there's a bit of mix and match as to which police force need to investigate.  

The body is that of Rhys Lloyd, part owner of a group of exclusive holiday homes along the shore line of the lake. As the book progresses and the lives of people in and around The Shore are revealed it becomes clear that there are many people who had good reason to dislike Rhys.  Every character becomes a potential suspect but the actual person responsible for his death took me by surprise.  

The relationship between the detectives investigating the case, Leo and Ffion, is written so well.  I don't know if there will be more books with these characters, but I really hope there are.

Finally, the first library book that I took out on loan since renewing my membership.  Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh.

When we meet Anna she is grieving for the loss of her parents who have both taken their own lives in 'copy-cat' circumstances within months of one another.  She has recently had a baby with her partner, Mark, who she met while having counselling after the death of her mother.  

On the anniversary of her mother's death she receives a card with a cryptic message inside 'Suicide?  Think again'  She contacts the police, convinced that her mother was murdered and the case is unofficially reopened by a retired police officer.

And so the story unravels.  Nothing is as it seems. Each chapter is from the point of view of the different characters, but every now and again a chapter is written from the perspective of an unnamed person.  

This book certainly kept my interest going, and my ideas on 'whodunnit' changed from chapter to chapter.  The police thought it was suicide.  Anna thinks it was murder.  They were both wrong.