Here are just a small selection of the new books coming out in April.
If you've read any of them and want me to put a link to it please drop me a line at purplecards (at) gmail.com.
I hope you find your next read here!
The Beginner’s Goodbye by Anne Tyler Published: 3 April 2012 - UK & USA
Formats (UK): Audio …...... Hardcover, Paperback & Kindle - 5 April 2012
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Anne Tyler gives us a wise, haunting, and deeply moving new novel in which she explores how a middle-aged man, ripped apart by the death of his wife, is gradually restored by her frequent appearances--in their house, on the roadway, in the market.
Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron has spent his childhood fending off a sister who wants to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, a plain, outspoken, independent young woman, she is like a breath of fresh air. Unhesitatingly, he marries her, and they have a relatively happy, unremarkable marriage.
But when a tree crashes into their house and Dorothy is killed, Aaron feels as though he has been erased forever. Only Dorothy's unexpected appearances from the dead help him to live in the moment and to find some peace.
Gradually he discovers, as he works in the family's vanity-publishing business, turning out titles that presume to guide beginners through the trials of life, that maybe for this beginner there is a way of saying goodbye.
A beautiful, subtle exploration of loss and recovery, pierced throughout with Anne Tyler's humour, wisdom, and always penetrating look at human foibles.
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The Innocent by David BaldacciPublished: 6 April 2012 (UK) …....... 17 April 2012 (USA)
Format (UK): Paperback ….. Audio - 17 April 2012 ….. Hardcover 26 April 2012
Genre: Thriller
America has enemies--ruthless people that the police, the FBI, even the military can't stop. That's when the U.S. government calls on Will Robie, a stone cold hitman who never questions orders and always nails his target.
But Will Robie may have just made the first--and last--mistake of his career . . .
THE INNOCENT
It begins with a hit gone wrong. Robie is dispatched to eliminate a target unusually close to home in Washington, D.C. But something about this mission doesn't seem right to Robie, and he does the unthinkable. He refuses to kill. Now, Robie becomes a target himself and must escape from his own people.
Fleeing the scene, Robie crosses paths with a wayward teenage girl, a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home. But she isn't an ordinary runaway-her parents were murdered, and her own life is in danger. Against all of his professional habits, Robie rescues her and finds he can't walk away. He needs to help her.
Even worse, the more Robie learns about the girl, the more he's convinced she is at the center of a vast cover-up, one that may explain her parents' deaths and stretch to unimaginable levels of power.
Now, Robie may have to step out of the shadows in order to save this girl's life . . . and perhaps his own...........
David Baldacci's works have been translated into more than 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries. All of his books have been national and international bestsellers, and over 110 million copies of his books are in print worldwide.
His website can be found here.
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Blue Asylum by Kathy HepinstallPublished: 10 April 2012 (UK/USA)
Formats (UK): Hardcover
Genre: Historical Fiction
Amid the mayhem of the Civil War, Virginia plantation wife Iris Dunleavy is put on trial and convicted of madness. It is the only reasonable explanation the court can see for her willful behavior, so she is sent away to Sanibel Asylum to be restored to a good, compliant woman.
Iris knows, though, that her husband is the true criminal; she is no lunatic, only guilty of disagreeing with him on notions of justice, cruelty, and property.
On this remote Florida island, cut off by swamps and seas and military blockades, Iris meets a wonderful collection of residents--- some seemingly sane, some wrongly convinced they are crazy, some charmingly odd, some dangerously unstable.
Which of these is Ambrose Weller, the war-haunted Confederate soldier whose memories terrorize him into wild fits that can only be calmed by the color blue, but whose gentleness and dark eyes beckon to Iris?
The institution calls itself modern, but Iris is skeptical of its methods, particularly the dreaded "water treatment."
She must escape, but she has found new hope and love with Ambrose. Can she take him with her? If they make it out, will the war have left anything for them to make a life from, back home?
Blue Asylum is a vibrant, beautifully-imagined, absorbing story of the lines we all cross between sanity and madness. It is also the tale of a spirited woman, a wounded soldier, their impossible love, and the undeniable call of freedom.
Kathy Hepinstall is the author of three previous novels, The House of Gentle Men (a Los Angeles Times bestseller), The Absence of Nectar (a national bestseller), and The Prince of Lost Places. She is an award-winning creative director and advertising writer, whose clients have included top brands in American business. She grew up in Texas.
Check out what they think of this novel over at Historical Fiction Review. There's also a fabulous interview with the author Kathy Hepinstall.
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Come Home by Lisa ScottolinePublished: 10 April 2012 - UK & USA
Formats (UK): Hardcover, Audio ….... Paperback, Kindle - 12 April 2012
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Lisa Scottoline delivers taut thrillers with a powerful emotional wallop in her New York Times bestsellers Save Me, Think Twice and Look Again. Now, with her new novel, COME HOME, she ratchets up the suspense with the riveting story of a mother who sacrifices her future for a child from her past.
Jill Farrow is a typical suburban mom, who has finally gott her and her daughter's life back on track after a divorce. She is about to remarry a great guy, her job as a pediatrician fulfills her, though it is stressful, and her daughter Megan is a happily over-scheduled thirteen-year-old, juggling homework and swim team.
Jill's life is turned upside-down when her ex-stepdaughter, Abby, shows up on their doorstep late one night and delivers shocking news — Jill's ex-husband is dead. Abby insists that he was murdered and pleads with Jill to help find his killer. Jill reluctantly agrees to make a few inquiries, and discovers that things don't add up. As she digs deeper, her actions threaten to rip apart her new family, destroy their hard-earned happiness, and even endanger her own life. Yet, Jill can't turn her back on a child she loves and once called her own. COME HOME reads with the break-neck pace of a thriller, but also explores the definition of motherhood.
It asks the questions: Do you ever stop being a mother? Can you ever have an ex-child? What are the limits and love of family?
For more information on Lisa Scottoline and her books see her website here.
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The House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine Howe
Published: 10 April 2012 (UK/USA)
Formats (UK): Audio …....... Paperback - 13 Sept 2012
Genre: Historical Fiction
Katherine Howe, author of the phenomenal New York Times bestseller The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, returns with an entrancing historical novel set in Boston in 1915, where a young woman stands on the cusp of a new century, torn between loss and love, driven to seek answers in the depths of a crystal ball.
Still reeling from the deaths of her mother and sister on the Titanic, Sibyl Allston is living a life of quiet desperation with her taciturn father and scandal-plagued brother in an elegant town house in Boston's Back Bay. Trapped in a world over which she has no control, Sibyl flees for solace to the parlor of a table-turning medium.
But when her brother is suddenly kicked out of Harvard under mysterious circumstances and falls under the sway of a strange young woman, Sibyl turns for help to psychology professor Benton Derby, despite the unspoken tensions of their shared past. As Benton and Sibyl work together to solve a harrowing mystery, their long-simmering spark flares to life, and they realize that there may be something even more magical between them than a medium's scrying glass.
From the opium dens of Boston's Chinatown to the opulent salons of high society, from the back alleys of colonial Shanghai to the decks of the Titanic, The House of Velvet and Glass weaves together meticulous period detail, intoxicating romance, and a final shocking twist that will leave readers breathless.
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Dead Scared by SJ BoltonPublished: 12 April 2012 - UK …...... 5 June 2012 - USA
Format (UK): Paperback, Kindle …..... Hardcover - 26 April 2012
Genre: Mystery
When a Cambridge student dramatically attempts to take her own life, DI Mark Joesbury realizes that the university has developed an unhealthy record of young people committing suicide in extraordinary ways. Against huge personal misgivings, Joesbury sends young policewoman DC Lacey Flint to Cambridge, with a brief to work under-cover, posing as a depression-prone, vulnerable student. Psychiatrist Evi Oliver is the only person in Cambridge who knows who Lacey really is - or so they both hope. But as the two women dig deeper into the darker side of university life, they discover a terrifying trend ...And when Lacey starts experiencing the same disturbing nightmares reported by the dead girls, she knows that she is next.
I gave SJ Bolton’s Blood Harvest 9.5/10 when I reviewed it here.
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By Battersea Bridge by Janet DaveyPublished: 12 April 2012 (UK/USA)
Formats (UK): Hardcover & Kindle
Genre: Fiction
Charts the complications of family relationships with deft insight, dry wit, and extraordinary tenderness.
Anita Mostyn feels the need to take a holiday from her life. As a child, she was dismissed by her parents in favour of her self-confident brothers, and as an adult, her choices are disapproved of -- the small art gallery she works for, the friends she makes, the men she sees. Mossy -- lumbered with a childhood nickname that stuck -- is never the 'fixed point'; not for her most recent lover, Nick Halsey, or for the mother whose approval she craves. Instead, she lives on the edges of things. On a whim, she takes up an offer to scout for holiday properties in Bulgaria, escaping the impending second wedding of her perfect brother -- and a horrifying episode in her past.
Poignant, and absurd, sharp and wry, Janet Davey's luminous prose charts the complications of family relationships with insight and extraordinary tenderness. As Anita navigates difficult waters, we begin to understand her past, and, little by little, see her emerge anew.
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The Leopard Sword (Fourth book in the Empire series) by Anthony RichesPublished: 26 April 2012 (UK) …..... 1 June 2012 (USA)
Formats (UK): Hardcover & Kindle …..... Paperback - 11 Oct 2012
Genre: Historical
The Empire series begins a new era--Marcus has fled from Britannia, but the emperor's henchmen are still on his trail
Britannia has been subdued--and the murderous Roman agents who nearly captured Marcus Valerius Aquila, alias Corvus, have been defeated by his friends. But in order to protect those very friends from the wrath of the emperor, Marcus must leave the province which has been giving him shelter. He travels to the Tungrian auxiliary legion's headquarters in northern Gaul where a different kind of war and very different dangers await him.
You can win a copy of this new book on Anthony Riches website here.
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Would I Lie To You? by Clare DowlingPublished: 26 April 2012
Formats (UK): Hardcover & Kindle...........Audio - 1 June 2012......Paperback - 12 Nov 2012
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Why tell the truth...if you know it's going to hurt?
Hannah has known Ellen and Barbara since they shared student digs. So when Ollie, the father of her daughter Cleo, unexpectedly walks out, who better to turn to than her best friends? The reunion takes place in Ellen and husband Mark's converted farmhouse in France, where Hannah slowly becomes reacquainted with nature - the white-back pigs, the rooster with the mental health issues - and, more importantly, what she really wants out of her life. Then something shocking happens, which threatens not only her recovery, but the very bonds of her friendship with Ellen and Barbara. Her loyalty is put to the test - if she does the right thing, will it blow Ellen's marriage out of the water? And why does she find herself turning to Ollie, of all people, for advice...?
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Memory of the Abyss by Marcello FoisPublished: 26 April 2012 (UK/USA)
Formats (UK): Hardcover, Paperback & Kindle
Genre: Myth/History/Fiction
When Samuele Stocchino is two years old the village sage can already see a heart shaped like a wolf's head beating in his breast: the heart of a murderer.
As a colonial soldier in Northern Africa, recruited from one subject land to subdue another, the sixteen-year-old Stocchino learns to kill before he has learned to love, and it is a skill he hones to perfection on the pitiless battlefields of the Corso Front in the Great War. Returning to Sardinia a hero to a pauper's welcome, he finds his family swindled and his sweetheart stolen away by the richest clan in the region, and from one first crime of passion a bitter feud is born.
Stocchino terrorizes his wealthy neighbours and anyone who dares to till their land until, with Italy now firmly under Mussolini's boot, his elimination becomes Il Duce's priority. As he continues to elude capture, the seeds of myth are sown and the legend of Samuele Stocchino is forged.
Shrouded by mystery and portent, Memory of the Abyss is a stirring fusion of myth, history and fiction, a daring re-imagining of the true story of a notorious Sardinian bandit and a deft excavation of the island's cultural roots by one of Italy's most gifted and celebrated writers.
"It is a long time since I last came across a writer with such a deep poetic sense of nature and the ability to convey it."
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The Girl on the Beach by Mary NicholsPublished: 30 April 2012 - UK …...... 15 Sept 2012 - USA
Formats (UK): Hardcover ….. Kindle - 26 Mar 2012
Genre: Fiction
Julie Monday, abandoned by her mother and raised in a children's home, enjoys a rare moment of happiness when at the age of eight she visits the Essex seaside and meets eleven-year-old Harry Walker. They spend a happy few hours together, but at the end of the afternoon, she must return to the Foundling's Hospital, and Harry goes home to his family.
Ten years later, they meet again. Fated to be together, they marry just before the outbreak of the Second World War. But it's now 1939, Harry has enlisted in the Royal Air Force, and Julie must face the blitz in wartime London alone with their son. Travelling back from work one day, Julie is caught in the chaos of a direct hit. Rescued from the destroyed air-raid shelter, but injured and with severe memory loss, Julie is given a new identity as Eve Seaton.
But it is not easy to become a different person; plagued with disturbing flashes of memory that she doesn't understand, forgetting her former life as Julie Monday proves impossible. She must make a decision: should she make a new life for herself as Eve, or struggle to recover the pieces of a shattered identity?
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