Books & Bites: March 2025

Lawrence Durrell was one of the best-selling, most celebrated English novelists of the late twentieth century. The Alexandria Quartet is unquestionably his most admired work, at heart a sensuous and brilliant evocation of wartime Alexandria. In this world of corrupt glamour, L. G. Darley attempts to reconcile himself to the end of his affair with the dark, passionate Justine Hosnani - setting alight a beguiling exploration of sexual and political intrigue that the author himself described as 'an investigation of modern love'.

Questions arise when a boy saves the daughter of a wealthy family amid a string of disappearances in a Missouri town in 1975.

A riveting, emotionally powerful thriller!

Small-town labels are hard to shake. Hometown hero. Fallen angel. Can anyone ever escape their past?

Bone, an illegitimate child in a family of social outcasts, sees her mother's happiness with her new husband and will not tell when the stepfather begins abusing her in the 1950s.

An author travels to a Scottish island, where he sees a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to his missing wife.

This novel genuinely feels like an opera brought to life, complete with soaring passions, intense relationships, and moments of profound beauty, as it examines how humans connect when unforeseen circumstances force them to slow down and embrace art in a time of terror. 4 stars from C Cronin

A deeply moving memoir of illness and recovery that traces one young woman’s journey from diagnosis to remission to re-entry into “normal” life—from the founder of The Isolation Journals and a subject of the Netflix documentary American Symphony

A secret agent who gets inside an anarchist collective in France encounters a mysterious figure.

"I love Jane Harper's Australia-based mysteries." —Stephen King
Author recommended by our Australian visitor.

"A gripping historical mystery based on the real-life diary entries of Martha Ballard, an 18th-century midwife who found herself at the center of a murder trial"-- Provided by publisher.

A masterfully paced thriller about a reclusive ex-movie star and her famous friends whose spontaneous trip to a private Greek island is upended by a murder.

"A funny, achingly sad, sneakily wise story of family and what happens when three men-all of whom are completely ill-suited for fatherhood-take charge of a toddler following his mother's sudden death.

Told in alternating timelines from the last sun-drenched summer of the Edwardian Age to the mud-filled trenches of WWI, The Housekeeper's Secret opens its door to a world of romance, the truths we hold onto, and the past we must let go.

a timeless portrait of a young man's homecoming, and his ensuing journey through youth, identity, family, and love. Here is the debut novel that set Tyler on the path to becoming an American classic.

‘Tis the season in Briar Creek, and this year festivities become fatalities in the newest Library Lover’s Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Fatal First Edition.

Hypnotic and twisty, Paraic O'Donnell's The Naming of the Birds will ensnare you until the final pages and leave you questioning what matters most-solving a case or serving justice

In a sequel to "The Last Mrs. Parrish," an old threat emerges at the same time Jackson returns from prison.

A heart pounding, twisting thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid and The Coworker!
One by one, they will get what they deserve...

The third book in the Presumed Innocent series. A retired judge is asked to come to the defense of his fiancée’s son, who is accused of first-degree murder.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author and hailed as the most suspenseful and compelling novel in decades, this story brings to life our worst nightmare: that of an ordinary citizen facing conviction for the most terrible of all crimes.

"A memoir of the author's time in Rome after his family was made to leave Egypt, before moving to America"

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

As her daughter’s wedding draws near, Gail Baines faces issues with her job, her ex-husband and her past.

Can coming home bring redemption? Or at least a measure of peace? Recently released from prison, Blake Alvares returns to the only place she ever felt safe, the now derelict Maine town in which she harbored as a teen. Determined to conceal her secrets and losses, she soon finds herself dragged into others' lives when she takes a job on a boat owned by a notorious young lobsterman.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION FINALIST • This is the story of the marriage behind some of the most famous literary works of the 20th century —and a probing consideration of what it means to be a wife and a writer in the modern world.
* Recommended by our Australian visitor.

Wild Houses follows two outsiders caught in the crosshairs of a small-town revenge kidnapping gone awry

"A missing painting. A mysterious woman. Her husband and her lover. Here, the internationally acclaimed author delivers what his fans have been waiting for since The Reader--a powerful new novel about obsession, creativity, and love.