Simply Books Book Club Choice

Simply Books 228 Moss Lane, Bramhall, Cheshire SK7 1BD 0161 439 1436 www.simplybooks.info Open Tuesday to Saturday 9am to 5.30pm

Andrew Cant

My first choice is a gripping psychological thriller - The Party by Elizabeth Day. Martin Gilmour and Ben Fitzmaurice have been best friends for 25 years, since their days together at one of the country’s most exclusive public schools. They are an unlikely pair: the scholarship boy with the wrong accent and the dazzlingly popular and wealthy aristocrat. But Ben has a dangerous secret that only Martin shares. At Ben’s 40th birthday party, the cream of the British establishment gathers in a haze of champagne and glitz – old money and new. There’s something unsettling in the air: is Martin about to spill the beans and what will be the fall out?

This is a stylish and suspenseful novel about class, privilege and power – think Brideshead Revisited meets The Talented Mr Ripley – with lots of twists and turns. It’s one of those books you just have to read at a gallop because you absolutely have to know how it’s all going to turn out.

Confession With Blue Horses by Sophie Hardach is set in East Germany – in the years before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Tobi and Ella’s childhood in East Berlin is shrouded in mystery. Now adults living in London their past is full of unanswered questions. Both remember their family’s daring attempt to escape to the West. But what happened next? Where did their parents disappear to and what happened to their little brother Heiko?

When Ella finds a stash of her mother’s old notebooks, she and Tobi embark on a search that will take them back to Berlin as they try and piece together their past and find their long-lost brother.

This is a fascinating portrayal of life under Communist East Germany – the physical hardship and material deprivation but also the menacing tyranny of living in a police state where you could never be sure who to trust and where the most innocent of conversations might attract the attention of the STASI (secret police). This early part of the story of Ella’s childhood is all the more remarkable for being set in the 1980s – you could be forgiven for thinking you’re reading about the 1950s!

And for the children… My Pet Star by Corrinne Averiss is a delightful new picture book. When a little girl discovers a star, who has fallen to Earth, she takes him home and nurses him back to health – a beautiful tale of friendship…perfect for any child who has ever longed for a pet of their own!