Cobham Bookshop Reviews

Book Reviews

APRIL 2021

‘The Survivors’ by Jane Harper (Hardback £14.99) Jane Harper’s latest novel is set in the Tasmanian beach community of Evelyn Bay, a place that only comes alive during the summer. The title refers to a shipwreck. Kieran, who feels responsible for two deaths, including that of his brother in a fatal storm 12 years earlier, returns to help his mother move house. When the body of a woman is found on the beach, people start wondering if this is somehow connected to the earlier tragedies. Another great crime mystery and a compelling story of guilt and grief.

‘The Bass Rock’ by Evie Wyld (Hardback £16.99) In her first two novels, After the Fire, A Still Small Voice and All the Birds, Singing, both set in Australia and England, Evie Wyld wrote with the some intensity about toxic masculinity and emotional damage. Her latest novel The Bass Rock is set in Scotland and the action occurs across three time frames, while connecting to the themes of her previous work. The book is divided into several parts, each stepping from Vivian to Ruth to Sarah and then forwards into the future. The elegant structure of the novel and the delicate links between the three narrative threads lead, inevitably, to challenging reading, but as always with Evie Wyld this is a fascinating, well constructed novel well worth the effort.

‘Cunning Women’ by Elizabeth Lee (Hardback £14.99) In 1620s Lancashire the Haworth family are outcasts, dwelling beyond the village. A mother with an unruly son, conflicted daughter Sarah, and little Annie, the youngest of all. Many respectable villagers seek them out for plant medicine, while others require the kind of cunning aid that some would describe as witchcraft. As young Sarah Haworth grows into her gift and learns from her mother, she finds herself tempted not only by the strength of her power but also her longing for a normal life away from hunger and fear. This debut novel full of history, herblore, suspense and romance is published on 22nd April.

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