Blackthorn winter
Kathryn Reiss
An idyllic seaside artists' colony in England is the scene of murder, and fifteen-year-old American-born Juliana Martin-Drake attempts to solve the crime while unraveling the mystery of her own past.

by Kate Lord Brown (2012)
The Perfume Garden combines the gripping storytelling of Kate Morton with the evocative settings of Victoria Hislop to tell this sumptuous, escapist story of lost love and family secrets set between modern day Valencia and the Spanish Civil War. High in the hills of Valencia, a forgotten house guards its secrets. Untouched since Franco's forces tore through Spain in 1936, the whitewashed walls have crumbled; the garden, laden with orange blossom, grown wild. Emma Temple is the first to unlock its doors in seventy years. Guided by a series of letters and a key bequeathed in her mother's will, she has left her job as London's leading perfumier to restore this dilapidated villa to its former glory.
Kathryn Reiss
An idyllic seaside artists' colony in England is the scene of murder, and fifteen-year-old American-born Juliana Martin-Drake attempts to solve the crime while unraveling the mystery of her own past.
Kate Pullinger
"From the award-winning author of The Mistress of Nothing comes a compelling novel that explores the complexity of modern life and the tenuous, often unexpected ties that bind us together. Spring 2010. Harriet works in local radio in London, England. When a volcano erupts in Iceland and airspace shuts down over Europe, stranding most of her colleagues abroad, she seizes the opportunity to take on a larger role at the station. Her husband, Michael, stuck in New York, travels to Toronto to stay with an old flame. Their teenage son Jack, liberated from normal life by the absence of airplanes, takes an unexpected risk and finds himself in trouble. Meanwhile, a Pakistani migrant worker named Yacub is stranded in a labor camp in Dubai, and Emily, a young TV researcher, loses her father to a sudden heart attack. Two years later, their lives intersect dramatically when Yacub, a stowaway, falls out of the landing gear of an airplane and onto Harriet's car in a supermarket parking lot. Yacub's sudden arrival in the lives of Harriet, Jack, Michael, and Emily catapults these characters into a series of life-changing events, ultimately drawing them closer to one another. Winner of Canada's Governor General's Literary Award for her debut American novel, The Mistress of Nothing, which Good Housekeeping called "scorchingly powerful," Kate Pullinger draws on real-life accounts of airplane stowaways as the basis for a highly imaginative story of colliding worlds and extraordinary connections"--
Daphne Kalotay
"When Hazel and Remy happen upon each other on a warm Boston spring day, their worlds immediately begin to spin. Remy, a gifted violinist, is married to composer Nicholas Elko, who was once the love of Hazel's life. Over the decades, each buried secrets, disappointments, and betrayals that now threaten to undermine their happiness. We follow the notes of their complicated, intertwined lives from 1987 to 2007, from Europe to America, and from conservatory life to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Sight reading ... is an exploration of what makes a family, of the importance of art in daily life, and of the role of intuition in both the creative process and the evolution of the self"--Publisher's web site.
Sallie Day
Blackpool, 1959. The Singleton family is on holiday. For seven-year-old Beth this means avoiding her mother Ruth's supervision. Her sixteen-year-old sister Helen, meanwhile, has befriended a waitress whose fun-loving ways hint at a life beyond Ruth's strict rules. But Ruth's husband, Jack, a foreman of the local cotton mill, is caught between unions and owners whose cost-cutting measures threaten an entire way of life. When a letter arrives from Crete, a secret re-emerges from the rubble of Jack's wartime past that could destroy his marriage. Over the holiday week, all four Singletons must struggle to find their place in a shifting world.