"Crossing the Line" {27.06.2014}

t’s Christmas in Paris. Chief of Police Nico Sirsky returns to work after recovering from a gunshot wound. He’s in love and rearing to go. His first day back has him overseeing a jewel heist sting and taking on an odd investigation. Dental students discovered a message in the tooth of a severed head. Is it a sick joke? Sirsky and his team of crack homicide detectives follow the clues from an apparent suicide, to an apparent accident, to an all-out murder as an intricate machination starts breaking down. Just how far can despair push a man? How clear is the line between good and evil? More suspense and mystery with the Paris Homicide team from the prizewinning author Frédérique Molay, the "French Michael Connelly." This is the second in the prize-winning Paris Homicide series.

"Deadly Tasting " {26.06.2014}

A serial killer is on the loose in Bordeaux. A local chief detective calls wine expert Benjamin Cooker to the crime scene of a brutal murder. The killer has left a strange calling card: twelve wine glasses lined up in a semi-circle with the first one filled with wine. Cooker is charged with the task of identifying the fabulous grand cru and is astonished by what he learns. A second victim is found, with two glasses filled. Is the killer intentionally leaving clues about his victims and his motives? Memories are jogged about the complicated history of Bordeaux during Nazi occupation. It was a dark time: weinfuhrers ruled the wine trade, while collaborationists and paramilitary organizations spread terror throughout the region. In present-day wine country, time is running out. Will Cooker and his young assistant Virgile solve the mystery before all twelve glasses are full?

"Boarding House Reach" {18.06.2014}

In Peter Crawley's Boarding House Reach five guests retreat on the Norfolk shore. Though strangers, their lives are bound by a common thread; some of which may help them escape and others which will harm.

Boarding House Reach is a captivating novel about five individual characters who meet one weekend in a guest house. Located on the Norfolk coast, The Reach offers sanctuary for guests Hacker, Phoebe, Audrey, Philip and the landlady, Stella – all of whom are trying to escape their past.

"Hacker turned off the radio and checked his mobile. He was nervous the way he used to be in the run up to a big game. Only this weekend it wasn't soccer he was off to play."

Hacker, like the other guests, has a chequered past but hopes The Reach will be an escape from reality. In a story which encompasses blackmail, rejection, infidelity and love the characters of Boarding House Reach must accept they will never escape the brutal reality of their tangled lives no matter how far they run. The scandal of The Reach will remain in their lives forever but will they survive to tell the tale..?

Teaser Tuesday {17.06.2014}

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser :

" Yes ,dear ?" Stella offered again.

"This is The Reach?" 

"That's what it says on the sign, yes .What is it you're after ,dear?A room?Is that what you're looking for?"

pg148 Boarding House Reach by Peter Crawley 

Knock-em Dead" {16.06.2014}

This is the guide to living life on your terms. It’s tough landing that first job out of school and starting your climb up the professional ladder in such an uncertain world. In Knock 'em Dead Secrets & Strategies for First-Time Job Seekers, you will learn how to climb the ladder of success and get what you want out of life.

You'll learn how to: -Develop social networks that deliver results for the new professional you -Build a resume that gets you interviews -Complete your job search in record time with a killer plan of attack -Turn job interviews into job offers and paychecks -Build a professional brand that delivers credibility -Bring your entrepreneurial dreams to life.

Working your way through the proven job search and interview strategies from the inimitable Martin Yate, you'll gradually discover a blueprint for professional success. You'll immediately begin to make sense of the world of work, start your career on the right foot, and gain access to the corporate inner circle and win promotions way ahead of your college peers. You can get what you want out of life, and live a meaningful life on your terms — you just have to learn how to do it.

In Secrets & Strategies for First-Time Job Seekers, you'll develop a practical career plan that puts you in control, with commonsense strategies that really can bring your dreams to life. You need never be unemployed, never be without income streams. In short, you can score the job you want and learn to survive and prosper over the long haul with a brand new approach to professional success that always put you first. How will you guide your professional destiny?

"Murder on Thames " {16.06.2014}

Cherringham is a quiet and peaceful town in the Cotswolds. Time moves slowly here, and nothing out of the ordinary ever happens, until one morning a woman’s body is discovered in the river. Sarah Edwards has just returned to Cherringham with her two children following the breakdown of her marriage. Sarah had been friends with Sammi Jackson – the woman in the river –before they both moved to London and she’s certain there is more to her death than meets the eye. But juggling the school run and her job as a web designer doesn’t leave much time to solve murder mysteries.

After the death of his wife, former NYPD homicide detective Jack Brennan has retired to Cherringham hoping for a quiet life. He soon realises “peace and quiet” isn’t really him and, despite his misgivings, he’s persuaded by Sarah to help her look into Sammi’s death. It quickly becomes clear that the case isn’t as simple as the police hope. From her violent ex-boyfriend to her alcoholic father, it seems everyone has something to hide. Sarah and Jack will need to use all their wits to get to the bottom of this case.

Friday Finds {13.06.2014}

The world's most popular job-search book is updated for 2015 to tailor its long-trusted guidance with up-to-the-minute information and advice for today's job-hunters and career-changers.
     In today's challenging job-market, the time-tested advice of What Color Is Your Parachute? is needed more than ever. Recent grads facing a tough economic landscape, workers laid off mid-career, and people searching for an inspiring work-life change all look to career guru Richard N. Bolles for support, encouragement, and nuts-and-bolts guidance on landing a job. Combining classic elements like the famed Flower Exercise with updated advice on social media and search tactics, this revised edition outlines what works--and what doesn't. Bolles demystifies the entire job-search process, from resumes to interviewing to networking, expertly guiding job-hunters towards their dream job.

"The Stonehenge Letters" {10.06.2014}

While digging through the Nobel Archives in Stockholm, trying to figure out why his hero, Sigmund Freud, never received a Nobel Prize, a psychiatrist makes an unusual discovery.

Among the unsolicited self-nominations in the museum’s ‘Crackpot’ file there are six letters addressed to Mr Ragnar Sohlman, executor of Alfred Nobel’s will. Remarkably, all but one has been written by a Nobel laureate – including Rudyard Kipling, Ivan Pavlov, Teddy Roosevelt and Marie Curie. Each letter attempts to explain why and how Stonehenge was constructed. Diligent research eventually uncovers that Alfred Nobel, intrigued by a young woman's obsession with the mysterious landmark, added a secret codicil to his will:

A prize – reserved exclusively for Nobel laureates – was to be awarded to the person who can solve the mystery of Stonehenge.

Weaving together a wealth of primary documents – photos, letters, wills – The Stonehenge Letters is a wryly documented archive of a fascinating covert competition, complete with strange but illuminating submissions and a contentious prize-awarding process.

But is this fact or is this fiction?

"The Tenth Chamber " {06.006.2014}

Abbey of Ruac, rural France – A medieval script is discovered hidden behind an antique bookcase. Badly damaged, it is sent to Paris for restoration, and there literary historian Hugo Pineau begins to read the startling fourteenth-century text. Within its pages lies a fanciful tale of a painted cave and the secrets it contains – and a rudimentary map showing its position close to the abbey. Intrigued, Hugo enlists the help of archaeologist Luc Simard and the two men go exploring.
When they discover a vast network of prehistoric caves, buried deep within the cliffs, they realize that they’ve stumbled across something extraordinary. And at the very core of the labyrinth lies the most astonishing chamber of all, just as the manuscript chronicled. But as they begin to unlock the ancient secrets the cavern holds, they find themselves at the centre of a dangerous game. One ‘accidental’ death leads to another. And it seems that someone will stop at nothing to protect the enigma of the tenth chamber.

"Botticlli" {03.06.2014}

Art restorer Giovanni Fabrizzi is haunted by an unsigned renaissance portrait. Obsessed to learn the truth of its origin, he becomes increasingly convinced the painting could be the work of one of history's greatest artists, which if true, would catapult its value to the stratosphere. But in learning of the painting's past, he is faced with a dilemma. He believes the portrait was stolen during the greatest art heist in history -- the Nazi plunder of European artwork. If true and a surviving relative of the painting's rightful owner were still alive, Giovanni, in all good conscience, would have to give up the potential masterpiece. His obsession with the portrait puts a strain on his new marriage, and his son thinks his father has lost his mind for believing an unremarkable, unsigned painting could be worth anyone's attention. Regardless, Giovanni persists in his quest of discovery and exposes far more truth than he ever wanted to know.

"Fools or Charlatans" {02.06.2014}

What does Domesday Book really say about Saxon England and its landscapes, economies and politics? You will be very surprised to discover it was no ‘Dark Age’ of ignorance and poverty.
‘Fools or Charlatans’ The Reading of Domesday Book explores Domesday Book in an extensive statistical analysis, and also the potential hoax that may have poisoned our higher education system for over a century.
If it was a novel then you wouldn’t believe it possible, laughable yet tragic, here is the proof – England’s unique national treasure, Domesday Book, cannot be read. A 900 year old statistical archive which modern scholars cannot put into modern terms, therefore they claim that it never made sense! If so, why was it ever compiled? Arthur Wright delves into the present state of knowledge before asking why passages in Domesday Book and others in coetaneous archives, which provide the necessary information, have apparently been hidden from historians and other researchers by Domesday scholars?
In a final attempt to understand why such erroneous and dangerous decisions have been made Arthur Wright analyses every unit and whole landscapes, in order to prove that it can be read. Long ago a toxic asset and Trojan was intruded and this corrupted all further studies. This enlightened read exposes the lies, denials and cyber attacks designed to prevent publication of these things. “I decided to write an exposure”, says Arthur Wright. “I hope to bring historiography out of its own dark age”.