Uncommon arrangements by Katie Roiphe

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Genre - Non Fiction


This is a portrait of seven married couples living in London between the wars. Some of the couples, like Katherine Mansfield & John Middleton Murry, and Vanessa & Clive Bell, are still well known. Others, like Vera Brittain & Gordon Catlin are less so. Roiphe is interested in these unconventional couples who tried to negotiate new ways of living. Mansfield & Murry were often separated because she needed to travel to warm climates for her health. Brittain & Catlin had a semi-detached marriage because Brittain wanted to continue working as a writer & journalist while Catlin was an academic in the US. The Bells were at the heart of the Bloomsbury group & had a famously open marriage with Charleston becoming home to Vanessa’s lover, Duncan Grant, & his lover, Bunny Garnett. An interesting look at life, love & marriage.

---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters

We shall not sleep by Anne Perry

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Genre - Mystery


This is the final novel in Perry’s WWI series. Chaplain Joseph Reavley must find out who murdered Nurse Sarah Price at a Casualty Clearing Station in France in the last weeks of the war. The possible suspects include wounded soldiers, medical staff & German prisoners. One of the German prisoners, Schenckendorff, is a vital witness in the plot that Joseph & his brother Matthew, an intelligence officer, have been trying to foil throughout the war. When Schenckendorff is arrested for Sarah Price’s murder, the Reavleys must find the real killer & get Schenckendorff to London before the Armistice is signed. As this is the end of a long series, all the strands of a complex plot must be resolved. Joseph & Matthew, along with their sisters, Judith & Hannah, have been searching for the man they call the Peacemaker, a traitor to Britain’s war effort, who has murdered many people, including their parents. The Reavleys must also find a way to deal with the traumas & grief they’ve suffered & look towards the future.

---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters

The headhunters by Peter Lovesey

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Genre - Mystery


Jo & Gemma sit in a café planning ways to murder Gemma’s irritating boss. Friends Rick & Jake join in the game & they’re soon calling themselves the Headhunters. The laughter stops when Jo finds a woman’s half-naked body on the beach, and when Gemma’s boss disappears, & another body is discovered, the game becomes serious. This is an intriguing mystery. I suspected most of the main characters at some point. DCI Hen Mallin, who featured in a previous novel, The Circle, is the investigating officer, but this isn’t a traditional police procedural. Jo finds herself becoming more & more involved with Gemma’s flights of fancy & as the plot thickens, she can’t tell who to trust. Lovesey’s plot is entertaining, wonderfully convoluted & full of red herrings.

---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters