Soltalk June 2017 | Page 48

BookTalk Book Talk with Smiffs book & card store, Nerja Edited by Lee Child, Match Up (p) features 22 of the world’s top thriller authors, who have paired up to write 11 short stories featuring their best-loved characters. Find out what happens when Lee Child’s Jack Reacher meets Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan, or how Val McDermid’s Tony Hill and Peter James’ Roy Grace end up working together on a very unusual case. These are just some of the never-before-seen pairings included in ‘Match Up’. Devil (p), by Ian Rankin; Come Sundown (l), by Nora Roberts; The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness (l), by Arundhati Roy; The Tobacconist (p), by Robert Seethaler; Phone (l), by Will Self; The Boneyard (p), by Mark Sennen; Beneath The Surface (p), by Jo Spain; Persons Unknown (l), by Susie Steiner; and The Boy Who Saw (l), by Simon Toyne. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin meets The Thorn Birds in The Woolgrower’s Companion (l), Joy Rhoades’ gripping wartime story set in the Australian Bush. The story is inspired by the era of her grandmother, a fifth-generation sheep farmer and the family’s keeper of stories, who saw Italian prisoners of war placed on the family farm during World War II to support the key wool growing industry. It leads off our latest Hotlist of titles, some entirely new, others moving into small paperback format for the first time or being reissued, sometimes after a long time out of print. All are due for publication on various dates this month and in early July. The Hotlist helps readers to plan and budget for book ordering. Speaking of Lee Child, No Middle Name (l), is the complete collected Jack Reacher stories. A brand-new novella, Too Much Time, is included, as are those previously published only in eBook form. The Sunshine Sisters (l) is a moving story of love, loss and family, by Jane Green, the bestselling author of Falling. It was never easy being one of Ronni Sunshine’s daughters. Publicly, she is the glamorous, successful, dramatic Hollywood actress. Privately, she is self- absorbed, angry, and a disinterested, narcissistic mother. Now in her seventies, Ronni has had strange symptoms for a while, but has refused to believe her diagnosis: she has ALS, a degenerative motor neuron disease. There is no cure. Her three adult daughters are largely estranged, both for her, and each other. But Ronnie is adamant that they must come home and help her take her own life. John Grisham’s latest novel, Camino Island (l), features the most daring and devastating heist in literary history, which targets a high security vault. Some of the most valuable books in the world, and the gang of thieves who took them, have vanished without trace. Dealing in stolen books is a dark business, which puts Bruce Kable right on the FBI’s Rare Asset Recovery Unit’s watch list. A struggling writer burdened by debts, Mercer Mann is being made an offer to return to Camino Island, to write her novel and get close to a certain infamous bookseller and his interesting collection of manuscripts. The Wedding Promise (p), by Emma Hannigan, centres around a new start in beautiful Spain offered to a grieving widow and her family. Restoring a Spanish villa brings Shelly back to the place she and her husband once loved. But as plans to transform the villa into a romantic wedding venue take shape, she discovers her Other thrillers worth a look include: The Fourth Monkey (l), by JD Barker; Love Like Blood (l), by Mark Billingham; Prague Nights (l), by Benjamin Black; Defectors (l), by Joseph Kanon; Betrayal (p), by Martina Cole; The River At Night (p), by Erica Ferencik; Perfect Prey (p), by Helen Fields; Rooted In Evil (l), by Ann Granger; Sleep Baby Sleep (l), by David Hewson; Fight Or Die (p), a thriller set in Spain by James Hilton; Offline (p), more mayhem in Norway from Anne Holt; Aurore (l), by Graham Hurley; The Allegations (p), by Mark Lawson; Babylon Idol (p), by Scott Mariani; Murder Games (l), by James Patterson; Fierce Kingdom (l), by Gin Phillips; Rather Be The 46