This Week in Books is a feature hosted by Lipsy at Lipsyy Lost and Found that allows bloggers to share:
- What they’ve recently finished reading
- What they are currently reading
- What they are planning to read next
A similar meme is run by Taking on a World of Words.
After last week’s reading slump, I somehow hit upon just the right book to pull me out of it – Other Women by Emma Flint, which I absolutely adored.
It is 1923 and a country is in mourning. Thousands of husbands, fathers, sons and sweethearts were lost in the war, millions more returned home wounded and forever changed.
Beatrice Cade is an orphan, unmarried and childless. After her brother’s death, she decides to make a new life for herself. She takes a room in a Bloomsbury ladies’ club and a job in the City. But just when her new world is starting to take shape, a fleeting encounter threatens to ruin everything.
Kate Ryan is an ordinary wife and mother. Since the end of the war, she has managed to build an enviable life with her husband and young daughter. From the outside, they seem like a normal, happy family. But when two policemen knock on Kate’s door and jeopardise the façade Kate has created, she knows what she has to do to protect the people she loves. And suddenly, two women who never should have met are connected for ever…
I’m currently reading Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter, which I should finish today.
IT WAS A CASE THAT GRIPPED THE NATION
LUKE RYDER’S MURDER HAS NEVER BEEN SOLVED
In December 2003, Luke Ryder was found dead in the garden of the family home in London, leaving behind a wealthy older widow and three stepchildren. Nobody saw anything.
Now, secrets will be revealed – live on camera.
Years later a group of experts re-examine the evidence on Infamous, a true-crime show – with shocking results. Does the team know more than they’ve been letting on?
Or does the truth lie closer to home?
Can you solve the case before they do?
The truth will blow your mind.
My next read will be The Snakehead by Patrick Radden Keefe, the latest selection for my work book group.
In this thrilling panorama of real-life events, the bestselling author of Empire of Pain investigates a secret world run by a surprising criminal: a charismatic middle-aged grandmother, who from a tiny noodle shop in New York’s Chinatown, managed a multimillion-dollar business smuggling people.
In The Snakehead, Patrick Radden Keefe reveals the inner workings of Cheng Chui Ping aka Sister Ping’s complex empire and recounts the decade-long FBI investigation that eventually brought her down. He follows an often incompetent and sometimes corrupt INS as it pursues desperate immigrants risking everything to come to America, and along the way he paints a stunning portrait of a generation of undocumented immigrants and the intricate underground economy that sustains and exploits them.
Grand in scope yet propulsive in narrative force, The Snakehead is both a kaleidoscopic crime story and a brilliant exploration of the ironies of immigration in America.
And that’s my week in books! What are you reading this week? Let me know in the comments! 😎
Jo's Book Blog 
Hope you’ll be reviewing Other Women Jo, as you’ve really intrigued me! x
It might be a mini review (at least partly so I can finish 20 Books of Summer on time!) but I will get something out in the next couple of days! I think you’ll like Other Women 😊
I’ve just finished Other Women. I found it a bit slow to start with but really gripping when it got to the court case especially knowing it was based on a real case. What a horrible man he was!
Wasn’t he awful? Particularly as his wife revealed more about his character towards the end… and I hated how so many were on his side for much of the trial. Not surprising, perhaps, but disappointing.
I didn’t really understand why so many people were on his side. Maybe a reflection of the time. Also wondered why there wasn’t more made of how he disposed of the body by the prosecution. Even if it had been an accident, that must have been a crime in itself.
I took it as a sign of the times – women being weak-willed and immoral beings by nature 😒. And I guess he was, at least superficially, charming. I also wondered about the body, and particularly the head. I can understand a certain amount of panic in the situation, but his actions are certainly questionable and in my mind imply guilt.
Also waiting for the Other Women review.
Working on it! 😀