Recommendations based on "The Distant Hours"

An alluring literary mystery full of secrets and lies, when an art teacher at a psychiatric hospital in 1960s England finds her life turned upside down by the arrival of a mysterious patient who has spent decades living in complete isolation with his elderly aunts in a decrepit Victorian house. Perfect for fans of Ann Patchett, Barbara Kingsolver, and Tessa Hadley.In all failed relationships there is a tipping point. It goes unnoticed at the time but can later be identified as the beginning of the decline. For Helen it was the weekend that the Hidden Man came to Westbury Park…The London suburb of Croydon,1964: Helen Hansford is unmarried and in her thirties. Something of a disappointment to her middle-class parents, she’s an art therapist at the Westbury Park psychiatric hospital, where she has been having a rebellious love affair with her colleague Gil, a dashing but married doctor.One spring afternoon they receive a call about a disturbance at a derelict, vine-covered Victorian house a few miles up the road. There the police find a mute, thirty-seven-year-old man called William Tapping, his hair and beard down to his waist. It appears he lives in the old house with his elderly, frail aunt, who expires as soon as she’s admitted to the hospital. No one knows why William has been shut away for decades, unseen by neighbors, with only his two now-deceased aunts for company. Westbury Park becomes his refuge.When it emerges that William is not only sane but a talented artist, Helen comes to see him as something of a personal project. But as she tries to solve the puzzle of the Hidden Man’s past, Helen’s own carefully constructed life of secrets begins to unravel...A gorgeously written and life-affirming novel about life’s delicate layers of experience and connection, Shy Creatures reveals all the different ways we can be confined...and liberated.

Can you really see evil when you look into someone's eyes?In a rundown house, a woman has been dismembered in an act of carnage that leaves veteran cops in shock. Drawn on the wall, in blood, are ancient symbols, and a mirror-image word in Latin

The New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye and The Rose Code returns with a haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, DC, boardinghouse during the McCarthy era.Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss, whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; policeman’s daughter Nora, who finds herself entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Beatrice, whose career has come to an end along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare.Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: who is the true enemy in their midst?Capturing the paranoia of the McCarthy era and evoking the changing roles for women in postwar America, The Briar Club is an intimate and thrilling novel of secrets and loyalty put to the test.

Love and need make unexpected bedfellows, and both are blind. As the grip of a long hard winter tightens on Lydmouth, a dead woman calls the dying in a seance behind net curtains. Two provincial newspapers are in the throes of a bitter circulation war. A lorry-driver broods, and an office boy loses his heart. Britain is basking in the warm glow of post-war tranquillity, but in the quiet town of Lydmouth, darker forces are at play. The rats are fed on bread and milk, a gentleman's yellow kid glove is mislaid on a train, and something disgusting is happening at Mr Prout's toyshop. Returning to a town shrouded in intrigue and suspicion, Jill Francis becomes acting editor of the Gazette. Meanwhile, there's no pleasure left in the life of Detective Chief Inspector Richard Thornhill. Only a corpse, a television set and the promise of trouble to come.

Sister Fidelma's beloved friend, Brother Eadulf, is charged with the murder of a young girl. By the time Sister Fidelma arrives at his side, Eadulf has been found guilty-and faces execution in twenty-four hours. Now Fidelma must gather evidence worthy of an appeal. And behind the heinous crime is a shocking conspiracy that only she can stop...

The dawn of 1921 finds Mary Russell, Sherlock Holmes’s brilliant young apprentice, about to come into a considerable inheritance. Nevertheless, she still enjoys her nighttime prowls in disguise through London’s grimy streets, where one night she encounters an old friend, now a charity worker among the poor. VeronicaBeaconsfield introduces Russell to the New Temple of God, led by the enigmatic, electrifying Margery Childe. Part suffragette, part mystic, she lives quite well for a woman of God from supposedly humble origins.Despite herself, Russell is drawn ever deeper into Childe’s circle. When Veronica has a near-fatal accident–and turns out to be the fourth bluestocking in the group to meet with misadventure after changing her will–Russell and Holmes launch a quiet investigation. But the Temple may bring the newly rich Russell far closer to heaven than she would like.…

An exciting new book in the series featuring woman-on-the-run Elizabeth Miles--from the beloved national bestselling author of the Gaslight Mysteries. Elizabeth Miles knows that honesty is not always the best policy when it comes to finding justice. Elizabeth has discovered that navigating the rules of high society is the biggest con of all. She knows she can play the game, but so far, her only success is Priscilla Knight, a dedicated young suffragist recently widowed for the second time. Her beloved first husband died in a tragic accident and left her with two young daughters--and a sizable fortune. While she was lost in grief, Priscilla's pastor convinced her she needed a man to look after her and engineered a whirlwind courtship and hasty marriage to fellow parishioner Endicott Knight. Now, about nine months later, Endicott is dead in what appears to be another terrible accident. Everyone is whispering, but that is the least of Priscilla's troubles. She had believed Endicott was wealthy, too, but her banker tells her she has no money left and her house has been mortgaged. He also hints at a terrible scandal and refuses to help. Priscilla stands to lose everything, and Elizabeth is determined not to let that happen. But, as always, Elizabeth walks a fine line between using her unusual talents and revealing her own scandalous past. Elizabeth soon discovers that Endicott's death was anything but accidental, and revealing the truth could threaten much more than Priscilla's finances. To save her new friend's future--and possibly her own--Elizabeth, along with her honest-to-a-fault beau, Gideon, delve into the sinister secrets someone would kill to keep.

Heartwarming and nostalgic new Saga series from the author of Mother’s Day on Coronation Street. One ordinary street in Lancashire is getting ready for war, who knows what else is going on behind the net curtains?Vicky Parrot wanted more out of life than working all hours in her father’s Post Office. Her dreams were ruined when tragedy came calling, and now happiness seems impossible.The other townsfolk have their problems too. Sylvia Barker runs the haberdashery shop and she’s hiding more than a few secrets behind the bales of wool in the shop window. Her daughter Rosie wants more out of life than needles and cotton, but her headstrong ways are about to get her into trouble.Life goes on for the people of Greenhill, what they can’t know is that their world is about to change forever... Praise for Maggie Sullivan ‘A wonderfully nostalgic tale’ Choice Magazine

Megan Shepherd's gothic suspense trilogy, inspired by the stories of H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Mary Shelley, is perfect for fans of Libba Bray, Leigh Bardugo, and classic horror and science fiction. This collection also contains a sneak peek of The Cage, the first book in Megan Shepherd's gripping new series about teens held captive in a human zoo by an otherworldly race.The Madman's Daughter, inspired by The Island of Dr. Moreau, is the story of Dr. Moreau's daughter Juliet, who travels to her estranged father's island only to encounter murder, madness, and a scintillating love triangle.Her Dark Curiosity: Inspired by The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this tantalizing sequel explores the hidden natures of those we love and how far we'll go to save them from themselves.A Cold Legacy: With inspiration from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, this breathless conclusion to the Madman's Daughter trilogy explores the things we'll sacrifice to save those we love . . . even our own humanity.

The new historical crime thriller, a Sunday Times bestseller, perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and Hilary Mantel Prague, 1588. A COURT IN TURMOIL The court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, is a haven for scientists, astrologers and alchemists. The dream - to discover the philosopher's stone and attain immortality. But now there are rumours of heresy. A MURDERED ALCHEMIST Giordano Bruno is sent to Prague as a spy for Elizabeth I. He arrives to find the palace in uproar - an alchemist has been murdered. AN UNFORGIVING ENEMY Ordered by the emperor to uncover the killer, Bruno must negotiate the jostling factions at court, as well as the religious tensions brewing in the city. And his hunt to track down a murderer soon proves as elusive as the elixir of life itself... Praise for Alchemy 'The clever twists and turns of Alchemy are assuredly plotted and Prague, a city in religious and political turmoil, makes for a powerful setting' The Times 'Over the past dozen years, S. J. Parris's novels... have been among the most enjoyable of all historical thrillers' Sunday Times 'Breathless pace and acutely observed detail make for a story that confounds and surprises' Observer S. J. Parris's book Alchemy was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 03-07-2023