Charlotte McConaghy’s — Migrations

Franny is a cleaner at a Galway university when she sneaks into one of Professor Niall Lynch’s lectures about birds. Birds are one of her passions, along with wandering and the sea. Not long after their next encounter, they marry, but Franny can’t stop wandering, and Niall is depressed by the destruction by humans who’ve caused most animals to become extinct. Franny is on a pilgrimage to follow the last remaining birds — the Arctic terns — from the northern hemisphere to Antarctica. She meets Captain Ennis who unwillingly allows her board his ship in Greenland. But Franny has demons — she sleepwalks, and memories of a life in Ireland haunt her. Will there be any terns left if she reaches Antarctica? And can she find solace from the secrets she keeps about her criminal past?

Lozano Gilabert’s — Voices from the dead *****

If you don’t have time to read a 500 page novel, Voices from the dead is perfect for someone with a busy life. It’s a collection of short stories that keep getting better and better with each tale. From cyber ghosts to conversations with people who turn out to be ghosts, these stories shine with surprise endings.

Erik D’Souza’s — Death in Halfmoon Bay *****

Suzanne and her husband Charles, live in a retirement village in idyllic Halfmoon Bay on the British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast. But all is not what it seems. Regina is vying for the strata president position yet again with the only rival, Adeline. But when Adeline is poisoned from jam Suzanne had made, Suzanne becomes the prime suspect. It is rumoured that Charles had an affair with Adeline, but did he? Suzanne suspects Regina is behind the rumour and the poisoning with a double motive — first to discredit Suzanne who has long been her rival, and secondly, so she can become strata president once again. But is Suzanne right, and is she the innocent party? She is out to find answers, but when she does, there’ll be more than one murder she’s accused of committing.

Rachel Joyce’s — Miss Benson’s beetle *****

Frumpy Margery Benson is a middle-aged English spinster who works as a home science teacher. Her three older brothers are killed in WW11. Her parents die. And her remaining two aunts die. Her life is lonely and boring, until she discovers a note with a comical caricature of herself being passed around her sniggering classroom. She storms out of the school stealing the head mistress’s boots, and is determined to leave England still suffering from rationing after the war. Margery decides to chase the dream she abandoned after her father’s suicide, and discover the golden beetle of New Caledonia .

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