Get into the good books
Books editor Nina Pottell picks six new intriguing reads and four lighter stories to curl up with in the evenings
This month’s best new reads
A DANGEROUS CROSSING by Rachel Rhys (Doubleday, £12.99) Step aboard the ocean liner Orontes and get swept away with a murder on the high seas. Lily sets off from Tilbury Docks, Essex, to a new life in Australia, making friends and enemies along the way. Set on the brink of war, her life will never be the same. Out 23 March LARCHFIELD by Polly Clark (Riverrun, £14.99) A mesmerising time-slip tale, in which stories of the present and the past flow into each other. In the present, young poet Dora is struggling with a new marriage and a new baby, while in the 1930s, 24-year-old WH Auden is battling with prejudices of the times. A beautiful, poetic story. Out 23 March SOMETIMES I LIE by Alice Feeney (HQ, £7.99) Amber Reynolds is in a coma. Despite not being able to communicate, she tries to work out what’s happened. Told through her back story, we discover things about her and her childhood. Has this got anything to do with her accident? You won’t be able to put this fast-paced debut down until the end! Out 23 March EROTIC STORIES FOR PUNJABI WIDOWS by Balli Kaur Jaswal (Harpercollins, £14.99) Nikki starts teaching English to a group of Punjabi widows in a Southall temple. Once the trust between them is established, the women start telling their stories. Funny yet serious, this is a fab book about women, culture and secrets. Out 9 March EVERYTHING BUT THE TRUTH by Gillian Mcallister (Michael Joseph, £7.99) What would you do if you thought your partner was hiding something? Rachel thinks her boyfriend Jack is and, after delving into his past, discovers he may not be who he says he is. A thrilling book-club read, as it will have you debating moral dilemmas. Out 9 March THE ROANOKE GIRLS by Amy Engel (Hodder & Stoughton, £12.99) The Roanoke girls never stay in Roanoke. Ten years since fleeing, Lane returns as her cousin Allegra has gone missing. The story is told in two parts, ‘then’ and ‘now’, and this is how the dark truth is revealed. A controversial read that’s not for the faint-hearted. Out 9 March